Sights and Sounds Ninety-Four

Here's the UK video. Not much to it really. Just a few clips.

Sights and Sounds Ninety-Three

Here's a little video of our trip to France. I am working on a video for the UK partof the trip too but haven't finished it yet. The French one is a little longer than i intended but i just didn't want to cut anymore.

Sights and Sounds Ninety-Two

It's our last day in Paris. We just go back from our main sightseeing adventure for the day. This evening we will be taking it easy in the neighborhood and hitting the sack kinda of early for our 6:15AM start.
But today we decided to venture to La Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise. It was about a 20 minute walk from the flat and took us over new territory. The cemetery is very well known. Famous people buried there include Oscar Wilde and Modigliani. However, the grave i interested in seeing was Jim Morrison's. He was buried there after he dies in Paris at the age of 28.

There was quite a crowd gathered at Morrison's grave and they had constructed a fence around it to keep people off of it. The cemetery was absolutely massive and we wandered around for about an hour not seeing very much of it. We decided to grab some lunch and then head over to Notre Dame to take a look inside.
The crowds were huge today but the line moved pretty quickly. There were people feeding the birds from their hands which was pretty cool.

We made our way inside where Dusti got a guide and we read about the cathedral.  Here's a few pics from the inside.

We left Notre Dame just before 3pm not realizing that a special ceremony was about to occur at 3 where they showed off what is said to be a nail from cross Jesus was crucified on and the crown of thorns. Realizing this when we walked out we opted not to stand in line all over again and instead went to find a place for some refreshments.

We headed back to our flat after this and we are now packing up before we go out for one last dinner in Paris.
This city is amazing. The people have been so friendly and there is so much to see here. I highly recommend it if you can make time. It is an expensive place but if you rent a flat like we did ($600) for a week you really get the chance to live in the neighborhood and experience the culture a little better than staying in a hotel.

Sights and Sounds Ninety-One

Here's a quick update. We have been so busy i find it hard to keep this up. The other night we ate at Chez Omar, a Moroccan restaurant in our neighborhood. We got a large bowl of couscous to share some vegetables and half a chicken. It was very good. Dusti also enjoyed choosing from the "The Party Platter" of desserts.

After dinner we stopped off at a local bar to watch the Champions Legue semi-final.
On Thursday we slept in little and didn't get out of the door until around 11. We headed to the Louvres but decided not to go in s the lines were absolutely mammoth and we would have spent several hours jut waiting. Instead we walked down the Champs-Elysees. It was incredibly busy today as the weather was warm and people were getting out. We walked all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe only stopping once so Dusti could by some french lip stick!

We had a bite to eat and walked over to the Eiffel Tower again so we could take a boat tour on the River Seine. It was awesome.  I shot mostly video and will post later. After the tour we walked towards Les Invalides not before taking another couple of Eiffel Tower shots and stopping at a Boulangerie for a little afternoon dessert.

In the evening we headed back out for the nigh time shots of the Arc and the Eiffel Tower. It was tricky but we got a couple of good ones.

Sights and Sounds Ninety

The weather has turned for the worse today with rain greeting us when we woke up. It is awfully cold too especially for May 1st. Our plans today took us away from Paris. We decided to take a train ride an hour outside the city to the town of Chartres. The train was a SCNF commuter train which was a double decker. We sat at the top and watched the french countryside go by. Even though the weather was a little dodgy the views were gorgeous. Our eyes were met with fields of yellow flowers that we guessed were mustard. When we arrived at Chartres it was very quiet. Today is a public holiday and most everything is closed (main reason we left Paris as most tourist locations were shut). We wandered up towards the Chartres cathedral which is the main focal point of the town. It was quite spectacular.
We decided to eat at Le Cafe Serpente before venturing around the town. Dusti had a mushroom omelet and i had a lamb (yes i know i already broke my vow to eat the little guys again but i swear this was my last time...i just saw someone else order it and it looked too good).

We took a quick look at the iPhone map and decided to walk around the town. We came across some pretty cool sights. The Abbey of St. Pierre and Chartres Cathederal were religious sites dating from the 7th century. Monks defended St. Pierre's at that time. A fire destroyed most of Chartres i the early 1100's. "New" reconstructions of the abbey and cathedral began shortly after the fire.
Here is a photo of St. Pierre's belltower.

We walked down towards the little canal and took in some more of this medieval town.

The rain began to fall so we headed inside the cathedral and it was simply amazing. No pictures could do it justice.

There was also one little fella that caught our eye. He follwed his master (not in the photo) around on command. we felt bad for the little pup as his master seemed rather mean.

We caught the train back to Paris and made our way back to our flat on the 3rd Ard. I did see another sweet piece of Paris street art. Time for bed now. I'll give you details of our evening at the local Moroccan restaurant, Chez Omar, tomorrow.

Sights and Sounds Eighty-Nine

Just got back from another hectic day out. I will start by finishing off yesterdays excursion. Perhaps my most favorite photos were taken on this day. The one below of the bride was just one of those "right place at right time" moments but nevertheless i really love it.

In the evening we ventured out to get some long exposure and night shots. We thought it would be dark by 8:30 but we waited for ages for the sun to go down. However, we were fortunate to experience rather a spectacular sunset. This shot of the fountains at Place de la Concorde really came out well.

As the sun went down it just got so amazingly beautiful.

The sunset couldn't be justified in photos.

After the sun went down we headed over to the Louvre to get a couple of night time shots there.

After a quick bite to eat we continued our evening tour back to Notre Dame.

We headed back on the Metro after the Notre Dame shots and hit the sack pretty hard. Another day of miles walked and sights seen.
This morning I really wanted to take the Notre Dame towers tour. We headed over to the cathedral at 9:45 am and joined the already massive line. We had to walk up 400 odd steps to get the view but it was well worth it. I had to get my gargoyle shot!

 After our the Notre Dame work out we got some breakfast at a cafe where we ordered delicious omelettes. We then walked down Rue de Mouffetard one of the oldest streets in Paris. It was quite a sight with all sorts of delicacies to choose from. One guy was cooking chickens on a rotisserie and had potatoes at bottom whoch were cooking in the fat from the chickens. You might be able to get the idea from the photo.

As much as i wanted more fatty greasy tasty food we had just had our omelettes so we opted for an chocolate eclair instead.

We shared the eclair and headed towards the Jardin des Luxembourg via the Pantheon. They were built for Marie de Medici by Louis XV. Impressive to say the least.

We spent a while wandering the gardens before heading to the catacombs which to our despair had a monster line waiting for entry. We decided we would try to go again later in the week. Instead we had some beer and wine!
We caught the Metro back to Republique, the closest staion to our temporary home and stopped off at the Marche des Rouges Enfants for some Lebanese dinner. It was delicious. I couldn't tell you what we ate (Dusti ordered it all) but it really hit the spot including the Lebanese beer.

It started to rain on our walk back and the weather may put a damper on our plans to photograph the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower tonight so we nay have to wait until later in the week.