Pretty Pretty Paris

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Tired but not too hungover, we took the train back to King's Cross, where I had a classic English lunch of salmon and cucumber sandwiches and Devonshire tea (scones with jam and clotted cream). Yum!

The Eurostar took us to central Paris in a surprisingly short amount of time. We trundled our bags on and off Metro trains and found our hotel without much trouble. It was in the 15th arrondissement, a nice area near the Eiffel tower, conveniently close to the Metro and plenty of nice restaurants. The room was small, but hey, this was Paris! It was clean and the staff were helpful, so I was pleasantly surprised after some of the cockroach-ridden horror stories I'd read about other hotels online.

Just before sunset, we went to Montparnasse Tower. Paris has strict building regulations restricting the height of new buildings, and it is the only skyscraper in central Paris. We were told people joke that it was the box that the Eiffel Tower came in. It offered spectacular views around Paris and I got my bearings of the sights and areas I wanted to visit. As the sun went down, lights came on around the city. Most people go up the Eiffel Tower instead, but from Tour Montparnasse we could see the Eiffel Tower lit up with thousands of light bulbs, flashing for five minutes on the hour.

Paris is chocolate-box pretty. Most of the buildings are made from a lovely light-coloured stone, with flower-boxes and balcony railings of ornamental ironwork. If you ask people about Paris, usually their reactions are that it's dirty, the people are rude and it just doesn't live up to expectations. Well, I loved it and can't wait to get back there.

If there was one way that Paris failed to live up to its reputation, it was in the beauty of the people. There is this myth that Parisian women are slim, gorgeous and stylish. The people I saw were just like the slobs in New Zealand or England. If there is going to be a city praised for the presentation of its citizens, my vote goes to Tokyo. The women there all looked stylish, feminine and pretty. Most of them wore heels and I don't think I saw a single pair of jeans.

We met the guys from "Bike About Tours" at the statue of Charlemagne in Notre Dame square. Paul, our guide, was a Kiwi who'd been living in Paris for years. We cycled round the Marais and Latin Quarter, taking in the Louvre and Pompidou Centre, pretty private courtyards and the Place des Vosges. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone going to Paris. We covered a lot of ground in a short time and mainly stuck to back streets, so I wasn't in fear of Paris' crazy drivers. It was a great way to see some things off the beaten track and Paul offered lots of local knowledge and tidbits of trivia.

The queues at Notre Dame were very long, so we decided to come back another day. Instead, we wandered over to Berthillon on the Ile Saint-Louis for Paris' best ice-cream. Walking along the Seine in the sunshine eating white chocolate icecream - life doesn't get much better than that!

Next we went to a wine cellar near the Louvre for the O Chateau "Tour de France of wine". While I know a bit about NZ and Aussie wines, we don't drink much French wine. I hoped the tasting would help me understand their complex labelling system so I could tell which ones I might like. It was run by a born-and-bred Parisian named Olivier, who also writes an amusing "Stuff Parisians like" blog. The tasting was an introduction to French wine-making regions and the wines they typically produce. Because so much wine is made by so many producers, he said there's no point taking note of a particular wine that you liked as you'll probably never be able to find it again. Instead you should take note of the appellation (area) where it was produced, as the strict wine laws governing grape variety and production methods means that all wines from that appellation should taste fairly similar.

I enjoyed the wine tasting, but it was fairly expensive and there were a lot of people so the atmosphere wasn't great. Maybe Olivier was having an off day because he didn't come across as friendly or funny as he does in his blog. I'd recommend to people wanting to taste wine in Paris to buy an introductory book to French wine and then go to a bar and sample instead.

Unfortunately we lost the list of recommended restaurants that the Bike About boys gave us. We wandered through the Latin Quarter, past the Parthenon and found a cheap Italian restaurant. Next time I go to Paris, I will try harder to find a nice French restaurant.

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Photos

Hotel de Sens
A cannonball from the July Revolution is still embedded high in the wall. The inscription is dated 28 July 1830.

The July Column, Place de la Bastille
The column is engraved with the names of Parisians who died in the revolution, and the figure at the top is the "Spirit of Freedom"