Okay, doing Paris in one long weekend. That’s from Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. The weekend visit of my brother Johnny was an intensive tour of the highlights of Paris. The things you have to see when you’ve never visited before. Or at least as many of them as we could manage! We started out in the late afternoon on Thursday by climbing the stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to enjoy the view.
On the way to the Arc de Triomphe I pointed towards the Eiffel tower and he didn’t believe I was right. And honestly, it’s not that spectacular until you can see the entire tower. The Arc de Triomphe however was really beautiful and the views were great since the weather was very nice. Afterwards we walked up and down the Champs Elysees, where Johnny managed to buy two pairs of shoes – a task that is usually near-impossible! This happened in the Nike shop, where the sales assistant actually spoke a perfectly good english, so I was happy that I didn’t have to translate! Afterwards we browsed the different sections of the Virgin Mega store, which is open until midnight. There is really nice atmosphere in the store, with lots of people sitting around on the floor and the stairs reading manga. As booklovers we’ve got to love such a place!
On Friday we got immediate access to the Louvre with tickets purchased the day before from the FNAC store. I had actually purchased an annual pass for the Louvre, but it hadn’t arrived, and still hasn’t. Damn the french post service. I got an email the other day that they had received the card back with the message that I don’t live here. But to see the positive in everything it gave me the chance to compose my first email in French. And now I am hoping it will arrive this time!
We spent just under 4½ hours browsing the collections. As everyone else we began our discovery by storming towards Mona Lisa, to get her over with so we could proceed to new and unknown territory. At lunchtime we grabbed lasagne at the terrace in the museum, which had a really nice view of the Pyramid in the courtyard. In fact it is possible to sit on this terrace with one of the most pleasant views in the city (so far, anyway!) and have a nice lunch at about 17 euros per person. Quite reasonably priced I would say. Afterwards we had gotten the strenght to visit Napoleons appartments at the Louvre. Quite different from browsing the artworks, but a nice completion of the visit.
After that it was time to head for the Tuilleries and enjoy a crepe and experience the atmosphere at the Fête du Tuillerie, which is basically a temporary version of an amusement park in the middle of Paris. Then we approached the Place de la Concorde from where we took the metro to Ecole Militaire in order to walk through the Champs de Mars and on to the Eiffel Tower. Johnny insisted that we should walk the stairs and I gave in even though I am not great with heigths. But it is absolutely manageable, since the stairs are wide and you can’t see the ground beneath you through the stairs – something I had feared.
We spent about 3½ hours in the tower. W walked up to the first plateau and enjoyed some pastry there in this really nice outdoor café with great views of the Champs de Mars. I can really recommend making a stop here. And you can allways tell yourself that you really deserve to indulge in the pastry since you’ll need energy anyway to clim the rest of the stairs!
After our lovely break we took the stairs to the second plateau, where you have to stand in line to buy another ticket for going to the third section with the elevator. And you have to stand in line for the elevators also, but with 15 minutes for buying the ticket and 20 minutes in line for the elevators it wasn’t that bad. On the ground waiting was by the way exactly one hour.
Saturday we walked around in Montmartre and visited the Sacre Cæur, which is totally taken over by tourist. It is beautiful though. My advice is to visit the dome and the crypt as well. This way you’ll get a more serene experience. The crypt is almost another church under the real one. Very impressive! It’s a lot of steps to reach the dome and the stairs are narrow, but there is one stair for ascending and one for descending so you wont have to meet anyone on your way and it’s worth the trek up here.
Since Montmarte is located on a hill you have a really great view from the city. Other must visit places in Montmarte include the Place du Tertre, which is where the artists still sit and paint people. Being totally overcrowded it has however lost some of the atmosphere that it’s supposed to have had. In advance we had decided to visit the Espace Dalí Montmartre, which houses 300 of his works. We did not spend more than 45 minutes in here, since the exhibition was, in our opinion, a bit uninspired.
We spent the last part of Saturday afternoon in the Jardin du Luxembourg were we watched people play chess and tennis. Aside from all the activities which take place in the parc (including mule treks for kids!) it’s a really beautiful and tranquil parc perfect for sitting down with a good book (see above picture).
We had decided to devote Sunday morning to the Picasso museum. Partly because it was convenient for us, being in the Marais area, where I live, and partly out of sheer interest. I would however recommend against the Picasso Museum and the Espace Dalí for such a short visit to Paris, unless you have a special interest, which we did. Both artists are better represented in Spain and if you want to watch their work for the first time I recommend visiting the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and the Dalí museum in Figueres, a two hour trainride north of Barcelona. Both museums are indeed much more interesting than those here. In the Picasso museum in Paris I missed his drawings, especially the erotic ones, some of which are really funny. In the Dalí museum I missed the (big) paintings. Chances are you will be a bit disappointed if you have seen their work in Spain, but of course it’s still interesting, since you’ll get a more complete impression of their work!
After this weekend we were exhausted and needed another weekend right away. Johnny had a bit more luck than I in this department, since his vacation is almost never-ending this year. Until the 15th of September when he begins college in the United States. For me it was back to school on Monday morning!
Curious fact: In France you can buy chips with bolognaise flavour and roasted chicken with thyme flavour! I bought the first by mistake one day (not reading the label, assuming the color meant a certain type like at home) and it wasn’t that bad actually!
