Paris
May 2003

Certainly I made the trip to Paris this year once again. The city knew how to fascinate me in 2003 again. Unfortunately the wheater was bad, almost cloudy and some rain showers. But we did our very best and rainy Paris offers also a lot to do.
I flew for a longer weekend in the metropole at the Seine river. On Friday evening we visiited some friends of Kerstin. They had invited for an italian night, cause they made a short trip to Italy some weeks before. Like usual in France, we ate for four hours and had some alcoholic beverages. With increasing alcohol consumption my knowings about the French language returned and we had a lot of fun. On Saturday we made Paris besides the tourists and went to Jardin des Plantes, south of the Seine river. In this park is a beautiful conservatory with troppical plants and elegant designed ways. After this, we had a little tea and cookies in a mosque ner the Pantheon. At this time we had marvellous sunshine. Our way went to the silent and very scenic Ile St. Louis and the Museum Carnavalet, which has a exhibtion of Paris' city history. An old aristocratic house with an impressive furnishings inside. And this all for free - nobody knows why. Then I had a deja vue at Place des Vosges. That's Paris, teh way I know this city. A beer (0,4l) cost 6,40 €, really cheap :-( When you're going to Paris and looking for a good restaurant, have a try at Le Palet next to Palais Royal. It's a pleasant atmosphere with tasty french cuisine. I enjoyed it.
Actually we wanted to run Inliner from Paris to Versaille on Sunday. But besides the rain we had danced the whole night in Elysée Montmartre, so that we returned home very early on Sunday morning. So we decided to visit the train exhibition on Champs Elysée. Very interesting was the royal coach of Napoleon. We strolled the Champs Elysée up to the Triumphal Arch and took the Metro to La Defense, the huge marble cube im financial district. In the evening, I had my first Sushi and it was great!
No luck on Monday. First we decided to take the train to Versaille, but it is closed on Mondays. So we went downtown to the Centre Pompidou and the Museum Picasso. Unfortunately both museums were on strike, so that we went to the eastern part of Paris: Notre Dame, La Madeleine and a pleasant Créperie by all the frustration. We spent the evening at Christoph and made some crépes. With a bottle of wine.a wonderful finish for this evening.
Kerstin had no vacation on Tuesday, so I spent the whole day in Versaille and let me impress of this huge castle and the amazing garden. A guide is recommended, otherwise you don't understand the relations. Although it's very expensive to tour the castle, it's great! My plane left Paris at 6.35pm...
Anyway,  the weather was not so good, but Paris was once again absolutely fantastic. It's a wonderful city. And with a "native" guide probably a little bit more beautiful then normal. I'm looking forward to my next trip!!!
Many greetings to Hervé, Christoph, Laurent, Florence and the rest. I enjoyed it!

Jardin des Plantes	Museum Carnevalet	Place de la Concorde
Notre Dame	Napoleons railway coach	Triumphal arch
Versaille	Hall of mirrors in Versaille	A monument inParis
La Madeleine	La Défense	Louvre at night
Moulin Rouge	Sacre Coeur	Dome of the Invalides

	Eifeltower

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