Here To Geneva

Tag Results: Paris

Jardin du Luxembourg

Big Screen at Tour de France

Maillot Jaune

Lap of Honour

British Support

Exhausted

Looking for street art

The Jewish Quarter (le Marais)

Shakespeare and Company Bookshop

Postcard From Paris (Part Two)

Just as soon as the locals have left for their summer holidays, I head for mine. Summer wouldn’t be the same without a weekend in Paris. Here are some more snaps from my city break.

For more photos from Paris, visit my Flickr stream.

The Louvre

Ice Cream

Jardin du Luxembourg

River Seine

Promenade Plantée

Cafe in Paris

Jewish Quarter

Jewish Quarter Tucker

Postcard From Paris (Part One)

Another year, another trip to Paris. *Sigh* Life is difficult sometimes. Allow me to take you on a short guided tour of my weekend, HTG Postcard style.

Notes From The City Of Light (Part Two)

Welcome to the second of a two-part series of notes written during a weekend trip to Paris. In this edition, I wait patiently for the peleton, visit my favourite Parisian park, meet more Aussies and nearly get struck by lightning. If you haven’t read part one, don’t you think it’s a more logical starting point? Idiot!

Notes From The City Of Light (Part One)

I’ve just spent the weekend in a blistering hot and beautiful Paris. This is part one of a two-part series of notes I wrote during the trip. In this edition, I climb two levels of the Eiffel Tower, get cast into darkness on the metro, get serenaded by George Michael, go cycling and meet lots of great people (mostly Aussies and Kiwis). Let’s go!

Your Questions Answered (Part 1)

Some of you may be unaware that your every move on the Internet is tracked. Whenever you visit a website, the administrator of that website knows you’re there, knows what country you’re in, knows which website you came from, even knows your screen resolution. It’s scary, but true. This information is gathered automatically so that the website admins can improve their websites based on who is visiting. It’s like market research, only you didn’t agree to take part in it.

Such ‘market research’ takes place on this website. I gather this information purely to make sure the stuff I’m writing is being read. Also, it’s cool to know someone from Argentina dropped by.

One other piece of data that is collected is the search term that a visitor typed into Google or Yahoo in order to find Here To Geneva. As I wrote in a previous post, the most common search term for this site is “binary solo”, followed by “first time flyer”. Often, in amongst the search terms, are questions that people have queried. Google has brought up one of my pages as a result and the visitor has clicked it hoping to have their question answered. In some cases, they’ve been disappointed to find I’ve never even attempted to address their topic of ignorance. This new series of posts is designed to solve this problem.

Review: Novotel Paris Gare Montparnasse

No Parisien charm, but plenty of comfort and space in a hotel that’s ideally located in the heart of the city.

If you’re looking for a good value, modern and conveniently located hotel in the centre of Paris (and why wouldn’t you), look no further than the Novotel Paris Gare Montparnasse.

What You’ve Heard Is True (Part Four)

If you’ve been brave enough (and bored enough) to have read the last three parts of my Paris trip write-up, crack open a bottle of Vittel and smear some smelly cheese on a cracker, because you’ve almost made it. This is the forth and final part of my Paris trip write-up, where I visit the massive Grande Arche de la Fraternité at La Défense and the intricate beauty of Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre.

At the end of part three, you left me sheltering from the rain in the Gift Shop inside the Arc de Triomphe. I spent a few minutes looking around but deemed everything to be a little overpriced and mostly rubbish. It was approaching late afternoon and I still had one more major attraction to fit into my day. So, I decided to risk a soaking, decended the steps and made a dash for the metro.

A short journey to the western end of Line 1 brings you to a futuristic looking business district called La Défense which is home to a cube shaped office block called the Grande Arche de la Fraternité to give it it’s full title. It’s designer intended it to be a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe. At 110 metres in height, it’s an amazing monument to behold and quite unique in appearance. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. The nearest metro station is almost directly underneath it. While I was acceding the escalator to ground level, I caught a glimphse of one of the corners of it. I immediately stared at the ground so that the first time I looked at it, I would see all of it in all it’s glory. Judging by the size of the corner I had seen, I decided that I would need to be quite some distance from it to see it all, so ended up walking away from it for a few minutes before turning round. The rain had stopped by now and the sun was out. I turned round to see the sun rays bouncing off of it’s shiny, clean edges. It looked incredible. The surrounding landscape was also a sight to behold. A variety of different shaped offices, hotels, shops and attractions. I’ve never been in such a futuristic environment and probably never will again (unless I return). I declined the invitation to go up to the roof in one of the vertigo-inducing lifts. I’d already been up Tour Montparnasse, Tour Eiffel and the Arc de Triomphe in the space of a day, so I figured I’d seen Paris from above enough already. Once you’ve seen the Grande Arche, you can either go on elsewhere in Paris, or do as I did and take the opportunity to buy some gifts for people at home at the nearby shopping mall. Prices are lower than they are in the centre of Paris and the stores themselves are slightly less crowded.

My last day in Paris was to be spent in Montmartre, just north of the centre of the city. The name means ‘mountain of the martyr’ and if you spend more than a few hours there, you’ll probably feel like you’ve climbed one. While it is only 130 metres high, the hilly, cobbled streets are very steep in places and even I, a fit, young, handsome thing got a bit puffed out at times (only a bit, mind). The main attraction at Montmartre is the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, a stunningly beautiful Roman Catholic basilica finished in 1914. I arrived early and was one of the first to go in as the doors were opened that day. The interior is just a stunning as the stark, white exterior with the main feature being a mosaic on the ceiling above the altar, one of the largest in the world and quite frankly, the most incredible work of art I’ve ever seen. The walk around the basilica was done so under the watchful eye of suited men, shushing people, telling them to remove their hats, telling them in which direction to walk and generally being a pain. I ignored them as best I could and simply gazed for quite some time at the mosaic, before setting off into the drizzle.

I had resisted the temptation to get off the metro at the station all the tourists get off at and alighted at the next one instead. I’d read on TripAdvisor that if you did this, it’s a really nice, quiet walk to the top of the hill and very parisian in feel. And you know what? It was. It was perhaps my favourite part of the day. I didn’t really know the direction to the basilica. I just knew that so long as I was going up, I’d reach it.

After I had seen the basilica, I was a bit lost for things to do. I was reluctant to go down the main steps from the basilica to the heart of the tourist trap because I’d read that there were plenty of people there willing to scam you out of your money and that the area was generally a bit seedy. So, I went back to the quiet back streets to find a boulangerie, bought a filled baguette and headed back on the metro towards Tour Eiffel. I thought it’d be a fitting end to my three days in Paris. There I sat, in the quiet gardens in front of the tower, scoffing one of the best ham, cheese and saladbaguettes I’ve ever had. It was by now, a bit chilly, but that didn’t matter. It could have been pouring with rain for all I cared. Having lunch is a daily highlight for me. But having lunch in front of the Eiffel Tower is a lifetime highlight.

So those are my glowing thoughts of Paris. If you’ve found this series helpful and/or has inspired you to make a trip of your own, please take a look at the HTG Guide for Paris. It contains plenty of tips and reassurance for planning your own trip.

What You’ve Heard Is True (Part Three)

In the previous part of this series of write-ups on my trip to Paris, I visited Tour Montparnasse to find out how difficult seeing famous monuments such as Tour Eiffel can be through early morning haze, and went on to the marvellous Notre-Dame. In this, the third part, I get blasted by a vent at the Louvre, get worn out on the Champs-Élysées and get soaked on top of the Arc de Triomphe.

(Incidently, if you haven’t read part one and/or part two, you really ought to.)

What You’ve Heard Is True (Part Two)

In this second write-up on my trip to France’s wonderful capital city, I’m going to cover a few more of the major attractions that I visited in my short time there. If you’ve yet to read part one, you probably should. It sets the scene.

What You’ve Heard Is True (Part One)

In a way, one of the world’s most amazing cities didn’t hold very many surprises. For instance, it wasn’t a surprise to nearly get run over on a pedestrian crossing despite the green man showing. It wasn’t a surprise that some of the elderly men wore berets and played Pétanque. It wasn’t a surprise that upon arriving at one of the city’s most visited landmarks, I was asked whether I had any money I could spare. It wasn’t a surprise that everything I ate was delicious. It was almost as if I’d been to Paris before. There was a great sense of familiarity to the place, but that’s what made it all the more exciting to explore.