Paris: Day 1
These blog posts are obviously being written with a bit of a delay, and on an AZERTY keyboard. Any misplaced a's, q's, z's and w's are due to that. What punctuation you'll get is anyone's guess... Photos will follow when I get access to a computer with a SD card slot and internet. Possibly in September, at this rate.
Alors, I left you at stupid o'clock, waiting for the Eurostar. It duly arrived, with very un-British efficiency, and we got to Paris for mid-morning. Our hotel is near the Parc Montsouris, so after checking in, we went for a walk through there and had a picnic lunch, fending off tame (hungry) ducks as we ate. People feeding the ducks at the park may seem like an innocent hobby, but they grow to expect it. Saying "no" doesn't work well with ducks...
From there, we walked through to Saint Michel and Notre Dame - they've finished cleaning Notre Dame now and all the scaffolding is gone. This is the first time I've ever seen it without some work being done - it's lovely! Then we walked along the banks of the Seine, where Paris has opened "Paris plage", a series of cafes and activities to entertain those left in the capital over summer. We walked up to the Louvre and through its courtyards, then headed back to the hotel.
Dinner was in Montparnasse, in a restaurant we go to at least once whenever we're in town. The food was fabulous, as usual, and we followed dinner with a walk past the Hotel des Invalides to the Eiffel Tower, arriving as the sun was setting. It was a gorgeous sunset, and there are many, many photos living on my camera which tried to catch it.
Time is now running out on my internet ticket, so the rest of my trip will have to wait to be written up for a little while. Highlights so far include Chartres, the Louvre, a free concert outside the Hotel de Ville and the Canal St Martin...
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