Chanson d'amour

Suckers!

I got back home to Linkoping last night, after a whole week in PARIS! Yeeeeehhaaaaa! Had sooo much fun, did soo much, crossed like a million things off my 'i wanna do this in Paris, should i ever get there' list. So here is a rundown of how my week in gay paree went down:

Tuesday 9/05 - got on plane to Charles de Gaulle, airport is not very impressive, but i did enjoy the massive human conveyer belt. Met dad and helen at the opera house, then went to the hotel, and found a lovely little french bistro for dinner. Had escargots (snails for those of you uneducated folk, and are actually really nice) - tick! Ordered my meal in french, and was understood - tick!

Wednesday 10/05 - Huuuge day. Eiffel tower in the morning. We took the easy option, and took the lift right to the top - tick! I'm sure it would have been a spectacular view had it not been a foggy morning, but it was very impressive nonetheless. Bought a couple of souvenirs (of course), took some photos, blah blah blah. Afternoon - Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe - tick! Very impressed with both, loved the class of the Champs Elysees (went into Louis Vuitton, totally drooled even though i dont like Vuitton at all! must have been the location...), loved the fact that I could barely contain my excitement at being at the Arc de Triomphe, while the french people around either totally ignored it, or looked at it as though it were an eyesore. lol
In the evening we went to Montmartre for a quick drink and dinner before going to the Moulin Rouge! Had a glass of french champagne (of course) while watching the 2 hour show - tick! Realised that Moulin Rouge is gods gift to men and women. For the men - gorgeous girls prancing around on stage in sparkly g-strings, most of whom are topless as well - need I say more? For the ladies - brilliant dancing, amazing costumes, verrry cute boys - all of whom can dance extremely well, AND have very nice bodies ;) lol
Of course, no photography allowed, but I did get a program, so plenty of nice pics in there.

Thursday 11/05 - Went to the Louvre in the morning, and stood in front of La Joconde...aka Mona Lisa - tick! Stood in front of it for aaaaages, trying to figure out what the big deal is. It certainly is an amazing painting, but i'm still not entirely sure what all the fuss is about. Besides, its hard to get a real feel for a painting when its sitting behind glass, and there are like 50 tourists around you all cramming to try and get a good view. Still, its another thing ticked off my list. I really liked the Apollo Gallery (this amazing room that is wall to wall/ceiling paintings and gold) - which is also impossible to photograph well. aaannnyway!
Went to Notre Dame in the afternoon - tick! Had a bit of a look around for Quasimodo (lol), took some photos of course. It was really huge, but after the Louvre it kind of feels like you have culture coming out of every orifice, so it gets a bit difficult to fully appreciate anything worth seeing.

Friday 12/05 - Musee D'Orsay in the morning. I actually enjoyed this collection of paintings a little more than those at the Louvre, but I really love Monet. There were quite a few of his paintings at this gallery, so i spent quite a bit of time in front of those. They also had some really nice Renoirs (not the one I was hoping to see unfortunately, but still great nonetheless).
Back to Montmartre in the afternoon - this time to the Basilica de Sacre Coeur - tick! It was really lovely, very impressed with that one. The inside is breathtaking, but as with most of the really beautiful cathedrals - no photographs. They also had a choir of nuns singing, which was really amazing to hear. This stupid woman was filming inside, it was good to see her frogmarched out the door - only to have her husband try and sneak a photograph in! Ignorami.

Saturday 13/05 - Shopping day! Mostly uninteresting, but bought a new pair of jeans... cos my others had a most unattractive hole in the inner leg. Damn bicycles.

Sunday 14/05 - Chateau de Versailles. AMAZING palace, the biggest place I've ever seen in my life! Had a ridiculous amount of gold inside, was totally extravagant. Something I think my grandparents would love to see in particular. It was really really beautiful. Stood in the most amazing room i've ever been in - the hall of mirrors. You need to be there to truly appreciate it, cos the photos just dont do it justice.

Monday 15/05 - Another shopping day. We went to one of the pricier areas of town, near the Rue de Rivoli. They had some really beautiful things, but a lot of them were also really out of my price range. dang. walked for AGES (we had like 6 hours to kill), then went back to the hotel to wait for our shuttle to the airport. Our plane got delayed at Charles de Gaulle, but when we finally got to Stockholm we stayed at the Hilton. By far the most luxurious hotel I've ever stayed in! Impeccable.

Tuesday 16/05 - Train back to Linkoping! More on the farewell dinner for ESN later :D

Stay in school kids,

Chloe xo