So despite the panicked "We're stuck at Gare de Lyon and eventually a slow train to Milan for the night" adventure. And before those whacky french let slip the dogs of war on Sarkozy's proposed 'social reforms' we actually did have an awesome time in Paris. Home of romance, revolution, and really good pastry.
Arriving on day one we got our first taste of the cold snap which had apparently decided to bypass Spain this year. But you're in Europe you want European weather. And 12 degrees each day and overcast brought such fond memories of home it wasn't unwelcome.
So with portable doonahs, thermal underwear, scarves and gloves attached...we hit the STREETS!! We saw the French things you have to see when in France. The Eiffel Tower, The Arc De Triumph, Notre Dame and Sacre Cour (on possibly the coldest day ever known to man). We trawled through food markets, restaurants, coffee shops, visited the bones of 6 million dead people at the catacombs, a quick salut to Jean Paul Satre and the hunt for the perfect crepe all pretty much perfectly bookended Paris.
Day 3 We met up with Katie and Tania (Tour Guide Extraordinairre) which is about the time Paris suddenly became all about the ART! Or as it soon became known 'The 72hr history of Western Art Tour'.
In a cunning move of touristy GENIUS...we started at the Louvre. LATE! (You miss the crowds, you don't line up for hours and the Mona Lisa becomes less about muscling people out of the way to see a tiny, pretty dull innocuous painting and more about..."Oh hey there's the Mona Lisa, lets go take a look.") Antiquity and the middle ages thru to the late 1800's was the rest of the evenings fair.
12hrs later and we hit the Musee D'Orsay taking in the late 1800's to just before the first world war (Manet, Monet, Corbet, Rodin, Degas etc...). Manet's Olympia the highlight. (When it was first exhibited people were so disgusted by it's profanity they threw rotting fruit at it).
Another 12 hrs after that, Centre De Pompidou. However in a fit of "If i see another awesome peice of art my eyes may actually implode" fervour and with ten people to go in the queue to get in, we decided it would be a lot wiser to scoot off for a bottle of wine and a 7hr slow cooked lamb instead (Or as Katie and Douglas like to now call it...'Exploding High Fives').
And as soon as it had started and we were just getting into our French groove...it was over. A week in Paris it turns out, definetly not enough.
For everything we did do it seems we didn't really tick off half the things we wanted to do from our list. A trip to Versailles, actually getting into Notre Dame, a visit to Asterix Land, It really would have been nice to see Duchamp's Toilet (Sorry...Fountain.), Douglas has yet to solve the MYSTERY OF THE DA VINCI CODE (Despite the insistence that there REALLY isn't one...), Napoleon's tomb and some visits to WWII sites will have to wait till next time.
In Tommorrow's episode - Snow train, one night in Milan and Venice..."HOLY CRAP IT'S ALL ON PYLONS!!!"
