We took the Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris. For those who don't know, the Eurostar is a TGV (High Speed Train) that goes through the chunnel. It reaches speeds upto 180mph through the chunnel.
After a 3 hour journey we arrived in Paris. First hurdle was ordering Metro tickets to get to our hotel. Luckily the ticket agents spoke English. 3 day unlimited pass on the Metro cost about 30Euro which was a bargain.
The Metro makes getting around Paris really easy, and even with the language barrier, we found it easier to navigate than the underground. Public transport when it works this well is brilliant.
We stayed at Hotel de Academe in the Latin district of Paris. The day porter was chatty and spoke away to us in English. The rumours about the French are not true it seems. The British GP was on so I caught a few minutes of that, which was weird watching in French...
After checking in and resting a bit we went across town to pick up our tickets for the tour we were doing, and the Museum and Monuments pass which allowed us to go to any Museum or Monument. Again we took the Metro, which we were getting the hang off by now.
We hadn't seen much of Paris until now. It is simply stunning. The architecture and grandeur is impossible to explain in words. Everywhere you look there is another famous building or icon. Amazing. We went for a walk down the Champs elyse to the Arch de Triomph. It's really cool seeing the things in person you have only ever seen on screen or in pictures before.
Took some cool shots and will post the Shutterfly address when I find it out.
After our walk we went to a restaurant to find a bite. I almost ordered raw steak! Food was ok and managed to get what we wanted with a mixture of English and our limited French. Dining out in Paris is very expensive. We only had mains and desert and it came in at almost 100 Euro!
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