Au Revoir a Paris

Today is travel day; the end of the holiday. Time to pack up our bags and head back to reality, working for a living and paying the credit card bills. We have both had a really good time in Paris and want to come back and spend more time here. The trip from London is remarkably easy and stress-free; Waterloo International is the same station we use to get into London anyway, so it’s easy to get to. There are limited formalities. You don’t have to hand over your luggage to an airline, so there are no baggage retrieval nightmares: you are straight off the train into Paris. If your hotel is near the Gare de Nord, or on a Metro line that links from it, then the connection is trivial too.

When Brett is not spending so much time in Sweden, we will plan some long weekends here. It is simply so easy to do.

So as I sit here in the departure area waiting for our train, I am reflecting on the things I have enjoyed this week and some of the things I won’t be sorry to leave. The apartment worked out very well. I will miss the cheerful ladies at the Boulangerie, who greeted me with a cheery Bonjour Monsieur each morning when I stumbled in, half asleep, in search of the pastries for breakfast. The pastries themselves make the list too; they simply taste so much better, both in flavour and texture, than the ones we find in the UK.

The city itself is very beautiful. Paris doesn’t seem to have suffered as much as London has from 1950’s and 60’s building. (My history is a little ropey in this area, but I suspect Paris didn’t get blitzed by Hitler.)

I like that there are still so many small shops around. Britain is no longer a nation of shopkeepers, these days most people just drive their 4x4s to the supermarket. Instead the Parisians are carrying on that tradition and the freshness and flavour of the food makes it worth it, I think.

The little corner bars and brasseries are a delight too: the noisy hubbub of the waiting staff as they scurry about, the heavy aroma of Galoise cigarettes that hangs around the bar, the usually delightful food they have to offer, all serve to make them a wonderful place to spend a lazy afternoon.

Of course this laid-back atmosphere can be very frustrating if you are in a hurry to be somewhere, but when you have the time to enjoy it, it is bliss.

I love that you can take as many photographs as you want in the museums and chateaux that you visit. I prefer the personal touch of the photographs that you have taken yourself to the glossy guidebooks that you are encouraged to buy to remember your visit.

I won’t miss the laissez-faire attitude to their organisation though. The lack of the advertised guided tours at Versailles annoyed me. I also object to paying 50cents to use a scruffy, dirty toilet, when I’ve already paid a hefty entrance fee to get into the Palace anyway. The bizarre rules governing who could leave bags at the bag-check also left me open mouthed.

The problems with the credit cards not being read by the automatic ticket machines was also very frustrating – although luckily the Various Voices welcome pack included a week’s travelcard for the Metro.

On the whole though, as I’ve said above, it’s a city I’ll come back to. The idiosyncrasies are part of its character.

We met several more of the LGMC boys waiting for departure and most of them are on our train so I’ll head back once we get underway and catch up with them. I didn’t go to the closing night party last night – although from what I’ve heard it wasn’t that great; all the drinks cost €10 each, regardless of whether you had water or whisky – so I should maybe catch up with my socialising.

I feel I’ve got know many of them a lot better on this tour. Everyone seems to agree that the Chorus needs to socialise together more, as it is the best bonding experience.