England To Paris-2005

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Ever the inquisitive, I've always wanted to take the high speed train, the Eurostar, from England through the Chunnel and on to Paris. I finally did this in 2005.

Although it's possible to catch the train in London, it involves driving to the train station from Heathrow, and anyone who has ever visited London knows that you do NOT want to get caught driving in London at any cost. So the plan was to drive to Ashford, Kent, not far from London, and catch the train there.

The train left Ashford at 6:00 p.m. and arrived in Paris at 7:50 p.m. with a brief stop in Calais. The journey through the Chunnel took 20 minutes and was uneventful. The train ride, however, was unbelievable! You don't quite realize what your rate of speed is until another train passes you headed in the other direction and you cannot even pinpoint the individual cars as they whoosh past. The other train was nothing but a three second blur. The Eurostar obtains speeds of up to 210 m.p.h, which something that we certainly aren't accustomed to in the States.

The train pulled into the station in Paris at about 8:00 p.m. The next trick would be getting to the hotel. As passengers streamed from the train and queued up at the taxi stand, that seemed to be the best bet. I waited my turn and approached what should have been my cab. "Parle vous Anglais?" I inquired with my best, although hopeless, French accent. After the fifth cab turned me away, I finally realized that either the cab drivers in France don't (or won't) speak English. Not surprising, as we WERE in France, but I'd hoped to avoid the embarrasement of attempting my feeble French skills. When the sixth cab pulled up and I asked once again if the cab driver spoke English, again, I was turned away, but this time I put my hand up in a universally known 'stop' motion. The driver paused. Although not in perfect form for sure, I attempted, "Sofitel Paris? Rue Louis Armand?" again in my best effort at French inflection, in effect asking the driver if he could take me to the Sofitel Hotel located on Louis Armand Street. He paused, and then began nodding vigorously. 'Whew,' I thought. Dodged a bullet there. Even though there are many Sofitel Hotels in Paris, I didn't care which one he took me to at that point. At least in the hotels in France, someone behind the desk always speaks English, and even if he took me to the wrong one, the desk clerk could put me in a cab headed to the correct hotel. No one was more surprised than I when we arrived at the hotel and after inquiring at the front desk, found out that I was at the correct hotel and that they had my reservation.

The cab drive across the city was enchanting. The lights were just starting to twinkle in the evening dusk and the City of Lights took on a whole new meaning. Never one to be overly impressed with sights, and thinking myself above and beyond complete awe, I nonetheless took that cab ride with my eyes wide and mouth agape. It is beyond words what that initial trip across Paris was like. The train station is in the northwest quadrant of the city and my hotel was in the southeast quadrant, so I got the full tour of the city as all of the lights were aglow. The old buildings were awash in light, proudly highlighting their architectural gems. It was mesmerizing, tantalizing, and surreal. On this, the very first night in Paris, we crossed the Seine and wove across the Champs Elysees. We passed Cartier and the Arc de Triomph. There was Paris, in all her glory, and I was smitten.

After a brief evening walk, it was time for sleep. I wanted to be well rested to enjoy the rest of my time in Paris.

I spoke to the conceirge at the hotel in the morning asking about any personally guided tours, as I wanted to ensure that I got the most out of the city in the brief time that I had. After the experience with the non-English speaking cab drivers, and my horrible high school attempts at speaking French, I was looking for the biggest bang for the buck that I could get. However, I was told that most personal tour operators were booked for up to two weeks in advance. I was advised to take the Metro downtown to the Opera House and walk to 149 Rue St. Honoré for the Cityrama Paris L' Open Tour. This was definitely the way to see Paris on a limited time schedule.

The Metro was easy. We took the purple line from Balard Station to the Opera House after purchasing a 10 pack of tickets for about 10 Euro. Even though all of the stations are, in couse, in French, it was very easy navigating the subway, even with the language barrier.

Emerging from the train station at the Opera House onto the street again produced the complete awe that I'd felt the night before riding through the city. Only now I could see everything up close and soak in every architectural detail, from the gold statues atop the Opera House to the intricately carved figures and columns to the arched portals of her entrance. But everywhere I turned, there was another beautiful building to behold. It was almost too much to process.

The walk from the Opera House to Rue St. Honoré for the open air bus tour was a journey filled with unabashed awe at everything that the city had to offer. We just walked and admired for about an hour and a half before almost reluctantly buying tickets for the tour. After purchasing tickets, we walked back to the Louvre to catch the next bus. This is a hop on, hop off tour so you aren't relegated to their time schedule. If you want to spend two hours at any one site you can, and since buses run every 20-30 minutes, you can hop on the next bus and continue the tour. It is also a double decker bus, so the best seats in the house are on the top deck. The tour included Madeleine, Opéra, Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Orsay Museum, Concorde, Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe, Trocadéro, Eiffel Tower and Invalides.

The Arc de Triomphe was interesting in that as we approached it on the bus, it looked as if we should travel directly under the arch. However, as you get close to it, the road winds around the arch. If you want to get good photos, you need to take them before you get too close or you will miss your opportunity as you are traveling around it.

The place that we spent the most time was at Eiffel Tower. How can you be in Paris and not spend time there? You have two choices when ascending the tower. You can spend more and take an elevator to the top, or you can spend less and only go to the second landing. That's what we did. It was fine, and we were certainly high enough to see the city, but here's the catch. If you only go to the second landing, it still costs about 8 Euro (or $13) and there is no elevator. That's right. You walk up (and subsequently down) about 300 stairs to get to the second landing, and you still pay for it! A better way is to pay the 12 Euro (about $20) and take the elevator to the second floor and then on up to the top. The stairs are in an 'open' configuration, meaning that if you look down while you're ascending, you can see the ground through the stairs. Not a good thing if you're vertically challenged with a fear of heights.

We made a brief stop at Notre-Dame to check out the architecture. Even if you are not religious, it is certainly worth a look. It's usually busy, though, and gaining entrance can be somewhat of a harrowing experience. We chose to admire it from the outside only, as we were there in late June and the crowds were enormous. It was also 95 degrees with extremely high humidity and the thought of standing around waiting for admission was just too much to bear.

Just a wayward thought, but building upon my last statement, there aren't a lot of places in Paris that are air conditioned. It was just plain HOT in Paris in late June and even the Sofitel Hotel wasn't air conditioned. There aren't, therefore, any buildings to duck into in order to cool off. I guess there really IS something about April in Paris, because in the summer, it's unbearably hot.

We wandered about in the city for another day, eating in an outdoor cafe, and then returned to England. Paris is definitely on my list of places to return to, but only when I have about two weeks to spend and definitely not during the summer.

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Photos

Arc de Triomph
Passing by the Arc de Triomph.

Cafe on the Seine
An open air cafe on the Seine.

Cartier
Cartier in Paris.

Champ de Mars
Sign for the Champ de Mars.

Approaching Arc de Triomph
Approaching the Arc de Triomph in Paris.

Crossing the Seine
Crossing the Seine River.

Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Fountain
A fountain in Paris.

Notre Dame
The entrance to Notre Dame. The place is so big that you can't get far enough away to take a picture of the whole thing.

Louvre
The sign pointing to The Louvre.

Opera House
The elegant Opera House in Paris.

Building in Paris
A beautiful old building in Paris.

Crossing the Street
Crossing the street in Paris.

Paris Back Street
Shot of a back street in Paris.

Louvre Building
One of the many buildings of the Louvre, Paris.

Seine River
Looking down the Seine River.

Olympic Hopeful
Olympic sign for 2012 on the Eiffel Tower, Paris. A few days later in London, I learned that London will host in 2012.

Street in Paris
Random street shot in Paris.

Top of the Opera House
Close up of one of the statues atop the Opera House, Paris.

Connor Pass
This is the road coming off Connor Pass on Dingle Peninsula. It's basically a one lane road that carries two lanes of traffic.

Top at Connor Pass
A shot from the top of Connor Pass on Dingle Peninsula.