After leaving the Eiffel Tower, the weather got very anoying. My plan was to get to La Defense which is a newer businiess area and should have been a good opportunity to take some photos. Unfortunately, it was raining, and raining, and raining.

When I got there, I took a look around, but escaped into a shopping mall. Like all other shopping malls in the world. Nothing special at all. Did some window shopping, ate a very late breakfeast and just tried to relax until the rain stopped… it didn’t.

Out here, where not many tourists go, the english abilities of people are not good. Some french words and my hands do the trick to find places. I went home, using more of the Metro network. Hade got get changed at the hostel. For not ending the day to early, I got back to the Metro and downtown to take a look at Notre Dame. Same here, people standing in line, but a) it stopped raining and b) the line is moving very fast (the church is free to visit). Armed soldiers marching around the place (as they did at the Eiffel Tower) – they make me feel more unsafe than anything else…

Nice place. The didn’t offer me a job as Quasimodo – could have done it easyly. :-/ But all in all it is a church. It is nice, but I have seen better. 🙂 If you want to visit the tower, you a) have to pay for it and b) stand in line again. Your choise. Walking along the Seine around the church and the islands in the river and then again to the metro. I bought tickets for an one hour boat cruise on the Seine the day before and wanted to do it before it started raining again.

But I was not that lucky. On the boat I got up to the top to take som photos of all the landmarks along the river. Just to get wet like hell. But I did get some pictures. Was the trip worth the 14 Euro? In sunshine maybe yes, but as it was, no. On the lower deck where you can sit dry they have like telephones where you get information about the landmarks and the city (you don’t get anything on the upper deck!) – but they were missing or not working in a good way. The information was dull and at the end they tried to sell a DVD in X languages of the boat trip – must be a boring DVD.

TIP: A tip for using the Metro – buy single tickets (1,80 Euro) og a block of 10 tickets (14,10 Euro). It is very cheap and easy to use. It’s only valig for the Metro and valid for one hour after entering, but you reach everything i less than that time. There are day tickets and tourist tickets for one or more days, but you should calculate, what you will need. Have to thank my friend Hagen for giving me the information I needed. 🙂