Wee Wee, PARIS

Never thought we would finally make it but here we are, all settled into our bedsit and feeling quite at home.  After the very long and exhausting trip (38 hours from start to finish) we managed to walk round the neighbourhood a bit, buy a few essentials like cereal and milk and a few pieces of fruit to keep us going and then hit the sack at a reasonably early time for Parisiens but plenty late enough for us to have a solid night's rest.

We were going to need that sleep for the day we had planned for Thursday 5th.  About 9am we headed off to the metro station, got a 'visitors 2 day pass' each and our map of the train system and we were off.

First stop the Louvre, no we did not go in, for a couple of reasons, believe it or not, artworks no matter how famous are worth wasting hours standing in a very long queue that wound its way aroung the courtyard and we are not really art buffs anyway and the beauty would have been wasted on us really, we were happy just to marvel at the architecture, what a place! 

From there we walked along the Quai (path beside the Seine) and crossed the Pont Neuf (means new bridge when in fact it is the oldest in Paris) onto the Cite Island in the centre of the Seine.  Here we visited Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle, both wonderful but we chose to go into the Sainte-Chapelle because of the long queues again at Notre Dame and I wanted to see the magnificent stained glass ceiling & walls of Sainte-Chapelle.  To get into the Sainte-Chapelle we had to go through security as if we were at the airport again because the entrance also lead to the Law Courts etc where there was a very large police presence.

Next spot to visit was the Champs Elysees, we caught a train from Pont Neuf station to get us a bit closer as it was a very long walk and we were beginning to grow a little leg weary.  We did however manage to walk the full length of the road, about 3.5 kilometres the guide book said and it felt every metre of that, of course that Haagen Daas icecream helped keep me going to the very end.  The Arc De Triomphe now that was worth the walk!!

A very 'yummy' french policeman then helped me find the way back to the train station to get us to the Tour Eiffel.  Again well worth the walking and the sunburnt nose, a magnificent structure, one that looks even better in real life, the photos do not do it justice, I had never noticed all the curly-cues and decorative iron work before, I though it was just a plain metal mechano-set type structure, but that is not the case.

By now we were really feeling the 'pain' and headed for home, only a few stations and one change of lines and we were stumbling up the steps from the underground to our neighbourhood.  Picked up some strawberries, tomatoes, mandarins (from Morocco) and a couple of apples from one of the local fruit shops, a bagette and an apricot pie thingy from a bakery, there seems to be one on every corner. 

We squashed into the two person only lift  & headed for the 6th floor, what a relief to be home.  Trouble is we plan to do something similar tomorrow. 

Friday arrived and again we were off for a day of fun & adventure.  First stop was the Quai near Musee d'Orsay to catch a ferry for a sightseeing trip up the Seine and then along the Saint Martin canal.  Saint Martin's is the largest canal in Paris and we went through 9 locks to end up 26 metres higher than we started.  It was a glorious spring morning on the water and the two and a half hour journey with commentary & funny anecdotes was great.

Grant has decided that we can afford the $12,000 a year it costs to moor a houseboat in the canal as a permanent yet mobile home but unfortunately we cannot afford the actual boat.  You will see from the photo that they are mostly pretty classy so our 10 foot fishing tinny just won't cut the mustard so to speak!

After the cruise we enjoyed lunch of bagette with fresh sliced tomato under the shady trees beside the canal then hightailed it to Sacre Coeure for a very quick visit.  It was pretty crowded and quite hot but we did look in the basilica and enjoyed 20 minutes admiring the view and listening to some very talent buskers who were holding court on the steps.

The next visit was a bit on the unusual side and doesn't really sound like us but it was very interesting and we enjoyed  it.  We went to the Catacombs where in the 1840's they transferred the bones of over a million of France's dead  when they exhumed a mass grave near a local hospital which the Doctors felt was contributing to the ill health of the community.  They filled up the quarry/tunnels which had been created about 20 or more metres below ground (under the sewer pipes and the underground too) when they quarried rock for the foundations and construction of some of Paris' most famous buildings.  Macarbe decorative patterns were created with the bones & skulls, it was fasinating.

Then home for a quick refresh and out to dinner tonight. I probably won't get online tomorrow as we are travelling via Eurostar train under the Channel to the UK.