Last weekend I had the great fortune to visit Paris for two days with my wife, thanks to a wee gift holiday from our two sons as a present for our recent 25th wedding anniversary. It was quite literally a hit and run raid on the French capital, as we arrived in the city at 3pm on Saturday afternoon, and left again at 9.20am on Monday morning (although that also allowed me to have a quick birthday breakfast in France!). Despite this, we packed a LOT in during our time there. This was my fourth trip to Paris, but I have to be honest and say that it was the first that I ever actually enjoyed - I had previously been twice as a kid, whilst on annual camping trips with the BB in both France and Switzerland, and also visited 29 years ago with my wife, shortly after we met, although we stayed in a hostel then, and the weather was miserable! Some highlights...
On the Saturday afternoon we visited a wee flea market on our way to to our accommodation, and passed the main city cemetery, which was unfortunately locked.
After checking in we then made our way in the early evening to the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral, and joined the queue for those with no tickets, but were inside within about 25 minutes. The restoration is absolutely astonishing, they did a great job with the interior and the front, whilst work continues on the exterior at the rear of the building. Whilst we were there a service was carried out, adding to the atmosphere. I'm not particularly religious, but my inner Ulsterman was tickled pink when we managed to see an image of 'Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the wee donkey'!
After this we had a meal in a nearby restaurant, and then stumbled across a wee Irish bar called X, where we fell into conversation with a young girl who had just moved to Paris two months ago from Carlow, where we discussed everything from French cuisine to the Irish presidential election!
Having mastered the jaw-droppingly brilliant Paris subway and tram network, the following morning we stopped off at Place de Vinchy for breakfast before making our way to the Eiffel Tower. We had not booked tickets, but were able to queue for tickets to the top. This was my fourth time up the tower, but the first to the very top, and it was absolutely worth doing. As well as the spectacular views, there was a great deal of historical information about Gustav Eiffel, and a recreation of his original office at the top of the tower. After a time up top, we took the lift back to the second level, and walked it down to the base from there. The engineering on the tower is astonishing, and one thing I did not know was that it is repainted acompletely every seven years, and with a different colour of paint each time.
In the afternoon we took a boat trip along the Seine, sailing from near the Eiffel Tower past the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and other attractions, before circling the island on which Notre Dame is located and returning back to our starting point.
We then visited the Arc de Triomphe, and for the first time I visited
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath it, although we elected not to
go into the main arch building itself. Following this we then strolled
down the Champs d'Elysee, most of which is now pedestrianised, and
closed off to traffic each Sunday (since 2016), so this was another
first, as I had previously never enjoyed the avenue, which I always
found to be too noisy.
After another meal, we passed the same Irish pub, so had to pop in for one last wee deoch an dorais, before returning to our accommodation, and an early start at 5am the following morning to return home.
It was a wonderful trip, and a great way to catch up again with fellow European citizens (I'm an Irish passport holder as well as a UK one!). But as with most countries just now, there was drama even as we weere on our way home, with the French prime minister resigning just as we were going through passport control in Edinburgh.
Merci beaucoup Paris, I look forward to returning again at some point in the future!
Chris
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