Wednesday 11 April 2012
We entered Paris, heading for the only campsite within city limits - Camping de Paris Pois de Boulogne. We were slightly nervous for the price and staff attitude, which hadn't gotten very good reviews when we looked at their website, but were pleasantly surprised when the staff was nice and helpful.
We took the camp shuttle bus at 1PM into the "City of Light." We walked up the Champs Elysees and ended at the Arc de Triomphe. We took pictures by the Eiffel Tower, and when Nicole was filming her parents yell "Amelia and Jason are gonna' have a baby!" in honor of their niece and nephew-in-law's great news, Dian threw her hat up in excitement, and over a fenced off area on the grass. She had to climb under quickly while Charles held up the fence to retrieve the hat. With that excitement out of the way, we racked up another typical Parisian pastime: eating crepes. We each ordered one in the park (Dian and Nicole got one with Nutella, and Charles got one with
gran marnier) and watched a man craft them with love and care
.
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| Typically Parisian? |
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| Scotland's later, not now! |
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| Retrieving the hat |
Later on we crossed the Seine river, toured the inner courtyard of the Invalides building, dominated by the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte (where he is buried), and much more. At the Grand Palais we decided to view the Helmut Newton exhibit, the first ever retrospective of his work. Not being so familiar with his work beforehand, it was a great opportunity for Nicole to take inspiration from such an iconic photographer. Unfortunately, the fact that Dian had once been photographed by one of Newton's protegees did not help us get a discount. Staring at naked bodies made us hungry, so we began keeping an eye out for a good place to get dinner.
Because the weather was so fickle and it vacillated between sunshine and a light rain so often, the streets weren't very crowded, which made for a pleasant stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries and finally the Louvre. It was all spectacular to see, and Nicole was very pleased so far with her first day in Paris.
Our tummies were grumbling and our spirits were waning, so we agreed to meet up with our friends Hourik and her granddaughter (Nicole's old pen pal), Astrid after we had something to eat. This is a secret, but we finally settled on a quiet, pleasantly decorated (and reasonably priced) Chinese restaurant which we were fine with after a long day of walking and sightseeing.
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| Invalides building |
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| What do you call a French kitchen exploding? A linoleum blown-apart. |
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| Invalides building |
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| You see lots of interesting things along the Seine |
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| Jardin des Tuileries |
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| Rodin |
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| Jardin des Tuileries |
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| And even more photo shoots... |
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| We found Waldo! |
Finally we dashed over to Notre Dame before stopping by Hourik and Astrid's, which was in a great location just next to the fountain of Saint Michel. Unfortunately we dawdled a bit too long catching up with the two, and paired with a little bit of misdirection on the Metro, we didn't make the last camp shuttle bus, which ran even later than the public buses, so we reluctantly took a cab back to camp.
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| Seine at night |
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| Notre Dame |
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| Nicole fell absolutely in love with this venerable bookstore (once frequented by Gertrude Stein, 'nuff said). If you see Nicole please remind her she has to go back to this place. |
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| Fountain of Saint Michel at night |
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| Walking to Hourik's |
We entered Paris, heading for the only campsite within city limits - Camping de Paris Pois de Boulogne. We were slightly nervous for the price and staff attitude, which hadn't gotten very good reviews when we looked at their website, but were pleasantly surprised when the staff was nice and helpful.
Later on we crossed the Seine river, toured the inner courtyard of the Invalides building, dominated by the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte (where he is buried), and much more. At the Grand Palais we decided to view the Helmut Newton exhibit, the first ever retrospective of his work. Not being so familiar with his work beforehand, it was a great opportunity for Nicole to take inspiration from such an iconic photographer. Unfortunately, the fact that Dian had once been photographed by one of Newton's protegees did not help us get a discount. Staring at naked bodies made us hungry, so we began keeping an eye out for a good place to get dinner.
Because the weather was so fickle and it vacillated between sunshine and a light rain so often, the streets weren't very crowded, which made for a pleasant stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries and finally the Louvre. It was all spectacular to see, and Nicole was very pleased so far with her first day in Paris.
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