Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Paris


Paris was very cold and very expensive! We (my brother and I) flew in on New Years' Eve, but because we booked last minute there wasn't a hotel to be had in central Paris. On the other hand, the hotels near the airport had highly discounted rates, so that's where we ended up staying.

We expected it to be the low season, and it was - except for the week we were there, when all the Europeans had their Christmas holidays. There were enormous qeues everywhere, in fact I have a little song for Paris:

This is a queue that never ends
It goes on and on my friends
Some people, started queing, not knowing what it was
And then continued queing forever just because
This is a queue that never ends....


We spent 2 hours in the queu for the Eiffel Tower alone! I couldn't feel my feet for ages afterwards. But then we got into the Louvre for free, because it was the 1st Sunday of the month so I cant really complain too much.


Eiffel Tower





Louvre

Venus de Milo:



Musée d'orsay

I thought I would share one of the most memorable paintings there:



LOL... no actually these were the standouts:




Basilique du Sacré-Cœur


Moulin Rouge

Yes, we actually paid the 80E for a show at the Moulain Rouge! It was worth it though, because I haven't seen anything like that before and might not again. It was very glitzy, very sparkly, very well produced and there was A LOT of boob.



Champs-Élysées


Place de la Concorde is at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, built on the fomer site of the guillotine. The 3000 year old Egyptian obelisk is Paris' "oldest monument", which was "gifted" to France. It was actually a bit sad seeing it here, because I've been to Egypt and I've seen the Luxor temple where the obelisk truly belongs.



Notre Dame de Paris




Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe



Versailles Palace

Versailles reminded me a lot of the Royal Palaces in Russia. Which is no wonder really, since Russian nobility were used to puchasing the best of European style!








Overall, my impression is that Paris is one of the "must-see" cities of the world, there is so much cultural and historical significance here. I've often had a de-ja-vu feeling when seeing something I've never seen before, simply because its imagine is so iconic and widely disseminated. But did I fall in love with the city, like I did with Barcelona, St Petersburg and Prague? ... no, probably not.

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