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Published: July 26th 2015
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Entrance to LouvreTuesday 21st July (continued) Lille
The issue with booking hotels with great locations is that they are inevitably in the busiest parts of the city and therefore difficult to find and to park. And so it is in Lille. Not only that but the hotel is opposite the main Eurostar station and it is frantic. Hard to find somewhere just to stop let alone park And we see that all day parking next door to the hotel is 25Euro a day. Phillip finds a park on an overpass which is normally restricted to 30 minutes but the gate is broken so no one is paying. Phil is directed to a spot by a dubious looking man who promises to look after the car. Phil slips him some cash and we are set for two days of (virtually) free parking. We head off for an evening stroll and for a meal. Lille is a nice city of about 180,000 and seems to support the local farming region. Lovely big square and heaps of places to eat. We enjoy a quiet dinner and drinks as we recall the interesting things we saw today on the battlefields of the Somme.
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On the Pont Neuf looking at Ile de la Cite Wednesday 22nd July Lille
Breakfast at the station cafe (well it was close by) is fine and we head off for the bus tour of Lille. Not hop on hop off this time as the driver explains to me that Lille is small enough that you can walk anywhere. That seems fair so off we go and he is proven right. Interesting in its own way with some unusual architecture but quite the regional city that it is. Not a lot to say really, we then had some lunch and spent the afternoon reading and catching up on bogs. Went to a nice French restaurant for dinner and cracked a decent bottle of champagne to thanks Phil for doing the driving on this part of the trip. In bed before the sun went down, even though it was 10.15.
Thursday 23rd July Lille to Paris
We caught the TVG at 10am having said our goodbyes to Phillip and Julie the night before. They were off to Holland for a few days before flying home from Amsterdam. Our train was right in time and we had good seats for the hour and a half trip. It was not
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Paris life unpleasant but typical farming country all the way down to Paris. Gare du Nord is a busy hub and we finally found our way to the correct taxi rank and had an uneventful trip to the apartment. We are staying in a fabulous location in Saint Germain on the left bank with the Seine across the street, the Louvre about 500 metres one way and the Notre Dame cathdedral about the same distance the other way. The apartments are in a premium location but their condition is far from premium. We finished up changing rooms after pointing out the torn wall paper, the ripped fabric on the chairs and the fact that the 3rd floor is exactly upper floor as booked. that afternoon we bought a two day bus tour and river cruise ticket and set off on the "green line" bus tour. As usual with these tours you see everything but experience nothing so we hopped off and wandered around the louvre area. Hopped back in the bus and again got off at the Galleries Lafayette and The Printemps department stores. Now this was a retailers dream. Again all the top brands are in these stores and it is
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Yes I was on the trip just a stunning retail space. Even though there are sales on in all these stores the pricing is outrageous. No bargains in Paris. We jump back in the bus only to find that we are now in the orange line and whilst this is interesting it takes us about an hour longer to wind our way back to the stop nearest our apartment. We stop in at a cafe nearby to quench our thirst and enjoy a spritz and a beer. Bill = 22.50euro. That's about aud30. Crazy. We then have dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant and bill = 22euro. Cheaper to eat than drink. We bought some breakfast stuff for the next few days on the way home.
Friday 24th July Paris
Lazy start to the day before we head off to join the river cruise when again we think we will hop off along the way and check things out and rejoin later. the view from the river is OK but much of it is below the surroud area so you need to look up all the time. We get off this time at les Invalides and walked up the Champs Élysées To the Arc
de Triumph. Anyone with an interest in marketing would be fascinated by this experience. All the top fashion and retail brands are there but the surprise was that there are four car showrooms on the strip. Renault, Mercedes, Peugeot and Toyota all had stores that were there for branding and they all showcased their Formula 1 cars and their technology. I did sneak a peek at the new Mercedes GLC coming to Australia soon. There was a long queue to get into Louis Vitton and the entrance to Abercrombie and Fitch was through a hedged garden. The main shoppers were Chinese and Arabs and after pricing some stuff I can see why. Had some lunch at an inexpensive cafe near the strip and continued to meander and contemplate buying something. We were looking for some specific stuff for Clair but couldn't find what she wanted. The next hour or so were on the yellow bus line to Montparnasse and surrounding areas before getting off the bus at les Invalides, which is a magnificent building and surrounding gardens set up by Napolean to house injured soldiers. Back on the river cruise and floated past the Eiffel Tower and again saw some
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On the bus interesting sights, but nothing breathtaking. Took a while to get back to our stop but that was OK, as we were in no hurry and this small adventure had pretty much taken all day. Found a cheaper cafe for drinks tonight and again went to the Japanese restaurant for dinner.
Saturday 25th July Paris.
Another slow morning, as I listened to the radio call of the Manly and NZ Warriors game on the net, which was on at 7am. Then had a lovely chat with Adam, Amy and Sonny on face time video. After we finally got out act together we headed off to the boulevard St Michel where we found what we were looking for for Clair and did some other shopping in an area that wasn't as crazy in price as the Champs Elysees. We are both very much ready to come home now and the sightseeing bug has worn off a little . We had some reading and lazy time at home after lunch. Later in the afternoon we walked in the other direction to the area around Rue Rivoli where there was an Ecco store. Alas no golf shoes on sale, in fact they
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Galleries Lafayette were the same price or more as in Australia. Walked back along the area of the Ritz hotel and many other very expensive hotels and shops. Had a drink along the way and found a bar that had the all blacks and South Africa on TV so bought a burger and watched the all blacks do what they do best and win in the last five minutes. Early night again.
Sunday 26th July Paris
it's raining in Paris and the days plan is in some doubt. We planned to watch the final stage of the Tour de France (previously described by me as the worlds most boring spectater event). However the rain put an end to that and with Julie still feeling the effects of her cough and cold we have a lazy day of reading and writing blogs. It's now 4.30 pm and this will be my last blog entry as we leave Paris to fly home tomorrow night. We have had a wonderful trip. It has exceeded our expectations and even though the last few days have dragged a little it has provided us with fantastic memories and greal experiences. I hope you have enjoyed reading
about it.
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