After chatting with a few travelers at the hostel tonight, I thought it might be helpful to relay some of our thoughts on staying at hostels vs. hotels vs. bed and breakfasts since we’ve recently been asked by a few people which we think is better.  The short answer is there is no one or the other we would pick – it really depends on the place itself.  Hostels generally have more of a social atmosphere and a younger clientele, but we’ve stayed at a lot of hostels that have people in their 30s and 40s staying there.  The nice thing about hostels is they usually have a fully equipped kitchen so you can cook a meal if you want, the bad thing is that it’s almost always shared bathrooms, which can be gross.  B&Bs can really be hit or miss, but we’ve been happy with the two we’ve stayed at so far.  Like I said before, though, at a B&B, you’re in someone’s home so you tend to feel like you have to stay quiet and out of the way.  Hotels in Europe have been fairly good so far, but at a hotel you’ll never meet anybody or get advice about where to go or what to see (unless you’re at a small owner-run hotel like the one we stayed at in Avignon).  The plus side of a hotel is the noise insulation (you don’t get woken up as other people come and go) and the privacy, especially having your own bathroom.  It’s also nice to have someone clean your room everyday, although we generally turn the housekeeping staff away because they come so early! 

For comparison sake, here’s a list of our accommodations so far:
1. Lisbon, Portugal – Rossio Hostel; loved everything except the showers
2. Porto, Portugal – Rivoli Cinema Hostel; great but no social atmosphere
3. Madrid, Spain – Barbieri Internation Hostel; worst place we’ve stayed so far
4. Barcleona, Spain – Itaca Hostel; great private double room that felt like a hotel
5. Montpellier, France – Les Arbousiers B&B (Jean-Luc & Ann d’Auzac); fantastic hospitality & a big spacious room, option for home cooked meal for dinner
6. Nimes, France – Campanile Nimes Centre; not close to anything but ok budget hotel
7. Avignon, France – Hotel Boquier; nice owner-run small hotel
8. Nice, France – Ibis Nice Centre; first stay at this budget hotel chain, no frills but very clean & fairly new
9. Lyon, France – Ibis Lyon Centre Perrache; bigger room & cheaper than Nice
10. Geneva, Switzerland – City Hostel Geneva; dorm-style hostel so no social atmosphere,  private twin room w/nice bunk beds, Wi-Fi broken
11. Bern, Switzerland – Bern Backpackers Hotel Glocke; great except for check-in policy sucked and there weren’t enough bathrooms
12. Lucerne, Switzerland – NH Lucerne Hotel; a step-up from Ibis, bigger & more luxurious room but not worth regular price
13. Strasbourg, France – Hotel Le Grillon; 2nd worst place we’ve stayed, very dirty, felt like I was in an attic, shared bathrooms
14. Rouen, France – Ibis Rouen Centre; standard small Ibis room but not close to city center!
15. Le Mont-Saint-Michel – Hotel Formule Verte; very basic budget hotel but ok
16. Caen, France – Bristol Hotel; cramped over-priced budget hotel, bad Wi-Fi
17. Paris, France – Ibis Paris Gare de L’est; typical Ibis but a bit older
18. Munich, Germany – Ibis Muenchen City; typical Ibis, bathroom a bit small
19. Berlin, Germany – Best Western Hotel City Ost; not in city center but commute was no problem, a bit better than Ibis, bathroom was nicer
20. Hamburg, Germany – Ibis Hamburg Alster Centrum; again typical Ibis
21. Dusseldorf, Germany – Ibis Dusseldorf Zentrum; not close enough to center
22. Cologne, Germany – Station Hostel for Backpackers; room was nice, bathroom was gross, didn’t socialize with anyone at the hostel
23. Luxembourg – Novotel Luxembourg Kirchberg; much nicer than Ibis but not worth regular price
24. Brussels, Belgium – lucdelux B&B; small basic room but comfortable
25. Brugge, Belgium – Lybeer Travellers’ Hostel; 3rd worst place we’ve stayed but good social atmosphere & really good Wi-Fi

What more could a girl ask for on her last day in Paris than a thrilling ambulance ride (well, it wasn’t actually an ambulance, but it was just like the ambulances we have in Canada, sirens blaring and all) with firemen to the hospital?  While some of my girlfriends would love to be carried away by French firemen, I could have done without the ambulance ride, but it was definitely a unique experience!

Before you panick, don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with me!  (And if you didn’t panick, what kind of friend are you? Just kidding J)  A combination of not enough sleep, eating something bad at lunch (I’m blaming the raw mushrooms in my salad), and getting overly warm on the metro when we got stuck in a tunnel for a while caused me to momentarily black out when we got off the metro.  I don’t know what it was – I just started to feel overwhelmed with nausea, then I felt all hot and sweaty and started seeing white spots and next thing I know it all went black! Thankfully Paul and Armel were right beside me and helped me over to a bench.  Once I sat down, I started to feel better, but as a precaution, Armel thought we should press the S.O.S. button in the metro station and get someone to come check me out.

When the station attendant showed up, she said she couldn’t let me go without getting the firemen (who apparently do everything here) to come check me out and maybe take me to a hospital.  I really didn’t want to go to the hospital because I felt fine, but Paul and Armel said I should go get checked out since we’re off to Germany tomorrow and it won’t be as easy to go to a hospital there (we don’t speak the language) if something is wrong.  So, after a bit of persuasion, I agreed to go with the firemen, who brought me to the ambulance-type vehicle and checked my blood pressure and pulse.  They said everything seemed normal, but because I had almost fainted, they wanted me to go the hospital to do some tests, so off we went.

The hospital ended up being a total waste of time because we waited around for almost 3 hours for someone to come collect blood from me to run some tests, and we ended up leaving without the test since it was taking so long (luckily they didn’t ask me to pay for anything!).  When we first got there, they checked all my vitals and everything seemed fine, and then they stuck me in a room to wait for someone to come run the other tests.  After a while, Armel asked a nurse how long it would be and how long it would take to get the results back, and we realized we’d be there all night if I was going to get these tests done!  I felt totally fine, apart from being tired with a bit of a tummy ache, so we decided to leave and headed to Armel’s parent’s house to rest for a while. 

After a long nap on the couch, I felt completely normal and we went back to chinatown to eat at Armel’s favourite restaurant, Chez Alex Africain Malaysien.  They specialize in a roasted chicken, served with deep fried bananas, white rice, and two types of sauce – one white and one red.  We don’t know what the sauces are made of, but the white one tasted like asparagus and the red one was a bit sweet – it didn’t matter though, both were delicious and we loaded our rice with sauce!  The entire meal was really really good, but I held back from eating too much in case it made my stomach hurt again.

Apart from being a really good tour guide, Armel was a lifesaver today because there was no way I could have gotten by without him as my translator!  Thank God the only time I’ve gotten sick so far this trip is with a friend who can help out with the language barrier – it’s really different to go to the hospital when you can’t explain how your feeling or what’s wrong!  Now let’s just hope this is a one time thing and I don’t get sick again

Starting today, our friend Armel, who is originally from Paris but now lives in Vancouver, was able to meet up with us for our last two days in Paris before going to his friend’s wedding in Croatia.  We’ve been looking forward to these two days for a long time –   it takes a stroke of luck to have your schedule coincidentally match up with your friends so that you travel to the same place without travelling together!

Trusting Armel to guide us to the best French food he knows, we decided today was the day we would finally try beef tartare, which I’ve been wanting to try since we saw it in Lyon, a few weeks ago.  Because we all slept in (Armel had jet lag and we had a bit of insomnia, possibly from our excitement), we didn’t actually make it to the restaurant, Le Sevro in the 14th arrondissement, for beef tartare together, but Armel gave us directions over the phone and we made it there just before they closed for their afternoon break at 2 pm. We ate our beef tartare – which was good, but had a very buttery texture so I couldn’t stomach more than half my plate – while waiting for Armel, and because he was still on his way when we finished eating, we ordered two coffees as an excuse to stay at the restaurant a bit longer.  I would recommend anyone to try this restaurant’s beef tartare, but don’t order a coffee – it will set you back 5 euros per cup!

When we met up with Armel, we spent some time in the14th arrondissement, checking out some of the places Armel spent part of his childhood, before walking over to the Jardin du Luxembourg area in the 6th arrondissement to find Pierre Hermé, a world famous pastry boutique started by a man of the same name that now has 7 locations in Tokyo and 4 in Paris.  After picking up a box of macaroons, which is what they are most famous for, we headed to Le Bon Marché (considered by some people to be the first department store ever opened), to do a bit of shopping.  We walked around for a bit, but no one really wanted to buy anything so Armel suggested we take a break from walking and sit down for some dessert at Ladurée, another luxury cake and pastry chain based in Paris.  Because it was late in the day, our menu choices were pretty small, but I had the best passion fruit tart I’ve ever tasted and was glad to have a rest while eating something really yummy.

We decided to go check out Chinatown – Paul and I haven’t been anywhere with a Chinatown so far this trip – and walked over to Notre Dame then hopped on the metro.  Since the dessert left us feeling not too hungry, we decided to just eat a bit at Armel’s parents restaurant, La Mangue Verte (100 Avenue d’Ivry) when we got to Chinatown.  They specialize in Vietnamese dishes and it was some of the best Vietnamese food I’ve ever had – and I’m not just saying that because Armel is our friend!  I seriously could eat there everyday if I lived nearby…

After dinner, Armel took us for our first car ride around Paris and drove us around the Arc de Triomphe since it was pretty late and traffic had died down.  If it was during the day, I’m not sure if any amount of begging would have enticed him to enter that crazy huge traffic circle – it can take a few full rounds to get out sometimes!  We stopped for some ice cream at Häagen-Dazs on Avenue des Champs-Élysées (which is really popular in Paris for some reason) before heading back to our hotel for the night.

I have to say, having a local who’s also a friend show you around is so much better than just exploring on your own!  It’s too bad we don’t know many people in different parts of the world!  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings…

When we finished with the Louvre, we decided to go check out the Orangerie Museum as well because it’s only a short 10 minute walk away.  The line up here was 30 minutes, but that was because the Orangerie is small and they are careful about crowd control. 

We were relieved to find only a handful of people inside the main exhibit, Les Nymphéas by Claude Monet.  This was hands-down my favourite art-experience in my entire life – the Orangerie has built two oval-shaped rooms to display these eight huge wall to wall pieces from Monet’s Water Lilies collection.  The white walls and natural lighting in these rooms make it a very tranquil experience and even as art newbies, we were mesmerized by these paintings.  If I lived in Paris, I think I would spend countless hours just sitting in these oval rooms staring at the walls! 

The rest of the Orangerie is quite nice as well, especially if you favor works from the Impressionism period like we do.  I found myself enjoying the works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir,  Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse immensely – and I hadn’t heard of them until recently!  Seeing the Orangerie’s collection has broadened my knowledge of art and I can finally say I know a little bit more than just the most famous artists (e.g. Van Gogh, da Vinci, and Monet) who everyone knows!

Feeling happy to have saved 16.50 euros in admission fees today, we decided to walk in the direction of Galleries Lafayette to find some food since we had skipped lunch in our rush to get to the museums to get in line (so we thought).  As we walked, we encountered a huge group of men dressed up in silly wigs, feather boas, and fake fur coats, and some were even wearing high heels!  From a distance it looked like some big transvestite party, but once we crossed the street and were among we realized that their outfits were too ridiculous and not feminine enough to be transvestites.  We stopped and asked to take a picture with one pair of guys who were off the the side, and they explained (in very broken English) that they were going to some kind of concert that involved magic.  Must be quite a show!

After a lot of walking, we decided to stop at a restaurant/bar that had a reasonably priced menu.  Our streak of luck continued and we found out it was happy hour so Paul got a beer and I got a champagne cocktail, which turned out to be the best cocktail I’ve ever tasted!  I must try mixing crème de framboise, champagne, and strawberry juice together when I get home!  The food was also quite tasty – I had some kind of fish with rice and a really nice light sauce and Paul got country-roasted chicken which was really nice and juicy and cooked in a delicious marinade. 

All in all, today was one of the best Sundays we’ve had so far on this trip!  We saw two great museums for free, met some silly but nice French people, and had some delicious food paired with some great drinks.  What more could anyone ask for?

As most people know, the first Sunday of every month there is free admission to most museums in Paris.  If you look this up this online, people will tell you to avoid the Louvre (the world’s most visited museum) like the plague on this Sunday because it”s usually the busiest day of the month, but for whatever reason we lucked out and there was no line-up at all when we went at 2 in the afternoon today!

Since we were expecting the line-ups to be crazy, when we got off the metro we spent 20 minutes looking for a less-busy side entrance which we had read about on the internet.  It’s supposed to be between the Pont du Carrousel and Pont Royal in the southwing of the museum, but we couldn’t find it and decided to try the main pyramid entrance which most people use.  To our amazement there was only about 30 people in line and we were inside in 15 minutes!

Most people say there are only three things worth seeing at the Louvre – the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Venus de Milo.  After our visit today, we have to agree! The rest of the museum is filled with paintings from the 14th-19th century, antiques and art from many different parts of the world, and sculptures.  As I mentioned before, we’re not really “art people” and the importance/significance of these pieces was lost on us – we just don’t know how to appreciate the older stuff!  At least we’re not the only people who feel that way…

Seeing the Mona Lisa in person was quite an interesting experience – it was much smaller than I expected (only 30 inches x 21 inches), and the never-ending hoards of people crowding around to get a glimpse of it was unbelievable! You can’t get close to the painting at all – there were five security officers making sure people stayed behind the bars around it and it’s behind a protective glass case – so on a busy day it’s virtually impossible to get a clear picture of Leonardo daVinci’s most famous work, but people keep trying!  After being jammed shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd for a while, we gave up trying to get to the front and moved to the right to exit

Although we had read that you should plan your tour of the Louvre before going, we got lazy and didn’t study the museum map online before getting there.  As a result, we got totally lost while looking for the Venus de Milo, which is on the ground floor, below the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory of Samothrace (which are located pretty close together and are quite easy to find).  The museum staff weren’t too helpful and we ended up walking around in several circles, having a hard time even finding the stairs!  If you’re going to the Louvre, be forewarned – it’s as poorly labeled as Versailles!  The only good thing about getting lost was when we eventually found the Venus de Milo we came from behind it, which meant we avoided the crowd coming from the front of it and managed to get some really good clear pictures of it.  I don’t really get what all the fuss is about, but it’s a nice sculpture (without arms!?!).

Today we went to our first art museum together on this trip (we’re both not really art lovers so we’ve been waiting for the larger, everybody-must-see museums), and although we still don’t appreciate or understand art as much as most people, we both felt the Orsay was a worthwhile experience that made us feel inclined to get more into art.  We’re not saying we’ll go study it or learn about different artists or anything like that, but we might invest in buying a piece or two when we get home, instead of having bare walls like we’ve always had.  The thing about art is it’s so subjective and we don’t know how to determine what a piece is or isn’t worth, but there’s a learning curve for everything and today was the first baby step.

Our orignal plan was to maybe also go to the Louvre today, but having to wait in line for 45 minutes at the Orsay put us behind schedule, and we didn’t realize how large their collection is until we got inside.  By the time we were done the first floor we had had just about enough art for the day, and there were still two more floors for us to explore!

I won’t bore you with the details of what we saw, but I will say my favourite piece was one of Monet’s earlier works from his pre-impressionism days called Le déjeuner sur l’herbe. He started this huge (4×6 meters) picture of people having lunch in the park in 1865, but abandoned the painting in 1866, unable to finish it.  Monet then used it as a security deposit to his landlord, who put the painting in his cellar where it developed mould (if only he knew what it would be worth some day)!  When Monet got the painting back in 1884, he cut it up and kept three fragments – two now hang at the Orsay and one has disappeared. 

Although we spent quite a bit of time on the first floor, we picked up the pace on the second floor when we got to the sculptures section.  The whole genre of sculpture doesn’t particularly appeal to us because everything looks the same to our untrained eyes!  Even Auguste Rodin’s works blended together to me, and he’s considered the predecessor of modern sculpture!  I don’t think I’ll ever be into collecting sculptures…

Despite hurrying through the second and fifth floor, it was past 4 when we left the Orsay.  Being tired and hungry with not much time left in the day (almost everything closes at 6 on Saturdays), we decided to try to go to Notre Dame one more time.  We hopped on the metro to get there and then found a Greek restaurant nearby the cathedral to grab a quick bite.  This might be the last time we try Greek food in Europe until we get to Greece – Paul’s knuckle of pork was really really overcooked (and they said that’s how it should be) and my skewer of chicken was rather dry as well
 
Lunch took less than 40 minutes, and by 5:30 we had finished seeing Notre Dame (although we didn’t bother to climb up the tower).  We decided to head to the flagship Galleries Lafayette department store on Boulevard Haussmann since it opens until 7:30 on Saturdays but closes on Sundays.  For anyone who’s into designer luxury brands, this store is not to be missed!  The main building is 10-stories of boutique shopping delight, and there are 3 other buildings next to it (a Men’s Store, Home Store, and Lafayette Gourmet).  As a girl who cannot shop for the next few years, our hour spent here was torturous and involved a lot of willpower to not buy anything, but I made it out without a single purchase!  It will definitely be nice to do some shopping when I finally get home…

After a frustrating day of dealing with crowds, we took a nap at our hotel then ventured out to do some more sightseeing since Paul was able to get away from work for a change (he’s normally tied up from four pm till midnight Paris time).  We decided to find some dinner and then walk around till sunset so we could see the “city of lights” lit up – seeing the area by our hotel at night just doesn’t do it justice!

We started by walking down Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis again (the area is less than desirable but the food was pretty good and cheap), but we couldn’t find a restaurant that appealed to us so we kept going south towards the Louvre.  I started to get mad at Paul for being so picky about what he didn’t want to eat because we had less and less choice as we got closer to the Louvre, and we ended up by the east end of the Louvre, with only two restaurant to choose from – Greek food or sandwiches. 

Since I’m not a fan of sandwiches, we tried the Greek restaurant.  My dish of grilled lamb, chicken, and beef was OK, but Paul decided to try something different and order veal with pasta, which was not good at all.  We left dinner feeling frustrated with our inability to decide on somewhere to eat sooner, but we quickly forgot that we were mad when we go to the pyramid entrance of the Louvre.  By now it had gotten dark, and the pyramid entrance is quite spectacular when it is lit up at night.  I’ve read that there’s controversy over this pyramid because some people feel it looks out of place in front of the classical architecture of the Louvre, but I think it goes well with the classical architecture and enhances the look of the whole area dramatically at night. 

We decided to walk from here all the way to the Arc de Triomphe so we could see the Place dela Concorde, the Obélisque de Luxor, the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées at night.  At first I wanted to do this walk during the day (sometime this weekend) again so we could see everything in the daylight as well, but when we realized how far of a walk it is, we decided once was enough 

This route is a popular walk for tourists because you can’t see all of these sights if you travel by metro, but it should be noted that it’s over 3km long!  Although we love how the buildings in Paris look at night, this walk is probably better during the day because you can stop to shop or eat along the way (some restaurants were open, but everything else was closed).  Interestingly enough, the Renault dealership on Avenue des Champs-Élysées is open till midnight, and we popped in to have a look (it was one of the nicest dealerships I’ve seen, and I’ve worked quite a few dealerships!). 

After watching traffic dart around the Arc de Triomphe (which is pretty crazy, even at midnight on Friday), we walked over to the Eiffel Tower, bringing our total walking distance to over 9 km!  We had read that there’s a “light show” every hour (in our minds we were thinking big rays of different coloured light), but all we saw was the Eiffel Tower “glitter” with blue-white sparkling lights every 15 minutes or so.  Still, seeing the Eiffel Tower at night was probably our favourite sight so far and it is a memory I will treasure, as corny and touristy as that sounds. 

Since we had done so much walking, we rewarded ourselves with a cotton candy (see picture) and a chocolate waffle from a stand across the street from the Eiffel Tower.  We went back to the bottom of the Tower to sit and eat, and when I had gotten about ¾ of the way through my cotton candy, a couple of humorous middle-aged Spanish men came walking by and started reaching for it.  I smiled and made a gesture to offer them some and they laughed and said “oh thank you!  You’re so generous!” and tookmost of the remaining cotton candy.  Their wives apologized profusely and pushed them to walk on, and I laughed and said it was fine – truth be told I was getting sick of cotton candy – that thing was massive!

We panicked when we got to the nearest RER station and it was closed, but we found a Metro station nearby that was still open and made it back to our hotel with no problems.  Tonight was probably the greatest night out we’ve had so far, and I am definitely in love with Paris!  Some people say that it is overrated, but tonight I feel like I’ve dreamed of coming here all my life for a reason – Paris really is one of the greatest cities in the world to me!

Since we’ve already been in Paris for three days and haven’t seen the Eiffel Tower at all, we decided to start our day by trying to climb up the first and second level.  Try is the key word – apparently May 1 is Labor Day in Paris (and also a holiday in most of Europe) and everything is closed except for the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame so all the tourists go to these two sights!  The line-ups for the lift at the Tower were over 2 hours long and even the line-up to climb the stairs (which is normally pretty short) was over an hour wait! 

I don’t know about you, but standing in line for an hour to climb a tonne of stairs didn’t make sense to us, so we decided to eat lunch nearby and then go back to see if the line-ups had gotten any shorter.  We found a Romanian restaurant and took a leisurely hour and a half to eat, but when we returned the line-ups were just as long, so we decided to give up and head to Notre Dame, hoping that it would be slightly less crowded there.   

That was wishful thinking – Notre Dame de Paris is the official chair of the Archibishop of Paris and was one of the first Gothic cathedrals.  Although there are several Notre Dame cathedrals in Europe, Notre Dame de Paris is usually the one that comes to mind people talk about going to see Notre Dame (especially since it was featured in the world-famous book The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo).  Therefore it is normally a popular stop for tourists, and on a day when everything else is closed, it was almost as crazy as the crowds at the Eiffel Tower

After arguing for a bit about whether to line-up or not (I think it would have been about a 45 minute wait), we decided to leave and come back on a slightly less busy day.  I can’t believe it’s only May 1 and we’re hitting long line-ups of crowds – I wouldn’t want to be here during the most touristy months of the summer!  No wonder most Parisians hate tourists – yes we boost the economy but it really is unpleasant to have to fight your way through crowds all the time! Hopefully we’ll be in less touristy places during the travel high-season and I won’t have to face line-ups like this again for a while!

Today we went to our most touristy (and most expensive!) attraction so far – the Palace of Versailles.  We woke up early to catch the train (which takes an hour from where we are staying) because we had read that it gets busier as the day goes on.  When we got the Palace at 10:30, there was already a line-up of over a hundred people at the entrance and another 80 or so at the ticket office!  Fortunately we had read a very useful tip to skip the line-up for tickets by walking through the crowd at the doorway and going to the back of the ticket office where there are automated machines that most people don’t know about.  The only catch is these machines only accept pin-chip credit cards and you can only buy the adult-priced full day pass, which gives entrance to the Palace, the grounds, the Trianon Palaces and Marie-Antoinette’s Estate for 20 euros (if you want to just visit the Palace it’s only 13.50 euros and there are student and senior discounts for all passes, but you have to purchase these tickets from a cashier). 

To maximize our line-up efficiency, we split up and Paul went to get tickets while I lined up for entrance.  The line at the entrance actually moved really quickly because lots of people didn’t realize they had to buy tickets at the ticket office to the left, so when they got to the front they had to move to the side while someone from their party went and lined up for tickets!  By the time Paul got the tickets and came back, we only had to wait another 15 minutes to get in!

Starting in 1669,  King Louis XIV transformed Versailles from a royal hunting lodge into a magnificent (and huge!) palace where he resided and held court.  There are 700 rooms and many are open to the public for viewing, so it actually takes a lot of time to walk through the Palace, especially if you want to read the signs to learn what each room was for. My favourite was the Hall of Mirrors, a 200 foot long ballroom lined with giant mirrors, and I really liked the ceilings in the rooms, many of which are painted with frescoes of Greek gods.

We thought 4 hours at Versailles would be enough, but by the time we finished going through the Palace (and we rushed through a lot of it!), we didn’t have much time left to explore the gardens and check out Marie-Antoinette’s Estate and we had to completely skip the Trianon Palaces because Paul had to get back to the hotel for work.  We actually lost a bit of time because we found a cell phone as we were walking through the gardens and decided to redial the last number dialed in order to track down the owner to give the phone back.  The problem was the people who answered (who were with the owner) only spoke French so we couldn’t explain where we were!  It was amazingly difficult to find someone who spoke French to help us, but we finally found a nice trio from Quebec who was able to tell the owner where we were.  They said we could leave the phone with them and they would wait for the owner to come get it, but as we were walking away the guy who owned the phone showed up and ran after us to thank us and offer a few euro coins in appreciation.  We declined the money and went on our way – this will just be our good deed for the month

Overall, I would say that Versailles was a worth-while daytrip, although it’s probably better to visit mid-week or during off-peak season, when there aren’t as many crowds.  I wish we had been able to spend a full day there so that we could have spent more time in the gardens, rented a row-boat in the pond, and seen the Trianon Palaces.  Also, Marie-Antoinette’s Estate is quite pretty and worth a look, but take note of the fact that it’s far from the Palace and the grounds are very poorly labeled (it took us almost an hour to find!).  If you can afford it, rent one of the golf carts that they offer to get around the gardens(I think it was 20 euro per hour).

At last, we’ve arrived in Paris!  It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to come here, so we scheduled nine nights in Paris, which worked out well because it gave us time to chill and do some more trip planning (for our next segment, the UK) when we arrived yesterday, without having to worry about not having enough time to explore Paris.  We’ve decided it’s a good idea to have an extra day in as many cities as possible so we can take a break from sightseeing without having to skip stuff, and our upcoming schedule has been modified accordingly (we’ve also noticed that from Barcelona till now, when we move from one city to another, the travel day is pretty a write-off because we’re too tired to do anything).  I don’t know how some people can hop from city to city without any breaks in between – we get tired after three days of running around sightseeing!

Today, our second day in Paris, was spent exploring the area we are staying – the 10th arrondissement, by the Gare de l’Est (we’re at an Ibis hotel again because we got a pretty good rate of 59 euros per night).  We walked over to the Place de la République, a large square on the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements, where a peaceful demonstration was happening about the events going on in Sri Lanka.  After roaming around the area, we found an alleyway that had a number of restaurants and decided to eat at a Vietnamese place that mainly did phở.  I was impressed by how good it was (although I have really low expectations when it comes to Asian food in Europe) and, compared to the last time we had phở in Geneva, this was dirt cheap – 7 euros with a drink!

After eating, we had to go back to the hotel so Paul could do some work, but in the evening we checked out a nearby street called Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis – considered by some to be Paris’ red light district.  The north end of the street is mostly just Turkish and Indo-Pakistani restaurants and lots of small convenience and grocery stores, but towards the south you will find lots of sex shops and prostitutes soliciting clients.  While the Turkish pizza and kebabs we had here were delightful, I would say the south end of the street was kind of scary and the ladies there were, uh, how shall I put it… less than desirable!

So, after two days in Paris we’ve yet to see the major attractions here, but there’s still another week!  I’m just glad that we’ve found some decent food, even if we haven’t eaten anything French yet, and we’re all rested up and ready to do some sightseeing again!