Paris 3 day
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Let me apologize up front for the numerous pictures from this trip. I couldn’t help it. Not only was it a fantastic day in Paris and the crew was just wonderful, but I hadn’t brought a decent camera on a Paris layover since starting this blog. So I was excited to capture the many unique sights of the city. You wouldn’t believe the number of stunning women or the seemingly typical spectacle of couples that were making out randomly through the city. Sorry, I didn’t feel right about capturing those pictures, though.
More refined people would find themselves in the museums of Paris, but we just had such a great time watching people from two different parks and in front of some sights that we had little interest in doing anything as organized as a museum that day. In fact, we never even made it to a restaurant for the day. The Captain, John K. and the relief pilot (FB) Andy H. were the perfect guys to inspire me to get up from my short 2 hour nap. It would have been a longer nap, but Ruthann needed some Mac dual instruction via iChat. If you aren’t a regular reader to this blog, Ruthann is a frequent contributor to the comments here. She’s from Ireland and she’s on a work/study program in San Francisco for the summer. She might even swing by New England later. Take a look at some of her amazing pictures on her Flickr site. She’s also blogging about her adventures in San Francisco right now, and she’s really a talented writer. Take a look at her Tumblr blog here to see what I mean. She’s a total aviation nut who is now working in film production. She needs to continue with her flying lessons however, in my humble opinion.
Even though Andy was the FB on this trip, he was really the one who had flown Paris the most. John and I get there just a few times a year, so Andy served as our guide.
Having flown Paris so often, Andy is even starting to LOOK a little French.
Captain John flew the leg over and after we arrived in Paris, the mechanic told us that Friday night would be when the fireworks celebration for Bastille day would happen at the Eiffel Tower. We were surprised by this news since Bastille day wasn’t until the next day, but we knew we would have to catch that. Unfortunately, we discovered that he was misinformed. But we still wanted to get a somewhat early start to go into the city.
We met up at 2:30 for a trip to the Monoprix grocery store for some sandwiches, bread, wine, beer, cheese and Pate. We were all set for a great picnic in the Luxembourg Gardens. Once we found a good spot, we had some bread and a beer from the vendor there. We enjoyed the guy dressed in a suit who stopped right in front of us with his blond girlfriend and began to make out for a couple of minutes before finding a bench to continue his mashup time.
We couldn’t have picked a nicer day. The gardens feature a pond in front of a palace where kids rent little sailboats for 2 Euros for a half hour at a time. It was just the perfect photo opportunity which contributed to the 170 pictures I took on this layover. I mean, how can you NOT get a great picture at a place like this:
Walking toward the Luxembourg Gardens
The next time, I swear we’re going to have to rent 3 of those boats and take part. I know it’s probably just for kids, but it looked like so much fun.
We had plans to go to a restaurant known as the Acadamie du Bierre (Beer Acadamy) but we changed our minds and went to Pont Neuf which has a park down near the water that would be perfect for eating our sandwiches. There was another beer vendor there, so we avoided paying 8 euros for a beer and instead picked up three for 2.50 each. It would prove to be a very inexpensive, but enjoyable day laying in the grass of the park.
The park at Pont Neuf where we had lunch.
People watching.
Ruthann, I blame you for this nap I needed in the park. When I saw this, I missed being home.
Just so it can’t be said that we didn’t take in a little culture, I took a few pictures of some sculptures we saw at an exhibit featuring film equipment and props from years ago. Not sure how these sculptures fit into that theme:
We walked passed a striking girl in a really nice dress that seemed only a little out of place. After walking another hundred feet, we noticed a film crew had been filming her from behind for a movie. We may have accidentally ended up in the scene. After walking past the crew, I turned around and got this shot (on the right).
They were focused on her crossing the bridge that was outside the left part of the frame in this picture, but shown below.
Couples above and below enjoying the park at Pont Neuf. The bridge in the background is supposed to be the best spot to see the sunset in Paris.
Finally, I’ll leave you with some of the pictures I liked from the rest of our time in Paris. We spent a bit of time in front of Notre Dame, and later picked up a Crepe-au-Chocolate along the Rue Mutard. While we never made it out to dinner, we really felt like we had a good time on this particular trip. It helped that the weather cooperated and the Captain and FB were so much fun to hang out with. Often the layover is far more fun than the uneventful flights over and back. This time was a perfect example of that. More to come next week when we go back to Manchester!
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