FIVE DAYS IN PARIS

Early this August my family and  I decided to go to Paris, France.  We decided to go at this time because during the day it can be warm, usually not above 25 degrees and at night it tends to cool down, making it easy to sleep.  If you really cannot stand a bit of heat I would suggest renting an apartment or hotel with air conditioning. My family and I decided to rent an apartment because we enjoy cooking for ourselves some nights instead of going out to eat.  Paris is one of my favorite cities, because of how rich the culture is. The city has a lot of history to it and is not lacking in museums. Since it is a city we have been to a few times we decided to only go for five days, which is a short stay.

On the first day we arrived at the airport, we flew into the Charles de Gaulle Airport.  The airport is pretty big and confusing.  However, there are many signs around that can help you find your way around, in english and french.  There were two things we could have done now, we could have rented an expensive taxi to take us to our apartment or we take the train.  We decided to take the train. The train station was big. Upon entering I noticed a huge screen, with all the information on the departing trains.  The screen was switching my english to french.  Another thing I noticed was groups of soldiers walking around in the full military suits with helmets and big guns.  We managed to find our train and board it. Two hours later after taking a train and then walking to our apartment we had arrived at our home for the next five nights.  After unpacking and relaxing it was around five o’clock we decided to just stay in that night and get some food from the grocery store down the street. When you stay in Paris, I would advise that you find an apartment within walking distance of a grocery store and a bakery, even if you plan on going out to eat every night.  This is because after you have spent the entire day exploring the city and visiting destinations you will be tired and hungry. It will be nice to be able to walk down the street and buy a baguette or some croissants at the bakery or some french cheese, and crackers at the grocery store.

On the second day we started off by going to the Louvre.  If you are interested in museums and plan to go see a lot of them I would advise you to buy the museum pass.  The pass allows you free entrance into the museum and you get to skip the lines to get in which will save you a lot of time.  The louvre is huge!  It is the worlds biggest art museum.  It is so big that if you spent around sixty seconds admiring each piece, for eight hours a day, it would take you around 75 days to see them all.  That is why when you go into the Louvre you need a plan. Yes it is nice to sometimes just walk around a museum aimlessly, but that will not work in this museum.  It is important to do a bit of research on which pieces and exhibits you want to see, depending on what interests you. The first piece that everyone wants to see is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”  Honstly I have no idea what the big deal is about this particular painting. For starters it is small, it is then displayed in the middle of a small room. On the walls next to it are big paintings, which just makes the Mona Lisa look even smaller.  Then since it is so popular the room is packed with people and it takes ten minutes to make your way to the front of the crowd so you can even see it. Since I had seen the Mona Lisa before I decided not to see it again. Instead I chose to go see some of the “Four seasons” paintings by Arcimboldo and the Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch.  

    

This is a picture of the Mona Lisa.  Towards the left side of the photograph one can see the bigger paintings that are displayed close to the Mona Lisa.  The room is also packed with people. The Mona Lisa can be seen in the middle of the photograph. However, because of the quantity of people the painting cannot be seen clearly.

After visiting the museum for three hours we decided we had seen as much as we wanted and we decided to leave.  We made our way to the Tuileries gadens where we ate lunch.  We stopped by a grocery store on our way and bought some french bread and cheese along with some lunch meats.  We then sat in the park and took in the view as we ate. I would advise you not to eat lunch in a restaurant as most things are severly overpriced.  I once had a sandwhich and a can of pop in a restaurant for lunch and it cost 30 euros.  After we ate lunch we walked around the gardens. The Tuileries Garden is one of the most beautiful places in Paris.  Paris, unlike vienna, does not have trees growing on the sidewalks.  So when you arrive in this garden you are mesmerized by the greenery.  

After lunch we walked through the garden to the Musee de L’orangerie.  This is a museum of some of Claude Monet’s works.  The walls are covered in huge canvases of his works.  Most of the pieces displayed in the museum are water lilies.  As you walk into the first room you are greeted with these huge colorful canvases of waterlilies.  It was truly an amazing experience. The museum also has a section that is not huge canvases of Monet.  I think this is one of Paris’s underrated museums because when I was there, there were hardly any people.  It is also not a very popular destination for people visiting Paris.

   

This is a photograph of a room in the Musee de L’orangerie.  The simplistic design of the room pulls all your attention to the three, huge, colorful canvases of Monet.

Once we were finished in the museum which took about an hour, we decided to walk back to our apartment.  When I visit a city one of my favorite things to do is just to walk around and see the true city, not just the tourist destinations.  Sometimes whille walking you will find a nice shop or a bakery that you would not have found otherwise. So for me, even though we had finished going to tourist destinations for the day, the day was not yet over and a fun part was still to come.

On the third day we made our way over to the Champs de Mars.  This is a building that overlooks the Eiffel tower.  You can climb up the stairs and take a picture with the Eiffel tower in the background.  In this area along with the grass under the Eiffel tower there will be people trying to sell you Eiffel tower figurines of various sizes along with keychains.  This can be annoying as many people will try and come up to you and try to sell you something. To avoid this, do not make eye contact with them, but if they do come up to you just be polite and say no thank you and they should leave you alone.  After we had taken enough pictures we made our way to the Eiffel tower. Remember to book your tickets in advance! If you do not do this you will have to wait in line to buy the tickets, and then again to get onto the tower. After we waited in line we decided to take the elevator up to the second floor which is the highest it goes.  I would suggest to take the elevator up and the stairs down, because this way when you get to the top you are not exhausted. We decided not to go all the way up to the third floor since there was a long line to get up. Only a small number of people are allowed on the time at a time. From the second floor we were able to see all of Paris, we took some pictures and then we climbed down, stopping on the first floor.  

After visiting the Eiffel tower we walked over to the Arc de triomphe.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip as we got to walk down Avenue des Champs-Elysees.  This street has a lot of nice shops including a disney shop. While walking down the street I ate some delicious pastries at a pastry shop called “Laduree Paris.”  The Arc de Triomphe was interesting, however, having just come from the Eiffel Tower, the view from the Arc was not amazing. It did have some information boards explaining some of the history of the Arc.  

We then took a train to Sacre-Coeur.  Sacre-Coeur is a church on a hill on the outskirts of Paris.  It was not within walking distance of the Arc. While walking up the steps there will be people trying to tie a bracelet around your wrist, once they do so they will ask you for money.  Unless you want a string bracelet do not let them tie it around your wrist. After visiting the church we walked around and found a nearby art market which we explored. There were many different styles of artists there selling there paintings.  While walking around the area we found a shop that sold glass statuettes. Inside we met a shop clerk who we talked to for a while before buyng three pug statuettes. Paris has a very complicated metro system. It is a good idea to use google maps to navigate through the city if you plan on taking the metro.  

That night we decided to go out for dinner.  We like to walk around aimlessly for an hour until we find a restaurant we like.  I would advise against doing this because most of the time after walking around you decide to go the first restaurant you saw.  Just spend ten minutes googling restaurants in your area and read some reviews. I enjoyed “Le Cinq” and “Restaurant Le Gabriel” however, they can be expensive depending on what you order.

On the fourth day we went to the Musee D’orsay.  It is a museum inside an old trainsation.  While walking there a woman walking in our direction suddenly stopped in front of us, bent over and picked up a ring that was lying on the floor.  She asked us (in french) if it belonged to us. We told her it didn’t and she asked us where we were from because our accents were weird. We told her Canada and we ended up talking to her for a while, completely forgetting about the ring.   She said something along the lines of “It’s a nice ring, I bet it's worth a bit of money, why don't you take it. I don't have any papers so I wouldn’t be able to sell it, you guys can just give me a bit of money for it.” So my father reached into his wallet gave her a ten euro bill and we were on our way again.  Suddenly we all realised what had happened, we had been scammed. The ring was merely a plastic ring and the woman probably had a pocket full of them. Paris is a well known for scammers and pickpockets, so remember to be careful. Generally anything that seems to good to be true (like a woman giving you a gold ring for almost nothing) is a scam.  

The Musee D’orsay was interesting, there were a lot of different types of art, but one of the most interesting thing for me was the building itself.  The museum had art from famous painters such as Vincent van Gogh.

This is a photograph of the view as you enter the mueseum.  It is immidiately apparant that the building used to be a train station.  There are rooms to the sides on the ground floor which contain paintings. The sculptures are in the middle and the second floor.

On the fifth and last day we decided to go to Notre Dame.  We grabbed a pain au chocolat (chocolat

e pastry) from a nearby bakery for breakfast and walked over to the church.  While walking we stopped in some shops and bought some souvenirs. Eventually we arrived at the church.  It was big. The way it was designed was amazing, it was very gothic. We stood in line while admiring the amazing architecture.  When we got inside it was packed. There was even choir inside singing.

This is a photograph of Notre Dame.  It is a very gothic looking building.

When we were done in the church, we made our way to another church called the Sainte-Chappelle.  Be warned, the museum pass that allows you to enter all museums works for this church, however, you cannot use it to skip the line to get in.  After going through a metal detector and walking through a courtyard we arrived at the church. At first when we entered it was underwhelming. But after climbing some stairs and getting to the top I was amazed.  The windows of the church were the most amazing stained glass I had ever seen.

This is a photograph of Sainte-Chapelle.  It is showing the stained glass windows, however, it is impossible to truly show the beauty of them in a photograph.

After admiring the windows and taking pictures we went to the old prison that was down the road.  It is called the conciergerie. We took a tour of it and learned a lot about the history of France and how the prison was used.  We then went to the apartment we were staying at and grabbed our bags and headed to the airport, taking the same train we took to get there.  

Overall Paris is a beautiful city, but it is also very big.  I have learned that you need to make a plan of what you want to do there so that you are able to book your tickets beforehand.  However, you do still need to leave yourself enough time to just wander around. I would also suggest getting the museum pass and staying close to a bakery and grocery store.  Be careful of scammers. Most importantly, enjoy the culture food and history of France.