Dear all,
The blog has been, so far, the place where I write about my bike travels. This time, however, I am having a week and half holiday and I am not travelling by bicycle. Nevertheless, I wanted to write about this trip, and for sure that bike trips will follow this one, sooner or later!
While searching for some options for flights to Riga, I found a very good deal to make a 3 days stopover in Paris. I have been in Paris some years ago with my family, but the truth is that the memories of this city are almost gone, so it is time to be back.
Flight booked and check-in done, nothing more can be done, just wait! Well, in fact, looking for a host from couchsurfing in Paris is something that can be done. I must tell you that was not so easy to get a place to stay. First I remembered, of course, of one of my first couchsurfers, Nadine, but she is on her holidays in Brazil, so it will be not possible to see her this time in Paris. There is, obviously, thousands of couchsurfers in Paris, however, a lot of new members. What was surprising to me was the lack of responses. I sent about 15 requests, got just 3 replies. Luckly, Isabelle has accepted my couchrequest, so I will be surfing her couch this time.
I must thank as well Zita, my friend from Kaunas - Lithuania, that when she knew I was having difficulties to find a host in Paris, contacted some of her friends, so I would have a place to stay if couchsurfing would let me down!
As for the flight, I am flying with easyjet, that has a morning flight (departing at 7AM!!!) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. Total price of the flight: 38Euro (one way)! Not super hiper mega great, but really not bad at all!
Last days, I have been hosting Hyeyoum, a couchsurfer from South Korea, and she was taking a 6AM flight to Munich, so we shared thr taxi to the airport. That means waking up at 4h22 in the morning, Sharp!!
There is absolutely no traffic on the way to the airport, so the ride was fast and price about 15Euro.
I got to the airport around 5h10, and after passing through security found a place for a small nap (afterall it is not even morning!!!). Even the duty-free of Lisbon's terminal 2 is closed at that time!
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| My ride to Paris :) |
Flight was super smooth (or the turbulence was not strong enough to wake me up)! The flight was fully booked, so they asked me if I would mind to check-in my bag. Well, I am not in a rush to leave the airport in Paris, so no problem at all.
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| Shortly before my nap :) |
After 2 hours I was in Paris, great!
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| Bye bye Easyjet, see you soon! |
Bags were delivered in 15 minutes! I was expecting something like 45, used to Lisbon's mess, eheheh!
So, Peter Lamb was ready to head to the city center. I took the RER (train) to gare du nord. Isabelle's house is quite close to it - around 20 minutes walking from there!
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| On the way to train station |
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| Welcome to CDG :) |
The weather forecast for the days in Paris were showing something like 28 degrees as maximum temperature! Yeah, it was hot!!
Isabelle told me that i could go strait to her place, as she left one key for me with "the concierge". She is a Portuguese lady, but did not share even a word with me. Well, it does not matter, I got the key!
What a fantastic feeling to come to a house, and you can call it home :) It is impressive the amount of trust that some people just put on another. I am almost speechless, but it was a great gesture from Isabelle!
Not much time to waste, lets head to the center!
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| Typical Parisien underground exit |
Underground can be great to go faster from one place to another, but the thing is that you don't see nothing on the way. So, what better than bike through the city?
Paris have a system of shared bikes, called Velib. Basically you pay 1,70€ per day to access the system, but then you also pay per time of usage. First half hour is free, then 1€ for the second half hour, then the price increases every half hour (till 4€ per half hour). Well, Mr.PeterLamb was dumb enough not to read carefull the instructions and thought that the total price of 4 hours would be 4€!! By the end of the day, i ended up by paying 24,70€!! Well, learned my lesson! You can go to a place to another, then drop your bike and take another one after 2 minutes!
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| Velib in Paris! |
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| Ridding the velib! |
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| Peter Lamb cycling in Paris streets! |
As for biking, France is a popular destination, as they have quite a large amout of routes across the country. If you are interested google for eurovelo!
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| Family of 4 travelling by bike through Paris! |
The weather is quite hot, so there was a lot of people just seizing the fountains to cool down! Pure joy for children!
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| La Vilette! |
I forgot to bring my bike GPS from Portugal. It would be cool to see then my route and all the numbers about it.
As for me, I love to get lost in the cities, do not really care that much if I missed something "must see"! And it is when you get lost, that you can find that quiet garden where I wrote some of this post, and where you can find signs like the one on the next picture
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| Small garden in middle of nowhere :) |
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| Liberte, egalite, fraternite |
Moreover, It won't be, for sure, my last time in Paris!
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| Peter Lamb at the Pompidou |
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| Le pompidou |
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| The other facade of pompidou |
The ride continued, turning right and left as randomly as possible!
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| The joy of cycling in Paris! |
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| Not gonna be runover by a truck! :) |
Eventually i found the Cathedral of Notre-Dame! The line to get in is HUGE!! Absolutely no way!
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| Peter Lamb at the Notre-Dame :) |
At this time I looked for the first time at my map, and decided to take the road along the river and check out the Eiffel tower.
Along the way, I passed in pont des artes, which is known as the place where people in love leave a locker. I should leave engineering and come to sell locks in here! :)
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| Pont des artes |
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| Was I here before? Who's Isabel? :D |
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| Will they come here in 2024?? |
The ride along the river is quite pleasent, with loads of people just enjoying it!
I guess I found my part-time job!
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| Cool vehicle! |
I eventually reached the Eiffel Tower! Gosh it is HUGE!!!
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| Peter Lamb @ Eiffel Tower |
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| The Eiffel tower |
I just stayed for a while there and then Isabelle sent me sms that she was heading home! Cool, I am going to meet her finally!!
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| Sometimes is nice to be lazy and use some technology for navigation! :) |
The ride took about 30 minutes! When I got home, Isabelle was already cooking some dinner and we shared a very good meal, over a bottle of Portuguese Red wine and French cheese for desert! Now tell me, which hostel, or even hotel gives you the joy of being welcome in someone's house, and have a great time while sharing your stories! Super cool company, loads of laughs and dreams shared. all in all, a great evening! You gotta love couchsurfing!!
Oh, I forgot to mention the starter! Half melon(she takes the seeds off and put Port wine in that void)! Lovely!!
That is all for now folks!
Best,
Peter
Postado com o Blogsy
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