Changing Lives » Europe

Downtown Aix

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:04:00 +0000

The day before I left Aix (and France) Vanessa took me around downtown Aix. It was a nice little “city” and I bought a few things for my family. Aix was slightly more expensive than I was expecting. I might even say it was worse (price-wise) than Stockholm!

Here’s a picture of the main road in Aix. It’s a really beautiful place! The second picture are “Cezanne’s nails” which are nailed into the sidewalks on some of the streets. From what I remember this is the path that Cezanne took when he was sightseeing in Aix (I might have just made that up, but I’ll reconfirm with V!).

Aix is a water town. The city is built on hot springs. Since there are so many natural water sources the city has many fountains all over the place.

These lion door knockers were quite cool! I believe the second picture is the top of city hall and finally we all went to have some drinks at a small cafe. Starting from left to right: Laytitia, Jessica (V’s sisters), Carole (V’s coworker) and V. Laytitia is a budding artist, so please do check out her music on her website! At the cafe I tried some kind of French drink (can’t remember the name now) which I thought tasted a little like Sambuca.

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Vauvenargues Village

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:59:00 +0000

There’s a small village called Vauvenargues close to Vanessa’s place. She wanted to show me a typical village in the south. I really should have taken more pictures but it was WAAY too hot! I think it was like 40 degrees or so. Anyhow, here’s what I got:

The first picture is the house where Picasso lived and apparently some of his descendants are still there today. The other 2 pics are just things I thought were nice.

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Vanessa's Place in Aix En Provence

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:53:00 +0000

On July 1st, after I finished up in Paris, I headed over to see my friend Vanessa D in Aix en Provence in the south of France. Vanessa was on this year’s human resources team for the commerce games (that’s how we met). Her family was kind enough to let me stay with them; it was great to meet and spend time with them. They were a fun bunch!

She told me that they had a big house, but I was not expecting it to be THIS big! LOL Here you can see the big pool, then the music/dance studio and finally a view from above of the whole place!

Here are some pictures of the St. Victoire mountain which you can see from her pool. The mountain changes colors at different times in the day based on the sun’s position. Cezanne, a famous painter, created many pictures of the St. Victoire mountain.

Vanessa came to get me at the airport in her brand new Smart!

Vanessa and her Smart

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The Louvre Museum

Ian Selvarajah — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:30:00 +0000

Given that the Louvre Museum is the biggest art collection in the world (I haven’t verified this, but let’s assume it’s true), if you end up in Paris this is definitely a MUST SEE!

Here are some pics of the entrance and then some of the hallways inside.

The famous Venus de Milo in the first pic. There were numerous beautiful ceilings with very intricate artwork; here’s one of them in the second. Lastly, once we were somewhere on the second floor I was able to get a good picture of the Louvre’s exterior entrance.

Pictures of the Louvre in the oldern days and some Egyptian art.

I love sculptures, so this area was my favorite. I suppose I like the 3 dimensional aspect of sculptures and the fact that I think it would be much harder to sculpt than to paint (perhaps and art major can correct me on that). I loved the huge open space (see the size of the people in the last pic relative to the room) and natural light that was coming in. My future house will hopefully look like this.

Here are some pictures of Napoleon’s apartment. Again, note the ceiling in the chandelier picture. Then we’ve got the living room and dining room. Pretty cool!

In case you’re wondering why there isn’t a picture of the famous Mona Lisa, it’s because security is pretty tight around the painting and they seemed pretty strict about taking pictures. I couldn’t be bothered. In fact, the Mona Lisa was surprisingly small compared to what I was expecting! Lastly, for those of you who read The Da Vinci Code, I had to get a picture with the inverted pyramid as this is where the Holy Grail is buried!

Touching the top of the pyramid

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Luxembourg Palace / Medicis Fountain

Ian Selvarajah — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:11:00 +0000

We had lunch in a small park close to the Luxembourg palace and walked over to check it out.

The first pic is the Fontaine de Medicis which is pretty wild. It’s a face in the water! Next 2 pics are the palace and the gardens in front of it.

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Montmartre / Moulin Rouge

Ian Selvarajah — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:58:00 +0000

After the basilica we walked around the Montmartre area and I got a few pictures:

There were some apartment buildings and then I came across this guy sticking out of a wall. I liked it because it appeared to be completely random!

Last picture is the Moulin Rouge. I was seriously disappointed. I expected it to be MUCH bigger than it was! The prices were also pretty wild. From what I remember, the cheapest option was a glass of champagne for 75 euros. Maybe later in life when I’m slightly richer I’ll stop in for a show!

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Sacré Coeur Basilica

Ian Selvarajah — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:17:00 +0000

After the Notre Dame Cathedral we headed over to Sacre Coeur which has a beautiful lookout over Paris. The area close to the basilica was pretty shady. When we came out of the subway a bunch of people were trying to sell us cigarettes and other random things on the street. We walked up a couple of big staircases until we finally got to the top.

Jen had a funny story about a sketchy restaurant in this area the last time she was there. Apparently the owner served them crappy food and then started swearing at them (and threatened to call the cops) when they complained!

The basilica and the view was beautiful! The interesting thing you’ll notice is that Paris doesn’t really have any skyscrapers like we do in North America. Most of the city is [relatively] flat except for that big black building on the right side which sticks out like a sore thumb! Finally you have Jen and I in the last pic.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pics inside, so you’ll just have to see the outside.

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Notre Dame Cathedral

Ian Selvarajah — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:59:00 +0000

The following day, we started early and went to visit a few sites. We started off with the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral.

A few pictures in front of the cathedral.

Here are a few inside!

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Going Up The Eiffel Tower

Ian Selvarajah — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 16:17:00 +0000

The second night, we decided to go up the Eiffel tower. Here’s the story:

You can pay 11 euro to take an elevator to the top or you can pay 3 something, walk up to the second floor, then if you want, pay the balance to get to the top. I wanted to walk up, so I got to the second floor, took some pics and waited in line.

I waited in line for about an hour and then noticed there was a second line on the other side. I realized that the line I was in was for people who had already paid 11 euro!! I took my chance and waited till I got to the front figuring I would explain myself if the guy gave me trouble. I handed the guy my ticket and luckily he didn’t say anything. I got to the top for 3 euros. On to the pics:

Here are a few pictures at the base of the tower.

This is something I found interesting: I’m used to cities like Montreal and Toronto where everything is lit up so I was expecting to see a lot of lights when I got to the second floor. I was wrong: there weren’t that many lights. In fact, the whole city looked a little grey, but it was nice.

These pics were when I arrived at the top and the last one is a shot of the structure as I was coming down the stairs.

This was fun. Every 15 minutes or so the tower would light up and you would hear all the “Ooooohs” and “Aaaaahs”. This was a fairly simple light configuration, but apparently they do some more elaborate patterns sometimes.

The Eiffel Tower at Night

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First Day in Paris

Ian Selvarajah — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:41:00 +0000

I arrived at the Beauvais airport the morning of June 28th and headed over to my friend Jen’s place. She was staying in Paris with her boyfriend Shaun who, according to his business card, is a gentleman and a scholar! Yes, I liked that! lol They were staying in a very convenient central location close to the Arc de Triomphe.

Here are a few pictures of the Arc de Triomphe. I also found the driving interesting; it was like there were no lanes!!

Afterwards we went and walked around the Champs-Élysées. We stopped into a Peugeot store where they had some cool concept cars on display.

We just walked around the city and were figuring out what we would do/see for the next few days. I know the last picture is the Louvre, but I cannot remember the names of the bridge or the monument in the center. This is why I should have taken notes earlier I guess! I’ll ask Jen what those are and update later.

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