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Musee Du Louvre
What can I say?OK. Firstly I should point out that I was quite prepared to dislike Paris. I had specifically avoided visiting here on my last trip to Europe. To me a good holiday experience isn’t just about the destination - but also about the people. So……. given the reputation of Parisians for intolerance of those who don’t make an effort to speak their language, and the fact that I know basically no French (and for a three day visit wasn’t exactly going to take lessons), I wasn’t expecting things to run smoothly.
And my experience here was certainly didn’t start off at all well. My journey from Edinburgh to Paris ended up to be quite an ordeal. First the plane was over an hour late (which isn’t great when you’re forced to get to the airport two hours prior to the original departure time)…..then we were delayed slightly from landing in Paris…..then the train from the airport wasn’t running (I was politely told that “it’s broken”)…….then I was eventually given advice to get a specific bus into the city centre, and catch the subway from there, only to wait for almost two hours for the bus (with around 30 other people) to
Centre Pompidou
Very impressive (despite the look) eventually conclude that the promised service on the quarter hour wasn’t about to show…….then I caught a different bus which was soon delayed in peak hour traffic…..and I then had to tackle the subway with my bags (and no French).
So the 2 hour plane trip ended up swallowing up almost 12 hours (there was also an hour lost due to time differences between cities). I have to admit that when I was trying to make sense of the subway system the thought crossed my mind to just give up…… head out of Paris…..and move on to my next planned stop. But I persisted.
On advice from others I took the open-top bus tour the next day (only to have the commentary stop on one bus, and another bus totally break down on me)….which gave me a basic orientation of the city, and allowed me to wander around at my own pace on the following days.
And it IS an impressive city. So much history - so much culture (there are musuems and galleries everywhere), and as a result - so much to do.
I started with the centre Pompidou (which was just a block from
Arc de Triomphe
Busy tourist spot....the traffic here is madness! where I was staying)….and was immediately overwhelmed. I haven’t visited a modern art centre of that scale before. It certainly has a wow factor.
From there I did most of the ‘required’ tourist destinations (Eiffel Tower; Arc De Triumph; Champs Elysees; and the Louvre etc). But to be honsest…..these weren’t the impressive points of my visit (I enjoyed the Atomium in Brussels more than the Eiffel Tower in Paris). However, the people did impress me. I didn’t get any of the looking down the nose business that I expected. Instead, despite only being armed with four french words/phrases (“bonjour”, “merci”, “excusez-moi”, and “parlez-vous anglais?”) I managed without any trouble, and found the locals to be quite helpful (they all claimed to know only “a little” English, but never hesitated to provide assistance.
So, things turned out much better than expected. On my enjoyment sclae from 1 to 10, where 1 equates to escargot, and 10 equates to a fresh baguette (the bread here is terrific), I would rate my experience as a 7. I still maintain that it’s the sort of place that’s better tackled with a significant other……so maybe I will rate it differently in the future.
Eiffel Tower
It had to be done Off to Zurich in the morning. Bye for now.
PS........I did smile while here.....typically, I just didn't capture it in my photos.
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Dad & Mum
non-member comment
Not Surprised
The idea of you eating Escagot boggles the mind. But then you didn't actually say you ate one! Good to hear you made the connection with your ancestors (king Robert the Bruce), or was that just a coincidence?