Monday 29 April 2013

A Few Days in Paris: Part 2

 Morning, and my girlfriend and I headed for the palace at Versailles. The weather was incredibly hot and we decided not to look around inside but instead go directly into the gardens. Even though it felt like we were going to melt we wandered around looking at the ornate water fountains.

Versailles really isn’t for everyone and in my opinion it does lack in terms of general prettiness. The gardens are huge but they are mainly made of huge hedge rows, long stretches of grass and white gravel.


In the afternoon we headed back into Paris to take a cruise down the river. You will be fighting to get on a boat with hundreds of other people, but it's well worth doing as you get to see the city from a different viewpoint. Our short cruise over we headed out of the city for a few hours to wait for the sun to drop. Later that night we would be coming back into Paris to experience its wonderful lights.

By far the best place to go as the sun begins to set is to the top floor of the Montparnasse tower. It’s the tallest building in the city and on a clear day you can see for miles around giving you the perfect view of the sun set. Watching the sun gradually set behind the Eiffel Tower is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. It’s moments like this that give Paris its reputation for being such a magical place.


The sun set, we hurried back to the roof of the theater for the best view of the Eiffel Tower. The tower comes alive at night with lights but if you head over when it’s completely dark it has a surprise in store. Every hour, after darkness falls, a light display makes the tower sparkle. It’s an amazingly pretty sight to behold and something many people don't know about.

Suitably impressed, it was time to head back to the hotel and then home in the morning. I left Paris finally feeling like I had really seen what it had to offer. Paris is my favourite city and really is a stunning and unique place.

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