On Saturday the 17th May,
Sherrie and I left for Paris on the Eurostar. I love taking trains; I took the
Amtrack from NYC to Orlando in 2013 and enjoyed every minute. The stations are
generally right in the center of the city, you don’t have to worry about how
much your bag weighs, security is less than airports and you don’t have to get
there super early just to weight around for ages. The train ride was just over
two hours and we got delicious food and wine on the journey. The only bad part
was going in an out of tunnels because our ears hurt – but for some reason we
were the only ones reacting to the pressure changes.
In Paris we booked an Airbnb place in
Pernety. The area was so lovely, by the end of our stay the lady at the bakery
knew us, the fruit man waved at us when we walked past and so did the waiters
at the Metro restaurant.
As soon as we put our luggage in the
apartment we headed straight for the Eiffel Tower. We got there at about 7pm
and decided to walk up the stairs. Wow that was a lot of walking but the views
are amazing! Because the sun sets after 9pm we got to see Paris during the day
and as the sun was setting.
I was really proud of myself for walking up
and down the stairs.
 |
| Sherrie walking up the stairs. |
When we were on the ground again we bought
crapes and ice cream then found a place on the stairs across the river to watch
the Tower light up at 10pm.
It was the most beautiful thing! I am a
moth, I love lights so much.
After the 10pm light show we walked across
to the park area on the other side of the tower to see where it went and just
have a wander. (We also bought more ice cream). As we were walking along we met
two friendly French guys that were trying to improve their English so we
chatted to them for a few hours on the grass.
Sherrie and I left at 1am but the grass
area was still full of people partying. It was a great vibe.
On the second day went to the Notre Dame,
Love lock bridge, tried to hire Velib bicycles and visit the Arc de Triumph.
We caught the Metro to Cite, but then
couldn’t find the cathedral because we were looking in the wrong direction (a
common theme to our adventures) and walked in the direction of what looked like
a church. It wasn’t, but the park surrounding it had free wi-fi so we could
screenshot a map. When we found it we realised we walked in a massive circle (a
very common theme to that day and most of our trip as well).
The Notre Dame is HUGE! Obviously. I don’t
really know what to say about it other than it had a lot of really old things
that would have been worth a lot of money. Oh and there was a bone in a gold
box but no sign explaining whose bone it was or why it deserved to be in a box.
For lunch we bought baguettes – I had
tomato, lettuce and brie. We ate in the park behind the Notre Dame, over lunch
we discussed finding the love lock bridge. After lunch we discovered that it
was about 20m away from where we were sitting.
We then went to hire the Velib bicycles but
hiring one is the most confusing thing in the world. I still don’t know why it
didn’t work with my Lloyds card but did with my Australian NAB card and it
didn’t work for Sherrie at all. So that didn’t happen. We just walked a lot
trying to find a station that did work.
We wanted to ride to the champs elysees so
instead we took the metro to the Arc de Triumph but I wasn’t paying attention
to the stops and thought that the grand arc station meant the Arc de Triumph
was there. When we got above ground and there was a massive modern arc that was
not built to honor Napoléon returning victorious. It had seen this building
during an archi class years ago (its kind of memorable) so it was kind of cool
to be there plus there was a great view down the road to the arc de triumph.
Also a giant thumb.
When we got home we were exhausted, Sherrie
and I were going to go out to dinner and where half way through getting ready
when our host Timothee asked if we wanted bubbles before we went out. Who says
no to French wine. Long story short we ended up drinking a bottle each; one
bubbles, one white, one red.
Sherrie and I never had dinner.
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