Backpacking Adventures in Paris France.
 |
The Peace & Love Hostel Paris France |
Well after a picnic and quickie breakfast by the Thames in London, I went and bought my Eurostar tickets to Paris. I took the round trip deal as it saved me some dough that way. I hung around a couple of hours in the Waterloo area, ate an expensive salad and watched young people practice dance numbers while I awaited my departure time. I was a bit worried that I did not have any reservations in Paris and that I did not speak the language, I planned to just show up at the village hostel and hope to find a room or at least some help finding one. I did have a line on some reservation services if worse came to worse. Well It was off to Chunnel to Paris. The train was a nice ride and comfy. The architectural wonderment of the Chunnel (a tunnel that goes 23 miles under the English channel) was from where I was sitting just a long 23 min tunnel. No cool little neon things or anything to make it something special from the riders point of view.
I arrived in Paris and was off the train looking about. This was just about where I began to be lost. My good wits had been with me though as I had purchased a street and sites map of Paris at the London Eurostar station. Then, as the cool backpacking culture goes, I hooked up with some fellow backpacking folk. Some young guys from Ohio and a young lady from one of those M states. We shared tips and went trekking off for the village hostel, then a young lady gave us a flyer. It was for the Peace and Love hostel. We hung on to it as she said that it did have rooms. So off to the village to find no room at the inn, and then back to the Peace and Love Hostel. We checked into the top floor after a very friendly welcome from the staff.. Now everyone at the Peace and Love spoke good English. The place had a cool name and we joked about having the Penthouse apartment, as we had a very tiny balcony (if you could call it that) with a view.
Now the proprietor of the Peace and Love had great taste
in music and his joint was ok. A handy internet terminal, a bar, a little food
market across the way, and the Metro across the street. All in all it was a good
place and affordable. Yet in sleeping there, I had a few troubles for the beds
squeaked very badly. Every time you even moved a toe it was "squeeky, squeeky ,
squeeeky , squeek.. This could get very annoying, and the
penthouse apartment as you
can imagine was very hot. So is was a night for sleeping almost naked and
drinking. The following day I wake with a horrible hangover. It was like a Malt
Liquor hangover. I'd pushed back more than several good pints of the Carlsberg
lager the night before , but this was no beer hangover. "I want some beer without so
much poison in it next time" I said to the Ohio boys who also had "the beer bus ran
over us" feeling going". Geez! all of us were baffled as to why or what we had
gotten ourselves into to make for the horrid state we were in. For the rest of
the stay there, I stayed away from their draft, it was fosters in the bottle from then
on, as the draft had weird and not so fun effects.
In some more rambling during my stay, I hoped on a Metro over to the old Royal Opera as it seemed a good place for me to begin my attack on Paris. I wandered around saw the huge Opera house and then spotted a "hop on hop off" tour bus. It was just the thing to help me get my bearings. I paid the equivalent of about 17 bucks for a 2 day pass. The double decker bus tour told me about things in various languages. It was just the thing to get me started in this strange land, and It did a little circuit around most of the popular sites around the Eiffel Tower. I wandered by the outside of the Louvre and saw Invalides, the old Royal Opera and several lovely churches. I spent a good amount of time just wandering the streets of central Paris and getting a feel for it. It was my first real day in Paris to just look around and soak it in. I was enjoying a park in Paris near the tower when I noticed fully that Paris was a "City of Lovers". Affection here is very public and open. People making out in the park, lovers here, lovers there, and more over there. If you manage to avoid the doggie do, you'll likely step on some lovers. Well as for Myself, I had a divided thing going as I love it, it is beautiful ; yet , I had no lover with me to facilitate my own participation in this fabulous part of the Paris culture , and that of course gave me a bit of the blues. The feeling one gets when going to the movies alone in the States and seeing that everyone is attached is very similar to the feeling the whole city of Paris gave me where romance is concerned. The singles must be "dead for their art somewhere in the shadows of the city as there is no public sign of them here in Paris..
I went exploring a couple of eating places and there I found the ONLY real rude
Frenchman on my whole trip. This fellow , unlike all the rest I met in my
journey, actually fit the American stereotypes you frequently hear. It was some
dumb ass waiter at a random bistro. I was not good with my French so he didn't
want to deal with me. My experience in Paris was that most ALL the people were
kind and willing to "give and take" where communication was concerned.. Even
when I encountered people who spoke absolutely NO English. This punk was
the only exception I met. May the culinary Gods curse his establishment and the
patron
saints of travelers make dark
the paths of his own adventures and journeys. I just left his joint and went a few blocks down the way.
Yet, I soon cheered my self up with some fine dining at the Bistro de Papa, No, it was not an English speaking person, but my 13 word vocabulary (at this point) , and a little give and take on the part of a kind server made it all a pleasant experience. The food, a fine seafood feast, was well prepared and quite yummy.
The people were kind and you could tell that they enjoyed their duty as fine culinary craftsmen. I stopped by the Champs-Elysees the most in vogue Paris shopping extravaganza, There I checked out the Arc de Triomphe and had a bit of time to shop for the "tackiest souvenir in Paris for my family and friends.
 |
| Shopping on the Champs-Elysees |
You see not any ordinary souvenir would be ok for them . It had to be the tackiest one.
I spent the afternoon just doing the touristy thing and trying to spot the heart and soul of Paris. Well I didn't really see it then, though I got some of the "sight seeing" out of the way.
After quite alot of exploring and walking around, I go back to the Pub/Hostel at the Peace and Love and kick back to cold bottled Fosters. I did some interneting and then went back to cold beer, relaxing and people watching in the pub. That's when two adorable ladies began Latin dancing together in front of my table. Complete with instructions on "how to move those hips", and how the Latin dances were "all about sex". I ordered two more bottles to allow for quality uninterrupted "slacking off and watching dancing girls" time.. I watched for about 30 minutes as I wrote some poems, drank cold ale and did journal entries. The Latin dancing girl began to look about for more "dancing" so she dragged me to the dance floor. I had a fine lesson in Latin Club dancing with the beautiful and talented young lady. It was nice to be on the receiving end of a dance lesson again and , whew! what a yummy teacher. We danced , talked and danced some more. One thing that she told me about the club dances that struck me was "dance like a sailor not so much the poet". I thought, hum, So I did a little internal search for the sailor in the poet (me) and enjoyed my evening of Latin dancing..
 |
| The beautiful Cathedral of Sacre-Coeur |
I woke, after a fine sleep, and was all set to attack the old Bohemian districts.
I set out for the Montmartre districts and Sacre-Coeur. The sight of the beautiful Cathedral of Sacre-Coeur was a breathtaking experience. There are no photographs that can do the beautiful place justice. I roamed through the temple, checked out the views from the Montmartre plateau, and then roamed about in Montmartre.
It was there that I ran into the neat little streets and cafes of Montmartre and could see that some of the heart of Paris was alive and well here.
The Artists set
up to sell their paintings in the Montmartre district.
The artists would sell their beautiful paintings, and hustle you to make charactuers of you. There were fine little cafes well situated for people watching, and a handful of cabaret theatres. I roamed through Montmartre and the area lended itself greatly to meeting people, and I met some very friendly Parisians over in the Montmartre districts.
After a fine lunch and bit of people watching I heading back to central Paris to climb the Eiffel tower. The line was relatively short on the tower leg with no lift.
There were four tower legs total. So I took it, and climbed every stair to the top. Climbing the Eiffel Tower is a Paris essential even though its a "touristy thing to do". The thing is very cool and the views are incredible.
Well , the hostel was fun in many ways , but the damn beds squeak and I needed a break from the whole hostel thing. So I checked into a budget hotel over in the Bastille district. I got a cheap and private single with a WC and shower. It was nice to have the privacy after all the days of hostelling. My body was worn from all the walking, the partying and the "no sleep in hot room with squeaky beds" phenomenon. I took the day to relocate, do laundry, rest and mill about in the Bastille districts. This was a day where recovery was the central theme. I got my body and mind in shape rest wise.
After quite a bit of running about other areas of Europe, I returned and my Paris adventures continued.
 |
| The Three Graces |
The Louvre Museum:
Well, I wanted to set aside a day to do the Louvre museum and this was it.
I did not make a lot of journal entries regarding it, but let me just begin by saying that the Louvre museum has got to be one of the fantastic and most magical wonders of the world. It was by far THE most magical thing in Paris.
I saw a tremendous about of great works . and some of the most beautiful art I've seen in my life. My camera was on overdrive as I took shots of my favorites. The building itself is mighty impressive and the contents... Wow!. DO NOT MISS the Louvre if you get to go any where near Paris. My photos can't do the beauty of this place any justice.. So I will tell about my experience with the Louvre by sharing some of my pics. There is SO much there to see. and this stuff represents a nano fraction of the goodies and beauty within her.
 |
| A View of Notre Dame Cathedral |
After being overwhelmed by the fantastic beauty of the Louvre and spending most of the entire day within her, There were just a 3 or 4 hours left of the daytime. I went over to check out Notre Dame Cathedral. I arrived in time to take a few pics and then the Festival of the Ascension began to dominate the cathedral. There I was in the mist of it. It was all a celebration to honor The Virgin Mary's ascension into heaven.
I then just joined in the masses and attended the celebration.
.
 |
| A shot inside Notre Dame Cathedral |
 |
| Folks as they entered Notre Dame for the Festival of the Ascension. |
While inside I had the opportunity to check out the awesome cathedral, and boy was she gothic wonderment! Yes, she was complete with Gargoyles on the outside, and the inside was like something out of legends. The Mass of the ascension went on and made for a very spiritual moment there in the heart of Paris.
Notre Dame made for a fantastic ending to a day of pure wonderment.
I toped of the evening with some more drinking in some taverns not too far away from the cathedral.Then I went to my bottle of French wine, and had a little picnic along side the river with Notre Damn in the background as the Sunset..
 |
 |
| Another couple of Shots inside Notre Dame |