It felt rather strange starting a holiday by walking out of the house, with a pack, to the end of our road and waiting for a bus. Every holiday for us, even on the odd occasion we fly starts with a car journey. Standing at the bus stop felt strangely liberating, freed from the confines of the modern automobile.
I like this photo, plenty of smiles which is an abiding memory of the trip
Bus to Hereford, train to Birmingham and on to London Euston. Playing the Advance Fares game means First Class travel is within reach so lapped up a bit of luxury on the London Train. A slightly strange experience as the attendant serving food was a little quirky. He practically threw boxes of sandwiches and crisps at us (in a nice way). It was all we could do to suppress the giggles as he moved on. It became a running joke on every train as to whether food would be served or chucked but sadly it was presented in the expected manner from here on
Overnight at the Crestfield Hotel near St Pancras Station (pretty decent family room and prices by London standards) then up early next morning to catch our Eurostar to Paris. St Pancras really is one of the worlds most iconic stations
Seeing as the UK is “special”, Eurostar is the only rail trip where we had to go through the airport style security checks and the like, creating some queues and small degree of chaos as well as a ratio of train seats to waiting area seats of about 5:1!
We seemed to be on the one of the newer trains and even in second class the experience was pretty luxurious. Just as well seeing as Eurostar was by an order of magnitude the most expensive train journey we took when considering the relatively short distance. We were chuffed however to see the train get very close to its 300kmph top speed
And so we arrived in Paris. I’ve only been once before on a business trip for about 24 hours so I was keen to see it properly. It wasn’t on the original itinerary but when I realised we would have to change both trains and stations I though we may as well stay for a couple of days. A sensible choice because Paris is wonderful
We rented an apartment on the Rue de Rennes in Saint Germain (the photos above and below are from outside the front door. You can see the Tour Montparnasse at the end of the road (more on that in later post)
The neighbourhood was wonderful. I went out for early morning walks to collect breakfast and explore. I wanted to live on every street. I loved these 5/6 storey buildings with their iron railings and balconies, typical of Paris it seems
We had shops and restaurants a short walk away and the Seine and the Ile de France with Notre Dame a further 10 mins. What started here became a feature of our trip. Simply walking through the city and admiring the different architectural styles across five countries and eight cities
In each city there always seemed to be something new around each corner and it made walking and exploring a simple (albeit sometimes crowded) pleasure wherever we went
Paris is however a very big city. Just as well it has a wonderful metro system to whisk you about
On our first evening we came across the church of Saint Sulpice pretty much by chance, one of those corners I mentioned above
In a city packed with elegant churches it was staggering to see this marvel I’ve never heard of while just walking around the streets. It was this endless pleasure that was a real highlight for me.
Sometimes we ate in the apartment but there seemed little point spending your holiday in cities and not sample the city life of an evening. We dined out, frequently and enjoyed some superb food. Just people watching was great, sitting in a street side restaurant watching the world pass by with a beer. Another pleasure of not having car, being to take a cold glass or two of beer whenever we wanted without the drag of the “who’s driving home and drinking cola” discussion. I drank many beers on this trip
Saint Germain is restaurant heaven. Another of the pleasures of city life is walking through the streets looking in at dozens of cosy restaurants and bars that you just ached to eat in or sit at the bar with a beer or glass of wine. I’d been in Paris a few hours when I decided I loved city life and I had over 3 weeks of it to come!
All that and we had Gregg Wallace from Masterchef playing the drums while we ate (no photo alas) and Paul Nuttall from UKIP on the table behind us. Does life get better than that 🙂
A trip out the business district coming next
surfnslide 