Paris

Two blogs in one day. Let's see if I can do it. First we got up to normal English weather-rain! But who wants to dig out their rain jacket when traveling ? Not me. We loaded up into two taxi's , I went with Lee and John in a Mercedes . Ooh la la! Oh right, not in France yet. The other three in our party got a regular English cab. Through rush hour traffic to the station, and I can't remember the name. Anyway, busy place. A train was loading to go to Paris as we entered. Had to go through a turnstile and Carolyn and my tickets didn't work so they had to be hand entered. Then we went through a security search, like at an airport. Allen was gone over with a wand and then patted down. John had his suitcase opened and everything completely taken out. So good thing we were early. Luckily everything went fine with the passports and we settled down to wait. There's two destinations through the Chunnel: Paris and Brussels. The train itself looks like a regular train except the engine looks different. I can't recall how fast we go, but it is fast!

Since we didn't know better, we grabbed a bite to eat at the station. Then they fed us a French breakfast on the train...

It was a very comfortable trip. Everyone napped a little and I wrote yesterday's blog. We did get to see some countryside in both England and France. Going under the water was just like going through a tunnel.

 

It got quite warm on the train and there was very little air circulation. Paris was supposed to be 80 degrees so I suppose that's why we got warm. Once we got to Paris , it was straight out, no checking anything. Then we got in line for a taxi...

 

Yep, that's the line. Just be patient...

Driving in Paris is not as crazy as London. However, not much conversation with our taxi drivers-they don't speak English! Watching the sigs as we go, the French language starts coming back to me. Oh there's quite a bit I don't understand but I can understand some key words to put some things together. Definitely the place to go if you're studying the language.

Our hotel was down this narrow street. We didn't think the car could make it, but obviously they do it all the time.

Our rooms weren't ready for about 3 hours so we took a walk to get something to eat (3 meals in 6 hours). Here's my lovely cheese sandwich with wine.

Next, a loooong walk to the Champs Elysia. Lots to see but of course, I loved best the dog walker who had 13 dogs between himself and a helper, 2 of which walked each other and another one walked by himself. They headed to one of the fountains and cooled off.

 

 

Sorry, on MY blog, this gets 2 pictures....

Lots to look at; buildings, people, gardens, river Seine..you'll have to visit me to see them all.

 

 

We went back to our rooms to rest. Very warm and humid outside so we were beat. Have to show you our bedroom, we were at the end of the building and the room doesn't lay out like normal rooms. How about the bed?

 

After naps for everyone to recharge, we headed out again. This time we took the Metro, like the subway or underground in England. It was very similar and not hard to follow. I'd say the system is older and everything is not as clean but not hard to get around, as long as you know where you need to go! Our plan -see the Eiffel Tower at night, all lit up. I guess lots of people do this every night because the streets were full.

 

 

Whie waiting for the sun to set, we found another bistro for dessert. I picked Creme Brûlée. It was perfect, just carmelized on top. Add a glass of Chablis...what more could you want.

 

Right ext to our seats people started gathering wearing in line skates. There was a race! I took some video. But blogsy won't pick it up. Here's a blurry pic...

 

 

 

Piece de Resistance, Eiffel Tower at night. My ebook had told me the tower twinkled every night on the hour. So we waited for that. Lots of people around had tripods with cameras set up. It was like Christmas!

 

 

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