Paris in the springtime

As long as I can remember, I have always wanted to go to Paris. Each time I've travelled over here, the thought has come up but because of other travel plans or commitments I never made it happen. Until now. I was determined to get there this time and was just going to get the Eurostar over for a few days when I got a Facebook message from my childhood best buddy Nancy saying she had just booked an apartment in Paris for two weeks and could I join her. Ummmmm, YES! Thrilled I was! First, at going to Paris finally, but more thrilled because it had been 32 years since Nancy and I had seen each other. I quickly booked my flight and we made our plans. So here is my account of a journey, and a meeting that was long overdue..... After navigating my way through Charles de Gaulle airport, finding the train at Gare du Nord and then taking a cab the short distance from the station to the address of the apartment, I arrived around 10:30pm. Nancy was on the street to greet me and we embraced and giggled for a long moment. Up to the apartment which was quite luxurious compared with where I normally stay, and there to greet me were Nancy's sister Bonnie and her husband Ron, also from Calgary and there for a week. We had a glass of bubbly and chatted for at least an hour catching up and making plans for the next day. MUSEA D'ORSAY When we woke up, we got ready to go out for my first day in Paris! I was excited, I'll be honest. So much to see and do and only 6 days. First thing: cafe. Just around the corner was a little restaurant where we each had a coffee (4€ ea). Okay, this is Paris and the waiter was decent. Nance and I decided to walk to the Musea D'Orsay and ended up getting caught in a magnificent rain storm. Then we queued for our tickets for about an hour. It was fine, we had 32 years to catch up on...we were wet, but it didnt matter. I was thrilled to find out that Nancy does museums the way I do....audio guides! Unfortunately it was a busy day and they ran out of English guides so we just started with the impressionists and got lost in a time of romance and soft beauty. We spent about 4 hours in total, and it is a great collection of so many masterpieces I knew. Afterwards we wandered towards the Louvre and ended up in a bar for a much needed beer (another similarity I was thrilled about!) The plan was to meet Bon and Ron for dinner at 9:00 and we made our way back to the 9th arrondissement, our neighbourhood. We sat outside and had a wonderful dinner of escargot, French onion soup, a huge salad and, of course, wine. Perfect!  THE LOURVE The next day we decided to get up early and spend the day at the Louvre.  Originally a royal palace, the Louvre became a public museum at the end of the 18th century. It is located in the 1st arrondissement, at the heart of Paris. There are about 35.000 objects on display, spread out over three wings of the former palace. The museum has a diverse collection ranging from the antiquity up to the mid 19th century. A large part of the collection consists of European paintings and sculptures. Other rooms contain Roman, Egyptian, Greek and Oriental art. There is also a section with 'Objects d'Art', where objects such as clocks, furniture, china and tapestries are displayed. Some of the most famous works of art in the museum are the Venus of Milo, the Nike of Samothrake, the Dying Slave by Michelangelo and of course Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, all of which lived up to my expectation.(I was enraptured!) By the time we arrived, got our tickets and figured out what we wanted to see we had 6 hours in total....barely enough to scratch the surface. We picked up our audio guides which proved to be quite a challenge to work out but we finally did and Nance even helped some Italian people with theirs! Words can't describe the awe and magnitude of the artists and their works. It is impossible to describe. The only thing I can say is that seeing works from the same artists spread all over Europe, your begin to get an understanding of the history as dates, times, monarchy's, wars and it all begins to come together in your mind and you get a real sense of what it was like. Sort of. It's so much to take in really. Exhausted, we finally left as I had made arrangements to see my cousin Emma who lives in St. Cloud, a suburb on the edge of the city. We had our directions and headed to the station. I had not seen Emma since she was about 12...she is now married with three beautiful children and working as a lawyer for her own music management company. I thought she and Robbie should connect :) in Paris. It was wonderful to see her and to meet her family. It was a short visit and she gave us a ride into the city where we had a quick bite before she had to rush off to make an appearance at a gig. There ended another busy day. CHATEAU  de VERSAILLES We had decided to go to Versailles and knew it was going to be an all-day affair so we left early. It took about an hour on the train and then we queued up for our tickets. Then we queued up to get in the gates and joined the throng of people to view what is probably one of the most grandiose examples of ostentatious royal living. Impossible to describe the decadence and sumptuous decor of this place. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. We could imagine the Louis's.....XIII, XIV, XV, XVI and Marie Antoinette partying it up in grand style. Mind blowing! The crowds were massive, as were the grounds! The vast number of apartments and salons were so luxurious and over the top, we were rendered speechless. Go to the website for photos and you will get an idea, though it can't compare with being there in person, of course. We decided to walk down the gardens past all the fountains and then another few kilometers to see Marie Antoinette's estate first, which turned out to be our favourite as it was very grand but on a smaller scale and the crowds were much less. After several hours, we had a much needed coffee and cake in the cafe and then headed to the train and back to Paris for dinner. The next couple of days were spent wandering through the little streets, touring the Sacre Coeur, Norte Dame, and generally stopping at cafes and parks along the way. It was heavenly and the best part was sharing it all with my pal. LAST DAY I have to say at this point, that contrary to common belief, we found Parisans to be incredibly nice, helpful and even interested in having conversations with us. We stumbled along using as much french as we could, which, I think they appreciated. One funny story.....and an example of one of my dumb blond moments.....We had just eaten dinner at a restaurant a ways from our apartment. Nancy went to use the loo and I went to pay for the meal and get directions to the nearest metro station from the man behind the bar (who, incidentally was rather striking). He very kindly wrote down the instructions on a napkin and at the bottom wrote a phone number. I thanked him and then asked if the number was in case I got lost and needed further directions. Our waiter was standing next to me smiling and said "no, he likes you and wants you to call him later". Duh. So embarrassing! On my last day, we decided to do the night bike tour. Well, actually, we wanted to do the afternoon one but spent too much time in Notre Dame and didn't give ourselves enough time to get there. We ended up finding a little bar across the street from the Tour Eiffel and drinking belgium beer instead! Anyway, it turned out to be the better choice I think. We met at the Tour Eiffel at 7:00pm, and walked from there to the bike shop to gear up. Our guide took us out into the busy city streets, giving us strict instructions on cycling in the Paris traffic. Fortunately there are cycle paths but at first the traffic is a little intimidating. Anyway, we cycled to, and made stops at Notre Dame, Academie Française, Tour Eiffel, Princess Diana's Flame - situated above the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed, and arrived at the back courtyard of The Louvre just in time to see the magnificent sunset! We then boarded a river boat on the Sienne and cruised for about an hour as the city began to light up. We saw the laser light show where the Eiffel Tower is fully lit up in blue lights. Indeed, the City of Light! Of course, we were drinking wine....but i didnt really need to tell you that, did I? Back on our bikes and back to the bike shop at close to 1:00am! We had met some nice people who invited us to go have a drink with them and when we arrived at the bar, it was so packed we decided to go back to the apartment as it was along way and I needed to get up around 6:00am to get my flight back to Liverpool. We ate some Brie and cheese and I put my weary head down for the last night in Paris.  It is my favourite big city so far.