PARIS: Louvre, the Eiffel tower, Champs Elysees, Moulin Rouge. We celebrated New Years in Paris, also called the city of lights, in the home of Randi and Jean-Charles Burgoint. We enjoyed ourselves so much we stayed for an entire month.
On Boxing Day we left London for Paris in order to celebrate New Years with the Burgoint-family. Paris is often referred to as the city of lights, and rightfully so. The streets are shining with lights, and the city is crammed with ancient and incredibly beautiful buildings and monuments, all giving testimony to Frances history as an empire and a world power. The Louvre museum, with its characteristic pyramid shape, is immortalized through the Dan Brown book and movie “The Da Vinci code”. But did you know that the museum is also the largest museum building in the world? An entire array of statues and ornaments also make it one of the most beautiful ones, and you can stroll around for hours just admiring the magnificent architecture. This goes for the rest of Paris as well.
Paris is one of the worlds fashion capitals, and in all shop windows, the latest fashion was screaming at us. We will be spending the next three years wearing rubber boots and sailors outfits, so it didnt make much of an impression on us.
LIGHTHOUSE: The Eiffel tower was built for the world exhibition of 1889, and was supposed to be torn down afterwards. Today this landmark towers over all other landmarks in Paris, and it is a majestic masterpiece.
FACTS ABOUT PARIS:
# THe city of Paris was founded more than 2,000 years ago, and is the capital of France.
# Around 6,2 million people live in Paris and surrounding areas, and the city is growing steadily.
# THe Vikings arrived in Paris in the 8th century, and burnt it to the ground in 860 A.D.
# Paris is often referred to as the city of lights, and rightfully so. It is beautifully lit, and there are hardly any tall buildings in the city. It is dominated by older architechture, and its history as capital of a former empire and world power is evident.
# Fashion, wine, theatre and culture are main features in Paris. The city is expensive, as is its tourist industry.
# The currency in France is Euro. ATMs are everywhere to be found, and you can by with bank card almost everywhere.
(Source: www.visit-paris.com)
LOUVRE: The museum in Louvre is the largest museum building in the world, and very beautiful. The pyramid at the centre of the picture has been immortalized in the book "The Da Vince code" as the place where Maria Magdalene is buried.
HOBO: Paris is a modern and beautiful city, but as everywhere else, some people fail to keep up the pace, and hobos are widespread in the city.
In good old American “based on a real story”-tradition, the Dan Brown book about the Holy Grail contains a series of factual errors, but it is a good story nevertheless. And the myth about Maria Magdalena is as old as Metusaleh. Some sources even claim that Jesus himself survived the crucifixion and fled to France. We are not going to try to decide what is the correct perception of history, but tourism to Paris and Louvre has exploded. In fact, the French have had to design a special department in the Louvre, dealing only with the people coming to see the place where the Holy Grail rests!
The Burgoint-family live in a large, real Parisian apartment in the middle of Paris, and we have thus had only walking distance to cover every time we have wanted to see something. We have worked extensively with photographing and writing stories, and Rune has been in Baku organising his studies, which he hopes to conclude this spring. In the evenings we have gathered around the table at home, and Jean-Charles has served us the most delicious gourmet-dishes, prepared from point zero. We have frenzied in tasty French bread, cheese and meats for breakfast in the mornings, and enjoyed ourselves in every way.
At Runes birthday in the beginning of January we went to a real French cabaret at ”Crazy horse”. It cost us a fortune, but was a spectacular show. Professional artists, champagne and a very elegant show altogether. We had to put on our best shirts and shoes (Rune had to borrow a shirt from Jean-Charles). Paris is also special in that it doesnt have any tall buildings, only elegant ones up to 5-6 stories in height. Metro and buses are everywhere to be found, and even though nobody understands a single word of anything except French, everybody are helpful and nice.
After more than one month at the Burgoint-familys bosom, we eventually had to break loose and get going. After all, we still have a long way to go before we have been around the world. And we are behind schedule, to the extent that it worries us at all. We took the train back to Brest, and as this is being written, we are beginning our journey across the infamous Bay of Biscay to La Coruna in Spain. This is where the Italian nobleman Pietro Querini met a storm some 600 years ago, eventually sinking his ship and sending him to Røst in a lifeboat. But now we are on our way again, rested, motivated and full of guts. Underveis also seemed to have had a great Christmas time, she looked so beautiful where she was berthed in the marina in Brest.
PEOPLE: Paris is throbbing with activity, and we went shopping, to the cabaret and to the market, or just strolling the streets, enjoying ourselves.
METRO: The Paris metro is very efficient, and easy to find your way around in. Every day it transports hundreds of thousands of people.
TAKING A PISS: Even in Paris, the dogs have to do their business, marble streets or not.
FRENCH BREAKFAST: We feasted on Frech bread, cheeses and sausages everyday for breakfast.
NICE PUSSY: The Burgoint familys cat has never ventured out of the apartment in Paris, and it doesnt want to. It lives for the summers in Lyngvaer, Rost, where the damily spends their holidays.
