Category Archives: France

For our last day in Paris we went off to the Orsay Museum. Andrea had been talking about this museum ever since we landed in Paris! So away we went. The museum was originally an old train station that was then transformed since they didn’t know where else to out all of their artwork master pieces. Seems like it worked out, Andrea says that it’s a very famous museum in the ‘museum world’; she would know. Now in all honesty I was a bit apprehensive about going to a museum specializing in art, but i enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. First if all the interior was stunning, and I had downloaded a audio guide to help me out. The space was very well organized in that there were distinct sections and areas for a different type of artwork. I feel like are walking through I was able to gain a somewhat understands between impressionist and realist artwork. I also became a fan of Edgar Degas’s work. One of his muses was ballet dancers, however he liked it paint them when they were at their most authentic. For instance in instead of capturing dancers in beautiful poses, he paints them when they are stretching or in the corner of the room practising.

Afterwards we headed towards the river and grabbed another one if Vins typical French Lunches, aka a baguette and cheese. We’ve come to realize that things here are organized a little different in terms of restaurants. For example when we went out for crepes the whole street was nothing but creperies! Walking it the river we passes a street that had nothing but Japanese restaurants, and when we were looking for a bakery there were none along any streets until, we found a street that had tons of them on it! Once we finished up with lunch we made our way back to the Hester and grabbed out things to go on and catch the Eurostar.

This has a been a pert of the trip that I have felt very anxious about. The train that we will be taking us will be going under yes UNDERWATER through the English Channel! The security was more strict than I expected it to be. Nether less we made it to London. The train ride didn’t feel much different than usual, the only thing is that there was no view for the majority of the ride and that my ears were popping nonstop from the changes in pressure.

After we made our way to our hostel for the next few days we went out to explore the area. It seems like a young area, there were many restaurants and pubs that were all full. Around this time I realized how nice it is to be a country were I am actually able to speak the language! Along the walk I noticed that the architecture is so much different here, specifically it is all brick. We continued walking along the Thames River, and since its a Saturday evening there was a lot going on! There were many street performers, vendors, street food and even a skateboard park. We made our way back to our hostel room to discover that our other roomies are all Canadians. Round two sleeping in a Canadian only room!

This morning we headed out for a walking tour. Our group was huge! Thankfully the tour guide had a headset so we were able to hear him a bit better. It seemed like it was a scripted tour, but overall I enjoyed it! We went around the central areas of Paris. I must say that Andrea and I did a rather good job covering ground and already hitting up most of these places and his suggestions as well! We passed the ‘love bridge’ famously known for having millions of locks locked onto it with the key thrown into the river signifying unbreakable and internal love. Before I left for Europe I read that over one million locks had been taken off of the bridge for safety reasons. When we got on the bridge I didn’t expect to see that they cast-iron walls had been bordered up with wood panelling, so that no one would be able to lock the locks into the bridge.

A super interesting thing that I learned is what the different poses that a horse statues has signifies how the person riding it died. There are three main different poses. First when the horses front legs are in the air it mans that the rider died in battle, if all legs are on the ground then they died if natural causes and if then horse is in a standing pose then unnaturally causes like murder where a result of the death.

Afterwards we roamed around the city and I noticed that with the sunshine out there were more people out, especially those out soaking up the sunshine and people watchings from garden benches to cafes. We made our way to Sainte-Chapelle, the line and price to get inside was a little more than we had expected and one we got inside to the first level we we’re disappointed, however, the second floor was a different story! There were 15 huge stain glass windows that all together had 1,113 different scenes of biblical depictions. Each window must have been over 14 feet tall! The colours were all so beautiful and illuminated the room. Looking up even higher, the ceilings were an aqua blue with little gold stars that covered all above. Sainte-Chapelle was used by the King in what is today’s Palace of Justice, this area used to be the former prison of Louis and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution and also was the place were the Nazis had their Paris headquarters when they occupied from 1940-1944.

We the grabbed a quick bite to eat in the line for the Louvre. Andrea was clever enough to find out that we were able to enter for free on Friday evenings. The line didn’t taken as long as I had expected it to, and there wasn’t as many people inside as I had anticipated as well! Now the Louvre used to a palace for the royalty, yet today it is now one of the worlds largest and most famous museum. Now I know that it was some of the most famous work that has been ever been created, but I was more memorized by the splendour of the the general building, especially all the ceilings! I had to keep reminding myself that the artwork on the walls not the ceiling. Yes of course the first thing we went to when we got there was to go find Miss Mona Lisa. There were signs everywhere, so it didn’t make it too difficult. I was able to get my picture of my girl and everyone else that was trying to take her photos as well! After getting a good look at her and trying to decipher what her facial expression is, I came to the conclusion that she is giving us the classiest smirk in existence :) Now by this pint Andrea and I were reaching the end of our abilities both physically and tolerance for crowds and museums in general. We briskly asked through then rest of the floor and peeked downstairs. There is no way to get defeated that we weren’t able to see everything. It is just not possible! According to a study it shoudk take someone 13 days to be able to stop and look at everything in the museum. We made out way back to our hostel and meet some of our new roommates before we started to get ready for our adventure to calm down with a visit to our last country, the UK!

I thankfully felt so much better when I woke up this morning! The even better thing is that Andrea hasn’t caught hat I have yet….Sorry in advance! We headed out to Versailles. A few trains transfers later and many tourist escorts, honestly it was like they were piling everyone into trains that was packed with SO many tourists.

Reading online we knew it would be busy at Versailles and that an hour wait was to be expected to enter the Place, but we lucked out and actually got through the line quicker than I had expected. With our ticket we even got an audio guide included. I have to say that the palace was a little smaller than I expected, which I know is crazy to say since the grounds and estate are enormous, but at least what we were able to see was less than I thought I’d be. Versailles was by built by Louis XIV as his summer escape from the city of Paris. It took 40% of Paris’s GDP over the period of its construction to build it! Louis XIV was know to be a lover of nature and the performing arts, he is actually the one that influenced the start of ballet! Next to the thrown only at the age of 5 years Louis XV extended Versailles and added to the exquisiteness of the Palace and the grounds. He however didn’t like having much power so he delegated it to others. What was clever is that he often invited these people to stay in Versailles so he could monitor them and other did this to other influential people. The final monarch to reside here was Louis XVI and his well know wife Marie Antoinette.

There is no way to explain then splendour and exuberance in the different chambers. It is like nothing I have ever seen. The walls had all been hand stitched to have different designs, rather than having wallpaper or paint. Sometimes rooms even had different wall decor and linens that would be changed depending on season. For example in winter, suede would be used, whereas for summer silk was preferred. My favourite rooms were the Chamber of Mirrors, King and Queens quarters. We then wandered through the gardens getting a little lost along the way. I found the gardens to be more like a park. The Grand Canal was bigger than I thought was possible for a canal to be! Apparently the gondolas and even the gondoliers were brought in from Venice. We went into the smaller estates in then property that were used by then royals as another escape from the Palace of Versailles to get a feel of ‘extravagant commoner’ life. Overall I hate to say it but Versailles disappointed me a bit. It was still beautiful but not what I expected.

Afterwards we made our way back to our hostel and rested for a few minutes to lay down for a bit before we got right back up and headed out again. This time we’re off to the Eiffel Tower! Since last time we went there with Vin and the lines were rather long we hoped to get there before the crowds did. Even Though when we got there there was a line it wasn’t near as bad as others since I wanted to climb up instead of take the elevator. Turns out that when you take the stairs up you can only be granted access to the decoy do viewing platform and not to the actual very top of the building. The walk up to the top wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, granted we only ended up walking only about up to have of the height of the tower. I ideally planned that the Eiffel Tower would be the epitome of our tower hiking for views. It was quite a few! Nothing else In the whole city compares height wise in the city. They actually have a story level of just eight levels,anything higher have to be granted permission from the government before it can be built. Resulting in unobstructed views for as far out we could see. We got up to the tower in time to get a daytime view, sunset and also get to see the city at night as well! The city lights and the building light up! The Eiffel Tower had small strobe lights that shown out into the evening sky, just like we had seen the night before. After spending two hours memorized by the view and a little too cold we headed down. I wanted to take the elevator down instead of climb back down the stairs for a different view and also since I was tired haha. I am sure glad that we did! The stood right against the glass window and literally went through the tower! We were able to see the structure, paneling and beams of the tower. We actually liked the ride so much we stayed on the elevator and rode back up no then down again. Once we left we walked back to the metro station, but not before catching another glance at the tower light up. When we went back to our hostel all we wanted to do was just go to sleep, but a girl in our room had to much fun earlier in the night and thankfully the hostel staff was taking care of her, but in the end the situation was so bad that they called an ambulance. So French fireman came up to our room at midnight and afterwards took her to get further help. Hopefully she will, be alright but Andrea and I wanted nothing more than to just sleep so after everything was taken care of we finally were able to.

This morning I hate it say it but I admitted defeat and denial, I am sick. I managed to get myself ready for breakfast and met up with Vin and Andrea for breakfast downstairs, to let them know that I would be taking the morning off to rest. The girls went out to the Opera house and I was able to go back to sleep. I woke up to the girls who went out and brought back lunch for all of us! They are the absolute best :) we had a little feast of another typical French lunch with even some dessert as well! Baguettes, an assortment of Cheeses, Pork Spread, Pain aux raisins and an Éclair

In then decided to partake in the afternoon activities with the girls. Off we went to the Notre Dame, we knew from looking online that the lineup could take an hour to get through, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that this wasn’t the case whatsoever. Apparently this church was initially hated by the French people when it was constructed in the 11th century but after the book of Notre Dame came out and it encouraged the salvation,restoration and appreciation of the Basilica. The gothic interior was stunning, it had high detailed ceilings and stain glassed that circled the whole interior. There were also many different chambers, and places of prayer dedicated to different saints along the sides of the church.

We then walked to side of the building which was just as detailed and beautiful like the front and crossed a bridge where all there was were locks. Now apparently the original ‘lock’ bridge had one million locks taken off of it since all the additional weight was becoming a safety issue. This bridge might be the next once since there were SO many locks on it that it was impossible to see anything beside a wall of locks! After crossing the bridge we walked along an area with street vendors. Many of them had old archival photos, newspapers and advertisements. I found many of the propagandist advertisements very interesting,but then again I am fascinated by propaganda. While Andrea and Vin went through the old postcards (they even found some of Vancouver) I took and seat in a bench and enjoyed the view of traffic and people passing by.

I think I may have been a tad too ambitious wanting to go out for an afternoon adverse because I started to not feel well again, the girls insisted on heading back to the hostel with me, even against my protests. In the end we ended up watching Phantom of the Opera and grabbing a quick bite and enjoying one another’s company. Before I knew it, it was sadly time to say goodbye to Vin :( Andrea and I walked her to the train station and then we headed back to our rooms to get some rest. Hopefully I will feel better in the morning…

We all got together for breakfast this morning before heading out to the Arc de Triomphe. Thankfully we got there rather early so then lineup wasn’t that bad. We walked up to the top and took in the view. What I found super interesting is watching all of the traffic come into this chaotic round about. There seems to be twelve different lanes within the round about and there are eight different streets. It is an organized chaos even though there are no street signs or light, people somehow get to where they want to be with no incidences. I was fascinated watching the traffic go on by! Up at this vantage point I got a view of something that I wasn’t able to see from the view yesterday, the Eiffel Tower! What is a nice touch is that each of the major eight lanes that lead traffic in are lined with trees on either side for as long as I can see! It was built for the purpose of being a victory square, so soldiers could enter through its grand and exquisite arch when they arrived back home.

We continued down to the Champs Élysées and braced ourselves for the walk! The street was filled with so many high end shops. Vin made sure to point out the French luxury stores that Andrea and I have never heard before. I did recognize one store in particular, Louis Vuitton. We made our way to the Tulieries Garden. It was so much bigger than I had expected it it be, there were so many empty chairs out, since it was so darn cold there were not that many people out and about. On the other side there was even an arcade, filled with games, carnival food and rides too! We finally made out way to our destinations the Lourve! We decided beforehand that we did not want to go in since it would basically take up the rest of our day. Of course I had to do the typical tourist poses and I even got Vin to partake in the silliness with me! We then Walked by the Petit and Grand Palais, unfortunately I was not able to go inside the Grand Palace, but we did quickly go trough the collections and continued out walk around the neighbourhood.

Once our feet could no longer hold us up we headed out to go and meet up with Andrea’s friend Adele for crepes. We were able to find another place to go to that was actually open today! A super internet hint is that in this street there were SO many crepe restaurants. I am curious as to how all of them stay in business. These crepes are traditional and know from the Brittney ‘area’, I had my savoury crepe and apparently it is typical to have it made out of buckwheat. I had a really good crepe with white asparagus, tomatoes and cheese! And for dessert we all shared a delicious caramel apple crepe! After we finished up I suppose you could say that we suffered from a food coma, so we made it back to our hostel and slept it off.

Bright and super duper early we mad our way to the airport to catch our flight to Paris! We battled the morning tiredness and managed to catch a little sleep on the flight since and woke just in time to see the Eiffel Tower from the plane as it began to descend. We managed to find our way to our hostel where I was able to reunite with Vin! I. Any believe it has been over a year since we had seen each other. Vin came all the way from Lyon to spend a few days in Paris with Andrea and I! Her train got in before our flight so when we met up she had our afternoon and lunch all planned out for us :) isn’t she the best, and she will also be our native French speaking guru too! What more could I ask for? After we all checked in Vin lead the way to her secret destination.

We made a pit stop to grab a freshly made baguette and ended walking up to Sacre Coeur. As I walked further up the hill the view of central Paris got better and better! I could basically see all of Paris, aside from the Eiffel Tower which was apparently covered by a tree… Still it was a sneak peak as to what was come next. We sat down in the grass and enjoyed a true French lunch. Vin went ahead and got blue, goats and comte cheese. These included some of her favourites and typical cheese. So we all had an impromptu picnic, enjoying the food, one another company and the view. Afterwards we then went inside the Sacre Coeur were we all learned about the symbolism in the animals statues that were all throughout the church. They were very small, so if you didn’t know that they existed you would have never been able to spot them. Even though I knew that they were in the church I wasn’t able to actually see any of the statues. In this church you literally followed a circuit, so I couldn’t stray from the path or else I would hold up the entire line.

We then decide to head out to see Moulin Rouge. We may have gotten a little lost which resulted in having to hike up and downs the hills. At least it was a little extra way to burn off all the cheese that we had eaten! On the way we passed through may streets with thrift shops on them. Now these weren’t typical thrift shops, there were literally baskets with clothes, shoes and anything else in them and you had to roam around in the bins to acquire anything. It looked super unorganized and clothes were all over the dirty ground, Vin apparently said that this is the only place in France where you find shops like these. We eventually found our way to Moulin Rouge, and even though Vin had given me a warning, the sight was still disappointing…Not quite how I imagined it would be after seeing the movie. I think the real specular is inside, but tickets cost at least 90 euros for a show, so not this time. After walking around for a while I got to practise the most useful French phrase I know, and ordered myself a chocolate croissant. I have a feeling that it will defiantly not be the last time I’ll get to say this phrase! We then decided to make our way to our hostel to plan out the rest of our day and time together.

Once we rested up for a bit we all headed out again. On the way we passed one of the most uniquely yet disturbing thing I have seen on the trip yet. Public street urinals! Yes that’s right, guys could line up in the middle of the street to use a urial, and there were people using it crazily enough! This even took Vin off guard who said that she had never seen anything like it either! We all came to the conclusion that it must be some sort of method to deter the sewage like smell, that is so distinct around Paris.

After recovering from that encounter we made out way to the Eiffel Tower. It is so such shorter in real life than I thought it was actually! It still is an impressive height though. I think that the fact that everything in France is restricted to a height code makes the tower look like it literally towers over everything else! We considered going up to the to, but the lines were too big so we will try to go up another day. We then walked towards The Wall for Peace, and the idea of the moment is wonderful. Each of the columns was the word peace written on it in 52 different languages. The only thing is that the monument is not well maintained which is rather disappointing.

By this time we were getting hungry for dinner so we went to venture for true authentic French crepes. Sadly the place that Vin wanted to take us to was closed so we opted for Indian instead! It was super good :) Once we were full we made out way back to the hostel to rest up for a busy day tomorrow!