Paris:Travels with Hilary

We started out journey to Paris with a short tube ride from Bridget and Paul's. It was 6:45 and the tube was filled with the energy of Londoners and a dog. We noted again the lack of garbage despite the lack of any receptacles and a small notice to give any rubbish to a staff member! Being half term families were on the move and the numerous line ups through security moved quickly. Eurostar was smooth and easy and in no time we were in Paris.

Hilary has described our first afternoon in Montmartre walking past the vineyard and hilly streets to climb all those steps for an amazing a view of Paris through the rain clouds. We were already loving the roofs and the gargoyles.
As we were wandering Montmartre to find the Moulin Rouge we found a delicious patisserie where we had an amazing pistachio macaroon with a soft creamy filling. Yes, the Moulin Rouge...Two sensible people from work were raving about it and said we shouldn't miss the show. There were no tickets for that night but we could go the next night at 11:00pm. Hilary encouraged me: " Come on, Mum you can do it!" when I was about to back down at the late start. As Hilary described we went to the little restaurant at the bottom of Sacre Coeur, however Hilary didn't describe the entertainers at the restaurant near Sacre Coeur but you can see these Parisien dudes in the pictures( I took the liberty of posting it) the guitarist/singer and his buddy the accordion player!

The next morning we were up early to head down on the metro to the center of Paris. A local patisserie on the way to metro was closed( the line up the night before probably indicated the locals knew closing days; we had thought it was signalling an excellent choice). There was a noticeable difference in the Parisien metro traveller and the London tube traveller..while better dressed they were usually not doing anything while the London tube was filled with energy people; reading books listening to their ipods or talking on their cellphone or to their dog. After a coffee and croissant(Hilary thought I was quite decadent choosing almond and chocolate). We had arrived at Notre Dame cathedral and the Seine. We fell in love with the river and the bridges and with our cameras now fully engaged we spent hours walking back and forth the bridges and around the cathedral taking pictures.
We took a break to go down into the crypt of the cathedral and see the remnants of roman roads and houses, on which layers of Paris history have been overlaid.

We walked for miles through St Germain de Pres stopping only for hot chocolate at the Cafe Les Deux Maggots and when our legs were tired took a boat down the Seine. As the light was getting low we climbed the L'Arc de Triomphe for a spectacular view of the broad streets radiating out and the chimney pots and roofs.

We then walked down the Champs Elysee full of lights and people to a wonderful little restaurant decorated with pretty tiles where we had a delicious meal, duck and seafood and wonderful creme brule.

Now it was time for a quick change and dash to the Moulin Rouge. Waiting in line we chatted with a pleasant Australian couple and were pleased to be seated with them. The Moulin Rouge is filled with atmosphere, red everywhere and lit by little lamps on the tables. There is a bottle of champagne on every table and the place is packed with hundreds of people. It was a spectacle full of colour and style the dance routines broken up with magic acrobatics and comic routines but I did have to admit to the people at work that I did not think I had to see 50 topless women dancing even viewed with an historical perspective! Still, we thought as we made our way home at 1:30am through the darkened streets and beside the cemetery we had done it with no regrets and no time wasted.

The next morning we headed down once again this time our first destination the Marais district. A friendly Parisien took us to his favorite boulangerie but unfortunately it was closed. Another was not hard to find. This morning I was obsessed with the lamps as we wandered past the Jewish district and found the Musee Carnavalet a history museum. Hilary's favorite period of history is the revolution and she was keen to see the artifacts surrounding it. After spending quite a few minutes photographing the entrance way we went in and found a good tour guide just getting to the good parts so we stayed and listened. We then found our next destination the beautiful Place des Vosges which was well photographed and then on to see where the Bastille had been. We could not stay away too long from the Seine and were back wandering its banks and bridges to the Latin Quarter. We knew we wanted to catch the late afternoon light looking at Pont Neuf from the iron bridge.



We were tired that day after our wild late night at the Moulin Rouge and needed a few rest stops in cafes. We had soaked up the spirit of Paris watching the people as we strolled. ://


We spent some time around the large statue of a head with a hand trying to catch a good shot of the children playing on it. Nearby we found delicious filling French onion soup at the Cochon de Pied before heading back to Montmartre for an earlier night.

We couldn't believe that our last day had come so much left to see. The Louvre was first; another entrance that has to be photographed the modern glass pyramid in the middle of the square backed by the old.

We attacked the museum with a strategy to see a few things well with an audio guide..the early Italians, the Mona Lisa, Cupid and Venus and David(the room was filled with Japanese pushing you out of the way so they could photograph him!)etc. We then walked further along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.
We had decided not to climb it but Hilary said I must see the bottom of it. We had a delicious meal of poule au pot at tiny out of the way cafe filled with business men. It was time to go back to Montmartre to collect our luggage for the journey home. We couldn't leave before we searched Montmartre for the little patisserie where we had had the most excellent macaroon the first afternoon thinking this was what we must savour on the train. Alas it was closed.. we found another nearby sadly not nearly as good. A reason to return to paris along with the roofs, gargoyles, steps and of course the river. We went back to London with tired feet and happy hearts; it had been a wonderful relaxing companionable time traveling with a daughter.