SANCTUARY (Paris Day 2)

When I said I slept until morning what I actually mean is that I was awake at 4am due to the jet lag. Breakfast didn't start until 6 so I spent most of that time planning my day and making sure I knew how to say "I'm not English" in French.

Breakfast consisted of a croisant and a bread roll... cereal was optional. It sounds great but after three days the sight of carbohydrates in the morning made my tummy hurt. I made my way via the Metro to Notre Dame. It was a good thing I was jet lagged and woke up early because when I got there there were very few people.

Notre Dame from the front

The church itself is quite lovely but it holds none of the reverence that you would have expected. It was noisy and there were flashes going off everywhere (that's photography flashes you sicko). Walking through I discovered things like fire blankets stuck to century old gates and cardboard boxes stacked up behind tombs! At this point I wasn't overly impressed with the place.

Ok so this is kinda impressive..

It wasn't until I took the tower walk that I actually started to understand why this place is so wonderful. Although having said that I am totally spiral staired out!!! The walk up the tower is fairly unexceptional (except for the pidgeon skewers - see below) but once you get up the top you can't help but give snaps to the builders.


The gargoyles are awesome. None of them are the same and there's even an elephant. My favourite is this guy, who's send to be eternally contemplating the changing city scape below... I think he just looks goofy!


The exact moment I fell in love with Notre Dame was when the bells started ringing. From the bottom of the church they sound quite dull, not very awe inspiring at all but when you're up there its incredible. The base runs straight through you and doesn't stop the whole time they're ringing. On top of this is a dischord of notes that are simply terrifying. It made me think of good horror movies but more.. biblical! If I believed in a god, I would cerrtainly have been experiencing the fear of him. It was incredible, its one of most favourite memories from Paris.

If anyone is interesting in seeing more of Notre Dame I went a bit camera happy so there's plenty to see....

After hobbling the 200 or so spiral steps down to the bottom of the tower (and then holding my head till the world stopped spinning) I went in search of the Arc de Triomph. Instead I found concorde and the champ elysse (no one is allowed to check my spelling on any of these). Concorde is this giant Egyptian pillar standing in the middle of a giant round a bout. From the middle you can see almost every building of significance in Paris. Its quite incredible.


Ok, more later.....

Fair Cop... (Paris Day 1)

In light of the dodginess of my last blog I've decided to make this one a doozie... so strap yourselves in for the most long winded, illustrated Kieryn rant you have been exposed to so far... ready?? Here goes:

When I left off I was flying over Finland and admiring the view. I arrived in Paris airport at about 10am and mosied straight out from the baggage lounge and onto the street. There was a rather curious moment when I wondered what happend to customs (in that there wasn't any)but I gave up wondering when I tried to read the signs to the train. Bastard wrote them in French, how inconsiderate! Turns out there was a customs... how I missed it I'm not so sure but if the Jean Reno comes looking for me, just say I died eating Camembert.

Finding your way around Paris is actually very easy. They've dealt with enough silly English tourists to have learnt that pictograms work best. I followed the little train pictures and voila, found myself on a train into Paris. I got off at "Gare du Nord" which is a major transit centre (all the Eurostar trains come in there). I decided it would be a nice idea to walk from the train station to my hotel. I would just like to point out that at this point I had been awake for two days straight, it was 27 degrees, I had luggage, a cold and a bung knee. I wasn't at my most smart...

Two hours later, after getting lost and stopping to beg directions from a lovely French man, I made it to the hotel.

Hotel Damremont - Monmartre

By this stage the bag's wheels were a bit wonky and I looked a mess. The concierge (not the one who asked me out) gave me one look, gave me a hestitant (but polite) smile and started speaking in English. How do they KNOW???

The room was actually pretty good. Came with its own bathroom and a great view of the fire escape....


The rest of the day is a blur but I can vouch for showers after two days of being smelly. It was the best shower I have ever had, even if the water temperature never got above luke warm. I know I bought lunch at the supermarket across the road and then slept like a rock until the morning (much like how I normally sleep come to think of it).

Onward to Paris....

If I ever start to whinge about seven hour flights, can someone please direct me to the wise words of my brother Ben who said unto thy blog... "thats just the easy bit". Truer words have never been spoken, infact these words weren't really spoken either but non-the-less they were true. The 13 hour flight to Helsinki was pretty non-eventful. Although they did show Mrs Doubtfire... I was sitting next to a very solid Finnish lad who took up all of his seat and most of mine which forced me to over hang the isle which as all seasoned travellers know, is where you get bludgeoned by drink carts every half an hour. Needless to say, there was not much sleep happening. I think I drifted off for a few hours out of sheer exhaustion but I was quite happy to see Finland!

Actually I would't mind going back to Finland. I was sitting next to a lovely Finish woman (reminded me of Trish - Fairy God Mother) who told me all about Helsiki and the skiing (she was about 50 so snaps to her).

She wanted to practice her English for France (??) so we chatted the whole trip from Helsiki to Paris. She had been before and gave me a few pointers on what to see and when to go. After such a grumpy flight it was great to be able to chat to someone. Ok, more later....