I was met with the Parisian hospitality long before even leaving for Paris; I had sent a mail to the hotel with a question about my stay and I (naturally) wrote in English. Also, my name is very not French and therefore my mail address is similarly not French. And yet the response I received was in only French. How accommodating. (Apparently there is a law saying that all business-related communication has be done in French which explains it, but still).
The early flight to Paris went without a hitch and getting a ticket for the train I headed towards the city at 1100, having a fair bit of the day available though costing me my morning sleep. Getting off at the central station (Garde du Nord) I walked the rest of the way - ½ an hour – to the hotel where I managed an early check-in. For the record; it’s easier for the staff to accept your reservation if you actually enter the correct hotel. Sigh.
A short break later I left the hotel and went up to Sacre Coeur to have a look around. A can see the church from the hotel window and it was only half an hour’s walk, albeit uphill most of the way. It’s a nice-looking church but I might have missed something as I feel it and the location has been talked up more than reality could live up to.
From there I trotted down past the Louvre and followed the Seine until I reached the Eiffel Tower. It has been closed off for security reasons (I assume) so if you want to get close to it or under it you have to go through a security check which I didn’t feel I could be bothered to do. From there I headed further south to get to the runner’s expo where I managed to pick up my bib for Sunday’s run and with great difficulty finding the small table where they were handing out the reserved bibs for Saturday’s 4k morning run. Fun detail I noticed; the Medoc had their own booth where the representatives looked more like middle-aged wine farmers than runners who were handing out (small) glasses of wine.
Taking the metro back to the hotel I had another short break before going out for dinner getting onion soup, confit de carnard and apple pie. Delicious!
The following day – Friday – I had a solid breakfast before heading out for the day’s random walk. I headed towards the Notre Dame, but due to the many narrow confusing streets I once again ended up at the Louvre. With a consultation of a map and a bit of directional correction I managed to make my way to the Notre Dame – or at least the remaining shell from the fire in 2019. From there I managed – with a bit of difficulty – to locate the Bastille Plaza before crossing the Seine and getting lost in the streets. After some walking about and confusion I ended up back at the Eiffel Tower and a rain shower. Fortunately, the latter didn’t last long so the walk continued towards the Arc de Triomphe where I had a walk around, or as much around as possible as also this was at least partially fenced off. From there I walked back to the hotel where I had a short break before meeting with my parents for dinner.
Saturday started off with a 4km breakfast run from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower. It was cold and windy and I forgot my runner’s watch in the hotel room so the day started off very well. It was a short and slow run, nice with a lot of people but I was glad I had put on multiple layers. At the finish we were handed a bottle of water, juice boxes, fruit, tea/coffee, croissant and a pain au chocolat. Balancing all that was almost as hard as finding a metro entrance to get back to the hotel.
Returning to the hotel and having a shower I took the train out to Versailles to have a walk around in the garden. Amazingly large and so much to see – multiple fountains and statues all over the place. There is definitely more than one gardener employed there. Returning to the train station to return to the city my ticket had stopped working despite it still being valid. An employee let me through and told me to get a replacement at a ticket booth when disembarking. What I hadn’t prepared myself for was that when arriving at my station there was no ticket booth before going through the gates (which required a valid ticket) and there was no staff around. So I ended up taking the next train to the next station to try my luck there, and luckily I managed to get to someone who were able to change my ticket to a functioning one.
Shortly after coming back to the hotel I went out for dinner where I had booked a table. They were surprisingly efficient; I arrived at 1900 and a lasagna and chocolate mousse later I was back outside 45 minutes later. It probably also helped they had just opened for the evening – a trapdoor in the middle of the restaurant was still open from where they were still getting foodstuffs up from the basement when I arrived.
The rest of the evening was purely resting for tomorrow.
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