Paris : Take 3!

It was meant to be a trip with the trois of us but due to Smee not having his passport it ended up being just the deux of us, namely moi and Fen-Fen. This being my third trip to Paris and not having Moo around to force her to speak French on my behalf, I began practising my "Excusez-moi, parlez vous Anglais?" early and I've now got it down pat.  Also given that I was playing host, I also made sure didn't forget my Paris Practique this time!

Despite this being my third time to Paris, I was still super-excited to go :D  The weather has always been superb (all the better to display the Parisian beauty) and I've never had a run in with a rude Frenchie.  I do believe that to be quite the myth.  The only people who would think they're rude are tourists who scream at them in English (Brits, Americans I'm looking at you) without even attempting to ask if they understood it!  I live in a majority English speaking country and if someone came up to me, screaming questions in non-English then I would think they're rude too!  Even if I was capable in answering, I wouldn't want to assist such a rude bastard!

Our day began at 5am *yawn* with a short bus trip to Kings Cross in order to arrive with ample time for the 6.22am choo-choo to Paris.  I must be somewhat grateful that buses run at such hours and if need be, we could have taken a 30 minute walk to Kings Cross, albeit in the dark.  We arrived at the Eurostar terminal to find only ONE out of numerous ticketing machines working - yay for inefficiency!




The train ride was fast as per usual and really... it's the only way I would travel to Paris via London.  You just save so much time!  It might seem to cost more but it's just the same as flying once you've taken into account the train fares to/from the London and Parisian airports.  Even better for us, our hotel was located near Les Halles, just a 10 minute direct-line metro ride away from Gare Du Nord.

We stayed at the Tonic Hotel and I must say, it is quite the little gem.  Our package was only £200 for 2 nights including the return Eurostar tickets which more importantly departed and returned at a reasonable time.  In the past I've paid close to that for just the hotel! 

I guess we were quite lucky to get such a bargain package especially given Paris' notoriety for old, cramped, expensive hotels.  Sure, the Tonic Hotel was most definitely not somewhere you stay for a honeymoon but it was comfortable and clean enough as a place to retire.  I'm not sure about other tourists, but I certainly wasn't going to be hanging out in the hotel.  It's enviable location - 300 metres from the Louvre!  300 metres from Forum De Halles shopping centre!  Walking distance to Sainte Chappelle and Notre Dame! - certainly compensated for any shortcomings.  As you can see, they even set up a little spare bed for us two.  It was meant to be Smee's bed! 



After dumping our stuff, we made our way to the RER-C station, St Michel to board our train to Versailles Rive-Gauche.  The last time Moo and I visited, we managed to purchase a combo ticket which included a return fare and queue jumping pass to the palace and gardens.  But this pass is no longer sold!  We had originally planned to go to Versailles tomorrow but with a rainy weather prediction, we opted to go today instead.  So after the 30 minute train ride, we joined the 30 minute queue for a ticket purchase.

Oh yeah, here's a modern sculpture of a horse-drawn carriage.  Cool.

We were pretty lucky that there was some sort of anniversary this weekend which meant that our entry to Le Petit Trianon would be free.  Yippee!

With last year's renovations completed, the gold gate just looks grand.

I won't bore you with photos of the palace (Fen-Fen took a few hundred) but here's a pretty green room and us in the Hall of Mirrors.

Oh no!  I gotta be careful of the sliding steps!

We were given the best of days to visit the palace, in fact it was kinda hot and I regret having brought my jacket and cardigan. Lugging that around all day gave me a shoulder ache.

It didn't matter how many photos I took, none them did the gardens justice in demonstrating how impressive they really were.  *sigh*

My favourite manicured hedges were back to greet me.

Our relatively late entrance into the palace gardens meant that we were there in time for the fountain show.  I was hoping for the pyrotechnics and water acrobatics of Barcelona's Fontana Magica but I was a little disappointed with this 'show'.  (I later found out that they're a few hundred years old so I should give them credit). 

Yes, yes, here we are at the Petit Trianon.

Oh you know, harpsichord-playing men are everywhere.

The gardens are massive and all that walking made us exhausted so we caved in and took the golf-cart train back to the palace. At €3 one way, it's a tourist rort!  With the sun beating down on us and our legs already tired, we were prepared to pay anything for the leisurely ride.

Feeling peckish after Versailles, we stopped by for a crepe with an apple and almond filling.  It was so-so - I've had better crepes!!

We caught the RER back to central Paris and got off a few stops early to see the......... ta-dah!! Le Tour Eiffel!

Here is the tower peeking out of the trees... oh hewo!

It was about 6.30pm by the time we reached the tower and hmmm yes, with the sun still shining, Paris was surely putting on a show. 

The view underneath the tower.

Nope, we didn't pre-purchase our tickets, so we joined the 40 minute queue.

After making the ascent (via elevator of course) we were treated to a view which slowly transformed as daytime moved into dusk. 

Trocadero on one side and the Champ de Mars gardens on the other.  *thumbs up*

As dusk changed to night, we decided we were due for sleepies but not until after posing with the Eiffel Tower one more time... tee hee!