First, an update. Jason’s cold is nearly gone and he is hardly sniffing at all (“I am not sniffing, sniff, sniff”). My finger is improving with the swelling and bruising going down. Limited movement but definitely getting better 🙂

We finally arrived, after flight delayed in Barcelona, to an exceptionally warm day in Paris. We had organised a transfer and the driver was there ready and waiting. Liking this so far!

We made it into town and to our hotel in record time, there was very little traffic despite it being the end of a long weekend.

I had booked our hotel, West End Hotel, with the help of our lovely travel broker Tina. And we have done very well. The hotel is beautiful, the check in amazingly efficient and friendly, they bought our bags up to our room, and we have a cute little balcony and a view of the Eiffel tower. Wonderful.

The décor is very traditional and plush. We are so spoilt.

After the initial getting ourselves sorted, unpacked, and settled it was time to do a wander around Champs-Élysées. It is as stunning and beautiful as I remember. We were interested to see that the amount of armed security was a lot less than anywhere else we have been. There is definitely a police presence but it is not as confronting or as well armed as Rome, Barcelona, etc.

Upon arriving in France I had thought, now we are not on the cruise we wont eat so much. But then I smelt the crepes and the bread and the pastries, oh how wrong I was.

There were photos, a little shopping, and the obligatory drink and people watching on Champs-Élysées.

Back to the hotel for some cheese and crackers. Oh the cheese, the cheese, how I have missed this cheese.

We thought we should have a proper dinner, albeit a smaller dinner, and so we head out to find a restaurant. With weary feet we found a local hamburger place (“ambuuuurgur”).

The food was average, we attracked the attention of the elderly American couple seated near us, so we didn’t stay long. Ha, ha. Seriously the food was not that great, and the couple were interesting. But we were tired so back to the hotel for a nightcap and sleep.

We had plans for the next day.

29^th May – First Full Day in Paris (but really day 1)

We woke to a beautiful and very, very warm day in Paris. The high today, 29 degrees. Over three weeks since we have seen rain or any kind of bad weather. Oh the joy!

Breakfast was included in our hotel booking and it was fabulous. Your traditional European breakfast with meat, cheese, bread, more meat, more cheese, other types of bread, some cheese, a bit of meat, some pastries. I think you get the idea.

Funnily enough I had cheese and meat on bread x 2! Jason stuck with croissants and jam, x 4. Great start to the day if you ask me.

We had not booked anything so we were free to do as we pleased. I bought us hop on hop off tickets that included buses and boats for two days. So we wanted to give that a try, plus the lovely Miss Josie and her husband Kelvin were in Paris too, so we wanted to catch up with them as well. Other than that, Paris was there to be discovered, and the best way to do that is on foot.

There were a few things we needed to do first, one got to H&M and exchange a couple of things, I did not bother to try on because the queues were insane, and two go to the Swatch place and see if they could fix the watch I had broken and resize the replacement watch.

H&M was remarkably empty, they had only just opened. So that was done and dusted very quickly. A lovely young man served us and he was so helpful.

Then on to Swatch. It turns out I need to pay more attention to the watches I wear. I had bought it in Switzerland, many years ago, and it had a wee red symbol on it, so I thought it was Swatch. Not so, said the Swatch man. It is Swiss Military brand, only they can fix it. And he is also not allowed to resize the other watch. Damn it.

BUT, he went online, found a place he thought could do it, wrote down the details, gave us directions and wished us well.

Putting the watch story on hold for a moment, I am starting to get this strange feeling. Where have all the rude people gone! In crazy and rude Italy I warned Jason, if you think the service bad here just wait till we are in France. In bustling and abrupt Barcelona, oh boy I say to Jason, they have nothing on the French! What has happened to all the rude, rough, thoughtless people that we used to encounter in Paris constantly (other parts of France too, but Paris was always considered the worst). Ponder this, where have the all the rude people gone?

Back to the watch!

We found the shop that was recommend by Mathieu and the doors would not open. We are standing there and a security guard is on the inside telling us to wait. I start to get a bad feeling about this.

But the door opens and we step inside, the vault. We have to wait for the outside door to close before the inside door would open. Oh no, we are surrounded by Rolex, Tissot, Bvlgari, Cartier all with no prices, but all obviously very expensive.

A lady comes over to see us and was very nice. I said that I had a broken watch that I needed to fix and strap to adjust. She looks at my embarrassingly cheap Swiss Military watch and politely tells me it is not a brand they have (no sh!t), but said they can adjust the strap of my other embarrassingly cheap watch.

Off she goes to get the “Strap Man”. Meanwhile security have politely alleviated Jason of his backpack whilst we are in the store. We look at each other, on the inside I am thinking adjusting the strap is going to cost more than the watch. GULP, but we were committed so we sat nicely.

The “Strap Man” came out and very gently raised my wrist so he could assess the number of links to remove. And, with his white gloved hands, takes my 100 euro watch to adjust it (jason thinks he may have had to sterilize his equipment after dealing with such a watch as mine compared to his usual clientele).

The lady, I am going to call her Penelope because I think it suits her, is looking through the catalogue of watches, 32k, 55k, a cheap one at 16k, and we chat to her. We are definitely out of place in this store. But she is the professional and then suggests that we show my broken watch to the “strap man” (who now I must assume is the “watch fixer man”) when he returns.

“Watch fixer man” comes back after about 15, very looooooooooong, minutes. He puts the watch on my wrist and it fits. Hooray. Penelope tells him about my broken watch. I hand it over and he apologies profusely that there is nothing he can do.

No problem, I was actually greatly relieved as Euro signs were bouncing in front of my eyes.

I turn to Penelope and ask her how much for the adjustment. She smiles sweetly and says “no, that is all”!!! SERIOUSLY, did they take pity on me (I am ok with that by the way)?

The rest of the conversation:

“Oh my goodness, you have made my day” says JKW

“It does not take much” says Penelope

“You are not wrong” replies JKW

Jason’s bag is returned to him, we say thank you in as many different ways as we could think of and were promptly let out of the building, one door at a time.

Again, gob smacked at how polite and helpful people are being in Paris. It is like a parallel universe.

Thank you Arije and thank you Swatch Watch Paris – massive shout out to fabulous, helpful people.

YAY.

After that we picked up our hop on hop off tickets and decided to do some site seeing!

It was fabulous to see Paris again, it is such a beautiful place and the weather was amazing. Wahoo.

We got off at the Eiffel Tower and opted to avoid the queues and walk up the second floor. If you are going to Paris and if you go to the Eiffel Tower, and if you are feeling up to it, walk up the stairs. No queue at all.

Bloody long way but good for us with all the food we had been enjoying. Then we caught the lift right up the top. The views were spectacular!

We decided against the 15 euro thimble of champagne and went back down to level 2, beer, wine, rest! Then down the stairs and back to exploring.

Next was the boat ride. We got off at Pont Neuf so we could see Notre Dame! Very impressive indeed. Jason continues to wonder at the age of things, and I continue to shrug J

Time for lunch, it was 230 and we were starving. But luckily the city is covered with pubs that sell food, oh the hardship. We stopped for a sandwich, beer, and wine.

By the time all this was done it was time to walk back to the hotel, have a shower, drink, and head out to meet the lovely Josie and Kelvin at the Freedom and Firken! A few mojitos later, some pub food, and bit of chit chat, another walk along the “chompy chomp chomp” (named by Jason) before heading back to the hotel for rest.

A big day was planned so rest was needed.

Day 3 in Paris 30^th May

Another fabulous breakfast.

Everywhere we have been we compare the bread. Oh the bread we have seen!

Malta = very yummy, very solid, and always served with butter!

Italy = a much lighter bread than Malta, but still yummy, served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Spain = bread is very chewy, but edible.

France = best bread by far, served with nothing, ‘cause they are French if it needed anything else they would have added it (understood).

Switzerland = nice, they try to be French but can’t quite pull it off. It really is a shame, maybe they could do something different…

We are not looking forward to the UK bread experience

I am so easily distracted, back to Paris.

We decided to use day two of our hop on hop off tickets. Well, NEVER, EVER do that in Paris. Never do the hop on hop off, not ever. Ever, nope don’t even think about it, just don’t do it. Noooooooooooooo. It was more like the hop on, wait, wait some more, drive 5 meters, keep waiting, go nowhere, hop off. Find another stop with a different route. Wait, continue waiting, no bus turns up so you can’t hop on. And you finally give up and decide to walk everywhere instead. Which we did.

We were walking across the courtyard that leads to the Louve and Jason spots a policeman on rollerblades. Yep, seriously, rollerblades. We had to find them, so I lead the charge and track them down. Start a conversation, and introduce Jason as a New Zealand policeman. They were thrilled, and so pleased to meet him.

They gave him a badge of the local police and we got photos. What great guys, the people here continue to win us over.

After that we did a truck load more walking and site seeing. It was awesome. But damn warm. We walked to the Pantheon and down to the Bastille monument – most of the monuments etc have been in really good condition – and easy to access, needless to say we have way too many photos ha, ha. As we were walking back into town it was time for lunch, we decided to pop into one of the local places.

It was interesting, not great, not even good, but jason enjoyed it as we both ordered the “plat du jour” and it turned out to be sausages and mashed potatoes. He helped eat mine and I had wine. We make a good team.

Tonight we have a tour booked so after lunch, some shopping, more photos, we head to the Arc de Triomphe to walk up and see the chaos from above. There were quite a few steps but we have both become mountain goats with the stairs lately, so we did it in record time.

The view was fabulous and you got a different perspective compared to the Eiffel Tower. Especially of the traffic. The roundabout is insane. Completely mental, even if you watch it for 30 minutes you cannot see any logic in the movement. It is more like orchestrated madness. Just lean on your horn, show no fear, and cut in.

Back to the hotel to get ready for our night out.

Our tour includes a dinner cruise, night time viewing up the Eiffel Tower, and then a show at Moulin Rouge.

The dinner cruise was lovely and the food was great, despite the rush as they only had 75 minutes to get out three courses. I had a wee run in with the waiter as he was “only main course, you can only pick the main, no other choices, just the main, no, no, no” until I got him to understand scallops as an entrée was really not going to work for me (allergies – blurgh don’t do it) and then he allowed me to have the vegetarian entrée option.

Jason had the chicken and I opted for the beef! Lovely, followed by a plate of little desserts.

The bus met us at the dock and it was off to the Eiffel Tower. As we had been up the tower only yesterday (that sounds so dumb right!) we decided not to go to the top. Took a few photos of the shadows and Paris in a different light before heading down to the boat/pub to fill in time until it was SHOWTIME!

I am so glad we did, sitting on the boat/pub we were able to see the Eiffel Tower light up at dark time, and then sparkle like a sparkly thing at 1000pm for 5 minutes. So great. The people who manage it should pop over to Singapore and speak to the Super Tree people. Think about lighting it up to Star Wars movie themes. Now there’s a thought!

Back on the bus! We were surrounded by the stereotypical Australians today! We first heard them on the bus, but they were on our tour too. Quite a laugh but very, very, very loud. We refrained from calling them Kath and Kim.

The last part of the evening was Moulin Rouge!

I kind of knew what to expect from the show, and based on that I figured Jason would enjoy it. Titties, music, dancing. Done.

We were all herded into our seats with exceptional efficiency. The show started and off we went. It was really cool, I think the parts with both enjoyed the most (though I am not sure Jason would say otherwise) was the acrobatic acts. These people were amazing athletes and fabulously talented.

The dancing and singing was really cool, and as expected there were lots of breasts, lots, I mean really lots! Needless to say Jason enjoyed the show ha, ha.

It was all over very quickly, hard to believe that we were being ushered out into the night!

Would we go and see the show again, Jason says sh*t yeah, at the drop of hat. Hmmm.

As for me, probably not, I prefer Cirque du Soleil with all the acrobatic, entertainment, and dancing features. But I am so pleased we went, it was a great night!

200am, time for bed.

Last Full Day in Paris

After very little sleep, it was always going to be hard day, but there were things to do and stuff to see so we dragged ourselves out of bed at 800am.

We needed to get packed, do some washing, and I wanted to send some stuff to New Zealand. I had already been into the post office and knew what we needed to do.

Off to the post office. Long queues, overweight box, take stuff out. Needed to tap the box shut again, no tape, off to buy tape, tape box shut. Eventually boxes sent.

Then off to do the laundry – there was a laundromat nearby and we put our stuff on and then sat across the road having a very, very, very enjoyable lunch. Probably the best lunch we have had in Paris. Sandwiches, wine, beer.

Laundry done, folded, time to head back to the hotel. Someone needed a nap (cough, Jason).

A phone call. The post office. They had dropped the box and the bottle of wine had broken. They had the package for less than 2 hours and smashed.

Back to the post office we go. The lady who I first spoke to was very apologetic, but then this asshole (I am pretty sure that is what his name tag said) walked up and growled at me “you cannot send wine” like that.

Excuse me, you pumped up little shite, you should have told me that before, and let me tell you why:

1. I bought the boxes from you
2. I clearly wrote on the forms what was in the boxes
3. The forms were checked and signed off by you
4. At no time did anyone say “you have written wine, you cannot send like this”

It was the only word in the description field of the form.

Deep breath!

I was asked if I wanted the box back, with all my stuff in it. So they handed me a sack that was leaking wine. Seriously, I was really upset. What dicks! I dragged the sack outside – hoping to leave a snail trail of wine through the office, and removed all the unbroken stuff. Leaving the sack with the broken, leaking bottle, outside the post office, we head back to the hotel.

Bit of a buzz kill. I think I have found where the rude people have gone. They work in the post office!

I build a bridge and I get over it. From reading the above you will see I am not actually over it. I am still very bitter 😛

Back at the hotel Jason has a week nap. And I decide I need to walk off my anger!

Shopping will help right 🙂

I locate Lafayette department store walk there, it is 3km from the hotel and on such a lovely day it would be a shame to sit inside. Off I go to have a look, and possibly buy some stuff. You never know.

The last time I saw one of the Lafayette department stores it was in Nice, and it was big, exotic and very cool. This one was insanely big, blocks and blocks, floors and floors, shoes and shoes.

Security checks entering the store and everyone warning me about pick pockets within the store. Paranoid.

It was quite overwhelming though. Too many floors and too many options so I saved myself the hassle and went straight to the shoe department.

45 minutes, a bit of shopping, got a new suitcase, and walked back.

By that time Jason was awake and feeling much more refreshed than he did that morning.

Time to visit the Louvre. By this stage it is already 500pm at night. Which was awesome, no queues! Wahoo, no waiting and no hassle, except that when we went to scan our tickets we found out we actually had to collect them from a ticket agent – READ THE FINE PRINT WOMAN.

Back out in the heat, walk to ticket agent, got tickets, back to the Louvre, luckily still no queues and we made it in.

We spent a couple of hours in the Louvre finding the items we want to see and getting lost, often! We were both too tired for this! However, it was definitely a great time to see the Louvre, go in the evening, less people and more time to explore as it does not close until 945pm a few nights a week.

When in the Louvre you seek out the Mona Lisa, it is the thing you do right! So we found her, looked at her, got a photo of her, end of story. I know we are heathens but you have to wonder, what is the fuss about…

It was getting late, I was really tired, after a lot of walking, and no nap for me, and stomach is telling me to eat. Eat now. But we had to get back to the area we were staying. I knew if I sat down I would not be getting back up again, my legs were too tired.

SO, we walked back to rue Marbeuf. The restaurant street right next to our hotel and sought out a lovely restaurant 🙂 There was one restaurant called L’Entrecote that always had queues outside, it is phenomenal! All hours of lunch and dinner. So, needless to say we did not go there. Instead we opted for Chez Andre! And we are so glad we did. The service was fabulous and fun, the food amazing and timely (not too fast, not too slow), and atmosphere enjoyable.

It had to be our best meal in Paris and we would recommend them to anyone who is looking for a great bite to eat!

To top off the evening we sat on our balcony, having an aperitif, and watching the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle.

Thank you Paris.

The next day we left. We were sad, I miss it already! But not the post office, they suck.