Paris with Swede.

For the first week of my Easter holidays, I met up with Frida in Paris. It's conveniently halfway between Nantes and Reading, and so provided a convenient place to see her.

Bear in mind we're both students, so it was Paris-on-a-budget. The hotel was fairly cheap and cheerful, but it provided a bed and a bathroom, so we can't complain too much.


Frida had a new digital SLR, and thus had to take a photo of everything. Including my camera.

We'd already been to Paris in February of 2009, and 'done' most of the touristy things, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Musée D'Orsay, the Louvre etc., so we tried to find some different, less touristy things to do. The only problem is that the less-touristy things are that for a reason - they're not as good.

Int he five days that we were in Paris, I reckon we walked about 25 - 30 miles. And i'm not even exaggerating. Every morning we woke up at 09h00 and left the hotel, never with any real plan for the day. This resulted in us walking a lot. The weather was amazing for the whole week, and it felt a shame to spend it racing around undergound in sweaty trains.


Spring in Paris means a lot of flowers, most of which Frida has captured on film (/SD card).

We'd already been up the Eiffel Tower in the daytime and at night, so the only time that remained was at sunset. We didn't know it at the time, but the redness of the sky was die to the Icelandic volcano eruption filling the sky with volcanic ash. This meant that the sunset looked unusual, but it also made it very hazy. As we were standing at the top of the tower, they turned the lights on. They have a mix of normal floodlighting and flashing strobe lights. The strange thing is, when the strobe lights are on, there are just as many flashes coming up from the ground level as everyone takes photos of the lit-up tower.


Volcanic sunset over Paris. I never thought i'd type that sentence.


The Eiffel Tower in the evening sun.

Once the sun actually set, it got dark pretty quickly, so we walked by the River Seine for a bit before getting a bit cold and retreating back to the hotel.


A carousel by the Eiffel Tower


A couple were having their wedding photos by the tower. I thought i'd join in.

On one of the days we went to Montmartre, and waled around for an afternoon. I like Montmartre, as it feels a bit like a village within a city. The cobbled streets are narrow and winding, and every corner brings an interesting house, little vineyard or shop full of tourist tat...


A view from Montmartre across a, once again, hazy Paris.

In the five days we were in Paris, I took 384 photos. I reckon Frida took even more. Maybe slightly excessive, but it was such a nice week that it felt necessary to document every single bit of it!