Let us "begin at the beginning." Here we are waiting for our flight to London. Little did we know that both our plane would have a mechanical problem and the pilot's son would be involved in a serious accident. Both events led to 2 hour and 18 hour delays, respectively.
This meant that we wouldn't get our half day in London (sorry Lianne) and instead had to stick around LA one more night. Thankfully my Aunty Karen was around so we got a good night's rest at her hotel near the airport and got ready for Round 2 at LAX.
After a ridiculous flight, we are both extremely glad to have made it to Heathrow!
On the Tube, en route to Waterloo Station to catch the Eurostar to Paris.
During our 45 minutes of free time in London, Travis & I took a picture with the London Eye & Parliament in the background.
After 2 hrs 45 min of rail & chunnel fun, we made it to Paris!!! Shots of Notre Dame in the sunset/twilight.
The Seine in the twilight.
Dinner on Night #1: French Onion Soup (good), Duck in Orange Sauce (disappointing) and a chef's surprise for dessert (turned out to be an excellent pear tart).
Me, Kim & Paul in front of the St. Michel Fountain (our meeting place for the better part of this trip) just about to head out for the 2nd dinner of the evening (Paul neglected to mention that we were meeting up for dinner). Restaurant 2 was decorated with animal heads. If you look closely at this one, there's a piece of bread sitting in his/her antlers.
We got some light drinks after dinner 2 before heading our separate ways for a good night's sleep. Here are pics of Kim & I and Travis & Kim.
Day 2 started at the Louvre where Travis tried to pick up the Inverted Pyramid and tried to mimic every sculpture he saw.
Damn dog in the painting looks like Sophie (my 4th roommate in Pasadena). What horrid memories...
Me & Travis in consecutive pics with Winged Victory (of Samothrace).
More matching pics of the two of us doing similar poses. Any votes for the best lion/tiger/feline pose of the two???
Paul & I discussing the subtle nuances of this rather large piece of art. Well, at least we are pretending to while the photo was taken.
A couple attempts at taking "candid" photos. First up is a pic of Travis & I chatting while the second shows Paul, Myself & Travis looking in different directions.
The Musee l'Orangerie (which features many works by Impressionists artists) that I had never before entered (check that off the list but I still haven't gone through any of the exhibits...we just walked in to look at ticket prices) beside a photo of my jambon & emmental (ham & cheese) gallette (buckwheat crepe) lunch. Tasty.
On the left, Travis & I standing before the iconic Arche de Triomphe. On the right, our afternoon snack: Hot chocolate. Actually, the thing was more like a melted chocolate bar with whipped cream on the side. So good yet so sickening at the very end.
More after dinner drinks. This time, Travis, Paul, Kim & I checked out the Caveau de Oubliette, which is a jazz club inside a former underground jail. Quite an atmosphere, though it's something you'd have to experience for yourself.
Day 3 featured a trip to Fontainebleau (home of bouldering!) for Travis & I. Here's a pic of the big board at Gare de Lyon where we departed from (our train is 3rd on the list if you're curious).
First pic shows us waiting in the station while the second pic shows us on the train just prior to leaving the station.
If you can tell, we were pretty damn excited once we got to the station at Fontainebleau!
We walked towards the Chateau only to stumble across the incredibly large and forest like park that neighbors it.
Here we are in the middle of this beautiful scene in front of the Grand Canal that passes down one part of the park.
Next up, we rented bikes in an attempt to reach all the great boulders with the intention of climbing them. As spirited as we were, the rough and aimless riding took its toll and after much debate, we decided that climbing wasn't to be. *Tear* Instead, we dedicated the rest of the day to exploring the beautiful town.
We returned to the canal where we fed our leftover bread to the fish, ducks & swans. Little did Travis know that the swans are actually quite vicious when they are hungry and he was bitten shortly after the photo was taken.
Afterwards, we biked to Avon (the adjacent town) to visit the Cemetary where the great NZ short story writer Katherine Mansfield was buried.
After the trip to Avon, I got a French haircut and Travis roamed around town. The pic on the right shows us on the train departing Fontainebleau. I had my cool new cut and Travis scored a raspberry tart from one of the shops he visited.
Dinner that night was had at the Maison de Gyros where we had enjoyed bagguettes filled with tomato, lettuce, yoghurt sauce, fries & meat (with an orangina on the side). For dessert, we made the obligatory journey to Amorino for their gelato. I opted for the combination of pear & amaretto. The pear was super sweet and the amaretto is my favourite. It was a crime that this was our only trip to Amorino...
That night we walked around to take some photos of a couple famous Parisian landmarks: The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. They do look spectacular lit up in such a fashion.
Day 4 began with a trip to Versailles to see the incredible palace & adjoining gardens.
In the middle of the humangous gardens is this little snack shop. We were too poor to buy stuff so we pretended to lick this delicious soft serve instead. Paul, being the wuss he is, spoiled the fun and refused to take a similar pic. On a side note, I can't confirm but I swear I saw Travis' tongue make contact...
Here are the 3 of us taking a pic in the gardens. Just to the left of the frame, there was a huge group of school kids rumbling down the path. We luckily got the photo taken just before they rolled through.
Awesome stuff like this happens when you find pedestals without statues. Me, Paul & Travis try to imagine what statue should have been created to stand on this spot.
Next up, we found a fountain that we could take pictures on. The first attempt at a timer shot saw Travis excluded since he didn't make it back in time. On attempt number two, I hopped, skipped & jumped into frame just in the nick of time. Having explained that all, I hope I look a little less stupid in that photo.
To end the day, we asked some tourists from Hong Kong to take this beautiful picture of the three of us overlooking the gardens below. If you compare this photo to the many before, you'll notice that the skies have begun to clear as well!!!
What could possibly be more Parisian than a picnic lunch on Champ du Mars (the large space immediately in front of the Eiffel Tower)? And to think, it almost didn't happen because we couldn't find an open store selling meat and cheese! Fortunately, there was at least one that we encountered after wandering the neighborhood for the better part of an hour!
On the left, Kim tries to pull out the cork that I just broke in half (sorry 'bout that). On the right, Kim's favorite Monster Munch crisp snacks. I had almost forgotten about these after buying them as cheap snacks to eat during my summer trip here. They are really addictive (though, the chicken chips were the real winners that day).
Cafe Verlet, home of some of the best teas & coffees in Paris. We stopped by for a spot of afternoon tea (and coffee for everyone else). On the left is a photo of my jasmine tea and on the right is a photo of Kim & I.
Dinner that night was at a gallette establishment which featured great food and a friendly Aussie waitress. From left: Paul, Kim's fellow study abroad friends Natalie & Meredith plus Kim, Me & Travis. On the right, we have a pic of my jambon & emmental gallette.
Travis & I had lunch on Day 5 at the very same gyro place that was previously mentioned. This time, we brought huge 2L bottles of mango ice tea (such an awesome drink) along with us so that we didn't have to fork out an exorbitant amount for small canned drinks. Pictured on right is the friendly French couple who kindly took our pic and allowed us to return the favor.
The famous Shakespeare & Co. bookstore in the Latin Quarter. I saw a painting of this at the Punahou Carnival which I would've very much liked to have bought. Too bad it was very much out of my price range...
Later that day, which was St. Patrick's Day, we enjoyed the France v. Scotland rugby game at an Irish Pub. Me, Travis & Paul are pictured with our French buddy Gregory. I wonder why he looks so serious even though France won the game?
We had dinner that night at a restaurant specializing in Basque (southwestern France) cusine. Pictured is the Basque style chicken that I had (very tasty) and the peach tart that was for dessert (good as well).
On left is a sculpture of a Kiwi that I saw at the art market we visited that morning. On the right is the St. Michel fountain during the day. Once again, it served as our meeting spot just prior to lunch.
Here's a pic of Me, Paul & Kim to prove we were there.
Paul, Natalie, Kim & I getting ready to enjoy our banana & nutella crepes after lunch. On the right is a picture of said crepe.
Some more sightseeing after lunch. On the left, we have Place des Voges in the Marais and on the right, Paul, Me, Kim & Travis stand on the steps leading to Sacre Coeur.
It's quite common to see good artists painting portraits of tourists throughout the area of Montemarte adjacent to Sacre Coeur. This guy, however, isn't all that great and the kid definitely needs to ask for his money back!
On the left is my lamb dinner from the final night. The restaurant that we dined in is located in the Bastille area (where I spent much of my summer abroad). On the right, Natalie, Paul, Kim, Me & Travis look pretty darn full after that delightful meal!
Paul, Kim, Me & Travis enjoyed our final after evening drinks before heading home to the hotel to pack. What a great trip that I was able to experience with truly amazing company.
Realizing that I had no pictures of our room, I snapped this pic while we were packing. Not really the best of pics but you get an idea of the place we called "home" for those several days.
Because of our insanely poor luck, Travis & I were denied flying out of Paris due to crazy storms on the East Coast of the US that forced the flights we wanted to fly to be full. Instead, we had to scramble to find a way to London in an attempt to return through the UK. We found the following available fares: 248 Euros for a plane ticket on British Airways, 232 Euros for a train ticket on the Eurostar (they ran out of youth tickets) and an insane 1000 Euros to rent a car to driver there ourselves. Faced with these ridiculous choices, we opted for route D which involved purchasing a youth airfare ticket from Air France for 70 Euros. What a relief. After getting to London, we encountered the book vending machine on the left and had "pub fare" for dinner. I had sausages & mash (as shown) while Travis chose a steak & mushroom pie (not shown).
We booked a room at the Firs Lodge which took us over 1/2 an hour to find in the freezing London night. We kept on going back and forth on Bath Street and had trouble finding the damn place because British people don't know how to number their buildings properly. What a day...
All was forgiven because we managed to snag business class tickets for the journey home.
Shown in the pics above are the courses from my meal on that flight: Pasta Provencale and french vanilla/chocolate ice cream.
Not a bad way to end what was quite possibly the best Spring Break ever!
Apologies for the EXTREMELY LONG blog, but it had to be done to commemorate such an awesome trip. If the photos are a bit small for your eyes, feel free to check them all out at my Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/wes2225/ParisBlog. On that note, I hope you all (well, those of you who had the stamina to read through this whole thing) enjoyed the pictures & comments as much as I enjoyed experiencing everything on this trip. Many thanks go out to my travel buddies Paul & Travis and, of course to Kim for playing tour guide/translator. I've always thought that one can determine how special a place is by seeing if you think about coming back well before you've even left. I definitely can't wait to go back to Paris!
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