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Published: March 28th 2008
Train Station
When we got off the train station in Paris, this is what we sawSo we are in Paris and I am in love. What's more to say? We got up early today (6:30am!) and had our last breakfast at the hotel. By 7:30 we were on the coaches headed to the train station to board the chunnel, or EuroStar train. This was the part of the trip I was a little nervous about. The English Channel is literally above you as you ride in the train. All that water, all that weight, and yet, not a bump in the road. You can not feel the train going "down," but in the beginning of the train ride, my ears kept popping, big time, but that was to be expected considering how far we were going under. But I seemed to do okay. I sat and read the British version of Cosmo and listened to Michael Jackson on my I-Pod. It's only actually 22 miles under the channel. Most of the 2 ½ hour journey is spent looking out at the pretty English and French country side.
Once arriving at 1:30 local time (it is an hour ahead of London) we were in Paris! Beautiful Paris. The city of lovers and the city of
chunnel
us on the "chunnel" or EuroStar train dreamers. Upon entering the train station, it was good-bye English and hello French. Everywhere we went it was French, on the billboards, nearby people were speaking it, I was nervous, I know nothing of French! Would I be able to survive 3 days in Paris not speaking the language? Maybe.
I thought the train station was going to be in the outer skirts of the city. Nope, we were right in the middle of all the action. Just as we came outside of the station, motorcycles everywhere, people were walking dogs, heavy traffic. We were probably only a few short blocks from the heart of Paris. (i.e. Eiffel Tower!) And the train station itself was a work of art. I told Jay, "I bet the Amtrak station in Orlando doesn't look like this." He agreed.
Luckily once we were aboard the bus, our wonderful tour director Joel handed us each a "cheat sheet" with a few key phrases. I began to feel a little more confident. All I really had to do was say "hello" and "how are you" here and there. We saw a bit of the city on the bus ride driving to the
chunnel
us again. This is one of my favorite pics. I just felt so...happy. hotel. Cute alley ways, quaint cafe's, and French ladies "walking their silly little dogs." I was in love with the city of Lights.
The hotel was tiny, a lot smaller than our London hotel. We're talkin' shoebox tiny. We are on the 5th floor with one elevator. We've had to climb the winding staircase everytime. Our room has a lovely view of some cute pastel yellow colored apartments, with plants hanging off their balconies right across the street. The first thing I did when we got into the room was open the windows and say over and over "we're in Paris!" then I preceded to make Jay take dorky pictures of me in front of the windows. Jay kept saying, "We don't have a whole lot of time." Joel had given us thirty minuets to get settled into our rooms before the optional walking tour began. Of course, even though it was optional, we wanted to go. I was starting to really enjoy being with Joel, and getting to know the rest of the group.
First thing, Joel wanted to take us to the Metro and show us how to use it. It's the easiest form of transportation
train station
the train station in beautiful Paris! in Paris, without having to worry about taxi's, buses, and rental cars. Plus it's the cheapest. I, of course, was still nervous about using the Metro, since I can get clausterphobic at times. But to be honest, even though the Tube is much cleaner than Paris' Metro, I found the Metro to be less intimidating. And the more we hopped off and on the Metro, I thought "this is easy!"
We got off on a stop near the Pompidou, it is a museum with a unique escalator entrance home to contemporary art, design, architecture, theater, and photography. I always thought it was a unique looking building and was hoping we'd get a chance to see it. There was also a water fountain area known as the Stravinsky fountain, with some pretty unique looking statues. One was a statue of a lady with water squirting out of her boob, its called the La Sirene!! Joel joked and said it was his "favorite statue." Why I didn't take a picture of those statues, I'll never know, that is SO something I would take a picture of! But, we had been in the shade, with some of the water spraying out
train station
us in front of the station onto the concrete where we were standing, and spraying us. I was freezing and the only thing I was thinking of was to get into the sun! So alas, no pictures of the unique statue with water spraying out of its boob.
Right across from the Pompidou, there was a little cafe to stop and buy a crepe. Several people in our group stopped to buy crepes, but damn it, I hadn't exchanged money into Euro's yet. Across the street was an ATM and I went running over there to get money out. I took out 80 euro, which, to be honest, I have no idea how much that is in USD. As I finished withdrawing money, to the right of us was a KFC. I could smell it, I was hungry. And a KFC in Paris was funny. So I took a picture. "You're taking a picture of the KFC?" Jays says. "Yeah," I reply.
I never got around to buying my crepe, our walking tour proceeded. As we walked across the street, Joel pointed out a woman walking a pug dog. "You know its such a cliche but its true," he said in his adorable
view
view outside our window from our room English accent, "everywhere you go you see a woman walking a silly little dog." Everyone laughed and Jay looked over at me and giggled. I have always had a thing for pugs and think they are so cute.
So anyway, the walking tour took us to the most beautiful church. The Eglise Sainte-Eustache. "They don't have churches like that in the states," I said. Joel stopped walking, next to a cute carousel. In the back ground was the church and he proceeded to give us an amusing demonstration of what a "flying buttress" is, since the Eglise Sainte-Eustache church has these amazing flying buttresses on the outside. He called up Jay, and Thomas (also from Texas! Yay!) to be volunteers to demonstrate a flying buttress. Then he also called up two more volunteers. The entire thing was funny and I took some pictures of the demonstration. The church also had a unique statue of "a head and a hand". I don't know what the name of it is!
After the church, it was back on the Metro and back to the hotel. We had a mere thirty minuets before dinner at a restaurant called Chez Clemetes. (I think)
view
right outside our window We sat at a table seated for 12, and got to talk to several other group members. I sat next to Renee and Mark, a nice couple from Iowa, and Jay sat next to Tina, from northern California. The majority of our group seemed to be having a wonderful time. Pretty much no one spoke French, and everyone swapped stories of what their agenda was for the following day. I do have to say, however, Jay speaks very limited French, which he hadn't used since high school. But he would kill me if I didn't mention his bilingual-ism in this blog. He was able to talk to the waiter and order a few things in French. Of course, he impressed some of the people in our group and one of the other group members said, "your lucky to have him!" Little did they know, he only really knows a few words! There was wine, deserts, pictures, laughter, I didn't want any of it to end. It was like one of those old black and white movies where suddenly, you realize, everything around you is perfect.
Paris, you had me at bonjour.
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steph
non-member comment
great pics!
i saw a story on how the chunnel was built... scary. i always wanted to ride it... all i've ever been on is the train in JAX and BART in san francisco. anyway, great pics. i save all my favorites... the window one's are artsy.