Les Halles
Forum Les Halles is an open shopping mall. Chatelet Les Halles is the train station in the bottom for the RER.
I took these shots on my last trip to Noisy Le Grand for the 2nd day of Conference.
Category: Europe
Galeries Lafayette and Academy of Music
In the 9th arrondissment of Paris, You will find the Galeries Lafayette. It is a huge upscale department store. Very busy.
While the department store is great to find clothes and other things, across the street is kinda like their food court/food department store.
The coolest thing I found was this shop selling spices… my nose actually caught the smell and let me tell you, I’ve had a bad sense of smell for a while (since working in a factory with harsh chemicals and powders).
Also across the street and around the block is the Academy of Music and Opera. This is also one of the main subway stations, Opera.
Book of Metro tickets
After the 3 day Paris Pass expires, we still had a few days left and we were gonna be using the metro alot.
Again, this was a tip from Jay Swanson’s youtube videos, https://www.youtube.com/user/Cadelfwch.
It is convenient to get a book of tickets (10 passes), it is slightly cheaper than buying every time and in our case, we went through them like water.
If you are staying within Paris inner zone, these are the what you will use for Metro, but and other public transportation.
Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe at night
We were settling in our new hotel for the night (and only that night). I had finished my conference for the day, but I didn’t want to waste the evening.
It was raining and wet.
We went out and dinner for our anniversary.
We decided to see Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe at night and see if we could get better pictures.
RER A to Noisy Le Grand
Noisy Le Grand is outside of Paris. It is where my 2 day conference was held. Initially we were gonna stay near Noisy Le Grand, maybe in the same hotel, but realize that we would rather stay in Paris itself.
In that sense, I had to learn how to get to Noisy Le Grand via train. I found out the RER A goes that way. I would have go to Auber station, go underground and get to the RER A platform.
This is where I realized I jumped on the right train (RER A), but it was going to another location.
I got off the train and looked at the monitor (or light board). Once the train I was on left, the next train’s destinations were would light up, in my case Noisy Le Grand – Mont-D ‘ Est.
Mont D’Est station, leading outside. I didn’t need to go that way as I found out that this station is at the bottom of the local mall, Les Arcades. Holiday Inn is next door.
Musee du louvre
It’s the Louvre. It is the biggest museum in the world.. It houses soo much art and history… Very famous works.
First off, the Pyramids are the main entrances. But there are other ways to enter such as the Carousel across the street. We had Museum pass and that helps if there is a long line as you are fast tracked to a not as long line.
After coming down the stairs, there are lockers that are available. They are pretty cool as they are digital and free (availability pending).
EVERYTHING ABOUT THE LOUVRE WAS IMPRESSIVE. Architecture and how everything looked.
Goddess of Victory, Nike. The sculpture : Winged Victory.
The Mona Lisa… infamous. So much that there is always a crowd infront of her.
I was super annoyed with this couple that seriously were upfront and didn’t want to leave. The lady took a shit load of selfies and then 10 minutes later without moving, asked people to take pictures of her.
Musee D’Orsay
Seriously, within a one mile radius, of each other, there are so many museums available in Paris. It was hard to choose which ones because it is so overwhelming.
One we did decided to visit was Musée D’Orsay.
1 Reason – Van Gogh. Everything else was a plus.
Having the Museum pass helped as we bypassed the normal line, which was long, into s shorter line in which the security guard took forever letting in people.
Once in, we searched for Van Gogh and found it! The rooms were slightly darkened and they asked no flash photography. Of course phone cameras do a mediocre/decent job without flash. There were tons of people in the room.
After that, we went up to the 5th floor where the temporary displays were available. Money was one to check out!
There was a really fancy cafe right before the exhibit entrance!
Marché Notre-Dame Market
According to France Travel Planner (https://francetravelplanner.com/go/paris/versailles/marche.html), this market is one of the best in France. I read that the open market was going on during certain days (Sunday being one of them), so we made sure that was a day we came out.
The market is a few blocks away from Palace of Versailles.
The center is like a 4 way stop with buildings outlining it. During the Sunday we went there, the roads were closed off to the market and there were tons of open stalls.
I was very impressed with the produce available. I should mention I am not a cheese person… but a vendor gave me a slice to Tomme Truffe and I couldn’t believe how delicious it was!
The only thing that sucked about buying stuff was that we still had to go back to the Palace of Versailles and Garden and I had to carry these items.
The market was super amazing and tons of great food!
Palace of Versailles and Gardens
The Palace of Versailles is huge!!! I learned a few tips from a Jay Swanson’s Youtube videos. (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jay+swanson+versailles+)
Tips:
- Huge lines (to the point we decided not to go inside the Palace).
- Garden is massively huge, and free
- But Fountains are off during certain months/times
- While it was gorgeous, it felt like a waste to go there
- Market on certain days, definitely worth checking out.
After getting off the RER, we ate a cafe right next to Starbucks.
We then walked down the street to the front of the Palace of Versailles. Immediately, you can see the line. Not to mention more than 60 tourist buses!
We planned to come here on Sunday, because the market up the street is well known. So we decided to go there before attempting to go inside the Palace of Versailles.
Marche’Notre-Dame Market
After going to the market, we came back to an even longer line that zigged zagged. I went up to one of the staff members and said we had a Paris Pass and she said to fall in line.
I just took pictures of the gate. I didn’t want to wait for an hour to get in.
Since this was already in the late morning, we decided to see the Garden behind the Palace. The Garden is HUGE and can be a whole day exploring and enjoy itself. The views were spectacular.
Jay noted in one of his videos that the Fountains are not always on… this was true on our trip.
As I said in my tips, it didn’t seem worth the time (unless you plan a day out here) to come out here. I wasn’t fully disappointed because I enjoyed the gardens and market.
Place de la Concorde, Grande Roue De La Concorde, Luxor Obelisk
At the East of Avenue des Champs-Elysees is Grande Roue De La Concorde. It is a transportable ferris wheel.
The current location is called Place de la Concorde. In the center of this roundabout type structure is the Luxor Obelisk and Fontaine des Mers.
