Our Paris Holiday - part 1 in The View from the Terrace

Where has spring gone? The weather was like summer at the beginning of May when we were in France. It was so hot that we were getting suntanned sitting on the deck in the mornings. We thought it was because we were further south but when we got home we found they had been having a heatwave here in England too. Now it is cloudy and dull and, if not cold, cool enough to need the heating on most of the time. I’m not complaining though, I had the weather when I really wanted it.

We had a wonderful 6 days in Paris. We set off to London on Saturday 30th April planning to stay overnight and catch the Eurostar the following day. We stayed at a small hotel near Paddington and decided on an evening walk in Hyde Park. We lived in London for 2 years at the beginning of our relationship and visiting there is always like going home. I thought it would be nice to find the Princess Diana memorial fountain in Kensington Gardens. Unfortunately I misread the sign and took us to the Diana memorial playground. We must have walked a mile there and back before I realised my mistake but then the park was closing so we never did see the fountain! The playground was really lovely though with a Peter Pan theme and a model pirate boat for children to play on.

We arrived in Paris around 4pm the next afternoon and the following 5 hours were a real struggle. First I needed the loo and found you have to pay an attendant, no problem, we had got some Euro coins at St Pancras, but the girl wouldn’t accept my coin. I had no idea what was wrong as she was speaking French pretty quickly. I do know some French and can read it to some extent, but understanding the natives was another thing altogether. Eventually I gave up and we went to a cafe and bought tea just to use the loo. They charged us 9 Euros for two cups of tea! I later realised I must have given the girl in the station toilets a pound in error!

We set off on our journey to Maisons Laffitte, a district about 11 miles out of Paris, where we were staying. I had found out all about the RER, a rural rail network, and was doing fine until we found ourselves waiting for a connection for about 20 minuites. We began to suspect there was a problem but there was no one official to ask. Eventually my hubby approached a train as people were getting off and said ‘Does anyone speak English?’ Fortunately there were 3 young people who were English but live in Paris. They explained there was work on the line and all trains to our destination had been cancelled! They took us along some corridors and up in a lift to a different rail system and told us which train to get on and eventually we did arrive at the caravan site at 9pm!

After a night’s sleep I was ready for more adventures though Hubby said he was worried about us trying to find our way back to Paris. I pointed out that was our main reason for coming and where was his sense of adventure.

We started at The Arc de Triomphe. It was there in front of us when we came out of the Metro station, and over on the left was the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We spent a while there taking photos and enjoying the atmosphere.

If we had been younger we would have walked down the Champs Elysees to the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre, but it was about a mile long so we took the Metro. We had bought a five day travel ticket that included the Metro, buses and the RER. The station exit at The Louvre took us into the underground shopping centre. They were searching bags here and I was reminded of the high security in the city. We found a cute umbrella with Paris scenes on it for Cat in turquoise, her favourite colour, then walked to the centre where the inverted pyramid is, a truly amazing structure.

The other half of the pyramid ourside.

Outside there were dozens of people selling souvenirs, mainly miniature Eiffel towers. That I caught one of them in the corner of this photo was an accident but I love it.

There were also many pictures for sale.

We walked up to The Tuileries Garden. I remembered that my grandfather had visited here about 90 years ago. He used to talk about these gardens. Everywhere there were people selling things, lots of hats. I had promised myself that I would buy a red hat in Paris. That was a joke really as a friend had posted that poem on Facebook about wearing purple with a red hat that doesn’t go when you are old, and I had said I wore a lot of purple but hadn’t got a red hat so I would buy one in Paris. I almost did buy one until there was a gust of wind and the seller picked up the hats and started brushing clouds of dust off them!

We were quite tired by now so after spending a little time in the gardens we decided to make our way back to the caravan site. Thankfully the trains were all running that time.