Paris - Day Une

There's really nothing like catching a long distance train at 6.30am. Or 7.30 if it happens to be late due to a faulty signal. It's a bit exciting, like being a kid again going on holidays. Although, since Ryan and I were off to Paris, I was already feeling pretty excited. I mean, Cannes is nice and all but Paris! They had, you know, monuments and cafes and people in quirkily mismatched clothes and stuff!

The fast train was very comfortable and five hours seemed to go by pretty quickly as we watched the mostly rural landscape flash past. A very green country France. And I love how they build their houses to be exactly like the ones you see on postcards. Even the cows were cute. But finally we pulled into Gare de Lyon, which is a station so well organised, even Ryan and my combined powers of misdirection failed to get us lost. On the way to our hotel in the taxi we passed the Notre Dame cathedral, which is of course famous for being in that Disney cartoon. Awesome.

I won't go on and on about how beautiful Paris is because, you've all seen the movies right? It was a pretty amazing feeling to finally be there though. When we passed the Louvre I have to admit my eyes got a little teary, but then I wound the window up and they were fine. It was really windy. Also rainy. But the big black clouds just added to the drama of the scenery.

Our hotel was tucked away in a side street in what seemed to be the 'Japanese Restaurant' section of Paris. The online site describes it as a "charming ancient property...located in a 17th century building, which in the past was famous painter Toulouse-Lautrec's townhouse." Why Monsieur Lautrec needed a house with 20 identical rooms I'm not sure, but it's very nice. We were greeted at reception by Gerry, who shook his head sadly when we said we'd come from Cannes. "People say Cannes is nice. I went to Cannes. It was nothing. Nothing!" Gerry, like pretty much every French person we encountered, was helpful and friendly and advised us on the sights we should in Paris see and how to get there.

Having dumped our bags in the rooms we headed out for some sightseeing. With only two days in Paris, one of them to be devoted to the Louvre, we were only a pretty tight schedule. This is about the point where I discovered the walking shoes I had brought for our explorations were actually not so great for walking in. Fortunately I'd also brought flip-flops, and really don't the streets of Paris just cry out flip-flops? No I didn't think so either but they were comfy.

We walked down (or up, I told you directions are not our thing) along the river Seine towards the Eiffel Tower, which Gerry had assured us was about half an hour away. Who knew 'half an hour' in Paris corresponds so well to the Mumbai 'half an hour?' So, about an hour and a half later we were at the tower. Or close enough. I'm not one of these people who needs to touch monuments, or climb them. We saw it, we judged it pretty damn good, we moved on. Next we strolled, maybe hobbled is a better word, to the Arc de Triomphe. Also very nice. Also felt no need to climb up it. By then it was evening so we stumbled our way back to the hotel via the Champs Elysees to have a look at where rich people might do their shopping. Lovely.

One thing I really liked about Paris was it seems to be made for walking. The footpaths are wider than the roads to accommodate all the pedestrians. As opposed to some cities where there footpaths are wide enough only to accommodate the illegal stalls and the pedestrians walk on the road. Yes Mumbai I'm looking at you. Maybe this is because Paris has quite a lot of people who walk to work where as Mumbai only has about a bazillion. Sorry. One of my small issues. Also, public toilets, but I'll move on.

We got back to our room exhausted and hungry and went out again shortly afterwards for our first meal in Paris. Which was Vietnamese. I should explain, Ryan is not such a fan of French food. "What's with all the darn bread?" and "not more darn cheese" being two of his common exclamations at meal times. Of course people who know Ryan will know "darn" wasn't really the word he used. To be fair, we did get a lot of bread. Even sandwiches seemed to come with a side order of dinner buns. I like bread though, and cheese and any kind of combination of the two. Ryan on the other hand was longing for something a little spicier hence the Vietnamese. Which turned out to be delicious by the way. And it did come with bread.