The City of Love....Really?

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Don't get me wrong...Paris is a beautiful city! But whether or not I would deem it a city of love...emmm not so sure. I mean The Eiffel Tower is spectacular, and the Champs-Elysees is a definate must see, but I just did not fall for the romantintised version of Paris that the magazines and the press always talk about.

My boyfriend suprised me with tickets to Paris for my birthday a few months ago and I was so excited. I had been before with some girlfriends and enjoyed the sites and shopping. But it had always been on my Bucket List to be swooped to Paris by the man I love. So when the opportunity came round I was so happy! We went for one night and two days via Eurostar of course, and arrived fresh faced and energetic...ready to begin our romantic ron de vous. I suppose the drastic down pour of rain as soon as we got off the train didn't help the romantic setting, but never the less we persevered looking for a taxi. I was slightly confused as there was a number of taxi's but I had men shouting at me one price for a taxi and others shouting another. Anyway we hunted down one that looked safe and headed to the hotel. I had pictures of roses spread all over the bed and a bottle of wine hidden in the corner, but no, just a normal sized bed with a TV....although there was a wonderful view of the Seine. I just wanted to get outside and explore the city with my boyfriend and find that romantic moment under the Eiffel Tower. We started to walk around the city (as the rain had cleared up), but all I could notice was the amount of graffti spralled along the walls of the buildings. I mean London has graffi but this was ALOT of graffi! we ended up getting lost, so I poped my head into a cafe to ask the gentlemen who was in there if he could tell us where we were. I tried my best French (which is very very basic), but he ignored me. So I tried in English becuase I probably made no sense to him. Again he ignored me. So I repeated the question and then he shouted at me in French pointing at the door so I quickly scuttled out, with my boyfriend following behind me. Left a bit dumb-founded and lost... we went to a train station and managaed to find our way to The Eiffel Tower. But the rain had returned!! Paris did not want us to have a romantic time! Furthermore, the customer service at Eiffel Tower itself was a joke. The woman who served us, left us standing at her booth whilst she sent a text message. No words were exchanged when she eventually got off her phone...only a look of 'what do you want'. but eventually we got to the top...it was very cloudy but we took a few snaps and made our way down.

When we got to the bottom, I noticed a boat advertising a romantic dinner for two on. Ah - huh! The perfect romantic dinner! At 50 euros each it better be anyway! We booked it for around 7, which was lovely, as the night sky shinning off the Seine gave it that lovely romantic feel. The one I had read about and the one I had come with my boyfriend to experience. We had pre-paid and it included a three course meal and a drink, and we were assured..any extra drinks would be very cheap. Bargain. Now this boat dinner was lovely, there was only one other couple on the boat with us, so we got that quiet we wanted. We slowly swept through Paris on this beautiful boat, awating our freshly cooked meals. We waited.... and waited...and waited! By this point we were on drink number 3 about to go onto 4 and eventually the food came. But I have never seen a smaller portion of food in my life! I mean it was not far off being a pea-sized starter. And the same went for the main... and for desert. We were still hungry when we came off that boat! But we didn't get off until we settled our bills. 40 euro more for our drinks! I mean you would think the drinks had been served on a gold plate! So 180 euro down and still hungry... we went back to our hotel and ordered pizza! it dosen't get any more romantic than that!

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