All the Parisian shiny things

A thick line of traffic welcomed us to the outskirts of Paris. We crawled our way into the central city and marvelled as we drove by Notre Dame, Place de le Bastille, Arc de Tromphe and the beautiful sparkling Eiffel Tower. No matter how overrated I thought Paris would be, the Eiffel Tower took my breath away.

We checked into the best hostel we stayed in, St. Christopher's and grabbed a cider and a bite to eat. We had an early check out in the morning, and walked to our next hostel which was this strange hippie hostel/ bar run by a guy stuck in the 90's. 

Paris called for typical tourism, so we headed for Notre Dame and met up with two Aussies we'd met in San Sebastian. They were headed for Notre Dame too and thus joined in on our renditions of Quasimodo and other cliches. We passed on the ludicrous cue to get to the viewing deck of Notre Dame and headed for the Latin Quarter for lunch, stumbling accross a gorgeous quirky little kebab cafe.

Once refueled we walked via the "Sex and the City" bridge to the Louvre, we hung out there for a few hours mocking all the people taking the typical Louvre photos (yes, I can totally believe you are holding that enormous glass pyramid between your thumb and forefinger, no I have never seen anyone do that before. No offense.) and bombed a few tour groups for information.

The next day we strolled through one of the many markets and then went to the Catacombs, one of the few things we did line up for an hour for and treaded through the creepy underground mass grave. Incredible what they made of it, and how old the remains are! 

After downing some delicious overpriced coffee we headed for the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately I got a bit snap happy in the Catacombs and used all my battery from the flash on my camera and it died after I took one photo of the Arc de Triomphe. Nevertheless it was awesome, and we spent ages drinking in the engravings and such.

Then it was time... by day, once again the Eiffel Tower was the taker of our breath. 

Astounded by how cool it was we slowly made our way from Esplanade du Trocadero through the gardens and across Pont d'lena (bridge) to finally stand underneath the Eiffel Tower. As the sun went down we had a rest in Champ de Mars gardens and casually gazed at the tower, ahhh so cool. We took the time to process what we had experienced in Paris and talked about what we were expecting of the next season of travelling (settling in the Netherlands). We called it a day and headed back for our hostel to pack everything up to head to Amsterdam. Thankfully nothing went wrong at the dodgy hostel and at the end of it we left with all our gear and organs.

Paris was incredible, I am sure we will be back to revisit some of the sites, and to explore some of the sites we didn't get to enjoy. All the ado about Paris is present for a reason.

Xx Jaz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avignon, Food and Jazz

An early morning start leaving Nice meant that we arrived in Avignon around lunchtime. We endured the tedious process of checking into our hostel with the lady that refused to speak English. We eventually found our rooms, which were separate male and female dorms. I questioned her after our check in and pointed to my ring finger and Rick’s ring finger. She shook her head furiously and walked away.  Definitely why we got married, so we could stay in separate dorms, right?

So, we grabbed lunch and headed down by the Rhone River to eat lunch in the shade of a tree, along with two young lads playing some incredible guitar.  We read our books and had a lazy afternoon and were serenaded to sleep by the two guitarists.

That evening, after the intense heat had subsided, we ventured into the walled city of Avignon, a UNESCO world heritage site, with some serious charm and character. We wandered the streets, and did away with the map and stumbled upon the most typically French area, untouched by the swarms of tourists and Irish pubs. We couldn’t really negotiate the menu’s at the restaurants, so we decided it was the perfect place to eat.

We sat down and ordered, Rick the Beouf Tartare and the Chevre Quiche for myself. Well I was just beside myself; with tears overflowing and my eyes tightly shut I was sure that I had just tasted heaven… incredible flavours, and the most perfect combination of ingredients. All the while the owner/ operator is having a ciggie with the owner of the restaurant next door.

When we left, Rick spied a sign next door with “live Jazz”, we made plans to return the following night. The girls in my dorm came with us the next night and we went to the same restaurant. All of us were melting with the delicious food that was served to us. Post dinner we went to see the jazz band who had set up on the curb, and we downed a few ‘desperado’s’. The perfect night and one of the highlights of our trip, Avignon will always have a special place in our heart.

Oh and for the record, Rick never had any room mates, so they put a married couple in separate dorms, even though one dorm was completely empty? Needless to say I sneaked in on the last night!

Xx Jaz

Lauterbrunnen - Lake Como - Nice

Lauterbrunnen - Lake Como - Nice

A stunning trip through Switzerland, and through the Italian and French Riviera bringing us to Nice.

In Nice we experienced our first taste of mass white pointers, or topless sun bathing. Mothers quite literally hanging out... With their kids. We copped an eyeful quite often!

Our days were filled with heading to the market, and to the beach. There is a great path down the length of the beach so we hired a bike and a long board and towed eachother up and down the beach front.
We had some great room mates while in Nice and some great cocktails with a cute Swedish couple.

Our highlight of Nice was definitely the weird busker. Nice had so many talented buskers; musicians, actors, dancers and every hybrid you can imagine. However, one afternoon we were enjoying lunch after a few hours on the beach and a boy, maybe 17 or so, awkwardly drags a wooden pallet along the street and sets it up near the restaurant we were at. He stands on his 'podium', and freeze frames with one arm raised.
Bearing in mind it's about 2pm and it was a scorcher of a day, he got really hot, and after 10 mins and no donations he decided it was time for a ciggie.

His nicotine habit dealt with, he clambered back on his stage and did a few movements we can only guess was meant to be robot-esque. After another 10 mins, with random intervals where he puts his hands on his hips, looks around and then re-positions himself, he makes a move to somewhere else where is more opportune... dragging his darn pallet behind him...

Xx Jaz