Plastered in Paris - 2 days of travel - 3 days of Street Photography - Part 3

Thursday 17th March 2011 .

Up at around 7am, showered and dressed, we hit the dining room for the usual selection of rolls and croissants and extremely strong coffee. We were joined by the talking croissants, and once again, the conversation seemed to centre around rabbits!

Last night, we arranged with Dawn and Linda to travel with them, on the metro to get a day time look at the Eiffel Tower - Katie and I also wanted to see the Arc De Triomphe and visit the Louvre again, to get some photographs of the glass pyramid. So, at 9.45am, the four of us set out for the nearest metro stop - with help from some of our fellow students, we worked out that it would cost us 12 euros, for enough tickets to take the four of us round for the day (4 each) - after being shown how to operate the ticket machines we attempted to purchase the tickets - somehow we ended up with 8 tickets each, plus 4 euro's change.

Heading for the Trocadero, we knew we had to make one change, and managed that - but on the second leg of the journey, with the part of the train we were standing in packed with a vast amount of commuters, we discovered just before we got off that some bastard had managed to get into my bag in the crush, and stolen 90 euro. I was absolutely sickened - and furious.  It took me a few minutes to pull myself together - thankfully, I had money I could draw on for emergencies, but it took the shine off the start of the day:(

We had a fantastic view of the tower from the marble steps in front of the Musee de Cinema - such a shame that after 2 days of blue skies and sun, today was so dull and overcast - still, didn't stop us clicking away and taking some snaps.

  

 We decided to head towards the Tower, playing with the idea of actually going up it - but with both Katie and I not very keen on heights, it was very much 'up in the air' (if you'll pardon the pun ) as to whether or not we would actually do it !

As we crossed the Pont D'lena, we spotted a bride posing for pictures on the bridge, with the Tower behind the wedding party - was gutted that we couldn't get the clearest of view to sneak some good photographs !

 

We also spent some time enjoying a coffee and taking some photographs at the carousel - I love the fact that so many of the sights of Paris are accompanied by these .

I later played with some of the shots in photoshop, using selective colourisation to create some different effects .

     I like this silhouette effect of the Tower and one of the       several stone statues around the area .

 I also used a long exposure to try and capture the movement of the carousel in action . . .

 

At this point Katie and I decided to part company from Dawn and Linda, as they wanted to head to Montmatre, and Katie and I wanted to visit the Arc De Triomphe, so we said our 'Goodbyes' and Katie and headed firstly for a walk underneath the tower -

- before heading back in the direction we had come from, consulting our maps for the best route to the Arc. The queues to actually go up the Tower were so long, that we had decided against that activity.

Back at the marble steps, the con men and women - who had annoyed us earlier- now became a real pain. A large group of people were wandering round, carrying clipboards that proclaimed them to be both deaf and mute, and were trying to get people to sign their name and details on the clipboard. We had started off politely saying "Non, merci" - but now we had progressed to a not so polite instruction as to where these pests could go ! It was like trying to escape a plague of mosquito's - at one point Katie and I were almost running up the steps, with a group of maybe 4 or 5 of them at our backs. Then one rather large fellow appeared in front of us, stood there blocking our way - and dared to reach his hand out to touch my camera !  Big mistake, and still feeling pretty upset over the earlier incident with the pickpocket, this guy got the full benefit of how pissed off I was. I smiled, he thought his luck was in, moved up close with the damned clipboard, and when his head was maybe 6" from my mouth, I bellowed 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' down his ear.

And a miracle occurred - all of a sudden his hearing came back - it must have done, 'cos he leapt 2 feet in the air when I screamed at him.  And not only that, he also regained the power of speech - as did the rest of his fellow 'deaf and mute' friends - 'cos all of a sudden, all of them were jabbering away and pointing at us - sadly, it appears they didn't appreciate this sudden ability to hear and speak - 'cos  I am pretty sure that what they were saying wasn't particularly nice, judging by the tone and expressions ! Ungrateful Gits!

However, this did persuade them to let Katie and I continue on our way without any more pestering - and I sure as hell felt a lot better for letting out the frustration over the earlier incident!

The Arc was another 'wow' for me - again, so much bigger than I expected . . .

We spent a while here, before deciding to find somewhere to eat lunch - en route we passed a group of guys entertaining passers by with some street dance -

We then wandered on and eventually came across a little Chinese restaurant, where we tucked into a really nice lunch - at the end of the meal, the very dainty hostess attempted to lift my back pack onto my back - and nearly collapsed under the weight of it! After checking the map, we then decided to stroll up the Champs Elysees towards the Place De La Concord, then on to The Louvre - camera's busy the whole route.

It took us a while to notice that part of the front of this building was covered in boards painted Tromp l'oeil style - trying to figure it out, I came to the conclusion that its just a way to hide renovation work under an attractive cover?

We eventually arrive at the Louvre and spend some more time taking photographs - including some more street photography pictures

By now, feet were killing, so we decided to grab a taxi back to the hotel - and get ready for our last night at the local :)

 After careful consideration, I have decided that the events of that night most definitely belong under the banner of 'what happened in Paris, stays in Paris' ! Suffice to say that numerous Desperado's were consumed - along with a delicious meal including a desert of crepes - flambé crepes in mine and Katies case - with numerous shots being provided by the hosts, and lots of pictures being taken (and video's - but I won't go into that here ! )

Eventually, after an absolutely brilliant night, we headed back to the hotel, and settled down for our last nights sleep in Paris.

 

Friday 18th March 2011

Up for our last breakfast, by 7am - cases packed, and room checked to make sure we hadn't left anything behind . More talking breads at breakfast, and more rabbit talk - but by this stage, it would have felt strange if there hadn't been! 

It was at this point that we found out that we would have to vacate our rooms at 9am, not 10 as we had previously been told, so after breakfast it was a mad dash to get all our cases downstairs in time - I think most of us were pretty sure that if we didn't, we would all be kissing our 20 euro deposit 'goodbye' !

Ray turned up with the coach by about 10am, and we loaded up, for the start of the mammoth journey home. At the ferry port, we missed a ferry again by minutes - and spent a pleasant hour waiting in the rain, or sat on the coach, as there were no cafe's or shops at Calais.  Onto the ferry - this time we were on the new 'Pride of Burgundy' and we headed on deck to wave goodbye to France. To the restaurant for lunch - was looking forward to the veggie curry, but the server informed me that they had taken it off the menu 2 days before (BOO!) and settled for fish and chips and being entertained by Charlie duck 

 

 

 

 

Back in Britain, and we began the long drive back to Wrexham, eventually arriving at around 10.45pm that night

And that was it - Plastered in Paris, 2011, over and done.

Overall, I really enjoyed it - it was great getting to know some of my fellow students better, I enjoyed the sights of Paris and the opportunity to do nothing but take photographs (and drink Desperado's) for 3 whole days  - so, yep, I'd do it again - but next time, I'd be happy to pay the extra to fly!

 

Plastered in Paris - 2 days of travel - 3 days of Street Photography - part 2

Wednesday 16th March 2011

Was woken at around 4am by the most unearthly noise ! Lay there, wondering what on earth it was, with heart pounding - and then I heard it again,. and could have kicked myself ! Blooming pigeon, sat on the edge of the open skylight window, 'wuddering' away to itself !

Drifted back off, and then up at 6.45am. Got up and washed and dressed, by which time the others were stirring. Down for a quick ciggy, before breakfast, smiled politely at Lurch behind the desk - and got a scowl in return !  Wonder what charm school his Mother had sent him to? Considered I had done well not to employ any of the wonderful French phrases my oldest DD had provided me with for the trip.

Down to breakfast, and we were lucky to get a table - dining room packed with an influx of French students, and awful lot of pushing and shoving going on.  It was at this point that the 'talking croissants' made their first appearance of the trip - Gemma and Will both have secret ambitions to be ventriloquists I think - however, given the nature of the conversation, and the fact that the word 'rabbits' kept cropping up, this falls under the 'What happened in Paris, stays in Paris' umbrella ! .

Gemma, Katie and Andy all wanted to visit the cafe featured in Amelie, so we decided to make that the first stop of the day - Andy assured us he was sure of the way, so after collecting our gear, off we set.

I haven't seen this film, so had no expectations - but the others were a little disappointed as they said it looked nothing like they remembered from the film. Still, we enjoyed a nice cuppa here, whilst discussing our plans for the rest of the day.

 

Andy had decided that he was off on a quest to complete a photographic challenge set by a pen friend, and had a long list of locations to visit and take pictures of - Katie and I both wanted to see the Louvre, and more especially, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower at night (and I had lugged my tripod along for this very reason) - we decided to set off to accomplish that, planning to have both lunch and dinner out, before returning to the hotel and the 'local', with Gemma deciding to tag along with Andy - well, she used the word 'tag' - Andy called it 'stalking' !

So off set both Katie and I - slightly nervous, because I have absolutely no sense of direction, can get lost going to the local shops, and could do with being 'chipped' (according to certain friends) - and Katie assured me that she was every bit as bad.  Hmmmmmm - this should be fun then !

Actually, we did pretty well - stopping to ask for directions twice only confirmed that we were on the right track to the Louvre - and snapping away as we went.

 Eventually finding ourselves obviously on the right track, and passing some nice street art on the way .
 

























 

It had taken us way over an hour to get this far, so we decided to leave exploring the Louvre for another day, and instead headed towards Notre Dame, walking along towards the nearest bridge to cross the river - lovely blue skies and pretty warm .

 

We couldn't work out why this bridge was decked in so many padlocks?

Got some nice shots for the Street photography unit here - in fact got so many shots in Paris overall, that I am having trouble deciding which ones to use, which is why I haven't included many in these blogs !

We crossed and descended down the steps to actually walk alongside the river . . . it was such a pretty day, and there is so much worth photographing . . .

 











After stopping for lunch in a riverside cafe, Notre Dame finally came into view

Absolutely loved the detail in the architecture, and we spent a lovely half hour or so, just taking photographs and drinking in the atmosphere.











We decided to go in, and I am so glad we did - absolutely beautiful place - unfortunately, also very dark, and as both the use of tripods and flash are discouraged, wasn't able to take as many photographs as I would have liked.

There is a section within Notre Dame called 'The Treasury' - and we decided to go have a look - it cost 3 euro's, but then Katie and I spotted a sign that said 'Students - 2 euro's ' - so as we both had our student cards, we duly presented them.  Katie had no problems - but the woman looked me up and down and informed me that I was not a student, as I was 'over 26' - and I had to pay full price !

  It was worth every penny though, stunning displays of precious religious items - and I liked this shot I got of one of the fabulous stain glass windows reflected in the display.

In fact, the stained glass throughout the whole place was amazing !















Emerging into the sunshine once more, we decided to just sit for a good while longer, and found a lot of opportunities for getting some street photography shots.

We were also 'entertained' by probably the worst juggler we had ever seen in our lives - every few seconds he dropped the items he was juggling with, and I ended up feeling quite sorry for the guy . . .

 



      He was just as unsuccessful at walking on his hands, falling after a few seconds each time . . .

And he gave up after a dozen or more attempts to get the spoon   he was balancing on his foot, into the glass balanced on his head !








We must have sat for over an hour and a half, just watching and taking photographs and chatting - really lovely afternoon - before we decided to start heading back down the river towards The Eiffel Tower - we knew we had a fair walk ahead of us, so wanted to give ourselves plenty of time.

Once again, we decided to stroll along the path at the side of the actual river, and we came across a 'mini river cruise', lasting 1 hour - at just 12 Euro's, we felt it was probably worth it - so we paid our money and queued to get on .   We sat on the open top, one behind the other, both wanting to get lots of photographs - which we did !

It was around 4pm now, and the light was absolutely gorgeous .

 

We saw a different view of Notre Dame .

                                                       

And I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel tower - and was blown away by the sheer scale of it - beautiful ! .


We were joined on the top deck by a party of French people, all carrying glasses of wine - and who lit up the biggest spliff's I have ever seen - Katie and I were desperately trying not to inhale too much because despite the open air, we felt we were in the middle of a some sort of opium den ! Again - a bit of an eye opener, because I have never seen drugs used so openly before, and the tour guide, stood just a few feet away, didn't turn a hair !

After a really lovely hour, sadly the tour was over, and we docked back at Pont Neuf

And continued on our way towards the Tower - we had been walking for maybe an hour or so when we spotted it, just visible through the tree's - and as we watched , against the darkening skies, it began to light up. And I don't care if it makes me sound like a kid, it was fabulous ! Again I was somehow taken aback by the sheer size - and when the lights came on, it was that sense of seeing the Christmas tree lights when you're a child, and feeling all the excitement that goes with that .

Exhausted as we were, we quickened our pace, until the whole thing was in sight - and then it 'blinged' - seriously 'blinged' , sparkling like it had been decked in a million fairy lights - I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, and couldn't wait to find a spot where I could set up camera and tripod and get some photographs.

We gazed and snapped for quite a while, till gradually we realised two things - one we were starving - and two, we were shattered!

The food problem was taken care of by a near by stall - the two of us sat across the road, feasting our eyes on the Tower, and feasting our stomachs on hot, tasty crepes. . . bliss !

We went towards a taxi rank, found that it was only 15 euro's to get us back to the hotel, and in we hopped and off we went. It was a slightly 'white knuckle' style journey (actually, I don't think its possible to have any other sort of journey on the Paris roads !) but we got back in one piece, driven by a very friendly and chatty driver.

A very brief visit to the local finished off the night for us - an absolutely brilliant day !