letters from abroad, XI

Hello from Paris, France (Compiled from emails sent February 14,19 2005)

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Hello!

We made it and are checked in at Paris hostel. It’s quite nice, I’m suprised actually.

After getting a little misdirected, (and by misdirected, I mean the
three of us ended up in a shopping mall with luggage looking VERY
confused) we got to a Metro station and found our hostel with few
problems.

For Matthew and Amanda’s (brother and his g/f) romantic Parisian
Valentine’s day supper, well..it turns out most Paris restaurants don’t
open or sell dinner items until 7pm. We were hungry at 5 and found a
nice little bistro with a good menu, and sat down. Imagine the grin on
my face as I watched Matthew and Amanda eat a romantic meal of
omelettes whilst I ate hot dogs with salad.

After supper that night we took in the Eiffel Tower

and went to the top.

The view at night in Paris is spectacular – you can see for kilometers in every direction.

And every night at 9:00 until 9:10 the Tower lights up with little
white lights that creates a really cool sparkling effect when you look
at the Tower, it is really something to see.

That evening Matthew wasn’t feeling well that evening though, so we
headed back to the hostel. As we were making our way back, we
discovered the metro line we need to get on was closed, and we had to
walk nose to map through Paris for some 2 hours back to the hostel.
Long night!

Next day we had a full list of things to do. First was the cathedral at Sacre-Cour,

Amanda wanted to head there because local artists will do pencil
drawings of people for a few Euro. After getting suckered on the steps
up to the Cathedral by some Senegalions to buy some cheap ass bracelets
for 5 euro, we found some artists.

The drawing turned out ok, she drew the three of us together on the
paper. (Matthew thinks he looks like Johnny Depp in the picture and I
think I look like Val Kilmer) The drawing of Amanda’s drawing resembled
her the most of the three.

Coffee break!

Next we headed to see the Notre Dame cathedral which always has a long line to get in..we just took pictures.

Off to the Louvre!

When we got there, you can imagine our surpise to find out the only day
the Louvre is closed to the public is Tuesday. Guess what day we went
to visit the Louvre? Right, Tuesday.

We hightailed it from there toward the park area by the Louvre, did some sightseeing.

And continued on our way for a long walk down Champs Elysses (famous tourist shopping street)

toward the Arc de Triomphe.

The next day we had to get up at 5:00AM to make the metro to make the
bus to make the flight to Glasgow to make the train to Edinburgh. It
was a long day before we even got to the hostel, to be sure.

Peter

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