Back to Paris

This will be short as it’s 9.50 pm and I feel spaced as didn’t sleep well last night…prob because alarm set for 6, and I read and finished a book - usually reading sends me to sleep, but this time I got all hyped…anyway, didn’t feel too fussed as we sat for 4 hours on a TGV hurtling back to Paris from Bayonne. It was crowded, the usual fight to get bags in the luggage racks, children running round and babies objecting…Saturday, and everyone going to Paris. Actually many got off at Bordeaux, but then many more boarded and filled in all the gaps.

We thought it was going to be colder, but it was a pleasant, not uncomfortably cold, and sunny. But the main thing that was striking since we were here about 2 months ago - it is crowded, vibrant and like the Paris we knew. Last week in august was so quiet, almost spooky - and maybe it was partly the covid effect, but Parisians famously leave Paris in August, so that may have been part of it, and there were very few visible tourists then. But now so different - we hear English spoken everywhere, the Americans are coming back, and the English, and some Asians…(didn’t see other Australians)…it was back to fighting not to bump into people walking along the street.

So once checked into our hotel near the Gare de Lyon, we marched out and walked up through the Ile St Louis where Amr had booked a restaurant for tonight. Looked great, and we went on looked into Samaritaine and Galeries Lafayette, Amr bought some Mariage Frères tea, and we generally had fun. Stopped for a mint tea/coffee at our favourite place near l’Opera (where Omnia and we took Cami and James for dinner in 2015)…and then walked back to the restaurant. Quite a lot of walking I think…just checked my Apple Watch and we walked about 15 kms! Just keeping the legs ready and well.

Had a fab dinner at Les Fous de l’Ile, French food done really well…I had butternut and chestnut soup and calf’s liver and Amr had mackerel marinated in milk followed by octopus with beans. And a Sancerre Pinot…beside us were 2 gay guys, who brought their little dog (a Nico type I think..I.e. breed, not behaviour - so often people here bring their little dogs to restaurants, and they seem to know how to behave! You wouldn’t know they are there…I had one cuddled up next to me while having my tea…(not Rogers or Normans!)…we chatted to the guys and the waitress who had recently been working in NZ, but didn’t go to Oz in case she couldn’t get out…anyway, a good day, and am now crashing…Read more