Paris - Day 1 - The City

Continuing our tour of places we want to see before we leave, we spent a lovely long weekend in Paris. We caught the Eurostar from London, travelling first class for a bit of luxury, and enjoyed our champagne and three course meal as we whooshed through the 'tunnel under the sea'. Max and Issie enjoyed the journey, and were, to our relief, very well behaved.

We we met at Gare de Nord by Doreen, a long time volleyball friend who used to live in Cambridge. She now has a fantastic apartment just a few yards from the south bank of the Seine, opposite Notre Dame. It's hard to think of a better location and we took the opportunity to wander around the famous cathedral, play in the park, get ice cream and relax before putting the kids to bed at a fairly civilised hour.

Morning saw, of course, a leisurely breakfast of fresh bread and croissants, after which we walked the few yards back to the river and caught the Batobus, the river bus, which is a great way of seeing the city whilst getting from one end to the other - so much more pleasant than the métro.

We got off at the Eiffel Tower, having briefly thought about going to the top, we looked at the queues and said 'nah', just as we always have. We walked underneath the tower, admired the enormous rugby ball suspended there for the World Cup, and watched as a few local fireman abseiled down from the first level of the tower - not sure why but it did look like fun.


We walked on to find a café for coffee, and were successful in finding about the most expensive cup of coffee I have ever had. If only the quality had matched the price, but I guess we were paying for the view.

All this time, Max had been feeling unwell, periodically being sick and generally needing looking after, which was actually not a problem as it was easier dealing with a cuddly Max than the usual wild energy filled creature that he tends to be. We decided to take it easy for the afternoon so headed back to Doreen's for a late, long lunch before popping out to the Park.
Lunch was long enough that by the time we walked to the Jardin de Luxembourg they were closing the kid's playgrounds. Our two were not impressed by this, but to distract them, we played a fun game of hide and seek on one of the grassy areas, before piling up the leaves that wee lying around to make a 'leafcastle'. That was fun until the local park police descended to tell us in polite but firm terms, that the gardeners would be unhappy if we didn't leave the leaves in a neat pile, and that we weren't allowed on the grass anyway. Oops, sorry. Following in the French tradition that 'what isn't specifically allowed is forbidden', there was just one patch of grass with signs saying 'walking on this grass is allowed'. In England, coming from a different cultural tradition, if it isn't specifically forbidden, than it's allowed, which is why the signs would say 'keep off the grass'. Makes it much easier to draft the rules, surely?

We had fun nevertheless, and then met up with our friends Kathy and Slimane, and their daughter Gemma. They also used to live in Cambridge, but now live in the leafy suburb of Buc, about half an hour from the city centre and close to Versailles. We said goodbye to Doreen and headed south to stay with them, and I'll write another about that later.