jeudi, mars 30, 2006

Trip To Paris - Part 2

Wednesday, 22th of March 2006:

The next day, woke up at 8am and decided to go to the Eiffel Tower.. took line 13 till Gare Montparnasse and commuted to Number 6 till Bir Hakein.. the weather was cloudy, quite normal for Paris, it was drizzling with a little breeze..

At eleven i was under the world famous tower, not as many people as i could imagined but it was rather chill.. Decided to climb up by the stairs. Payed 3 euros till the second floor. At the beginning i was couting the steps but after a few minutes stopped to concentrate me upon the view. When i arrived at the second floor there were nobody except a few courageous foreign teenagers. The panaroma was great even if i could see far away because of a patch of mist.

Took many pictures 360° around, i was able to visualize the path i wanted to take.
It was a good idea to come early because after noon , groups of tourists arrived and blocked the ways. After a few minutes of hesitation, decided to go to the third floor even if it started to rain a bit. The price of the lift because it is the only way to reach the top of the tower was
3,3.

So overall, payed 6,3 euros to get to the end of the tower eiffel.. brilliant..
I took a rest at the cafeteria of the 2nd floor and nibbled some cookies.

What a surprise to see that the rain transformed into snow at the top, it was cool but cold so did not stay for a long time outside.. fortunately there was a room to contemplate the 360° view. There was a strong wind.

At 1pm i was downstairs and headed for the Trocadero’s Place.. the view from there is outstanding, there is some golden statues i saw before on internet pictures.. and two massive statues of greek heroes.



On my way to the Arc de Triomphe, saw a fantastic red Chevrolet and Mercedes.. i stopped in the Cathedral church of the holy trinity, known as the American Cathedral..
It is an English Gothic architecture famous in the European Continent.

It was surprising to see all the flags of the American regions and especially to see the Holy book on each of the rows.

Ten minutes walking from there i arrived at the Arc de Triomphe beginning of the Champ Elysées (funny moment: was singing the Charles Trenet songs) going down the Avenue..

It was the peak hour, so i did not pass under the Arc de Triomphe, too many cars... i felt a bit hungry and went down to a restaurant called Mac Donald, lol, it was overcrowed.

Amazing thing, you can listen music while eating like in the supermarkets.. Paris will always surprises me. While i was queeing for ordering, i met the most beautiful woman of the year, she was behing me. Her description: Tall, dark mid-long hair, green-eyed, well suited. She looked like an Arabic-Indian person.. A fox as Jared would described her..

Decided to walked down the whole Champ-Elysées Avenue.. and arrived to a nice bulding.

I asked the first passer-by i met and he explaines nicely that the building was the new-opened petit Palais (that is to say the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris). I saw a TV report a few weeks ago about it. Why not entering and having a look at –morever it is pouring down.

One more time, the entrance was free, i was amazed at seeing the golden entrance and the ceiling of the main room. The guard told me i had to put my rucksack downstairs. And the box, there was a young lady thinking i was going to a lecture held in a private room but i was only a visitor.

I realized one more time that wearing a suit make you different for the eyes of others..

The basement was a real labyrinth, the exhibition were great.. spent a couple of hours inside.. got a cappucino in a modern chillout cafeteria "Le Jardin Du Petit Palais" for only 2.5 euros.

I thought i saw the most impressive pieces of art till i came upstairs and realized that the main work of art were there. Too many to describe them. One thing i remenber is the inner patio with a cosy garden with ponds and palm trees.

A few meter from thisfantastic Museum is the Alexander III bridge’s , a marvel..
I met some Indian people from Bombay took a pic with them..


The bridge is huge and a magnificent piece of art.. many standard lamps and 4 golden statues + many golden stuff along the river..


The Hotel of

My Trip To Paris - Part 1

Tuesday, 21th of March 2006:

Departure from the center of the world’s station at around 7am by TGV (Take the time to go fast) .Arrived at Noon in the Gare de Lyon’s. It was rather chill, first feeling i thought it was like the station in Barcelona but after a few minutes i realized that is was a huge station...

First of all, i looked for the left luggage lockers, it was in –2 floor. It costed 8 euros for 3 days even if you did not want to use the whole time, the stupid thing was that you cannot put some stuff and take them back, you only had to open it once; the second thing was i could not let my laptop in it so I had to carry it with me and i got to say that at the end of the day you feel it.



A shocking thing was you could not find any cash dispenser in the Station, you have to go out. I needed some cash to buy the underground tickets (10) Got the interview at 2.30 in the Hotel Cosy in the 12th neighbourhood.
So after made all the things, i decided to go there right away and had my lunch in the neighbourhood. The line i took was number 6 to the Nation and then Picpus (funny name isn’t it) the next one is famous too –it is Bel Air (Hey Remi this is yours)

The exit was 20 meters from the hotel, the name is well found (cosy) it really seemed like that.. walking around and visited a nice church and stopped at the Bistrot in the corner for lunch, i was pretty starving. I ordered an Entrecote with roasted potatoes as main, a tuna salad with tomatoes , and a beer as usual. The meal was really stuffing and good as well for only 13 euros.. i thought it would be more expensive, got a nice surprise..


Hardly i finished to lunch, went to the interview. When i entered saw a pretty young woman at the recepcion. She knew who i was at first glance.. we chatted half an hour or more, it was an unconvential interview, she explaines that the hotel was only 2 years old with a familiar runnning, visited the patio (i saw on the website) and we talked about my experiences...

The salary was 1350 net + Carte Orange included + breakfast ( Night Audit).




After that i made my mind to go to the city center walking along the Seine River. The weather was cloudy and chilly with a bit of wind. Met a guy along my walk who explained that life in Paris was more and more difficult especially accommodation. Saw some nice boathouses close to Notre Dame’s Cathedral. Took some picture of the most famous cathedral in france and tried to remenbered me the history of Casimodo.



Before arriving, there was a crowd of people on the bridge, some Japs.. coming closer from the entrance the number of people was rocketing, bands of Italians, Asiatic, Swedish.... many class groups..

The front of the cathedral was impressive especially the two doors was massive scultures.Looked for the price and did not find it so went it and surprisingly it was free of entrance..


Cool !!! There was many many people. The top of the ceiling was really high, it reminds me Sevilla’s Cathedral.. the stained glass window and the great organ were fantastic.

Made a loop of it and seated for a few minutes because i was quite exhausted of having walked till it. It like the candles designed the Virgin Mary.

My watch ringed it was 6pm, time to meet with Yannick.. The Cathedral is close to the Town Hall which mayor is Bertrand Delanoe .. there were 3 photos exhibitions, went to one of a famous parisian photograph. The pictures were about Paris through the century, could see many monuments i was about to visit in the following days.. some pictures were fantastic.

Time was out with my appointement with Yannnick in front of the merry-go-round in front of the Town Hall.

We took the Underground to the Lyon’s Station to fetch my luggage and go to his place.. the bloody suitcase was heavy at the end of day.. i lived in the 14th (Line 13 Chatillon Montrouge) Stop Pleasance. It sounded a nice neighboorhood.

We went for shopping for the nite, some pastas and beers and breakfast stuff..
During the nite, we chatted about Past and Future, friends and others..

mardi, mars 14, 2006

mercredi, mars 08, 2006

One More Week wiZout Jobs !!!


The Coathanger "Harbor Bridge"


One of the best skyline in the world.


Downtown & Sydney tower at full moon light


The Fantastic Opera House

Life is so boring when you spend most of the time sending CVs and that nobody anwers back !!
So here are some Pics of one my favorite city in the world : Sydney