More from Paris Francais

Bonjour! Paris sure is an amazingly beautiful old city with more history in one street than in all of Australia. We have done a lot of walking, on the first day we found the Louvre and the Notre Dame; might I say it is the most beautiful church I have seen, very nice on the inside. I find it difficult not to use the word beautiful as the description for everything, there aren't enough words along the these lines that do justice. Brilliant or spectacular seem to miss something, most other synonyms add too much personification. Beautiful seems all that will do, I bet the French have more words with enough emphasis to provide a worthy alternative.
On wednesday we ventured inside the Louvre, spent a good number of hours following our handheld tour guides around, they're fantastic little gismos. We saw the three masterpieces, funnily enough I can't even remember the names of two of them, I never knew them before and they don't stick with me now. Both were rather good statues of woman. Then there was the Mona Lisa, I simply don't know why its the most famous of all the paintings. Its a good thing though, to have such famous items, it gets you to go and you see many incredible works of art which all help to make these famous ones look mediocre. My favourite thing about the Louvre is the Louvre itself. The meticulous furnishings carried out by these stupendously wealthy men way back when. You've never seen so much extravagence or craftsmanship.

Unfortunately we did get a rather large dose of jet-lag. It affected me a little worse because I slept so much on the plane i think, Alyson would have done better were it not for here ongoing cold which has woken us all up to coughing fits during the night. Usually I was already awake though as the max amount of sleep I could pull off was 4 hours; I know you seem to live with that somehow mum but that's not so normal. It gave me ample to time to read my book sitting in the bathroom usually so as not to disturb or using my headtorch sometimes. Unfortunately on completion of the book I discovered I wish i'd never read it, its the first completely disturbing, depressing book I've ever read. It's like watching a horror movie, except you can't really cover your eyes as well as I thought it was going to be more a psychological investigation as opposed to a nasty tale with terrible insights. Least I can start on something else now. The book was 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', don't really recommend it. I'm overreacting to it but i thought it was going to have a very different ending.

Friday was our first and thus far only sunny and good visibility day. We captured on this and headed up the 'Tour Eiffel'! It's a fantastic structure, really holds up to its expectations which is quite an effort. We took the stairs up the first two floors though from their it was decided an elavator to the top was Alyson's only option, must admit i didn't mind too much as I was in a tired wave from the lack of sleep and we'd walked some distance to get there. The view from the top is nice, obviously your there so you have to go all the way up, but its not really any better than the 2nd level, from there your already high enough to see everything and your closer to it.
Yesterday we also made it to the Arc de Triomphe. It's pretty great as well, the street that we walked up to it from had all the exclusive label shops as well as some car dealerships. In the Renault and Peugeot dealerships it was very interesting because the majority of the cars they're displaying are concept cars. I liked this concept. Most of them were hideous interpretations of unfortunate future cars, though some did ok. Also they had a couple of X-Box 360's in the Renault store because one of their cars is on the new Need For Speed game, Alyson was determined not to let me on but I broke her strong line of defence.
On the walk back home that night we saw a magnificant (just realised thats a word with a bit of the extra oomph that beautiful has) sunset which was made more majestic with the Eiffel Tower in the foreground. It glows blue at night at the moment, however I got to see it for a few seconds when it lights up in sparkling lights which really looks stunning. Apparently when Alyson visited 5 years ago it was always lit like that at night. There is a hotel down near Notre Dame that is lit up like so and the effect is awesome.

Today,
We ventured off to Versaille to see the Palace. It is where 5 generations of French Kings and Queens spent their time spending their peasants money. Its simply incredible. So much history layed out so beautifully. They really had far more style back then. The worst thing about it was throughout a number of the rooms they displayed the artwork of Jeff Koons I think his name was. He is my most hated artist. His work is ridiculous, and displayed at this beautiful historic Palace it only achieves making the French in charge look like they have the worst taste of all people in the world, period. Perhaps they should let the Monarch rule again, just to bring some more class back. It is such a contradictory portrayal of history, to go through these incredible, insanely incredible structures and learn of these Kings and Queens. You hear about how it was basically all started by King Louis the 14th XIV and he sounds like a really good guy. As you move further through the Palace, head out to Queen Mary Antoinette's estate which is very lavish, her main building is actually slightly modest, bigger mansions these days aren't uncommon, but then you wonder her grounds and find the monuments, the gardens, the petting zoos it would seem and finally the Armenian village that were all built for her when you discover just how insanely prepostrous it all was. They spent every penny of the publics money. That's why eventually they gave her husband king someone the guillotine and 9 months later she recieved the same treatment. Obviosly the French revolution was inevitable with the kind of leadership they were showing, but what they left behind was perhaps the most beautiful craftsmanship around in all the planet. Certainly up there to rival the greatest.
Thats why their seems to be the mixed feelings even among the French people towards these cruel and selfish royals, they made such exquisite buildings that will remain as perhaps the most beautiful memorials ever to what must have been an excruciating few centuries to live in.

Now tommorow I've found for myself one of the best christmas presents possible, it's from Alyson though so its alright. Its a sightseeing tour of Paris in a Ferrari 360 Spider, apparently driven by a racing professional which I can only hope means hard and through tunnels.
Unfortunately they haven't replied to the email so I'm going to have to try and call them to organise it. Alysons sleeping so I've happily taken to organising it. Hopefully it will happen.