GeordieBarker.com

I know this blog post is quite late, and I am actually writing it from a small town in the Swiss Alps, almost three weeks after the fact. I still want to get it down on paper (well digital paper anyway). It will be brief and for the most recent update about what I am up to, please skip ahead to a newer post!

Me, in the Swiss Alps

Right, with the introduction over, I can get stuck into it. So outside of my Physio appointments and general London lifestyle, I was invited over to Paris for the weekend, to visit my aunty Lynley. I accepted quite willingly, as it was a good way to break up my recovery time and I was hanging to see a new place, and a familiar face.

Eurostar Ticket Collection

I booked a return ticket on the Eurostar thanks to LastMinute.co.uk, but it still cost me over 120 pounds. This was quite expensive compared to the 59 pound return tickets that had advertised around London. My aunty was covering my accommodation and living expenses for most of my time in London, so it was really quite a good deal.

Friday
I took my wheeling case, and left my pack with most of my stuff in the storage shed at Palmers Lodge in London. It was not heavy, but posed a challenge when tackling the London tube, and it’s lack of elevators and escalators. I eventually made it to Kings Cross (St Pancras) Station, and boarded the Eurostar with some time to spare. The trip was amazing. The train went so fast and was very smooth. It was a little weird thought, because the train takes you through a number of tunnels, not just the tunnel under the channel, and these posed some pain on your ears. I am not sure if it has something to so with the speed of the train, or the style of train, but the sudden changes wreaked havoc on your ears.

Paris Metro, Minutes to train

I met Lynley at Paris Du Nord, and we took the Metro about 10 stops to where we were staying. I was expecting to be on the couch in her friends apartment, but as it turned out, her friend’s brother was away on business, and had an apartment across the road. This meant that I had my own apartment in Paris, with a view of the park and a lovely lounge room lined with walls of books. I was seriously amazed, and despite the two story stair climb, very content with my lodgings. I actually filmed a video blog in my apartment because I felt so at home and amazed at my surroundings. Unfortunately, due to my computer crashing, I have lost the file, as I only recovered image files.

The Pompidou Centre

Lynley and I took full advantage of my early arrival, jumping back on the Metro and heading into the Pompidou Centre. I had heard of the place before, but never visited in my past trips to Paris. It is a modern art gallery, but has special significance as all of its services are visible from the outside of the building. When it was built, which was at least 30 years ago, it caused a lot of controversy, some Parisians hated it, some loved it. Today it stands as a symbol of the modern architecture of its day.
Due to it being a public holiday, every man and his dog were there, so we decided to skip it and maybe return later, instead choosing to wander through the wonderful streets. I introduced Lynley to the amazing Soy Chai latte with a half pump vanilla, and we found a great deli where we brought our dinner. We ended up on the river, and got lost a number of times.

OMG... Food!

We headed back to the apartment, where I met Lynley’s friend Sabrina. We had pre dinner drinks consisting of a few Kronenburg 1664’s at a lovely roadside café. We then inhaled our wonderful Salmon and cream sauce pasta in Sabrina’s loungeroom. It was of corse soaked up with amazing French bread. I retired to my wonderful apartment and sat by the window for a while, watching the world pass by, before retiring to bed. It was wonderful to be in a new city, and to have the travelling under way again.

1664, French for beer!

Saturday
The next day was Lynley’s birthday, and so it was up to her what we did. I managed to find a bakery and ordered two criossants in full French. I was extremely proud of myself. Lynley suggested we try and re-visit the Pompidou Centre, and this time succeeded in getting in. It was a wonderful place, and I fell in love with their foyer signs, which were LEDs set in Perspex. We saw two floors of the permanent exhibitions, and found some interesting pieces, including one artist who essentially made strange circus style toys. We had both has enough after two or so hours, and decided a movie might be nice for Lynley’s birthday. I got some free wifi, checked the GPS, and we set out in search of a cinema that was playing films in English. It was surprisingly hard to find, but after walking past it, getting lost for 35 minutes, and trying to ask for directions, we found it.

Lynley and I with good popcorn!

The movie was called Good Morning England, and was amazingly good. The cinema gave you a choice between both styles of popcorn, which was amazing. After falling in love with sweet popcorn in Asia, I got sweet for me, and salted for Lynley.The movie had gone for a lot longer than we thought, and as such we were a little late to meeting Sabrina for dinner. We tried ringing her a few times, but as it turns out, Lynley had her number wrongly written in her phone. I dissected the country codes and such and managed to get onto her. We eventually set a rendezvous closer to the restaurant rather than our apartments, and it worked quite well.

Beautiful Old French Car

Dinner was amazing, We had a set menu, and I tired snails, baked cheese, and indulged in the amazing bread (as usual). Lynley and Sabrina were on the good wine, but due to my dislike of wine, I stuck to the 1664. We indulged in some amazing desert (chocolate pudding), and then set out in Sabrinas Mum’s car to have a night tour of Paris. It was amazing, and I was really excited to see something that most tourists would not get to. I was being driven around Paris, by a Parisian.

The Louvre @ Night!

We drove through the Arch De Triumph, stopped at the Eifel Tower, and along the river. It was truly an amazing experience. I was on a late train the next day, which meant that we could go to Sabrinas Mum’s house for lunch and ‘the best’ cuscus we would ever taste. We retired early, and I once again took in the fact that I had an apartment to myself. I attempted to use the computer, which was a challenge, because it involved setting all the languages to English, and changing the keyboard layout to a normal QWERTY setup.

My apartment building!

Sunday
We didn’t get up very early, and once I managed to get a hold of Lynley, she cooked me bacon and scrambled eggs on (amazing) bread. We mucked around for a bit, I started packing my stuff, then we headed out for a coffee on the way to Sabrinas Mum’s. The coffee was amazing, and we mused at how nice life was.

Paris Coffee!

We almost got lost trying to find the place, instead stumbling upon the market that setup each Sunday in their street. Lynley brought some flowers as a thank you for lunch and we found their house. Her mum runs a kind of short term apartment hotel, and she lives with one of her nieces on the ground floor of the building. There was other family present, including a couple of Sabrina’s sisters. I got to meet Madele again, and also one of her cousins, Lisa. They were very cute together, Madele being a few years older than Lisa took the controlling role in most interactions.

Markets, near Sabrina's Mums house!

Lunch was amazing, with so much food and even some champagne. Then came desert, large glasses, with fresh strawberries, ice cream, nuts, syrup and topped with whipped cream. It was quite amazing. After literally being full to the brim, we had to make a move, so that I could pack my stuff and get the Eurostar back to Paris. On the way back we stumbled across an arts precinct, and Lynley and I did some window shopping.

Heavily grafitti'd van in Paris!

You may have read my blog post from London whose prequel described my encounter with the UK Border Agency. If you haven’t been enlightened with my rather comical story, click here. The Eurostar on the way back was quite fun, I really enjoy trains. I met two very nice Brizillian girls on the train. After watching them attempt to sleep on the bright train, I offered up my eye mask and we got chatting. We swapped details and agreed to catch up. Travel really is amazing like that, one minute you are strangers and with some small talk and a little humour, you are agreeing to meet up, or do something. Its great to be back on the road, and I am looking forward to my Busabout trip, which I will be booking this week.

Eurostar @ St Pancras Station, London

Tags: 1664, Backpacking, Eurostar, london, Overseas, Paris, Ponpidou Centre, Travel, Trip '09

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 4:23 am and is filed under Travel, Trip '09. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.