It is another cool start in Paris, I am catching a 9am taxi to start my trip home, I have allowed 1 hour travel time to the train station but I have a surprise this morning as the 1st of November is All Saints Day which is the start of a weeks holiday in France. As such my trip to Garde de Nord takes 11 minutes and so starts my trip home that will see me travelling for 2 days. After reaching the train station I have a 2 hour wait for the Eurorail train to London, this is first updated to leave early to avoid track maintenance and then…

Cool and Crisp, seems a fitting day to bring to an end my time in Paris, today I have two main things to do before I can leave, the first is to get the lift to the top of the Eiffel tower, the second is to sit on the steeps of the Sacre Cour Basilica and watch the sunset over Paris. It was suggested that the best stop on the metro for the Eiffel tower was the Trocedero, this sits on the other side of the Seine and gives a great view, it is a very popular spot with people to sit and look out over the tower. A short…

Rain is what greets me today, but thankfully it is not long before the sun comes out, I have decided today is the day to go back and have another look at the Louvre and then climb the Arch de Triomphe to take in the view. It is another quick trip on the Metro to get to the Louvre, and when I get to the priority entrance not a person to be seen, so straight in I go. A leisurely 3 hours is spent roaming the halls of the Louvre, there seems to be less people around today than when I came on Monday which is a little strange as…

As I stick my head out of my window this morning I am meet with a brilliant red sunrise, the morning is cold and clear and hopefully the train strikes should be over. Today I am going to try to get to Longueval, this is a tiny little French village in the north of France located in the Somme. My Great Uncle is buried in the Deville Wood cemetery and I feel it would not be right coming all this way to France and not paying my respects. The first part of my journey should be simple enough I just need to catch a train to Amiens, they are suppose…

Well it is Thursday and another day of strike action is planed, thankfully the museums haven’t been majorly effected so today I am off to see Monet’s Lillies, these are housed at the Museum de Orangerie. To get there I catch the Metro to the gardened in front of the Louvre and it is a short stroll through the gardens to the museum. Monet’s paintings are housed in 2 oval rooms, each painting is about the size of a bus and are very interesting to look at. It is amazing how when you look at these paintings close up the heavy brush strokes and liberal use of colours almost look…

It’s another crisp clear morning in Paris, today I am off to see dinosaurs at the National Gallery of Evolution. to do this I need to catch a couple of metro trains, unfortunately this gallery is not on the Museum Pass so I need to line up and then buy a ticket, the line is not to long and it doesn’t take long to get inside.  The exhibition is quite good but I was hoping for more dinosaurs, from here I go in to take a look at the evolution part of the gallery, they have animals from all parts of the world, many of which are now extinct. One…

It is a sunny day that greats me as I head for the Metro, I am on my way the the Museum de Orsay today and to get there I am taking the metro to the Louvre station and then it is a short walk across the gardens, over the Seine and down the street to the Museum de Orsay. When I arrive as per usual there is a huge line stretching all the way up the street, but I am not fazed, I have the super powers of the museum pass, so I calmly walk pass the line and enter the museum on the other side of the forecourt.…

Well today is Monday and time to set my museum pass into action, and what better way than to hit the biggest museum in town first. So off into the metro I go and 5 stops from my hotel I am at the Louvre, I head into the side entrance and head for the museum pass line, well it is more like a polite gathering and within 5 minutes I am inside, It is 11am and I head up to the top floor to see how many people are lined up outside, since I cant see the end of the line I expect these people will have an hours wait,…

Well what a difference a day makes, the sun is out and the sky is clear, so off to the cemetery I go, it is a single metro line ride to the cemetery from the Arc de Triomphe.  After a short metro ride I depart the train and find myself emerging in front of the cemetery gate. 2.50 is the cost of the cemetery map and given the size of this cemetery it is definitely a must, it really is a city of the dead. Wondering around the avenues I am amazed at the number of people that have been buried here, 300,000 people say the records and the number…

Well today is my first wet day in Paris, I had planed to go to Pere Lachaise cemetery today but while making my way to the metro my umbrella started to disintegrate, and after finding that it would be 20 euro to buy another I decided to got back to my hotel room and repair this one. With the rain getting heavier and the day looking more dreary I decide that today will be a rest day, this turns out to be a good decision as the rain turns into a full blown thunder storm. Oh well there is always tomorrow.