Last stop - Paris

Paris was our final destination of our 3 month trip around Europe. We stayed in the quiet suburb of Montrouge – to the south of Paris. This proved to be an ideal location, located on the last metro stop of the line running north to south through the city. It was nice to be back in an apartment where we could cook our own food – a luxury we didn’t get through Turkey & Greece. We each got a 10-pass on the metro at a reduced price and allowed us one return trip into the city for each of the 5 days we were there.

Our street in Montrouge

Our first stop was the famous Notre Dame which is on an island in the middle of the Seine River. It was a nice looking building made famous by the 1830 novel about a hunchback. It would have been rude not to get a couple of hunchback photos here..

Getting the hunchback on at Notre Dame

Just across the Seine from the Notre Dame is the also famous Lourve Museum where we stopped to have a look at the glass pyramids. The line here was so, so long – with tourist after tourist lining up mainly just to see the Mona Lisa. We had better things to spend the next few hours doing so kept on walking. We went to the lesser know Musee d’ Orsay which is actually the number 1 rated attraction in Paris. It is built inside an old train station which has been restored very nicely! It has the best display of impressionist paintings in the world and even though we aren’t huge fans of impressionist paintings it was well worth a visit. It houses some famous art by Monet, Cezanne & Van Gogh to name a few. One other good thing is the information for beginners explaining what each type of art is about. We would have been a bit lost without it!

Haylee outside the Lourve

The impressive Musee d' Orsay building

Cool sculpture made of different types of rock inside the museum

Just down the road from here was the Jardin Toulieres, a huge garden where many Parisians probably spend their lunch hours soaking up the sun – a nice place to chill out and get away from the city life. Paris is quite a clean green city with a garden or park around most corners and trees everywhere. Definitely beats the concrete squares and graffiti found in most other major European cities.

On a separate day we visited the Montmatre area which has a lot of trendy cafes and another famous building (the Sacre Couer) up on the hill there. The Sacre Couer itself is a cool looking building which looks fake even up close. The view of the city from the Sacre Couer is awesome as well. The Moulin Rouge is just down the hill so made sure we saw this before heading off. They still use the original building where they do raunchy shows with topless women – this dates back to 1889. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to watch the performance. We stopped in for lunch at a park which has a big mural with ‘I love you’ in every language. So many people stopped in to find their language and take a photo. By the end of our baguettes we even managed to find the Maori version.

The unreal looking Sacre Couer building

The Maori version of 'I love you' on a massive mural in the city of love

On our last full day in Paris we went to see the Eiffel Tower. We started the day by catching the metro to the Arc de Triomph which is a massive arch monument in the middle of a roundabout. From here it was a good walk down to the Eiffel, and from this direction we got the best views of the tower across the River Seine. We enjoyed a big picnic in the park in front of the Tower and soaked up a few rays. After letting our food settle (and waiting for security to open the tower after a bomb scare) we started our climb up the Eiffel. We got to the first viewing platform and the views over London were awesome, and they only got better the higher we got! By the very top there was a clear view along the River Seine and out to Montmatre. We could see many of the places we had visited in the past few days from a different perspective which was cool. Our advice – it is well worth it to go up the Eiffel if you are in Paris!Paris is a really nice city and we enjoyed our visit here. There are so many spots to enjoy a view here – the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Couer or just about any bridge on the River Seine. The trendy cafes and tall old school buildings add a lot of character to the city. The best thing that sets it apart from other cities in Europe has to be the trees and green parks around – so many places where you can go chill out or have a game of touch/backyard cricket etc.

The massive Arc du Triomph

A picnic with a view!

View from up the Eiffel

This was a good place to end our 3 month European Tour and from here we go to London and then onto Rio de Janiero in Brazil for our last two months of travelling. We are both looking forward to more beaches, caprinhas and things being cheaper in South America.