Friday, February 11, 2005
Back from Paris
Ruth and I went to Paris last Sunday (6th Feb 2005). My Dad took us to Manchester airport for about 7.30am, and we flew to Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2. We each bought a 5 day, 5 zone "Paris Visite" card which allowed us to use buses/metro/RER - we used it loads. We caught an RER train to Denfert-Rochereau, and connected there to get to Trocadéro. We stayed at "Les Jardins du Trocadéro", a nice little hotel just over the road from the metro stop.
We saw a fair bit: the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysée, the Louvre (and the Mona Lisa!), Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Forum Les Halles (give that a miss) and Montmartre although we left early 'cos of pushy negroes hassling the tourists. The area surrounding Sacre Cœur is, quite frankly, a DUMP.
We didn't eat breakfast at the hotel each day (it was expensive at 18€ each), and you can easily find local places that serve you both for that. The best restaurant for dinner was the last one really, a Japanese one in the Latin Quarter called "Yagiu". The worst was "Les Fontaines" near the Panthéon: despite asking for an English menu, and apologising for not speaking French we had a wizened old crone whose only word of English was "OK", who gave us a rare steak when we asked for a medium one, who couldn't use the credit card machine so I had to pay cash, and who was bloody rude to boot.
We saw Mark Hughes, the ex-Manchester United player and now manager of Blackburn, on the flight back from Paris to Manchester. I wonder who he was out tapping up!
We saw a fair bit: the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysée, the Louvre (and the Mona Lisa!), Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Forum Les Halles (give that a miss) and Montmartre although we left early 'cos of pushy negroes hassling the tourists. The area surrounding Sacre Cœur is, quite frankly, a DUMP.
We didn't eat breakfast at the hotel each day (it was expensive at 18€ each), and you can easily find local places that serve you both for that. The best restaurant for dinner was the last one really, a Japanese one in the Latin Quarter called "Yagiu". The worst was "Les Fontaines" near the Panthéon: despite asking for an English menu, and apologising for not speaking French we had a wizened old crone whose only word of English was "OK", who gave us a rare steak when we asked for a medium one, who couldn't use the credit card machine so I had to pay cash, and who was bloody rude to boot.
We saw Mark Hughes, the ex-Manchester United player and now manager of Blackburn, on the flight back from Paris to Manchester. I wonder who he was out tapping up!
.jpg)
