Touring Hollywood

Hollywood Day (Part 2)

Hollywood Movie Stars Homes Tour - by LA City Tours

Hollywood Bowl
Music Concert Amphitheatre, not Bowling Alley

With still plenty of time left to use the LA Go Card for the day, I headed over to LA City Tours to see if there was any spaces left on the 'Hollywood Movie Stars Homes Tour'. I wanted to make sure I would be back in time for a different guided tour at 5:10pm, which I was more into than seeing the outside of Celeb homes, but the tour operator said we should be back between 4:40 and 4:55, so I decided to risk it. It was worth $47, so I assumed that it wouldn't be too awful...

View of the Hollywood Sign

We got given little gold stickers and then all got piled into a tour bus (with air con, hooray!), and as the only single passenger, got to sit at the front of the bus. This meant not only a side window view, but a front and door window view too!

Hollywood Overlook Selfie

First thing's first though, a little bit of no-shame-America. Mr Tour Driver/Guide introduced himself in a cheesy way. I believe he was from Boston, but told us all about how he'd been living in LA for several years, bla bla. Get on with the tour. But no. Next it was time for all 20 odd passengers to introduce themselves, where they're from and a bit about their trip. Seriously. Get on with it.

Some celebrity house. Maybe.

Finaaally, the driver/guide sat down and did some driving. We went on a lovely tour along Hollywood Boulevard, heading East, and then headed into the mountains. Within 20-30 minutes we stopped at a great little place on the side of the mountain where we could all see the Hollywood sign and take a selfie. However, all the other tours stop there too so it was basically as crowded as Hollywood Boulevard itself...

It didn't really get much better than that. Especially as another couple apparently felt carsick and so I had to swap seats with them - they were sat at the back. Goodbye fab view, hello left-side window view with very limited right-side window view...

Michael Jackson's 'Death House' *
(*The Gate of...)

We drove around in the mountains, went along Mulholland Drive (apparently one of the most dangerous streets in LA due to the crazy rich kids driving along the very windy mountain-side roads at 160mph. At night. While drunk.)

Beverley Hills Trolley

As I expected, the tour was largely "Look at that white house over there in the distance by that tree. Barbara Streisand lives there" and "Who's this person running with a dog near these houses? Is it a celebrity?" and "We're not allowed to stop by these gates coming up because I'll be chased by the security guards and sued by Britney Spears, but Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Mariah Carey all have homes on the other side of the gate".

Beverley Hills

Broccoli Trees
(Yes. These were part
of the official tour)

To be honest, it just seems a bit strange and stalker-like. If I was a celeb I'd definitely live in a gated community, and probably buy a random different house that I never went to and write "Cate lives here" on the garage door...

Once we'd driven past se
veral famous (and not so famous) people's houses, we headed back to Hollywood via Beverley Hills and Sunset. It was quite a good tour really as I doubt I would have seen Beverley Hills otherwise.

At least the Filipinos enjoyed it...

We got back at 5pm and of course, they expect tips. All dollar bills look the same though, so if you don't fancy giving a whole $5, just roll up some $1 and throw them in. They'll never know.

I had to run off pretty quickly to catch my next tour at 5:10 (especially as I needed a toilet break first!) I arrived, pretty exhausted after a full day, so was looking forward to another sit down on a tour bus, but twas not to be, for this was...

The Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood Movie (walking) Tour - by Redline

This one sounded great so I'd booked it the night before. However, as one so often does, I didn't read the whole text on the webpage, and consequently missed the part in the very last paragraph about this even being a walking tour. I can't say I was that pleased to find that out at the last second.

The guide for this was lovely. I can't remember any of the guides names at all but he was great. There was about 8-10 of us for this tour and the guide had a folder with pics in it to look at. We all got given a little headset which (thankfully) we could turn up and down depending on the noisiness of the traffic and crowds we were standing in.

Lovely Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Apparently these were copied from someone's tomb.
I don't remember whose, but probs King Tut

Mr Guide started by telling us all about Sid Grauman, an American showman who apparently created cinema and 'movie stars' as we know them. He told us some interesting facts about how back in the early 1900's, theatre was for rich people, and 'cinema' was for the poor - basically what Grauman did was to make the world of film both profitable and accessible to all.

Beautiful ornate ceiling in Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

So then off we went over to the Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theatre. This is a great theatre as it has a fab courtyard with Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall and statues etc. Mr Guide had keys and so we were allowed to go in and have a wander. They are famous for having 'film events' where they'll show a film and have a film-related person come and talk to the audience about it - it's supposed to be rather good.

I think these elephants
were originally by
Grauman's Egyptian...

Stairs inside the Dolby Mall
Apparently the shape represents
an Oscar ballgown, with the rest of
the walkway (behind) representing
the train.

We then headed out onto the street, and up towards Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Mr Guide told us loads of fun facts about the Walk of Fame and the different stars we were walking past, occasionally stopping to show us a picture in his folder. The tour is supposed to go inside the Chinese Theatre, like with the Egyptian theatre, and usually Mr Guide tells the tourers all about the different cement hand prints and signatures, but alas, Zac Efron made this not so. So we skipped it. #Not Happy.

Plaques. 

We went over to the Dolby Theatre next (which I toured that morning) and Mr Guide told us all about the shopping mall that it's in. They have columns on either side with plaques showing the film that won an Oscar in each year. Very interesting. And that was the end. My feet were pleased.

So at $25, this one was pretty good. All in all, I'd already got $132 worth out of my $190 Go Card and I still had 2 days left to use... Bargain!


Hard Rock Cafe

Dying from exhaustion was starting to get to me so I popped into the Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood. It was only about 6pm so the place was pretty empty, but I think this was probably the strangest restaurant experience I've ever had as after being seated, my waitress came along, sat down and told me her life story...

Guiness World
Record Museum
- Floating stone ball...

"A Hurricane"
If only I'd been able to drink it all

I ordered the small version of the Classic burger, and a Hurricane cocktail (No idea. It was fruity). It started filling up just as I got my food. Waitress girl, I think her name was Miranda. Let's call her that. Miranda came along, sat down with me (WHILE I WAS EATING) and told me that if I was feeling a bit full that I could put a napkin over my plate and have a wander around - "when there's a napkin laid over the plate", she said, "the guys know not to clear the plate".

It wasn't a wander I wanted so much as the loo, so I popped the napkin over my plate, as advised, and dashed off to the ladies. 5 minutes later, after a scenic route back to my table, I discovered that they had not only taken away my plate (complete with half eaten food), but also my drink, hat and guide books/maps. I was not impressed.

The Disney Shop
(And Fake Minnie)

Miranda was talking to someone looking upset/anxious? Perhaps they thought I'd left without paying, but as soon as she saw me she came running over to apologise profusely, blaming it all on the other wait staff, naturally. She didn't ask me if I wanted anything else to eat, you know, because I hadn't actually finished my meal, or if she could replace my drink which I'd barely sipped, but instead ran off to get the manager to approve a 50% reduction on my food. Just the food. No apology for my $15 drink (it came with a 'free' hard rock cafe glass) that I'd not had a chance to drink...

Mickey Mouse outside Disney
Far too crowded to get a selfie.
Sad face.

I couldn't be bothered to argue as I was very tired by this point so just paid and left (after collecting my hat and guidebook at the main desk and my free mason jar glass from the gift shop)...

"We Are Your Friends"

So I'm sure I've mentioned that I hate Zac Efron for causing the closure of the Chinese Cinema for the one day I'll probably ever be in Hollywood. He did this because it was the film premiere of "We Are Your Friends". I have no idea what it's about as I've not seen it, but I know it's got Zac Efron in it. And some girl. That's basically all I know.

"We Are Your Friends" Premiere at the Chinese Theatre

I also knew all about how film premieres worked due to my wealth of information from tour guides. So when I stepped out of the Hard Rock Cafe into a hoard of manic, screaming teenage girls, I knew why.

Zac Efron.

Zac Efron is in there somewhere...

I crossed over the road so I could get a better look at what was going on (a lot of flashing lights, that's what). I asked one of the screaming teenagers if he'd arrived yet. "We've been here since 5:30pm", she said. "He's not arrived yet but he has to be here in the next 40 minutes as the premiere starts at 8pm".

Nev Schulman Selfie
#WhoAreYou

Naturally the rule is that if you wait for someone for nearly 2 hours, they won't arrive until you leave. So when the girl turned to her mother a couple of minutes later and said she didn't care anymore, let's go get food, Zac Efron got in his car from a hotel somewhere nearby and started the drive over.

Zac arrived in a shiny looking black jeep about 10 minutes after the girl left. I don't know why I hadn't left to be honest. Probably because I couldn't, being stuck in the crowds of crazy adolescents. I can't say I got a good view. He walked across the road 100ft along from where I was, signed some autographs, took a few selfies and then walked back over.

I did get one celeb selfie though. Some guy I don't even know called Nev Schulman. Then I went back to the hotel.

Notre-Dame de Paris

Our Lady of Paris

West View of Notre-Dame

Welcome Sign

Definitely worth a visit if you're going to Paris, and even better, it's free! (Technically. See below for my comments on the catholic money trap...)

I arrived at Notre Dame to a queue longer than the one at the Oblivion Ride at Alton Towers on my visit in 2006 (we had that fast-track queue jump there though). Ultimately I don't mind, there's not a huge amount of queuing going on in France and queues make the British feel at home; we do love a good queue!

Archway at Notre-Dame Entrance

Thankfully this one was moving relatively quickly, and was entertained by a variety of street performers including a female duo singing covers, a mime artist, painters, and street sellers with knock-off key rings and 3D paper cuts of the Notre-Dame.

There were also lots of people advertising guided group tours around Notre-Dame and the surrounding area in English, French, German, Japanese, Russian... These, however, would set you back between 20-30€  if you chose to follow around a dude with a bow/flag-topped stick.

Give a expected discretionary 2€ donation 

and light a symbolic tealight...

Personally, I chose to go for the individual audio tour in English. This costs you just 5€ and the hostage of some form of ID (to encourage the safe return of the audio device). On the plus side, they do take 50€ notes here, in case you were wondering! Unless you want to get arm ache by carrying it around like a telephone the whole time, thus meaning you can't listen to the audio and watch any video clips at the same time, you can turn it right up. This tends to lead to a few disgruntled looks and 'husssh' noises in your direction - it is a place of worship after all! If you want to spare yourself the arm ache, be able to watch and listen at the same time, and avoid the wrath of god-fearing Catholics, take headphones! (which I happened to have on me. Phew!)


For your 5€, you will also be given a very 'informative' bit of paper with a 'map' and numbers on it, detailing where you need to press the corresponding number for the audio tour. Until I got to about 6 I couldn't work out what it was telling me to look at. 'Look to your left and you will see a stunning example of one of the largest cathedral organs. This organ, known as the great organ, was built in....' *cue a confused me looking about wildly to see where this organ is, frustratedly walking backwards and then forwards to see if I've missed it or pushed the button too early* (N.B. I still have no idea where the organ was, or when the organ was built! Edit. The Notre-Dame Website tells me there's three, and that the great one is above you on the west entrance - so you have to turn around and look up).

Notre-Dame is a hulking great money trap for the Roman Catholic Church though, and is clearly desperate to get a minimum of 5€ from each and every one of the 13 million people that visit it each year (estimated annual income of €65 million+). There are donation boxes every few metres, tours, and even a shop (in the actual cathedral, very strange). They encourage donations for lighting tealights (2€), a mini candle (5€), large candle (15€) or a candlestick (4-10€), plus there are lots of other donation boxes too.

-

Rose Stained-Glass Window
(Probably the North)

The architecture of the Notre-Dame is really beautiful. Reminds me a bit of the gothic architecture at Hogwarts in Harry Potter (part filmed in Gloucester Cathedral).

The stained-glass windows are also very beautiful, and there are stained-glass windows everywhere. The stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame are regarded as some of the most intricate and most impressive masterpieces in architectural christian art. These were probably my favourite bit. They are so pretty and colourful!

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame is also home to some really impressive statues, and paintings. There are statues of various saints all the way around, including Saint Denis (first Bishop of Paris), Thomas Aquinas, and Joan of Arc. Some of these statues are lovely - I quite liked the one of Joan of Arc - but others are a bit odd. Saint Denis, for example, seems to always be portrayed with his head in his hands (like, detached). This does have some meaning though, Denis is said to have been martyred (by decapitation) and then to have picked up his head and walked 6 miles while preaching a sermon. Lovely...

Another very nice part of the Notre-Dame Cathedral are the choir walls which are decorated with artistic statues on both sides. One side depicting five scenes of the post-Resurrection Easter story of Jesus, called 'The Apparitions of Christ' (particularly him visiting the disciples after he rose from the dead), and the other with nine scenes of the Nativity Story and Jesus' childhood. These are really pretty and according to the audio guide have not been changed at all since they were built in the middle-ages, other than being repainted. There apparently also used to be a wall portraying the rest of Jesus' life, particularly his crucifixion but that isn't there anymore.

Rose Stained-Glass Window
(Maybe South?)

At the rear of Notre-Dame there are lots of interesting displays, my favourite of which was the little model of the Cathedral so you could see the architecture close up. There was also another little chapel which had a red glass case, supposedly protecting a thorn crown.

More Stained-Glass windows

Choir Wall with sculptures of "The Apparitions of Christ" 

Statue of St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
Born in Domrémy, burned alive in Rouen
as a heretic and a witch.
The decision to rehabilitate her reputation
was made at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Thorn Crown encased in Red Glass
(Not sure exactly why...)

Statue of a Pope

 The Models of the Notre-Dame

Other Photos

North Stained-Glass Rose Window

Ornate gold box

Another little chapel - there are loads of these all
around the outside of the Knave and Aisles.

Another Shrine for Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Light one of these candles and be strongly encouraged
to fork out 5euros for the privilege.
It is a candle in Notre Dame after all...

Notre-Dame's Main Baptistry

Ornate decoration of the Saints (Entrance)
Saint Denis is the third from the left, holding his head...

Statue of the Mary and Jesus
under the arch between the entrance and exit

View of the side of Notre Dame

The Bells of Notre Dame

"Morning in Paris, the City awakes, to the Bells of Notre Dame..."

Outside the Notre-Dame, if you turn right and go around to the north side, you can see the four big bells of Notre-Dame. These are the newer bells of Notre-Dame which were made around 1850's to replace the ones melted down during the revolution. The largest bell, called Emmanuel, was spared and still rings in the South Tower.

The Bells are huge but aren't really mentioned in the audio guide or anywhere else (until you just happen to walk past them on your desperate hunt for a toilet).

           
Strangely, one of Paris' most famous novels by Victor Hugo (thanks Disney for adding to the fame), 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', was only mentioned once, in the introduction of the audio guide - "the Cathedral has always been a subject of much interest, and was even featured in the novel by the French author, Victor Hugo, which captured the hearts of many..."

Anyway, if you get a chance, Fran is right. It's a must-see.