Disembarking from the plane, I collect my hand luggage and trusty leather jacket from the overhead compartment and beat most of the passengers to the Immigration counters, if I thought that entering the EU was going to be difficult I was mistaken for after scanning my passport, the officer stamped it and I was officially into the EU all in less than a minute. Misinterpreting the arrows for the baggage collection area, I walked through customs without my main bag and then had to explain myself in french so I could re-enter the restricted area and get my bag. Fortunately I wasn't deemed a threat and they let me grab my bag, phew!!! :)
Next stop was the RER, the train service out to the suburbs, and a very crammed train ride through the industrial parks toward the city. Instead of getting off at the main station like almost all the train passengers, I stayed on the train another 2 stops and got off at the Ile de France/Notre Dame station.
Only 2 flights of stairs and I was staring at the Notre Dame cathedral, I took a 'few' photos and then headed to a small restaurant/cafe a few streets back from the main tourist area (cheaper by a more than a few euro just by walking 200 m further). After a quick bite, I walked along the Seine and took a stop outside the Louvre, it was tempting to head inside as it was around -2 degrees and even with two jackets on and a thermal top I was freezing, however the line was over an hour long. So I upped my pace to keep warm and after walking through the Jardins des Tuilleries, I recrossed the river using the bridge at the Place de la Concorde (an Egyptian monument stolen by a french emperor and now used as a fancy roundabout).
I was now in Saint German des pres, a very fancy and old arrondissement of Paris and headed to a small market place to buy lunch (a baguette, some Camembert cheese and ham) which I then ate on a bench while wondering at the huge scale of the Tour d'Eiffel. By this time, the sun was fully up and I was finally feeling warm and a little sore to as I'd just walked 7 km with all my bags.
After taking photos of the Eiffel Tower, and majorly annoying the scam artists beneath it who try and trick tourists into selecting a particular disc out of three after jumbling them (I didn't play for money as it's usually stolen or counterfeit money they give you if you win, but I won every time), I headed to Trocadero which is above the Champs d'Elysee and headed to another cafe to charge my camera (already out of charge...).
I spent quite a while just relaxing a little in this cafe and then rugged up again and headed back out to walk down the Champ d'Elysee. It is such an amazing street, with the flagship stores of many french and international stores present, however as would be expected I neglected the fashion stores and instead visited the Mercedes store (they had their 2013 touring and f1 car on display), the Peugeot store and also Renault and had a look at their latest concept cars.
My favorite visit however was to the Toyota store where they had their 2013 Le Mans car on display, it was amazing to see a car that drove over 5000 km in 24 hours in the flesh and to see it's true scale (only a metre high).
Enough about cars though, after the crowded shopfronts the Champ d'Elysee widens and turns to parkland as it approaches the Place de la Concorde, this is where I headed next to see the amazing Christmas markets. It was only around 4pm now but was already getting dark and lots of people were at the markets drinking vin chaud, buying jewellery and chocolate and lots of small figurines.
Fortunately for me, I was walking in the downhill direction of the Champs d'Elysee and when I reached the bottom I was closer to my final destination, the Sacred Heart Basilica on the Montmartre hill, only about 4 km away via L'eglise de Madeleine.
Sacre Coeur was beautiful, bathed in white light and surrounded at the base by a smaller set of Christmas markets all lit up with blue and red lights. I had a quick drink in one of the small bars in a famous little square a few hundred metres from the Basilica before descending in the dodgy suburb below (near the Moulin Rouge) and enjoying another encounter with clumsy and obvious scam artists (which culminated in an undercover cop headbutting one of them). I finally made it to my accommodation, a pull out sofa in an apartment for only $12 and met my host Axel who was very kind and offered me a beer and some dinner while I finally rested my legs. By 10 pm, after having organised a lift to Dijon the next morning, I was fast asleep.
So that was Paris in just 24 hours, next stop was Dijon but you'll have to wait for the next blog to hear about my adventures there.
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