![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I got in Saturday night, but I've been too busy catching up on sleep and family stuff to post.
Paris and London were amazing. I had a wonderful time. There were some snafus (airline sending my luggage to Denver, delayed flights, bad directions, ticketing problems, etc.), but overall the trip was a success. I spent 10 days in Paris (7 with my parents and 3 with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chuckro) and 4 in London (just with chuckro).
I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see in Paris. Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, Invalides, Arc de Triomphe, a boat tour of the Seine, bike tours of the city, Luxembourg Gardens, the Latin Quarter, Versailles, Monet's garden, Musee Jacqemart-Andre, the opera house, Sacre Couer, Montmatre, the Louvre, Square Igor-Stravinsky, Musee Rodin, Musee Nissim de Camondo, the sewer museum...We had picnics of bread and cheese and wine and fruit, wandered twisty little streets from the Middle Ages, fed pigeons in Tuileries garden, had ice cream of exotic flavors, and ate a lot of chocolate croissants. And took about 9 rolls of film worth of pictures.
London I didn't see nearly enough of. But I got to see the Changing of the Guard and have afternoon tea. Visited Harrods and Kensington Palace, the British Museum (with an entire exhibit on historical clocks!) and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the archaeological site of the Rose Theater and the Tower of London. Took a bus tour and a boat tour. And we watched a production of The Winter's Tale in the rebuilt Globe Theater, done with original practices, from the costumes to the staging to the period instruments played by the musicians.
Favorite moments - tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace. The play. A picnic on the grass under cloudless skies on the far side of the Grand Canal at Versailles. Riding bicycles through the place de la Concorde ringing bells like mad and screaming "We're all gonna die!" Drinking wine on the prow of a boat watching the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Wandering the streets Heloise and Abelard lived in. Exploring museums filled with the most amazing art in the world.
Least favorite moments - Sitting in Dulles airport for 8 hours. Discovering that my luggage had gone west instead of east. Coming down with a nasty headcold and collapsing moaning on the grass in Hyde Park. Discovering after half an hour of standing in line that we were at the wrong terminal in Heathrow.
Observations: You know the reputations that Parisians are mean and rude and the English have horrible food? Both false. Everyone we met in Paris was helpful, charming, and friendly. And we didn't have a bad meal, and did have several excellent ones, in London.
I like travel. A lot. But it's nice to be home again.
Paris and London were amazing. I had a wonderful time. There were some snafus (airline sending my luggage to Denver, delayed flights, bad directions, ticketing problems, etc.), but overall the trip was a success. I spent 10 days in Paris (7 with my parents and 3 with
chuckro) and 4 in London (just with chuckro). I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see in Paris. Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, Invalides, Arc de Triomphe, a boat tour of the Seine, bike tours of the city, Luxembourg Gardens, the Latin Quarter, Versailles, Monet's garden, Musee Jacqemart-Andre, the opera house, Sacre Couer, Montmatre, the Louvre, Square Igor-Stravinsky, Musee Rodin, Musee Nissim de Camondo, the sewer museum...We had picnics of bread and cheese and wine and fruit, wandered twisty little streets from the Middle Ages, fed pigeons in Tuileries garden, had ice cream of exotic flavors, and ate a lot of chocolate croissants. And took about 9 rolls of film worth of pictures.
London I didn't see nearly enough of. But I got to see the Changing of the Guard and have afternoon tea. Visited Harrods and Kensington Palace, the British Museum (with an entire exhibit on historical clocks!) and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the archaeological site of the Rose Theater and the Tower of London. Took a bus tour and a boat tour. And we watched a production of The Winter's Tale in the rebuilt Globe Theater, done with original practices, from the costumes to the staging to the period instruments played by the musicians.
Favorite moments - tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace. The play. A picnic on the grass under cloudless skies on the far side of the Grand Canal at Versailles. Riding bicycles through the place de la Concorde ringing bells like mad and screaming "We're all gonna die!" Drinking wine on the prow of a boat watching the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Wandering the streets Heloise and Abelard lived in. Exploring museums filled with the most amazing art in the world.
Least favorite moments - Sitting in Dulles airport for 8 hours. Discovering that my luggage had gone west instead of east. Coming down with a nasty headcold and collapsing moaning on the grass in Hyde Park. Discovering after half an hour of standing in line that we were at the wrong terminal in Heathrow.
Observations: You know the reputations that Parisians are mean and rude and the English have horrible food? Both false. Everyone we met in Paris was helpful, charming, and friendly. And we didn't have a bad meal, and did have several excellent ones, in London.
I like travel. A lot. But it's nice to be home again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 09:16 pm (UTC)From:Pics courtesy of google images:
http://www.rockymtnrefl.com/delicatearch.jpg
http://www.rpi.edu/~georgj/Sunset%20Over%20Bryce%20Canyon,%20Utah.JPG
no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 05:28 am (UTC)From:My final impression was that Paris has a love-hate relationship with tourism -- on one hand, it's great that the whole world thinks your city is beautiful, but on the other hand, they must have to deal with morons and jackasses all the time. I think it makes a difference if you try to speak French, even the pathetically tiny amount of French that I knew. It makes you look like Not Just Another American Jackass Tourist. Such is my theory, anyway, based on a whopping week and a half there. Take with an appropriate slab of salt.
Glad you had a great time!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 02:57 pm (UTC)From:Actually, I thought that the Parisians were kinder to tourists, even if you were speaking English, than the Londoners were. We had several people go out of their way to help us when we needed it, and I was impressed and touched with how friendly most people were.