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Paris, France

We enjoyed a sleep in after our late night – which was about 1:45am by the time we got home, showered and turned out the lights. In thinking about our trip I hesitate to use the words ‘holiday’ or ‘vacation’- its hard, tiring work (yeah feel sorry for us)! Its an adventure and a journey and today we needed a slower pace more than ever so we planned nothing except a bit of shopping, housework and to try and catch up on blogs.

The title of my blog is about not being a tourist today but just looking, relaxing, shopping, eating and getting about like a Parisienne. Its about absorbing the vibe and reflecting on this city.
From a kiwi perspective we have not heard many positive things about France, the French and Paris. Descriptors such as expensive, arrogant, rude, unhelpful, dirty, dog sh*t everywhere, won’t speak any English to you, difficult, crowded, and most common – hated it! Accordingly our expectations were not high, and I was worried that planning 7 days for Paris would be something to regret. Other than the dining being very underwhelming except for Alsace we really like France, the French and Paris!

98% of the people we have interacted with have been polite to very nice. English has been spoken to us very widely and if not spoken there has been a willingness to work around it. People say that Rome is organised chaos and you either get it or not – love it or hate it. Rome didn’t feel like that to me. Perhaps if I had more time there I could have formulated an opinion one way or another, and I would like to go back. However, Paris I would say fits that statement. Its crazy but it works and clearly Vern and I love it. We would not like to live here in a tiny apartment looking out at another apartment, but feel its a fantastic place to visit and enjoy its charm.

So today we sat in our hotel room with the big windows open, looking across at the typical Parisienne apartment across the street while eating our creamed rice for breakfast. Vern did some washing which we hung Italian style on our window wrought iron – hoping not to find our knickers on the street later in the day….

At lunch we took a couple of lurching subway stops to Montpernasse to a large shopping centre. As we walked along we saw a line of people outside a patiserie – boulangerie and took our cue to join it as the food must be great if the locals line up. Two nicely filled baguettes and cakies later we sat in a bus stop to eat as the shop was takeaway only. It was a good decision to stop there as the food was delicious. I had a baguette with salmon tartare filling and Vern had ham and cheese. This was followed by cherry cheesecake and a pistachio slice all for just €10.

The streets in this suburb are very similar to our (temporary Paris) residential suburb. Tall older apartments everywhere and on the ground level are many small shops and business. There are also many cafes, bistros and little bars. It amazes us how many cafes there are and how small the shops and cafes are in general – seriously tiny yet they must be doing ok, or enough to be viable. There are not as many parks or squares as some of the other cities we have seen.

We enjoyed our stroll along the semi quiet (for Paris) suburban streets looking at the shops and buildings till we came to the modern department store. The shopping there was a bit disappointing and depressing. There are sales everywhere and some not so bad prices but the sizes are akin to asian clothing – not made for curvalicious women like myself. There was one ‘larger’ size shop but the clothes just were a bit KMart style and I couldn’t do it (designer snob). I was after a light summer dress to replace one of mine which is really past it but it was a failed mission so I will make do. I did get some Kerastase shampoo for about half NZ price so that was some consolation.

Vern was exhausted from the clothes hunting expedition and didn’t feel like eating out (only to be disappointed) so we picnicked well again from the supermarket with foi gras, normandy aromatic camembert (which stinks our room out majorly), terrine, salads, goats cheese, jamon, and yummy fruity jelly and liquor panacotta and triple chocolate tiramisu style desserts. The other day we had an excellent round baba shaped choux filled with coffee caramel custard mousse. Wonder what the chocolate flavour is like…..?

Whilst we were eating we saw on the news that there has been a horrible rail disaster in Paris and the second worst in history. So far 6 are dead and lots injured. A regional train derailed and ploughed into a station with lots of waiting people on it. Its a sobering feeling as whilst its not the same direction that we will be heading tomorrow to Versailles, its the same line.

So early night, feeling happy and thankful in this warm city that never stops, bursting with people and culture.

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