The City of Romance - On My Own

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Breakfast was continental of course, so I set off to do the tourist bit, dreaming of a good old British fry-up. I should have been grateful, as on my budget that meal was to seem like a relative pig-out.

I then headed back to Paris. The city of romance, and I was going to travel there on my own. I suppose that it was no worse than going with two blokes, but it was a sad, lonely traveller who got off the train at the Gar du Nord. Little did I know at the time, but three years later, I would get engaged to my future wife in Paris.

When trying to navigate the Paris underground - or New York's for that matter - you realise how elegant the London tube map is. Trying to fathom out the best route between two stations in Paris is quite a puzzle. Mensa could make an IQ test out of it. However, once you manage to work out which line you need, it is no time at all before a train arrives. There was usually one waiting in the tunnel as the previous one pulled out, something that anyone who travels on the Northern Line can only dream about.

I first headed straight to the obligatory Eiffel Tower. Well not straight there, as I first had to leave my backpack in the Left Luggage at the station. I got the lifts to the top of the tower and once back down I headed to the Arc De Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, the Place De La Concord, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, the Seine… The list of sights in Paris is endless.

Paris is every bit as beautiful as it is made out to be. I actually quite like London, but Paris highlights to what extent we have decimated our natural heritage by replacing all the historic buildings with a load of 60's and 70's crap. I suppose that Paris has an advantage in that large chunks of it were not blown up in the war, but the gaps in London could have been filled tastefully, as they were in Berlin. Prince Charles, I agree with everything you say.

Anyway, enough ranting - for now at least. I left Paris, very impressed as you might have gathered. There was a lot left to see, but I would need to come back here again on the way home. This time, I needed to rush as I knew that Alan and Richard were thinking of travelling to Spain, so I went to the Gar d'Austerlitz for the overnight train, hoping to catch them. Amazingly enough, I was in luck.

I changed my plans and got on a different train with them. We managed to find an eight seat compartment between us and one French guy, although he got off mid-night so we had the whole compartment to ourselves.

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Photos

Notre Dame
Notre Dame from the front

Eiffel Tower View
Looking along the river

Eiffel Tower View
Looking towards the Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame
Notre Dame from the back