Lazy Sunday

We are back in London! Our first day was very very rainy... and we were fairly fatigued from all the late night hockey watching and all day touring. So we took it easy on Sunday. We hit up Harrods to stock up on some AMAZING cookies and take a look around at all of the extravagant stuff we could buy... maybe one day... but definitely not today!!

We were going to go to the Cabinet War Rooms, but it was raining so much and the two tube lines that we needed to get there were closed and I was tired SO we went and had Sunday Roast at the Nags Head Pub instead!! I got the lamb roast and it was super delicious!! Yes... I ate it with the gravy!

We then headed to Covent Garden markets where we picked up some great stuff! Brad got some handmade cuff-links and I got 2 new scarves!! We spent the night watching Geordie Shore with Iain. It is possibly better than the Jersey Shore. No joke. I can't wait for episode 4 on Tuesday night!!!

Now we are off to the British Museum!! So much to still see before we leave on Friday!!!

Last day in Paris!

We slept in a little bit today because of the late late night (go Canucks!). It was our last day in Paris, but we weren't flying out until 8:30pm so we got in some last minute sights like Notre Dame!!

It was pretty crowded but worth it!! The stained glass inside is so beautiful! Here are some examples:

Then we got in the hour and a half line-up to go up the tower!! It was worth it! We got to see the big bell and all the gargoyles up close!!

And another great view of the city!!

 Afterwards we had a little bit of time before we had to head to the airport so we perused the Seine boardwalk and looked at the used booksellers! We saw tons of cool old books but they were all in French (lame!). There was lots of fun stuff to look at and it was a beautiful day out!

Then we headed to the airport and back to London! Au revoir Paris!! It was fun!! (Even though Brad doesn't look too impressed in this picture.... hehe)

Let's tour Paris!!

We were tired of “learning” about stuff, so we decided to take a low-threshold bus tour of Paris.

Hop-on and Hop-off at different stops! We hit up the Champs-Elesyee and the Arc de Triomphe! 

We went to the top of the Arc through this awesome spiral staircase

where… low and behold… MORE children groups!!! Gah. It wasn’t as bad as Versailles though. 

We had a great view of all of Paris, although not as good as from the Eiffel Tower. 

We wandered down the Champs Elyesse and took a look in a few shops. I got some pants! And we had our first restaurant lunch!! It was AMAZING!!! I had chicken and brad had duck! My chicken was in a super yummy gravy … yes I was eating gravy AND dipping the fries in it too!! It was delicious! And Brad’s duck was delicious too! 

We had a nice relaxing day with little to no learning! We were getting ready for the hockey game (Game 5) later that night!! The game started at 2am our time and we had a very late dinner at around midnight after our Eiffel Tower experience and then headed to the Great Canadian Pub in the Latin Quarter! 

It was a great atmosphere there with TONS of people!! We were lucky to snag 2 of the last seats in the house when two Canucks fans saw Brad’s jersey! The French were very excited about the Canucks winning too! They were starting some chants that I had never heard before like “Van-Cou-Vaahheerr,  Van-Cou-Vaahheerr, Van-Cou-Vaahheerr” and “Let’s go Caaah-nucks, Let’s go!” Very strange, but supportive nonetheless. It was a great game and great to have so many Canucks fans to celebrate with in Paris!

Not again...

We lost the Mastachone again! And by we… I mean I. I thought it was in our hotel room in Paris, but apparently not. I think I left it on the train from the airport to Paris. I can just picture it being “destroyed” by bomb squad members. So delicious. Such a waste!

One of Brad’s family member’s said that you couldn’t travel with Mastachone. We thought that he was talking about it losing it’s freshness… now we think that it must be cursed! “If you can get it out of Abruzzo you sure as hell can’t get it out of Italy”!

Now there is no more Mastachone. That is all.

Eiffel Tower-tastic!!

Brad and I spent 2 nights at the Eiffel tower! The first one we spent watching it from the park while having a picnic and the second we spent UP the tower!! Here we go!!

After our aforementioned river cruise we headed over to the lawn in front of the Eiffel tower ... well actually just to the side because you aren't allowed to sit on the lawn just in front. We laid out our picnic of screw top wine (it was less than 3 Euro for the bottle!), chocolate covered waffles and just for good measure some pringles! This was our view!

While we were sitting and waiting, about a dozen African guys started slowly walking towards us and both of us thought that for sure we were getting robbed. But it turned out they were the (illegal) street vendors that we had seen earlier in the day trying to evade the police!! As soon as they saw a policeman they started running through the dark park with all their mini Eiffel towers jingling behind them! 

At 11pm we got what we were waiting for: (I was clearly tired because I took the video sideways... you get the idea though)

After we watched it blink for 5 minutes (it does it at 10pm and 11pm) and finished our bottle of wine we got some crepes and headed back to the hotel! Not before taking some great pictures from underneath the tower!

On our second day at the tower we wanted to climb the tower to be at the top at sunset! So we started our ascent up the tower stairs! No line-up and it was half the price!! Yay budget!

When we finally got up to the second tower this was the view up

We are getting closer!!! But you need to take an elevator up! So we promptly got in the longest and most disorganized line ever. A bunch of people budged in line and then took pictures of it... so that made it ok? Right?? We were getting very very close to the front and this angry French woman started yelling "Let me see your tickets!!! Tickets now!!! The White side!!!!!" She was kinda nuts. Luckily we had tickets and showed her the correct side of them... not sure what would have happened if we didn't have said ticket. I'm sure a punch in the face would not have been out of the question.

We finally reached the elevator and were heading up!! And while we were heading up we caught the 10pm blinking show!

We made it!!

And then we made it up for sunset!!! It was gorgeous to watch the City of Light go from day to night up the Eiffel tower! It was the perfect way to spend our last night in Paris!

The day of 12 million children....

Apparently it must have been "multiple giant groups of children touring at once" day in France yesterday. Lets hope today is different... but because yesterday was Thursday and these kids appeared to ALL be from out of town I think the sights will be equally crowded with 11 year olds today as well :-/

Other than the HOARDS of children present... our day was fabulous!! We headed to Versailles which was fabulous and amazingly ornate!

Once we got inside there were tons of impressive halls! And we got a free audioguide! Sweet!! Check us out learning in the different areas:

Can you believe that this used to be someone's house!?!? I didn't take too many pictures here because there were literally children everywhere.... pushing.. yelling... being annoying... being unsupervised... etc. You would try to get ahead of one group and then you would get surrounded by the next. Sigh. So we got outside to the gardens which are VAST!!

The giant palace that we were in is the small area at the bottom of the map!! We had another picnic lunch here but check out our awesome view!!

We wandered around the gardens for a long while and Brad was discussing how this would be a great place to be homeless in. We had a long conversation with my conclusion being that it would be impossible because they close the gates and there are so many workers... but Brad stuck to his point that if you were homeless this would be the place to be. And low and behold:

It was definitely a homeless man! Point to Brad. We left Versailles and headed to the Orsay Museum! Which I really loved, but it "didn't do anything" for Brad. We saw Monet, Manet, Rodin, Van Gogh, Gaugain, and more!! I loved the paintings, especially some of Monet and Rodin! I don't have any pictures because they weren't allowed. Sorry!! But the museum was awesome!

We took a night cruise after that which was ALSO FILLED with children - like at least 100 children... on a 1 hour cruise that started at 9:30pm. What the hell!! It was a good cruise and we saw lots of cool stuff that we learned about on these giant things

Overall it was a great cruise... except for the stupid tweens that were everywhere. Fingers crossed that today will be less child-friendly everywhere!!!

Our tour finished at the Eiffel Tower which will have it's own post... because that's how awesome it was!!

I Louvre It Here!!

We are in Paris and it's fabulous here!! I totally love it!! I even love the Parisians who correct your French in a way in which I can't tell if they are angry, happy, or ambivalent...

We got in to Paris yesterday night, found our hotel amazingly fast without getting lost and headed out to see Paris at night!! This was my first sight of the Eiffel Tower and I immediately freaked out an took a picture. Even though it isn't a good view of the tower... it was my first!

Today we went to the LOUVRE!! All day long. We got there at 11:30am and left at 7:30pm! And we didn't even see everything! I was getting slightly unimpressed by all of the priceless works of art and artifacts so we knew it was time to go! Here are some of the highlights from our 8 hour day in the Louvre:

It was super overwhelming when we first got inside and the crowds were huge!

Especially around the Mona Lisa!

I thought for sure that I wouldn't be impressed with it because I've seen so many reprints - i mean even my light switch cover is a Mona Lisa - but in real life, the actual painting, it's pretty amazing. There is just something about it and I don't even know what, but I loved it!!

It was so crowded that at one point I lost Brad!! I was getting kinda distressed!! Luckily we found each other! For the record - this time I wasn't the one who wandered off.

We ate a picnic lunch and then headed for my most anticipated gallery - the Near Eastern Antiquities!!! It was far far less crowded than ... well ... really anywhere else in the museum. Perfect!!

Hammurabi's Code was one of the biggies to see (that the museum said) and I told Brad that it was the oldest example of laws ever. And he said "what.. the 10 commandments!?!" ... NO! This predates biblical times!! So old! Some of the laws are very strange like if any child says that their mother or father is not their mother or father the child's tongue must be cut out.

After that it was over to my most anticipated area of my most anticipated gallery - ASSYRIA!! For those of you who don't know, I took several Near Eastern Studies courses in my undergrad at UBC and fell in love with the Assyrians. They just had it together!! Their artwork is amazing and their imperialism was crazy!! Anyway, if you want to know more... let me know... otherwise check out all these awesome pieces!!

5 legged griffin! Protects the castle.

 Fragments of orthostats from Assurnasirpal's castle. Some of the earliest forms of political propaganda!

And finally... the winged genii!!!! Assyria rocks!

Brad also found exactly what he was looking for as well.... the gummy Venus de Milo! (You all saw that episode of the Simpsons). They even let him take a bite:

We ended our day at this painting - it's a little strange and even the audio guide explanation wasn't clear.. but it's interesting none the less and famous for sure:

It was a great day and it's not over yet!! We are heading to the Great Canadian Pub to watch the hockey game LIVE at 2am!! Time for a nap!! Go Canucks Go!!! Tomorrow is Versaille!

I'm loving it here in Paris! Even though my french is sub-par at best! (Credit to Brad for the photo above! Looks like I am sitting on water in front of the Louvre!)