Paris in four days

31 March

We arrived in Paris bleary eyed from another early Eurostar - we seem to forget when we book, how much a 5am effects the rest of the day. As hotel check in wasn't until 12pm, we got to Notre Dame around 10.30am and Kev lugged our bag around the famous cathedral and then down to the unimpressive crypt. We have seen a lot of roman ruins in England already, so it takes more than a would-be ruin to impress us (or maybe just me).

On to our hotel in Bastille, after much travel guide mention of Parisian hotel rooms being tiny and rough expectations weren't high. After a quick refresh break in our average room we headed back out on to the metro to figure out the ticket system. Down to the 14th arrondissement we found the Les Catacombs line snaking towards us and got dual umbrellas on through an unfortunately timed thirty minute shower. I keep forgetting that’s what spring is about - not just daffodils and shopping for spring coats. The catacombs were an 18th century solution to grave overcrowding - move all the bones to an old quarry. Later on the bones were stacked/arranged and opened to the public. It's a macabre tourist attraction with many inscriptions in French and a few sculptures along the way. It's hard to imagine overcrowding issues like this, coming from 4 million + back at home. Coming out of the catacombs they check bags for bones, more morbid than the catacombs is stealing bones for kicks. Coming out into another shower we found a nice patisserie - something that is hard to find in touristy areas. We were hoping it'd be like finding ice cream on Marine Parade or waffles in Bruges, but we were often sans pastries - not quite how I'd imagined it.

Sunday morning we had daylight savings, to jetlag us more, on the way out we stopped off at the local supermarket for a bag full of baguettes (our weekend diet). On the way to the metro, we found the Bastille markets with lots of fresh fruit and bread. So more bread goes in the bag, it's true that it's better in France. Off the metro we started at the Arc de Triomphe and had a lucky day of sun for taking photos and walking down the Champs Elysees. The street is lined with trees that must be really impressive when covered with leaves, but it was a nice walk any how. We wondered past all the expensive shops and came to a bridge with the Hotel De Invalides at its end. Here Kev went to the Army Museum while I walked to the Muse d'Orsay for as much impressionist paintings as I could eat (well appreciate). They also had a section on art novae furniture that included the metro sign I'd been admiring throughout our travels. We meet back up under the Louvre pyramid and set out to see the highlights. After the d'Orsay it was a little disappointing for me, but Kev liked the medieval part of the museum. The original castle walls are on the bottom floor, and as it's not in the highlighted tour it was the quietist part of the building. The main disappointment here was the tourists, not the number of them, but the number of them with cameras. All taking photos as fast as their shutter speed would allow, presumably so they could recreate it at home. I over heard an American lady complain about her battery going dead, the horror as she realises she'd just have to appreciate the art in the now. Though, in fairness this rant isn't art specific, people experience lots of things through view finders. One I find strange is concerts - either waste tonight’s ticket or buy the dvd, cause all you'll get is the out of key rendition from the girl next to you and some shaking filming.

Aaaaanyways... we then headed over to see the Moulin Rouge and the surrounding 'trade' area, and then up towards Montmartre to see the Sacre Couer - a basilica crawling with tourist traps. According to tourist guide books, the view from the top rivals the Eiffel Tower but for free. Not really enough of a reason to not venture up the tower though is it? On our way down the hill we were hit by the scam. The aim is to get embroidery silk looped around your finger - once they have you they quickly make a bracelet before your patience runs out and tell you after, you can set a price. It was annoying to not have gotten past them, but as scams go, it was reasonably harmless. And the nice young man who claim to be from Kenya, promised to play African drums at a wedding for us. He also kept saying hakuna matata as Kev was getting annoyed, I would have thought the disneyfied saying was actually offensive to African culture.

Onto Monday for our early start - Kev's first trip to a Disneyland, Europe's version in it's 15th year. We arrive around 11am and started on Space Mountain, once we'd navigated through the pristine American main street. I didn't realise this was only Kev's second rollercoaster experience, so didn't tell him about the space element of the ride. It was the best ride of the day, shame it was the first but reminded me of my first trip when I was six and we tricked my mum into going on the coaster. Twenty years on (eek), technology has made the ride even better with holograms and strobe like tunnels of light. With a backpack full of baguettes, our holiday diet, we avoided the theme park prices. We enjoyed Indiana Jones and a mountain roller coaster but there weren't any huge and scary rollercoaster thrills. The day out was traditional Disney in the American sense and great fun to have only the Disney park to navigation for the day.

On our last night to see Paris in lights, we went to the Pompidou Centre, a museum with the architecture on the outside cabling, water pipes and air vents. From here we wondered until we reached the Seine River. We walked along until we could see the Eiffel Tower and caught the hourly 5 minute light show and I played with my camera settings (as much as a person who hasn't read the manual can). Homebound we walked through the cafe streets of Bastille and after a long day of walking ended up getting something quick near the Bastille monument - by the way they sell beer in McDonalds over here.

Tuesday morning we checked out and got our last supply of baguettes from our local bakery and stocked up on Milka - our favourite chocolate that I recently discovered in duty-free Malta (it may not be French but it's amazingly good). Onto the Hotel De Ville to meet Tim and Louisa to drop of our luggage at theirs for the day and head to the Eiffel tower. Luckily our trips to Paris overlapped so we saved the tourist trap to see with them. After navigating the huge queues underneath us walked the 668 stairs to the second floor, and then got a fast lift to the top, after taking in the hazy view from the first platform. We had a perfect day for it, it may be a cliché but it's a tourist spot that can't be missed. From here we headed to Madeline to find a market that didn't exist and then got to a desperate point finding food and reasonable prices. After inhaling our solution we walked towards The Louvre, along the Seine and over towards Notre Dame. From here we carried on to the Latin Quarter for an early dinner. My French suggestion of an aperitif before seemed like a great idea at the time, but in the end made us late for our Eurostar check in. We rushed back to the train station only to be told at the gate that the '30 minute’s minimum before departure check in' actually means 30 minutes (unlike the 3 hours at airports you scale down). Luckily free ticket exchange for an hour later was issued and we are familiar with waiting in Eurostar lounges.

We packed as much as we could have in four days, but I still want to go back for more. And though I took over 300 photos, it's been whittled down to two albums.