We left for Paris on Sunday morning relatively early as I
had told the proprietor of the apartment that we were renting that we would be
in Paris at 3pm or thereabouts.
We were treated to a lovely French style breakfast by Dany
and Paul, before packing the car and then backing out of their drive slightly
more successfully than the previous afternoon.
The day was beautiful if not cold.
The sky was clear and the sun was coming up as we headed toward le
Gois. Unfortunately we could not use
the causeway so we took the bridge and headed toward Nantes. As we left the island we were enveloped in
fog which stayed with us for the next three or so hours of driving not lifting
until we neared Le Mans. We took the
autoroute from Nantes all the way to Paris, a rather expensive exercise costing
around fifty New Zealand dollars.
However it was very quick and it is safe even though we were travelling along
at speeds of 130 km/h something that is never legal on NZ roads. It did make me wonder why on the small
number of motorways that we have we do not have higher speed limits. According to Paul the motorways and strict
enforcement of speed limits took their annual road toll from about 17,000
deaths per year to around 3000 a year nowadays.
The focus is now on the drinking driver as they are a bit problematic.
When we left Noirmoutier the temperature was about 3 degrees
and the highest it got was 5 degrees according to the car. It was around 4 degrees in Paris and
overcast. Veronica guided us
successfully to our apartment and we were lucky to find a park for the car
outside the apartment. Stephane the
owner was not there but I called him and he showed us into the apartment took
money, provided some advice and then headed away. I took the car back to Gare
du Nord. I messed up a couple of times
with the directions (sorry Veronica) but we got there OK in what seemed like
quite light Parisien traffic. In fact
the only issue was a bit of congestion as we joined the peripherique.
Getting into the Avis parking area proved to be a bit of an
issue as the card that the woman ahead of us had would not work. She wanted to see if my one worked and for me
to go through after her but rather than wait for me to go on her coat tails she
sped off and by the time I had got the car started again the barrier had come
down. Some men behind me put their ticket
in and said to wait for them and to go at the same time - it worked and we all got through
unscathed. That really was enough
excitement for the day.
Well actually that was not quite the end of the
excitement. When we got out of the Metro
at Place de Clichy I became completely disoriented and I took an ever
increasingly frustrated Bev for an unwanted tour of the Montmartre area. I finally resorted to Navman who directed us
in the right direction. I enjoyed the
walking as I had been driving all day.
But for Bev it was not so pleasant, not the least because it was very
cold and drizzling.
We took the metro back to the apartment then went looking
for a place to eat and chose one up the corner from where we were staying. The meal was ok but for the quality I thought
it was a bit expensive. The serveur was
thoroughly disinterested in his work but at least he conversed in French the
whole time rather than trying to be helpful in English. While we were sitting in the restaurant there
were some flurries of snow which caused us a bit of excitement.
 |
| Sacre Coeur |
The next day dawned nice and clear although it was
cold. I came up with a classification
for cold after doing what I had been wearing in La Rochelle. Days are now officially either 3 layer days
or four layer days. Layers refer to
Merino and wool. Cotton layers don’t
count. So far since we have been Paris
the days have all been four layer days as the temperatures have barely got above
about 3 degrees. Thus rugged up to the
maximum we ventured out. As we are
staying in the Montmartre area it was a good opportunity to go and look at
Sacre Coeur. The basilica which sits
upon Butte Montmartre is shown off perfectly in the clear weather.
 |
| Just after climbing to the 2nd Level |
It began to cloud a bit as we left it and headed for our
other visit to the la tour Eiffel. We
took the Metro as a bus proved too complicated and got off at a point close to
the tower. It was lunchtime and as we
had been in the cold for a while, a coffee and a bit food seemed like a good
idea. We found a place that seemed to
be cheap and ordered a quiche from the takeaway area only to be told that it
would plus cher. The more expensive
turned out to be true at nearly three times the cost to have it warmed and put
on a plate with a pinch of salad. My
French was not good enough to argue the point.
 |
| Looking down from la tour Eiffel |
Warmed we walked up to the second stage of the tower. The top of the tower was closed. I was not really keen to go due to the cold
we would experience up there. The views
of Paris were great although it had clouded over by this stage. After an hour or so up there I was getting
very cold and was ready to go down and get warmer by walking around
quickly.
 |
| Dusk is falling |
We crossed the Seine to the Trocadero where there was a nice
view of the tower against the darkening sky.
We were hoping to see it lit up but they had not come on by the time the
bitter wind forced us to find the nearest Metro station and go back to the
apartment. We called in at a supermarché
on the way back to get some more supplies which included leeks and potatoes for
a leek and potato soup which actually turned out to be rather nice although I
could not puree it. The hot soup was a good way to end a very cold
day.
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