Trip Day 47 – Paris
It’s 6am dark, cold and damp as I make my way to the station to catch the TGV to Paris, the rain has eased up for me to make my way. It isn’t long before the chisel nosed TGV train slips into the platform and I make my way onboard to find my seat. A few minutes more and we are travelling through the darkness and Luxembourg is fading away behind us.
An hour later and the first rays of dawn start to colour the sky and Metz is the first town in France that I see in daylight. The train travels on through the countryside, white cows like beacons stand out in fields of green, the fields like waves on an ocean roll one after the other away to the tree lines hills, occasionally a church spire can be seen poking up above ploughed fields.
After a 3 hour trip we arrive in Gare de l’Est train station, I decide it is prudent to get my reservation for the Euro rail train back to London sorted before I go anywhere, 84 euros get me a place in second class. From here it is a decision as to whether to try my luck on the Metro or get a Taxi, I decide the Taxi is a better choice this morning and I am not the only one, a wait of an hour to get a taxi ensues, then the fun task of sitting back and watching the drama that is driving in Paris unfold before me, I will say one thing Parisians love there horns. 14 Euros is all it take to get me to my hotel, the time is 11am and checking is 3pm, I can leave my bags and go exploring while my room is readied.
There is only one way to fill in my wait and that is to walk the Champs-Elysees. So it is out of the hotel, turn left at the corner and in 1 minute I am standing on the Champs-Elysees looking up to the Arc de Triomphe. The sun is out but it is official, with the wind factor it is cold enough to freeze the walls of a bark humpy!
After walking up to the Arc de Triomphe, I do a lap around and under, it seems I can use my museum pass to get free access to climb up to the top, so this will be for another day, it is then off to the Louvre, the walk is a long one but every block yields something new and amazing to look at. The Louvre is amazingly large, I was expecting big but not quite this big, I am able to locate the Museum Pass entry another job sorted, as there is a long queue waiting to get in and the pass entry is pretty much straight in. It soon becomes apparent to me that Paris is under heightened security measures as soldiers with automatic weapons stroll amongst tourists at all of the major attractions.
After a coffee and a Bickie it is time to head back and see if my hotel room is ready, after a 5 am start I could use a nice lie down. Checking out the cafe’s as I go it seems everything is expensive, even by Brussels standards, I see even McDonalds is expensive, a fillet a fish is 5.70 euro that’s roughly $8 AUD a burger. Well tomorrow will be a day to come up with a plan on what is the best days to use my museum pass and what to see in the other days, but first a good early nights sleep is needed.