Hi guys, I’d like to talk about the four days I spent in the wonderful city of Paris together with one of my clumsiest friends and Vitale…I had the chance to appreciate and admire its architectural attractions which embellish it and the magic you breathe when you go all over it.
The whole thing began as a simple work journey but it wouldn’t have been so considering our high spirits. We left from Naples with an easy jet flight on Saturday 28.01.2006; it was nice and cheap, we landed in Paris Orly where we took the RER to get the city-centre and from there we took the underground that took us to the Madeleine where we found our Royal Opera two-star Hotel. It was nice, as comfortable as the other hotels of a higher category. It is close to many historical and amusement points of interest…After the check in and once we left our luggage we went to the Eiffel Tower, we reached the edge and that’s wonderful especially if you want to look at the city at an altitude of 320 metres, to enjoy an amazing view.
We went down and waited for a taxi and I noticed that it’s impossible to find one on the way, they rarely stop (you’d better make a call at a fixed point). We went to the Champs Elysées where we had a snack before being overwhelmed by Parisian movida. Then we looked for a taxi but we didn’t find one so, through various helps, we got to the wonderful Buddha Bar by feet; this club is not so well known even if you ask people on the way but you should go there especially on Saturday, when you can eat and dance till 4.00 pm, but also in the other days to have a dinner and listen to lounge music.
The morning after we went to the amazing Place Vendome, that is a classic architecture masterpiece, with its column where there’s Napoleon’s statue. This column is a spiral and the 66 relieves on it depict the triumphs of Napoleonic army. We got there for a business appointment but since we had a night out before, we weren’t at our best! We continued on our way to Saint Ouen, that is a suburban area where there is a very big flea market but if you don’t like this kind of things maybe you wouldn’t be so interested in it and you’d prefer Port Clignacourt. There you can stop at the several stalls and we went to one of the many haunts to have a good ghiros… After this tour of Parisian markets we took a taxi to go to the Sacre-Coeur Basilica that is wonderful, to say the least, with its three domes and its endless stairs: once you get to the top you can enjoy a wonderful view all over the city.
Once we entered there and took some pictures, we went down the hill and went into the streets, that were full of souvenir shops (that is very touristic but worth visiting!) and we searched for a taxi, which, as I already said, is not easy, and it took us to the square where we admired the beautiful Du Ville Hotel building with its skating track and we took a turn in it… We went to Notre Dame by feet and we noticed its gothic beauty on the Ile-de-la-Cité, the cradle of the city. Once you go out from there you should go to Rue de Uschette, which is a little street full of any kind of restaurant where you can have a good meat or cheese fondue in one of the typical French restaurants, a Greek meal or an Italian one if you miss Italian cuisine (but you’d better taste it in Italy, anyway). Therefore, you can satisfy all your eating needs paying little money.
After we had one glass of wine more we went to the Barrio Latino, in the Bastille area, to have fun until the morning after, drinking mojito and dancing latin, dance and hip hop music in the wonderful French capital. Back from the night before we went to one of the most prestigious streets of the world, Rue Saint Honoré, where there’s the wonderful Place de la Concorde, considered one of the best squares in the world. From there we took a bus and got down some stops after since there was enough way to walk even if it wasn’t so far actually. We went shopping till we got to the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile, which is 50 metres high, where Paola and I went up 300 or so stairs to get to the terrace and admire the whole Etoile and some of Parisian monuments.
After this very long walk we made our way to our Hotel and stopped in one of the many typical Parisian bars to taste some sweets (they’re very good) and a very fine hot chocolate to get a little warm and to make our way again to Boulevard Haussman and continue to go shopping getting to Gallerie Lafayette. Our weekend, which seemed to me more a month considering it was intensely lived and stressful, since we tried our best to manage to see the main places; at the end of all we could come back home, completely satisfied with one of the greatest European capitals together with one of the most wonderful friends we have.
