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P A R I S
Our first trip to Europe. We flew through JFK en route to Charles de Gaulle airport. We were utterly clueless when we landed, with only the backpacks on our back, but met a nice guy from Alaska who got us headed in the right direction to Montparnasse. After a little bit of fumbling around we found our hotel, checked in and headed for the Eiffel Tower. Over the next week we drove through Northern France across some of the most beautiful country we have ever seen. Upon our return to Paris, we "hung-out" around the Sorbonne, saw da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" & "Madonna of the Rocks", Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace from Ancient Greece. We had a picnic under the Eiffel Tower one day, along the banks of the Seine the next. We visited Jim Morrison's grave, walked through Pigalle, and ended our trip battling gypsies in Montmartre. The best times, however, were meeting up with some close friends for dinner, drinks, and an evening cruise through Paris.
Date Quarter/Area Location Arrondisment Notes
S A N  F R A N C I S C O  (+/-)
April 14, 2005 CDG Charles de Gaulle Parisinfo - Arrival CDG
P A R I S  (+/-)
April 14, 2005 Montparnasse Montparnasse Gare 14th Hotel du Parc
Eiffel Tower Eiffel Tower 7th
Montparnasse Montparnasse 14th Inno, Dinner at Brussels
D R I V I N G  T H R O U G H  L O I R E / B R I T T A N Y / N O R M A N D Y  (+/-)
April 15, 2005 Loire Paris to Chartres SNCF (TER)
April 15, 2005 Loire Chartres to Laval Ibis Hotel Laval
April 16, 2005 Brittany Laval to St-Brieuc Etap St-Brieuc Yffiniac
April 17, 2005 Brittany St-Brieuc to St-Malo Citotel Hotel du Palais
April 18, 2005 Normandy St-Malo to Honfleur Hotel des Loges
April 19, 2005 Normandy Honfleur to Rouen Hotel Alba Rouen
April 20, 2005 Loire Rouen to Chartres SNCF (TER)
P A R I S  (+/-)
April 20, 2005 Montparnasse Metro to Port Royal 14th
Latin Boulevard St-Michel 6th Hotel des Mines
Latin Boulevard St-Michel 5th Walking around
April 21, 2005 Champs-Elysées Arc de Triomphe 8th
Invalides Musée de l'Armée 7th Tombeau de Napoléon
Invalides Musée de Rodan 7th
Le Penseur (The Thinker) (1902), The Gates of Hell (1879-1889), Balzac (1891-1898), The Kiss (1893).
River Seine Lunch on the Seine
Ile de la Cité Notre-Dame 4th
Ile de la Cité Conciergerie 4th
Latin Boulevard Saint-Michel 5th Drinks at Tabac de la Sorbonne with Suett & Quoc
Latin Boulevard Saint-Michel 5th Dinner at Pizza Pasta Vino e Birra with Suett & Quoc
April 22, 2005 Luxembourg Jardin du Luxembourg 6th
Montparnasse Montparnasse 14th Inno, Montparnasse Tower
Eiffel Tower Eiffel Tower 7th Lunch at the Eiffel Tower
Latin Panthéon 5th
Jardin des Plantes Rue Mouffetard 5th Walking around, Le Mouffetard Bar & Braisserie
River Seine Vendettes du Pont Neuf with Suett & Quoc
Montparnasse Boulevard du Montparnasse 14th Dinner at La Select with Suett & Quoc
April 23, 2005 Tuileries Musée du Louvre 1st
Mona Lisa (1503-1506), Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486) by Leonardo da Vinci, Venus de Milo by Alexandros of Antioch, Winged Victory of Samothrace (220-190 BC), Joan of Arc (1852) by François Rude, The Wedding Feast at Cana (1562-1563) by Paolo Caliari, The Slave (1513-1515) by Michelangelo Buonarroti, La Liberté guidant le peuple (1830) by Eugene Delacroix, La Radeau de la Méduse (1818-1819) by Théodore Géricault.
Saint-Germain des Prés Boulevard Saint-Germain 6th Lunch at Mucha Café
Saint-Germain des Prés Musée d'Orsay 7th
Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh, Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Whistler's Mother (1871) by James McNeill Whistler, Olympia by Edouard Manet, Aprés le bain, femme s'essuyant la nuque (1898) by Edgar Degas, Les joueurs de cartes (1890) by Paul Cézanne. Series of La cathédrale de Rouen (1892-1893), Le bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie verte (1899), Nymphéas Bleus (1916) by Claude Monet
Latin Boulevard Saint-Michel 5th Dinner at Yokorama
Latin Boulevard Saint-Michel 5th Shakespeare and Company Kilometer Zero
April 24, 2005 Montparnasse Montparnasse Station 14th Move to Montmartre
Montmartre Place Emile Goudeau 18th Timhotel Montmartre
Montmartre Sacré Coeur 18th
Pere Lachaise Cemetary 20th James Morrison, A La Renaissance
Champs-Elysées Avenue de Champs-Elysées 7th Walking around
Tuileries Concorde 8th
Opera Madeleine 9th
Montmartre Montmartre 18th Dinner at Les Saint Regis with Suett & Quoc
Montmartre Sacré Coeur 18th
April 25, 2005 Montparnasse Montparnasse 14th Inno
Ile de la Cité Ile de la Cité 4th Point Zero
Gare du Nord 10th
Gare de l'Est 10th
Montmartre Pigale 18th Walking around, Cafe des 2 Moulins
Montmartre Abbssess 18th
Montmartre Place Emile Goudeau 18th Lunch at Relais de la Butte
Montmartre Sacré Coeur 18th
Montmartre Monmartre 18th Dinner at Le Consulat
April 26, 2005 Montmartre Sacré Coeur 18th Morning Walk
Montmartre Abbssess Station 18th
Montmartre Pigale Station 18th
Barbes Rochechouart Station
Gare du Nord 10th Paul, RER B at 9:15
CDG Charles de Gaulle
N O T E S  (+/-)
Carte Musée et Monuments The Paris Museum and Monuments Card was a great deal for us. We purchased the three-day pass at Arc de Triomphe, and the "Museum Card Lines" at Musée du Louvre and Musée d'Orsay were worth the price alone. We by-passed a line at Musée d'Orsay which would have easily taken us over an hour in (we went in in less than five minutes). In three days, we easily visited more than enough sites to cover the cost of the card.
Paris Metro The metro is the easiest way to get around Paris. Find the colored metro line you wish to take, then follow the signs in the stations toward the last station on the line in the direction you wish to go. Transfers are easy within the station (do not exit). Purchase a carnet (10 rides) at the ticket window (Un carnet S'il vous plaît).
Japanese Food There are many Japanese restaurants in Paris, and I would definitely recommended to try one. We went to Yokorama, in an alley off of Boulevard Saint-Michel. It was interesting to order "yakitori" in French, and the food was delicious.
SNCF Train Ticket Validation Don't forget to validate your train ticket before you board the train. Automated ticket validation machines are everywhere.
P A R I S