A Weekend in Paris

1/8/2018

My favourite perk of living in London is the easy links to the rest of the world. Not only is there a greater variety of destinations with a minimal travel distance, it's also a lot cheaper than travelling from up North. It's also a lot cheaper than travelling TO the North.

I cannot express how weird I found it going to Kings Cross St. Pancras railway station to get a train to Paris, when this is usually my "gateway to the North" - this time I was going somewhere a little (just a little!) more exotic than Darlington. Check in for the Eurostar was like a basic version of airport security, it was really quick and not busy at all; after this you're left to your own devices to wait for your train. I think the total travel time from London to Paris was just over 2 hours, which isn't too bad really, although there are multiple occurrences which I found strange... such as travelling to a different time zone on a train - and receiving a phone call when under the English Channel?!

After I arrived at Gare du Nord, my initial thought was "this looks like London" - I don't think many people would agree, but the buildings gave off a real Marylebone vibe to me. I then headed off on the short walk to meet my friend in the apartment they were renting, near Bonne Nouvelle metro station, in the 2nd arrondissement. Google Maps makes it a whole lot easier to find where you're heading to and not look like a lost tourist at the same time - I don't know where I'd be without the help of Google Maps (let's be honest, probably walking laps around Gare du Nord or even in the catacombs).

So, it's a bit sad but one thing I always get excited for when going to another country is... Sephora (come on - make one in the UK?!!), so as we didn't have a lot of the day left, we got the metro to Champs Élyseés and had a wander for some food and retail therapy. There are loads of shops here, it's the Oxford Street of Paris (but surprisingly a lot less full of tourists). If you look in a North Westerly direction up the Avenue, you can see the Arc de Triomphe for a lot of the way, but we walked in the opposite direction and headed towards the Seine to go up the famed landmark, the Eiffel Tower. We got there with the intention of going to the top, but we couldn't even get in to the grounds of the tower, as armed police were swarming the place due to an apparent security breach. I was a bit disappointed as it's one of those things you've "got to do" when in the city, but nevertheless it was still magical to see the tower in all it's grandeur.

One of the things I really wanted to see in Paris were the Catacombs. If you're not familiar with the Catacombs, basically it's a section of a series of tunnels, hundreds of miles long, spanning a lot of the city; holding the graves of around 6 million Parisians. I'd looked online beforehand but their booking system was down and the only way in on my dates was to queue up and buy on the day. Foolishly, we thought that we'd get there "early" (and early by my standards was 10:30am) and beat the queues. When we arrived the queue was round the block and didn't look like it was moving at all; so we waited for about half an hour, hadn't moved at all, so we gave up on it as we'd have been wasting the day waiting in line. It's a shame as it's one of those attractions that's quite dark but incredibly intriguing - at least I have a reason to go back to Paris now though.

After we binned off the queue for the Catacombs, we headed for the train to Versailles. The palace was one of the things that I'd longed to see for years, I have a particular interest in castles and palaces, and this one looked to be the grandest of them all, so you could say that I was excited... It didn't take long to get from Saint Michel to Versailles, it was a pleasant train ride and a cheap one too. Stepping out of the station at Versailles Rive Gauche felt as if you weren't even close to Paris anymore. It was a lovely little town, very quiet and clean (not saying Paris is dirty but.. there were some questionable smells about), and very leafy. I'd be quite content living there. It was a short walk down the main avenue to the Chateau and at the end we were greeted with a spectacular full-frontal view of the main attraction itself. Alongside the fantastic view of the palace, we also had a fantastic view of the incredibly long queue for entry. It wound around the courtyard like a zig zag and brought back traumatic memories of the Catacombs line. Nevertheless we headed to the ticket office as we had made the special trip. A bonus worth noting with the tickets is that if you're an EU citizen (oh Brexit.. why) you get free entry to the palace - which was a great saving as I think it was about €18 for an adult ticket.

After our pleasantly surprising short wait in the mammoth line, we were subject to the standard security checks and then the palace was ours - so we headed off into the tourist laden corridors of Louis XIV's former gaff (and what a gaff it is). First you go through the communal areas, such as the chapel and various rooms full of statues, just from the first ten minutes you can tell that King Louis was a flamboyant bloke with a penchant for all things fancy, I read online somewhere that the (very wide berthed) "estimate" for the construction of the palace in today's money would be between 2 and 300 billion dollars. To be honest it's a pretty crap estimate as that's like saying "yeah it would have cost loads". But hey ho, there you go, it was a lot of money and just a little bit more than my 2 bed flat in Tooting that's for sure.

It's easy to get drawn into the gorgeous baroque architecture and interiors of Versailles, and forget about the monumental history of the place. I'm not an expert at anything historical, but I am interested in it, so to think that I was currently walking through the home of the peace treaty that ended WW1 was quite something. Alongside the historical aspect, it was also odd to be walking through the bedrooms of the former royal residents. Louis had a few bedrooms to himself - about 3 if I remember correctly; and it's anyone's guess as to why he needed all those rooms for himself. (He also had a passageway between the bedchambers... who knows why). I must say the decorating in some of the rooms was a bit garish... no disrespect but it looked like Laurence Llewellyn Bowen had had his way with the choice of wallpaper, times 100. Saying this, as we made our way through the chain of residence rooms, each one just got grander and grander, until finally we ended on the Hall of Mirrors. This was actually quite breath-taking and the photos you see online don't do it anywhere near enough justice. It was awe inspiring and the absolute height of any grandeur. Apparently there are over 350 mirrors in the room, some of these making up the chandeliers which are immediately the focal point of the room. Rumour has it that the chandeliers used to get taken down daily for dusting. Big job for someone.

We took some more photos of our excursion, and looked upon the palace in awe for just a bit longer, before heading back into the city. Versailles also has some extensive gardens you can go around, but we gave this a miss as it was a bit of a grim day and we wanted to get back central for some more sightseeing.

Our next stop was the Montparnasse Tower. We had originally planned to go up the Eiffel Tower but due to the security issue this had failed, and my friend's Dad had recommended the Montparnasse instead. This was a fantastic idea as it was a lot less busy and there was a bar at the top (winner). I also thought that the view was better as you have the Eiffel Tower actually in your sights - without this there isn't really anything standout Parisian about what you see, so I'm really glad we chose this option instead. The view was great, although a little grey and windy - but it was fun trying to spot landmarks and tie up the view with the map that was there. I'd highly recommend a trip to the top of the Montparnasse over the Eiffel any day. After we'd finished here, we headed back to the apartment, with a quest for some gin en route.

After sourcing the gin in a nearby offy, we had a few pre-drinks and headed out for dinner in the area near the apartment. We ended up in an Irish bar that turned rather clubby after dark - it was a good choice after a few! I really liked the area that we were staying, it was slightly hipster but a bit reminiscent of Fitzrovia or Marylebone.

The next morning I woke up feeling a little delicate. It was the last day of the trip and I had almost a full day to kill whilst having a banging headache (my own fault, of course). My friend was heading back to London early so I was alone until my train. After getting ready, my first thought, like many other people's first hungover thought was, McDonalds. There was one just around the corner from the apartment so in my mind, there would be no compromise on this being the first activity of the day. I bid my friend goodbye and off I went to get some nugs.

After I'd had time to compose myself in a dark corner of Boulevard Poissonniere's finest dining option, I decided that I wanted to take a walk down towards the Seine and go and explore Notre Dame. It was a pleasant walk and I took the long way through some backstreets, to try and get the feel of the city. It was laden with people sat outside coffee shops, in the typical Parisian way. It took me about an hour or so to get to Notre Dame, the walk wasn't too far but I had a leisurely stroll and took some photos en route. The cathedral was extremely busy when I got there, but wasn't too bad inside. It was a beautiful building with some incredible gothic architecture; although I couldn't stop thinking about poor Quasi up there ringing the bells. I'm not a religious person but I do like to admire religious buildings as they're usually beautiful, and this one sure was up there with some of the best I'd seen (best I'd seen was probably the Cathedral of Barcelona, it felt nicer than the Sagrada Familia, probably because the latter was a building site). I took a pew and sat for a while both to rest and to contemplate life.

A stand out feature of Notre Dame, apart from the famous two towers, is the glorious stained glass rose windows. They're magnificent to see first hand, and photographs certainly don't do them any justice. I read that the windows sustained significant damage during the French revolution in the 1830's and have since been extensively restored. I'd recommend paying Notre-Dame de Paris a visit on any trip to Paris, it's worth it.

I felt like walking more, I had that urge you get just to keep walking - so I headed towards Rue de Rivoli, the famed shopping street, and my eyes lit up when I spotted a Sephora, glowing in the distance like my own personal heaven. I spent a while in here and even felt a little bit like a local after sharing a conversation with the security guard in his native tongue, French. Maybe I don't look stereotypically British after all. I spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering, with no real aim, but do you really require an aim when you're just "wandering?". Soon enough my time to head up to Gare du Nord came and I was homeward bound.

One thing to note regarding the Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord is that, to put it as bluntly as possible, it's a bit of a shit show; or at least it was on the day that I was there. I was confined to park my backside on the floor as there was absolutely no space, and no organisation, and this was not what I wanted to deal with when I was feeling tired, delicate and had a head full of cotton wool. But nevermind, the train provided a good napping opportunity on the journey back to St. Pancras.

To conclude, I enjoyed my break in Paris. It wasn't quite how I imagined, although I think that's because it's so romanticized in the media. There's a lot to see in the city and it's not all that different to London (apart from the smells, there are a few funky smells in Paris); a major similarity which I spent a bit too much time thinking about is that the city centre is vast - you can't really walk everywhere, you need to get the Metro, I've been a few places where the main city centre is easily walkable and the bus or train isn't even required. So in this respect it's very London-like. I quite enjoy this, as it shows how much there is to see and do. Or maybe it's because I'm just used to London, can't teach an old dog new tricks after all.