Today I was able to spend my time in Paris with @cupcakelady (the Wife), we didn’t really have a plan of what we were going to do or when to do it. I think the lack of planning and allowing Paris to dictate our day was a good thing. A word of caution that this sort of laissez faire planning could be a bad thing depending upon where you end up in the city. I do not recommend this when going to visit the Church on the Hill (Sacre Coeur).
Sacre Coeur - The Church on the Hill
The big things we wanted to cover were getting some shots of the Eiffel Tower during the day, Rue Cler & the original department stores, namely Bon Marche. Well 2 out of 3 aint’ bad 
The Eiffel Tower was first on our list and we were able to get some nice shots. The wife and I were very militant in how we attacked this tourist attraction… get in, get out and move on! There were a lot of people which is to be expected… and once again the worst part about ANY landmark, tourist stop are the locals trying to sell you 4 trinkets for 1 Euros or the Scammers tieing braclets on your wrists and then charging you 5-10 Euros… Major pain in the ass, very annoying and comical when you see girls who have been caught in the scam trying to figure out why they owe money for a crappy yarn braclet.
Alison in front of the Eiffel Tower
Aaron outside the Eiffel Tower
After the Eiffel tower we strolled leisurely through Paris and made our way to Rue Cler. Rue Cler is a market street full of restaurants and various types of vendors. This is a MUST see location in Paris, find a Cafe’ (we decided on Cafe’ du Marche thanks to Rick Steves) get some coffee, lunch or whatever… We watched the performers do there thing and just enjoyed Paris at it’s best. I think we spent a couple of hours in Rue Cler eating lunch and drinking coffee which just happens to be one of our favorite past-times!
Rue Cler
Rue Cler Street Performers
The final trip of the day was to find Bon Marche… EPIC FAIL! Well, maybe not Epic but Bon Marche is nowhere near the other department stores. Needless to say we did not get to Bon Marche and traversed the sea of people and made our way to Galeries Lafayette which was a MAD HOUSE of people! The best thing about the department stores was the buy one get one free 5 Euro bottle of wine we scored that was AWESOME!
Crazy Crowd
Gerard Bertrand Merlot 2007
I haven’t mentioned the train/sub-way system at all but it is SO easy to get around Paris-Metro area. The Metro stops are not clean by any strectch of the imagination, however they are easy to navigate train listings are posted on monitors and the trains seemed to me mostly on time.
Thoughts:
- Drink the cheap french wine, look for the Vin du Pays on the label since most of these vinyards are cranking out quality wines. Find a small grocery store of check out the deals at the big Departments stores.
- Read Rick Steves’ book on Paris, it has been updated for 2010 and find out what the latest scams are. Be firm and don’t worry about offending these people, they are only after your money anyways.
- Don’t buy any appliances, especially Nespresso coffee machines. They taste good, have many options to choose from and offer a plethora of coffees & teas but the power is an issue. You can use an adapter but after a while the difference in voltage will ruin your machine.
- If you have an iPhone spend the .99 cents and get the Official Paris Metro app, it will show you how to get ANYWHERE is Paris using the Metro & RER trains.
