25 -29/10/2010

25/10/2010

We arrived in Paris at Gare de Noord, one of the major stations in Paris & found our way very easily to the B&B, it was only a few hundred metres away. However, we had to punch in a code to open a massive great big door that led us into the courtyard, and then we couldn’t find how to get up, but eventually found the buzzer that opened the door into the building, and then were met by Pete, our host. We had a beautiful room but unfortunately no balcony & no ensuite, I think we were spoilt in Amsterdam.

After dropping our bags off, we headed back to Gard de Noord & booked our next leg onto Montreux. On the way back we stopped at a café for a drink. Now you have realise this was our first minute/hour/day in Paris & we knew it was going to be expensive, everywhere you look there are little cafes with chairs & tables lined up outside, so we sat & Marty asked for a large beer – what he got was a 1 litre mug of beer (and we had forgotten the camera) & I had a scotch. Because I had asked for a scotch, then ice & then coke, when we went to pay the bill we found out that you pay for everything, the glass, the ice, the scotch & the coke so the total came to 32 euro = $40. The one & only large beer Marty I am sure will ask for.

We returned to our room to have a rest as we were both a bit exhausted from the early start & travelling, I had a snooze & Marty slept in the chair.

When we woke it was time for dinner & Pete had a small book that listed cheap eats in Paris, so we managed to find one near by that looked good. We walked there and here again was another café. Paris has very limited space but millions of people, so to accommodate everyone they crowd as many people into restaurants as possible. We were seated, then given the menu, of which we couldn’t understand anything. The young waitress sort of helped us out by trying to explain in bad English, but we winged it and ordered something. Marty ended up with beef patty with an egg on top & I got Comfit of Duck & chips. They are not big on salad or vegies in Europe.

By this time it was really late, so headed home to get ready for the next day.

26/10/2010

We were up early & headed off to find Paris’s version of The Big Red Bus – Cars le Rouge, it was a long walk to the end of our street Rue La Fayette & we sort of had an idea of where to go but got lost, then stumbled on the bus stop by luck.

We were off – my god, every single corner you turn in Paris is another massive building, and with each look I would gasp in awe. The Palaces, The Louvre, The Arch de Triomphe, Museums, Squares, Bridges, and not to forget the Eiffel Tower, which although is the symbol of Paris, the city has so much that without the tower it would still be a memorable place.

We stopped off at the Arch & would have walked up it but unfortunately it was closed that day, so back on the bus & I had forgotten to charge the camera so ran out of camera for the day.

Next we got off at the Trocadero, this has 2 large museums that border a square that look over the gardens that lead to the Eiffel tower. Strangely I always thought the tower was silver, but its actually bronze. An amazing site.

We got back on the bus & went down to the base of the tower & then walked through the Champ de Mars to the Military Palace.

Next stop was Notre Dame, we had a walk through this massive massive structure and saw huge leadlighting. It was actually free to enter Notre Dame – must be the only free thing in Paris.

We stopped at a café and had French Onion soup – yummy, the French version comes with toasted bread & parmesan on top.

The complete tour also took us past the Musee de Louvre, the largest museum in the world, so that was a must to see.

We went back to our room, after a long walk and some shopping, and got ready to go out for the show. 

Pete then told us that he had put us in the wrong room, so we moved to a room with a balcony, this was much better to be able to just open the verandah doors to have a smoke, but especially to be able to see the city and how busy it is. The street we were on Rue La Fayette was mostly a carpark because of the road works, and they love their horns & sirens. Not that any emergency vehicle could get anywhere in a hurry as there wasn’t anywhere for the cars to move out of there way.

Marty is always more comfortable leaving early for appointments or transport bookings & I have learnt that this is a good move, so we headed off early to get to the place to meet the bus tour. Pete had advised us to walk up Magdelan Boulevard & catch bus 42 to the Rue De Rivoli, so off we walked & walked, and didn’t find bus 42, so got a cab, and I am sure we circumnavigated Pairs, but got there eventually. We were very early so found a Chinese restaurant (only because it was cheap) and had dinner.

Then onto the bus for the Illuminations Tour, basically a closed in bus tour of Paris at night & I must admit it was especially good to see Avenue des Champs-Elysees & the Eiffel Tower sprinkling with lights. Marty almost missed it as he had fallen asleep beside me.

We were then driven to Moulin Rouge, where we were ushered in along with 1000 other people to our table & free glass of champagne. We had shocking seats, & couldn’t really see much well at all, but fortunately a couple that were on a really good seat behind us left & we asked if we could sit at the now empty table. This gave us a perfect view of the show. We asked to buy & drink & was provided with a poor bottle of Chablis, and then given the bill – 60 euro!!!!!! Nearly $75, and to top it off the show wasn’t all that good. The juggler & the ventriloquist were excellent but the dance show was more like the happy lucky wish show we saw in Thailand. Oh well that was an expensive night. We eventually got back to our room & to bed at 2am. For me because I woke at 4.30 am it was nearly 22 hours awake.

27/10/2010

But not to be slowed, we were up again the next morning at 8.30 breakfast & off again. I had managed to book our tickets the night before for the Eiffel Tower, but stuffed up and ended up booking 4 tickets instead of 2 (this place was getting beyond a joke money wise), so thought I would offer the other 2 tickets to someone else staying at the B&B but unfortunately they had all been.

We headed off to catch the Cars le Rouge again, stopped at the Arc de Triomphe & bought tickets to climb it, then back on the bus to meet our booked time at the tower, this was stressful on its own, because for some reason the traffic was horrendous, but we made it to the Trocadero again & walked down to the tower. We walked along the massive queue to offer people the extra 2 tickets, but understandably everyone thought we must have been running some sort of scam because no one took up our offer of 2 free tickets.

The other bit of interesting info was that I booked the tickets on line & they sent the ticket to my iPhone and at the tower they just scan the bar code off the iPhone – love my phone.

We met an American couple and chatted with them for a while and he had travelled the world as the CEO of the USA gymnastic team, nice guy & I felt like I had met a celebrity as the American gymnastic team is quite famous & I have always loved watching them at the Olympics.

So we did the full ride up to the top of the tower & took lots of photos, then back down, back on to the bus & off to the Louvre, a bit hungry by this time so found a café & had French Onion soup again, then bought tickets for the Louvre. We probably did the fastest tour of the Louvre in its history because we went straight to the Mona Lisa, fought the crowds to get some pictures & then found our way out again. Once again we weren’t impressed with the hundreds of pictures of Christ &/or Mary, or the sculptures that we saw on the way to the Mona Lisa so were happy with our decision to just see her.

We then got back on the bus & made our way back to the Arc, and got straight in to climb to the top, it was wonderful to be able to see The Arc from the Tower & then visa versa. When we got down from the Arc, they were performing the re igniting of the flame of the Unknown Soldier so watched that for a while.

While up the top of the Arc I located a Metro station, so instead of getting back on the bus and having a 2-hour trip back to our rooms we decided to brave the underground. It ended up being a lot easier than we thought, but took us to a station that was near Gare de Noord, & poor Marty was totally disorientated. Its amazing that we always manage to have one of us that knows where to go when the other one is totally lost.

Once again another huge day, it doesn’t sound like much but it takes quite a while to get around in Paris & to see each attraction takes a coupek of hours, so by the time we got back to our room it was 8 pm. We were too tired for a meal out so managed to find a takeaway salad & roll for dinner, and a chocolate éclair!

We packed as we had an early start in the morning.

28/10/2010

Marty wanted to be Gare de Noord by 6.30 am & we made it, & lucky he planned it all to be early. We managed to operate the ticket machines (no people serving at the ticket counters this early) & find our way to the right station to be met with thousands of people waiting and no idea which direction to go in, so when in doubt – ask. I went along the train till we found someone that understood us & told us this was the correct train, but alas all good plans go astray. Paris had been hit with strikes all over the place because of the raising of he retirement age, and there we were standing on our train to get to Gare de Lyon to catch our train to Montreaux, when nope sorry, this train not going anywhere.

Fortunately the guy that had told us it was the correct train was also going to Gare de Lyon, so he offered for us to follow him. 30 minutes later after a slow jog, up & down stairs, through corridors & gates & down & few more stairs & a couple of train changes we made it to Gare de Lyon. We couldn’t thank the very kind man enough for his help.

Marty likes to do things the safe way, he wanted to catch a taxi to Gare de Lyon, but for me that is too easy, no challenge & too expensive. So after that little adventure, he said that from now on he is catching a cab, if I want to catch the train/bus/camel/air balloon I can go by myself.  J

So I am now on the train to Montreux, via Lausanne, and I have agreed to catch a taxi to the Hotel on arrival, only because I haven’t been able to work out public transport from the train station.

We arrived at Lausanne and changed trains with out any drama, but one thing we noticed at all these stations is that smoking (otherwise known as defume) is allowed on the station and they have a special room for the non smokers to sit in. Ha Ha, had to laugh at that and how all the anti smoking campaigners would be up in arms in Aus.

When we got to Montreux, we bought our tickets for the next day to Zermatt, and then caught a cab to the hotel.  This gave Marty an idea of why I don’t like to use cabs to get to & from places and would much rather use public transport. The hotel was approx 1 km from the train station and the taxis charged us over $10 to take us that short distance. Maybe it was so expensive because it was a Mercedes.

Anyway we couldn’t check in at the Hotel, we had to traipse across the road to the much more glamorous Royal Paradise & check in, then make our way back to the hotel. Not a bad room, at least it had an ensuite. But once again, no balcony, it did however have a large window that opened onto a ledge. So when we wanted a smoke we perched ourselves out on the ledge & laughed ourselves silly at how odd we must have looked.

We went for a walk to suss out the place & discovered that it was horrendously expensive & there was no way we were going to eat at any café’s or restaurants, so we found the local grocers & bought ourselves a French bread stick, ham & cheese, and croissants & OJ for breakfast. We decided at this point that we would use Montreux for some well-needed R&R. We had been on the go non stop since leaving Australia and thought at about the half way mark we deserved a rest.

So back to our room & we watched a couple of movies on my laptop.

29/10/2010

We had a really good nights sleep, then I had the luxury of washing AND blow-drying my hair. I had been able to wash it in other places but not blow-dry it and for about 3 days I didn’t even brush it as I had lost my brush, so just went a la naturale.

The other problem we have had is laundry. We managed to find a Laundromat in London but haven’t seen one since, so have been hand washing the smalls and just rotating the other clothes. We are hoping to find a Laundromat in Zermat.

We had our breaky of croissants with ham & cheese & OJ, then made our way over to the Royal Paradise, used their free internet, then checked out and made our way to the station – by foot this time.