UK 2002/03

Paris (March) | 16 Mar 2002

At 6:53 on Saturday morning (WAY too early for my liking!!!) I met Gaye, a girl that I work with, and we got on the Eurostar to Paris. We arrived in Paris Gare de Nord by around 11am and after some initial hitches and a Metro ticket queue that would rival that of the Eiffel Tower, we found the Aloha hostel (yes, I thought that was funny too!!) without ado and then made our way toward the Ill de la Cite and Notre Dame. We walked around the church, which is as impressive as ever, and then wandered around some of the streets on the right bank – and proceeded to get very lost. My thus-far excellent sense of direction deserted me completely and eventually I resorted to the age old solution of finding a main road, finding a Metro station on the main road and then I was perfectly ok. Of course it might also have helped if we’d had a decent map!

We then went up to Montmatre and took some pictures of Sacre Coeur and did some tacky tourist shopping. I managed to find two quite nice Christmas decorations for my collection and Gaye was completely amazed that I did. Ye of little faith!! We then had a lovely dinner at a restaurant – lasagne and a chocolate crepe, very yummy!! We had planned to take a walk along to the Moulin Rouge, but both Gaye and I were so freezing by then that we just headed back to Aloha.

I can’t believe that I actually had to go to Paris to get a decent nights’ sleep, but I did and it was great! The hostel was very nice and had a great atmosphere, but for some reason known only to them they have showers that only stay on for a couple of seconds at a time, and then stop completely just as you get midway through washing your hair. So there I stood like and idiot, with a head full of shampoo, contemplating washing it out in the basin - which was also of the stop-start variety, but at least still had water!! I gave it ten minutes and then managed to get enough water to wash the shampoo out, but I didn’t dare condition!!

The hostel’s only about 1km from the Eiffel Tower, and so we walked up toward Invalides and then up through the gardens to the Eiffel Tower. From there we walked to the Arc de Triomph and down the Champs Elysee. I really loved just taking it easy and enjoying Paris at leisure. I took lots of photos and enjoyed experimenting with my new camera and just soaking up the atmosphere!!

Locations Visited: London, Paris, London

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