Paris

 

Photo 1: enjoying the sights from the top deck of the bus. The temperature is about 8 degrees and the smiles are frozen onto our faces :-)
Photo 2: the Eiffel Tower in the cold evening light.

On Monday we arrived in ‘grey Paree’. Yes the weather gods have finally deserted us and we have had quite a bit of rain and about the same temperatures as home (9 degrees maximum on Thursday)! But a bit of bad weather hasn’t stopped us enjoying ourselves. Tuesday night was Sue’s Christmas present night – dinner at the Eiffel Tower, a one hour cruise on the Seine and the 11.30 pm show at the Moulin Rouge.  Dinner was first rate, as was the view. The river cruise was very relaxing and gave Sue her first sight of Notre Dame and other beautiful buildings and monuments. As for the show, it was awesome! We have seen some great shows and Moulin Rouge is up there with the very best. The dancing, singing, costumes, music, choreography and everything else were superb. Phil particularly appreciated the visual splendour of the women’s costumes … and what they almost covered J.

We are very close to a metro station so it is proving easy to get around.  We have taken train and tram rides to various places including the Louvre and the beautiful Tuileries gardens (Jardin des Tuileries) and the huge shopping Centre Galeries Lafeyette. The hop on hop off bus has once again proven to be a great way to get around and see special sights including Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Musee d’Orsay and lots more. The shopping has been great, especially on the Champs-Elysees.

The food has been marvellous, though as Phil learned the hard way it is risky to be too adventurous. On Thursday we had lunch at one of the many kerbside brasseries and Phil decided that he felt like ordering something very French. He saw ‘chitterlings sausage’ on the menu and ordered it. The waiter looked a little startled and muttered something about it being a very French dish. The lady who brought it looked apprehensive, said ‘you know what this is?’ and made some strange hand signals. Phil just nodded then looked at this strange tubular concoction that appeared to be a mixture of meats and other pale organic material. He took one bite and it tasted horrible, so he helped Sue with her pork. Later we googled chitterlings and discovered that it is pig’s intestines! Makes even escargot sound attractive!

We have seen some odd and interesting sights in the past few days. Seeing cops patrolling the beat on roller blades was a surprise, but they looked pretty cool. We also noticed that a lot of beggars have a new way of getting attention – they sit with sleeping cats in their laps or in little baskets next to them. At least they are not aggressively looking for handouts as in Spain.

While on the bus we passed a footbridge over the Seine that had what appeared to be chicken wire fencing on both sides and thousands of shiny bits of metal all over the wire. We were told that the metal bits are actually padlocks. Lovers put the padlocks there and throw the keys into the river as a way of committing themselves to each other. Such romantics these Parisians.

We thought we had been pretty clever in the wardrobe department, until we reached Paris.  It is sooo cold that we even purchased scarves to help keep us warm, as we were told (by one who must be obeyed!!) that we HAD to sit upstairs and outside on the hop on hop off bus.   Well if we come down with pneumonia we will know who to blame!!  Phil was at a bit of a loss as to how to do up this “scarf thing”, but I did it for him, and he looked tres chic, until I realised I had done it the way the girls wear them!!!  No wonder he got strange looks!!  At least he wasn’t propositioned!!  I had my hair cut this morning, as we are about halfway through our tour, and once we reach London we will join up with our UK tour.  Well I asked for a trim, but the language must have been lost on this girl, as I have been almost shorn, especially at the sides!!  Phil has a most unkind phrase to describe it, but at least it will grow back before we get home – just hoping she left enough blond to hide the grey bits growing through!!!  Sherree would have kittens if she could see me now!!