PARIS: Day 1

I have been off and travelling during the last few weeks in a variety of places. Three cheers for summer holidays! My first adventure begins with 5 companions. One of these shares my love for chocolate (pictured left) and 2 are very suspicious indeed (pictured right). The last pair are two jolly brothers who board the Eurostar for a grand adventure on the continent. We arrive in Paris, France, with our bags in tow and navigate this new and foreign land in search of our lodgings for the night. At last we come across Hotel le Havane in the heart of the city. Although suspiciously low key from the outside... ...the inside boasts a spiral staircase that must have been a grand site in the old days! We venture out on foot down rue de Faubourg and pass Porte St-Denis (large archway). It was built in the late 17th century to immortalise military victories during the reign of Louis XIV. I love the winding streets and architecture. My faithful companions pose for a moment on a street while we orientate ourselves. This man was not impressed he was in the picture I was taking. Paris has a great system of bikes called Velib. You check your credit card into the machine releasing a bike which you have free for the first half hour. It is about 1 Euro per hour there after. When you are done you check it back into a Velib stand (pictured above) thousands of which are dotted around the city. There are a few glitches to this plan. If you are travelling in a group of 6, for instance, and bike down to a very central location, you may find a Velib stand, but not enough vacant racks to lock all 6 bikes to. Secondly, if the bike is not returned you are charged 150 Euros on your credit card. The whole system is meant to encourage short commutes around the city by bike. For a Velib article in the Washington Post click here. I am impressed all my companions are interested in seeing art galleries as we approach the Centre Pompidou. Built in 1977 it must have been even more of an amazing architectural site at the time. It exhibits a collection of modern art as well as continual rotating exhibitions. We line up to see the Kandinsky retrospective. The immediate inside is a large cavernous space with great reflective floors. One of the best bits is travelling up the series of escalators that hang on the outside of the building. You get a better and better view of Paris the higher you go. Wow. Looking down to the square below. A far away view of Sacre Coeur. The square is great to view from so high. Miniature people sit unaware of my zoom lens. I get a shot of the Eiffel Tower from far away. After all that escalator riding we stop for a drink and watch as my two youngest and most suspicious companions down an astonishing amount of chocolate crepes. We continue on the the River Seine. A great view of Ile de la Cite (City Island). I am quite astonished that the Seine has reeds and other plant life alive and growing in it. Our next excursion is hopping on a boat that will take us down the river and over to the Eiffel Tower. The plan is to dismount, climb the tower, then return back on the a similar boat. As we buy our tickets we ask, "is this a return ticket?" We are given a funny look and a reply, "I sure hope so!" A bit confused we board the boat only to discover some time later that we are on a one hour tour that does not stop anywhere, sails past the tower and then all the way back to where we started. Despite the mistake, we sit back and relax. It is a great way to get a really good idea of the size and layout of the city. And on such a hot day, it is very breezy on the river. We ditched the Eiffel Tower for the day and head down to the Metro to try to find an eatery that had been recommended for dinner...Chez Marianne. Paris at dusk is very quiet in some areas and heaving in others. The local youth are out and about and people are packing out restaurants. This street struck me as surprisingly yellow. We arrive back to our hotel and crash. I lean out my window to breathe in my first night in Paris.