Dialog - Paris 2010

Frank, Yvonne, Isabelle and me went on a weekend trip to Paris, a trip we had been planning for quite a while.

We met at the Karlsruhe main station at shortly before seven to board the ICE train bound for Paris, arriving there less than four hours later and after travelling through most of France at 320 km/h.

After having breakfast in a street café, we started our day at the Hôtel des Invalides, from where we walked to the Eiffel tower.

After a boat trip on the Seine river, we went to see the Notre dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, both located on the Île de la Cité. Along the riverside there are hundreds of small street vendors selling books, post cards, art work and music.

Our next stop was the arrondissement L'Élysée, walking from the Place de la Concorde towards the Arc de Triomphe, which is located in the middle of a rotary with cars buzzing around it.

From there, we took the métro to the Montmartre area and walked up the hill past the famous Moulin Rouge towards the Sacré-Cœur.

After having dinner around the corner from our hotel, we went back to the Eiffel tower again, this time to stand in line and wait to get up on its top. Unfortunately, the topmost floor had closed by that time, but the night views from the second platform were great nonetheless.

On Sunday, we escaped the rainy morning into the Musée du Louvre. We walked through most of it, went to see the Mona Lisa (which isn't as great as you'd imagine) and browsed through an almost endless number of rooms with even more paintings and sculptures. After that, we had a very "formidable" cheese burger and French fries and headed for the Gare de l'Est, heading back with the TGV train to Germany.