Parisian Delights

  Paris, France
Saturday, August 18, 2007

· Montmartre, Paris, France
· GMT +1:00 hour

Paris. First Impressions

01 Rue Lepic

We've arrived. With bags in tow we managed to negotiate the Paris metro and check into our room, room 43, in Hotel Bonsejour Montmartre (Btw, the Paris metro is as easy to navigate as all other metro systems, assuming you have some semblance of a sense of direction and you're not colour blind to the point that you cant tell the difference between red, blue, green lines). We're in the Montmartre area of the city and once again we seem to have landed on our feet; we have a lovely 4th floor room with a balcony overlooking a picture book Parisian neighbourhood, or at least what we deem to be a Parisian neighbourhood - narrow, winding cobbled streets lined wine stores, supermarkets, boulangeries, cafes, bars and restaurants. We're a minute walk from any of the above and we can envision spending some of the 4 nights we'll be here sitting on our balcony sipping wine and watching the world go by.

Who are the people in your neighbourhood

02 Anything they can do ...

We have only just arrived and haven't seen much of the area, let alone Paris itself. We have however been able to get out for a quick look around. This area, Montmartre (Montmartre Hill), is a hilly district situated in the north of the city. It's quite bohemian and laidback, attracting the writer and artist types (Picasso had a studio around these lanes somewhere) who hang about in its cafes and bars. The areas biggest attraction however is the mammoth Basilique du Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) perched atop Montmartre Hill and offering great views out over Paris. We visited the sight this evening and were impressed with both the basilica itself and of the city sprawling off into the distance. About the only thing we could tell about the rest of Paris from up there was that it's big. Very big. And while from up here it seems to go on forever, the city centre area is supposed to be compact enough and eminently walk able (we'll let you know tomorrow if it is or not).

03 Basilique du Sacre Coeur

So until then we'll bid you all adieu. Tomorrow we plan on doing some serious walking. No doubt we'll finish tomorrow (and the next day, and the next) on our balcony sipping wine. At €3 a bottle we'd be mad not to.

(Final) Day 4 Observations (August 17th 2007)

· Paris is very multicultural
That's obvious. What might not be immediately obvious is that it's also a huge source of tension over here.

· Stereotypes
Everyone walks around carrying baguettes in their arms. It may be a stereotype but it happens. At least here in Montmartre. Some people even eat them on the move.

· Parisian Delights
All the narrow lanes in this area are towered over by cream coloured buildings, much like in various areas of London. It gives the place a classy look, again much like in various areas of London.

· Fruit
Yep, they have fruit shops here. Tons of them. It's only an observation here becasue we were hard pressed to find any in Caen, especially ones that were open.

· It's cheap
How about €2-3 for a bottle of wine. $0.51 for 1 litre of Volvic mineral water. Good luck trying to get that for under €2.50 in Ireland.

· Foreginers a plenty
I know this includes us but there really are tourists everywhere. Not that it's surprising; with 80m million tourists a year, France is, by far, the most popular tourist destination in the world.

· Outdoor drinking
It's acceptable to drink on the streets over here. Yep, and this being Paris you're not likely to find the local drunk falling around with a bag of cider cans or cheap lager. Nope, here it's all wine. From the romantic couple sitting on a park bench to the wino lying beside/under it, they'll all have a bottle of wine (and maybe a baguette).

· WIFI locked
Nobody seems to leave their WiFi networks open over here. If this keeps up we'll have to pay to upload these entries in some crappy internet cafe with French backward keyboards. Keep that in mind if you wanna give out to us about the lack of contact when you do eventually get around to reading these entries. We're trying, honest.