Post by Kim on Apr 28, 2003 10:46:42 GMT -5
Hello all -
Just a quick note from Carcassonne. This is a medieval walled city that our friend Huay (hi Huay!) recommended we stop by. Luckily there's a youth hostel in the heart of the city that we're staying at. After London and Paris, it's a nice easy break from museums and metros.
Paris was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! We quickly found that if you attempted to speak French, people would be very friendly and helpful. The rumours of rude parisiens are false (at least in our experience). One train ticket seller even called us charming! If she only really knew....
Some highlights:
Metro - great system, cheap, easy to use, short distance between stops. You just have to get used to the crazy musicians - our favorite group was about 4 teenagers with a beatbox rapping with a 50 year old man with an accordian. Wonder where they met up...
Louvre - yep it's big. Yep, there's lots of art. Yep, there's alot of people with cameras. But it's still one of the most amazing museums I've been to.
Eiffel Tower- Our favorite Paris experience. We decided to take the cheap route and climb the stairs (Rob counted them - 364 to the first level, 348 to the second!). I mean, come on, it's the Eiffel Tower. It rules.
Musee D'Orsay - Just like everyone says, great, accessible museum. It's in a converted train station and very popular, but we got the museum card. Best purchase so far of our trip - let you skip all the long lines.
Versailles - HUGE! This was our most tiring day so far. We could have spent much more time here in the gardens.
All in all had a wonderful time in Paris. Sure, we were intimidated at first, but we slowly got over that. The city is so much more beautiful than either of us imagined. It's truly breathtaking. No comments to us about the war, except that the same aforementioned ticket seller told us that there was a strike among the train "administration" for one hour that day. She was upset because "people in Baghdad have no food". I think she wanted to say that everyone should keep things in perspective. And we saw one protest, where about 30 bikers stood in the middle of the street and picked up their bikes and sang. More entertaining than anything.
Hope everyone's well - miss you all...
Mari and Rob
Just a quick note from Carcassonne. This is a medieval walled city that our friend Huay (hi Huay!) recommended we stop by. Luckily there's a youth hostel in the heart of the city that we're staying at. After London and Paris, it's a nice easy break from museums and metros.
Paris was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! We quickly found that if you attempted to speak French, people would be very friendly and helpful. The rumours of rude parisiens are false (at least in our experience). One train ticket seller even called us charming! If she only really knew....
Some highlights:
Metro - great system, cheap, easy to use, short distance between stops. You just have to get used to the crazy musicians - our favorite group was about 4 teenagers with a beatbox rapping with a 50 year old man with an accordian. Wonder where they met up...
Louvre - yep it's big. Yep, there's lots of art. Yep, there's alot of people with cameras. But it's still one of the most amazing museums I've been to.
Eiffel Tower- Our favorite Paris experience. We decided to take the cheap route and climb the stairs (Rob counted them - 364 to the first level, 348 to the second!). I mean, come on, it's the Eiffel Tower. It rules.
Musee D'Orsay - Just like everyone says, great, accessible museum. It's in a converted train station and very popular, but we got the museum card. Best purchase so far of our trip - let you skip all the long lines.
Versailles - HUGE! This was our most tiring day so far. We could have spent much more time here in the gardens.
All in all had a wonderful time in Paris. Sure, we were intimidated at first, but we slowly got over that. The city is so much more beautiful than either of us imagined. It's truly breathtaking. No comments to us about the war, except that the same aforementioned ticket seller told us that there was a strike among the train "administration" for one hour that day. She was upset because "people in Baghdad have no food". I think she wanted to say that everyone should keep things in perspective. And we saw one protest, where about 30 bikers stood in the middle of the street and picked up their bikes and sang. More entertaining than anything.
Hope everyone's well - miss you all...
Mari and Rob