The Paris Sights

Today we visited the Montparnasse area on the left bank of the Seine. The bicycle tour people recommended we visit the Montparnasse tower for an amazing view over Paris. Most people will go to the Eiffel Tower for their view over Paris, but the queues are soul-destroying. The Montparnasse Tower is a big black skyscraper (in fact the Parisiens apparently hate it – as many hate the Eiffel Tower - and say it looks like the box the Eiffel Tower came in.) and you can make your way to the helipad on top for the most amazing views of the city including a wonderful view to the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur, The Louvre , Arc de Triomphe and all the famous monuments. We then had lunch in a very authentic French Bistro - T G for the French phrase book and the helpful waiter to decipher the menu!  We then visited Les Catacombs which is an old mine – 20m underground that has passages that run for 2km. In it are the skeletons of hundreds of thousands of Parisen commoners that couldn’t afford proper burials that were previously buried in mass graves. Due to the unsanitary conditions of these mass graves they were exhumed and from the 17th century were placed in the old quarry in decorative fashion so what you are literally seeing are masses of skulls placed between mountains of tibia bones – quite bizarre! A bit of shopping followed and we are now resting tired feet!

The food shops – chocolate, pastries, fruit, charcuteries etc are gorgeous – once again it would be wonderful to shop their every day. I have nosed in a few antique shops but really need a week here by myself to do that justice.  To give you an idea a meal out is costing us about E60 on average ($115 NZD) and buying water and soft drinks at a restaurant is more expensive than buying wine. A bottle of coke or water at a restaurant is about E4 and a carafe of wine is about E8 (about 6 small glasses.) so maybe it is time we introduced the boys to red wine!

Last night we went to Little Tokyo, which is just down the road, for dinner to a restaurant called Higuma and had lovely Japanese noodle soups and dumplings – the meals were about E10 a head which is pretty good, although once again add E18 for a drink each.

Cost aside, we are charmed by Paris, it is a beautiful city.

The boys are bursting from the lack of open spaces and grass to run around on. Amazing we have seen so little of it and what grass is in Paris is not allowed to be walked on. So Liam and Jordan have been improvising and found an old soccer ball and have been playing soccer at any opportunity in the square opposite the hotel. Thankfully people smile indulgently rather than tell them off if they cop a near miss!

Postscript: Dinner tonight E26 - a bargain at last! Kebabs and a drink chosen by the boys!