03 October 2009

Paris - Day 1

23/24 September

Decided to avoid all the hassle of a flight, and took the Eurostar instead. Unfortunately, the powercables on the train platform collapsed, and we were stuck waiting for 3 hours, not even knowing if the trip would still go ahead. Eventually we got lucky, but it was still a slower trip than usual, and we arrived in Paris very late at night. Fortunately the taxi ride was a doddle, and we were at our upmarket hotel within few moments. A tiny room, but very nicely decorated, and with a superlative shower.

We were so tired, we ended up sleeping in until about mid-day (in what would become a recurring feature of this trip), then went in search of an omelette. Several places stubbornly refused to send us one, and Anna was reaching her emotional and hunger limits before we found a decent enough little place near the Pantheon.

After breakfast, we walked to Anthony's place nearby (we were staying in his neighbourhood), where we had some delicious home-made coffee before going for a long walk around the south side of the Seine. Visited some great comic shops, and popped in to meet the chef at Ant's favourite restaurant. It's a strange little place, with underwear on the wall. We got a little glass of cassis as a treat.

Ate dinner at Anthony's favourite crepe restaurant. Apparently authentic savoury crepes should be a dark colour than sweet crepes (because of the buckwheat that is used instead), a distinction apparently not made by the street-side crepe vendors.

Dinner was indeed delicious, and we naturally had sweet crepes for dessert as well (salty butter and sugar, lemon and sugar, and coconut and rum flambee). Afterwards, Anna did a 3 hour night time walk around the river to the Eiffel Tower and back again.

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