Paris Day 2 (16 Apr)

After our rigorous day yesterday Sue awoke happily announcing she had her best sleep ever in our newly renovated airbnb. Me, I was ready to explore Paris!!

I've never visited Paris (or France) so to enable me to get my bearings Sue booked us the Hop-on-Hop-off Bus for our 1st full day in Paris. We toodled off just after 9am (to miss the workers!!) to catch our 1st of 2 trains - destination the Eiffel Tower. Here's me at our 'local' train station:

Sue had mentioned the Eiffel Tower was big and quite magnificent & I certainly agree with her summation. This was my first photo of the iconic Tower:

I have booked a guided tour tomorrow, so today just marvelled at it from as close as I could get. Having snapped a few photos, we continued walking to our Hop-on-Hop-off Bus stop. Our first full day in Paris was met with rain, but it was expected to clear early afternoon, so we were hopeful Paris weather peeps were more accurate than Melbourne's👌.
One consequence of the rain, is more peeps ride the bus to stay warm and dry. Thankfully the company had a 'promo bus' available for passengers to hop on and keep dry whilst awaiting the next bus. After about 15 mins of waiting (and me entertaining a baby with funny faces), we boarded a very crowded bus (as it had started to rain again) with the hope it would soon stop and we could head upstairs (or at the very least, snag a seat). We were passing beautiful buildings and landmarks, but because we didn't have a seat to plug in our earplugs, I had no idea what I was looking at (but happily just kept snapping away)!! Here's us on the bus:

Soon after the rain stopped and the sun appeared. We tottered off upstairs, plugged our headsets in & I was now able to identify what I was looking at. We wiped down the wet seats (as best we could) & proceeded to enjoy the sights and sounds of Paris.

The weather continued to remind us of home - one minute it was sunny and warm and the next raining and cold. At one point we were huddled over in our seats resting on our backpacks to stay warm and dry. A few minutes later the rain stopped and the sun reappeared (least our seats were still dry)!! We remained on the bus for 2x loops to catch-up on the info we missed at the start and decided to hop off at Notre-Dame, take some pics and grab lunch. Here's a couple of shots - still magnificent, despite the ongoing restorations:



Ducking into a pizza/burger restaurant (of which they have a lot over here), we sat next to two New Yorkers in there 70's & early 80's. Both were very interested to hear what 'Australians' thought of Trump. So as we drank our hot chocolates and feasted on our pizzas we gave our opinions. However, I was more interested in hearing what they thought of him. Outcome - neither side is impressed and all of us are hoping he doesn't get in!!

After filling our bellies, we jumped back on the Bus and our next destination was the Arc de Triomphe. I've always wanted to experience first hand the craziness of the vehicles navigating the circle - it didn't disappoint. 

Viewing it was as chaotic as I'd imagined, but it seems to work - lot's of near misses, minimal horn blaring and cars find the exit they want, despite potentially cutting across multiple 'lanes' and cars in the process. Here's a terrible selfie (although Sue's clearly finding it hilarious) & other money shots from being both on the ground and from the bus:



Back on the bus for the last time where our final stop will be the same as our original boarding - to ensure we know our way back to the relevant train station. Here's some final random shots. The first shot is proof I am still incapable of taking a selfie - and proud of it (was aiming for the Eiffel Tower, but least I got that nice statue!!):





 

Check out the super large Louis Vuitton bag that is actually his shop:

   
Easily navigated both trains home (we are becoming pros), grabbed some cheese, bickies and wine before gratefully plonking ourselves down to enjoy nibblies before finishing the spag bol Sue had cooked the night before.

Another great day ticked off.

Tomorrow we have a 1hr cruise down the Seine River, my Eiffel Tower guided tour, Sue's visiting a Music Museum and we top off the day with dinner and a concert at the Philharmonie Hall listening to Carl Orffs 'Carmina Burana' with 'The Philharmonie de Paris' - very cultured of us!!
















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