SPRINGTIME = WINTERTIME

The temperature dropped below zero again today - it's freezing here in Paris. Lucky our apartment is nice and warm! We got up early and visited The Rodin Museum. August Rodin (1840-1917) was a sculptor whose works are super-realistic and very powerful. His most famous work is "The Thinker" but he made many, many sculptures and his work is very original compared to other sculptures I have seen. Dad said maybe that's because his ideas were very original as well. For example, he was asked to do a sculpture of France's Victor Hugo and caused outrage when he presented him naked. He also got criticised a lot for his statue of French writer, Balzac because he presented him covered in robes. People didn't understand a lot of what Rodin was doing at the time but he was very successful in his lifetime and is admired by all now. There are many works inside the museum which is situated in an old hotel but there are also quite a lot outside in the gardens. We braved the cold but after that we went and had lunch at La Duree, where we had toasted chicken sandwiches and hot chocolate. it was like being in a 19th Century coffeehouse as all the walls were painted with decorations and it was all silver service. We also went to Pierre Herme, a patisserie that has the best criossants, pastries, and cakes you've ever tasted! Again it rained on and off as we walked around the shops in rue Bonaparte in the 6th District and like yesterday, we were relieved to go down into the Metro to escape the cold and the rain. it's now so cold here in Paris that it's affecting how much we can do so we are hoping for more sun to break up this crazy weather.

MMMMMMM DINNER!

Here I am at Baci Restaurant in Le Marais having dinner after trekking around Paris from Montmartre to The Arc Of Triumph. We had a pizza entree, followed by cheeseburgers and french fries, and ice cream. Dad said only we would go to an Italian-sounding restaurant to eat American food in France!! But they were the best cheeseburgers ever!!! And France is the home of french fries, isn't it?

THE ARC OF TRIUMPH ON AVENUE DES CHAMPS-ELYSEES

The Metro, Abbesses station

One of the original art nouveau Metro stations in Montmartre

View of Paris and Montmartre from the dome of Sacre Coeur

View of Paris from outside Sacre Coeur

SPRINGTIME IN PARIS

We are getting pretty tired walking everywhere even with the mighty Metro helping us to get around. Last night we walked to a local brasserie - we both had steak, chips, and salad - and met a a French guy and a couple ofAmericans who have lived here for 4 years. Dad had left the map back at the apartment and even though we had only gone a few streets away, we managed to get totally lost on the way but eventually found our apartment. The thing about Paris is many of the main streets are on a grid but most of the smaller streets curve every which way. You think you're going in a straight line and then all of a sudden you end up nowhere near where you thought you'd be. Today, Monday 30th March 2010, we went to Sacre Coeur, a famous church in Montmartre, which is on top of the only hill in Paris. We walked up 207 steps - I counted them! - to the entrance to the church which has a huge dome. We toured the inside and then paid 5 Euros each to walk up another 300 steps to the top of the dome. Dad said that we have to pay them to get a heart attack! The view from outside the church was amazing but the view from the top of the dome was awesome! Our ticket was meant to include a tour of the crypt as well but the crypt was closed unfortunately. We had lunch in Montmartre at a tiny Italian restaurant called Gastronomie Italienne - I had spaghetti alla carbonara, which was good and Dad had penne aux legumes but Dad said his pasta was undercooked. From there, we headed to the touristy Champs-Elysees to see the Arc Of Triumph built at Napoleon's orders in 1809 to celebrate the triumphs of the Republican army. France's World War One unknown soldier is also buried here in front of an eternal flame. Then, as we walked back down the Champs, it started to rain, and hard! Every time we go near The Champs-Elysees it starts to rain - maybe the weather is warning us to stay away from this tourist area. It continued to rain really hard so we ducked into a FNAC and bought some CDs and had a hot chocolate! We were going to see The Rodin Museum but the rain kept falling hard trapping us so there's always tomorrow.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

An impressive tomb

SHOPPING DAY

Today we took the Metro to Opera, where we went to 2 big Paris department stores: Galerie LaFayette and Le Printemps. They are very beautiful stores. In Le Printemps (which means "Spring"), Dad bought me some jeans (2 pairs) and 2 shirts - they are very cool. I am still looking for some cool shoes but Dad bought some really great leather ankle boots. We had lunch in the store - I had a yummy beef carpaccio and Dad had a chicken Caesar salad. Then we went home to drop off our stuff before heading out to a cemetery! The name of the cemetery is Pere Lachaise after the priest who founded it. It is really big and there are many famous people there including
Jim Morrison (lead singer for The Doors), Sarah Bernhardt (theatre actress), Oscar Wilde (English writer) and Marcel Proust (French writer) to name a few.

Sunday Weather at Place De La Concorde

SUNDAY IN PARIS

We slept in a little and just hung around the apartment for the morning taking it easy. Most places are closed on Sundays in Paris and the streets empty of people. We had to go for a walk in the afternoon and took the Metro to Opera where we looked in the windows of Galerie LaFayette, and Le Printemps, major department store here. Then we walked toward the Champs-Elysees intending to see The Arc Of Triumph and look in the shops there but the weather turned very bad and so we headed home via The Metro. Since The Metro is all underground, you can avoid the bad weather except for the walk home from the local station. On the walk home, we happened upon a patisserie that was open and bought lunch in the form of baguettes and lemon tarts. Baguettes are a long crusty breadstick that is the favourite bread here. They are cheap (about .80 Euros or $A1.20) and delicious no matter what you put in them. After lunch, when the weather eventually cleared, we went out again. Dad forgot the map so we got a little lost but we did run into a vibrant tourist district where shops were open for mainly Italian and Spanish tourists.

The Eiffel Tower

From the ground up

Another view from The Eiffel Tower

From Level 2, a view of Montmartre

View from The Eiffel Tower

On Level 2, a shot of The Montparnasse towerin the south, the tallest building in Paris

The Eiffel Tower

The Sewers Of Paris

The RER

The RER is another train system that connects to some Metro stations.
Me outside a double-decker RER train.

The Metro, Alesia station

Emeline, Fabien, and me on our way to Les Egouts de Paris (The Sewers of Paris)

The Catacombs

The inscription says: STOP! HERE IS THE MPIRE OF THE DEAD.
Fabien, me, and Emeline in the background

BIG DAY OUT

On this day, Day 4, I did the main things I wanted to do: I went to The Catacombs and The Eiffel Tower. The Catacombs is a long series of tunnels underground where about 6 million people were buried when the cemeteries of Paris were overflowing. The bones of all these people are arranged in neat piles throughout and most of them appear to be from the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. As we were waiting in the queue to get into this cellar of death, we started talking to Emeline and Fabien, two economics students from Rouen. It turned out that they were next going to Les Egouts (or The Sewers, a place that Dad also wanted to see because of his fond memory of Victor Hugo's book, Les Miserables), so we accompanied them there and ended up spending the day with them. The sewers were smelly but also a bit interesting but more so for Dad and Fabien, who were quite excited. We all went to a brasserie for a lunch of baguettes and then on to The Eiffel Tower. The crowds there were huge but it was so much bigger than I thought it would be. The view of Paris is the best view I have ever seen and going up was really scary as people on the ground got smaller and smaller until they looked like ants. Emeline and Fabien have invited us to Rouen next Saturday and will meet us at the train and show us over their town which they say is quite medieval so that is an offer too good to pass up. And it will be great to see Emeline and Fabien again. Also, we are now big fans of The Metro, Paris' underground train system, as it is fast and easy to use.

Le Taxi Jaune

An excellent restaurant with master chef, Otis Lebert. Le Taxi Jeune is a fabulous dining experience.

DAY 3 IN PARIS

I woke up late today because jetlag really hit me last night and I'm still pretty much on Australian time. We had breakfast late in our apartment and then ventured out into a cold rainy day that ended with a short burst of hail. When it started hailing, I jumped into it for a moment and it felt like stones were hitting my face. Today, we took it easy and just went to the Pompidou Centre and the Forum des Les Halles to poke around. I wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower but Dad said it would be much better on a sunny clear day than a cloudy one because then the view will be much better. I had a chocolate crepe for lunch and it was delicious. We are going to a brasserie that has pasta for dinner tonight. We are having dinner early because tonight Air France have promised to deliver our luggage at last, so we must be home to receive it. Let's see if they can do it! Dad says it will be a customer service feat of epic proportions if Air France can actually please a customer! He found a whole site on the web devoted solely to customer service complaints to Air France. There was even one guy whose dog was lost by Air France! They never found it either! However, despite our suitcase saga, the French have been really fantasitic - so well-mannered and helpful! Everyone everywhere should be like them.

COLD DAY IN PARIS

We are still waiting for our luggage. Air France has got it but can't seem to deliver it when we are here. It is cold today and we are still tired and jetlagged so we headed for The Louvre. On the way, we stopped to look at Le Tour de Saint Jacques, this amazing tower devoted to Saint Jacques, whoever he is! It is very tall and quite beautiful - like many things in Paris. Anyone under 18 is free at The Louvre and there were thousands of people there. It is absolutely huge so it is not crowded. It is very cool and the first thing I saw there was the Mona Lisa but we saw many other amazing things. We walked there but took the Metro back because soon that will be our main way of getting to places and we needed to know how to use it. Back at the apartment, I slept for 2 hours and Dad woke me up for dinner. I was tired and didn't want to get up but I was glad I did because we had a beautiful meal - I had sausage and vegetables, Dad had horse! - cooked by Otis, the French chef and owner of Le Taxi Jeune. Otis used to share a room with Shannon Bennett (Vue De Monde's chef and owner in Melbourne) when they were working together in London.

FIRST DAY IN PARIS

We have just been to Notre Dame, a giant church that took 171 years to build. The cathedral was begun in 1163 and completed in 1334, making it nearly 800 years old since it was finished. There was lots of stained glass and it was really high. Then I had a hot dog in a baguette roll covered in cheese - it was delicious. Dad had a baguette with tuna, egg, tomato and mayo. Then we walked west along the island where Notre Dame is and walked back across The Seine River on Le Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris begun in 1578. We walked past the Pompidou Centre and many, many more old buildings - and we will visit the Pompidou maybe tomorrow. About 3.00PM, we came back to our apartment to rest. I think I'll sleep well tonight because I'm really tired. It will be good not to sleep in a chair in a squished-up space like on the plane.

ARRIVED BUT WE HAVE A PROBLEM

We arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport after 20 flying hours only to find that our luggage was not there! And this was after waiting about an hour in French Customs so by the time we went to get the train to Paris from the Airport, it was too late to keep our meeting with Monsieur Jean-Pierre Roussel, the man who had the key to our apartment. We lost more time talking with Air France about our lost luggage so then we decided to take a taxi instead of the train in order to make our meeting for the key to our new home in Paris. We got there with a minute to spare at great cost - 48 Euros! which is about 70 dollars. The train would have cost us 17 Euros or about 30 dollars.
I hope they find our luggage because we only have one change of clothes each. But our apartment is fantastic - very big and quite comfortable although it's only 8 degrees Celsius (or 48 degrees Fahrenheit) and we are cold because we're waiting for the heat to warm us up. I am very tired and hungry so we are going to have a shower, change our clothes, and go get a croissant.

PACKING

We are getting ready for our trip to Paris. Dad has started packing and we need warm clothes as it is springtime in Paris and the temperature will be about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Dad has put my suitcase inside his as he said we will both buy some new clothes in Paris and so we will have room in our cases for them because there is a limited weight allowance on the plane. We are taking a laptop so I can update my blog each day. 

ON OUR WAY

I'm going to Paris with my Dad on Tuesday. We fly to Singapore from Melbourne on Qantas and then change to an Air France flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France