Europe - Paris, France
Europe - Paris, France |
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Monday, July 2
We left for Paris in the afternoon with a non-stop night-train for 'Gare du Nord'. Well we had a stop on the ferry to Germany. Our plan was to stay in Paris as long as we wanted to before heading towards Spain and Portugal.
 The boys on the night-train to Paris |
Tuesday, July 3
This part of the trip was uneventful. We stocked up on beers (tax-free) on the ferry and kept the rest of the compartment awake for a while. We had ordered a morning-coffee-croisant on the train. Big mistake, we thought it was included in the ticket. It was not and it substantial drained our supply of Francs.
At 'Gare du Nord' we took the Metro out to the suburb
'Maisons-Lafitte' and the camp situated on a small island in the river
Sein. It is central, only a 30 minutes ride from the center of Paris. We
checked in, erected our tent and was on our way to see the sights before
noon. We concentraited on the Eifel-tower, the Louvre and the Triumphal Arches.
 Eifel Tower, Paris |  The Triumphal Arch |
Upon a busy day we returned to the camp and found that next to our tent two groups of Danes had arrived. We made a bonfire out of a candle, bought some wine and together with the remainder of our beers we partied until late.
The evening was getting chill and we all went up to the entrance of the camp, to see if there was a place to get warm and to get some more beer, but everything seemed closed. Some Dutch guys had the same idea, to get some more beer. One guy was particular funny though, this mostly due to drunkenness and a mix-up of words. He asked us in a silly voice: "Have you seen my coffin?". What a strange character! We asked him to repeat, and again he asked for his coffin, funny but odd.
 Night time on the Camp |
After a lot of laughing it turned out that he was looking for 'cousin', ha ha. We went out of the camp and into the center of 'Maisons-Lafitte' but this is a real suburb. No metro into the center of Paris that late and at midnight everything is closed. One of the girls wanted to buy cigarettes but no, we couldn't locate any tobacconist or even a vending machines. We decided to return and get some sleep, on the way she spotted a Galouise-package in the gutter, and there was a cigarette in the box. The night was not totally spoiled after all, but those Galouise-cigarettes are the worst I have ever smelled, they are really bad.
Wednesday, July 4
We teamed up with two of the girls (the girl in the middle and the one to right in the above picture), their interest was the fashion part of Paris, near Champs Elysees. We still had some landmarks to visit, but agreed to meet in the afternoon to see the Louvre (again) and the Monet museum close by.
 New Triumphal Arch in La Defence |
Walking from the old Triumphal Arch to the new in the La Defence district we saw some odd scaffoldings, and there were a lot of them on the way. They looked much like ones used in concerts to hold the lighting. We later learned the on July 14, the French independence day, Jean Michell Jarre held a concert in La Defence, and these for his staging.
We reached the Arch before the rain started but didn't stay long. We took a Metro back to Louvre to meet the girls.
Thursday, July 5
 Notre Dame |