we arrived at paris's gare du nord train station around 10:30pm, from frankfurt airport. the train journey was okay, if a little tedious. percy didn't sleep a lot but she was happy nonetheless.
exiting the train station we brushed off a few taxi offers and joined the official taxi queue. sometimes percy comes in really handy- we were bumped to the front of the line and got a nice taxi immediately.
using the official services was much cheaper than the spruikers too- 15 euro compared to 50!
our hotel was in a cute little lane only two blocks from the arc de triumph. little was a word i was going to associate a lot with paris. little on one hand and enormous on the other. our room was the littlest hotel room i have ever seen. no wonder they ignored our request for a cot- there was absolutely nowhere to put it. never mind, percy sleeps quite well in the bed with us.
we were buggered that nite so just pulled out our toothbrush and jammies, had a shower, made percy happy and fell asleep. the following morning i had my bitch to reception that the entire room reeked of cigarette smoke. every time we turned our heads a waft of fumes would rise from the pillows!! urrgghhh! i asked for us to be moved to a non-smoking room, to be advised that the whole hotel was non smoking but that some guests smoke anyways. what??!! given that we had to stay in this place another 4 nites i didn't smack the receptionist with the ash tray from our room and suggest that these be taken out of the rooms to reinforce the message that no smoking was permitted in the hotel. stupid europeans; i suppose if they all want to die from related diseases, let them.
i did ask that every piece of linen from our room and the pillows and the curtains be replaced. "sure, sure." hah- did not happen.
anyways, what is that saying? "such and such would be nice if it wasn't for the so and so's"?
i imagine europe would be a little bare without europeans tho.
onto the nice stuff!! and there was a lot of it! we walked under and around the arc de triumph, up and down the champs elysee, down to the eiffel tower, and caught the lift up it, around the louvre, thru the latin quarter and the hotel invalides, gawked at napoleons tomb, caught the cliched tour bus a few times, past the moulin rouge, around notre dame, rode the funicular up to a big church i forget the name of, caught the train out to the palace of versailles, ate in restaurants we couldn't afford, avoided buying suitcases full of souvenirs, admired many quaint streets, strolled thru gorgeous and lush gardens, gazed with envy at the mega expensive townhouses, wondered what we'd have to do to get a posting to paris for a year or two and generally fitted in as much as we could in four days with a bubba in tow.
the estimate is that to just glance at every item in the louvre would take nine months. we gave it a shot in four or five hours. plus fed percy in the napoleon suite and had some lunch ourselves. really loved it. could have spent much longer. the intention is to go back when percy is of an age to remember and appreciate it. that's the intention for every place we visited.
my highlight for paris would be the palace at versailles. i've always wanted to see the palace. recently the hall of mirrors was restored, discovering much more gold than was previously thought to be on the walls- it had been painted over!! i suppose i like the fantasy that another era, another time, another accident of birth i might have walked the halls and lived in the rooms?! oh well, just a harmless day dream.
once again percy was instrumental in skipping the queue! sometimes i think it might be worth taking a stroller with a cover, whacking a portable cd/tape player in it with a recording of baby cries and then seeing the sights! very naughty but oh so tempting. good for carrying water bottles and extra clothing too.
we caved in a bought a stroller in paris. (i boast that percy is an international shopper- stroller; paris, swim suit; honolulu, shirts; london and holland, toys; holland and kiev, and if they count- nappies everywhere!) actually, it's not that we didn't intend to get a stroller it's just that you'd need a hummer version in kiev because there are very few naviagable footpaths. we figured we'd wait until we got home. however it proved very useful in getting about on our holiday and equally so now we are back in syd. i'm not going to look at what it cost. we bought a very basic maclaren model however i think paris prices are higher than sydney prices and the aussie dollar doesn't stack up against the euro very well. all in all our trip put a sizeable dent in the savings for the next home deposit. never mind- how often do you get a plane ticket to europe and the usa and back for free? got to enjoy it while we can. which makes me sound rather ukrainian. uh oh! i'll try to explain the ukrainian mind set and attitudes in another entry.
our hotel included breakfast. this was great for me as i'm starving from about 3am. poor paulie couldn't find a decent coffee in the whole continent! he certainly wasn't going to get one in the hotel breakfast room. it did provide some cheese and yoghurt to pinch as provisions for the remainder of the day. i know, i know... you're supposedly not supposed to pinch breakfast foods for eating later. stuff that i say! it costs the hotel cents to provide breakfast and they charge 20 dollars; i'm getting as many meals out it as i can.
so provisioned up we generally got on the move around 8:30am. we walked a lot as most of what you'd like to see in paris is within walking distance. by 3 or 4pm i was definately knackered, paul was also getting sore feet and percy deserved a proper sleep in a bed rather than the sling or pram. we'd head back to the hotel for a kip and then try our hand at dinner. this was a game of dice as percy might sleep or she might scream. not a lot of middle ground. we pissed one restuarant off by ordering and then cancelling because we just could not get percy to settle and stop yelling. apparently the food was just about to be delivered to our table. boo hoo. we got chinese take away and ate it in our room instead. this was probably the only disappointing thing about the holiday- percy couldn't let us enjoy the night life. i don't mean clubs and pubs and raves- just dinners out, the night lights, the street atmosphere and romantic walks under the moon light. she went to bed at 7 or 8pm so generally so did we. there's nothing one can do in a tiny hotel room with a sleeping baby that won't wake her. oh well- next time.
i recommend getting a suite if you can afford it or a serviced apartment. at least bub can sleep in the bedroom and you can enjoy a little life in the other room.
we did manage a dinner out that she slept thru in a lebanese restuarant. unintentionally we have eaten in a lebanese restuarant in every city or country we have ever visited. well, they have good food!
paris was lovely. i definately want to go again.
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