Sunday, June 7, 2009

Paris

I've been working pretty hard recently so I took the chance to take the weekend in Paris. One of the perks of being in Cambridge, you can get on the train and be in Paris in just a few hours, walking around gardens like this:



It was a fantastic weekend away. I've been to Paris a few times now but every time I go, I seem only to realise that there is more to the city than I previously thought and it will take many more visits to really see it all. Among other sites, in two and a half days in Paris I saw the Sacré Coeur Basilica, Sainte-Chapelle, Notre Dame, Modern Art Museum at the Centre Pompidou, the Champs-Elysées and Arc de Triomphe, the Catacombs, the zoo and natural history musem ad the Jardins Des Plantes, the Arènes de Lutèce, the Grand Mosque of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, and the Hôtel des Invalides.



I'll just mention two things that sum the trip up. Above is the Arènes de Lutèce, a small Roman Amphitheatre that was built sometime in the 1st Century AD. It's a pretty amazing archaeological site, beautifully nestled in the city amongst some greenery, and it barely shows up on most guidebooks. People there were playing pétanque (bocce), there is so much in Paris that a 2000-year old amphitheatre just blends in.



The other thing was the Eiffel Tower. I've been up it before and figured there wasn't much more to see, like Paris itself you hear about it so much it seems like an overhyped tourist attraction. But in re-visiting the tower, I was completely struck both by how beautiful the tower is in person and how incredible the engineering is.

There's a reason Paris is so famous. It's an amazing place.



Here's a photo of me and Jess, my travel partner for the weekend. I'm quite tired on the return but it was an amazing weekend.

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