♡: Arc de Triomphe

Showing posts with label Arc de Triomphe. Show all posts

Postcards from Paris: Mona Lisa & PFW

For my 26th birthday last month, Ed got me a trip to my favourite place in the world - Paris. As you know if you have been following my blog for a while, I have been to Paris a few times now but it just never gets old to me.

We arrived in the city of luuurve (Beauvais airport) on Friday morning - the red eye flight - and got the shuttle into the city centre which took just over an hour. We landed in our hotel and headed straight for a nap to charge up our energy reserves for the afternoon. After a quick nap and some caffeine, we got ready - Parisian stripes and all - and headed to the Louvre. As we had some time to kill before our slot in the museum, we wandered around the courtyard, taking in the amazing style (Paris Fashion Week was in full swing when we were there - it was so amazing and the style all over the city during our stay was just insane) and grabbed some sushi nearby before heading into the museum.

I had been to the Louvre before but as Ed had never been to Paris at all, I felt he needed to see all the famous sights and cool locations the city had to offer. The Mona Lisa has actually been moved to another part of the museum so it was a bit of a trek (and quite a lot of queuing) to find her, but eventually we did. I must say, I'm not sure it's worth it but I guess it's a once in a lifetime experience and it's cool to have seen it.

After hanging out with Mona for approx 30 seconds before being shuffled swiftly along, we checked out some of the other exhibitions in the museum before grabbing a coffee and making our way out. As we had virtually zero sleep the night before and were running on just the two hour nap, we grabbed some food and hit the hay, ready for a day chock-full of exploring the next morning...

Stay tuned for a giant blogpost on our second day in the city, coming very soon.

Thanks for reading,

S ✗

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Flashback Friday: Paris When It Sizzles - Part 2

And so the Parisian adventures continued...

Day 3:

Another action-packed day commenced with a failed attempt at a visit to the Louvre, - we left the hotel in the PELTING rain and crossed the road to the Louvre, only to be met with a 2km long queue just to get tickets, and another 1km long queue to actually get in to the museum itself! Deciding to abandon that plan on the basis that we had already been there on our previous trip to Paris and it wasn't worth wasting four hours of the day just queuing.

"Have you seen the size of this flipping queue" - GG's face says it all really!

Our next Port of Call was le Musée D'Orsay, - on route to which I stepped with one foot into a GIANT puddle and so was soaked to my ankles on one side of my body. Perfect for when you're about to go and stand in a 2 hour long queue to walk squelching around a museum! As the queue was sooo long we made our own fun playing different celebrity games (we are beyond cool). At one point, a couple thought they could pull the wool over our eyes and just stepped right into the queue in front of us - after we'd already been queuing for an hour and a half! It was beyond rude but we decided to make light of the situation, 'rise above' it if you will and just silently gave out about the man, attaching various things to his hood (he didn't notice).

This duck umbrella saw all the sights of Paris with us - the trip of a lifetime for Bert! (Yes, we named him)

(This guy in red would be the man who skipped us in the queue... hence the clip attached to his hood, which came out of my hair)

(Bert is quite a badass when it comes to confrontation..)

When we finally made it into the museum it was totally worth the wait. They had some of the most amazing exhibitions from all the most wonderful artists, painters and sculptors you can think of. I think my favourite was the Van Gogh exhibition room - he produced so many amazing pieces (unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum, but it was nice at the same time to just enjoy the art without flashes going off left, right and centre!)

The next (very excting) stop on our schedule was an old café called Les Deux Magots. This café is located in the Saint Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, a café which was once the rendez-vous area for literary and intellectual bodies alike, with famous writers frequenting there to sit and write - among them Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. It was so surreal and inspiring to sit in there and think that they once sat there too, with dedications and pieces of their work covering the walls. We had some lunch there, took it all in (took lots of photos) and left in a sort of daze - not quite sure if what we had just experienced had registered. It was an amazing, amazing place - I would absolutely recommend a trip there if you are ever in Paris.

Next up - Le Tour Eiffel. I don't know just what it is about this iron structure that makes it so captivating and draws millions of people to it every year - it just has something special and is the essence of the centre of Paris. The only downside to going to Paris during peak season is that there are mile-long queues EVERYWHERE. GG and I had already gone to the top of the Eiffel Tower when we had visited with our family so we weren't too upset when we discovered the gigantic queue to get into the cramped lift to shoot 301 metres in the air. Although, the view from the top is probably the best view of Paris you can get - particularly at night when the city is completely lit up.

After getting some ice-cream and sitting down on the grass just under the tower for a while, people-watching and taking in the Parisian way of life, we decided to move on to our next destination of choice - we had so much we wanted to see in the time we had left! Our attempt to get the metro to the George Pompidou Centre failed miserably as a lovely French man directed us to the next metro station which was 'a hundred metres that way' - after walking for about a kilometre we just had to jump into a taxi to get there - that man can clearly not call distance estimation his strong point!

The George Pompidou Centre is a contemporary museum - which looks very modern on the outside, as well as containing multiple unique and wonderful exhibitions inside. At the lull of the day - right at the point where we were delirious - some of the artwork did seem a smidge confusing, for example 3 blank white canvases hung beside eachother on the wall (see photos below). Other exhibitions had the most weird and wonderful things - I'm so glad we made the time to go there as it was definitely a unique museum experience - not the typical museum atmosphere or exhibitions at all! Also quick tip: Entry to most of the museums in Paris is either free of highly discounted if you are under the age of 25!

(This was artwork painted onto a mirror - not an actual woman bending down in front of us!)

A quick Starbucks re-charge followed (there happened to be one RIGHT outside the Pompidou Centre) as we sat down and I had an argument with the map while trying to figure out how we were going to get to the Arc de Triomphe, as it was now nearing 7 o clock and we wanted to get there soon.

During map fight:

After: (so calm and collected...)

We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe at that time of day when it's not quite dusk but the evening is drawing in. Not dark but not fully light either. It took us quite a while to figure out how to actually get to it as it's situated in the centre of a giant 10 lane roundabout - one you would absolutely get smushed on if you tried to cross. After about ten minutes of staring at it and taking photos from where we were standing, we realised there was an underground walkway which went the entire way under the roundabout and brought you right up under the Arc itself. The tomb of the unknown soldier is also there, right under the Arc - a lovely tribute to a brave soldier, with candles and flowers always all around it.

Our final stop of the day was back at our new favourite restaurant in the Montmartre area - "Le Petit Thai". They recognised us and were happy that we had returned two nights in a row! It's the most gorgeously decorated place with ivy, rose petals and fairy lights everywhere. We returned to our hotel late that night - absolutely exhausted but totally satisfied at how much of our beautiful Paris we had got to see that day.