paris cont...

okay so back to it...

first off i know i prob have a lot of spelling errors but if i change z and y its becuase i am on a german keyboard and they are switched...


anywho, after checking out notre dame I began my walk down the river to the eiffel tower which is a decent hike..haha. I did not realize that on the waz I would pass right by musee d orsay. So it was on my list of things I wanted to check out so i Popped in. Musee d orsay is in an old train station and has french art, impressionist art/ post impressionist art. It had a few monet`s and van gogh`s...super cool. Just the building itself was very cool and it was fun to see a museum in a different building such as a train station.

After the musee d orsay I continued walking down the left bank of the seine river towards the eiffel tower. After walking about 30-40 min I finally made it to the eiffel tower and I was greeted bz about 400-500 irish men dressed in green with their faces painted and stacks of 12 packs who where having a large party under the tower...hahahah....that night was the french vs. ireland world cup qualifying match being held in paris....they where all screaming cheers and where all very very drunk!!! They where all kicking soccer balls up in the air and I actually saw it a few times hit other irish men in the head where they just laughed...a few times I actually saw empty beer bottles being thrown which was quite scary...

After watching them pre party (almost like a tailgait) for a bit I got in line to take my trip up the eiffel tower. It was kinda a bummer that the very very top was closed but still went up to the second floor and got a view of paris which was very cool!!

After the eiffel tower I had to start my walk back to alexandra`s flat as it was 5:30 and I was meeting her there at 6. So after snapping a few last pictures I made my way back towards her place...after walking for about 30 min I got a tad lost so I called shane who gave me the final directions to make it back by using gmaps..haha I was actually only about a quarter mile away but all the street corners in her area look alike.

Fir dinner on my second night in paris Alexandra made me a salmon dinner with a salad and boiled potatos....very good. After we went to a local pub in the rugby district to watch the france vs. Ireland game...here we met up with her dutch friend jan who was a very cool guy. Actually all of us thought it would be very funny if france did not win and if it was not for a handball right in front of the goal by france they would have lost. Oh well! After the futobl match we went to another bar that she really liked and we had a few more drinks and listened to french music. Some was very good and very 80`s.

The next morning I got up and took a short trip to the palace at versailles. I only had to walk about 10 min from the trainstation to find the palace which was nice as my legs where a tad bit tired from the long walk the day before..hahaha.... I was kinda bummed because I did not have a power adapter the night before for my camera and my battery was getting very low...I only had my camera for the first bit at the palace so I busted out my flip and took a few videos :) The place is seriously nuts! The bedrooms have bedposts that go up 20 feet to the ceiling and drapped in all kinds of fancy material and gold everything!! Then I looked out a window and the garden and the grand cannal where just nuts...they palace grounds are absolutly huge...

After checking out the main palace I decided to take a walk through the gardens and over to marie antoinette`s estate which if you think about it...its a 30 min walk which kinda shows how large the palace grounds really are!! There where a few really cool fountains and statues around the grounds along with tons of paths and trees all surrounding the grand canals... Versailles is so big I spent most of the day there before I had to make my way back to the train to make it back to Alexandra`s flat in paris bz 6:00pm as should would be getting off work and I had her keys..hahaha....only the nice thing to do :)

Anywho, this night in France is a big night I guess....it was the beaujolais nouveau day...or the new wine. On the third thursday of November every year I guess the first wine of 2009, with gamay grapes from the beaujolais region of france, that can be had. Its a very oung wine but still was okay...but I guess all of the places all over paris have it and people go out do dinner to celebrate the beaujolais nouveau and get a glass or two of it. Alexandra and I made our way from her flat up to montmarte which is up a hill on the opposite side of the river. One thing different about dinner time in paris is they tend to eat very late...we did not leave for dinner until around 8:30 and did not start eating until about 9:15...

We stoppped at a little cafe on the corner and sat outside which was very nice! First off our dinner started with a "cold meat plate" which was full of salami, ham, pattee and some other meat that I wasnt sure of what it was with some baguette slices on the side...mmmmmmm. For the main dish I had duck with potatos ....I have never really had duck but it was sooooo good! The food in Paris is soooo good over all. The down side is Paris is also very expensive...We had a starter dish, 2 main dishes and a few glasses of wine and the meal cost over 100 dollars...Now that doesnt seem too much but this was just a small cafe on the corner. Oh well, it was worth it and very good. I paid for dinner to thank Alexandra for her hospitality and all of her help.

After dinner a french friend of hers met up with us and we all went up higher into montmartre to see the view of all of Paris at night... it was a cool view as we could see all of the places that I had been the previous day but to see them in and how far apart they really are made me realize whz my legs where a bit sore....hahhaah. After a few min and pictures up at the top of montmartre we made our way to a pub..actualy we made our way to 3-4 pubs where was fun.

In the first pub I met a few guy that ranged from my age to about 50 who all worked for the same company and who where in Paris from holland for a business trip. They actually had a really cool job. They work for a company that makes the equipment for the Police to safely break into buildings witout too much destruction and harm. They said they get to see all of these cool toys and how they work which is fun. One of the guys actually was asked to come to Long beach CA to help teach the police some things and helped with the arrest of a few Gang members from the bloods and crips and after arresting them the long beach cops gave him one of their bandana`s as a gift...hahaha..he said it is haning in his office. Sooooo funny.

On our way to the one of the pubs we passed by moulin rouge...we did not go in but I have a photo in front as I am sure many others do. We actually ended up staying out until about 3 or 4 am which did not seem that late as we finished eating dinner around 11. The next morning Alexandra went and got some croissants from a bakery downstairs from her flat as she decided to go into work late on friday....it was nice we had tea and croissants for breakfast then she went to work and I packed up to head to switzerland...

All in all I really enjoyed Paris and I will have to come back becuase there is sooo much more to see in Paris...I could have spent a week there easily. But everyone I met was very nice and everything I saw was amazing. Meeting Alexandra was very cool too as it gave me an insider view of Paris and I had someone to ask questions to about the metro and other things like that.

So I only had a short walk and short metro ride to Gare de est train station where I was taking a high speed train to zurich!!