Not talking about marriage here - dresses scare me.
Actually, I wanted to propose a loose itinerary for the two days we'll all be in Paris together. However, I am mapping stuff out from the internet ... which may or may not be totally unreliable. So Elise - you have to tell me what is an impossibility and what is not, because I can assure you that I have no idea what is going on with Paris transit other than what Google maps tells me :) So, we'll get to our hostel and we'll be in Montmartre on the morning of Tuesday, June 16.
We can walk to the nearest Metro station (Place de Clichy?) and take a LONG METRO RIDE back the way we came to Charles de Gaulle-Etoile. Here, we will find the L'Arc de Triomphe and gaze down the vast avenue where the Tour de France terminates. From there, we walk down the famous Champs-Elysees and take in the giant windows full of wonderful fashion I could never afford, even on my most dreamy Nobel Prize-winning salary (Seriously - I saw a special on Hermes bags yesterday and one Birken bag can cost as much as $15 000 CAD!). Just past Franklin D. Roosevelt station, we can find Les Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais to browse and enjoy.
If we continue down Avenue Champs-Elysees, we can either hop on the Metro at Concorde and take the train to Tuileries, where we can find the world famous Tuileries gardens. I will strike my best Marie Antoinette pose and we can wander forever and ever and ever along the palace grounds. OR, we could hop on the Metro at Concorde and take the train to Saint Michel, where we can see Notre Dame and the surrounding cathedrals. Here, I will pretend to be Esmerelda, but fully clothed, since nobody is allowed into the churches without full cover. (Respect for Jesus, yo). We'll see how people feel.
I'm not sure where we will fit lunch in there, but we can fit it. It will be time for dinner and we can dine somewhere ... I don't have my handbook on me so I can't make an instant recommendation, but we'll see how we feel that day. Nightey-night in Paris - I say we see the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, where you have to hike a bunch of small steps to see creepy chanting ... but the church looks beautiful at night and is lit entirely by candlelight from the inside. It's beautiful and we can walk there from our hostel. Then it's sleepytime for us!
The 17th could be real shopping day, with a short Metro ride from Lamarck (ha!)-Caulaincourt to Opera, where we can see the Opera House (the steps on which I have highly amusing photos from the last time I was in Paris and also on which you must watch your back ...) and Les Galeries Lafayette. It's a huge shopping mall, not too unlike malls in America, but containing some uniquely French department store brands. It's worth going to see, anyway. From Opera, we can head to Palais Royal/Musee de Louvre, which is self-explanatory. It will take HOURS to get through all of those wonders, so we'll probably spend the bulk of our day here. I have heard rumours that the Louvre is free for anybody under 26, but I am not sure if that is just an empty promise ... after the Louvre, we are close to the shadiest shopping district in Paris (that is a feat people!) and I kind of want to go, but I don't expect everybody to follow. Les Halles is a few Metro stops from Palais Royal, so I might go for some cheap buys and eats apres-Louvre. Those who don't wish to follow could perhaps continue on the Metro to Bastille or Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, where I will probably want to meet you. The Bastille needs no introduction, but the Sorbonne might. It is a famous center of learning and includes some of the most modern architecture in all of France. If we didn't hit up the Notre Dame Cathedral yesterday, this would be an ideal time to do it, since Ile de la Cite is just north of the Sorbonne.
The night will be chill since we will have to rise early for the - gulp - 7:40am plane ride to Barcelona the next morning. We could take our last night in Paris to see the Eiffel Tower at night. I am partial to it all lit up, but others may not care to go at night. We could have a quick drink with the bums around the Eiffel Tower, watch the Seine ripple, then call it a night. What do you think?
I'm excited, friends. I am so excited!
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7 comments:
I would definitely see the cathedral before the garden! And you can find galerie-lafayette in other cities, but I think the one in Paris is especially big.
For myself, of course, I am planning to meet you guys early at the airport- and then Benoit is going to join us in the evening after work. I'll try to map out some metro itineraries to see if your itinerary is pratical (given a tight time-line) and I will get back to you.
Also, I don't think that champs-elysee is so interesting relative to other things in Paris (crowded and sidewalks blocked by expensive cafés), but it's your call.
Any plans for the 28/29? I definitely think that you should see centre-pompidou and/or musee d'orsay!
the nearest metro station to the hostel adress that Sable gave me is "Lamarack-Caulaincourt", unless I have been given faulty information?
This works out well, because the station for sacré coeur is at "abbesses", which is just a few metres away.
So, here is how I envision your proposed itinerarie:
probably will leave airport ~9:30am, arrive at hostel 10:30am (assuming best-case scenario) and leave the hostel at 11am. At 12pm we arrive at Ch. de Gaulle Etoile, and at 1pm or so, we arrive at "champs-elysee clemenceau" where we can see the grand and/or petit palais. If we do that quickly, we can maybe get going again at 4pm and it is here that you have left the choice for tuileries or notre-dame...
I personally vote that we go to notre-dame on this day, because it will be when we are fresh and our feet don't hurt yet from walking the Louvre. We can visit sainte-chapelle at the same time and grab a gelato to wake us up and to cool us off!
I'm not sure when you guys are going to be hungry for lunch, but I think that we should try to avoid eating at the champs-elysee and maybe opt for a late lunch closer to notre-dame where it is likely to be cheaper. Then it should be 6 or 7pm or so before we would head towards sacré-coeur and start to contemplate dinner.
For the 17th:
the first part sounds good. Unfortunatly, the Louvre is NOT free for us. You have to be under 26 AND European to get free admission. For us, it is 9 euros if we go during the day OR 6 euros if we go wednesday or friday evenings (I remind you that the 17th is indeed a wednesday) from 6-10pm. I would definitely consider the nighttime visit !! The louvre is so beautiful at night. Also, Sable said that she wants to see the Père Lachaise Cemetery, and it's better to do that in the late-morning/early-afternoon when the sun is out.
So, I propose rather that on the 17th, we go shopping/opera building seeing, then visit the cemetary, then visit tuilerie gardens (since they are right next to the louvre), then visit the louvre, and then call it a night.
Let me know what you think about all of that :) Can't wait for one week from now !!!
Is the cemetary on the far far east side of the city? I don't remember and I don't have a map with me. Anyhoo, I think that sounds great! I think you're right about Lamarck-Caulaincourt: Clichy is what you get when you only type in "Montmartre" and not the hostel address.
I haven't mapped out the 28/29. I will probably think about it later this week :) Thanks Elise! I'm so excited to see you in France!!
Cool. Elise's plan sounds great to me. The Arc and Saint Chapelle sounds great on the 1st day and I'm all for going to the Louvre at night on the second day after the cemetary etc.! Sweet!
It's true that Pere-Lachaise cemetary is quite a ways away, but I don't think that it was an excessively long metro-ride to get there, and it was totally worth it !
I only hope that the sun will be out and shining for us.
When I was at that travel store next to the Sugarbowl the guy there said that the Père Lachaise Cemetery was his favouritest part of Paris so I think it's a good idea we're going. Also, I want to see the nice flowers in the garden but I suppose I don't really care when so seeing them on the 17 and then going to the Louvre is fine with me.
Sounds amazing! I'm psyched!! :D :D
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