Hello all! I went to Paris from Tuesday to Thursday and it was fantastic...did all the usual touristy stuff - Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs Elysees and Notre Dame. I went alone and I flew to Orly Airport from London City Airport - it was more convenient than flying from Heathrow or Gatwick as I'm nearer to London City Airport. Anyway, strangely enough I liked Paris....although people who have been there didn't really like it that much. It was not dirty at all, the people were generally friendly, and I had a great time walking and finding my way around, navigating through the metro, trying to speak a little French and eating croissants and baguettes!
The weather wasn't very kind to me though - it rained the whole of Wednesday and most of Thursday. My jeans were wet along with my shoes and socks, and I trudged through the streets with swollen and soggy feet! My flight into Paris was delayed for 6 hours - initially there was a 'techinical problem' (I saw people fixing the wires on one of the plane's engines) and then when we boarded the plane and the pilot taxied to the runway, the pilot announced that he was aborting the flight because of the same 'technical' problem. They finally found a replacement aircraft and we left at 2.15pm when I was supposed to have left at 8am! So by the time I got to the hotel in Paris it was 6pm, and all I saw was the Eiffel Tower against the setting sun, and the Arc de Triomphe.
The Louvre was amazing - the exhibits, the building itself and the interior was simply breathtaking. There were so many people in the museum though - it was so noisy and crowded, it felt like Orchard Rd in a museum! The Mona Lisa was on display and there was literally a crowd of 200 surrounding the painting, and with museum workers shouting 'no photos!' at the top of their voices. There were so many other paintings, sculptures, egyptian and greek art that I really had no time or energy to browse through everything. I think I'll definitely go back there sometime again...
There's so much more to see in Paris which I didn't have the time for, and I definitely need to read up on the history behind the things I'm seeing or else it just becomes another 'thing' that I'm looking at.
