House hunting and a day of being a tourist in Paris!

Bonjour, who would have thought that there was a place more difficult than Sydney to find a place to rent and that mostly it would all be three times as much. I have been having great fun over the last few days attempting to get an apartment dans Paris. It has to be a furnished place, because for unfurnished you have to sign a three year lease. Also, you have to provide all kinds of documentation and don't expect anyone to ever call you back, instead you have to ring about six times and even then are lucky to be talking to the right person. So enough of the rant, today i decided to take myself away from it all and go and be a tourist in Paris. I found myself at the arc de triomphe and for the first time since coming to Paris found myself surrounded by people speaking english. Which was actually quite a shock after five days hearing lilting french tones surrounding me, I was suddenly engulfed by louder tones of English and Americans. After looking around at the Arc and deciding not to go up inside I set out for the Tour Eiffel. This time I did decide to plunge on into the que for going up. I decided to go right to the top it was just a shame that today Paris was blanketed in a haze of smog but still It really was a fantastic view way up there in the sky. Also it gave me a different view of Paris from the beureacratic, frustrating side of apartment searching. After coming back from the Tour Eiffel I once again hopped on the net to search for apartments a search that is still ongoing.

Anyway I will leave you now with a couple of shots that I have taken around Paris.

This was the view from my hotel window

The Arc de Triumph

Merry go rounds Paris has many

This ones for Guy

And this one is for Hayley