(If you want to see more photos: www.flickr.com/people/whiternoise)
So, my girlfriend and I joined the ranks of cliché and spent a couple of days in the City of Lights. Thought people would find this interesting so I decided not to post it in .photo
Day -1: It was one of those days. About 9:30pm, my Mum asked me if I wanted a lift to the station on Thursday and to check what time the train left. It turned out to be one of those "Ah bugger" moments when the email informed me that the train left at 8:55 on Wednesday morning. A quick call to the other half and an hours frantic night's packing later and a very short night's sleep.
Day 1: The trip down to London was uneventful, with First Great Western showing a surprisingly punctual side. St Pancras (International) is part of the "High Speed 1" line that was built to replace the Waterloo connection and is pleasantly modern, looking more like an airline terminal than a train station.
Rush!
The statue of Betjemin on the platform
My Dad used to work for the OECD in Paris, so as a child I visited a few times a year via the Eurostar - back then it was basically new and something of a novelty. Nowadays it's apparent that brown is not the colour of choice for upholstery and the whole train is a little dated.
Try to ignore the two birds that have ran afowl () of the inlets
Age aside, it goes at a fair whack - clocking in at around 185mph on my GPS (aside - shows you how old the train is if you can get a GPS fix inside) and got us into Paris just after midday.
Our hotel was in the Bastille area, so we took a Metro down to the nearest station. The Paris Metro, for the uninitiated, is essentially the Paris 'Tube. It's quick, efficient and smells of pee. Tickets are cheap - about 1.70EUR to go from point to point (unlike TFL's upwards of £3 for two stops without an Oyster). You can also buy a carnet for 12EUR for 10 tickets - there is also a travelcard, but we didn't travel enough to make it worthwhile.
The metro stations are a lot wider than the London Underground and have some of the most inefficient seating designed I've ever come across. Apparently the French are not into sitting next to one another.
We dumped our things in the hotel (an Ibis chain) and consulted the map to see where we wanted to visit first. Taking advantage of the blissfully sunny day, we elected to walk down to the Seine and then up towards the Île de la Cité and Paris proper. After getting a tiny bit lost, we eventually found our way to the banks of the river and found ourselves overlooking the national library - sadly not open to the public.
The walk towards the centre of the city had a certain Half Life air about it and the G-Man wouldn't have been out of place, perhaps on one of the bridges overlooking the waters. About half an hour later, we stopped for a bite to eat - un MacDo, I'm sorry to say - and it was then that we discovered the reason that all the shops were shut. It was only bloody Bastille Day. On the bright side, there would be fireworks.
The Île de la Cité supports Notre Dame and is one of the most picturesque (and touristy) parts of the city. It's surrounded by apartment blocks that would probably make your wallet burn up in shame dare you ask the rental price.
Notre Dame itself was shut, but it's just another church and most of the good looking bits are on the outside. Entry to the cathedral is free, but you will be charged to visit certain areas.
Next on the route was the Louvre (how many hotspots can we knock off in one day?) which too was shut, but as we'd both already been, we took a few photos, sat by the fountains a while and then moved on towards Place de La Concorde. The Louvre is full of people with the sole aim of seeing the Mona Lisa. Take it from me, it's not that great. It's the size of a postage stamp at the distance you're allowed to view it (behind the railings and the bulletproof glass casing). More interesting is the Palais du Louvre, housing a simply obscene amount of art and cultural history which is really a day trip in itself if you want to view all the galleries. Entry is free if you're aged below around 25 and resident in the EU so make the most of it if you're eligible.
Into the light, my son.
Gleaming...
From the inside (stupidly they let us in, only for us to be told at the bottom that it was shut - naturally the gift shop was still open)
By this time it was getting reasonably late and we wandered through the leafy streets until we got to Place de La Concorde, marking the East end of the Champs-Élysées. People were gathering in the square and on the bridge (towards the National Assembly buildings) and since we had a pretty good view of the Eiffel Tower, we bagged a decent spot, set up the tripod and waited for the show to begin. It was quite something...
Stay tuned!
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