Paris day 1: Notre Dame and More

This morning we left for Paris just after 6.30 in the morning. My girlfriend drove the first part (until Lille) and I drove the rest into Paris. We were welcomed by a couple of foreigners washing our windscreen 3 times... We locked the doors and refused to give them money, we clearly asked them not to clean our windows. Within the chaotic traffic of Paris I soon found the way to the hotel and we could park the car in their underground parking lot on the other side of the street even before we checked in. The room was free before we expected it to be and it was really cozy. Not big, but sufficient for our 5 day holiday.

After leaving the hotel, we walked to the nearest tourist attraction: La cimitière du Père Lachaise. It was within 5 minutes walking and we visited just a small corner to get an impression.

Next we walked all the way to the center of the city. I expected it to be less far, but it was a nice walk. We even walked by the hotel I was in with my parents when I last visited Paris. On our route to the city center we also walked over a market near the Place de la Bastille.

When we arrived at the Seine, we had a wonderful view over the water and after walking along it for a short while, we could see the Notre-Dame de Paris clearly. We tried to walk there, but it took much longer than we expected: it turned out that we entered the Ile St-Louis, before getting on the Ile de la Cité.

We immediatey decided to get into the Notre-Dame. There was hardly a waiting line and the cathedral was as wonderful as I remembered it to be. Too bad I can only upload one picture a day on blipfoto.

After this visit we walked on towards the Louvre. From there we visited the Tour de France. The final run had commenced today and we have seen the entire Tour coming by 4 times before we had enough. It was great to experience the energy and sport fanatics up close.

Our feet were getting sour and we stroke down in the grass of Jardin du Carrousel for a rest and some crisps. We decided to wait until the end of the Tour and then walk around a bit in the vicinity of the Louvre. We found a McDonalds and decided to buy our dinner there. We couldn't wait until the Bistro's to open at 20.00h, we were hungry now (18.00h).

So we ate our dinner at the Jardin des Tuileries and afterwards walked over the fancy fair that had been built on the Terrasse des Feuillants. After this visit we walked to the Place de la Concorde. We watched the traffic there, the view on the Eiffel tower and the obelisk on the square where once stood the guillotine.

On our way back to the hotel we walked by the main stage of Paris Plages. For this event some big French bands were performing on the square in front of the Hôtel de Ville. Great music, but our tired feet forced us to walk back to the hotel. It took us another half hour of walking before we could fall asleep on our hotel bed at the Boulevard de Ménilmontant.