Walking tour of Paris

Today Nolen [my roommate] called me and asked me if I wanted to join his language school on a walking tour of Paris. I decided that it was probably a good idea since I should really know as much as possible about the city that's my home for the next 5 months.  All I really can vouch for is that it's super cold out and makes me NOT want to walk around at ALL !  I met up w the group at 2pm and we headed to the Pont Neuf [New Bridge, which is actually the oldest bridge in Paris] for the beginning of the tour.

(photo not my own)

We walked through the Louvre courtyards, past the pyramid, around the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and through the Jardin Tulieries.  We continued on to the Champs-Elysées were we stopped at a few flagship stores and toured an art exhibit above the Louis Vuitton store [after of course balking at the price of the leather goods on display].  While this all sounds short and sweet, we were zigzagging all over the place, popping in and out of hotels and various buildings, and didnt arrive at our final destination, the Arc de Triomphe, until around 6:30pm.  It was informative, cold and exhausting.  Which made it easy to come home, make dinner and veg out in front of the 8pm news.

Here's a map of our route.  It was 5km, which is about 3.1miles... which should only take about an hour or so to walk... but we managed to draw it out to 4.5, with all the stopping and learning :)

Anciennes de Vincennes

Today was the 10th Traversée de Paris [crossing of Paris] by this French car club.  Basically if you have a car thats a classic and older than 1976 you can drive through the streets of Paris and show it off.  I thought it sounded cool so Nolen and I left around 8am to get to the Arc de Triomph to see some old cars drive around the massive round about.  We pretty much stood outside for 30 minutes and saw one car. I was expecting some sort of Parade, but I guess that wasn't the case.  We decided to walk down to Trocadero, by the Eiffel Tower to see the endpoint, and maybe there would be some cars there... We trudged through the slush and about 20 min later made it to the endpoint, which was right in front of the Eiffel Tower.  Picturesque. Except... where were the cars?  We spotted one and there didn't seem to be any more showing up so we decided to call it a day and head home. I couldn't feel my toes and it seemed like we were on a wild goose chase.  As we were leaving a FEW cars pulled up, so I snapped a few shots so the day wasn't a complete waste.

Summer '09

SO, after i was kicked out of Switzerland for not earning enough money, I joined my dad and Tim on a mini tour of Europe. We started in London, and then headed east to Paderborn, Germany and finished off with a few days in Venice and Pollenza, Italy.

Here are some photos !!



Flying a little too close? This is somewhere over Ireland... I think they beat us to London....

Underground

Big Ben
Souvenirs in a window in Windsor
Tim and the Beefeater at Windsor Castle


GREBENSTEIN, Germany

Macerata, Italy
Geneva, Switzerland with the jet d'eau in the background

New Camera!

So, since my computer crashed last fall and I lost all the pictures I had, I decided that I should take extra awesome pics this time I go to London. This necessitates a new camera. Yesterday I welcomed a lovely little Canon into my home. It's been raining all week, so I ventured out to take it for a lil spin this afternoon...

Geneva v. Zurich

Jet d'eau, Geysers

Geneva's jet d'eau

Zurich's jet d'eau

Point: Geneva

Geneva 1, Zurich 0

Flower Clocks
Zurich's Flower Clock

Geneva's Flower Clock

And Geneva's Clock in Purple

Point: Geneva

Geneva 2, Zurich 0

I'm on a BOAT

Geneva Water Taxi
Zurich lake cruise

Point: Zurich

Geneva 2, Zurich 1

Mountains
Geneva's lake
Zurich's Lake

I dont know which one I prefer....


Where would you rather live?

Zurich

Zurich, May 15- 17 2009

Forecast as of Tuesday May 12 2009: Rainy and cold. 60-70% chance of rain.

Actual weather: sunny and 80

Result: overheating and sunburn

We spent all day Saturday wandering around Zurich, which is situated in northern Switzerland, pretty close to Germany.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurich

They speak a funny language there, Suisse-allemand or Schweiz, which is an interesting sounding mix of German and Italian.

Zurich is larger than Geneva, but like Geneva, there isn’t really much to do or see. It’s a very pretty city on the lake with a river, so the scenery is gorgeous, but there really aren’t any ‘must see’ attractions. We mostly looked at churches and buildings and wandered around till our feet hurt.

Sunday we left the hotel and dropped our bags off in a locker in the train station. We decided to take a boat trip around the lake. For a mere 8 francs we spent 90 minutes aboard a boat in the sunshine. Well worth it. And the views were stunning. The lake is more developed than the lake of Geneva, the parks go up to the water and you can easily go swimming… in Geneva the lakeshore is big rocks and not really conducive to sunbathing or swimming.

we also decided that Zurich knocked off some of Geneva's attractions. There is a flower clock and a jet d'eau, though neither are as impressive as the Geneva Version!

Annecy

Last Saturday Lisa and I went to Annecy to enjoy the picturesque little french town. We were accompanied by Canadian friend and photographer [you'll see what I mean later] Jesse. The day started off rough because the tram we were supposed to take was early, and we missed it. Our train to Annecy was due to leave at 8:02. Current time, 7:17. We decided to walk to the main train station... then a bit further, decided on a bus that came at 740, got to the stop at 750, didnt really know where the station was, so we kinda walked a bit, turned out we had to walk back and go the other way... so we ended up breaking into a jog and hurrying because at this point its like 755... we run up the street, round the corner and see the station. get to the station, walk through and get to the platform. THE platform, there's one... and the train wasnt there, sooo it was anticlimactic. we ran for nothing! but we made it!




It was a pretty ride, we changed trains... but not when we were supposed to, they changed it up on us. We ended up getting to Annecy 30 minutes early! It was a bit chilly, we walked around tryin to stay warm. We took a few jumping shots, because, well, thats what we do. And it helps you stay warm; the jumping, the laughing, the public humiliation. You know, the norm.







Saturday must have been flea market/antiques day because the sidewalks were clogged with ppl putting their wares on display. we saw everything from china to books, from stuffed animals to antique guns, furniture to hats. I was tempted to try and haggle for something i didnt need. my argument being "It's used, isn't it? I'm not paying full price. There's a newer model anyways." i didnt know if that would make them laugh or hate me. They are French you know... that's one heck of a grudge.







walked around the city, saw the castle on the hill. then decided we needed lunch. decided to get steak frites... oh man, what a lunch. first, they got our drinks wrong. we wanted demi-peche, which is beer w peach, and we just got peach water. lame. then our steaks came out and they were not at all cooked in the middle. like they had thrown them on a hot fire and cooked only the outside. the middle was rare and cold. so we sent them back. when they came out, one side was cooked, an done side was cold. it was so stupid. but the fries were really good!