SETTING FOOT IN PARIS
PARIS TRAVELOGUE - DAY
1 - PARIS FRANCE
The Jungle-Draped Hillsides of Buzios, Brazil. |
After
check-in at the Royal Magda Etoile hotel, we
strolled through our neighborhood, scouting out many
restaurants and clubs that we doubtless wouldn't
have time to visit this trip. We stopped at a
small cafe on *** called ***, where we engaged in a
glass of Beaujolais and a Croque Monsieur.
Everything on the menu was in French, but the
waitress was happy to help try to translate and make
recommendations for us.
After a
quick return to the hotel to change clothes and
freshen up, we started looking for a restaurant to
eat dinner at that evening. We passed by ***,
just a street down from us, and were lured in by all
the Zagat's and other "Top 100 Restaurants" type
stickers on the windows. The place was packed,
but they had one table for us. The menus were
only in French, and our waitress didn't speak much
English, so we opted for the fixed price menu and
hoped for the best. It turned out to be a fish
ceviche for a starter, which tasted old, a duck
confit for the entree which was excellent, and a
very unique apple pie for dessert. Cozy place,
but we weren't thrilled by the food, though it
wasn't bad. Knowing we had a big day
ahead of us tomorrow, we opted to turn in after
dinner. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
I awoke this morning with a
case of Montezuma's Revenge, which was bad news
considering we had a segway tour of the city
scheduled for today at 9:30 AM. We ate a
quick breakfast of fresh-baked croissants,
cheeses, homemade granola, and yogurt and made
our way out the door to find a pharmacy where we
could buy some Kaopectate. The front desk
informed us that the local pharmacies didn't
open until 10:00 AM, so we'd need to go to a
24-hour pharmacy on Champs D'Elysses. It
turned out to be about a 20 minute walk, and we
were exhausted by the time we found it. By
this time, it was 9:20 AM, the time that we were
supposed to be meeting the segway tour at the
Eiffel Tower, but this was a very necessary
errand, no doubt about it.
We hunted high and low for a
taxi, but there were none available anywhere.
We looked and looked at all the taxi stands, and
for any to wave down, but to no avail. So,
we ran up to the metro, and took the subway.
The trip was about 15 minutes, and dropped us
about 10 blocks from the tower, so we had to
really hustle. We arrived at the Eiffel
tower about 10 minutes late for the tour, but
luckily the group was still there waiting for
us. |
Fresh Fish (still moving) at O Chiringuito in Buzios... |
| |
|
| |
|
Nilze Carvalho with Grupo Sururu na Roda. |
The
segway tour was a blast - what a great way to get
around the city! The segways were easy and
very fun to ride. Our guide, Dmitri, was an American
college student from Texas, who had only been on the
job for a month, so wasn't too knowledgeable about
things, but was very friendly and did well enough.
We cruised around to all the major sites (seeing
them only from the outside of course), while
everyone stared at us and took our pictures as we
cruised by. We had lunch at Cafe Very in
Jardin des Tuileries, which consisted only of a fancy hot dog and
some water, though there were other items on the
menu we could have ordered but we weren't very
hungry.
After the
tour, we walked back to Champs de Mars park, where we took some
more photos of the Eiffel tower, then walked down
the street to a sidewalk restaurant called La
Terrase de Pomone,
where we ordered what we thought would be small,
sharing a Beef Bourgouinaise and enjoying a beer.
The meal turned out to be huge - good thing we
shared! Unfortunately, it was also pretty
tasteless, but it was nice to sit out and watch
people go by. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
The
weather was so beautfiul, we decided to walk all the
way back to our hotel. We walked along the
banks of the Seine River, through the park, past the
boat piers, all the way back to Champs D'Elysses.
By now, our feet were hurting a bit, so we stopped
for a Cappucino and a glass of wine at Le Rival, a
trendy looking place with a nice view of the Eiffel
Tower over the Seine River. Paris has the best
cappucinos ever!
Heading
back toward the hotel, we stopped to admire the Arc
De Triomphe - what a masterpiece. Truly
awe-inspiring when you start really looking at the
details. That evening, we had reservations at
L'Epi Dupin, but it was across town so we'd need to
take a taxi. We asked the hotel front
desk to call us a taxi, but they explained that
there were no taxis that evening because of a big
convention in town. There was no time by now
to take the metro, so we bailed on our reservations,
and on a recommendation from the front desk staff,
we walked down to Le Galvacher, which is known for
it's selection of very French meats, like several
kinds of Tartare and Bougeonaise. |
The Conga line breaks out
at Centro Cultural Carioca. |
| |
|
| |
Not being big fans of raw meat,
we had a bit of trouble finding something that
sounded good. We asked for a recommendation,
and even though our waitress didn't speak English,
we were able to communicate about it. We
settled on a Burgundy Escargot and a Beef Skewer for
me, and a leg of lamb for Sandra, both of which were
tasty, but very hearty to say the least. We
finished with a Vanill a Creme Brulee, always a
favorite, which was very tasty. All in all,
not sure the place was somewhere to recommend to
future guests above all the other good restaurants
in the area, but we had a good meal. |
| |
|
| After dinner, we literally ran back
to the hotel, as we were due to be picked up for the
Paris Illuminations tour by Paris Vision. We
were picked up in a mini-van, and headed over to the
Seine boat docks where we waited about 20 minutes
for a couple who had done the combo tour with dinner
cruise. Our tour guide spoke very little
throughout the tour, and when he did his accent was
so heavy, we couldn't really understand what he was
saying anyway, so the tour was less than eventful.
We did get to see the lights of Montmartre which was
nice, and got a few evening shots, but overall, the
tour was pretty boring - Sandra fell asleep halfway
through. |
|
| |
|
| |
The next day, we got up bright and early, making
sure we got to the Eiffel Tower before the tour
groups got there (the previous day there were lines
that must have taken hours to stand through).
We were there about 9:30 AM, and were virtually
alone - we walked straight up to the ticket line,
and headed right up in the elevator. The
really nice part of getting there early was we had
the observation decks almost to ourselves, which
provided us with good photo opportunities without
fighting the crowds. The views from the Eiffel
Tower were, of course, spectacular - you could see
all over Paris, including most of the famous
landmarks. |
| |
|
| |
|
The elevator ride was part of the fun, as it felt like you
were shooting into outer space.
After the Eiffel Tower, we walked down to the Seine River,
and hopped on the water bus. The Seine River was
really pretty ugly - glad we didn't pay for a cruise.
The high concrete walls prevented any real views or photo
opportunities, just a filthy brown slough with concrete
barriers all around. We hopped off at Notre Dame, and
headed inside to take a look. What a place! The
architecture was amazing, the stained glass was outstanding,
and the history and tombs contained there were very
enlightening. We opted not to climb up the tower, as
we'd already had a good view from the nearby Eiffel Tower.
Instead, we walked across the street to a small restaurant,
where we had crepes for lunch. After lunch, we again
boarded the water bus, and rode it to the Louvre. We
walked through the used-book lined streets of Spanish ? and
over to the Louvre. It was so huge, I can't imagine
spending enough time there to really appreciate it.
Obviously there was no way to do this in the short time we
had, so we just walked toward the Mona Lisa, admiring the
Italian art along the way. Fabulous works. The
crowds at the Mona Lisa were ridiculous - there were
hundreds of people, all holding cameras over their heads and
snapping photos. We managed to wiggle through the
crowds up close enough to actually see it, but it was
barricaded off so you couldn't get close enough to it to see
the details, without which the Mona Lisa is just a painting
of a lady. Needless to say, we weren't able to really
gather the feeling of why the Mona Lisa is so famous.
Bummer.
We walked down to the Venus de Milo, which was a really
magnificent piece, and saw a few other Michelango works that
were wow, and then bailed. We opted to walk back to
our hotel, soaking up the ambience of Paris along the way.
We stopped on Champs d'Elysses to see the Arc d'Triomphe and
stopped at Chez Clement for some delicious chocolate
pastries filled with ice cream, and also a cafe where we
sipped a cappucino in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower,
looking over the Seine River. Both very nice
experiences. Back to our hotel now, we rested for a
bit before the night's excursions.
We had reservations at La Fontaine de Mars, a local
Brasserie that had recently been getting some really good
reviews. We started off with some Foie Gras, which
wasn't really to our taste - I'm sure it was nice for Foie
Gras, but I think I'll pass next time. For our entree,
we had a typical Brasserie meal of Entrecote and Pommes
Frites with Bearnaise Sauce, delicious, of course. We
finished it off with their famous "Floating Tower" dessert,
which was kind of like bread pudding. Pretty tasty,
but we could only eat a few bites, as we were so full.
The service was excellent, so was the wine, and we had a
wonderful time.
After dinner, we took a taxi to Montparnasse 56, where we
planned to go to the roof to get a great view of the city
and Eiffel tower at night. There was a bit of a wait
to get into the bar, Bar La Ciel de Paris, but the wait was
well worth it. What a view! The waiter was
pretty rude, but we got a window seat and sat watching over
the Eiffel Tower as the sun set over Paris. I went up
to the roof top, where I was treated to 360 degree views of
Paris - absolutely wonderful - while Sandra preserved our
table for us. Afterward, I went back down and we
enjoyed some drinks while watching the hourly light show at
the Eiffel Tower, and just soaking up the ambience. We
took a taxi to the tower, planning to be under the tower at
1:00 AM when the lights turned off for the evening, just in
time for the final sparkle - the only time during the night
you can see the sparkle without the glow. It was
pretty cool, but we actually liked it more with the glow.
As we waited, we sat on a park bench, right underneath the
glowing tower. There was no more wonderful, romantic,
or memorable experience in Paris than this. The Eiffel
Tower is nice to see by day, even nicer at night, but to sit
beneath the glowing tower at night with your special
someone, gazing up at it, is to truly experience Paris.
So romantic, so beautiful, so breathtaking, in a way that
only Paris can be.
The next day, we packed it up and caught the bus back to the
airport. It was raining - after three days of glorious
sunshine. What a wonderful few days it had been.
I had always figured Paris was over-rated, with all the
fuss. Now I understand it completely. There is
only one Paris, there is nowhere else like it in the world.
We can't wait to return again soon.
Back
Next
Continue to Day
14 - Copacabana
or select an option from the menu at left.
|
