It's been a while since I've been able to update, and I am choosing to blame: 1) My travelling, and 2) The fact that my home hates my computer and won't give me internet for more than 5 mins.
I am now in Australia, James' house, more on that later, and I have internet connection!!! YAY!!! SO I will update people on what I have been doing.
SO! On my way home from Uni I met my mum in Paris. Ooo la la! Seriously not as cool as I remember it being. It's pretty. The old buildings and architecture are amazing, and the river is nice. BUT it was soooooooooooooooo hot, which never puts me in a good mood, the Eiffel tower looked old and well quite a bit like scaffolding, which I now find ugly and think ruins the rest of the view slightly, and the Louvre....man oh man...not what I expected.
The first day we only had time for dinner because my plane landed quite late. It was an hour delayed (seems to be the story of my life at the moment, more later). So we went out and found this nice little restaurant. We actually found lots of nice little restaurants, but this was the only one with free tables. We both got salads and some white wine. There were two salads that looked really good, so we shared them, half each, YUM. I forgot how much I loved Salads. I forgot how much I loved European food, and the lifestyle. So after a long dinner of chatting and wine, we went back to the hotel and slept.
Next day we attacked the Louvre, not literally, after having coffee and pain au chocolat at a cafe. It's very pretty from the outside, and the little triangular fountain/water things were very cold, so nice for refreshing yourself. The queue was not what I expected it to be. The other times I had been to Paris and been past the Louvre there were HUGE queues, but this time barely anyone. We joined the queue at 10:15 and were in with tickets by 10:30! That was probably the most exciting bit about the Louvre. :P We went to see the Mona Lisa, because that’s what you should do when you go to the Louvre, and I must say, it is overrated. Sure it's a great painting and all, but it's so small and no better than any of the other paintings on the rest of the walls. I'm sure if it wasn't on it's own wall people wouldn't notice it. We walked around the Museum for 2 hours, and my legs HURT!
So we left to have some lunch. We ate the Louvre restaurant, which is small and cute and well next to the Louvre. We had some nems and a clubsandwich between us, and enjoyed sitting down. (There were hardly any seats in the Louvre when we wanted to sit!).
After the nice break, we walked through that garden in front of the Louvre. It has some fancy name, but I can't remember it. It was hard walking through there. The gravely stuff was white, and reflecting the strong sun back up at us. Needless to say it was HOT. So we found some benches in the shade and sat down.
My mum wanted to go to this square that has painters on it, which turns out to be next to the Sacre Coeur, a LONG walk away. So we got the Metro! Yay for Metros! We took another break up their and had a beer. It's a tough life visiting Paris.
After that we were exhausted and went back to the hotel for a nap. And then dinner. We went to this nice place near the Pompidou. The waiters were so nice. :) and the food was good, and the location pretty. We liked it there. We had the plat de jours, which was Salmon and tagliatelli. YUM. :) That was one looong day.
Final day, we got up late, and went to the same cafe for breakfast. Then headed to the Pompidou. Unfortunately it was closed on Tuesday. :( But there was a cool display in the fountains outside. The fountains were made by Niki de Saint Phalle. I love her stuff. :) To kill some time, we went round a shopping centre, and then had lunch at the same restaurant we had dinner at the night before. We tried to make the meal last until 3:30. We did quite well, we were there til 3:15.
We then went to BHV, but not until I had taken photos of all the Gay bars we went past. I now understand were Gay Paris comes from. :P BHV was pretty awesome, especially the crafts and decorating floor. Oh my! I so want to go back this summer to get things for next year’s house!
Once our legs were bored of that we went to Ben and Jerry’s for ice cream, and then to the airport. It was a long wait in the airport, but I didn't care. It was air-conditioned, and we had seats. :)
(I would post pictures...if I could...but none will load. :( so maybe tomorrow)
