Bonjour everyone.
Welcome to Paris.
Home to the Riot police, some 80 thousand personal, Armored Personal Carriers, water cannons, helicopters landing on the street, the sounds of sirens going off, locked down areas, checkpoints and bag searches, and not a single protest we haven't come across thankfully.
But the protests are still very much real in parts of the city and the damage done in the last several weeks is visible, even on the high end of town, smashed windows, shops boarded up, more security guards and roadblocks with heavily armed police and barricades, controlling the flow of areas with no go zones, really show the reality of whats been happening and the need to maintain control of national icons and buildings.
But in saying all of that, Paris is beautiful, with its incredible roads, architecture, history, the Eiffel tower and its views, the Louvre and the most famous pieces of art and well the hours you can spend just walkig around and finding different things to see along the way.
Thanks to the lockdown areas for traffic, we were able to walk around the state office buildings, the parks in front, and even the famous Champs-Elysees road that leads to the Arc de Triomphe and high street area, and sit on it with no traffic and get some great photo shoots.
After all that and up to the Arc de Triomphe itself, well across the steet, we walked towards the Eiffel tower, you really could spend a few hours on the Eiffel tower and area around itself with the beautiful parks at the base to climbing up the tower because first of all, you have to walk up over 600 steps to get to the second floor and that kills after all the walking and stairs we did in London. Never the less, we made it and what a sight it was to be there, 360 views of the whole city.
If you get the chance, come back to it or at least be in sight of it nearer to 6pm for a light show of it we didn't expect. She's just as much beautiful when its dark, got its makeup, got on its favorite lights on and when shes ready, she'll give you a light show.
( yes i know i just said that for a tower)
Anyways back on point, Paris is one of the only citys we have been to that actually feels large, and it looks it from the tower, but its great to sit down on one of the several benches, eat lunch and just look at it all, it is worth to take your own food with you unless you want to blow money on incredibly over priced food, but hey thats me. That slice of pizza may look incredible after so much work to get there, but at the several euro for it, you'll feel empty both your tummy and your wallet, so make some sandwichs.
Enough about the Tower, Lady Library is a short walk down river, its much smaller then the US one but hey, size doesn't matter, its still cool to see.
The Louvre is up and across the river from Eiffel Tower, and is well worth exploring the many levels and rooms for many many MANY years of history, and dont feel bad if you don't see everything, that would take days if you were interested in every little thing, but from the basement floor to the top and even paintworks on the roof, you'll be sure to find something, including the Mona Lisa in its own section, but it is surrounded by groups of teen girls doing sefies, Asian groups and the one guy who's just too damn tall to see past ( lucky that was me this time ).
But you can't get close, nor see, and all it really is, its just Mona lisa, go to one in Liverpool i mentioned before.
We have had own first real language problems in Paris, from talking to people and reading signs, if you at least know how to say hello and thank you, its a good start, figure out interpretations, and be patient, people will help out, otherwise, just find someone that speak English to help out, but most things are pretty easy to figure out, and the metro system is easy to understand.
Other things like that red sign with a danger sign near a river says "go for a swim in the river its lovely this time of year".
The fenced off road with a riot officer waving at you, pointing at you then behind you and saying something in french, he's says " Sir, i invite you to turn around and take a selfie with me and my batton"
Its not hard to understand whats being said and if your unsure, just ask. Don't have to know a language fully to know whats going on.
But all jokes aside, i do hope the protests stop soon, and Paris can really look its best, be able to see more, actually look under the Arc de Triomphe, instead of parked APC's in front of it and fenced off, or less armed police at every corner.
But i do understand the importance for it all, with everything thats happened in the last few years, from shootings, terrorism and even today with protests on a mass scale.
I'm sure someone will say im being overly dramatic about it all but this is my impression of Paris.
Maybe one day we will come back to experience the true beauty, but till then, you have been amazing where you could be Paris and given us a fun time where we could, eaten several croissants, taken many photos, walked many streets, seen some of what you have to offer and just loved much of what we have seen.
Now we are on the bus to see a very historic town and start of the WW2 tour list for me on this side of the channel...... Dunkirk....
Bye for now.
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