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Paris, France
48° 51' N 2° 19' E
Aug 28, 2008 09:17
Distance 342km

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Other entries in Paris

J'arrive en Paris

Text written in: English

Ugh. 5am comes way too early after only crashing about 2am and not sleeping until about 2:30am. But I had to get up to take the underground from Mike's to London St Pancras station where the Eurostar train now travels from. Let's just say I didn't see a lot of the journey once on the train. Once I found my way to the station, figured out where I was to go, checked in, went through security, then French Customs it was shortly time to board. I munched one of my Fruesli bars, then got on board.

The airlines really need to take a note from the Eurostar - decent sized and comfortable seats, no crazy check-in and wait times at the airport, etc. And what can I say about the Channel Tunnel (aka Chunnel)? It was dark and I couldn't see a damn thing - so much for that being interesting. Anyway, as I said I didn't see much of the journey, but about 2:15 later we arrived in Paris, deboarded, and I was met by a beautiful, smiling face - my friend Julie whom I met on the Aussie Cattle Drive in May 2007. Needless to say it was a sight for sore eyes (and my were still burning from lack of sleep). She quickly took me under her wing, grabbed my daypack to carry, and off we went to the RER (Paris Train system) and headed to her place in Houilles. One thing I didn't realize is that Paris is surrounded by many suburbs, and all of those suburbs are actually separate towns/cities. I guess I just assumed like Calgary that they were suburbs like were I lived in Tuscany, but still within Calgary.

Anyway, we arrived at Julie's place, and I could barely keep my eyes open. At this point, I am sure Julie was thinking what has she gotten herself into? This scraggly, tired guy who really needs a shower and some clean clothes arrives, then has the gaul to have a nap and leave her alone after she was so nice to come and get him. Anyway, I crashed for a 2 hour nap, but at least I woke up on my own instead of needing Julie to wake me up like we had agreed.

Then I discovered the laptop from hell. This thing has a cooling fan like a jet engine. And a non-QWERTY keyboard. I was reduced to partial hunt and peck, but I did eventually get the hang of it with only a few regular errors. Julie said I may encounter this all my trip, so we'll see. Will definitely slow my blogging down. I did try to clean up her computer somewhat to speed it up, but it's an older machine and only upgrades or a new computer will really help with performance I was sad to declare.

After that I got up and had a shower and off we went into Paris proper for a drive around the city. Julie took me on a tour of the well known sites - the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Opera houses, museums, government buildings and to some very cool locations that are more or less known to locals. We got lost a couple of times, Julie pulled some interesting, though seemingly accepted driving tactics to get out of traffic, and I kind of learned how to drive on streets with no lanes and around the Arc de Triomphe. Julie has always wanted one of her foreign friends to try driving it, so I said I might give it a go later (not today).

After that we parked and took in a showing of the movie Bangkok Dangerous as my energy level was at a serious low. Another excellent Nicolas Cage movie. I recommend it. After that Julie took me to a famous Macaroon backery where we tried a number of flavours, but our favorites were the caramel and the chocolate ones as the best flavours. I can see how the french like their pastries and sweets after those!! They were awesome.

As we were walking back to Julie's car, we came across a Lamborghini Murcielago that was in from the middle east (based on the license plate). The best part was that it had a parking ticket under the windshield wiper. Of course I got Julie to take a couple of pictures of me with it (and I'm sure rolling her eyes at a typical guy and an expensive car). We went back to Julie's, spent some time just visiting where I learned Julie's second favourite place after Paris is Venice, then we crashed.

QOTD: How did I not see one accident with the way they drive in Paris?

Hmm - just realized I have virtually no pictures this day. Sorry.