Revolutionary Rants

On Wednesday Mum arrived for our journey the next day to the wonderful city - and capital of France- of Paris!

We were up early to get to the station for our train to London Waterloo (and to meet Noreen, Mum’s cousin) to catch our Euro Star train. Yes, it was as confusing as it sounds! We were pleasantly surprised to find it was very quick and easy to get through the customs and bag scans (although it is kind of weird to have your bags your whole journey, as we are so used to air travel, where you lose the bags after check in!) and had time to enjoy a coffee before we boarded. The journey seemed pretty quick and smooth in general - the tunnel itself was just 20 minutes of the journey, and before we knew it we were embarking at Gard du Nord in Paris.

After a slightly more difficult trip on the Metro to Charonne we found our hotel - the Classic - and got settled in. In the evening we enjoyed a lovely menu (for just €11.50 each) at ‘The Purple’ near the hotel. Chris and I had a stroll and a drink and then went to be.

Friday was a grey day, and thunder was forecast, so Chicken and I set off for the Eiffel Tower. The view from the Trocadéro was amazing, but when you got under the Tower all human life was there (one of the legs was being renovated, and, of course, we had forgotten it was half term!), so as we were meeting the others at 13:00 we decided we wouldn’t make it up in time. We headed off to see the Arc de Triomphe, and walked down the Champs Elysees, where we found the first Fnac, so Chris got some CDs. Then we went to the area of the hotel (to be scared by thunder claps, in my case!!!) and had some lunch before resting in the hotel. In the evening Mr C and I had a beautiful Italian meal as a treat - the pesto was wonderful!

On Saturday we were busy bees! We all headed out to the Pont Neuf and had a brilliant boat trip along the sights of the river (up to the Tower and right down past the island Sully Morland). Then we walked to Notre-Dame, which was incredibly beautiful - you can now go up on the towers, but we didn’t on this occasion. We then got the Metro (as we had got ‘Paris Visite’ cards on our arrival) up to Pére Lachaise and saw the graves of Oscar Wilde (sadly covered in lipstick kisses and strangely rococo - i.e. not very Oscar somehow), Proust (very normal and re-done, I would guess) and Jim Morrison (which you could hardly get a look at, as there were so many people there - poor old Chopin does not get so many!). We visited the boulanger on the return to the hotel and ate cheese and bagette and a fantastic pistache tart (not for Chris though with his nut allergy) from the patissier (plus a glass or two of red wine for me).

In the evening Chicken and I headed off to Monmartre (of which more soon) in search for the sights of ‘Amélie’, where we walked and saw the view of the city and Scaré Cour (meaning Scared Heart), which is pretty lovely inside.

Sunday morning saw us all go round the local Garlic market - where Chris and I brought, wait for it - garlic! - which was a sight to see. Then we headed back to Gard du Nord and the Euro Star. After a brief halt in the tunnel we got back to Waterloo and eventually home! A very busy but brilliant weekend - I hope Chicken and I will return there sometime (and actually go up the Tower, as C has never been up); perhaps for our honeymoon?