Update was delayed due to Malta trip. I will resume.
This series is getting longer than expected…. Originally I was planning to run the Medoc Marathon and return home right after….
Because of the Air France strike, our stay was extended by three days, so we rented a car at Charles de Gaulle airport anyway and traveled to the north of France, which we had not had a chance to visit before.
I ended up in Paris.
However, the final day of our plus three days ended in Paris. We hadn’t originally planned to visit, and rather wanted to head towards Normandy, but due to the distance limitations of our rental car, we couldn’t travel too far, so we had no choice.
Still, it’s a very nice city and you shouldn’t have any trouble passing the time.
We arrived in Paris about two hours from Amiens, where we were staying.
The classic Paris drive
In the meantime, we went for a drive in the city as usual.
Is it a classic now? I was asked to take a time-lapse video of the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde and post it.
To make sightseeing easier, choose a parking lot around the center of the city. The best place is near the Opera or the Louvre. When I wandered around Paris, I found a public parking entrance named “Pyramid” on the street connecting Opera Garnier and Louvre.
We decided to park here because the location is ideal, although the price seems a little high.
I parked on the fourth basement floor.
I wonder if there are more than 6 basement levels here. Very wide and splendid parking lot. Sometimes I forget where I parked when it’s this big, so I always take a picture of the number I parked like in the picture above.
By the way, there is also a toilet. Unfortunately, only parking lot users can use it.
Lunch near the Opera
The first place we headed after getting out of the car was the Louvre. First we play around with some photos and stuff.
By the way, this is Google’s Photo Sphere app, which allows 360-degree photography.
But it seemed to be a little crowded, so we suddenly changed our plans. We decided to have lunch.
As usual, we used the TripAdviser app to search for recommendations near the Opera.
As you would expect from Paris, there are so many shops to choose from. However, we couldn’t get into any of the shops that looked good on our search, because they were either a little delicate or very crowded when we actually visited them, so we ended up choosing a café near the Opera.
I’ll be here until evening, so I’ll have a light beer.
And for the meal, I chose a hamburger. Because I thought that hamburger is delicious to eat in a cafe in France.
Yeah, it was definitely delicious!
Louvre after a long time
After a delicious lunch, we walked to the Louvre. It was more empty than before, so we were able to enter the pyramid right away.
As usual, the Louvre is full of people waiting in line to buy tickets at the counter. If it was a vending machine, I could leave without waiting in line. There are many languages available. Of course, Japanese is also available.
I’ve been here so many times that I’ve already forgotten how many times I’ve been here, and I remember where everything is, so I decided to just wander around the main places without looking at a map or anything.
Mona Lisa is as irresistible as ever.
I’m quite fond of the area where Napoleon III’s pause is.
I also like the French sculpture square.
Did Nike-san come back from restoration?
I don’t remember how many times I’ve been to the Louvre, but I’m always impressed no matter how many times I come. Even so, it took us about an hour to visit the Louvre.
By the way, the audio guide is now on the 3DS. I was wondering why so many people had 3DS.
But this time, I was pretty bored and determined to stand in line, and luckily it wasn’t too crowded!
This was not a smooth ride, and we had to wait about 20-30 minutes after we actually entered the tower, but we finally made it to the observation deck we had been longing for.
Wow, I love heights!
It’s like Google Earth!
To Meaux, where we will stay today.
Have you been to France? While the excitement of climbing the Eiffel for the first time in my life has not cooled down, the time has finally come to leave Paris. The time is 17:00, and it’s still light, but we have to move to the place where we’ll stay for the night before the sun goes down.
The place we chose was this hotel on the outskirts of the city of Meaux, a suburb on the east side of Paris.
I will write a separate diary about this chain hotel.
A little dinner at this hotel. It was a cheese-like meal. But it was delicious.
The wine was also in a carafe. At any rate, it seemed to be French wine, but the taste was not good. Because it is cheap, it is such a thing. Although it is delicious enough even at this price in the country.
We finished our meal, took a shower, and went to bed after briefly organizing our luggage. This is the last night of this trip.
The next installment of this travelogue series will be the final installment.
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