We left St Pancras International Station on 30th Sept after putting our big pieces of luggage into short/long term storage and a bit of a wander through the train station. We were told we must find the big clock and The Lovers before we left, which we did. The train ride lasted about 2.5 hours and the reality that the Channel Tunnel lasted only 20 minutes was incredible. To think...you can now go from one country travel under water for 20 minutes and arrive in another country...amazing.
We arrived at Gare Du Nord and took the metro to St Paul's Station which was two blocks from our flat we rented. After getting our bearings we headed to our flat and found scaffolding in front of the entire building. We had not been informed that the place was getting a facelift. The fun thing, it was a bit dark when we arrived, not met by anyone and had to get into the building with notes I had printed out from an email which was very small, no light and no glasses to read the small print. To say the least, it as a wee challenge.
Upon entering our flat we noticed the beds were a bit messy and when I went into the bathroom I asked Richard if he had seen any towels. So, we had dirty sheets and no towels. Richard began communicating with the people we were renting from but they did not seem to care, very argumentative. Needless to say we ended up sleeping on dirty sheets, using a clean shirt to dry off the next morning.
We headed out to explore Paris, it was about 9 p.m. We walked around the Seine, passed the Hotel DeVille and the Louvre. It as rather quiet which made it very nice almost like it was just a special night for some chosen few. After returning to the flat to get some sleep we found there was a bar downstairs which closed around 2 a.m. and people left anytime after that, having drunken conversation in the street below, the windows in the place were not double glazed/paned so we could hear it all.
Tuesday, Oct 1st our alarm clock was the workers who arrived in the apartment next door to us at about 7 a.m. As we couldn't sleep we went to try a bit of French to order our breakfast at the Jewish Deli and managed to get cafe au lait and pastries. Next we wandered down to Notre Dame, which is celebrating it's 850 year anniversary. There must have been some celebratory thing that we missed as there were seating and machine gun toting military protection. Inside, GORGEOUS! Pictures do not do any justice. We stopped to put our lock on the bridge. We happened to find a couple of sweet English speaking ladies to take our picture. We made sure to put it in a spot so that Katie can find it in a few weeks.
Then it was off to the Eiffel Tower. While walking there we were passed by this woman and kid, who yelled out to us and we stopped. She showed us a ring she "found" and was saying what a lucky day she had and went on her way then called out to us again and tried giving it to us saying it would "Bless her" to give us the ring, then asked us if we had any money for her to feed her son. Richard handed her the ring and we kept walking to the tower. As expected there were a lot of people at the tower. People could go to any of the bases and take a lift to the middle section and go up the tower. Well, they were still working on one of the bases putting in cashier station for that section. We didn't pay and go up the tower but did enjoy some crepes while taking photos of it.
Next was Arc de Triomph. It's a lot bigger than I expected. I found out later that there is a tunnel you have to use to go under the road, as it is illegal to cross the roundabout traffic. We took a few photos and headed up the Champs-Elysees. I imagined what it must look like when the Tour de France is going on. The road is wide and all the expensive shops line it.
We walked back to our place so we could get ready for Moulin Rogue. When we arrived back at the flat there was a bag of "towels" and a couple of pillowcases on the doorstep. I've used thicker towels to wash the dog or car. Still no clean sheets. Richard sent another message to the people we were renting from about the sheets. We went on to the show. Taxis are rather reasonably priced in Paris. The show was great! :) The taxi drivers were fast.
Wednesday we were awakened to more construction workers. Their smoke wafted into our room as if through the walls. We left for our day of exploring the Louvre. When we arrived there was a line which would take about 2 hours to get through. We decided not to wait and went down to see the Jardin du Luxembourg. While on our way there we came across a cathedral - Saint Germain. It is said to be older and the original cathedral which was before Notre Dame.
We walked back to the Louvre and as we cross one of the bridges Richard crossed the road to take some photos. As I was walking I noticed a woman coming towards me and she bent down almost in front of me and pretended to pick up something and asked if I had dropped it, another "gold ring", I wasn't fooled and just kept walking. We decided to pop in to Musee de la Orangerie to see some paintings; however, we found after paying 5 euros that there were only 5 paintings in the museum as the rest was closed.
By now it was after 2:00 p.m. and there was no waiting line. We walked around until it closed after 9:00 p.m. It was gorgeous, incredible, amazing... The Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Napolean's apartments, Mary Magdalene, Greek sculptures. There was even a little spot for English painters...very little, I believe there were only about 10 paintings but they were great.
Again, another late night with the bar folks having a great time and the construction workers early.
Thursday, our last day. We gathered all of our stuff and headed to Gare du Nord. We had a few hours before our train was leaving for London. We wandered with our carry-on luggage off towards Monmarte to see Sacre Coeur. No photography allowed inside so I can just tell you it was gorgeous. You might be able to find something on Google. On our way we walked through an alley where there was a blonde woman yelling at a man but couldn't understand what she was saying, he was arguing back. She then sat a watch down on the street and yelled at the man again and he was yelling back to her. Richard said it was a con going on and it certainly was. There were men on the next street doing three card monty and then there were guys trying to "sell" you some string-ring which I didn't understand but didn't fall for.
We walked back to the train station and still had a couple of hours to wait for our train to leave. We got some lunch at a cafe right across from the station. We sat outside the cafe and could watch these gypsy-type women standing in the street not caring if there were cars about to hit them or not. They were waiting for taxis to stop and let foreigners out who were catching trains so that they could beg them for money.
When we could finally check in for our train we had to go through customs which was UK Customs. It was so refreshing to have someone smile at you and be polite and helpful! When Richard told the customs guy he was the first nice person we've seen in three days he replied we were not the first to say that.
So, as you can imagine, we got on the train and headed back to London. We picked up our luggage and headed to our flat - which was the same one as when we arrived in London weeks earlier. We got off at the Piccadilly Circus station, only to find we had no escalator or elevator and had to carry our luggage up steps. When we got out of the station we were in the middle of Piccadilly Circus and down Regent Street there were banners flying with the Union Jack and Old Glory celebrating American football that was being played at Wembly Stadium. It was awesome!
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