A Weekend In Paris - Being A Tourist

Finally, I have managed to catch a spare moment in this majorly hectic month to sift through the astronomical number of photographs Scott and I took on our recent trip to Paree. Being the ever typical tourists, our camera/phones were glued to our hands for almost the entire time that we were there, with the only exception being for eating crepes or sipping a G&T... You know, priorities... I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves so I will try to keep the chit chat to a minimum. (Yes, I said try...)

We arrived in Paris early Friday morning and immediately dumped our bags at the hotel and hopped on the Metro. I initially had my doubts as I'm not a lover of public transport; however I was amazed at how quick and efficient the Metro was to get about town. We bought a two-day pass and it was certainly money well spent.  The first stop was the famous Arc de Triomphe, because no touristy Paris trip would be quite complete without it. 

I was immediately struck by how busy it was. People. Everywhere. I don't know if it was because it was nearing the weekend or if that's the norm for these parts; however I lost count of how many pictures I had to throw out because they'd been inadvertently photobombed. 

Scott and I wandered down the Champs Elysees and briefly attempted to shop, but thought better of this idea once we'd clapped eyes on the queues. I was definitely starting to sense a theme going on here. 

Once we'd walked the boulevard, our next steps are a mystery. All I know is we took a lot of pictures...

 

After what felt like a lifetime of walking, we decided to stop for a cold beer and some crepes. Scott went for Nutella and banana - drool, whilst I opted for traditional lemon and sugar. I wasn't at all jealous. 
Once we were fed and watered, we headed over to the Louvre. Now, if you're ever in doubt of the size of this place, let me tell you... it's huge! Like seriously, seriously huge. We got lost just trying to find the bathroom. 

I could easily bore you with 6970432718 trillion other pictures from this vast art gallery/museum; however I'm already conscious of how picture heavy this post is going to be! We rocked up at the Louvre fairly late in the day and there was a whole tonne of stuff that we never got chance to see. It's definitely a whole day job if you really want to have a good look around everything, perhaps even a couple of days. With neither Scott nor I being particular art buffs, we were happy seeing some of the more well known pieces and then called it a day; although we will probably visit again when we have more time to stay and really explore the beautiful art work. 

The evening saw us at this particular sight that needs no introduction. We followed advice and booked our trip up the tower beforehand online. Although we booked to go to the summit and was under the impression that booking in advance would mean you could skip the queues, we still ended up waiting a considerable amount of time halfway up the tower on one of the viewing decks, in the cold, trying not to let my fear of heights overcome me. It's safe to say that I wasn't amused. We probably waited over an hour at the very minimum to access the lift to get right to the top of the tower; however once there we made the most of the amazing views of Paris at night. 

The next day saw us up bright and breezy to cram in a few more sights before we made our way to Galeries Lafayette, an enormous Harrods-esque department store on Boulevard Haussmann. We hopped on the trusty Metro and made our way to Notre Dame Cathedral to kick off the day.

The was very much a festive theme going on inside the Galeries Lafayette, despite the fact that it was only October. Scott and I couldn't agree on whether this was an upside down Christmas tree or a festive carrot... thoughts? 

Funnily enough, the department store was heaving and the entire shopping experience was quite stressful to say the least. Maybe I've been living in Finland too long and the sheer lack of people/crowds/shops there, has rubbed off on me, either way the craving for gin was too strong for either of us to ignore any longer so we called it quits and got silly on G&Ts before ending our Paris trip watching Lady Gaga in concert. (I'll save that for another post, but one word... absofuckingamazing!) 

(Straw up my nose)

Phew, that was a long-winded, picture heavy, waffle of a post, I hope you enjoyed it! I can't believe how much Scott and I crammed in, in the short space of time that we were in Paris, yet I still feel like we've only just scratched the surface. 
Until next time Paris...