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Thread: One night (or two) in Paris

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    Pseudo-Mad Scientist Whiternoise's Avatar
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    One night (or two) in Paris

    (If you want to see more photos: www.flickr.com/people/whiternoise)

    So, my girlfriend and I joined the ranks of cliché and spent a couple of days in the City of Lights. Thought people would find this interesting so I decided not to post it in .photo

    Day -1: It was one of those days. About 9:30pm, my Mum asked me if I wanted a lift to the station on Thursday and to check what time the train left. It turned out to be one of those "Ah bugger" moments when the email informed me that the train left at 8:55 on Wednesday morning. A quick call to the other half and an hours frantic night's packing later and a very short night's sleep.

    Day 1: The trip down to London was uneventful, with First Great Western showing a surprisingly punctual side. St Pancras (International) is part of the "High Speed 1" line that was built to replace the Waterloo connection and is pleasantly modern, looking more like an airline terminal than a train station.


    Rush!


    The statue of Betjemin on the platform

    My Dad used to work for the OECD in Paris, so as a child I visited a few times a year via the Eurostar - back then it was basically new and something of a novelty. Nowadays it's apparent that brown is not the colour of choice for upholstery and the whole train is a little dated.


    Try to ignore the two birds that have ran afowl () of the inlets

    Age aside, it goes at a fair whack - clocking in at around 185mph on my GPS (aside - shows you how old the train is if you can get a GPS fix inside) and got us into Paris just after midday.

    Our hotel was in the Bastille area, so we took a Metro down to the nearest station. The Paris Metro, for the uninitiated, is essentially the Paris 'Tube. It's quick, efficient and smells of pee. Tickets are cheap - about 1.70EUR to go from point to point (unlike TFL's upwards of £3 for two stops without an Oyster). You can also buy a carnet for 12EUR for 10 tickets - there is also a travelcard, but we didn't travel enough to make it worthwhile.


    The metro stations are a lot wider than the London Underground and have some of the most inefficient seating designed I've ever come across. Apparently the French are not into sitting next to one another.



    We dumped our things in the hotel (an Ibis chain) and consulted the map to see where we wanted to visit first. Taking advantage of the blissfully sunny day, we elected to walk down to the Seine and then up towards the Île de la Cité and Paris proper. After getting a tiny bit lost, we eventually found our way to the banks of the river and found ourselves overlooking the national library - sadly not open to the public.







    The walk towards the centre of the city had a certain Half Life air about it and the G-Man wouldn't have been out of place, perhaps on one of the bridges overlooking the waters. About half an hour later, we stopped for a bite to eat - un MacDo, I'm sorry to say - and it was then that we discovered the reason that all the shops were shut. It was only bloody Bastille Day. On the bright side, there would be fireworks.

    The Île de la Cité supports Notre Dame and is one of the most picturesque (and touristy) parts of the city. It's surrounded by apartment blocks that would probably make your wallet burn up in shame dare you ask the rental price.







    Notre Dame itself was shut, but it's just another church and most of the good looking bits are on the outside. Entry to the cathedral is free, but you will be charged to visit certain areas.








    Next on the route was the Louvre (how many hotspots can we knock off in one day?) which too was shut, but as we'd both already been, we took a few photos, sat by the fountains a while and then moved on towards Place de La Concorde. The Louvre is full of people with the sole aim of seeing the Mona Lisa. Take it from me, it's not that great. It's the size of a postage stamp at the distance you're allowed to view it (behind the railings and the bulletproof glass casing). More interesting is the Palais du Louvre, housing a simply obscene amount of art and cultural history which is really a day trip in itself if you want to view all the galleries. Entry is free if you're aged below around 25 and resident in the EU so make the most of it if you're eligible.


    Into the light, my son.


    Gleaming...


    From the inside (stupidly they let us in, only for us to be told at the bottom that it was shut - naturally the gift shop was still open)

    By this time it was getting reasonably late and we wandered through the leafy streets until we got to Place de La Concorde, marking the East end of the Champs-Élysées. People were gathering in the square and on the bridge (towards the National Assembly buildings) and since we had a pretty good view of the Eiffel Tower, we bagged a decent spot, set up the tripod and waited for the show to begin. It was quite something...

    Stay tuned!

    (limit of 20 images per post)
    Last edited by Whiternoise; 19-07-2010 at 09:07 AM.

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  3. #2
    Pseudo-Mad Scientist Whiternoise's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris


    Bateau-Mouches and Batobus' are the standard way to get around the river







    At 11pm, they turn the sparkly lights on the Eiffel Tower

    I have literally about a hundred more of these and they'll be up on my Flickr if anyone's interested


    Vive La France!

    Day 2: The perils of booking a cheap hotel are immediately apparent when you're woken up by builders in the next room (never did find out which one exactly). A call to reception was met with "renovations" and that was the end of the matter - good job we were planning on getting up anyway.

    I surprised my girlfriend with a trip to a nearby cemetery - thoughtful, I know. Pere Lachaise houses Paris' latest and greatest. Residents including Chopin, Poulenc, Piaf, Bizet (I think), Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Curiously, these graves are the least interesting - it's a lot more fun(?) looking at the rest of the population. Most are family Sepultures or vaults and many are still obviously being added to as time goes on. Most of the doors to the vaults are rusting and eerily beautiful with intricate cutouts and stained glass windows.





    It's quite literally a city of the dead, it even has streets.




    We took the metro back into the centre of Paris, this time to visit the Eiffel tower. Both of us had been up already, but we felt it was the done thing to go up it - when in Rome, after all. It really is monumentally tall. The best place to appreciate this is not standing underneath it - it just looks a bit big. You need to be a little way off, next to the Trocadéro is best, with the trees for scale.




    Unfortunately no sooner had we queued for 45 minutes, there was a bomb scare and the entire forecourt was evacuated. There didn't appear to be much hurry however, there were still plenty of people still on the tower and even twenty minutes after they cleared the square there were people slowly walking down the steps.

    And so we gave up, watching in mild amusement as the crowds ran like billy-o to the ticket office when it was reopened.




    As the end of the second day neared, we headed off to one of Paris' lesser known marvels. The Montparnasse Tower is an eyesore. It's 200 odd metres tall and was the reason that building skyscrapers outside La Défense was banned in the late 70's. It is great for 3 reasons:

    1) It is invariably empty with respect to tourists (there was no queue at all when we went). No one really knows about it.
    2) You can go up it, until 11:30pm
    3) It is the one place where you can go to see Paris from above without the tower being in the way

    The Eiffel tower is something of a conundrum. It is a superb piece of engineering - my guidebook says that it was built in under 2 years by 200 men. Let's just take some time to let that sink in. 2 years, 200 men. What the hell!? However, the one thing that you want to see when you go up is probably the thing you're standing on. And the sides are covered with wire fences to stop you from jumping off.

    No such luck in Montparnasse, it's low railings and a clear view over the entire city (there is a raised platform on the top of the tower so you can't kill yourself even if you do jump over).

    As a result, you get a view like this:





    (Still sorting out the sky blending - also please excuse the poor upload quality, the original is a 26mb JPEG that I compressed for imageshack)

    Day 3 coming up!
    Last edited by Whiternoise; 18-07-2010 at 09:15 PM.

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  5. #3
    SiM
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    Some nice pics there especially the panoramic one.... but when I read your thread title I thought you were referring to this

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    Pseudo-Mad Scientist Whiternoise's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    I thought I was being witty

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    The Irish Drunk! neonplanet40's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    Brilliant mate! Went with my gf back in January for a week and I loved it!! Notre Dam was my favourite area and also the cheapest for food The only thing I didnt get to do was go to the top of the Eiffel tower. I got to the second stage but the top one was closed for renovations
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    Pseudo-Mad Scientist Whiternoise's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    Well, see above really - the Eiffel tower is overrated and isn't actually the best place to get a good view over Paris.

    Day 3: Bit of a trek. We were kicked out of the hotel at midday so had to lug our rucksacks around for the final tour.

    Today was another macabre masterpiece, the catacombs. Paris has an underground network of tunnels - not sewers - that run deeper than the Metro and criss-cross all over the city. In the past they have been used for the resistance, as bunkers for both axis and allies and more recently clandestine cinemas (people still traverse them illegally for fun). One particular part was famously used as an ossuary for around 6 million residents of Paris' principle cemeteries and has been turned into a museum.

    The queue was utterly horrendous. It took well over an hour due to the one-in, one-out capacity of the tunnels, but eventually we got in.


    It's a long walk down through tunnels which thankfully have been newly fitted with lighting (you had to take a torch back in the day). Flash photography and tripods are not permitted, but that isn't a problem if you have a fast lens with you...





    It's quiet and eery and the bones are literally everywhere. The builders of the ossuary even took it upon themselves to arrange the bones into patterns. Oddly none of the skulls had any teeth, nor did any have lower jaws - presumably stolen by dentists.

    The catacombes mirror the streets above
    If you do go, it's reasonably priced at 4EUR for under 26's, but worth knowing that the exit is not the same place as the entrance so it's worth having a street map on you.

    We took the metro to our final port of call, Montmartre and the basilica. The setting of Moulin Rouge and Amelie, Montmartre is another piece of stunning French architecture and another perfect place to learn how to avoid tourists.

    The majority of people visit the church, the famous steps and leave - few people realise that you can actually climb the spires for another unrivalled view over Paris. The church is, well, Catholic. Silence inside except for the clink of the collection plates. The crypt is free and has beautiful gothic arches and is the sort of place that is great for sitting down and just thinking (it's also how you get to the top).

    The climb is long, around 300 steps, but is well worth it and I think the pictures speak for themselves.




    (Another panorama coming up)

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    Keep it sexy Zhaoman's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    They are some really amazing shots, lovely to look at and I still haven't been to Paris!! Seeing these makes me wanna go even more

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    Welcome to stampytown! Salazaar's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    Awesome photos! I particularly like the one of the Tricolore, but they're all great.

    I should really get myself back to Paris soon, last time I went we only stayed there longenough for a cup of coffee and a look at the Eiffel Tower.
    ____
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    Now with added sobriety Rave's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    Wow awesome, your photos put my efforts in Paris to shame (although it was January when I went). Good work.

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    hexus.zombeh! format's Avatar
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    Re: One night (or two) in Paris

    Nice thread mate
    ~'Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence--those are the three pillars of Western prosperity'~ Aldous Huxley




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