Gay Paree

Up the Eiffel Tower


Not up the Eiffel Tower


Nice. The city of love. In Paris with my wife. Its about time.

Oh yeh, I forgot, the kids are here too. One room, four beds - romance central.

We arrived via the TGV - le Train de Grande Vitesse - literally The Train of Great Speed. this puppy goes over 300 kmph - almost as fast as the Range Rover. She doesn't hit maximum speed until about half way North, after Poitiers. But when she does, oh yeah, boy heaven. The bottom of France to near the top in 5 hours - thats fast. All in all, it was smooth and fun. Getting to our hotel was neither.

Weve been here for six weeks and there is four of us. Including 10's of kilos of food we are bringing back - we have alot of luggage. Each of us with a back pack on and four huge bags that no one can pick up except me. This was a problem. Although we only had to switch lines on the Metro twice, there was about 3 km's to walk and about 15 almost vertical staircases to hawl the bags up (and down). Putting the millions of Parisians on their way home and the fact we had our little cherubs in tow into the equation made things incredibly hard. Most of the time I had to lift 2 bags to the top of a flight of stairs, leave the kids and Chris up the top guarding the bags then go back down and hawl up the other 2. By the time we hit the first train, my shirt was drenched and I was exhausted. Chris had to drag a bag up the last 2 flights with one of the kids because I was nearly dead.

Thankfully, the hotel was fine. We aren't talking the Regent here, but we are in central Paris and it is totally acceptable - clean and nice. Another plus was that breakfast this morning was great - a crispy baguette, slice of cheese, a crispy croissant, butter, jam, coffee and a juice - 5 euros each which is a bargain.

Spent the first full day today. We got up the Eiffel Tower (see pics), had a cheeky 3 course lunch in the Latin quarter and got to see the Notre Dame. As you can imagine, we have seen a few cathedrals in our time but the Notre Dame is a cathedral. Mouth dropping in its size and grandeur.

The Eiffel Tower was fun. Getting aroung Paris is also fun but tiring. The Metro and the absence of 300 kgs of luggage helps though and makes it relatively easy. The constant thought that someone is either going to (a) steal your kid or (b) your kid gets lost or (c) you leave them standing at a Metro station as you speed away all seem to keep you on edge.

Paris is expensive. We are going to have to budget here or we may have to sell the house or the kids when we return. However, we have so far stuck to the mantra that we are not going to return from Europe and ever say that we wish we had done something that we didn't end up doing because it cost too much.

Tomorrow - the Louvre, Jim Morrisons grave and the Champs Elysee. What are you doing tomorrow?