Paris / Day 1 Pt. 2

After beginning to get the ins and outs of the city, we began heading towards Sacre Coeur. 

Old school Saab 9000 with old meshies somehow fit really well here on the Parisian streets. 

At first glance, I thought it looked like an Indian temple at the top of the hill. Maybe because it was so much cleaner (whiter) than most of the other churches and temples we saw. The domed tops helped the Taj Mahal affect too. 

Look at these punks causing a ruckus with their skateboarding and scootering. Actually, the real delinquents was the scum at the base of the hill that'd grab people's hands (mostly women) and try to put a piece of colored string on your finger so you'd be "forced" to buy their crappy excuse of a souvenir. Despite the police being in clear eyesight of the activity, they just kept at it the entire time we were there. If you happen to see them, don't be shy to physically push them away and tell them to [shoo] off; it's the only way they'll understand you're more trouble than you're worth and they'll just move onto the next victim. 

Once you move past that unfortunately scum though, the rest of the area was really pleasant. Even the pigeons, which look a lot healthier than those in London/SF/LA, were friendly. 

It's really refreshing how clear and open the city feels compared to London. Even with the local smoking and the weird smelling grocery stores, the air here is just so much cleaner. 

It even managed to get Michelle to crack a smile. 

And have I mentioned that I miss hills and breaking up the monotony of the flat, featureless slab of land that is London? Yeah it may be a little bit of an exercise to get up to the top, but I enjoyed every moment of it. 

Finally we arrive. 

And what a view!

Through the trees and buildings, we even got our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower. Definitely a great area to live for the view, though I'd try to avoid the bottom of the hill. 

Because when you think of Memphis, you think of palm trees? Gotta love the crazy MKIII Golf specials. 

Alfa Romeo may only have a collection of fwd hatches and saloons/estates (if you exclude the 8C and newly introduced 4C) but man these things are lookers. My favorite looking modern fwd hatch for the longest time has been the VW Scirocco R, but the Alfa Romeo Brera is a very close second. 

Peace brah!

The local ads tend to have a fun vibe about them compared to the serious and clean ads of London. 

I know this is considered to be the city of lights but it feels like the city of color coming from the bleak streets of London. 

One thing that I've noticed these past 3 days is that Paris is the sheer number of scooters and motorcycles, which makes sense when there's almost no parking and the traffic is crazy. What this means to me is plenty of great 60-early 90s bikes to spot, like this Yamaha and BMW. 

This wraps up the first day. Stay tuned for the next day as we go to Notre Dame and Pompidou. 

Paris / Day 1 Pt. 1

Our stay in London has finally come to an end. It was fun, but it's time for me to go home. But before we head back to the States, we're going to spend a few days in Paris because, why not? So at 3:30AM, we woke up, cleaned out the few things we had left in our room and on a very dark, rainy and windy night shuffled all of our luggage over to the nearest bus stop to hop on the Eurostar to Paris. We made it aboard (with only a few min. to spare), but it was an extremely stressful and frustrating travel. Next time, we're paying the 5x cost and taking a cab. 

Of course, in the end, it was worth it as we emerge from the Chunnel to an early and refreshingly bright morning in France. While far from sunny by Cali standards, this might as well be San Diego for our Vitamin-D deprived bodies. And it is after all early Feb, so for a winter day in Europe, I'm not complaining. 

We arrive at our rented Airbnb room and took in the fresh air. While it was wonderful being so close to open sky in a very traditional French apartment, the downside to these century-old buildings is the lack of some modern conveniences such as a lift. This is an issue when carrying several 70+ lb luggage pages up 6 flights of narrow, spiraling stairs (see my IG stream). Needless to say, we'll definitely be getting a good workout while staying here. 

Random car rant; It's no secret the US market isn't fond of wagons and MB's last C class estate was admittedly a pretty poor reason anyone would be interested in a smaller MB wagon. However, the past gen C in wagon form looks as good as any other German wagon, if not better (I actually prefer the boxier, cleaner lines to that of the E91). As I walk around UK/France and see several of them, it always makes me think what a shame we never got to enjoy these good cars. 

One common sighting Michelle noticed about Paris so far is how often we look down a street and at the end stands some spectacular structure. In this case, it's just a BNP bank, but it's still pretty amazing the among of work and detail that's gone into decorating these buildings. Speaking of BNP, like Barclays in UK, a BofA customer can withdraw from an ATM without fees. Obviously the currency rate is still in effect (which can be painful as an American who dearly misses low prices and cheap currency) but it's definitely a more convenient and cost effective way for paying for goods aboard. 

It's sort of strange that despite the buildings being generally taller here and the roads being generally curved everywhere, the city feels more open than London. Perhaps the streets are slightly wider or maybe it's the sunny weather we had today? Not sure.

Of course closing with another car pic. Whatever, I am a big fan of the new 3 series. Looks miles sharper than the outgoing non-M E9X's. On a different note, I'm going to start breaking down these tourist posts a bit so the pages don't take so long to load. Look forward for part 2 tomorrow!

London / Getting Our Tourist On Pt. 3

Closing up on our day as London tourists, we went over towards Green Park, Dover Street specifically. As one can imagine, being located just behind Regent Street and Savile Row means it's still a pretty posh area and is full of several high end flagships. 

Of course, with high end shops come high end cars too! This Infinit FX is in fact the limited Vettel edition. Of course, not everyone in the car community was impressed by it, and the staggering price tag of £100k ($160,000!!) certainly didn't help. Is it really worth $60k more than a new Range Rover that's more powerful, more capable, has more features, and holds higher "brand prestige"? Good thing it was limited to just 200 examples...

I'm a big fan of the Sebastian who races for RedBull, just not this one.

Gettin' that Quattro love set in early.

Finally! The first proper classic car I've shot while in the city. I mean, who wouldn't want to take a pic of an XKE? It's just one of those cars everyone can agree on being so pretty. Even Ferrari's proud and egotistical founder Enzo Ferrari was a fan of the Jag, quoted famously by calling it "The most beautiful car ever made". 

I would have shot more pics of it and done a spotlight on it if the rather grouchy-looking owner wasn't sitting in it glaring at me. Be happy man! You have a great car!

BMW's Grand Coupes seem to be a hit over here. I see more of the 4 door variants than the traditional 2 door coupes. Personally, I'd take any version. I'm a big fan of this gen 6er. 

Ok, last car pic. Never cared much about 80s/90s Bentleys (Sorry Jay-Z) but then again I rarely spot them in perfect condition like this. Knowing you can pic one up used for around $20k back home, it's something one can consider for having a timeless luxury car. Gotta be in a dark color though, bright colors make it look a little cheesy IMO. 

AKIRA!!!!  The front pillars of Dover Street Market, which was an interesting boutique to say the least. Unfortunately they were pretty strict with the photography inside, so no pics of that. Afterwards we headed to Regent Street to visit one more shop for Michelle's class project. 

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Michelle with a few of her classmates.