Paris 2010.
Our hotel was pretty central, but tucked away in a little back street. Blink and you’d miss it. We arrived late in the evening and the first thing I spied (of course I did) along the main street was a Mc Donalds. I’m embarrassed to say I was deeelighted. After the stress of navigating around Charles De Gaulle, trying to communicate with our driver of the whereabouts of our hotel, it was welcomed with open arms. We finally arrived at the hotel, after a manic taxi journey.(The Parisian taxi driver was yelling down his phone the entire journey, music blasting from the stereo, sharp turns) we unpacked and went out for a walk around the area, however we were both exhausted and ended up sneaking our Mc Donalds and cheap supermarket wine back into our hotel room. (Of course, we forgot a corkscrew which Michael had to run out and find a late night supermarket, which we became quite accustomed to…)
We stayed at the Hotel de l’avre. It was very typically French, the decor was shabby chic and the staff appeared to speak very little English (Much to their annoyance we didn’t attempt to speak much French…)The room was small, but cosy, and we had a lovely street view from our window. It’s nearest metro station is La Motte-Piquet Grenelle metro which is quite literally less than two minutes walk away. There were lots of cafes and restaurants lining the nearby streets, as well as a Monoprix supermarket (Which I adored.) lots of little patisseries and chemists. The Eiffel Tower was less than 15 minutes away by foot which made it the perfect location to stay.
The last time I visited Paris I stayed in the Hilton at the Eiffel Tower, (Now the Pullman tour Eiffel) although it was in a prime location and we literally couldn’t get any closer to the Eiffel Tower (Our balcony looked out on to it.) It lacked the character the Hotel de’lavre had, having said that, the hotel was beautiful and i’ll never forget the experience. One of the highlights was when we arrived back to our room after an evening out and there, on the table was a bottle of champagne and a tray full of brightly coloured macaroons and chocolates. We all had a glass of champagne out on the balcony and watched the tower’s hourly light show. Memories like that will stay with me forever.
We decided to buy tickets for one of the many bus tours. It was excellent for photo opportunities. I can’t even recall talking to Michael, I was too busy snapping away. (Apart from when it began to pour out of the heavens and we were left cold, drenched and miserable on the open top bus……)
As we were in Paris a day before my birthday, Michael bought us tickets to Disneyland. (Quite possibly one of the best birthday presents, yes?.) I’ve already visited Disneyland once previously and hadn’t been overly impressed, but then again I was travelling with two men who had no interest whatsoever in chasing after characters (I was beyond livid when I was snubbed by Mickey Mouse.) or shopping in many of the beautiful little boutique-style gift shops.
Between Michael and I our French is pretty horrendous. Michael could muster the standard “Bonjour!” “je m’appelle Michael!” (Having only studied Spanish at school.) Mine to be fair, is not much better. I’ve always felt slightly self-conscious donning a ‘French’ accent with my inescapable twang of Northern Irish shining through. However I can read and understand little things, therefore I attempted to navigate us through a metro and two train stations. Of course, it was no smooth sailing and in typical Wright/Cardwell rivalry we argued over which train to get. After swallowing my pride, I went along with Michael’s choice, and thank God we did… we arrived in la Marne Vallee-Chessy, home town of Disneyland Paris.
After a long afternoon in Disneyland we were both ready to go back. The pinnacle was waiting in a queue for over an hour, getting slightly agitated at this point we decided to remain in the queue, it must be a good ride if so many people are queuing for it (positive thinking and all that…). It turns out we were in a queue for the Disney train which takes you on a sight seeing tour around the park. As we were being packed on to a carriage with a rather large family, I could have cried. I wish Michael had caught the sheer look of horror on my face as this steam train pulled up alongside us. Luckily we were able to laugh about it on the journey home.
That night we decided to go out for dinner and celebrate my Birthday. We went to a little restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, one that we had walked past everyday but never ventured in. I had pizza and Michael had some spaghetti concoction. We split a bottle of wine and had the most delicious cocktail i’ve ever tried. (cognac, pure orange, cointreau and champagne)
As it was our last night, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower for a walk, and ventured up to the (Plaza) du Trocadéro. This is the nicest place to get photographs of the Eiffel Tower. There were people having picnics on the grass, drinking wine and we seen one couple swimming around in the fountains. It has a lovely atmosphere. There really is a romantic vibe about Paris, nothing cliche about it. On our way back we stopped off at the late night supermarket and picked up a bottle of vodka. Always a great idea at the time, eh?. Not so much in the morning when we had to be checked out of our hotel by 11 and we were walking around the streets of Paris hungover. I can honestly say, i’ve never felt a hangover like it. Not even a Mc Donalds breakfast could sort this one out.
We had hours until our taxi was collecting us for the airport so we bought baguettes and sat in the little park facing the Eiffel Tower.
Over all the trip was lovely. Three days were just enough to do all the things we wanted to:walk around and enjoy the sights, eat lots of lovely food and explore. The last time I visited Paris we explored Montmartre (I begged to see the Moulin Rouge, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment….) Sacre Coeur, the Jewish quarter..Notre Dam.. and went on a beautiful night time cruise down the Seine.
There is so much more I want to see of Paris, it’s truly beautiful and somewhere I can see myself returning year after year.
