Well, we're here. After being collected from the airport, we arrived at our home for the next week - a gorgeous apartment about a five minute walk from the Louvre. The place is much larger than we were expecting and is VERY French. Though having seen the roads in Paris, we were surprised we even made it here at all!
I practiced one of my French phrases on the guy who let us into the apartment and was very chuffed to have my French accent complimented by a real French person. A quick walk down the street found us in a beautiful shopping street adorned with Christmas decorations and lights, and we wandered up and down for a while taking it all in. Dinner at a local restaurant and home in bed by eight o'clock, four very tired travellers grateful for real beds to sleep in.
This morning I woke after around twelve hours sleep and watched the sun rise outside my bedroom window. After we had all surfaced, we got ourselves ready and set off on foot to explore Paris. We walked to the Louvre, which is fairly close to our apartment and from there decided to delay our plans to jump on the tourist bus, instead continuing to see what we could get to by walking. About five kilometres later we found ourselves standing underneath none other than the Eiffel Tower.
We found some market stalls nearby and wandered for a while, picking up some lunch and then getting on the bus and completing part of a loop of Paris sights, before jumping off at the Galleries Lafayette and spending some time browsing the shops. Back on the bus to complete the loop and finishing again at the Louvre, we walked home again via another restaurant for dinner.
The short winter days here are messing us around a bit - the sun sets at about 4:30 or 5 and doesn't rise again until after 8am so we're finding ourselves getting tired and hungry earlier in the day than we normally would. So now we're hanging around in the apartment until we finally succumb to sleep again.
Bonne nuit, Alison
Doesn't take long to get in the swing does it? I'm jealous of your French accent! Love picturing it all as you write except we walked with the four kids in the opposite direction! Can't wait to hear the next adventures! Are you already thinking of coming back?
ReplyDeleteGardez en s'amusent!
Marg Y
Hi Alison
ReplyDeleteImagine my disappointment on my first overseas trip (a long time ago)we were in Paris just after Christmas and the Eiffel Tower was closed for repairs. There it stood draped in a green tarpaulin and not looking at like its usual magnificent self! One day I'll do a return visit to see it in its glory...
Yes Marg, I definitely think I'd like to come back one day. It feels like the sort of place you'd have a very different experience of if you were to come for a longer period of time, so I'd like to try that at some point. Oh no Kim, that would be very disappointing indeed! Reminds me of when we went to Disneyland in LA, the giant Disney castle was being refurbished at was under a tarp as well. Hmm, first world problems aren't they... "my overseas holiday wasn't exactly perfect!" but you can't blame us for wanting to see the sights! Thanks for the comments :)
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