Paris, France
(written 25/2/2006 5:04am)
Even though it's 5am the day after, my legs and feet are still very sore. Liz and I are awake due to the jet lag still having our body clocks a bit confused - she's reading up on more things for us to do. Perhaps I should be scared because she chose the target for yesterday's main wander - the Arc de Triomph.
We were up early then too, and decided that going out to watch Paris wake up would be better than just lazing around in bed. Outside the door of the hotel, the snow falling reminded us just
why most of Paris was still asleep - it was cold out there!
Unfazed, we headed south with the vague target of the Seine (river through central Paris) and the islands upon them where we stayed last time. We wandered around Place de Republique to Boulevard du Temple which you should note is not Rue du Temple - which would have been the most direct route to Ile de la Cite, but we didn't note the difference and headed south the long way.
It turned out to be a great walk anyway, as does pretty much any walk in Paris. The half-light coupled with street lighting, joggers, little traffic and people slowly starting to go about their business made the wandering a most enjoyable experience. Twenty minutes later we we at Place de la Bastille, which I wrote a little about
last time we were here and given the length of time the place has been in its present form nothing has changed since then really.
At the south end of Bastille the metro (underground train, although this station was uncovered) Opera de Paris Bastille gave us our first glimpse of the very strange contraption that the Paris Metro is - it runs on tyres like a car! Relatively quiet, once you get used to the idea. It also ducks and curves far more than any other I have been on, as if dodging underground basements, cellars and sewer pipes.
Wandering then down Boulevard Bourdon which lined a canal packed with houseboats (a nice way to get a central Paris address, I guess - they are certainly peoples homes as some had book cases and fireplaces in them) we crossed under the road and Metro and found the morning's target - the Seine.
Ugly and brown yet amazingly beautiful at the same time, we wound north-west with it until Pont Marie, where we crossed south onto and then across Ile St-Louis to Quay d'Orleans. This nice piece of real estate has views across to the next island and the imposing Notre Dame, which we soaked in for a few minutes. A lady opened her shutters behind us - what a view to wake up to every day.
Across Pont St-Louis onto Ile de la Cite, we had a quick look around the Notre Dame area before crossing south off the island, jumping on the Metro at St. Michel and riding it back to Republique and our hotel.
We charged up for the rest of day with the hotel's breakfast - a simple yet amazingly tasty combination of coffee/tea, croissant and baguette, all of which disappeared very quickly.
Heading west along Boulevard St. Martin, we took in plenty of the "real" Paris well off the tourist trail - amazing old buildings with such character everywhere, peppered with huge old Arcs that the road network has been built around, and little galleries full of amazing shops selling strange collectibles such as used postcards.
On seemingly every block there is a huge old Opera or church, and eventually our wandering brought us the granddaddy of the former - Opera Garnier. We had a bit of a look at the impressive architecture inside but didn't want the guided tour this time around.
We pulled into a random little brasserie for a coffee called L'Arcade Haussmann, named after the road it sat on and which we were now following.
Boulevard Houssmann took us on a beeline for the target of our little walk - the
Arc de Triomphe. This of course sits in Place Charles de Gaulle, where we watched about fifty near-miss traffic incidents in the space of the few minutes we sat there eating our lunch. Basically the traffic coming
onto the roundabout has priority, which sounds crazy and it is, but if you have the guts it works very well. We'll see how Liz goes when I direct her through there after picking up our hire car in a few days!
Next we went up the Arc, which we hadn't done before. Amazing views all across the city from the top (possibly even better than the Eiffel Tower as the roads are all built around the Arc), and only a few school groups to contend with both up the top and traversing the lengthy spiral staircase you use to get up there.
My knees were well and truly protesting so we headed back, along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees this time. Through some nice gardens lining the Avenue and then Place de la Concorde, before hitting Jardin des Tulleries (where kids were playing with sailboats in the pond) and The Louvre.
We used Rue de Louvre and Rue de Turbigo to get home, which took us past the market street Rue Montorgueil where we grabbed some strawberries and raspberries for afternoon tea. When we made it home, we slumped in pain on the bed and did very very little.
Sleep came easily before we woke around 7pm and went hunting for dinner. We had no intentions of wandering far so picked the nearest recommended French restaurant in Rue Amelot. It turns out that it wasn't open yet (sorry Parisians, we are jet lagged so need to eat when we are hungry!), but we had passed a great looking wine bar a bit earlier in the street so went back there instead.
This turns out to have been a great choice, as
L'Auberge served us up a great deal of food and wine we hadn't tasted before for not a lot of money. They even put up with our absolutely horrible butchering of the French language to order things.
I had "Les six escargots" for entree (yummy!) and correctly guessed that veau might be veal for mains which turned out to be great. Liz went for "Brioche de saucisson lyonnais, pommes sautees" for entree which she reported as an interesting array of flavours, before greatly enjoying an "Onglet de boeuf" as a main. Slightly more understandable desserts came in the form of ice cream and white chocolate mousse.
This was about all our bodies could take, as we retired again to our room and slept most soundly, well at least until now. Another day awaits shortly - hope get online at the internet cafe across the road this morning.