Paris . . . but only for one night
I spent one night in Paris before I boarded a plane for Douala at about 10h30 the next morning. This normally boring experience was improved because I made a new friend on the flight over from Toronto. Susan and I started talking very soon after we sat next to each other on the plane. She is a teacher from Kingston, Ontario who is in France on a cycling tour. Of course, that led to lots of conversation, including my cycling tour in Vietnam.
When we got to Paris, Susan helped me find the place to board all but one of my bags, and then I accompanied her into the city where she had a room reserved at a hotel. Paris immediately had a new fan when we were able to take a train directly from the airport into the city. It was 8 euros (which we could pay with a credit card) and it dropped us off about 6 blocks from our hotel. The only difficulty was getting a heavy bag up and down the steps of the Metro–no escalators. I was able to get a room for the night, take a nap and then spend an evening in Paris!
Of course, almost everything was closed, but because we were together we felt comfortable walking around the city at night. Even what we thought was an uninspired choice of a chicken salad for dinner turned out to be exactly the right thing to eat. And it was delicious! I felt like I was living a French stereotype about simple food and bread being ambrosia.
We walked along the Seine and saw how Parisiennes use the space along the river to relax, socialize–even have a casual wine and cheese reception. At the Louvre, we saw the beautiful glass dome and admired the sheer size and beauty of the building. The Eiffel Tower was too far away to walk, but it was easy to see in the distance, twinkling and flashing like unending fireworks. We also saw the Arche de Triomphe (sp?), which is in a straight sightline from the Louvre.
Susan a full day the next day and she hadn’t taken a nap, so we headed back to our hotel, consulting our map the whole way. The streets were very small and definitely not laid out like our Toronto grid–more like a spider’s web. And just like London (England), two or three of them would have the same/similar name all in the same area.
I know I haven’t even begun to see Paris in all its glory, but without meeting Susan I wouldn’t have seen anything at all–except the inside of a hotel near the airport. Instead, I was a guest writer in her travel diary and we both had an amazing evening. Definitely an unexpected travel bonus!
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