Christian September 14th, 2008
Arriving in Nice, even after 9 hours on a train and having to switch stations in Paris, was refreshing. We were greeted by warm weather and sunny skies, something we haven’t had too much of on the trip. The walk to our hostel was only about five minutes, and upon arriving we were greeted with a private room with it’s own sink, fridge, and microwave. It had two twin beds instead of one matrimonial, but that was no big deal. Another great thing that the place had was a good wi-fi connection in all rooms. We sent out a few emails and noticed something strange. Continue Reading »
Christian September 11th, 2008
We took a late morning train from Paris to the city of Rennes, located in Normandy. The city was quite small, which was a plesant surprise after Paris. We made our way to our studio apartment on the brand new subway system. It took only a matter of minutes to get to our stop. Once we checked in, the first thing we did was use the internet connection that was available in the room. It was so nice to have internet for free. After spending some quality time on the computer, we headed out to the town to explore a bit and find out about bus tickets to Mont Saint Michel. After waiting 20 minutes in line for the counter, we found out that we just pay when we get on the bus. Not too bad. We decided to be brave and walk back to the place we were staying without a map. Luckily there were maps posted throughout the city that we used to guide us back. The city has a young college town vibe to it. There are tons of younger kids walking about. On the way back, we managed to find a grocery store with all kinds of goodies. We ended up having Mexican Night at our apartment and eating some soft shell tacos. The next morning we had to be up early for Mont Saint Michel to catch the bus. When that alarm clock went off at 7:30 neither of us wanted to get up. We made it to the bus stop and got on the bus. Continue Reading »
Christian September 8th, 2008
We arrived in Paris pretty tired and were happy to have a nice hotel room to relax in. Our hotel was very well located, had a view of the Eiffel Tower and 2 channels in English. We showered and went to the grocery store for a snack. We admired the view of the Tower from our room for a bit. Once the sun started going down, we decided to walk the 500 meters and get up close and personal with the tower. It is enormous. You thing you are closer to it than you think as you are walking up, until you get to the base of it and look up in admiration. The park that is in front of the tower is the place to be for locals. Everyone has picnics set up, complete with bottles of wine. Once it gets dark out the tower sparkles as stragetically placed strobe lights flash for about 10 minutes. This happen every hour on the hour until 1 am. Everytime the sparkle show happens, the people in the park cheer. It is a great atmosphere. We even were going to attempt to go to the top, until we saw that the lines were super long and it was already getting late. Instead, we crossed the river to get a great viewpoint from the Plaza du Trocadero. Continue Reading »
