France
Grenelle

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    • Day 20

      Paris!

      October 29 in France ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

      We arrived in Paris, caught a cab to the hotel and so far Paris has not disappointed. Our hotel is lovely and will be a great end to this trip. We are about 1 block away from the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at 5:30 in the daylight but it was busy traffic and so by the time we were getting close to the hotel and driving by the Eiffel Tower it was dark and the lights on the tower were all sparkling, what a beautiful sight. I did not expect to be so “awe struck “ but I was!

      We settled in and went out for a walk about, again checked out the beautiful Eiffel Tower and walked along the Seine River. We had a scrumptious late lunch in Strasbourg and not feeling hungry, so tonight we just bought a nice bottle of wine and snacks for our room! Tomorrow off to explore this crazy city!

      Watch the video you can see how they make the lights sparkle, cheesy but you gotta love it.
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    • Day 21

      Oui, Oui, Paris…

      October 30 in France ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      What more can you say when after a most delicious breakfast, you step outside look up at the Eiffel Tower and take a stroll along the Seine River and then walk around la Parc du Champs de Mars. Pinch me. Today we did the hop off and on bus, which is a great way to get around and see the highlights of Paris Center. As we were walking around Paris, we indulged in coffees, macaroons, chocolate and pastries! We landed up walking down to a Louvre from one of the stops. We did not go into the Louvre but rather did as so many others were doing, just hung out in the grounds and admired the area. Sort of reminded me of Rome and the Vatican City. People congregate there, take a million pics! There are places to sit and just take it all in.

      We had a delicious meal! I, with Boeuf Bourginon and Michael with some tasty veal stew. After dinner, I walked and walked by myself. Starting at the Eiffel then across the Seine and down along the river then across one of the many bridges then back to the Eiffel. Our hotel is like 2 minutes from the Eiffel. Paris at night is very busy, and I felt totally safe, families, tourists, and a whole lot of joggers.. so many people are out just gawking at the Eiffel Tower as it is so amazing with the lights and then on top of the hour, for 5 minutes, the lights sparkle…… that is when everyone is silent as they look up and watch. I met a couple of nice families. Once from England told me they got engaged under the Eiffel Tower 12 years ago. Another even younger couple asked me to take photos of them, as they posed, kissing each other, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. L’amour! Splendide! Yesterday I did 20,000 steps, 12.49 km.

      The architecture has its own flavour, I will include pics of the style. Not as old as I would have thought, with 5 or 6 stories high, same kind of colour but different shades except for the top level, which is darker, ornate balconies.
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    • Day 20

      Eiffel Tower

      June 29, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      It was an early start today. We headed to Kings Cross Station and caught the Eurostar to Paris in preparation for our trip to Disneyland.

      The first thing we decided to do was visit the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to go up the tower, but of course the tickets for the lift up the tower sold out months ago, so it looks like we have a few steps to climb instead. 674 of them to be exact.

      Dani is not a big fan of heights, so she stayed at ground level with plans to seek out a gluten free bakery she had spotted on Google (more on that later). The rest of us, including the Pearce's, headed for the stairs.

      Everyone did a great job on the climb up the stairs even the little ones. However the number of people at the top made things a little unpleasant, especially given that it was quite a warm and humid day. We spent a bit of time enjoying the view and then made our way back down to meet Dani.

      Verdict: it was a fun and worthwhile experience, but the views OF the Eiffel Tower from the ground are probably than the views FROM the Eiffel Tower.
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    • Day 5

      Entspanntes Paris

      December 31, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Heute nachmittag sitze ich wieder einmal ganz entspannt in einem Café und gehe das vergangene Jahr nochmal durch.

      2022 ist doch einiges passiert.
      Ich habe 2 Personen aus der Ukraine bei mir für 3 Monate aufgenommen und ihnen versucht, ihren Start in Deutschland 🇩🇪 so leicht wie möglich zu machen. Das beste daran ist, dass ich dadurch neue Freunde kennen gelernt habe. Danke Ludmila und Uwe für euren Zuspruch.

      Auch der Kontakt zu "den Müllers", wie ich sie liebevoll nenne, hat sich in diesem Jahr intensiviert. Wir haben oft lecker zusammen gegessen. Und die beiden haben mich gerade in Bezug auf die Ukraine sehr unterstützt.

      Zu Ostern durfte ich in Aurich mit Freunden grillen und am lagerfeuer sitzen und im Sommer mit der Familie in Kiel verbringen.

      Und die zweite Jahreshälfte stand sehr im Zeichen des JRK. 2 Gruppenleiter Lehrgänge, das Cross Media Festival 🎶, der Bundeswettbewerb in Berlin, die Bundeskonferenz und die Landeskonferenz in Einbeck und überall waren tolle Menschen am Start ♥️

      Auch das podfest in berlin und das Podcast Treffen in Frankfurt waren Highlights in diesem Jahr. Sowieso der ganze Podcast mit tollen Persönlichkeiten die mit uns vors mikrofon gekommen sind war eine tolle Erfahrung.

      Ein großes Dankeschön geht raus an Flo. Du hast unseren Podcast auf ein neues Level gehoben. Dafür bin ich dir sehr dankbar und freue mich auf weitere Sessions mit dir im Tonstudio oder live 🎶

      Danke auch an meinen Kollegen und Kinogänger Sven, mit dem ich in diesem Jahr sooooo oft im Kino war, wie nie zuvor. Ich glaube 17 mal saßen wir in den Kinosesseln...

      Ich habe tolle Menschen kennengelernt, die meinem Leben einen Mehrwert geben. Was meine ich mit Mehrwert? Tolle Gespräche auf Augenhöhe, neue Denkanstöße und eine eigene Meinung. Also alles etwas, was einen weiter bringt. Das Leben ist zu kurz für smalltalk. Ich gehe dafür lieber in die Tiefe. Danke dafür stellvertretend an Sanni, Xenia, Vanessa und Viktoria.

      Und dann sind da die Freunde, die häufig zu kurz kommen, darüber aber nicht einmal meckern, sondern sich freuen, wenn man sich trifft und Zeit miteinander verbringen kann. Schön euch zu haben ❤️😚

      Was kann das Jahr 2023 jetzt noch mehr bringen? Braucht es mehr? Ist nicht das wichtig, was ich aufgeschrieben habe? Ändern kann ich es eh nicht, ich kann nur die Weichen stellen und schauen, wohin mich das neue Jahr führt und wen es in mein Leben wirft...

      Auf das neue Jahr und auf Euch 😘❤️😊
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    • Day 4

      Je suis assis au café

      December 30, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      Bei 14°Grad kann man abends auch noch mal draußen sitzen und einen Mexican Mule trinken 😊

      Vorher waren wir zusammen essen und es gab sehr lecker zubereitete Fleisch 🥩 und ein genial angemachter Rosenkohl. Der war tatsächlich sehr lecker, denn eigentlich mag ich Rosenkohl nicht 😜
      Die Ecken, die aussehen wie Krebse, sind scharfe Chicken wings.
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    • Day 12

      Mecure Centre Paris Tour Eiffel

      April 14, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

      Sadly, our river cruise has come to an end. It has been wonderful, the ship was perfect and the crew was so friendly! This makes it so hard to say goodbye, but we're going to fly back to Paris today to start the second Gate 1 tour that is a continuation of this trip.
      I have to admit that I'm excited about returning to Paris and sharing more of the City of Lights with Doug. This time we'll be staying close to the Eiffel tower, so I expect to have this spectacular landmark in many of my photos!
      After our short 1 1/2 hour flight from Amsterdam to CDG airport in Paris, we arrived at our hotel for the next 3 nights. For some reason, Doug and I got a complimentary upgrade for our first night and we looked out our window right at the Eiffel tower!
      The rooms here are typical small Parisian boutique style, but we had complimentary robe and slippers, and complimentary juice and pop in our mini fridge. Above our bed was a mural of the tower and I couldn't ask for more.
      We went to sleep with our curtains wide open so that the Eiffel tower was our nightlight. Heaven!!
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    • Day 117

      Tours —> Paris

      July 12, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      We checked out of our Airbnb in Tours and headed to Paris! We arrived in Paris around 1pm, and one quick metro ride later we were right outside our hotel.

      This was the part of the trip where Nicky and Alex would be joining us and so we chilled at the hotel for a little bit before they arrived. It was so nice to see some friends from home (although they were of course a bit tired after just having flown from Brisbane to Paris!!)
      We all freshened up quickly and headed out to explore Paris.

      We caught the metro to the Montmartre area, walking past Moulin Rouge and the lovers wall on our way to Sacre Coeur Basilica. We went into the basilica and looked around at the different alters and then bought tickets to go up the dome. After around 300 steps, we saw some incredible views over Paris! We walked the streets of Montmartre for a bit and took a few photos. It was nice to be back here together as we had visited Montmartre back in 2014 on our Paris trip together and it was cool to show everything to Nicku and Alex.

      We then made our way back to our hotel and shortly met up with Gab's Parisian friend, Josephine, at her apartment to then go out for dinner. We went to a typical French restaurant, with Gab having smoked salmon from Scotland and Daniel (and Josephine, Nicky and Alex) having steak. We had lots of great chats and Gab and Josephine caught up on what has been happening in each of their lives since they last saw each other in Australia in 2015. We had lots of fun! We also enjoyed local beers and wines.

      After a busy day for all, we called it a night after dinner and headed back to the hotel for a good sleep!
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    • Day 119

      Paris - La Fête Nationale!

      July 14, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

      Bonne Fête Nationale!! Today is the French national holiday (called by foreigners as Bastille Day!) It commemorates the storming on the Bastille in 1789 and the Fête de la Fédération in 1790. We intentionally changed around our holiday when we were planning so that we could be in Paris for this national holiday.

      After our big day and night yesterday, we had a late breakfast and chilled in the hotel. Alex went for a walk to see some more sights and we opted not to try and see the military parade as people would line up early (around 7pm) and we wanted to ensure we would all be awake for celebrating later in the day!

      Around lunchtime, we met Gab's Canadian friend, Heidi, and her partner Dennis at our hotel. They are travelling around Europe for a month and it was so exciting to see Heidi who we haven't seen since January 2020 in Australia!

      We went to the supermarket with Nicky, Alex, Heidi and Dennis to stock up on essentials for our afternoon and night including bread, cheese, meat and alcohol. From there, we walked together to Champ de Mars in front of the Effiel Tower for a picnic. The plan was to have a picnic during the afternoon and reserve a spot for the concert and fireworks which would be later in the night. We thought we would beat the crowd by getting in early, however after being there for around an hour the police began evacuating the grounds so they could setup a crowd control perimeter and barricades - something you would think should have been done days before!

      After relocating twice, we eventually setup camp on the side of the road - playing cards and having a few drinks whilst we waited for the grounds to reopen. We had lots of fun chatting, playing card games, eating and drinking and after 2 hours we were able to re-enter the grounds around 6pm and get a very good spot with a great view of the Effiel Tower! The concert started around 9pm before a fantastic 30min fireworks and light display around 11pm to cap off a great day and night! The fireworks were so beautiful and filled with lots of different colours coming off various parts of the tower! Truly spectacular and definitely worth the wait and the diversion of our trip plans so we could be in Paris for this magical experience!! It was also fun to enjoy it all with friends!

      We made our way back to the hotel, said goodbye to Heidi and Dennis were about to go to sleep when Alex and Nicky realised their flight to Venice tomorrow had been cancelled! We then helped them out for a bit until the early hours of the morning, using some of our acquired knowledge of the various European transport systems to help them find an alternate route before heading to sleep.
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    • Day 2

      Ein langer Tag ….

      July 27 in France ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      Neigt sich dem Ende zu
      Viel erlebt, viel gelaufen
      Tolle Fans und die Franzosen legten eine Wahnsinns Show hin
      Nun nach einem letzen Absacker endlich im Hotel.
      Der Eifelturm ist schön nebelig, die Luft ist schwül und meine Füße brennenRead more

    • Day 2

      Endlich live

      July 27 in France ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      Mega Auftakt der Handball Männer
      Ein schrecklich spannendes Spiel !
      Hat sich gelohnt, tolle Eindrücke, viele Nationen - Olympia live
      Und ein Autogramm vom Volleyball 🏐
      Dachte es ist ein Basketballer (sorry Emanuel 🙃)Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Grenelle, Quartier de Grenelle

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