Journey through Western Europe 2017. Paris
Paris
Part 1. Poland and the Netherlands
Part 2 Paris
From Amsterdam, all experienced travelers go to Paris by high-speed train, but we added “entertainment” to ourselves and bought plane tickets. There was not even a thought that there was a high-speed and even more profitable train between Amsterdam and Paris. According to forecasts in Paris we were waiting for a strong bad weather. But things seem to be going for the better. When the plane rose to its flight level, there were solid clouds everywhere. From my own experience, I can say that the clouds at this height are a little annoying. I started dozing. The plane rocked a little with medium turbulence. Over time, I woke up with a growing headache. Some kind of wild attack of mountain sickness overtook me. Although the air and pressure is no different from normal. But somehow this flight didn’t work for me.
In fact, a little anxiety was growing due to clouds, turbulence and headaches. And then something happened. The plane shook very hard. Passengers in the cabin began to scream. A couple of seconds and again we fly a little swaying. Hysterical laughter rippled through the cabin. It became scary. The ground began to show through the clouds. We are no longer at maximum altitude, apparently we are going to land. But the landing was not given and the plane began a rapid climb. At the same time, making sharp maneuvers, apparently flying around a thunderstorm. The pilot gave an apologetic speech in French. When he repeated in English, we could not make out. But in general, it slipped through that we would not land in Paris. This is some kind of continuous stress, not a flight. At some point, they nevertheless began landing, and even in Paris. I must have dropped a couple of kilos by the time I got there. Pale with a splitting head, we got out of the plane. Duck and Dasha did not complain.
The vending machine next to the bus did not want to sell tickets of the right type. The driver who arrived said that tickets were only through the machine. I very much persuaded him to go with me to the machine and show me what I was doing wrong. The driver gladly decided to show me a master class. But at the same time, he expressed a surprised and indignant reaction with facial expressions. As a result, the driver himself could not get tickets from the machine. Mimicry expressed the strongest embarrassment and said that he would be happy to sell tickets to me. The ride was about an hour, it was an ordinary bus with a lot of stops around the city. Many people entered with suitcases, but eventually most left. And one suitcase remained untouched. And such, retro-sinister in appearance. No wonder some modest man with a smoking cigarette came on the bus. The French asked us a couple of times if it was our suitcase. And then someone apparently called the police. The driver announced to the cabin so that the owner of the suitcase would respond.
Silence. The most tanned guys jumped out of the bus first. People began to evacuate. The bus had to leave immediately. The situation took an unexpected turn. One Frenchman with the phrase they say “I won’t go now because of this suitcase” grabbed the suitcase and threw it away. Scream and kipish began even louder than in the plane an hour ago. It was also suspicious that the driver was a woman. Although I clearly remember how a brave man sold me coupons. Who is the mafia? At that moment, when the suitcase landed on the floor, the sweetest grandfather grabbed it by the handle and said that it was his. The people who did not have time to evacuate my grandfather expressed such a long French abuse that I even understood the essence. But the scolding did not reach the grandfather, since, as it turned out, he had a weak ear. By the way, we did not know much in French before that. Only the phrase "Gentlemen, I haven't eaten for six days. " In general, the capital of France received us in a rather specific way.
We had to walk a couple of kilometers to the hotel. We decided to take a shortcut, passing through a long school with open gates. On the other side, the gates were closed. Feels like we doubled our itinerary.
I had a stereotype that the Eiffel Tower would be visible from almost everywhere. But it turned out to be quite rare in Paris. But next to the hotel between the knowledge there was a large logo like the "Umbrella corporation" from the famous movie.
Even before the trip, hotels in Amsterdam and Paris sent me tips and welcome letters by mail, which impressed me a lot. Checked into a great hotel. I wanted to eat wildly, in my bag I found processed cheese with bread. I had a quick bite to eat.
Metro in Paris consists of three hundred stations. And it's very convenient. You can always get to the right place. But where to start? Eyes on the map scattered from the number of stars. Let's start with the Marais!
Marais
We left near the historic district. Near the river and the island from which a view of Notre Dame de Paris opens. The cathedral was not visible, but I was the first to see a piece of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. But we did not go to the island in vain. At the bakery, we bought a baguette sandwich and the most delicious brownie in the galaxy. It was unforgettable. I love gastronomy when traveling. It is not clear why they invented croissants when they know how to make such delicious brownies. The Marais area at first seemed like the most ordinary residential area. But going deeper into its streets, you begin to get those feelings for which people like Paris. The streets of Paris are beautiful.
They even wanted to accept us into the association of Jews on one of the streets. At the end of the district, we were unexpectedly met by the national center of art and culture of Georges Pompidou.
I was so unprepared for such an amazing structure that I even stepped into the shit right in the center of the city. The center looked, well, as unusual as one could imagine. And the excremental situation was so ridiculous that Dasha laughed at me for a long time. Laughed until the insidious bird flew over Dasha and balanced our karma. Now we both laughed. In the very center there are various museums that we did not plan to visit. But even just entering such a building is already joyful.
Notre Dame de Paris
The next point of the route was the island with the world-famous cathedral. The line at Notre Dame de Paris was impressive, but it moved quickly. It was just about time to take a hundred photographs. In fact, beauty itself is revealed not from the side of the facade, but from the back of the cathedral from a cozy shady park.
It is joyful when you see world sights. Inside the cathedral itself, the stained-glass windows were very impressive.
On the bridge near the cathedral, a street musician played directly on a broom, with various instruments. What pleases me in Paris is that everything is interesting. It makes me impatient to see all the marked places, but there are a lot of them.
Montmartre
Now the capital must be seen from above. The easiest way to do this is from Montmartre. We stopped by the Latin Quarter for a couple of minutes. We appreciated that tomorrow we will devote more time to him. We took the subway to a distant area.
We got off the subway at the other end of the city. We were surrounded by all the same beautiful streets. First you need to climb the hill and visit the Sacré -Coeur Basilica. With its scope, the basilica is almost as impressive as Notre Dame.
It seems that when they built, the emphasis was primarily on size. Now, in order to surely see Paris from a height, you need to climb one of the towers. First you pay about 7 euros, and then the girl happily tells you that you need to go up 300 steps. I almost fainted from the prospect.
But the difficulty was that the steps were spiral and dizzy during the ascent. Surprisingly, they got up quite quickly. At the very top, the Eiffel Tower was not immediately found. But when they saw, joy knew no bounds. It's so cool that Paris is all so different and the sights are not monotonous. They went downstairs and with a proud face left the tower. Around Montmartre there are many interesting things. For example, a wall that says “I love you” in all languages of the world.
You just need to think over the route well so that you don’t have to constantly go up and down the hill. We should have dinner. But promptly. The decision was not long in coming. Street food is the strong point of the city.
For 3.5 euros, I bought myself the longest hot dog with cheese, which I fully ate.
Street Scam
For a while we were stuck watching how suckers are bred while playing Thimbles. Well, where you have to guess under which cup the ball is. After analyzing, we identified about 6 figureheads. Everyone had their own role. There was a bogus sucker who always didn't guess, pointing to a deliberately wrong glass. There was a man who always won. There was a guy who showed the sucker how to play. There were other characters as well. Once in a couple of minutes, some real sucker came across and the show began.
According to our calculations, the team of actors raised about 300 euros in 10 minutes. But it is not recommended to watch such a show for a long time, as pickpockets can rob even ordinary observers.
Moulin Rouge
The decision to buy tickets for 120 euros, we probably hatched for a week. Never before have we paid so much for a show. But all my life I dreamed of coming here. Yes, and you need to lay down your independent opinion about the cabaret. Here is just one problem. All in tuxedos and expensive suits. And I'm in shorts. The dress code is not allowed. Hmm, a little bit missed this point in the planning of the trip. The security man happily offered to change the time of the show on our tickets so that we could go to the hotel to get our costume. But it’s not like I didn’t have a suit at the hotel. I don't even have it in Kyiv. Do not buy now expensive trousers for the sake of a one-time visit to the show. The query “OK Google, where are the second-hand shops in Paris? ” even flashed through my head.
” I offered to go last so as not to show my shorts, but the guy explained that there was strict control on the part of the authorities and he could not let us through. His partner even went to clarify for sure if we could not get through. We received a sympathetic negative response. But there was something wrong with this scheme. For some reason, the guards knew exactly where expensive trousers were sold nearby. And we were not the only ones they wrapped up. Okay, let's go to the cashier, so that we change the date for tomorrow and we'll come up with something. While the guy at the ticket office was looking for our reservation, one of the guards ran up to us and happily said that he would give me his spare trousers))) The galaxy was saved! Another man asked me not to forget to give them back after the show. The pants were 5 sizes larger than me. But the belt works wonders. True, while he was wearing trousers, he lost his tickets. In general, I wanted to wear a mask of shame on my face.
With the dress code, it really was our failure, but the adventure turned out to be normal) Now about the show itself. We absolutely loved it! I don't understand why so many people criticize him. We have already seen quite a few world shows, and the Moulin Rouge is clearly in the top places of our rating. There were such numbers, after which you sit at the table as if bewitched. I want to note that tickets for the late show, which starts at 23:00 on the day of the show, were significantly cheaper at 77 euros. But there will already be some nuances with transport and the perception of the show if you are on your feet from early morning. Night in Paris is beautiful, bright and cheerful. Everything glows with colorful flowers, people walk, rejoice. It's fine. Now we need to sleep and continue the route. It's funny that for the first day the Eiffel Tower was not even approached. Charged with positive, we fell asleep sweetly. True, there was still a nuance with a card from the number. But we eventually got into it.
Luxembourg Palace
From the very morning there was such a thick fog that we would not have seen the creation of Eiffel, no matter how hard we tried. We started from the most beautiful garden at the Luxembourg Palace. The garden was grandiose. Flower beds seem to have been worked out by a whole department of designers.
A remote corner with a lake absorbs consciousness so much that the whole world ceases to exist around. The park is the best. After the park we went to the Latin Quarter.
Latin Quarter
Yesterday we were only able to cover it a little. Now there was enough time to explore all its streets and beauties. By charm, I believe that this quarter is the heart of Paris. It is so cozy that we passed some streets 3 times. Now it's time to think big. We headed to the most famous areas of the city.
Louvre
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I have already prepared the camera for filming a real European queue. But here's a surprise. There is no queue. There is no one at the entrance. Rare tourists come and go. The Louvre itself takes a lot of time, we did not include it in the two-day itinerary. Dasha's mother is still in shock that we were in Paris and did not go to the most famous museum in the world. Next were pompous squares and parks. Connoisseurs of architecture will be especially interested here. But since we are more on natural phenomena, we went to lie down in the park. The parks are very convenient. There are hundreds of chairs instead of benches. You can always catch a shadow for yourself.
But then again, if the whole of Paris looked like a center, then we would not like it. But those streets and interesting places in remote areas give Paris a real charm. The triumphal arch turned out to be much smaller than we imagined.
But over time, we found another one.
The dimensions of the second were just right. But when in the evening we also stumbled upon the third arch, I realized that I don’t know everything about Paris.
Between the arches are long and boring Champs Elysees. In fact, it is a very long street with expensive toilets. But here something unusual awaited us. It was a pretentious Louis Vuitton clothing store. Paphos was measured in the number of zeros on the price tags.
A handbag for 7.100 euros or a fur coat for 18.000. Dasha and I played the game “Guess which belt is the most expensive. “Some visitors were still poured champagne, but not for us. It looks like I had to buy at least a bag for this) In general, the store was very pleased. Nearby was an exhibition of Ferrari cars. As I understand it, this is an exhibition of prototypes of future models. Now you can move on to the most intriguing - the Eiffel Tower. The water supply had to be renewed. There was a market on one of the streets. Glance caught the water Perier and Evian.
The water was the same price as all the other. In Ukraine, this type of elite water. In any case, for the price. I had to buy two bottles. We had the most intriguing water tasting right in front of the tower. But two large bottles would be a pain to carry. I also had to wash my hands and wash my hands. These expensive French bubbles gently enveloped my Ukrainian face. Just a duet!
Eiffel Tower
I don't know how they did it, but the towers are really impressive. It is joyful to look at her. Yes, and the feeling that they got here from Kyiv on their own! We did not plan to climb the tower. But once you get there, it seems like you can go up. But it was not there. There is a long queue even for the walk. Moreover, there will be another queue on the second floor. Well, okay. In 2011, one of my favorite tracks by the MRF group “Bridal at the Eiffel Tower” was released.
For six years I imagined how I would stand on the tower with Dasha and listen to this track. It turned out about the same, only exactly “under” and not “on”. By the way, I am writing this part of the story under this track) Let's go to McDuck to eat. McDonald's got a promotional glass for ordering a menu. Now we have a real memory of Paris. No matter how important this memory is not broken. It will be possible to just wrap it in the towel that we had to buy at the hotel in Amsterdam. Fatigue was overwhelming. But we still had a busy program ahead of us.
Defense District
In the beginning, we rode on the surface metro line right next to the Eiffel Tower. It seems to me that this route must be included in the planning of the route. Just like the tour comes out. Soon we arrived on the outskirts of the city in a relatively new area. It was like a piece of Singapore or Hong Kong on the outskirts of Paris.
Skyscrapers seemed to compete with each other with their unusualness and beauty. Along the skyscrapers there is a long walking promenade with pools, fountains and plants.
There is everything you need for a comfortable walk. You can sit quite romantically on the steps of the triumphal arch, watching the lights turn on. This is not what Paris looked like. This is the destruction of stereotypes. Here he has a completely different look. It was as if they were flying to distant Asia.
Moreover, the size of the area is considerable. A walk along the promenade in both directions will take at least an hour. The Dé fense district added to the box of impressions about Paris even more. The entire promenade is on top. At times, you can find its edges and admire the views below.
It's mostly a highway, but the plants lining the wall are enchanting.
Finally, the main lights on the distant Eiffel Tower came on.
Rise
Positively rode the subway along the tower. Now, according to the plan, there was the last point of the route - to lie on the Champ de Mars admiring the beauty of Eiffel's creation. But as luck would have it, there was no queue for the hike. Although our strength left us 3 hours ago, at the sight of the night tower, the energy came as if from thin air. On foot, you can only go up to the second of the three levels. Such a pleasure costs 7 euros. But the tower is not allowed with glass. And we just have a promotional glass. Now the choice has become an edge. Memento or experience. The second won. But I came up with a glass where you can hide it so that they don’t find it. When he hid the glass, someone else also hid his glass in my stash. In general, I had a hope that there would be a coveted bottle of money.
Gain strength and up!
We drove two spans for 5 minutes each. Promptly! Now you can listen to one of your favorite tracks already on the tower itself) Romance! I instinctively knelt down, removed the ring from my finger and said to my wife: "Marry me. " Dasha took the ring and it slipped out of her hands. It was some kind of slow motion with a pronounced heart beating from the nerves.
The ring fell to the feet, bounced off and began to fight off all the protrusions around the legs. The trajectory pointed straight into the through gap. At the last moment, the ring jumped right there. For a second, I felt the gray hair coming through. But a miracle. There it turned out to be welded and the ring flew back. This ring story has a happy ending. I wonder how many bad ends there have been for the entire time of the falling ring. Pale with horror, we descended from the tower.
On the way home, they heard how the tipsy girl indignantly quoted her friend and said: “How can you exchange these streets of Paris for Bali! ". We haven't been to Bali yet. But I think I understand her friend. After all, Bali is Asia, but Paris actually showed a high level of an interesting city for travel. In terms of adventure, as for a city in Europe, Paris gets a solid five! We were almost two days in Paris. And I want to note that this is extremely insufficient. In order to visit all you need at least two more. Disneyland, Versailles, Louvre, wait, we will definitely be back. Now it’s ridiculous to remember how, when planning, Paris initially wanted to allocate only a day.
The road to Belgium and the last adventure in Paris
The morning was rainy. While waiting for our bus, I stared out into the rain pouring down from the roof. Nearby stood a Frenchman and a Russian woman.
The woman said to the Frenchman: “Ca-fe, ” the grandfather said in surprise. The woman did not back down: “K-a-f-e! ". The Frenchman gathered his strength and answered: “No cafe”. Then the dialogue moved on to a more complex phrase. “G-d-e cafe? ". Grandpa is silent. "And where? ", "And where? ". The second time the woman repeated even more slowly. But so and remained without cafes. It always amused me how people speak Russian to foreigners in syllables so that they understand more.
Our double-decker Flixbus has arrived. We loaded onto the VIP seats on the second floor directly above the driver. While dozing, the mobile phone flew off the charger and fell to the first floor. When we discovered this, there was no mobile phone on the first floor. The driver advised better to look for her. When the twenty-minute search ended in failure, the driver said that apparently someone had stolen from the passengers. Here the most interesting began.
One of the passengers approached me and explained in French with gestures how he saw the driver take the phone for himself. The twist was unexpected. We started pressing the driver together with the passenger. Moreover, the passenger immediately pressed him in his native language. At one point, the driver gave up and handed over the phone. Like, he didn’t understand that we were looking for some other phone, and not the one that he found and turned off right away. To be honest, I did not expect this from flixbus. Moreover, the red price for that phone is about 10 euros, probably. He described the situation to technical support and demanded that they review the recordings from the cameras. But so far I have not received a clear answer. Apparently the driver just wanted us to leave something in France and be sure to come back. But I think we will return to this cozy country anyway.
