crazybobbles

Funny when you write 5 nights in Paris, you would expect 5 parts of this blog entry. Unfortunately (fortunately?) it will only be a 4 parter. Anyway, our next day in Paris we went to see Notre Dame, the Pompidou Center (the French version of Tate Modern) and revisiting the Louvre. I think the shots for today were the best since the view from Notre Dame was amazing, regardless of those damn wires that protected people from jumping off the building.

Our first stop was Notre Dame, we arrived at the scene and it was blazing hot. I was glad I brought my sunglasses for this trip because the light was crazy. We entered Notre Dame and checked out a service along the way. There were some candles to light where you can make a prayer / wish. I lighted one and wished a nice long health for Alice (don’t think she knows). We then took some photos of the inside and enjoyed some hardcore organ action. The guy went nuts at the end when he played some clashing notes, most likely to fend off the tourists.

After that we went to check out the top of Notre Dame and take photos of the Gargoyles and the view of Paris. This was one of those attractions that require some walking. But after Eiffel Tower, I don’t think there’s any staircase we can’t climb (though I still think the one in covent garden is horrifically harder to climb than the other two). Whilst waiting in line to get into Notre Dame, there was a guy dressed up in a gargoyle type mask. It was horrific looking. He would sneak up to people and scare them. Alice almost jumped when she saw him hehe (she didn’t thought because she’s awesome). Afterwards it was just us watching him walk around scaring people. Some screamed, some patted his head, some tried to scare him back, but the best were when the girls screamed hehe. He would either try hold their hand, put their arms around them in place of their husband / boyfriend (one actually let him do it) or just walk right into them until someone screams. The whole thing lasted for half an hour and it did make the waiting a lot more bearable.

Once on top of the Notre Dame, the view was amazing. The sky was a lovely blue and the city felt cosy and little. I really liked the gargoyles, they behaved when we took photos of them. Especially the one resting his head in his hand. After a lot of photo’s we went back down and went to go get ice cream.
The trip was surreal, I think I stopped by for some croissants and baguettes at some point. I was beginning to enjoy these damn croissants. The baguette was nice too, the bread here is amazing (nice and fresh). I’d hate to be subway here. During our trip we managed to post alice’s postcards to her friends and family, at one point Alice went to the cash point machine to get some money. Unfortunately the machine was a bit gay and didn’t give Alice her money, but it displayed it in such away like it was processing it and nothing came out. Alice was worried that she had just lost that money but I reassured her that banks weren’t silly enough to malfunction like that and that her money was still in her account. I can see why she was worried though, it’s easier to believe it’s just the cash machine not giving you the money, but when you’re in a different country, you begin planning the worst. Anyway, the next day we find out that the money was fine so it was all good.

We went hunting for ice cream the entire afternoon, it was hot and Alice felt like an ice cream. We began exploring the place and just walked around until we stumbled into an ice cream shop. We eventually found one that sold all kinds of awesome flavours, including Tiramisu, Pino colada, coffee and some other weird flavours. I need to remember what Alice got but I think I ordered the 3 flavours I mentioned whilst she ordered Tiramisu and something else (yes I had 3 scoops, nom).

We eventually went to the Pompidou center to chill out and appreciate some contemporary art. The museum was pretty awesome. There was one film we saw that featured some guy talking about two stories, one was about a girl he met in Germany and one about how he shot some guy on the road. The story was mixed together, going from one story to the other and they were shown as stills. The fascinating bit of the stills were that they were done live, instead of a photograph, the actors / models were holding their position so you can see their subtle movements. The story was really interesting, the other side of the screen you can see the raw clips of the interview too.

Once we were done with the Pompidou center, our legs were knackered and we wanted to go eat before taking photos of the Louvre and Eiffel tower. We headed to Hard Rock Cafe, we found it yesterday and was hoping to visit there for some food. We also wanted to have a fancy dinner but couldn’t decide on whether this was the fancy dinner or not. Anyway, once we were there we were greeted with lovely English menu’s (wasn’t me, I looked like an authentic French person, with the stripy top and Beret) to order our food. We had two platters to share; they were both yummy and failing. It was pretty taxing eating so much meat, Alice had a craving for chips so we ordered a side order of that too. Food was yum and we had milkshakes for dessert (though we should of shared since it was quite rich). Afterwards we took off for the Louvre, it was unfortunately too late for the Eiffel Tower.

Once at the Louvre this was really where the tripod was put into use. Photos are so much nicer when you have a tripod at hand and was able to set the shutter speeds to 1 second etc. We did some light painting, took a few couple shots and had a lovely time. Alice was attacked by some tourists asking her to take photos of them. It started raining so we called it pretty much an evening and went back home. Outside our hotel there were a lot of drunk people congregating, you could hear them from our room, oh well. Anyway, sleep!
The last day we did some chilled out sight seeing, checking out where Amelie worked, random trip to Stalingrad, and ate some epic steak.