Sunday 7 July 2013

First night in Paris

The following is last night's blog which I was unable to upload at the time:

We're now in our hotel in Paris, 20 minutes' walk south of Gare du Nord, and five minutes from the Place de la Republique.  Jean is very happy to be here, and I'm happy to be here too.  Jean likes Paris very much.

The Eurostar trip from London took two and a quarter hours, and the time spent in the Channel Tunnel was 22 minutes.  We pulled in at Gare du Nord at 6.45 pm, and it took us maybe 20 minutes to locate our hotel.  After we checked in, we walked round the Place de la Republique, and found a little restaurant.  The waiter served his customers like he was on a waiter's marathon.  He was no sooner there in front of you than he was gone.  Jean liked him.  I thought he was both amusing and annoying. Our first impressions of Paris - thousands of Renaults, almost as many Peugeots, some Citroens and millions of other vehicles madly flying about and tooting their horns.  Countless motorbikes screaming along, also skateboarders, roller skate riders, and scooters are everywhere to be seen.  Millions of Parisians out and about under the summer sun.  Pretty French girls.  Young black men in fancy shirts, and black people in general from France's former colonies in West Africa and the Carribbean.  Lots of loud, laughing French people, without the natural restraint that the Brits are more known for.

It was very warm tonight in Paris, and we were dressed for the occasion.  i was in shorts and thongs, and Jean was wearing a flowing skirt.  At one point, we were strolling along, when we suddenly walked across a subterranean air vent.  Instantly, Jean's skirt blew upwards.  It was just like the famous scene of Marilyn Monroe stumbling onto an air vent on the footpath somewhere in the US.  

I'm really enjoying practising my French.

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