Paris

Once again, I departed London by ferry and bus to arrive at Paris. Several people I met before I left were shocked, since almost everyone goes by fast train from London to Paris. But I saved about $200 by taking the bus and ferry, and it was incredibly scenic, so I have no regrets even though I didn't go through the famous chunnel. The ferry left from Dover, and once I saw the area, remembered that the Cliffs of Dover are famous, and for good reason. It was an amazingly beautiful area, the cliffs are white and high. I wished I could have spent some time there, but we were on a tight schedule. The ferry trip was very fast and relaxing and went to Calais, France. The bus ride to Paris took about 4 hours.

The first thing I noticed about Paris was how much traffic there was. It was so so busy. We arrived at the main bus terminal which connected with the metro and I took the metro over to my hotel. It took a bit of adjusting to get used to the language, even though I studied French for years. Even when visiting Quebec, I was never quite as immersed in French as I was in France. But luckily, my French held up rather well, and most people understood me without any problems.

The next morning, I had the day to myself before I met up with Reynald, who would arrive from Vancouver that afternoon. I spent the day walking around and walked by the Louvre (it was closed, but you could still walk on the grounds), the Jardins des Tuilleries (the ornate palace gardens full of amazing sculptures), the Place de la Concorde (with a beautiful Greek fountain and a huge Egyptian obelisk), and the Champs Elysees (the long boulevard). Everything in Paris is so ornate and beautiful, I felt like you could take a million pictures and you still couldn't capture it all. There is work by famous artists in every park, the bridges are all unique and ornamented, and there are so many unusual and wonderful buildings, it's hard to take it all in. I walked by the Grand Palais (now an art gallery) and went by Notre Dame and took pictures of its famous Rose Windows.

After that I headed towards the hotel where I was supposed to meet Reynald. I was surprised on checking in that he wasn't there, and went to find somewhere to check my email. I found out that his flight had been delayed and that he likely wouldn't arrive until the next morning. He asked me to phone the hotel he had booked for the next night, and when I did, I found out they had canceled our reservation. So I went back to the internet cafe to try to book another hotel, which proved extremely difficult because the next night was Halloween, and the following day November 1st was a holiday in France (All Saint's Day). But I finally found something, and sent the information to him, hoping that he would get the info if he arrived late.

The next morning, I was very happy to see an exhausted but happy Reynald at my hotel room door. We checked out and went to the next hotel to check in. After that we decided it was time for lunch and got recommendations from the hotel for a nearby brasserie. Now, French food is famous for being tasty, but until you get there, it's hard to believe that you can literally walk into any restaurant and have fantastic food. We learned that the French simply do not compromise on food. The place we had for lunch was typical, a small cafe that served fresh food and had only one waitress and served a two course 'formule' that included an appetizer and main or a main and dessert. The waitress was nice but harried and had to come back several times before we got our order in. The food is very meat heavy, with steaks or sausages being common mains. It would be hard to eat vegetarian there. The only thing I didn't like about French restaurants was that they all allow smoking, which has been banned in Vancouver restaurants for a while, and you were always engulfed in smoke.

The other thing I loved about France was the Patisseries. French bakeries that can be found everywhere with fresh bread, croissants, and pastries. The bread is cheap and always fresh. I wish we had bakeries like this at home. Anyone who knows me, knows what a soft spot I have for baking, so I ate my fair share of baked things before I left.

Paris has recently started a bike rental program, and has bikes set up at various spots in the city, that you can rent for a 1 Euro fee/day, then by the half hour. If you use only 30 minutes, you don't pay extra, but if you use them for longer, it costs around 2 Euros. It seemed like a romantic and relaxing way to get around the city, but it turned out that it wasn't. As I mentioned earlier, there is a tremendous amount of traffic in Paris. Despite this, it is probably one of the most bike friendly cities I've seen, because cycling is so common. However, biking around the city requires some knowledge of where you are going, because many Paris streets tend to be one way, and the city is fully of round abouts (and lanes are not usually marked).
Our first trip on the bikes was reasonably fun, but we got quite lost, because it's very hard to look at a map when you're riding a bike. However, our second try was a complete disaster. It was evening, and we were near the Pompidou Centre, which is full of traffic and pedestrians. We thought we had mapped out our route, only to find that many of the streets were one way in the wrong direction, and after spending 30 minutes weaving around pedestrians and going in circles, we gave up and took the metro.

Before we left Paris, we visited the Louvre. The building itself is a work of art, and just looking at all the paintings on the ceilings could occupy a whole visit, never mind all the art on the walls. It has always been a dream of mine to go to the Louvre, and I was not disappointed. I saw some incredible pieces, and was allowed to take pictures of them. The Mona Lisa is underwhelming, but draws a huge crowd and is flanked by security guards and velvet ropes. Some of the paintings are enormous, and completely awe-inspiring. After a couple hours, we were so exhausted, we speed-walked through several galleries to get to the exit. We also stopped by the Eiffel Tower, but it was so incredibly busy that we couldn't afford to wait an hour or more in line to go up top, so we took some pictures then walked around.

I felt like we barely scratched the surface of what there is to see in Paris, but we ate lots of wonderful food. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the airport to go to Portugal.