14th July 2010 - Outward from Paris

We had breakfast in the crypt again, still no air. We suspect that it is like this to make sure that we don't hang around and have a second cup of coffee.

We have decided to drop Vienna from our plans as transport from Venice to Vienna is to hard to arrange and seems to take up to much time. We have decide to replace it with Prague instead. At this time we have not completed our trip paperwork, we seem to be making it up as we go along, which is not really what we planned but seems to be the way its working out. Gemma had booked us into a hotel in Vienna that charged E99 if you cancelled which upset me, but after the trip I realised that even though they said they would charge us they never did.

Back to the Gare du Nord to take the Metro across to the other stations. In the Gare du Nord I watched a french teen run up behind Gemma just as she went through the turnstile which resulted in her not having to pay for her ride. She did this quick enough that Gemma did not realise what she had done. (I think Gemma would have blocked her if she had noticed) This is because your ticket is only checked as you enter the station not as you exit. This seems to happen a lot in Paris as we saw it elsewhere. The Metro system is still working well today.

Gare du Lyon still stinks today. We have somehow got lost trying to find the left luggage office. This seemed to have happened because we approached the station from a slightly different angle today which threw us off. Everything coming in to the luggage office is X-ray’d but I am not sure how effective it is as the guy watching the screen has his eyes shut.  Then its a Metro ride to the Louvre

Its a very busy day today is free entry. (Bastille day) Many fantastic paintings but what is it with the Italian slut. People swanning around as if its a religious icon, but its such a poor quality painting 

We walked and walked, it was packed as you would expect. On the way out we realised that they had closed the building to new people arriving because there were to many people for fire and safety.

My feet we hurting by lunch time, we used a food place that was as far away as we could from the crowds but we still had to wait 45 mins for food. It was good food though. Service was slow so I  suppose you are not supposed to rush. The lasagna and crepe was brilliant and the large beer a life saver. We had a window seat so that we could watch the poor people who had not come earlier enough queue up in the rain. One thing that amazed us was all the crowds were in the main areas, it was not hard to go down some gallery and find yourself alone.

As the underground station was shut we had to take a walk on the surface to another station. When we got there I was on the platform when I felt my wallet move, I turned round and found myself face to face with a gypsy girl. She was in disguise in jeans and T shirt but that is what she was OK! She realised that I was on to her and jumped back off the train just as the doors shut. I almost fell over when the train started but at least I kept my wallet. 

We went back to Gare du Lyon, for some reason Gare du Bercy is not on the metro system. There is a tunnel that leads from a Metro station by that name to almost there but not the whole way. I wonder how that happened. And what a shitty station it is. Its an old autorail terminal and you can see all the old loading/unloading yards. We were promised various things in the sleeper lounge (Wifi, coffee, tea etc) but nothing turned up just water. Even the air con was not working, quite a let down but little did we realise that the whole train ride was going to be spectacularly poor.

We were 20 minutes late on to the train and then 1 hour late out of the station. Much running around of the train crew,blowing of whistle, but not much action. The lights in our compartment blew when Gemma turned them on so we had a dark trip. One of the beds is broken and they did not attach a restaurant car and there was no tea supplies on the train,what a fuck up. But it gets far worse tomorrow!

13th July 2010 - Paris

It was a bit of a struggle getting up this morning. Breakfast was in a sort of dungeon. You went down a flight of stairs to the cellar of the hotel where there were two small rooms either side of the bottom of the stairs. The food and some sitting places was on the left with an overflow area on the right. The food was fine, normal continental food, cheeses, cold meats breads etc. the only problem was that there was absolutely no air flow. Just about suffocated. Still we managed to refuel some how. 

The wifi in the lounge was working fine and after some admin work it was off to the Gare du Nord. It's getting easier to move around now as its easier to orientate ourselves, on the way to the station Gemma and I spent our time looking at the bars and restaurants working out where our dinner will be this evening as there seems to be a good selection in that area

The underground station is under the main part of the station. There is quite a queue for the ticket office. We decide to buy a 3 day ticket so as to not have to queue like this again.  The pest of Paris (gypsies) were working the queues but I did not see them get anything. They are everywhere at the moment being a real pest. The ticket turns out to be a very uninspiring paper slip, after being used to real smart cards I don't think much of this. The trains are packed but frequent with stations noticeably closer together than London and with short dwell times. It seems like a good service. 

We walked along the river bank to the Effie tower, getting there about 10:30. It is packed of course with queues winding all over the area underneath the structure. We decided that the wait for the lifts was just to much but Gemma wanted to try the stairs that are in one corner leg. I was not to sure about that but decided I could do it at a slow pace. However then we found that that queue was over an hour long as well that finished any idea of going up the towers for us and instead we set off up the park towards the museums at the other end. 

On the way we stopped at a watering hole. Used the toilets which I was pleased to see where clean, it seems that the poor toilets that I remember from my youth have finally been replaced. All the public toilets we came across in France were clean and pleasant. 

After a very strange ham sandwich and a nice orange we set off again. We had trouble getting into the palace of the armies as we somehow managed at approach it from behind. It was quite good but not as good as the buildup on the website and reviews suggested it would be. Still we spent a happy couple of hours there and then had lunch in their canteen. , baguette , cream caramel and more original. Oringina is something that I remember from my trips to France as a youth. It's strange that the French used to not allow it to be exported. 

Then Gemma wanted to visit a textile museum so we under-grounded across to it. We walked for about half an hour then I decided I  had had enough and sat at the entrance , people watching.  After what seemed like half of eternity Gemma emerged happy but foot sore. We went back to a underground station in a different part of the general hotel area just to see what that was like. We discovered that there was a bar between there and the hotel so we stopped for some well deserved drinks. 

Back at the hotel we had a nap then went out for dinner. We went to la Luna again as we had seen some more items on their menu that we decided needed investigation. The owner was pleased to see us again. I had some really nice egg salad Gemma had pizza she was a bit overwhelmed when it arrived as it was about the size if a small planet. 

We then decided to check out the Gare du Lyon and the Gare du Bercy. Neither stations are at all attractive and at 23:00 both come across as sleazy. The path from the Gare du Lyon to the Gare du Bercy is not at well marked though it is easy to follow. The smell however caused us to rename it the Gare du pissy. The left luggage office was closed at that time but we now knew where it was and it's opening hours. 

Lots of places were closing now even the bar where I hoped to have another beer was shut. Went we got back to the hotel we had a shock as it was locked up. However after ringing for 5 mins the night porter showed up and let us in. We were really tired, Gemma did not even manage to eat the rest of her pizza. 

Tomorrow it's some more Paris and then off to Rome!