Une Nuit a Paris

With Jo and Shane from the motherland over for their Europe taster we thought why not rendezvous in Paris?! When we can! Don't you just love Europe?! They took the Eurostar (smart thinking) a few days ahead of us to get in some of the sights which we had seen before and we arrived by plane early on Saturday morning for just one night in Paris.

The Hotel we all stayed at was in a brilliant position to the Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries, we popped up out of the metro Tuileries station, to find snow everywhere and blue skies, but bloody cold. I think the snow just made it, it felt magical and made up for the minus temperature (-4). After getting over the Jardin we caught up with Jo and Shane at the Hotel and dressed a bit better for the conditions. Before the sight seeing started Jo and I just had to pop into a hat store two doors down for a look at a highly skilled millinery. Whoops and just had to buy one each! Now we looked the Parisan part we took to the streets for a lovely warm sun soaked walk along the canals.

First stop was Notre Dame, J&S hadn't seen it and we wanted to see it again, who wouldn't?! It looked a lot cleaner than we remembered but still as amazing. The inside stain glass windows with a thousand colours still make you stare for what feels like hours in amazement, who could have done that and how on earth does one get it up there? I started thinking we could definitely have our wedding here! hmm very likely. No harm in dreaming though.

After a spot of lunch we braved it in the Catacombs, south of the river. An interesting experience, not recommended for all. Not a warm fuzzy thing to do, but just mind blowing what people in the late 1700s had to do when death was abundant with the plague and the cemeteries couldn't keep up with the demand. Under the cover of darkness, priests in black walked the Parisian streets with large carts full of old bones to the underground tunnels we now call the catacombs. That to a certain extent makes sense, no space so move them. How they place them is another story. Once 20 meters down under the French streets you walk the corridors lined in patterns made up of human bones, skulls, femur and tibia bones in the damp and dark for what feels like miles. It was amazing to think these bones are over 200 years old but it just felt wrong having them laid out in heart patterns to look pretty? Imagine the stackers job? "what do you think big skull or small at the top?" strange. So interesting but left us all a little in need of a stiff drink.

Dinner surely followed after a few cute cafes and another few wines later. Tom's work colleague, happened to come from Paris and recommended a good restaurant so we stood in the queue out the door for 20 odd minutes until we were seated at l'Relais de l'Entrecote. No menu was needed and within minutes we had a green salad in front of us and red wine to follow. Next the beautifully cooked steak came out in a secret recipe sauce, which the waitress cut and served us all, with a large pile of fries to complete the meal. After the first plate load, she served us the same amount again! So delicious in fact that we all finished our seconds, followed by a dessert each to share! The atmosphere added to it all, with only locals crowded in for one thing on the menu, meat. Highly recommended.

We finished the evening with a walk up and down the Ave des Champs-Elysées, to get a look at the Arc de Triomphe at night. What a sight, especially with all those mad Parisians driving around it with no lines! With the temperature dropping there was no mistaking it was winter here and made us think England is quite mild in comparison.

The Following morning, with the hotel breakfast in our tum tums we packed up our gear and headed for the Bastille area, where there were markets to see. Mostly food markets and by the look of it where most go for their weekly food shop in minus 5 degrees! crazy! We had to say our good byes to J&S as they had a train to catch and their next part of their journey to explore. It was so surreal meeting New Zealand friends in a amazing city like Paris, something you just won't forget.

After being outside for a while, we headed straight for our old favourite coffee shop for a much needed warm up before braving the weather at the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Just stunning, you wouldn't really think it was that high until you are up there, it was quite amazing how all the streets branch off this one roundabout. We spotted the Eiffel Tower in the distance and thought you can't visit Paris without at least walking under it!

We walked back through all the jardins covered in snow and thought we will one day come back to France and live, what a great way of life, but for now the plane awaited us to bring us back to reality. We will be back!

G