Paris Day 1

We set our alarm the night before as we knew that Paris being an hour ahead of London we were bound to sleep in! For Lews birthday I had purchased a bike tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours so we were taking the subway in to that this morning for 1030am. We showered and snuck out of the Airbnb since Julien and Ben were still asleep as they were out partying since it was Saturday night when we arrived. I didn't hear them come home last night which is excellent so we thought we had better try be as quiet as possible too. It was easy enough to walk down the street and across the road to the underground and buy the Paris Visitors 3 day pass which allows you access to all public transport within zones 1-3. It cost us about €53 which is $86 NZD so not the cheapest subway we have experienced.  It was strange to be in yet another metro station, our fourth so far! We caught two trains that were rather old and a lot more noisy and rough than any of the ones we had tested out but it did get us from A to B intact.

Coming out of the metro at the stop Duplex we came across a huge Sunday market called Rue de Grenelle which is a popular open air market in the 15th arrondissement. It is also open on Wednesdays from 7-2.30pm and locals come from far and wide to get fresh produce. Now those of you who have been to the Saturday morning markets at Riccarton House in Christchurch know that it is pretty hard to beat that. To my surprise this was WAY better. Very very french with no english what-so-ever but the perfect thing to come across since neither of us had had breakfast yet. We walked the length of the market admiring all the fruit stalls selling the nicest looking produce iv ever seen - better than New World Fendalton! There were tonnes of meats, cheeses and breads to choose from. We were in awe of these French people with their baskets collecting their fresh produce for the week. We decided that we just had to buy some strawberries as we hadn't had any since summer in NZ (Dec-Feb), plus some bananas (Lew's staple food item) and some sort of bread. The first place was the strawberries and we always seem to fool the shop owners into thinking we are French as we say "Bonjour" and they start rabbiting off into some conversation in French. When they realise we look at them blankly or I say "English" that quickly stopped. One shop owner even tried to find someone else to speak english to me but they couldn't find someone! Thats how deep in the heart of Paris we were. I can imagine this is the sort of thing we better get used to for when we are driving through the very small towns in the country side. Another stall was selling some delicious looking fruit bread and decided we would share that. Finding a place in the sun we Facetimed Lew's family to share the delight of the market. We also realised it wasn't exactly the cheapest market we had come across. Raisin bread €1.90, Bananas (5) €1.88, Strawberries €3.50, a total of €7.30 ($11.90 NZD).

The place where we were meeting for the tour was across the street and we went to meet our guide there. Once everyone had signed in the walked us 1km back to the office to get fitted with bikes. It took about half an hour for this and we were split up into three different groups. I think we had about 20 people with us which seemed like a lot. Our tour guide was called Tim and right off the bat he managed to remember everyones names...impressive. In France a helmet is optional and we thought we probably wouldn't be biking on the roads or too fast so we would be ok without them. But we learnt on our briefing that we will infact be biking on the road and we share the lane with buses. Tim had some very funny hand signals we introduced us to including a arm held up with a fist which meant we were to dominant, ie be in a huge group and block all access for cars to try and squeeze past us. He had quite the sense of humor and we knew it would be fun. Our first stop was the French Military School (Ecole Militaire) which is still in use today. It was created by King Louis 15th. When biking along the road to the next destination I looked to my left and was totally surprised to see the Eiffel Tower in the flesh! Neither of us realised we were quite so close to it already. But we presumed that was our final desitination as we were heading away from it. Next was a beautiful park with a large building with a golden dome on top of it. Tim had told us that the French are very boring at naming things so this is literally called the Dome Church (Eglise du Dome). It was built by Napoleon as he wanted his own place of worship but only used it a total of four times despite it having 2 million euros worth of gold on its dome. He was buried there in 1840 in 6 coffins on the lower ground floor and people can only visit on the ground floor. He wanted it this way so that people would have to lean down to see him in a bowing position emphasising his power even after death. When Hitler visited he refused to bow down to the dead so before he came in had mirrors installed so he could stand tall and just glance down at the tomb. 

The bike tour continued up tree lined avenues and through parks with locals eating picnic lunches or playing football. We came across the Les Invalides which was a hospital and retirement home build during the war to hide all the deformed soldiers who had returned. After all they wanted more men to sign up and if you are frequently seeing men with missing limbs its not exactly encouraging for the war effort. Today it is a war museum mainly focusing on Napoleonic Wars and even has cannons outside the entrance that were used in battle. The bike ride continued towards the Seine and Lew and I were feeling rather relaxed with the sun shining on our faces. The Seine is full of boats on river cruises and is a more pleasant colour than the Thames back in London. We parked up all the bikes in the middle of the bridge called the Alexander III Bridge and Tim began to tell us the history of it. We were a little alarmed that the entire thing was moving a lot with all the cars on it but we shortly learn that it was the first of its kind, an engineering marvel as it has no supports in the middle of the bridge - hence all the flexing going on. The bridge is also surrounded by four statues with golden painted symbols at the top, all representing the past and present relationship with Russia. The bridge as well is a present from Russia, acknowledging their alliance in the early 1900's.  Across the other side of the bridge is what they call the big and small Palaces (Petite and Grand Palace) which is where they hold things such as Paris Fashion week in the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace is home of the Museum of Fine Arts - the only free museum in Paris (Tim recommended that even if we don't like fine arts, if we need to use a bathroom that one is a good option!). Riding on the roads in a mixture of single, double or dominant style depending on Tims hand signals we made it to a very famous courtyard the Place de la Concorde. It is the largest square in Paris and was used for public execution during the French Revolution. They had to move the guillotine around the courtyard as often the amount of blood built up and the guillotine table became unstable. Noble people were always beheaded and they had the choice of the use of a axe or a blade. Non-noble people however died slow painful deaths by multiple methods instead of the quick beheading. This square is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded and there has been estimated between 18-22,000 heads rolled on the courtyard. The last public beheading was in 1939 but there was a private beheading in 1977. In 1981 France banned the death penalty. This square also is home to the Luxor Obelisk from Egypt which the French believe was a gift from Egypt. However, Egyptian people do not believe they gifted this to France so perhaps it is stolen! 

By this stage it was 1230pm and we stopped for brunch in the Tuileries Gardens, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The rest of the bike group sat down to order but Lew and I went to get a baguette from the cabinet. We sat along side the gardens admiring the flowers and buildings behind it. Once we has spent about 20 minutes there for lunch the next stop was the famous Louvre Museum. On this tour you don't get to go inside these museums but it gives you an overview of what you can come back and do other days. The Louvre has about 35,000+ pieced of artwork which the rotate. The most famous being the Mona Lisa. Tim said that if you spend 30 seconds looking at each painting during the museum opening hours it would take you two months to see everything. The local Parisians don't like the entrance way to the Louvre which is the glass triangle shaped piece you seen front and centre. This is because it is so modern compared to the building behind it. The metro stations can take you into the museum on the left and right sides and there is even a mall beneath it. 

Our final stop of the day was the Eiffel Tower. Now this initially was just a competition run by Paris and the winners design wasn't meant to stay up for as long as the tower has now. Paris was going to fund the project but later changed the conditions and said they would pay for 20%. Mr Eiffel supplied the money to complete the project as long as he received all the revenue for people accessing the sights. He made his money back within the first 6 months as the tower saw over 2 million people the first year. This is why the Eiffel family is still very rich today. It is made of iron and every 7 years it is repainted by hand which takes 15 months to complete. It is also painted in three different shades to give the illusion it is taller than it really is. It survived the war for two reasons. 1) Because they added a radio transmitter to the top of it which intercepted german messages 2) France surrendered to the Germans to preserve the city. We were allowed some time to take pictures but there were lots of white tents in the area as it was a family outing day. We then road the short 5 minute ride back to the office where we returned our bikes at about 2.30pm. Using the free wifi in the office we planned our next move.

Lew had heard that you could walk to the second story of the Eiffel tower for free so we planned to go there first. We walked all the way back only to find that this is indeed NOT true and you have to pay something like €11 ($18 NZD) to do this and the line was massive. We ditched that idea as a friend from home Tim had given us anotehr building go go up called the Montparnasse which gives you a view of the Eiffel tower and the city. Since it was such a nice day and it was possibly going to rain tomorrow we decided to do all outdoor actvities today and save the museums for the next day. We caught the metro to the stop just before the Arc de Triomphe and walked up the Champs Elyeese Avenue where the final leg of the Tour de France happens. We took some photos from across the road finding it very funny watching the cars in the roundabout. It is much like Indonesia where there are no lanes and the cars in the round about have to give way to the ones entering. So many times a car had to cut from the inside of the roundabout all the way to the outside cutting everyone off in its path just to take the correct road. No way are we going to try this in out little Citroen when we get it Wednesday. In fact are all round about in France like this?!

We found the tunnel going under the road to the Arc de Triomphe itself and in the center of the monument is a large French flag blowing in the wind and the tomb of the unknown soldier. The tomb has an eternal flame and every night at 6.30pm war veterans lay wreaths to recall the sacrifice this unknown soldier gave when he lost his life fighting for France. We sat on the fence surrounding the monument with the cars going around behind us and googled best cheap eats in Paris since last night cost far to much. This falafel place came up called L'as du Fallafel which is in the 4th Arrondissement and had very good reviews. It was quite awhile away from us but we figured we may as well use our train passes. It took about 30 minutes to get there in the crowded subway and we came out into the cute neighbourhood of Le Marais which was the other place we wanted to stay in. It is the Jewish quater and whilst the falafel place was ok it was rather overpriced and I recommend just walking down the streets around and you will find the same thing for cheaper. It was €8 for a vegetarian souvalaki and €11 for the beef meatball one ($45 NZD total). It was a lovely night and lots of locals and tourist were roaming the streets like we were. There were jewlery and leather stores that caught our eyes but we didnt purchase anything. We were feeling rather exhausted but made a quick stop to a nearby supermarket for some breakfast items and headed back to Juliens place.

Sitting on the couch with Julien when we got home he showed us some of his photography and drone shots from Norway and some of the places we are visiting in the next few months. I forwarded him the Summer edit Lew just made and he admired Lews starlapse. They got talking about the equipment they both use and it was really nice to see. We showed him our trip and he gave us some more tips on places to go and to avoid. By the time we showered and got some time to work on the blogs and photos it was about 9.30pm! We had no plans for the next day except Moulin Rouge so we would have to plan in the morning.