Paris II. Montmartre and Père Lachaise cemetery

Sacre coeur in Montmartre

(Paris continued)

In the morning we went to have a walk Montmartre. It is a nice district with a cozy provincial-like feel.

Then I visited the famous Lachaise cemetery. Many famous people are buried there. I did not find many of them (didn't really try to), but it was a lovely walk. Beautiful place.

Later I relaxed in one park and walked around st Germain. Then I joined my host in one bar for some French songs. There was a guy playing a guitar and everybody got a booklet with lyrics and were singing along! A good pronunciation practice I would say and of course lots of fun. The bar was stuffed with the French singing their songs :)

To sum up, I had a very enjoyable weekend in Paris. Didn't really understand why everybody is so amazed by the city. It is nice, but not utterly beautiful. It has a lovely feel though, somewhat like Barcelona, but it is not that chaotic-noisy-southern as BCN, more subtle I would say.

Enjoy the pictures for now and wait for the next post about my last weekend in Italy!

Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre

Montmartre - the only vineyard in Paris

Montmartre, Moulin rouge

Cemetery

Cemetery, Crematorium

Crematorium
Chopin's grave
Some graves' exterior...

...and some interior

interior

Paris I. Sightseeing and visiting suburbs

The Parisian way... :)

Hello dears,

How did you start your spring? I started mine in Paris! I had an amazing weekend over there.

It started by taking an early train London-Paris. Train is so much easier and quicker than plane! No airport transfers, no security/check-in queues etc. Just two hours and you're there...

There I met a CSer, who was a very good host :)

We started from republique, went down to bastille, then Notre Dame and around.

Then I met a friend at Palais Royal, we went around the Louvre, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe and finished at the Eiffel tower. Then we had a quick look at the opera and I took a train to suburbs where I visited my relatives and the beautiful Chantilly castle.

In the evening I had to take a train back to Paris but the trains were cancelled because of construction works. Some night buses were supposed to go instead. But no one new when or how long and where will they take me, and on top of it nobody spoke English! I ended up in the middle of nowhere, at night, waiting [2hrs] for another bus which was already taking us to Paris where the metro was not going anymore.... What a mess, it was like Spain all over again. I was not ready for that :)) well at least I got back safe and sound, but it took a loooot of time :)

Ok now its picture time, the Paris story to be continued in the next post :)

Le Louvre

Contemporary Art Centre

The queue to Notre Dame is quite small, comparing to the ones for the Louvre and Eifel :)))

The Eifel area is a quite nice place to walk around :)
The Arc :)

Chantilly castle is very lovely and it has a huge park with channels behind it. All surrounded by the nature :)

Academics' house near the castle.

Three Wheeled Robin Car

"What? Three wheeled car?" - might be what you are thinking... "Why? How come?" Just be patient and I will tell you a story about the Robin, that was very popular in UK in the 70's.

I first heard about Robin when I was watching Top Gear with the kids. I am not into cars at all, but that programme has some interesting stuff to share! And this one is so exciting, who could even imagine! Apparently Robin was first manufactured in 1973 and became very popular because it was categorized as a motorcycle. So the driver didn't need to get a car drivers licence and saved a lot on taxes. These were the main reasons why Robin became so popular. It was The Car in late 70s in some parts of the UK. Of course it could not go too fast and was not very stable [the top gear guy was constantly rolling over], but people still loved it! Internet sources say that blue robin appears pretty often on Mr Bean and on the whole is a frequent joke topic. I have seen it when I was in Brighton. It is narrower than a usual car, but it does look attractive!

You can smile or frown but you have to agree - that is sth interesting innovative and just ingenious!