Paris Re-viewed
Sunday, September 2nd, 2012The sun rose early, brighter and clearer on our second day in Paris – not only because of the fine weather, but also because most of daBears had at least twelve hours sleep which managed to push most of the jet-lagged fog from the brain (but not entirely we would discover at 4pm later on in the day!). We managed to get ourselves ready and rode the metro into town, emerging out of the tube under the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe. MBoy10 summed up our collective thoughts well:
”It’s just like coming out of the metro in Rome and seeing the Colosseum”. He was right, photos just don’t do it justice and it is far more impressive in real life.
We almost didn’t go up, but in fact, the view from the top of the Arc was amazing – as was simply walking down the Champs Elysees to the even grander Place de la Concorde. Nothing had quite prepared us for the wide, opulent grandeur of central Paris. Baron Haussmann was on to a good thing when he redesigned the Paris city plan – it would certainly have to be the most impressive of all the European cities we have visited – perhaps not the most beautiful, or quaintest or most character-filled, but it takes your breath away with its wide, open avenues and its towering buildings (or it may have been the 300+ steps up to the top of the Arc which also made us realise jetlag still lurked in the body).
After a break for lunch in the park (where FadaBear tried to cut off his thumb whilst enthusiastically cutting some baguettes in half with a pocket knife) we walked along the Le Seine to find the Musee de Carnavalet (the History of Paris Museum) primarily in search of the French Revolution display; a morbid fascination with the guillotine collection was not fostered as for some un-published reason the museum had decided to close this part of the museum to visitors today! Grrr. Still, the rest of the museum kept our attention for the rest of the afternoon, until we were ambushed by jetlag again and we beat a hasty retreat to the nearest metro station. Yes, I do realise that account is painfully lacking in any detail of the art and treasures but hey… I blame jetlag, and the fact that Mamabear is already asleep so I have no helper.
Charmed by Paris again, and looking forward to more. Side note: we did consume an undisclosed number of ‘pain au chocolat’ and ‘pain au raisin’ today! Ahhh, French pastries! Another reason to fall in love with Paris.
Now it is 9:30 pm and everyone else is asleep. Time to follow suite … if only I can get MamaBear to write some blogs posts :-)…
by FatherBear
rayres