Paris and then Caen. Paris blog is not working! Caen... war memorials and lost sunnies...

SO, for some reason the Paris blog is not working, so we will toss in the information on Paris into the Caen blog.

Paris the city of lights, love, art and bread! The city is a little on the expensive side, for accommodations, and for nightlife. Not that there is a lack of it in the city, it just may not be as cheap as you would like it to be. The people are welcoming and friendly. With things being so expensive, it is easy to try to sustain yourself on a diet of bread! IT's also not that tough, as the bread in France, the croissants and pain du chocolate are all amazing! We spent 5 very busy days in Paris, we wanted to see a lot! We got in a bit late from Dijon but managed to fit in the Louvre, the biggest museum in Paris.

The Mona Lisa at the Louvre

French ART. Louvre Museum.

The Louvre is so big that it is impossible to see all works of art in one day let alone a few hours but we strolled around and saw the Mona Lisa and got lost trying to find Venus De Milo. We managed to see a lot of the museum over the four hours that we were there. Day two we did a walking tour and got to know some history of the city and the major sights. Paris, as all of Europe, has such a rich history that it's hard to sum it up into a few hours, but to get the jist is usually better than nothing. Since we obviously hadn't walked enough on the 5 hour walking tour we thought it would be a great idea to do a few more hours of exploring on our own, and then hit up the next best museum in Paris: Musee D'Orsay. Displayed were works by Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir and many many more. The first two days we spent up at the Hostel Montclair in Monmarte. A great area of the city, which we happened not to visit until later in the trip. The hostel is in a great location and the Metro is Paris runs EVERYWhere and the stops are very frequent. Although it can easily take 45 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other. The lines are easy to get around and take you everywhere you want to be.

I love boats! Versailles Palace.

Day three we spent at Versailles. All day we visited the grounds which were built by Louis the fourteeth to the grand palace and grounds that they are today at around 800 hectares. The palace grounds also include seperate residances that Marie Antoinette lived and entertained in. One of her residances is pink on the outside and one of the bedrooms furtniture is entirely in hot fusia. It was such a nice hot day that we decided to take a small row boat onto the canals in the park...Chad did all the rowing ha :)

Street performer, at the Sacre Coure in Paris.

The following day we visited Sacre Coeur, a bascillica in a great location; in one of the nicest quarters (Monmarte) in France, on top of a hill and overlooking all of Paris. Since it was a Saturday a lot of people were out and about, vendors, tourists and street performers. In the evening we went on a boat tour of Paris on the Seine river and saw the city's most stunning monuments, historical buildings, and ornate bridges, including from a bit of a different angle: Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower, Musee du Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Pont Neuf (Paris' oldest bridge, dating to the 16th century), Pont Alexandre III (Art Nouveau bridge dating to 1896), Grand Palais (Belle Epoque building housing National Galleries) and The Bridge in the The Sex in the City episode where Big finds Carrie in France tee hee, as well as the building where a scene from Bourne identity was filmed.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

Eiffel Tower.

The next day we visited the inside of Notre Dame and St. Chappelle both very beautiful churches. Afterwards we strolled over to the Eiffel Tower sat under it drinking a few cold ones and enjoying the view. The last three days were spent in a two star hotel just on the edge of the city center. It is a fair commute on the metro from these areas, but it is a great place to get a private hotel room for fairly cheap.
Ewa and I are finding that the private hotels on the edge of the city are the way to go, as long as they are connected to the metro system. We have not been the party-goers of our youth, but have been spending a lot of the nights more quiet, talking with people in the hostels, or chatting between ourselves. The clubbing days of the past, seem to be just that... more of the past. That's not to say that we don't still party once in a while, but now, it seems we have other higher priorities. The next day we are off to Caen to see the DDay beaches!

We are French... we are laughing.

As a side note, touring around France is very easy by Train. There are very many slower trains that make multiple trips between all of the cities. For visits between any of the major cities there are also high speed trains that take less time, but are a little more expensive to travel on. We found trains to be the easiest to travel in France and Spain. However, in Portugal, busses are still the way to go!

The road of ifs...we got lost.

Caen started out with a trip to lostville. Entering the city, we had no map, which is very disconcerting to Chad in any situation. We managed to wander around the city for a little while, to discover that the directions that the hostel provided were inaccurate. Even better was that we were lost, on the Route d'ifs. Street of if's! After finding the hostel, we were informed that we were not allowed to check in and that there were a number other restrictions to the hostel. French youth hostels run by the youth orgainization are really for young workers or families looking for a place to stay, not so much for travellers. The first day was essentially wandering around the city, waiting for access to the hostel, and then settling down to an awesome home made curry!

Juno Beach memorial, Caen France.

Day two, we had to switch hostels to a hotel in the city. The hotel leSavoy was a nice hotel, and in the end, cost the same price as the hostel did the night before! This day, we were off to see the WWII memorials at Juno Beach just outside of Caen. This is the beach where 14,000 Canadians landed during WWII on D-Day. There is a newly created memorial that is located right on the beach head. The memorial is actually rather large, and it was nice to see that there are a number of people who are visiting it. It really is something that would take the better part of a day to walk through and see it all. We thought that it was fitting to go and see some of the WWII sights, which shaped so much of our current lives. Especially to see some that are more relevant to us as Canadians. There is still one of the old Germand bunkers built on the beach that is preserved for the museum.

Memorial to fallen Canadian Soldiers in Caen.

The second night and the third day were spent wandering around the city of Caen. The downtown is a small, fresh city. There are blooming flowers all over the city, and for once, the city smells far more of fresh flowers than urine! Although we did see a number of people peeing on the street and one poor woman, whose bag suffered a direct hit of a run-off urine stream from one of the random men peeing in the street. Most of the city was destroyed during WWII, but it was rebuilt in the similar fashion to the original city and is easily walkable from one end to the other.

The one sad note, is that Chad lost his second pair of glasses while spending some time in the internet cafe uploading pictures. At least this pair was only worht 5€! Off on the overnight ferry to Portsmouth England!!

written by

ECRadventure on June 17, 2009 from Caen, France

from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

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