Friday 23 July 2010

Mum's first trip to Paris

Ever since I can remember, my mum has always wanted to go to Paris, see the Eiffel Tower and said that I should wait for 'the one' to take me there.... Well, I broke the last wish (as I was tired of waiting) and went last year for the first time. I knew instantly that I would have to return very soon and take mum with me. So, on one boring afternoon at work, I decided to book two Eurostar tickets for Mum and I. Below is a quick note of the things we did during our fabulous time in Paris (I took over 400 photos and have not yet had chance to sort them out, but will upload some shortly):-

Day 1

- train to Paris at 8.02am. Awake from 5am, left house at 6am.
- in coach with predominantly American and Canadian students - generally very loud
- delayed arriving into gard du nord due to fatality on the tracks...,
- checked into hotel. Nearest metro San Sebastian
- lunch at a local cafe
- rest back at hotel (changed rooms)
- We met a very friendly Bengali couple from Calcutta resting near the Eiffel Tower en route from visiting their son in the States
- Eiffel tower (a long walk to the top for mum)
- two hours from start to finish
- sunset view of Paris from the tower
- dinner at cafe de trocodero (with dessert - tarte au citron)
- metro back home
- taxi (as we got our metro station mixed up)

Day 2

- breakfast at local cafe
- train to Versailles
- tour of chateau de Versailles
- lunch in cafe near by to the chateau
- back to the hotel for a rest
- arc de triompe
- champs élysées
- dinner at fouquet's
- banoffe ice cream from haggen daz

Day 3

- French breakfast at local cafe
- arc Le defense
- musee de l'orangerie (water lilies by Monet)
- jardin des Tuileries
- lunch at Le forentine
- galleries Lafayette
- afternoon coffee at illy
- musee d'lourve
- hotel for some rest time
- walked from hotel to Bastille, dinner in Sully, walked through the marais to notre dame, crepe citron at cafe Paris
- metro back to the hotel

Day 4

- breakfast at the two windmills in monmarte (the cafe featured in the film Amelie)
- easy walk up to Sacre Coeur
- metro to musee d'Pompidou
- book shopping at Shakespeare and company
- lunch in the marais
- walked back to the hotel (bastille and marais) - Owen Wilson cycled past with his dog
- supermarket shopping
- taxi to gard du nord for our train back to London

3 comments:

Shalini said...

What a great trip. You planned it so well.

Suma said...

Thanks - I certainly wanted to make the most of our time in Paris.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a gorgeous.. gorgeous.. trip!! My mom wanted to go to Rome.. and I took her with me.. in 2001... We had a great trip.. Nearly did all of Italy except Milan... Your post brings back memories..

I loved how you've put it down... Sounds like a good .. good plan!! You didn't got to Mont Martre??