I went to Paris with my girlfriend at the time, Claire, who was born and raised in France. Her father stayed in Villebon, a province of the capital, so we slept at his place and took a train into the city centre each day.
Claire acted the tour guide and led me to some of Paris’ main monuments and buildings. The first stop was Notre Dame. I’d seen it before in films and photographs, but only externally. Inside was completely new to me. It was very dark, little or no lights inside and a few candles burning in certain areas. This emphasised the windows and their marvelous patterns because of the natural light shining through. There was the option to go to higher levels but I was told by my guide it wasn’t worth it, so we went for lunch instead.
The Louvre is probably the most fascinating museum I’ve ever been to. The sheer scale of it is difficult to fathom. It is the most visited museum in the world and has over 35,000 objects on display from the 6th millennium to 19th century within an area of 60,600m². The most famous objects being the Venus de Milo statue and Mona Lisa painting. Although there’s been some controversy over the pyramids in the central courtyard I found them very attractive. I love the design and the fountains surrounding them. Inside, we wandered about aimlessly for hours and ended up getting lost despite having been given a map at the entrance.
Claire’s dad met us in the city a few times while we were out, he always treated us to lunch and dinner which was very kind of him. On the nights we were at his house his wife Hyunsook did most of the cooking, which was often in the style of her homeland, Korea. Plenty kimchi – excellent.
Claire and I were to head to her mother’s house in Angers while in France, so on our last full day before we caught the train we went into the city to see the Eiffel Tower. I’d seen it from the Seine when we took a quick cruise on one of the barges, but it wasn’t until I was standing right under it that I fully appreciated it’s size. We climbed the first three floors using the stairs, then took the elevator to the top. The view was incredible.
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