Got 2 see what's out there!

Day 1: We’d already bought our plane tickets (Kheli’s including) online even before we went to Roma (150E each). We opted for flying simply because we only just came from a 16-hour train ride to Roma and back. Because it was a last minute booking, train tickets were going to cost us more anyway. This we did knowing that there’s a very big possibility that Kheli may not be allowed to leave Italy. At the time of our scheduled trip, his permit to stay in Italy was expired and in the process of being renewed.

Still, we had to give it a try; it was worth a try, absolutely! He really wanted to come with us. Besides, if he wasn’t allowed into the plane, the worst thing that could happen was for him to forfeit his return ticket. So, with Kheli’s Italian Identity Card, Kanootz’ Schengen Visa in his Philippine passport, & my NZ passport, we cued with a daypack each (our only baggage for the 4-day trip) in front of Air France’s Boarding gate @ Caselle Airport.

cold

I reminded them both to pray – really hard. I’ve also said my prayers before we left the apartment: ‘Lord, we promise, we just want to see what Paris is like, nothing else… and we’ll be good conscientious and polite travelers… and you know Kheli is coming back to Turin with us’… “Buon Viaggio!” the airline staff finally greeted us as she handed us back our travel documents. Sigh! The flight took around 1 ½ hours. Not bad. We arrived in Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport at 8:30 am. From here, we took the Air France Bus to Gare De Lyon which was another hour’s ride. At Gare De Lyon, we found a Tourist Info Office and bought our 2-Day L’Open Tour Passes (35E each). We also booked our trip to Versailles for our last day in France. This drew us back another 45E each. OUCH! So we walked out the train terminal and towards our L’Open Bus Stop across the road.

The sun was shining, but the wind chill was almost unbearable. We were so excited to get to sit on the top deck… until 5 minutes later, it got too cold for me, and it turns out, for the boys just as much! With a bit of disappointment, and realizing of course for real why people would much rather endure the thick crowd of European summer, we climbed down to the lower deck – it wasn’t that much warmer either.

kanootz inside tour bus

parc de bercy

Our 2-Day pass allowed us to hop on and hop off at main tourist stops. Our first bus for the day was the Blue Line which circled the areas around Bercy and Bastille along the River Seine’s Right Bank. There were so many Ponts (Bridges) all notably beautiful, but too many to remember each by name. And really, I could spend pages and pages describing every single structure we saw… or you could simply enjoy the photos. I prefer the latter, so go ahead…

Bonjour, Paris! Who's the happier one?

Green building

IAN

oh no! poor iana...

parisienne window

our Paris L'open Tour Bus

restaurant quarter

Then next major stop was Ile de la Cite – the site of the very first settlement in Paris dating back to 3rd century BC. Our Bus stop is right in front of Place du Parvis Notre Dame (the square in front of Cathedrale De Notre Dame De Paris). We were getting hungry so we crossed a bridge towards Bd St Germain where there were shops and restaurants of all sorts. Apparently, 11 am was still too early so most restaurants were closed. But there’s always McDonalds. My toes have been numb for half an hour so anywhere warm was a good choice. After lunch, we went back to see Notre Dame Cathedral. The Place Du Parvis was also a lot more crowded than it was earlier. There were Police everywhere. Police on foot, Police on bikes, Police Buses, Police Boats…

Parisienne Police car in Notre Dame

Parisienne Police boat

Parisienne Police at work

Parisienne Police bus

demonstrators

this demonstration is for...

We were planning to go see the inside of the cathedral made famous by Victor Hugo’s Hunchback, when suddenly, the crowd began to panic. People rushing in, some running away, the city Police draw in with their sirens… The three of us found ourselves a corner away from the crowd… It turns out that there was some kind of demonstration… we decided it was sensible to stay away, so we hailed the Green Line: Paris Grand Tour bus to move on to Place de la Concorde.

Merry Xmas, Notre Dame!

bridge to Ile de la cite

Penguin hug!

Cathedral De Notre Dame

Notre Dame's left tower

cactus

Mr & Mrs Garcia

'Im in Paris!' Yeeha!

Apparently: The 3300(?) year-old pink granite obelisk in the middle of Concorde square came from Egypt. From here, we could already see the Arc De Triomphe at the other end of Champs-Elysees. For this reason, Kanootz and Kheli decided we should head there on foot. What none of us realized is that there was a 2.5K distance from one end of the Champs-Elysees to the other. It didn’t really matter that much, after all, this was one of the world’s poshest (if that’s a word) shopping avenues.It was sunset when we hailed the bus that would take us to our hotel for the evening. We had to make our way from Champs-Elysses to Porte Doree and the closest the bus could take us was Parc De Bercy.

Joia & Kheli: Concorde

Paris: from Jardin des Tuileries

art in jardin des tuileries

building around concorde

resting in place de la concorde

It was some 45 – 60 minute walk to the hotel. The cold was unbearable by now, as the sun has gone away. We regret not even checking the weather & temperature beforehand. This should teach us. Thank God, the hotel we’d booked online (Hotel de la Porte Doree) was STELLAR! For 90E (triple room), we are very pleased. It was a bit far from the city center, but was well worth it.

hotel's lift: join us?

Their website said it all ‘we are no ordinary 2 star hotel’. It was CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN! Ensuite bathroom, plush beddings, good heating, view was nothing special but the inside décor more than made up for it. Oh, their lift was funny too – so tiny but apparently able to carry 3 persons.

hotel key - so heavy!

They have very friendly staff behind the reception – which is next to a tiny but classy lobby. We dashed out for half an hour for some dinner at a Japanese resto and hurried back to the hotel and slipped into our warm beds as quickly as we could. We were snoozing at 10 pm, woke up at 10 am the next day. Love, love this hotel! We recommend people to stay here - 100%! I think they're a GREEN hotel too...