Paris #1: The 18th & 19th; We are here, in Paris, and all is well.
The 18th of November.
Today has been stressful and tiring but we are here, in Paris, and all is well.
Our trip to Euston was good, but after that, our travel was not good. The assistance man at Euston expected me to just roll down the ramp towards him, then put the wheelchair in the back of his buggy in an extremely unsafe manner. At St. Pancras, our Eurostar seats had been cocked up, so I had to get out of my chair, Mommy had to lift it onto the train and stash it in the luggage rack, and had there been a fire, I would have burned. I tweeted angrily about it and Eurostar rang me up to sort it out. Twitter is good. At Gare du Nord, there was no help at all. We found the Eurostar ticket office and our seats back are sorted.
We got a taxi to the hotel - driving in Paris is terrifying! Especially round the Arc de Triomphe. There are no lanes! All very scary.
At the hotel, the lifts are miniscule - the wheelchair literally only just fits inside! So that's interesting.
We went out hunting for coffee and found ourselves in a scary place, so we went back to a Starbucks we'd passed. In there, we saw a man with a woman who was obviously being paid to be there. Cropped pink fluffy jumper, enormous breasts, long blonde fake hair, and his hands were everywhere. Then we had dinner in McDonald's because we're exhausted. Back in the hotel, we've found BBC1 and I will sleep soon.
The 19th of November.
If you ever want to do Paris in a day, come to us. You won't go inside anything, but you'll see everything.
We had pastries for breakfast at the boulangerie we went past last night, then we made our way down to the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower. I'll say this now and get it out of the way: all the architecture in Paris is utterly captivating. I would walk around gazing upward all the time if I could. The amount of work that has gone into every building is just phenomenal. The Eiffel Tower was a bit shrouded in mist this morning, but as we got closer, it got clearer.
We then went to Notre-Dame, and across to the Louvre and to the Jardin des Tuileries. I was just blown away by the Louvre, to be honest. I hope my photos aren't terrible.
We meandered through the gardens, down to the Obelisque, where we turned right and went down Rue Royale. We went into the Villeroy & Boch shop and I wanted to take all of the Christmas things home with me. Then we went to Galeries Lafayette. Even the windows were fantastic. Every single one had moving puppets and played music. Inside, seeing the tree and the ceiling...I've seen photos but never thought I'd have my own. It is even more beautiful than I ever thought possible. I have no words to describe it.
We went up to the restaurant and had soup, then we bought a couple of souvenirs. We went to the Christmas shop which wasn't properly open yet, then I got a coffee and we went to the food hall. It smelled amazing, and we bought Daddy a present. We kept getting lost and ending up at the chocolates.
After we left, we went back to the Champs-Elysées, where we found a Christmas market! That was a nice surprise! It's not as good as the Birmingham one though.
Back at the Arc de Triomphe, I took some photos, then we got sandwiches and cakes for tea in the hotel. This evening we have rested, eaten food and watched BBCs 1 and 2. Mommy had fits of giggles at Monica in Masterchef.
Tomorrow we go to Disney!