Under the Ditch to Paris

Trip Start Mar 31, 2009

Trip End May 08, 2009

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Where I stayed

Palais Elysee

(Paris hotels)

Flag of France Paris, Île-de-France, France
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Bonjour from Paris mes amis. This morning I was up early to beat the rushhour in London as I battled to lug my heavy case to St Pancras and the Eurostar. I was there ridiculously early but no drama. The train itself is beautifully quick, silent and smooth. There was so little drama about the journey that none of my group of passengers actually knew when we were travelling under the channel. It was just that the tunnel had gone on for a few minutes - that we all realised it must be the case. Up the other side and still no drama or announcements until a routine one was given first in French and then in English. Ah hah! The other way round. Then we noticed cars driving on the right side of the road (very slowly to us as we were really hooning it - 180 kph at a guess - and the trucks had French words on the side. Gradually the countryside started to flatten, the houses had whitewashed or painted walls rather than the ubiquitous British brick and the trees started to appear in heavier leaf than across the ditch.

The Eurostar Train At Rest in Paris

Did you know Paris is an hour ahead of GMT. I didn't..
Photos of the French countryside don't work very well because at the speed we were moving things become a blurrrrr on film. I tried twice then gave up. I sat with three young English women, all friends, who chattered away about prem babies and schooling. One of them was a teacher. I resisted the temptation to join in until they started to discuss a friend just returned from learning to be a "gun shearer" in New Zealand. He hadn't got very much work because apparently the sheep numbers are down. They wondered why. I laughed, introduced myself and told them all about the move to dairying. It turned out they all came from farming backgrounds so we had a pleasant trip comparing notes.
I had done my homework on the Metro routes from the Gare du Nord where the Eurostar stopped to the Charles de Gaulle Etoile stop at the Arc de Triomphe where my hotel is. No drama again. Bought a ticket, followed the plan, changed lines once and arrived at the Arc de Triomphe sick and tired of lugging that case up about a thousand steps. The Paris Metro is a somewhat younger version of the London underground but still has loads of graffiti and the twits who scratch initials on London and Sydney trains must come over here at times to.
I never tire of looking at traffic negotiating the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe

. The road is about 40m wide, has no lane markings at all, about 8 major entrances and French traffic law says traffic on the roundabout gives way to those coming in. Throw in dozens of motorbikes buzzing round with a death wish. It all looks like dodgems but strangely it works.
The hotel is high priced, well located and seedy. Several bits of poor maintenance in the room but who cares. It'll do. I went for a walk after I dropped my stuff. I headed down the Champs Elysee looking for bars, restaurants and maybe a place selling new ipods. Lots of bars and restaurants with reasonable prices I thought. No ipods. I eventually got down to the Seine, crossed to the Eifel Tower and looked in dismay at the huge queues. Tomorrow morning I will get there half an hour before it opens. That's a must do for me. Some limited wifi down in the lobby apparently so I'll zip down and see if I can connect to check email and the locality of the tour group I have a tour with tomorrow. I've seen none of their buses today and have no address for them. Till tomorrow adieu mes braves.