Champ de Elysees

Running from the Place de la Concorde to the Place Charles de Gaulle is the Champs-Élysées, the famous Parisian 8th arrondissement boulevard lined with theatres, cafés, designer and luxury shops.

The 14th of July is Bastille Day, Europe's largest military parade in passes the length of the Champs-Élysées with the final stage of the Tour de France also finishing on the Champs-Élysées.

The Eiffel Tower

I just never get sick of the Eiffel Tower, mind you, I am not in Paris that much, on the rare occasion I am, it is well worth the effort to get up close for a look. You don't actually realise how big the Eiffel Tower is until you are almost right at the base, it is a monumental tower in all aspects.

Wandering up the Champ de Elysees

Wandering the streets of Paris, so much to do, so much to see. I absolutely love walking the Champs de Elysees from Tuileries Garden to the Arc de Triomphe - it never gets old.

The Paris Metro

I love travelling on the Paris metro, another instance of an old train system working efficiently. It was about 2004, the last time I used the Paris metro. What I had forgotten was the number of people jumping the turnstiles without purchasing a ticket, you don't need a ticket to exit the Paris metro, once you are in, you have no issues.

Champ de Mars

Paris, for most people is a magical place, it is also an expensive place for most. Amazingly, some of the better experiences can be fairly cheap. A ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower is not cheap, you also have to fight the crowds, wait in line and get pushed around.

Champ de Mars is an excellent place for a picnic, in the late summers afternoon, watching the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower is truely a wonderful experience. A picnic comprising of French loaf, smoked salmon, swiss cheese, olives and dip washed down with none other than a bottle of fine French champagne allows you to experience the best of what Paris has to offer without the exorbitant Paris price tag. The limiting cost factor is the quality of champagne you are either willing to swill or sip.

The Mona Lisa

Getting into the Louvre begins with an epic wait outside; the line usually stretches around past the glass pyramid, through the main courtyard, then through the passage and into the rear courtyard. Once you have successfully navigated the entrance challenge, the line for entrance tickets begins on the lower level.

At the height of summer; multitudes of visitors flock to the busiest museum in the world, 9.3 million people passed through the turnstiles in 2013 with numbers growing every year. The sauna like atmosphere of room 7/8 housing the Mona Lisa in the 13th to 15th century Italian Renaissance wing adds to the uncomfortable experience that is the Mona Lisa.

Da Vinci's masterpiece is seen as a cultural rite of passage; souring attendances requires institutions balancing art preservation with public assessability to limit crowds. Getting anywhere near the painting requires skills in balance, movement and evasion. The frantic pushing, shoving and crushing by people fighting for position is only surpassed by the clicking of smartphone cameras. Besides myself, not one person was actually viewing this painting, it was all about getting the shot and then the selfie.

I always thought the reason to visit art museums was to actually view the art in the flesh. All people were doing was fighting for position, snapping a pic and getting out to probably view in the future or brag to friends. Why wouldn't you view a high quality copy in an art book or download a high resolution picture?

I still can't believe no one was actually viewing this Renaissance masterpiece.

Taking the easy out of easyJet

Taking the easy out of easyJet is a fairly simply equasion unfortunately. I think this is an excellent low cost airline, things can spiral out of control in a low cost airline very quickly, this I found out for myself.

They are very hard to actually contact, navigate around their webpage and there is no option to contact them electronically. So I joinded their Facebook page and posted a request for them to personally contact me, initial contact was via Facebook chat. As they had double charged me, they then requested I send them my credit card details, expiry date, cvc code and other confidential information.

The other issue was they had not emailed my booking confirmation and I was unable to log into my account to obtain the relevant details, this was sorted fairly easy, took a couple of days but it was done.

Naturally, I said no way, such details are sent to websites via https 128 bit encryption, not a chance would I divulge such sensitive personal via Facebook chat. That totally confused them, I told them to send my booking details to my email account and I would forward to their accounts department.

That resulted in a no-reply email informing me the accounts department was backed up and will start to look into it in 7 - 10 working days. That was three weeks before the no-reply email was received, this was going to take a while - that I knew.