Day 2 in Paris

After my last post, the weather kind of cleared up, only cloudy and the occasional rain splatter! I decided to explore the area where I was staying, nearby was Notre Dame and it has free entry so thought that would be a good option! Had a lovely stroll along the river and onto the Ile-de-la-Cite, which is where Paris started from. There were heaps of tourist shops along the way which should have given me a hint but I honestly didn’t think there would be that many people, it was crawling with people and I made the decision to go back in winter rather than waiting in the line! It’s still pretty amazing from the outside though! As you can see in the photos...

I found ‘free’ internet in a park as well, which was great. Although I am having major issues with my phone, it eats credit! Honestly! I went through 50 Euro in 24 hrs (I thought it must have been data roaming or something). But, about an hour ago I put 15Euro on it, sent one message to the boy, checked the balance and it was about right 14.44Euro (sms cost about 28cents). Then I checked it an hour later and I only had 5.44Euro left... have no idea why. While I was turning everything on my phone off that would remotely use money it chewed through another Euro! So from now on my phone is in airplane mode and I’ll check it occasionally. Will have to venture into an Orange store to see what is happening...may need to find a French friend to translate first!
To waste some time while the weather was a bit shitty, I decided to go to the Musee de Photographie which was just across the road from where I was staying. Basically, all I confirmed was that I am not an arty person – this stuff was just weird. One of the exhibits was a movie of a guy walking down a railway beating a drum over and over again, the other was just random polaroids of a really ugly guy with stuff shoved up his nose – freaky! There was a really interesting photo-collage of Russia which was actually quite out of the ordinary – definitely didn’t promote it as a tourist destination though! It was half price (as under 26) and kept me out of the rain for a bit so not totally wasted time but not on the list of things to do in Paris!
I wrote a few postcards (they’re the mail!) and tried to have a nap with no luck. Then off I went to my night bike tour. It was amazing! There was a lot more cycling than the day tour and a lot more on the streets with cars hooting at us. We rode all the way through the Latin Quarter, into the Marais, the Ile-de-la-Cite, stopped for ice-cream on the Ile-St-Louis, a very exclusive island, where lots of famous people own houses. We then rode back through the Louvre (really beautiful and quiet at night even though it was still light), crossed the Champs Elysees (which was scary on a bike!) and rode past the Grand Palais and Petit Palais before we hopped on a boat for a boat cruise with FREE wine – yay! The boat cruise was really beautiful, with all the major sites lit up. The funniest was the statue of Henry IV, which at night they light up so his sword looks like a light sabre, this was hilarious after a few wines! The highlight of course was the Eiffel Tower, especially when it ‘sparkles’, cameras just don’t capture how beautiful it was! I have so many photos of the Eiffel tower already... About half the tour was Australians, half my parents age and then another 3 more my age. The rest of the tour was made up of a family from Lithuania, India and America. Two of those were living in London and travelling around Europe for a few weeks. Was nice to chat to other people and pick up travelling tips. It was a pity my hostel had a curfew of 1am otherwise could quite easily have made a night of it, after a few glasses of wine.
One of the places that I liked best was the Pont des Arts (the bridge of arts). It’s a pedestrian only bridge and there were people sitting having a picnic with wine and cheese, definitely on the to do list! On all the bridges in Paris, there are locks on the railings. Couples come to the bridges in Paris, they put a lock on the bridge and throw the keys into the river to symbolise ‘locking’ their love forever after. Such a lovely sentiment.