So I’m in Paris today, starting a week-long vacation with my wife. We make a good team while travelling in France. While she had previously lived in Nice & Toulouse for a short while, I learned to speak a wee-bit of French during my MBA. It’s just been half a day, and I’m already liking the city of Paris. We landed in Charles De Gaulle airport, and took the RER (Rural-Express-Rail?) to Gare Du Nord. On the way we were accosted by girls pretending to be deaf & dumb, asking for charity. My wife asked one of them where the train station was, and she replied quite helpfully, momentarily forgetting the charade! Train station located, and tickets bought (approx. 9 euros per person), we then waited at the station for the train to arrive.
Waiting at the RER station at Charles De Gaulle
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On the train, the journey to Gare du Nord was faster than expected. It took, I guess, about 20 minutes (expected time was 30 minutes). From Gare du Nord, we took a taxi to the hotel. While looking for the taxi stand, we were again accosted by a group of girls, who asked me "Do you speak English?". I was quite aware that this is always the starting point of some sort of scam or request for fake charity. I just replied "No" and moved on. We, we had to wait in a line for a good 15 minutes, but the ride cost only 10 euros, and was quicker than taking the Metro. We’ll go out exploring in a while, most likely the Louvre. Before that we had an early lunch at a cafeteria-style restaurant. The place was called "Flunch", and was a chain that my wife remembered from her Nice days.
First taste of French food. Verdict: main course was OK, dessert was great.
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I always had heard that in Paris hotels are noisy, and walls are thin so you can hear what the other guests are up-to. Believe it or not, as I write this, I hear some idiot in the floor above with an electric drill! The rest of this post, after the sigh-seeing trip!
Louvre
After lunch we decided to take the Metro and see the Louvre museum and Eiffel tower. The Metro is a good and convinrent way to move around in Paris, although at first, we didn’t realize that there was something called a "day ticket" which is valid for the whole day. The Paris Metros have different numbered "lines", and with a Metro map, it’s easy to figure out (even for tourists like us). We had to change the line once to reach the Louvre.
Entrance to the Louvre
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