A lazy day in Paris
Sunday, August 28, 2005We woke at one, feeling refreshed and ready to see our first sights of Paris. We jumped onto the metro with the ides of getting of at Concord – at the top of the Champs Elysees and walk down the long shopping street to the Arc De Triumph. It was warming up so we stopped in at an ice cream shop and had a lovely sundae – well, actually it was McDonalds but the proper ice cream shop across the road was €3 per scoop, which we felt was a little over the top. The Arc De Triumph is, in fact, on a round about of 11 roads; this I think most people know, but we both thought that the monument itself was like a gate - but it’s actually a rectangle with an inner section as well; i.e. 4 entrances, not 1. For a small fee you could walk to the top but we thought this was a bit pointless as we would be going up the Eiffel Tower. After spending a few minutes admiring and milling over the fact that we’re actually in Paris, we headed out the exit and under the busy roads to walk to the Palais De Chailott. This was a bit of a hike; I think mainly because we took the long route, but all the same we were glad to see our destination and that it had snack stands, as the temp just keeps rising and we were in need of a cold drink. After buying a hideously expensive tiny drink we walked a few steps further and smack bang in front of us was a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower. The Palais De Chailott is on a little hill giving it an excellent advantage point, looking down towards the Tower. We had seen the tower in the distance from Concord and had both thought ‘That’s not that big’ but from here you could see that it is actually huge. We walked down towards the tower through a square with a large fountain that seemed to double as a paddling pool for the locals, and across a road past men with huge guns – seems to be a common feature these days, and the all of a sudden we were standing directly underneath the Tower. We found out how much it was going to cost to go up the tower but didn’t want to go during the day. I wanted to see it at Dusk and besides that, the queues were snaking around all four pillars, so we guessed that it would be fairly cramped up there. We left on the other side walking through a largeish park towards a building called the Ecole Militaire to catch the metro home, hoping to get there before the Laundromat closed at 8 and the last load of washing had to be on by 7 and it was now getting onto 6. The Paris under ground isn’t as efficient as other cities that we have been to, it is definately the slowest but also they don’t go out of their way to make things known or easy. We arrived home at 6.55 and ran to the hotel, grabbed all the clothes that we could find before turning around and running out the door for the Laundromat. Breathless we entered, we had made it but to be honest I don’t think that it mattered because there was no one there. I had taken my laptop with me to do some typing while we waited and was pleasantly surprised to find a wireless connection giving me free access to the internet, making the time fly by as our washing was being done. By the time we got back to the hotel and sorted ourselves out it was getting onto 9.30 and dinner was definately next. Paris is very difficult to find food in – we base this on other cities that we have been to but I can’t think of any other city that doesn’t have a small (or even big) supermarket in the main stations, and there are normally bakeries and little dairies dotted around the place. Unfortunately it seems to be restaurant or nothing so we settled on a little pub ordering Spanish omelettes and salad, it was an excellent meal and nice atmosphere, and even quite cheap, but we didn’t stay too long after the meal wanting to get a early night, ready for Euro Disney Tomorrow.
posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm,
