All Gall
All Gall
At various points we'd contemplated Portugal, Switzerland, and northern Germany as possible holiday destinations, so it was natural that we'd end up booking relatively late on for a week in Paris. The start was not auspicious; between the Metro and our hotel, I heard two car doors slamming, and looked up to see two men running, one chasing the other. Unfortunately I was directly in the oncoming path and was essentially rugby-tackled out of the way, being firmly jabbed in the ribs in the process. I've since been checked over and nothing is broken, but it's likely to take several weeks to heal. Mostly it's just discomfort, though it's more painful if I laugh or sneeze, and lying in bed is somewhat precarious, so I'm not getting great sleep at the moment either.
I suppose the rest of the holiday was rather better, though inevitably my view of things was rather stained by events. The Paris Museum Pass paid for itself very quickly, as we went round the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Panthéon, and others. With hindsight, we should have pre-booked online if we'd really wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower; as it was, we briefly joined the queues twice, firstly to decide it really wasn't moving, and secondly to be informed by the Laser Display Board that the top was closed, so there really wasn't any point. I didn't find the buildings at Versailles anywhere near as attractive or well-presented as those at Potsdam, though the gardens, the Trianon palaces and Marie-Antoinette's village folly were quite attractive.
The food was generally good, as you'd expect; the Creole restaurant we visited on our first evening, and the restaurant at Moulin de la Galette probably stick particularly in my mind; I was disappointed by Petrograd and wouldn't recommend it. Once again our plans to try out African cuisine were foiled by taking a holiday in August. Travel-wise, Eurostar ran absolutely to schedule and was much less stressful than flying; the Metro was often busy but kept going and had trains very regularly.
At various points we'd contemplated Portugal, Switzerland, and northern Germany as possible holiday destinations, so it was natural that we'd end up booking relatively late on for a week in Paris. The start was not auspicious; between the Metro and our hotel, I heard two car doors slamming, and looked up to see two men running, one chasing the other. Unfortunately I was directly in the oncoming path and was essentially rugby-tackled out of the way, being firmly jabbed in the ribs in the process. I've since been checked over and nothing is broken, but it's likely to take several weeks to heal. Mostly it's just discomfort, though it's more painful if I laugh or sneeze, and lying in bed is somewhat precarious, so I'm not getting great sleep at the moment either.
I suppose the rest of the holiday was rather better, though inevitably my view of things was rather stained by events. The Paris Museum Pass paid for itself very quickly, as we went round the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Panthéon, and others. With hindsight, we should have pre-booked online if we'd really wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower; as it was, we briefly joined the queues twice, firstly to decide it really wasn't moving, and secondly to be informed by the Laser Display Board that the top was closed, so there really wasn't any point. I didn't find the buildings at Versailles anywhere near as attractive or well-presented as those at Potsdam, though the gardens, the Trianon palaces and Marie-Antoinette's village folly were quite attractive.
The food was generally good, as you'd expect; the Creole restaurant we visited on our first evening, and the restaurant at Moulin de la Galette probably stick particularly in my mind; I was disappointed by Petrograd and wouldn't recommend it. Once again our plans to try out African cuisine were foiled by taking a holiday in August. Travel-wise, Eurostar ran absolutely to schedule and was much less stressful than flying; the Metro was often busy but kept going and had trains very regularly.