Our long weekend in Paris

Time – 7:26, Size – 41.09MB
Music – Here it goes – Jimmy Eat World
Starlight – Muse
Shadows and Regrets – Yellowcard

It seems like so long ago now! Anyway, as reported last week, we went to Paris for the first May long weekend, and it was great!

We got the Eurostar out there on Friday night which was a fairly seamless operation, unlike hitching a ride on the subway at the other end – suffice to say, it pays to have change! (And speak French; but that’s another matter).

As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones in town for the long weekend. There were people everywhere! We laughed at the size of the line outside Sainte Chapelle, and took a very quick walk through Notre Dame instead. It wasn’t much better – in fact it had way more people going through it – but since it was free entry, the line moved a lot faster.

We met Greg – a friend from New York who lives on the outskirts of Paris – on Saturday, and we exploited his French skills to find out the low down on the cool places in Paris. He and Kristy rode the carousel at Montemartre, then we ate a delicious lunch up at Sacré-Cœur. Since we also were hiking around practically all day, we had a bit of a sleep under the Eiffel Tower.

It was good that Greg was there for dinner, because the place where we ate (recommended by Tim and Justine) had absolutely zero English on the menu. Plus, we had a proper french waiter – pompous with B.O. – and he looked like he wouldn’t have had too much time for our (very) rough translations.

There was more hiking in store for Sunday – but this time, much more vertical than usual. We walked up both the Eiffel tower (over 650 steps), and the Arc de Triomphe (284 steps). Both were enjoyable – but perhaps not advisable to do them on the same day; our calf muscles were pretty sore afterwards!

We joined the 18 billion other people in taking advantage of free entry day (first Sunday of every month) at The Louvre. I had sworn that I wouldn’t be one of those people that just goes to see the Mona Lisa, but unfortunately it was quite hard to avoid just moving with the herd. I don’t do crowds too well (unless they’re accompanied by a band playing music far too loudly than can be good for your hearing) – so we got out of there as quickly as possible.

Coincidentally, Fabia was in Paris with her parents for a couple of weeks, so we met up with her on Monday, and we all enjoyed a long lunch at a restaurant with bad service. But that’s ok, we were there more for the company!

Paris is an absolutely beautiful city, and one that I’d have no hesitation to go back to. Just, hopefully, next time it won’t be quite so crowded!