travel

Even hotter

Paris, France
Monday, July 17, 2006

A hot sweaty night was followed by a hot sweaty morning and the temperature quickly rose to 'uncomfortable'. I went off for my usual morning coffee while the BOSS and MAF attempted to ring classmates in Australia on Skype, without success.

Le Louvre was first on our list this morning and we reached the much loved/ much hated pyramid at midday. It was hot, damn hot.

Tip: instead of standing in line in the midday sun at the pyramid to pass through security and then stand in a further line to get your ticket to enter the Louvre, go across the road to the mini Arc de Triumphe where you will find a set of stairs going down to the Carousel shopping centre. At the bottom of the stairs turn left, walk to the furthest corner to the Tabac shop and purchase your ticket to the Louvre without waiting in line. You will then pass through security in about three minutes instead of 30 minutes.

Further tip: if you are under 18, entry to the Louvre is free. You DON'T need to wait in line for 30 minutes for tickets like two certain teenagers did. Make sure you bring your Student Card or proof of age.

As we all know by now, I am totally over art galleries. I saw the Mona Lisa when I was nine and wasn't terribly impressed then, so I was not going to pay a 10 euros to see her again. The BOSS and MAF went off to seek Mona while I looked around the shopping centre and library. After a few hours we met up and had lunch in the gardens with the sculptured trees.

Next stop was the Catacombs so we jumped on a metro and headed to the south of the city. The train was full of sweaty hot bodies as the temperature rose further and the breeze dropped to zero. When we reached the Catacombs we discovered, like many other museums and attractions, that they were closed on Mondays. We have been caught out by this before and we had specifically looked up in the guide to make sure it would be open. Thus we were all quite cranky that it was closed.

MAF had to catch the 5 o'clock train home so we thought we could squeeze in a quick visit to Luxembourg gardens. We walked through the heat for two kilometres until we reached a fountain with ice cold water. We dunked our feet and it would have been very tempting to fully dive in as the temperature had reached 41oC. We walked through the gardens and even the flowers were wilting.

Time was running out for MAF's departure and he still had to get back to the hotel to pick up his bag. Two trains; a dash to the hotel to grab his bag; two further trains and a final sprint to the ticket office and MAF just caught his country train with seconds to spare.

For our last night in Paris, the BOSS and I decided to get cold chicken and salad and go and sit by the river. However, our chicken/salad shop was closed and we found ourselves wandering aimlessly down back streets looking for another deli. What we found instead was charming little antique, curio, and 70's retro shops which were unfortunately closed. We ended up having dinner in the Latin Quarter just like we did on our first night in Paris - except this dinner was much better. We slowly walked home as Paris turned her lights on and we said goodbye with the sunset.

01 The BOSS and MAF and the Pyramid
The BOSS and MAF and the Pyramid
02 Inside the pyramid
Inside the pyramid
03 The BOSS with the inverted pyramid
The BOSS with the inverted pyramid
04 A Mini Arc
A Mini Arc
05 Our non visit to the Catacombs
Our non visit to the Catacombs
06 Real good engrish
Real good engrish
07 A fountain
A fountain
08 Cooling off in the fountain
Cooling off in the fountain
09 No caption necessary
No caption necessary
10 Tree lined street into Luxumbourg Gardens
Tree lined street into Luxumbourg Gardens
11 Building in Luxumbourg Gardens
Building in Luxumbourg Gardens
12 This is blue bambo pretending to be art
This is blue bambo pretending to be art
13 The Pantheon that we never got to visit
The Pantheon that we never got to visit
14 The statue at the Bastille roundabout
The statue at the Bastille roundabout
15 I invaded Paris
I invaded Paris
16 Hotel du Ville
Hotel du Ville
17 Hotel du Ville
Hotel du Ville
18 Farewell Paris
Farewell Paris
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