End of Trip but a New Journey

26/5/12 – 30/5/12

Finally in Paris and we were pleasantly surprised to find our hotel called Esmeralda just around the corner from the front of the Notre Dame. The hotel was as quirky as we were led to believe. The Esmeralda is famous and has been used in fictional stories for children for nearly a century and still decorated from this period. Everything is old and uneven and we were upgraded into a larger room on the third floor with its own bath and small lounge area overlooking the Notre Dame. It was great except for the constant around the clock noise from the street buskers!  We did manage to sleep because by the end of each day we were tired from climbing the spiral wooden staircase a couple times a day as well as walking all over Paris to visit all the treasured sites.

Well Paris was full of surprises, as for me it has been 32 years since I visited and I was really shocked by the number of tourists at all the major attractions even though it was only Spring, I can’t imagine visiting in summer. The Eifel Tower was the worst as there was no chance of even getting to the top due to the whole area being chocked by tourists waiting for the one lift working at the time so we spent most of our time walking around it trying to capture it in its glory with all sorts of artistic shots from many different angles.

Our first day was spent on a double-decker open roof bus and we managed to get shots of all the attractions and also get a running commentary about the sites. We were the real tourists this day.  We saw them all, the Louvre, National Museum, the Opera House, Pantheon, Palace De La De Couvertre, La Fayette department store and all the designer stores for clothes, bags and perfumes, pity my suitcase was hand luggage size but I did save money with this excuse!

The next day Gary managed to get two tickets to the French Open Tennis.  We were lucky enough to get online tickets for the afternoon and evening courts. This was my first ever visit to any international Tennis Tournament.  We managed to see parts of four matches including an Australian called Mat Ebden v P Kohlschrieber from Germany, unfortunately he didn’t win but it was so exciting to be so close to the players and hearing to power of the ball whizzing past a high speed. 

We also went to Mont Martre to see the famous Moulin Rouge Building and the Sacre Coeur. The main reason for going there was because Katie said she wanted to audition as a dancer there next year!  Once seeing the place I realized it is 10 times worse than Kings Cross in Sydney and is just a red-light area so we will have to see about this even though it is world famous and might be good for her resume.  The back streets were covered with Graffiti, broken glass and smelt of urine so not the sort of place one would want their daughter to live. She would say “Don’t be negative mum!”

In the evenings we just walked around the many small cobble stone streets of Paris full of buskers, clubs, bars and restaurants with cuisine from many countries and picked a new restaurant each night. After eating we would go for a drink or a coffee and just people watch with all the others as the seats are all facing the streets so this is a popular past-time in Paris! 

Well, with one adventure over the next is about to start. Before we left Gary asked me to be his life time partner whilst standing on the viewing platform on the roof of the Dome of La Fayette. It was very romantic with Paris in the backdrop and the Eifel Tower featuring in the background. It is a moment I will always treasure and picture that won’t leave my memory. It is hard to finish this story but like all fairy-tales we will live happily ever after!  Till our next adventure Love Chel and Gary xx

 The Louvre before the crowds

 The Seine River and the tourist boats

Arc De Triomphe

 The queues for the Eifel Tower

Gaz's name plate - look under the number

 View of the Notre Dame from our hotel

Esmeralda's foyer where we stayed






 The La Fayette Store - Great shopping in the Gourmet Deli

 Gary happy to get into the French Open

 My first experience at the Tennis

Inside the tennis with the
Australian player Mat Ebden

 Gary, all smiles!

Moulin Rouge Building looking very clean under the blue skies!

 My name plate not as flash
as Gaz's

Eifel Tower featuring in the background and the end of our holiday and the start of our new Journey !