Day 9: Air Show Then Rest

Day 9, was on EARLY Saturday morning. I actually woke up at 7:30, showered, and left by 8 in the morning! I had to meet up with a friend at Opéra metro station to make it in time for the Air Show. The Air Show is this big world presentation, where all the greatest engineering manufacturers and developers show off their tech, and of course an actual air show where they have planes fly in the sky and do fancy manoeuvres. Everything from Boeing air planes, to missles to shoot them down, to satillites, to engines, and much more. The actual Air Show started around 1pm and lasted until around 3pm. I was STARVING by the end of it. Me and my buddy were holding out cause we didn’t want to pay for the 8€ sandwiches.  Not only starving, I also burned myself sitting in the sun too long; ouch.

After the show we headed back towards the city centre and ate some food.  Then went our separate ways.  I was so exhausted I ended up going home and crashing right away, that’s why this post is so late.  I actually didn’t bring my camera, so sorry to anyone who wanted to see any photos.  I’ll make up for it in Day 10 post.

This post is super short but I really didn’t do much this day.

Day 8: Versailles, Louvre (Richelieu)

This is a bit late but here’s day 8. Nine and ten are coming soon.

Friday, I set out to head out to Château de Versailles.  But, before heading over there, there were a few things I wanted to get done first.  I needed to get more RAM for my laptop because it was near impossible to edit video.  So, I headed out to Montgallet Metro.  Grabbed a bit to eat along the way.  Ended up eating an awesome panini, filled with chicken and LOTS of cheese.

Montgallet is pretty much the electronic district here in Paris.  It’s small, more or less one street.  If you’re from Toronto, you probably guessed it.  Every SINGLE computer store here is owned by Chinese People! And not only that, they open 7 days a week; unlike every other shop in Paris.  I ended up buying my RAM from Surcouf.  Surcouf is basically like NCIX in Vancouver & Toronto, but much larger.  I checked all the Asian computer stores but they were actually more expensive.  After, I need a screwdriver so I went to Mr. Bricolage, which is their version of a Canadian Tire, but much smaller.

Château de Versailles By around noon I had finished my purchases and set out to le Château de Versailles.  The best way to get there is actually by train, or more commonly known as the RER here.  But, I decided to try to get there by metro and bus.  I made it to the metro station Pont de Sèvres and then took the 171 bus line.  I didn’t realize but my Navigo (metro pass), didn’t work to go to Versailles because it was outside of the zones my Navigo would let me go.  Still, I walked on to the bus.  Yeah, they don’t check at all.  Or rather, they just don’t care.  So, I got to the Versailles without really paying!

I spent about an hour walking around the castle.  Most of the castle at the time I went was under renovation, so quite a few sections were closed off.  But really, if you want to see this kind of art I would simple suggest someone to go to the Louvre.  What was the most exciting thing to see at Versailles was honestly the garden.  You get such a NICE view.  But, what sucked was, I couldn’t get in. Garden at Château de Versailles They ended up closing the garden early for some festival so I couldn’t actually walk around it; such a waste.  I did manage to get a couple shots from inside the castle though.  After walking around the castle I got a bite to eat.  I ended up grabbing something from the castle’s cafeteria.  Every museum in Paris has one nearby, but they’re always ridiculously expensive.  I ended up paying like 9€ for a small brownie and a bottle of Sprite.  After recharging, I decided to take the RER home since it would be much faster.  Since Versailles is outside of Paris, you have to buy a ticket that allows you to re-enter into the city.  Not the t+ but one that says Paris on it.  The t+ tickets is only for within the 6 transit zones in Paris.  I’ll do a transit tips page sometime soon.

Once I was back in Paris, I stopped by Louvre again.  On Friday nights it’s Nocture night.  Basically between 6 to 10pm its free to enter.  You really should only go during this time if its either to get night shots of the museum or to see one of the concerts playing during the night.  Because I went at this time, I missed out on getting to eat on the rooftop of the museum, on the Richelieu Pavilion side.  Still, I walked around and got more shots of the museum!  Just take a look at the photos below.  I did a lot more editing this time to make them POP!  By the time I finished at the Louvre it was about 9pm so I headed home after that.

Halah Pizza - Speed Allo After getting off at my stop, I decided to pop by the local pizza shop near my place.  And man, these pizzas are GOOD! Costs about 8€ for a small pizza but it’s worth it, and in comparison to other places its much more value for the money.  To be honest, its almost always cheaper in the more local areas to eat food.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a restaurant or for take out.  Even the bakeries are cheaper in the local areas.  For example, in the tourist areas the average price for half a baguette is like 1 to 1,50€, but near my area its like 40 cents.  There are more local bakeries around the tourist areas but be careful which in streets you wander into.  There are some really sketchy people around the tourist areas in Paris! Like REALLY SKETCHY!

Posts for day 9 and 10 coming soon! Like always enjoy the photos! I put a lot of effort into these ones, hopefully you’ll enjoy them all the same.

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Day 6: Middle Ages, Pantheon & Crypts

Today turned out to be a beautiful day after the rain stopped around noon! Blue skies everywhere! I was able to get a lot of photos that I actually liked. I personally don’t like all 71 I’m posting now, but they’re important for memories. Also, I’ve decided to upload the photos in slightly higher resolution.

Musée National du Moyen Âge I set out today around noon-ish.  I first went walking around Notre-Dame again looking for the crypts.  But guess what? It took me an hour to find them because the signs kept on pointing me in the wrong direction.  Why make an arrow pointing south when the freaking entrance is west?! It wasn’t until someone showed me where it was I noticed it.  But, I decided to move on to the next museum since I wasted too much time there.  I’ll go back again when I hit up le Louvre again on Friday.  Anyway, I ended up at le Musée National du Moyen Âge first.  You can see all the photos at the bottom.  The place isn’t bad.  But, it was blazing hot inside and impossible to breathe.  It seems to me that people in the middle ages of France really liked their religion.  I probably saw more statues and paintings of Jesus Christ, than I did inside the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.  Probably the best part of the museum was the court room, or what looked like what would be a court of those times.  It had a nice open ceiling that lit the area really nicely.  They put a bunch of heads and headless statues in that room.

Pantheon in Paris The next museum I headed off to was the Pantheon.  This Pantheon seems nothing like the one in Rome.  Though, I’ve yet to see the one in Rome, I’m almost certain its better.  At least from what I’ve seen in the documentaries I’ve watched.  It’s actually not all that big inside.  Sure the ceiling is really high but space wise there isn’t much to see.  However, going down the crypts is pretty cool.  You get to visit a whole lot of famous dead people.  My favourite being Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo.  You might not recognize the names, but their books you will.  Dumas did Three Musketeers and Hugo did the Hunchback of Notre-Dame!

Little Tokyo Both those visits and my days worth of walking took me around 5 hours today. I’m pretty much crippled after that!  Aside from visiting the museums, in the same area you can find things like Japan Town which sits right next to China Town in Paris.  Found these Japanese import stores while I was looking for the Pantheon.  After all that walking I needed to rest, so I sat in front of the Pantheon on the steps.  From there I took a bunch of fun shots of the Pantheon, but my favourite is probably the shot of the Eiffel Tower! You can actually see it from there.  I even had a pigeon model for me.

For dinner, I actually ended up eating around Bagnolet today.  Grabbed a couple croissants and pizza slice.  Don’t worry, the pizza is pretty much Frenchified too.  Originally after walking around for 5 hours, I wanted to eat Greek, but I forgot where le quartier Grecque was.  I passed by it the other day but I couldn’t remember where it was! I’ll look it up tonight so I can have it for lunch tomorrow.

I’ll be making tomorrow my day of rest.  Won’t carry around my bag with me and I won’t be walking around museums for 4 hours straight.  Just time to relax, eat, drink some wine and enjoy.  Need to rest my feet for Friday.  Friday, I’ll go all out again and hit up a bunch of museums again.  Need to see le Louvre at night!  I think tomorrow I’ll do another video.  I’ll probably post some other videos I’ve been also meaning to post as well.  For now enjoy the gallery again!

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Day 5: Notre-Dame, Fête de la Musique!

Hey, everyone!  Today’s post is gonna be super short because I don’t really have time today to edit all my photos and the videos I took today.

But, basically went walking around le quartier latin today.  I first went to le cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Like any other cathedral, lots of walking and photo taking.  I did get chance to use my Canon 50mm 1.4 though.  Honestly, its pretty hard to shoot with on a crop body camera.  I gotta stand pretty far back for even a small object.  But, I did manage to get some shots I really liked.  I did end up spending too much time inside the cathedral and didn’t have time to check out the crypts of Notre-Dame.  I’ll have to do that tomorrow!  After the cathedral, I ended up walking all over the place in le quartier Latin.  Today was le Fête de la Musique! Its a day where there’s random bands or groups sing or play music all over the city! Even on my way home there were groups of people everywhere listening to someone, or even dancing on the street. Mind you there were some crazies.  You’ll know what I mean when you see my videos.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to hit the Eiffel Tower, Crypts, and Le Louvre again for the Nocture exhibit, whatever that is.  But, means that Le Louvre is open much later than usual.  I think until 10PM instead of closing at 6PM.  Anyway, until tomorrow! I’ll hopefully have time to do it then! Ciao!

UPDATE: Here are the photos from day 5!

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Day 4: Musée du Louvre, 33% Complete

Woke up late today, as usual. I ended up going to Musée du Louvre around noon.  Stood in line for like an hour before I actually got inside.  I read somewhere there’s another entrance that’s not as long but I couldn’t find it for the life of me.  I did however see it from the inside.  It was on the same floor where they sold tickets.

I basically walked around the museum for like 3 hours straight, by the 3rd hour I was so exhausted and honestly it got hard to breathe in there.  Far too many people looking at things, so hard to get a good photo of anything, without someone getting in your way.  What makes it worst is, when someone bumps you they almost never say anything because they aren’t sure what language you speak.  I would say, “Pardon” but I’d always get stares or glares.  But, it only happens so often.  Most people visiting are really friendly.  Met a Brit at the cafeteria named Rob.  He was backpacking across Europe and in Paris for a couple days.

About taking photos as well, honestly, it makes me wish I had someone travelling with me.  It’d be nice to have someone I trust to take photos of me with my camera! I sure as heck ain’t gonna let a random stranger hold my 70-200mm lens.  I did bring a point & shoot ask people to take my photo but I hardly like any of them.  I feel bad after asking the person to take a 2nd or god-forbid a 3rd shot.

Paris Museum Pass Speaking of tickets.  The ticket line ups are ridiculous.  I don’t know why so many people don’t know about this, but there’s a thing in Paris called, “Paris Museum Pass”.  It basically gives you unlimited access to all museums around Paris and they come in 2, 4 or 6 day passes.  Not only that, there’s never a line up to buy them.  They aren’t that expensive, and most of the time they work out to be a lot cheaper than buying individual tickets.  Two day pass is only 30€, 45€ for 4 day, and 65€ for 6 day.  You can find the store that sells it inside the museum.  There are several other locations around the city as well.  Look for the the store in the photo.  I ended up buying the 6 day pass since I have time here.  I’ll make a video a bit later about the passes you should consider when visiting Paris.  Really helpful to know before you come here, so that way you’ll know which option makes the most sense.

Expensive Lunch Really going to Le Louvre really takes up the whole day. But, even still you can’t see it all.  That’s why it’s 33%.  I need to go back on either Wednesday or Friday to see this exhibit they call Noture, and there’s a couple areas I didn’t get a chance to visit.  Also, I wish I ate before going.  Food is ridiculously expensive in there I ate like a small fish with fries, a salad, and a bottle of water, rang up as 15€!  Food outside can be much cheaper.  Like that chicken & cheese crèpe I had yesterday.  I was dying around the 3rd hour I wanted to get out to get some food, but I could get to the exit for the life of me.  I swear I followed the signs that said sortie but it just kept on taking me to another part of the museum! It was like a maze!

Anyway, that’s about the entire day.  Ending off with another blog here.  I’ll try and do more videos but it’s hard to find time to do them.  Here are the photos of the day!

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