Advertisement
Published: June 14th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097
An early start, as we had to be at St Pancras for the Eurostar by 8.45am. The two mini vans (we did look like a travelling circus!) collected as at 8am (Steven and Georgia learnt about life in Somalia!) and we had a bite to eat at the station (as well as real hot chocolate!) before collecting the tickets and boarding the train.
Unfortunately, the tickets allocated to us were on the half of the carriage that travels backwards – I think it was a combination of this, trying to do her school work and the aforementioned hot chocolate that caused poor old Georgia to be violently ill three quarters of the way into the trip! This event did somewhat overshadow the passing through the Chunnel (though, at the end of the trip, Matt hadn't realized that G had been ill! Guess he was luckier than the other people sitting around us!)
With 3 large suitcases, 2 little cases and a bag full of car seats, we could manage easily at St Pancras with a trolley from the taxi rank to the train door, but in Paris, all the trolleys have been stolen by the homeless people, so we lumbered
with all our stuff from the platform to a taxi queue that stretched 300m out of the station! We'd ruled out the Metro (and thank God – now, having been on it, there is no such thing as stairs at most stations!) and were just wondering if we'd fit 5 people and luggage in a single taxi when a guy approached us and offered to organize a minicab van. The cost was high (105 Euro, which is about $140!!!) but with one little girl still pale and smelling of sick, it was worth every cent to be swept up into a Mercedes people mover and hand over a card with our destination and sit back to watch the horrors of Parisian traffic!
After a little while, our driver (who spoke no English, but insisted in conversing with us at length, despite our blank looks and repeated "pardons"😉 found the Quai d'Austerlitz and the houseboat which is our home for 3 nights. Nenuphar is moored on the Seine, just outside the Gare d'Austerlitz and about 500m east of Notre Dame Cathedral. It rocks very little (I was worried), and other than a slight “boaty” smell, is fine! It has a large
room with 2 couches that fold to double beds, a galley kitchen and a large bathroom, and a bedroom with another double bed. I wouldn't want to stay here a month, but it certainly has a great amount of novelty value, and was very reasonable compared to an apartment of similar size, location and charm. The only real downside is that it is not quite warm enough at night for Steven and I to sit on the deck and watch Paris go by, but we might yet rug up to enjoy it anyway!
Having arrived (and showered and changed those that required it), we headed out again to enjoy the best of Paris. We headed straight to the Eiffel Tower (by Metro – we bought 3 day passes for the Metro, and it has saved little legs quite a bit of distance!) We were all talking about going up the Tower (who was keen and who wasn't) until we saw that the queue was 45minutes long! The quick decision was a carousel ride today, and a return visit to go up the Tower! The kids had a wonderful time on the carousel, and at the playground at Jardins de Tracadero, and
as Tom kept saying “The most important thing is that we SAW the Eiffel Tower!” We caught the Metro to the Champs Elysees, but I'm not sure that the kids agreed that it was the most beautiful street in the world, and we decided not to climb the Arc de Triomphe at that point either, but to sit and have cola slushies and orangina at a Champs Elysees café! They'd done really well to get to this point, and it was close to 7pm so we headed off home – Steven stopping at le supermarche for oven fish and chips for the kids, and bread, cheese and wine for us!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.291s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0362s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Siobhan Healy
non-member comment
Mmmm orangina. Occasionally I try to make a similar concoction at home, but it doesn't quite compare.What's the tree that looks similar to a jacaranda?