Paris and the Parisians

What can one say about spending 4 days and 4 nights in one of the most romantic and beautiful cities in the world. With an atmosphere of surrealism and with an attitude of almost disbelief I walk around Paris' back streets, little alleyways which house a number of amazing little bars and restaurants, especially in the Latin Quarter. The mere fact that one moment you can be walking up a road that is not to dissimilar to one you may see in London or Manchester, the next minute you turn down a centuries old road with a beautiful view of the Eiffel tower.

My boyfriend and I were there with his Mother and Sister for the week. We had our own room in a very nice hotel near the Opera house. Each day we would make way somewhere and eat our morning Pan Au chocolate and his mother and I would enjoy a nice coffee (which has now developed a slight addiction problem for me in the form of double espresso's). Then we would see what Paris had to offer.

The first day we walked to the Louvre, we didn't go in but rather we had a look outside at the beautiful architecture and the glass pyramids. After this we took a boat bus around Paris, this offered an amazing opportunity to see some of the most awesome and most famous of Paris' attractions such as The Eiffel Tower and Notre-dame. Later after the boat we did the Eiffel Tower, when I say we I mean Curtis (my boyfriend) and I, as his sister and mum had done it last time thy were there. We took the lifts right to the top where we could see for miles as it was an absolutely beautiful and clear day. After spending time admiring the view and enjoy our lovely, though expensive champagne we went down and met up with the others. (We still have our champagne glasses from the top).

Later we enjoyed a charming meal, whilst Curtis' mum and sister retired, me being me took Curtis to find some bars, it took a bit of a walk but we found some quaint bars in the Latin quarter that we liked so enjoyed the rest of the night there, drinking as many different cocktails as the menu had to offer.

The next day we have dubbed "Day of the Dead". As some of you may know underneath Paris is a vast network of caves and tunnels, they used to be an host of underground quarries. Several hundred years ago, when Paris had officially ran out of places to bury the dead, they excavated thousands of dead bodies from their resting places and put them in these tunnels. They are now open to the public to have a wonder around and be surrounded by thousands of dead people.

Later that day we went to a famous Cemetery, the one where Oscar Wilde was buried. It was a beautiful and very peaceful place, I can see why people would want to be buried there... with one tiny exception... TOURISTS!!! If I was going to be buried, (which I'm not as I am technically Catholic), I would not want Thousands of people gawking at my resting place every year. This fact was made very poignant to us when we arrived at the cemetery where several black cars were entering in a funeral procession only to be surround by us lot and a load of other folks who were there to look at how beautiful it all was.

The third day we did a lot around the Latin Quarter and Notre-dame including, and this is where some of my comments on the Parisians will come in, trying to have a lovely afternoon lunch.

Now everybody knows or at least suspects the rumours are true, that the French are extremely rude, arrogant and impatient people (who hate the English). Well if the French ever want to get over this stigma, they need to get rid of a lot of people, the top of my list of those who needed removing, a Parisian waiter in a restaurant just down the road from the Notre-dame, (still on the little island). Basically we saw a nice looking little restaurant that did food and drinks and had a nice outside seating area, (though I was over ruled as we sat inside, damn being the only smoker on holiday). We sat down and the waiter came over to us, no smile, no hello, not even a welcoming face. He asked Curtis' mum whether we were eating or drinking, she simply replied "both". Well I have never seen someone in my life look as though we had just defecated on his dead mothers ashes. He handed out the menu's but not for one second did he take his horrible beady eyes of Curtis' mum. Now none of you know Curtis yet as I've not mentioned him much and its still early in my blog, but as soon as I mentioned what had happened, as he hadn't noticed being too interested in the menu, he stood up started going on with himself about how we were not staying there, at this point his sister made a quick and discreet exit... I followed.

So I guess my point is, that though we were in a beautiful and romantic city, if we were not careful, and Curtis is very prone to this, the people could have ruined the holiday. Thankfully we had each other and still enjoyed a very beautiful city.

Oh final point, sorry i know i seem to go on and on. I will make a special note of our hotel connoisseur, who was French, but he was absolutely LOVELY!! not one bad thing could be said about him, he was hilarious and his speaking English has provided us with many a quotes that will last us for many a year. So I concede its not ALL French people and not even all Parisians, just a fair few, I mean don't even get me started on their driving.