France for 9 days (day9?)

ghrur

United States3786 Posts

July 16 2010 19:46 GMT

Hello Teamliquid!
A week ago, I left for France.

I took 2 years of French in high school so far, so to say the least, my French sucks. Nonetheless, this trip (with my school) was VERY enjoyable. France was a marvelous country, and my stay there was filled with sunshine, food, and sweat.

Anyway, off to the story.

Day 1:
We had just arrived in France from about a 20 hour flight in which we need to sleep on the 8 hour plane ride. It was 8:00 am. Do I need to say more?
Well, we had a day of exploration anyway.

First, we took a bus tour throughout the city to our hotel. However, because of the crappy traffic, it took nearly forever to get to our hotel. Sigh...

First market in france? Nice, nice

Then, we got a quick 30 minute break to unload and rest a bit. Drink some refreshing water, ya know? Afterwards, we were allowed to explore the places near our hotel. I got a baguette from a local boulangerie (bread store), and although it wasn't the best, it was delicious after airplane food. Next, it was off to either the L'arc de triumph or the Opera theater. I went to the L'arc de triumph being a fan of Napoleon.

There it is, Napoleon's monument to his soldiers.

And we capped the day off with dinner together as a group at a restaurant, but I didn't take any photos of that.

Sorry.

Day 2:
To start off the day, I had a pretty nice breakfast consisting of baguettes, salami, ham, nutella, and fruits. yum.

Tea with nutella+bread anyone? ^_^

Then we took another bus tour in Paris with some photo stops at some great places.

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Napoleon's tomb

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Eiffle tower

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Notre dame (from the inside cuz the outside was too large to snap a photo of)

Yup, we went inside Notre dame, and well, it was incredible. The sheer size of it was overwhelming. The stain glass windows (the originals) were also beautiful. It really is breathtaking, but it's just too big for photos, lol. After Notre Dame, it was off to the Louvre. I really wanted to see the art there so I snapped some photos of the famous ones.

Lady liberty leading the July Revolution

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Napoleon being a beast and ignoring the Pope

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Neo-classicism being awesome.

After the Louvre, we went to the Musee D'orsay but no pictures were allowed.

And we went to eat, but all I got was like, a steak dinner with some fries. Nothing special. Go to any steak house and it was the same. =/ So yeah, no pictures. Buuuuuuuuuuuuut, on the way back, I saw this beauty.

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Just sick

Day 3:
Woke up early, ate breakfast, and then it was on to Montmartre or Sacre Coeur.

It's supposedly where Saint Dennis was decapitated, and it's the highest natural point in Paris. It also had a nice little square by it to eat in. :p

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The gigantic church on top the hill

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The little asian on top the hill

From here, we went back to meet at the hotel for the next event of the day, a visit to Versailles. Man, just seeing the gold that existed at Versailles was like, WOW! It was eyepopping to say the least. Then, when we went to see the hall of mirrors? Oh my goodness. If I were a foreign diplomat during the times of Louis XIV, I would've shat my pants. No lie. And then the gardens after? Louis XIV is the MAN. Jeez, to maintain that must cost millions every year.

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pwetty restoration gold

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Yup, that's probably like 10% of the garden? Considering it goes on for MILES?

After Versailles, we went off to the Eiffel tower.

Climbings stairs ftw over the elevators. It was so much faster, lol. The lines were ENDLESS for the elevators. I went to the top and snapped some photos, but my friends asked me a great question. Where does Paris END?

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Seriously, just look

Day 4:
Well, after the wake up call, our whole group took a TGV (speed train?) to Biarritz. 5 hours man, that was like half the day, lol. In Biarritz, we first explored the Atlantic ocean, but I took no pictures of that. Afterwards, we walked around the ocean waiting for a sunset.

We got it

Day 5:
We woke up bright and early to go to Basque county. It was very scenic on the way. There, we saw the church in which Louis XIV got married. However, we didn't visit either of the houses the king or queen lived in.

However, I did eat some macarone from the Maison Adam. err, no pics of food. I kept forgetting. T_T Forgive me. Oh, we also saw an eel get killed while we were there, and some of my friends got ice cream.

French ice cream is very yummy. It was back to Biarritz after the ice cream, and another afternoon at the beach. Then, we had dinner together, and it looked amazing. Luckily, I remembered pictures that time.

On the way to Basque County

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Church Louis XIV was married in

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Yummmm

Salmon from the sea

Day 6:
Onwards to Carcasonne the medieval city. Although it was a daunting castle, I really expected the city to be different. However, the way they integrated the city into the castle was awesome. The cassoulet was also very delicious there. Man, I'd totally have some again. We didn't actually go into the castle though because of the time.

Instead, we went into the church, and then into a (very) crappy haunted house.

Cassoulet. ^_^ Yum! Duck is the best.

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Church. It's like it's a castle from Age of Empires though. :O

After Carcasonne, we drove to Nimes.

I loved Nimes for its Roman History. I also tried to buy lavender candy at Nimes, but due to my poor French, it was a colossal failure.

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Cool fountain showing Roman Supremacy

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Roman Temple. ^_^

Day 7:
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Crepes in the morning! Yeaaaaaaaaa.

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20th largest Roman amphitheater.

After Nimes, it was off to Nice. Man, that was a long drive. We seriously arrived at night in Nice. To be honest, I don't really have much pictures for that night despite it being one of the best. Nice is really nice

In Nice, we spent the night walking around getting to know the place. My friends and I ate dinner at a local restaurant which had both seafood and Italian food. It was delicious. ^_^ Risotto+Seafood right from the sea is heavenly. They also gave us some free wine called like Kir Violette or something which I assume is made from Violette Petals. I assume this because Provence (which Nice is in) is basically like the flower capital of France producing Roses, Violette flowers, Lavender, etc. After dinner, we went to get some Gelatto. I got lychee flavored, but honestly, what's the difference between Gelatto and Ice Cream? Anyone?

Day 8:
We went to Monaco on this day, and wowowowowow are the sights amazing. Well, we went to Eze first to see the cactus garden+go to the Fragonards perfume store, and man, what a sight. Just look for yourself!

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It was on to Monaco from there. Monaco was small but great. It was definitely filled with money as there were sports cars and yachts all over the place. They also had some really great pizza there.

The view in Monaco was amazing as well. ^_^

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A WILD ALBATROSS APPEARS

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Nice

yachts aplenty

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Is it better looking up or looking down? I can't decide

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yummm, pizza

Day 9:
Sorry Day, didn't use your name because this day wasn't epic enough for it.

We basically got on planes for 20 hours, lol. Yeah... not very great.

And there it is, my trip in France. Hope you enjoy the pictures. For even more (and there are some nice ones) just go view the album.

+ Show Spoiler +

http://ghrur.imgur.com/french_trip

Empyrean

17052 Posts

July 16 2010 19:53 GMT

I love reading these types of travel blogs

It's a shame you were only able to be there for nine days, though. That's not even enough time to explore Paris, let alone other parts of France.

Did you manage to see Canova's Cupid and Psyche while you were in the Louvre? It's one of my favorite sculptures of all time (I've seen the versions in both the Louvre and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersberg). Also, did you catch the weird trees on the lawns by the Eiffel Tower/École Militaire? I wish I had taken pictures during my last trip to Paris, but it was nighttime and they wouldn't show

Also, is that phyllo dough on the salmon? It looks really good :D

Saturnize

United States2473 Posts

July 16 2010 19:55 GMT

So awesome. I want to go to France, Italy and Greece one day. Such cool architecture and art over there. The food isn't too bad either

Btw how was the weather over there?

arb

Noobville17922 Posts

July 16 2010 19:56 GMT

these pics look nice!

Also thanks to your blog i now know what the Arc De Triumph was built for haha

Empyrean

17052 Posts

July 16 2010 19:58 GMT

Oh also I missed the Galerie des Glaces when I was at Versailles because it was undergoing renovation T_T (Christmas a few years ago).

Maggeus

France277 Posts

July 16 2010 19:58 GMT

Glad you liked the trip to the country I live in !
The pictures you took are really good, by the way.

Did you have trouble talking with French in English ? Because many of us speaks english realllllly poorly. And I mean it. :D

Empyrean

17052 Posts

July 16 2010 20:01 GMT

Haha, I think he meant his own French skills were very poor.

When I was a second year French student I could only do basic functions. We hadn't even learned tenses that could've been useful (we didn't learn future or conditional until third year T_T). I can't imagine it being terribly difficult to get around, though, especially in Paris.

ghrur

United States3786 Posts

July 16 2010 20:03 GMT

Empyrean: I think I saw the weird trees but Idk about the Cupids and Psyche because I sped through the Louvre. We only had 2 hours so I power museumed. And you're right, that's totally not enough time.

Saturnize: It was AWESOME. Everyday was sunny.

But it was hot, like, I had to carry a 1.5L Water bottle every day, lol.

Maggeus: Not at all. I met a French girl on the TGV, and she spoke GREAT English. It's just that when I speak French, they often respond in French and because of the speed, I'm like, uhhhhh oui? Lol. My French vocabulary is very poor.

FragKrag

United States11556 Posts

July 16 2010 20:05 GMT

Nice pics

Pity that you had to rush through the Louvre though! I could imagine spending hours in the Louvre. Looks like you had an amazing time though :>

Maggeus

France277 Posts

July 16 2010 20:07 GMT

#10

Haha, I totally understand. I had the same problem with Spanish. They speak so fast it's insane.
Now, I know I won't respond in french too fast with a stranger trying to speak french. :D
Got lucky with the sunny days too. You can't be too sure in France, even if it's not like the UKs.

EDIT : Seeing all that makes me want to go to Le Louvre again.
It has been a loooong time.

Empyrean

17052 Posts

July 16 2010 20:21 GMT

#11

On July 17 2010 05:03 ghrur wrote:
Empyrean: I think I saw the weird trees but Idk about the Cupids and Psyche because I sped through the Louvre. We only had 2 hours so I power museumed. And you're right, that's totally not enough time.

Saturnize: It was AWESOME. Everyday was sunny.

You saw the big three, right? Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus of Milo?

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

July 16 2010 21:04 GMT

#12

Glad you liked it, expecially Versailles, i went to school two years ten minutes by foot from the castle =). The Galleries is amazing now that it is finished Empyrean BTW

It's a pity you could'nt stay more in the Louvres, the part on Greece and Egypt is amazing too, even though maybe less interesting for a foreigner.
And you're lucky they finished the restauration of Notre Dame a few years ago (well, finished, in fact it's a neverending job...), it's really beautiful (before the stone was all grey... :/).
For TGV it is indeed a speedy train (Train à Grande Vitesse), but in the case of Biarritz, the speedy part is only the very beginning (it takes 3hours to make Paris-Marseilles), can't wait till they finish it...
Hope you'll come back, despite our legendary lack of hospitality !
Edit : and btw, very nice photos !

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