travel update the eleventh (paris edition 1.25)

day two in paris! it involved a trip to the eiffel tower:


there were lots of really pushy, and kind of scary guys selling trinkets and souvenirs there, but we ignored them and just took in the scale of the icon before us. we walked right underneath the tower, and considered going up, but i decided it was a wee bit too scary. the national police standing around with berets and big fat guns didn't do a lot to create a mood of confidence and calm...


i wanted to be at least a little bit fashionable in paris, so i was wearing my cute flats, as i had done the day before. they didn't treat my feet kindly, so we had to make a few stops here and there to reapply bandaids... (by the end of the day we'd been to lafayette to buy me a pair of runners *sadface* - but that was yet to come!)

the next stop is what in retrospect was my favourite part of the whole paris experience - the musée d'orsay. the building was incredible, with all the little galleries sprouting off from the bright, airy main hall. we saw as much as we could...


paris is so full of incredible art that i am a bit loath to spend too much time gawking at the classic pieces. i could honestly care less about david or the mona lisa (sorry, [Bad username or site: piecesofalice!!! @ livejournal.com], but there's something about the work of the impressionists that you just have to see 'in real life'. it makes sense - the whole point of impressionism being about the interplay of colour and light - that's something that just never translates on prints or postcards... i don't now. i'm rambling.

as we admired some of the pictures in the van gough gallery we were kindly informed by another australian tourist that the picture we were looking at was "really famous". armed with this invaluable insight i found that i could truly appreciate the rest of my d'orsay experience. i made sure to demonstrate just how awed and excited i was by the "really famous" pieces:





we had lunch, in the d'orsay restaurant, with a goat and a faun. saj struck up quite a friendship with the goat in particular:



joan d'arc in the sculpture gallery


behind the clock face (we have a photo like this of sajee at home from when she visited paris in her gap year - this one can go next to it now! :D )



balloon sculpture on the seine outside the gallery


there was time for one more stop that day. one very important stop - the chanel store on rue cambon.

this is the very bag i received my purchases in (my perfume, some lipstick and some mascara). i found a bag i quite liked. but it was 2000 euro, so i decided that maybe i'd pick it up next time XD


more from paris soon! xoxoxoxoxox

travel update the twelfth (paris edition 1.5)

hello again! london continues to be very pleasant, and we are very comfortable and well looked after at chez katz. it's so lovely of dan's folks to put us up like this in their beautiful home!

i left off at the end of our second day in paris.

the next day began with a walk through the marais (the suburb of paris where we were staying), and a look at some stalls at a local market


when have i ever passed up an opportunity to take photos of flowers?


a mysterious mushroom tree (there was no angle to take this photo from that didn't have a busy background - but if you look hard enough you get the idea :p)


fromage! nomnomnom!



our walk took us to a garden with a name that were completely unable to pronounce. we sat there for a while and ate grapes and drank orangina. very pleasant on such a bright sunny day.



then we took the metro up to montmatre to see sacre coeur. here is sajee, with the view from sacre coeur spread out behind her:


the cathedral is a beautiful sight - especially when set against a bright blue sky



inside sacre coeur


i'm not sure how i personally feel about the catholic god, but i do respond to the idea of the virgin mary. whoever she was i'm certain she was an extraordinary woman. i lit a candle and placed it at her feet with a prayer for mothers and children, and for courage, compassion, and love.


we had lunch in montmatre in a little cafe where a man played cello to the diners. my salad had five kinds of cheese in it. win!

in the afternoon we went for a drive around the city and saw some of the big sights again. it was such a lovely day, and this was the perfect way to finish it.