Unfortunately it's obviously been a bit since I was in Paris, so I'll do my best to recapture the highlights of my time there!
First off I must comment on the Paris metro system. I had been warned by a friend that it was confusing as hell, but I kind of sloughed her off... Little did I know how right she was! Oh my gosh, in my time I've navigated the Toronto, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Thailand, Shanghai, Rome and Milan transit systems... And Paris is by far the craziest! At least, that's how it first appears. The transit system is actually quite in depth - you can get anywhere you want to go and pop out of the transit really close. You just have to figure out which connections to make! There are FOURTEEN separate subway lines and they all mix in and interconnect - so to get to the Eiffel tower from my hostel, I could either take the #6 train (green line) and then transfer to the #2 (blue line), or I could take the #4 (purple line) and then transfer on to the RER C line (yellow), etc... If you had the time to get familiar with the system it would be great, but on a whirlwind tour like the one I embarked on, it felt like you spent more time with your nose in your subway map than actually going to your destination!
Paris is an absolutely lovely city! It took me a bit to understand the appeal of it, but now that I've been and experienced, I would love to return there. As with most of my other destinations on my trip, I spent my first day wandering around aimlessly, just getting oriented with the city. I ended up going to the Champs Elysee just because it was easily accessed via the metro (as in, I saw it listed on the metro map and so I tackled it rather than trying to figure out anything else!) The Champs itself was a bit anti-climatic. It seemed to be just a long long busy street lined with some cool restaurants, lots of stores, and beautiful trees... But I felt that in the end, it was naught but another shopping district.
At the end of the Champs I did encounter the Arc de Triomphe. Again, it was a bit of a let down, but at the same time it wasn't. I think this "let down" feeling is more of what I'm sensing now that I've had some time to think about it. Yes, the Arc would be very interesting if you hadn't seen one before, but in Europe I saw several already! I didn't bother paying to climb up it because a) I was feeling cheap, b) I was intending to climb the Eiffel, and c) I was freaking exhausted! I did walk around underneath it though, but there was some kind of ceremony for the unknown soldier going on. (At least, that's what I assume it was.)
Honestly, the thing that caught my attention the most was the roundabout surrounding the arc. You couldn't ever PAY me to drive in that monstrosity! Look up bedlam and chaos in the dictionary, and you'll see a picture of that roundabout. There was no rhyme or reason to how people drove in it. You entered the circle and you either emerged unscathed, or you lost 10 years off your life. (Or your life. Period.).
I ended up catching the subway to the Eiffel Tower and had to walk quite a distance to reach the tower itself. This is when I entered the phase of my trip where I'd see something and say, "Oh, this is it?" and when I got up close, I changed my opinion to, "Oh! This IS it!" The Eiffel was a prime example of this - when I got off the subway I could see its tip and I was like, "Gee, that's kinda small and rusty!" but when I got up close, it got bigger and bigger and more detailed and I realized it was painted brown and suddenly it was a whole lot cooler! Seriously, the Eiffel was tres tres cool!
What wasn't cool was the line to get up it! I guestimate that to take the elevator to the top, it was about a 3 hour wait in line... So Mau, being the impatient (and frugal) person that I am, decided to climb the Eiffel Tower instead. I still had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, but the climb wasn't all that bad. By this time it was night, so the tower was lit up with huge flood lights everywhere. Normally I'm not a nervous person about heights, but I have to admit that there were several times that I was very disoriented by being able to see through the grill/steelwork to down below. (The climb down was even worse because there were times that I was blinded by the lights and couldn't see the steps!) The view from the top of the Eiffel (I opted to climb to the 2nd floor too!) was absolutely splendid! Because it was dark, and it was my first night in Paris, I couldn't recognize many of the landmarks, but they were pretty nonetheless!
I scooted back to the hostel and met my roommates - I was staying with a guy from Russia and two South Africans. These roommates were probably the most chillaxed of all the ones I had - as in, they weren't going out partying (although I think the Russian would have preferred to), so it was nice not being judged by people for going to bed at midnight!
The next day we all decided to join a free walking tour. The tour was surprisingly good - it was conducted by various local students and they gave not only the history of the various sites, but also pointed out amusing stories about certain locations. Unfortunately about half way through the tour it started to rain heavily so I decided to leave because my jacket wasn't water proof and I was really tired. I returned to the hostel and had a long long nap. I know what you're thinking: You're in Paris and you're SLEEPING? Why yes, yes I am. And I dare you to question me after you've done two weeks of traveling by yourself at breakneck speed!
Post-nap I ventured out to go see some of the sites from our tour on my own terms. I went to see Notre-Dame first. The Cathedral was quite interesting - architecturally it was very very similar to the church in Milan - but a lot less creepy for some reason. Part of this was probably because they had more lighting inside, and because mass was going on. (This was probably the closest I've ever been, and ever will be, to a religious ceremony in my life!) I liked Notre-Dame, but after having seen St. Peter's Basilica and the duomo in Sienna, nothing can compare!
I wandered outside to go look at some of the cathedral's architecture more closely and behind the church I found this random orchestra playing classical music. There was quite a crowd around them so I stopped to listen. The next thing I knew, 2 hours had passed! It was so fun sitting and listening to them! I mean, how many people can say they listened to an orchestra outside of Notre-Dame in Paris? It was so relaxing and pleasant!
By this time it was dinner-ish, so I wandered the touristy areas of St-Michel and ended up buying my dinner from a grocery store. I returned to the benches where the orchestra had been playing (they had left) and enjoyed the ambiance behind the cathedral. I also amused myself by feeding the tiny little birds near me. They're so used to people that they're like puppies - when someone starts eating, they all flight over and nervously hop around, hoping that someone will drop something. The braver (or stupider) ones will also hop over and accept food from your fingertips! I had an absolute blast feeding them.
Now, my fun time would have lasted even longer, but some random guy decided to come sit on the bench beside me. He sat beside me even though there were about 30 other empty benches around me! Ugh. This is when I got really really tired of being a single female traveler. However, this fellow wasn't sketch looking so I decided to make a conscious effort to be polite and actually chat with him. I'm not sure what was up with him, but it was beyond awkward. He said hello and then just sat there, silent. He'd say something else and I'd respond and then he'd fall silent again... We were talking in a mixture of French and English and I KNOW that I left conversation openings, but he wasn't taking them! Ugh! I finally gave up and told him that I had to meet up with friends. Sheesh, the one time I decide not to just brush someone off and they fail epically at whatever they were trying to do.
For the rest of the evening I just walked along the Seine River from Notre-Dame to the Louvre to the Tuilerie Gardens past the Hotel des Invalides to the Eiffel Tower. I also go to see the Eiffel Tower night show (aka random flashing/twinkling lights)... Yeah, not overly exciting. The walk, while exhausting, was quite pleasant though.
The next day I wanted to see Versailles. I don't know why, but for this entire trip I've been so excited to see that place! And boy, it was awesome! It took quite a ride to get there. I'm glad that I left as early as I did though - even though I arrived at around 10ish, the lines were crrrraaaaazy! You had to get in line to get a ticket (and they have about 20 different variations of tickets and ticket combos, etc so it's confusing as fuck) and then you have to get in line for security, and then if you forgot to get a map there's a line for those and if you paid for an audioguide there's another line for that!
As I said, Versailles was great! It was opulent and gaudy and everything I thought it'd be! I bought the huge ticket (because I didn't know what else to get) so I also got to visit Marie Antoinette's estate, the grand Trianon and the Little Trianon (none of which were very interesting in comparison to Versailles itself). The gardens at Versailles were terrific though - they were so pretty I felt like I was walking around in a painting! Also, because it was Sunday, they were pumping out classical music and had the fountains running, so it was even more impressive! Overall, I spent about 6 hours at the place, and I barely touched a third of the gardens in that time!
Upon returning to Paris proper, I had time to waste. I was transferring from my hostel to stay with my friend Agnes and she couldn't meet me until 8PM, so I decided to visit Montmartre, the area that holds the famous Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. I looooved Montmartre so much! (For those of you who have seen Amelie, you'll probably recognize that area as the one where she leaves the chalk arrows for the guy.) Because it was Sunday, the area was a pedestrian only zone, was filled with tourists, artisans and performers etc. It had such a great vibe! I didn't actually go into the basilica, but the area around it as I said was interesting enough. (I also had my first French crepe there - so tasty!)
I finally returned to my hostel to pick up my baggage and then met up with Agnes. We hadn't seen each other since June-ish 2007 so it was terrific getting to see her and catching up. Her apartment, while uber-tiny, was ridiculously cute and comfy. We didn't do much for the rest of the night because we were both tired and she had to work the next day. We did however go out for a sandwich (I got a veggie sandwich because I felt like I was getting scurvy from lack of proper nourishment). It's a shame that were were both so tired though - it was the first day of summer and so the area around her place (St-Sulpice - you may recognize that from DaVinci Code) was filled to the brim with live bands, dancing, etc. We did stroll around and soak in the groove but we didn't stay for any length of time.
The next day I decided to hit up the Louvre. I made sure I got up early so I could beat most of the rush. While in line, I started chatting with this random girl who was from Michigan and we promptly became "Museum Buddies" for the day. It was a good match - she knew the history and significance of the artwork and I could read the museum map. People had been telling me that the Louvre was a big place and you could get lost easily, but I kept sloughing them off thinking they were exaggerating. Well they weren't. Not by a long shot. It was insanely huge in there! We did a bit of a whirlwind tour - if we saw something interesting we'd stop and snap some photos, or we'd saunter through unimpeded. We tended to follow the signs to the more popular sights just so we could claim to have seen certain things. E.g. I did get to see the Mona Lisa. From a distance. Seriously, the room where she's held is INSANE. The crowds were so thick (and the painting is only a few centimeters bigger than a piece of computer paper!) that you couldn't even TRY to get close to it! I also saw the Venus de Milo and some other famous statues along with a zillion other things that I'm sure are famous on their own but that I didn't recognize.
My Museum Buddy and I ended up breaking for lunch and then parting ways. I had been intending on visiting the Hotel des Invalides (a war-museum) but I was pretty tired and museum'ed out so I ended up walking around Place St-Michel again and exploring a bit. I actually ended up finding the French Pantheon (by accident) and wandered around the Jardins Luxembourg. The gardens were really pretty - plus it was great seeing local French people just chilling out doing what they do. I got... Not lost, but a bit dazed (?) on my way back to Agnes', but I eventually made it. We had dinner and ended up walking around her neighborhood and along the Seine before crashing for the night.
My last day in Paris was very relaxing. Since it was a Tuesday, many of the museums weren't open so I decided to get a late start and then visit the Sewers of Paris! (Most of you know by now that I have an unhealthy obsession with waste removal. LOL) It sounds weird and gross, but the sewers were actually rather interesting! You actually do descend into the sewers! You walk around seeing displays of the gear that sewer workers use, the equipment, etc. You then walk along actual walkways beside sewer runoff. At one point I pulled my camera out of my purse and nearly dropped Agnes' keys into the sewer! (Turns out they were wrapped around my camera cord and got pulled out along with the camera - they were literally within a centimeter of the sewer's edge!)
The most interesting part of the sewers was the historical background section. They had a series of panels explaining the development of the sewers, who built what, why, etc. However, the panels were located in the only part of the sewers that were actually kind of stinky. They were above water that had obviously drained off the street into the sewers - you could see leaves and debris that had been washed away!
After the sewers I wandered around a bit aimlessly. I found the Grand and Petit Palais, but I didn't feel like going in. I then decided to visit the Musee D'Orsay because several people said they preferred it to the Louvre. However, upon arrival I saw there were long lines (are there any other kind in Paris?) and decided not to. Instead I grabbed a crepe and wandered back to St-Michel area.
At this time I decided that I had procrastinated on my souvenir shopping long enough and ended up going back to Montmartre again to buy some souvenirs for my niece. I also just hung around the area in general because I loved the ambiance - seriously, my three musts for Paris include the Eiffel, the Louvre, and Montmartre.
That evening I chillaxed with Agnes again. We went out for a great meal at a traditional French restaurant and sauntered around for a bit before heading back to her place.
The next day there was really nothing for me to do other than finish packing up and heading to the airport. The flight home, while delayed for about an hour and a half was relatively uneventful.
I'm very happy that I did this Europe trip. It was so different from Asia and it was great knowing that I could do that kind of thing on my own, but I doubt that I'd ever do something like this again. As I've said several times now, I got really tired of being a single female traveler. There's definitely safety in numbers, if only so you're not targeted for being alone. Also, even though you meet people at each hostel, it gets lonely being on your own and tiresome of having to constantly make new friends each place you go - you need a bit more constancy to really relax.
So all in all I consider the trip to be a success. My fave places by far were Nice, Sienna, and Paris (in that order).
