Michelle and I decided to follow in Tom and Katie’s footsteps and …… visit Paris.

On Friday night, Michelle, Jaimee, Damian and myself jumped on the Eurostar and made our way through the chunnel into France. It was a short 3 hour journey and we arrived in Paris at 10:30pm.

Walking from the Gare Du Nord (North train station) to our hotel was an experience I won’t forget. The area is not the prettiest part of Paris but it was my first taste of it and I was excited. There were heaps of neon lights, cafe’s, and dodgy ‘sexy’ dvd stores. We pretty much crashed straight away for a restless night in our hotel so we could be up nice and early for a full day of sightseeing in gay paree.

Day One

We enjoyed a garden breakfast of croissants, ham and cheese and plain cakes before embarking on our first mini-adventure – figuring out the Paris Metro (subway) system. Damian’s 5 years of secondary school French lessons were a godsend. I couldn’t read any signs and would have struggled to purchase our two day (du jour) metro pass.

Once through the metro gates it was off to Trocadero station. Walking out of the metro stop you are greeted with the most magnificent view of the Eiffel tower. The smile on my face was so huge. It’s amazing to see. We made our way down and lined up for our tickets to ascend the Eiffel tower. The line was relatively short (30 minutes or so) and the ride up was great. The view from the top is so awesome. It’s up there with the Empire State Building. A must do.

Paris is another big spread out city like London, but it several orders of magnitude more beautiful. A true delight.

After the Eiffel tower we jumped on a boat for a cruise down the river Seine. The river Seine, unlike the Brisbane or Thames rivers, is a beautiful emerald green colour. We learnt a fair bit of history about Paris as we motored past Notre Dame, the Latin quarter, the Louvre and other various monuments.

After the cruise and being in the 30+ degree sun for over an hour we started to fade quickly so we breaked for a little nap under some shady trees before making our way down Champs-Elysees. Champs-Elysees is the massive passage way that leads down to the Arc De Triomphe. It is a beautiful walk, sidelined with thousands of retail stores and “people watching” cafes.

In France everyone sits in cafes with their chairs facing out onto the sidewalk. The only place in Australia I have come across this is in Noosa.

We eventually made it up to the Arc De Triomphe and I must say it’s pretty spectacular. I have seem replicas of this monument in Las Vegas and New York but those ones are about 1/5th of the size. I also learnt that its design is a ripoff of the Arch of Titus in Rome.

We headed back to the hotel for a kindy nap in air conditioned comfort before heading back out about 7pm to Montmatre. Montmartre is an touristy area and you often see the hill where the carousel and Sacre Coeur are in movies (eg. Amelie).

We spent a few hours on the steps in front of the Sacre Coeur overlooking the most amazing view of Paris as the sun set before our eyes. It was amazing.

You can check out some photos from the weekend 06-17 Paris Weekend Trip”>here.

Stay tuned for Part Two.