Bonjour from Paris!
A few days to catch up on now and trying to write from a challenging French keyboard. HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE AT HOME!!
I am absolutely in love with this place. Initially I was concerned due to the majority of reviews other people had given it suggesting that it was dirty, over crowded and expensive, I haven’t found any of that to be the case.
Stay: We have been staying at the Loft Hostel which is located near the Chinese quarter and approximately 10 minutes on the metro from Montmarte and a further 10 to the Champs Elysees and central attractions. Given it is around new years it has been expensive on the hostel price range costing approximately 50 AUD a night. The place itself is really new, clean and the rooms have cute little courtyards outside.
Do: Since our arrival we have done a LOT of walking… the city is large and it takes weeks to cover not the few days we have set aside. We have however covered a considerable portion in the day and a half since we arrived. Tonight we plan to go to the Eiffel Tower and tomorrow Versailles so I will write another post on that portion.
Montmarte
We did a really interesting walking tour costing 12 EURO including a glass of wine at the end. The walk was at night and covered the interesting history of the artisan area. We went to the cafe featured heavily in Amelie, walked past Van Goghs apartment where he spent some of his tortured existence and wound our way up to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur to view the city and experience the Christmas markets. We also went to Picassos studio and Moulin Rouge. It was such a good tour and worth every cent to know more about the interesting area that you would not have picked up by walking the streets.
Champs Elysees, Arc Di Triomphe, Notre Dame
This was a walk and a half and the lines were enormous due to the fact it was New Years Eve. We did not go up the Arc Di Triomphe because of the lines nor did we enter the Notre Dame cathedral. We hope to do both of these when we are back next time. I was very well restrained on the Champs Elysees only buying a couple of things to contribute to my already full bag.The weather has been very cold and wet which did not really encourage us to stay out longer than necessary. I haven’t got a lot of time to write much further but will come back to this post in a few days.
Tonight the Eiffel tower, tomorrow Versailles and then off to Avignon, very exciting… France is my kind of country, it is a shame I cant speak more than the basics it is a beautiful language too.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy new years.
Courtney xx
stargirlwanders 