Midnight in Paris

This will be a short post, with no pictures.  We spent today (Wednesday, October 8) traveling from Edinburgh to London by train, then transferring to the Eurostar high speed train from London to Paris, traveling under the English Channel in the “chunnel.”

As it sounds, the first part of the day was very relaxing, with a lot of sitting.  Follow that with some travel hassles, and then a highlight.

It was raining when we arrived in Paris, and now we’re really on “foreign” ground where we don’t speak the language.  After some confusion on where to find the subway train, we boarded a jam-packed Paris Metro train, with our luggage, of course.  When we got to our stop, I somehow managed to get off the train by pushing my way through the crowd, but Dave didn’t get to the door in time and the train left with him still on it.  I sat down and started thinking about the fact that I had all the Euros (we bought 100 British Pounds and 100 Euros from our bank at home before we left).  I also had the pack of Metro tickets, and Dave just had the one he had used to board.  I also had the only phone.  But, he’s a smart guy and when the first train to come back from the opposite direction pulled away, there he was on the platform across the tracks from me.

We made our way up a couple sets of stairs, clunking our rolling suitcases behind us, and found Avenue Emile Zola in the pouring rain.  We crossed the street, walked down the block, figured out that the address was on the other side of the street so we crossed back, and found the entrance to the courtyard.  After some confusion about which doorway to enter with which passcode, we entered a dark stairway and climbed four flights up to the apartment we are staying in for the week (thank you, Jacqui!!).

It was so nice to find a fully furnished apartment, with a compact kitchen and a washer/dryer!  Yes, one machine that washes and then dries.  I have a load running already.

We needed some sustenance and liquids, so even though it was 10:30 pm by then, we walked around for several blocks and found a little market that was open.  Paris really is a late-night city, and many cafes were open, with people still dining.  The rain had stopped, but the streets were still shiny with puddles.  Walking back from the market, we looked up and saw the very top of the Eifel Tower sparkling with lights, as it does every night on the hour, so it was 11:00 then.  Now just a few minutes ago we looked out the window at the apartment, and saw the reflection of the sparking tower at midnight.  Perfect end to a long day!