Day 99: The Speed Tourists Guide to Paris

Date: Saturday 5th July
Staying: Camping Maison Lafitte - Paris, France.
Distance Travelled: 0 miles
Song of the day: One More Time - Daft Punk

Paris is big. Mindbogglingly big. How big? Imagine outer space. Now, put a Metro in there, and that's Paris. So, we needed a cunning plan for tackling it. Our plan was to wander about the first day, see a few new things and revisit the old things that we like, day two would be shopping and day three would be Versailles. Good plan, right?

So, day one in Paris. The agenda is as follows:
1. See the Mona Lisa
2. Visit Sainte Chapelle
3. Revisit the Notre Dame
4. Go to Shakespeare and Co.

1. We arrived at the Louvre at 9.05am (it opens at 9), so we beat most of the crowds. Also, it was Saturday, and the first Sunday of each month is free entry to the Louvre so most people were going the following day. The Louvre is roughly horse-shoe shaped, but about 1 mile from end to end, with 4 floors, and multiple sub-floors. After about six false starts we located the museums most famous piece. We got a surprisingly good view (only 3 people deep), and spent about 20 minutes arguing over whether she was smiling or not. We also decided to take a look at the Venus di Milo (well, why not?). Nice to see, but we were a bit underwhelmed to be honest. We're really not museum people.

2. Sainte Chapelle was next, and we actually queued longer here than at the Louvre (though to be fair the Louvre does have about 20 ticket offices). This church has made it to number 5 in Cam's Favourite Churches list, knocking out La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It's amazing, more stained glass than wall space. The photos just don't do it justice.

3. Revisiting the Notre Dame was a worthwhile stop off point, but it just goes to show how impressive Sainte Chapelle is as Notre Dame doesn't even make the top 5 (it's in the top 10 though). I admit it, I actually love the outside best of all.

4. After a spot of lunch, I dragged Cam off to what is probably the most famous (English) bookshop in Paris, Shakespeare and Co. It's not to be confused with the original which played host to luminaries such as Joyce, Hemmingway, et al, but both have developed some notoriety because it contains beds among its many and various bookshelves, where many writers have stayed over the years. In the 60's this included people like Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. I lounged over the chairs, took photos, and generally imagined being a bohemian writer living amongst the books.

And that is a full day in Paris.