Kiwi Roaming

After our fabulous breakfast at the Sofitel our quick 7 hour flight from Dubai to Paris didn’t start well. We had paid for seats altogether but Steve and I checked in to find ourselves right down the back and middle row while Rachel and Gordon were enjoying our allocated seats 50 rows before us. The flight was full so we were delighted to find our aisle neighbours were colleagues and randomly moved to the wrong seats as well – so a quick switch around and we were same row (71) but by the aisle – yay. It was a massive two level A380, lots roomier than our last one and again the food was excellent. Enough about the flight but Dubai airport is massive! lots of shops and restaurants, great for walking.

Paris! We landed early so played the old “our gate isn’t ready” game. I’d been having trouble with my passport, everyone went through eGates ok but I had to go to the counter at every stage so far! nuts aye. Then we waited for what seemed like hours for our bags to arrive before jumping in a Paris official taxi – much smaller than the Uber XL’s we’d been using in Dubai – for a fixed €65 to our hotel, Hôtel Mercure Paris Bercy Bibliothèque located near Gare de Lyon.

Premier jour (day one) – Another wonderful breakfast including far too many pastries and we headed off walking soon after 8am. Along the river Seine towards the old city was really interesting, a mixture of homeless folks, crazy urinals, lovely house boats and tethered bars flanked both sides. In no time we had reached the islands and Notre Dame emerged.

Steve and I were last here in 2019 and sat in a bar at the side of the Seine when the cathedral was completely cloaked in scaffolding. Today only the back was covered, a few cranes were operating and there are still massive worker accommodation structures. The front and inside however are pristine, restored and enhanced. By now it was 9am so we walked the queuing km at pace, got through bag check and security and inside in a matter of minutes.

Notre Dame – my only reaction is wow. The stained glass alone is incredible. You can see where the pillars were touched by fire in places which makes it all real, but everything else inside has been replaced, recreated and rebuilt. I loved the glimpses you get as you look upwards where light and coloured glass peaks through between marble pillars. We don’t do many churches but are thrilled to have come here and experienced the space.

Batobus – a great way to see the city highlights from the water is on the tourist batobus, it’s basic, and sometimes crowded but an awesome way to see the city. We jumped on near Notre Dame and 30 minutes later alighted at Tour Eiffel. By now it was raining – Paris really gave us the 4 seasons in 1 day experience – so the hawkers all appeared with their €9 umbrellas. We grabbed an overpriced croque monsieur and glass of bubbles under cover with a view of the tower, the toilets there were closed so we experienced queuing for a city toilet which has a urinal at one end and self cleaning toilet at the other end – a bit yuck but an experience in itself.

Eiffel Tower – Again the queues were light so we breezed through security, tickets and second security before heading up in the lift to level 2 (the top was closed due to wind). I think this is when the “I’m in Paris” moment kicked in for me. Sadly it was really windy but it’s such a great way to help orient first time visitors to the layout of this amazing city so we persevered. After a good long ooh and aah at the view we walked down to level 1, did it all again before walking the rest of the way down giving the old legs a great workout.

Latin Quarter – back on the batobus and off to the Latin Quarter, it was proper raining now but that didn’t deter the tourists. We managed to snap pics of the highlights, be astonished at the length of the queue at Shakespeare and Company and be wow’d by Jardine des Plantes. If you get the chance do wander through here, like many stately gardens it’s massive but this one is so diverse planting wise, there is even a row of pumpkin varieties we had never seen before! and a Stegosaurus statue outside the natural history museum to amuse us.

Rain! and evening – as it was bucketing down we took shelter in a café for an amazing platter de charcuterie, aperol and beers. The rain finally calmed down (and we really didn’t need a 3rd aperol spritz) so we continued back to the hotel before napping, showered and then heading out for a late dinner in a nearby student brasserie Le Quai for cheap food and drinks. It was absolutely humming there – open until 2am and showing no signs of calming down by 11pm when we left.

Quotes of the day – “Oh god my legs”, “Oui Oui” Steve’s new term for needing to pee, “but I thought it was Monday” me on Tuesday having no idea what day it was, “shall we have some pear tart” discussed after 3 croissants had already been consumed.

Step count – 20,923