Paris

  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Dinner with Julie in the Marais

Friday 13th June
Alison: We got to St Pancras Station by cab with all our luggage and then waited anxiously for Michael to collect our Eurostar tickets in time to race through the security screening and get on our 11.30 train with minutes to spare. The train was very comfortable and it was amazing how in only 2 and a half hours later we were in the middle of Paris! After waiting in a ridiculously long taxi queue we finally got a taxi with a surly driver who refused to allow any of us to sit in the front so we all squeezed in the back and confronted the horrors of Paris traffic. Apparently George Bush was in town and so that exacerbated the traffic jams even further.
We arrived at our apartment in the Marais district where Michael's mother Julie was waiting, having flown into Paris from Australia that morning. It was lovely to see her and the apartment was very comfortable and spacious, in a fabulous position close to the St Paul Metro station. I immediately got some washing going as I had many loads to do and we had a nice little wander around the area, buying a few provisions at the little store opposite, before finding a lovely café for dinner and then heading off to bed.

Saturday 14th June
Alison: After a lovely sleep-in, Julie, the kids and I left Michael snoring happily to have a walk. I have always loved the Marais district and we were in the Jewish quarter right next to a synagogue so on this day, being the Sabbath, we saw many of them with their long curly sideburns around the synagogue. We wandered up the Rue de Rivoli, bought some more provision - I just adore Boulangeries! - and stopped for breakfast in a café with a traditionally surly waiter before heading back. On the way we stopped at a lovely market and bought some fresh fruit, tomatoes etc - always a luxury when you travel and eat out so much.  

Julie and kids by Notre Dame

After hauling Mike out of bed, we headed off for a lovely walk to Notre Dame, admiring once more its glorious flying buttresses and Rose Windows, stopping briefly on the way to buy some new sandals for Michael whose last ones were seriously disgusting!

Finally throwing away Mike's old sandals

Then we crossed over the Seine to the Left Bank and found a great cafe for a lovely lunch - the 3 course set prixe being excellent value and the waiter delightful. The waiters in Paris tend to fall into 2 camps - lovely and charming or wanting to spit on you for being a tourist. We were lucky to mainly get the former rather than the latter, but it was always interesting to see! 

Under the Eiffel Tower

We caught the train to the Eiffel Tower which suitably impressed the kids in its size, but the queues to go up it were ridiculous, so we preferred to just walk up the adjoining Champs de Mars, sit on the grass and admire it from a distance. Being a Saturday, lots of families were about and the kids had fun racing on push-wheel cars in the sunshine.

Kids racing each other

We wandered up to the Metro and Julie headed back to the apartment while we went up to show the kids the Arc de Triomphe and wander down the Champs Elysees, reliving our honeymoon when we celebrated New Year's Eve there.

By the Arc de Triomphe

The drinks were ridiculously expensive, but just sitting there watching the crowds go by makes it worth it. Then we headed back to the apartment, made a simple meal of pasta for dinner, and headed off to bed.

Sunday 15th June
Alison: After breakfast we headed off to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, using the Metro to get as high as we could but still facing many, many steep stairs up to the wonderful views over Paris from Sacre Coeur.

Visiting Sacre Coer

After a soothing wander through the church we headed off to find a nice little place for lunch and eventually found a pleasant courtyard restaurant, although we had only just ordered when it started raining and we had to move inside. That was fine though, and the meal was good. Then we wandered through the streets for a bit longer, before catching the Metro to check out the location of Julie's apartment that she would move into on Monday for a further two weeks on her own. Then we headed back to the Marais to pack as we were leaving the apartment early the next morning.

Monday 16th June

At Euro Disney

Rachel: We went to Disney land and went on lots of rides like the Teacups and the Rollercoaster and a small sweet little ride called It's a Small World that shows all the countries of the world in their traditional clothes and music. It was a really good thing to do for my birthday and was exactly how I thought it would be. On the first train ride we waited for half an hour and we thought it was going to be lots of fun but when we did it we realized it was just a plain train ride and we could have walked! At the time we were leaving there was a big parade with all of the Disney characters which we followed out.

Alison: Lionel arrived at 8.00 to take the keys etc. We had packed and walked our bags down to a nearby hotel just on the other side of the St Paul Metro which Michael had found at the last minute when we decided to do EuroDisney a day later than originally planned. We dumped them there and then farewelled Lionel, thanking him for his great apartment, and then headed off for our day in Euro Disney. Julie went one way on the metro and we went the other towards the train station that would take us to Disney Parc. It didn't take long and we were there, much to the children's excitement. 
The kids had a great day at the Disney Parc, with the queues not too long due to us having put off going until the Monday - we had been warned that the crowds would be horrendous on the weekend and therefore we delayed our journey to Bordeaux by a day (thus necessitating the search for a hotel for the night.) The various rides were enjoyed to various amounts, with Rachel being the more daredevil of the two, but we all had a good time. Tom's favourite was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the only really disastrous one for him was the rollercoaster, which he hated and very much resented us for persuading him that it would be fun...

Our final scary roller coaster

Eventually though he got over that and after viewing the parade we headed off to catch the train back to Paris.

When we got back to the train station we had a long wait while Michael stood in line for an hour or so to make our train reservations. The kids and I waited in a cafe for about an hour and a half before joining him to make our final decisions about our train reservations. Just as we were in the final minutes of getting the last few things organised, Tom, who had been running around with Rachel and sliding on the slippery marble floor on his socks, ran head first straight into a horizontal pole which he slammed into with a resounding crack and then backwards with an even more horrifying crunch onto the marble floor. The screaming began a very short time later, so I think he was only unconscious for a few seconds, but of course the whole thing was horrendous. With a massive bruise between his eyes and even nastier, bloody one on the back of his skull, I felt pretty incapable of doing much except comforting and trying to calm him.

The Railway people called the resident Fire Brigade (who apparently are the ones responsible for First Aid in France), who attempted to check out Tom, but he was terrified of being sent to hospital and went hysterical when he looked at the stretcher and they tried to put a neck brace around him! He proved to them he could move his legs and arms so they gave up on the brace and I questioned him about his name and what we'd been doing during the day, so eventually they decided (to our relief) he could go back to the hotel with us rather than going to hospital, after I signed various forms agreeing that we had received appropriate treatment. By this stage it was 9.30 or so and Tom was in shock, a bit shivery and saying he was nauseous.. and we had to catch the Metro back to our hotel, so the whole journey was a nightmare.

We arrived back at the hotel to be faced by an incredibly narrow, steep, circular staircase about a metre in diameter and our room was five floors up! Being a last minute booking in a busy season, we had to squeeze into their only available (double) room, so now we had to fit all four of us into a trypical Parisian hotel room, so small you could hardly swing a cat! They had put a single mattress on the floor in front of the double bed and Tom collapsed onto that with Rachel going head to tail and we wisely left all the luggage down in the lobby, as we had to get up early to catch the TGV to Bordeaux. I had a broken sleep, getting up regularly throughout the night to check that Tom was still breathing, and the wake-up call came all too soon to get us up and on the road again.

Mike: Arriving at our in Paris, I was again delighted that the location was fabulous and even better than I had gleaned from the internet, in the heart of the Marais district, full of life and surrounded by quirky little cafes and restaurants, and within a short wander of the Left Bank.
Meeting my mother, who had beaten us there by half a day, I was thrilled she was in great spirits and had successfully negotiated her way there from the airport via the metro,stubbornly refusing to accept my offer of reimbursing her cabfare after a long flight (I got it from both sides!). Inside, again I was superpleased, as the apartment was cosily furnished in nice taste and was larger and roomier than I had envisaged, especially by Parisian standards!
Our wander around the sights of Paris the next day quickly filled me with that feeling that only Paris gives me..  uplifted, light of heart, joyous and somewhat floating. Wow the atmosphere of this city is like no other, matched equally by its natural beauty and stunning architecture and form. To wander along the Seine is heaven to me, traipsing the little streets without a care in the world,and of course stopping for obligatory repasts at lovely corner cafes.
A beautiful meal at a local restaurant on our first night brought back too just how much we love the French food and lifestyle, and the whole ambience... a couple of men sitting at a table nearby, clearly having a very relaxed time with a wine and cigar, casually striking up an engaging conversation with us.  The whole joie de vivre (no wonder the French immortalised this term!) permeates the air in a way that is so tangible to me..
I looooove just to wander past the little cafes or tabacs and see the people sitting clustered around small tables, so cosily ensconsed sipping on a café au lait, biere or whatever is the order of the day..
I was particularly pleased too that my French came back to me quickly, and certainly on this trip I have found myself more conversant than ever before (in Italian also)..  so I am much looking forward to getting back and being able to spend a solid month here in the near future, talking only in the local tongue, by which time I think I could find my French quite fluent.
Talking with and getting to know people has always been my passion (as would surprise no one!) so aligned with this I have always leaped at the chance to speak other languages well enough to simply enjoy talking with the locals. Much like my fathers Italian perhaps, Im certainly not shy to embarrass myself  by sometimes speaking in a way that, though not grammatically correct, generally manages to make myself understood!

Enjoying the Cars ride

EuroDisney had been promised maaaaany months in advance as Rachel's birthday treat, and didn't let us down.   We all enjoyed it a lot and had a lovely relaxed fun day as one does. Nonetheless it reconfirmed the impression I had first gleaned in Disnleyland in LA, that the nature of this experience is particular to the US culture, in particular the scattered and relatively small number of actual iconic attractions, each punctuated by huge queues(!)..   as opposed to the good old Royal Shows of this world where fun is to had at every turn and queueing is almost nonexistant. Much as the kids liked it Tom too commented on this numerous times, finding it (as had I) slightly odd just exactly what was the huuuge attraction of this whole Disney experience (?!), pleasant and fun but to me sure not a memorable life moment one would later reflect on wistfully!... 
Thank God for my stubborn will (see reference above!), as when at the very first (Wild West Frontier train) ride we had queued for about 40 minutes when we were literally theeee group where they closed the entrance to the newlyarrived train, meaning another 20-30 minute minimum wait.

Pirates of the Carribean

   I gesticulated to the people who had just gone in front of us, muttering 'tout ensemble"  (all together) and they duly gestured us through to join our ''lost friends''!  
As it transpired this was an extreeeemely dull ride, accompanied by huuugely unfunny occasional American drawl/commentary, so if we haaad waited another 30 minutes for this I think I would have shot someone just as  did Wild Bill Hiccock.. if only he knew what they did to immortalize him in this Park I swear he would roll in his stirrups!!    I managed to get myself on a rollercoaster so i was very proud of myself.. though SpaceMountain was just tooo big a challenge thiiis time!  Anyway fun was had by all..
Having seen Mum off to her new apartment also in a great central location, we looked forward to meeting up with her again in Provence, after now heading off to catch up with Al's familyfriends in Bordeaux. Mum had decided to stay on a full three weeks in France, rather than join us when we moved on to Italy, as she was both fluent in French (having been a French teacher earlier in her life) and also felt very comfortable in Paris where she had apparently had a number of past lives in the court of Louis 14!   But that's another story..!