February 10, 2007 :: Paris at Night

One Saturday Evening...
...in early February, my colleagues and I decided to see the some more sites of Paris.   We started our adventure around 4p by taking the train over to Notre Dame et Blvd St. Michel.  After an awesome meal in a little restaurant called "Maison Blanche" (where we had real French fromage fondue for the first time!), we took to the streets to see what we could see.  (Click here to get the full album of pictures)

Notre Dame Cathedral
Our first stop was the famous cathedral Notre Dame.  There were tons of people there, including one couple who had just gotten married!  We took a plethora of pictures outside before going in to check out the ornate interior.  There was actually a service in session when we walked in, so we blended in with the many other tourists who were being as quiet as possible while gawking at and taking pictures of the artifacts inside.  (Check out this video I took while inside)

After our silent observations of this Catholic marvel, we went outside again to get some night-time shots of the cathedral lit up.  It was spectacular!  We also saw "Point Zero", which is the center of Paris and is marked by a seal just outside of Notre Dame.  (Check out this video I took while outside) 

A Winter Walk
As dusk surrounded us and the chill of the late winter night-time air joined our trio, we decided to take a walk, yes, walk to the Eiffel Tower.  Although we didn't know it at the time, Google Maps would tell us later on that it was a 5.3 km walk (almost 4 miles for those of you in the US :-).  Not a bad way to spend the evening after the huge, yet inexpensive, meal we had earlier on.  All along the way we took pictures of various sites, such as the one on the left.  I'm not sure exactly which building this was, but it said something about being a basilica and a gymnasium across the top, so I was confused :)

The Eiffel Tower (Le Tour Eiffel)
The Eiffel Tower has two spot lights at the very top that swoop around the city at night kind of like a lighthouse.  Our strategy to finding our way there from Notre Dame was simply to follow the light and hope we got there without any major road blocks.  Low and behold, it turned out to be a great strategy, even though our walk criss-crossed all over the 5th, 6th, and 7th arrondissements (or as I like to call them, "kingdoms" :-).  We got to see a lot of interesting sites, and take a lot of interesting pictures along the way! (Like the one on the right)

Finally there!
At long last we finally made it to Le Tour.  As we approached, she was lit up very nicely and standing tall and proud.  However, after a couple moments, she started to sparkle!  Yes, sparkle!  It was so amazing!  I took several pictures to try to capture the affect, but check out this video to really see what I mean. 

Partying in Paris...a full day well spent
My friends and I took several more shots from all around the Le Tour before heading back home.  Our game plan was to go out to a night club and party away Parisian style.  We got all dressed up, took a few more pictures, and headed out to Le Champs-Elysées (which is basically Paris's version of 5th Avenue in New York City).  We didn't arrive back home until almost 5a, more than 12 hours after we started our grand adventure.  Quite satisfied, I went to bed happily knowing that I had one more day to sleep in and relax before going back to the grind. 

Next week our whole crew is heading out to Brussels, BE.  Tune back in for even more pictures and hopefully another great story to go with them.  Cheers for now!

M@

February 3 - 4, 2007 :: First Weekend in Paris

Biennvenue á  Paris!
I arrived in Paris, France on 30-Jan for my four month stay with the Corporate Audit Staff at GE.  While the first few days were dedicated to getting down to business at work, my colleagues and I got to have some personal time on the weekend to explore the City of Love.  Check out this link to see all of the pictures from the weekend.

Sat: Le Tour Eiffel, Le Arc De Triomphe, Le Champ De'Lyse
On Sat we started our site-seeing extravaganza with brunch near the Eiffel Tower.  We ate at Le Grande Corona (no, not the beer :).  After some great food and a coffee or two, we popped over to see the Tower itself.  We wanted to climb to the top, but the line to buy tickets combined with the line just to start ascending were so long it would have been the only thing we could have done that day and that's to say we would have gotten in before they closed!  Instead we decided to take a bunch of pictures and walk over to the Arc de Triomphe.  The Arc is a symbol of the victories in several different wars that France has been in. Finally, we continued over to Le Champ De'Lyse which is equivalent to New York City's 5th Avenue.  Lots of nice stores are lined up and down this street which has a very metro/cosmopolitan feel to it.  It's always neat walking on it, too, because you see and hear people from all over the world that are there for one reason or another taking time to shop the shops of Paris's 1st district. 

Sun: Sacre Coeur and MontMartre
On Sun two of my partners in crime and I decided to take another rigorous walk over to the famous Sacred Heart church.  Sacre Coeur is located up on an enormous hill in Paris's 18th district.  It over looks the city and hides the neighborhood of MontMartre behind it.  MontMartre will sound familiar to you if you've ever seen the movie "The Moulin Rouge".  It's were that story takes place, and where the famed dance club still exists today. 

Just getting started and so much more to do...
Of course I left out some things that tie the weekend story together.  For example, we've been eating at fantastic restaurants and hanging out at super bars/café's as well.  We walked all around Paris last night trying to find a karaoke club or a night club, but settled for a cool little, private bar somewhere in the 1st district.  I've met a group of awesome people to share this experience with from work as well.  I've been spending days and nights with these guys and gals and wouldn't replace even one of them.  It's been a good week.  Now hopefully we'll be able to keep up some of that energy and fun as we get deeper into our actual task, the reason why we're all here.  I'm sure it'll be a bit more of a challenge, but that's all part of the fun.

Look for more fun stories as they come.  I can already tell you there are some things in the hopper.  Trips to other near-by countries, people coming out to visit, and just more great times in Paris are all going to be decorating the "pages" of this blog real soon.  Also don't forget to check the link above often for more cool pictures!

Au revoir for now! :-)

M@