Today it was 18 degrees and rained the whole day. It’s probably best to get that fact out of the way first, just to give you an idea of the general theme of the day. Last night’s sleep was less than ideal – it WAS Saturday night in Paris afterall and this meant lights on until after 1am and people coming home until 6am in the morning. The perks of sleeping in a twelve bed dorm! I met Julie and Dave downstairs for breakfast – cocopops and baguette dipped in Nutella, nom. By 8.30am we were ready to head off to the number one tourist attraction – the Eiffel tower.
The first thing we did after coming out of the metro station was buy coffee, which warmed us up on the rather freezing Parisian summer morning. We took our obligatory tourist photos and headed down to the lines. Julie and I had both prebought our tickets so we parted with Dave for a bit – he headed off to the Arc de Triumphe, whilst Julie and I gleefully ‘dance walked’ past the giant line to our special reserved ticket spot. Due to technical difficulties only one lift was operating so we were extremely lucky to by pass all the grumpy tourists!
Our smugness was a little short lived however. Julie and I spent a whole hour at the tower, and a whole five minutes actually looking at the view. So much standing in line and waiting! It's a must do though – the view was great despite the clouds and its amazing to say I’ve been up the tower now. By 11am we were back down again – we met up with Dave and headed off to our next spot. This included a quick stop over at a French cafe to get hot chocolate and baguettes for lunch – very yummy! It also included an epic battle of wind vs. umbrella which the wind consistently won – my umbrella turned inside out six times on our walk.
We eventually arrived at the Musee D’Orsay, the second most popular museum here in Paris. It focuses mainly on impressionism and it was the museum that I wanted to see. Unfortunately, the first sight we were confronted with was a massive line. Dave and Julie are not really art people so we agreed to go our separate ways… they headed off together and I stood in that line with my umbrella for one hour before I was finally inside the museum (isn’t standing in line the quintessential tourist experience anyway??) Splitting up actually worked really well… Julie and Dave got time alone and I was left to go round the museum at my own pace. And I really did like this museum. It is housed in an old railway station, with high ceilings and big clocks… the building itself is just as impressive as the artwork. I saw Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Seurat – I really enjoyed not looking at the map, turning corners and being surprised by art works I grew up admiring. I also really enjoyed looking at the Impressionist art close up, seeing the individual brush strokes is amazing! Plus, did I mention the museum was warm and dry??
After about an hour and a bit I headed out again, making my way back to the hostel to meet the others. During this time an extra strong burst of wind completely annihilated my umbrella, giving me no choice but to throw it in the bin. I’ve gone through two umbrellas now! By the time I got back to the hostel and met Dave and Julie it was absolutely teeming down, giving us not much choice but to scrap plans to explore Montmarte and stay in and teach Dave Whist instead. After playing cards and ordering food and drinks Julie and I checked into our new room together, Dave left for the airport and Julie and I were ready to head off on our next adventure.
We had prebought ticket to the Moulin Rogue which started at 9pm – however, I had read on the internet that there is always a line and that it is best to get there early. As such, we arrived eagerly at 7.30pm… to find no line at all. This meant we could go to the cafe across the road to order crepes, wine and creme brulee. Our seat meant we could eat and drink whilst looking at the (very small) windmill and the rest of the rather tacky, sex shop filled district.
By 9pm we were seated at our table (no photos allowed, sorry!) and chatting to the two Mebournians next to us. We also began enjoying our bottle of real Champagne that came with our tickets…. and then the show started! What to say about the show – it was lipsynched, the choreography was extremely basic, the dancers were out of synch and any dancer I know would have ripped it to shreds. However, you can’t help but be swept up in it all – the costumes, the sets, the spectacle. The ‘in between’ acts were actually our favourites, jugglers, acrobats, mime artists, audience participation – these were the real stars of the show. Julie and I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and ended the night feeling very glad that we went indeed.
At 11pm we headed back out onto the street for the much needed night shot of the windmill (the rain had stopped – great excitement!). Then we tipsily decided to travel two stops on the metro to wander through Montmatre at night (which is essentially just souvenir shops) and head up to Sacre Cour for a night view of Paris. This was a lot of fun and a great spontaneous idea! And now we can say we’ve seen the night lights of Paris :) We were back at the hostel by midnight to find a very quiet sleepy room, very different to the last. Tomorrow, another crazy day!
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