Mittwoch, 2. August 2006
Bonjour, Madame
Our adventure started with the first greeting word from a man in the metro..... Bonjour, Madame.

it was a nice weather in Aachen on that day, after 3 hrs-Journey I arrived the heart of France- Paris.

This is the train Thalys, it was called westrail before 1995, after that, the Belgium company combined the railroad from Amsterdam , Brussels, Paris, and now to Koeln. Of course it must go pass by our Aix-la-Chapelle:)

To my surprise, the sitting place was crowded inside of the train.
a bit narrower than ICE

Thalys International--it is called.


Gare du Nord- the train station in the north of Paris
bird view of Gare du Nord

Outside of the station, a transparent side entrance with the hell view inside of the hall


The Metro in Paris, with the fast speed of step


Inside of the Metro, this is not the rush hour however :P


Normally it was about every 2 mins comes a metro..
(I like the green color of the outside part)



Galance of the 3er room, we stayed with a canadian girl for the first night


My first cup of Cafe' ole in Paris, but anyway it's not the real kind of flaovor i would say. :P


---THE 2nd DAY----

Our breakfast ...man, without cheese...it seems like german breakfast is much more nicer
ohne Kaese !!

After the without-cheese-breakfast, we arrived La Defense.

La Defense, which is the biggest business idstrict in Europe. it is 110m high

The district marks the endpoint of the Historical Axis, which commences at the Louvre and crosses the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe

La Défense is named for the statue, La Défense de Paris, which was built in 1883 to commemorate the soldiers who had defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.



Arc de Triomphe, with the blue blue sky


If someone travels to Paris without visiting the Eifel tower, it is not a trip at all.

approaching the Eifel tower


Which one looks nicer?

most man would say, this one....

I was under the Eifel. quite amazing that it is so huge


it was again a god damn hot weather-35.5 degree
it was said that this huge metal tower was build by a french engineer, who is called Alexandre Gustave Eiffel . I was curiused about the eifel region near Aachen, which has the same name with this great guy in France. Not to my surprise, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose name was adopted by one of his German ancestors, and actually his birthplace Marmagen located in the Eifel , not too far from Aachen....


Ciao, Eifel.. we were heading toward to the Museum Organge.

this is the "RER" in Paris, looks like RE in Germany


Museum Orange, 4.5 Euro for students
We were lucky to see the paintings from the French Impressionist painter, Monet


see this picture? wait a min....got to take a look at the next one




here you go


actually i was having the same kind of face expression like this guy in the photo.

On the other side of the museum


it took us about 2 hrs to go through all of the artistists' works


i was quite surprised that i can make photos inside...hehe

See the name at the bottom?

YES, it is the wellknown guy that you know.

A cute, finger big decoration filled with some fake paintings


Main Entrance Museum Orange


Before the closing time of the museum, we heard some announcement..." The Orange Shop will be closed in 50 mins...." So we went to see what's going on there.

Lots of different Impression paintings made into postcards


Back to hostel
Metro-- Concorde

Easy to see....it is rush hour , he

Speed


Before settling to hostel, we stopped and got out of the metro to take a look of the noisy street in Paris.

If you are a shopping-fan, u got to know this word if you are in Paris.


YES, it is Angebot, sales, S-O-L-D-E-S

yeah....Actually I am not a kind of shopping-fan or a girl that cannot behave herself when going pass by this famous shopping street in Paris, so to say, in the whole world.------- Champs-Élysées

However, i was staying outside of the shop to see the "Picture-LIVE" of Paris while my good friend was hunting some goods.


So i got some good pictures. : )

A movie theather on the Champs-Elysees


Today is a long day.

After putting stuff back to hostel, we started off again, direction--- Notre-Dame de Chartres

The last time to hear about this beautiful church was because of Quasimodo.


Let's review who Quasimodo is.





Rund shipping on Seine.

looks quite interesting, so we decided to try.

We planed to take the BATOBUS on Seine,
but as we just wanted to board, it started to rain.
Not the normal rain, the strong wind kept my eyes from opening.

So, i was despairing to see on the bridge across the Seine. Just let the wind and rain to slash on my skin---oh ja, and made some pictures for fun.

See what it is?



You are right. It's the CUP.

After i took this pic , some people were gathering behind us to see what i was doing.


---------A wet girl with a camera bag and Stativ sitting on the ground of the bridge above Seine. (many prapositions, ha)

and of course, with some self-developing pictures.

The strong rain didn't want to stop at all.
so we found a Kneipe to take a rest.
I had a Cafe o le for 5.6 Euro, quite expensive, but as you know, it's on the left side of the Seine.


inside of the keinpe

A love couple sitting across us.

ACTION





GO


finally i smiled because of sawing the lovely kiss :)




Notre-Dame, which is considered one of the finest examples in all France of the "Gothic" style of architecture.

Notre Dame in the dark =.=
it was raining for almost 4 hrs on that night


BUT...

However, god bless me.
After settling down my Stativ, i suddently catched this light ! YES , it is the light !






While I was reading the books about Notre Dame, the most amazing part to me are the stained-glass windows, which are the glory of Chartres.

However, we weren't so lucky to see the beautiful light and shadow from the colorful windows in the church. One reason, it was already 22:00 in the night =.= ; second, althought we passed by Notre Dame on the last day of the trip, but it was noon, so there was still no beautiful light that was crossing the wonderful stained windows.... what a pitty !

The last pic of that night.

Notre Dame with the light

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