My stay in France

At last, we were in France, arriving there bright and early on the morning of 19 May. I'd been anticipating this visit for some time - the atmosphere and elegance of Paris, the glorious sunshine of Provence. Now at last, we were at Charles de Gaulle airport and bang smack in the middle of somewhat poorly organised immigration queues. There were no signs or notices just people directing the crowds (in French) to tell them which queue to join. Nearer the immigration counter itself, no one was directing people to individual counters, leading to some queue-jumping. This irritated one highly proper Frenchman who started yelling instructions to those in front to hurry up and go to the proper counters quickly to pre-empt the queue jumpers.

The airport bus took us into Paris and then we got a cab to take us to the small office of Apartment Paris (the apartment rental company) where we then left our luggage. There was no one actually in the office. All we had were our explicit written instructions - leave the money and pick up the key after 5pm. So the day was ours to do with as we wished.

We went first to Gare du L’Est to deal with administrative matters - purchasing our Carte d'Orange (weekly metro pass) and settling our reservations for our train journeys. To our horror, the TGV trains were far more popular than we had imagined. We had to take a later train to Avignon than we earlier planned. As for the return journey, there was no direct train available. We had to transfer in Lyon for the train to Charles de Gaulle airport. And the journey would take place in 12 days' time! When I thought of the confident assertion by the travel agent that no reservations were required.... I could only be grateful that our kiasu natures had prompted us to make all our reservations at once.

Much shaken, we went to the St Germain-des-Pres area in Paris, to drink coffee and have a light lunch in one of the celebrated cafes of the area. The famous cafes – Les deux Magots, Café De Flores, Brasserie Lipp and Le Procope - are where the intellectuals of Paris used to come and have a little café whilst saving the world. Today, they are still supposed to be a good place to spot a celebrity or two but frankly they are filled more with tourists (like us) trying to get a feel of the authentic Paris café experience.

We went to the café Les Deux Magots for a café and a spot of lunch. It was not cheap, with the bill for two people coming up to some 32Euros! A cup of café crema cost over 5Euros, sans tip. So we sat in our cosy corner and watched the world go by. Somehow much of the world (bar a dog-walking Parisian or two) looked like tourists taking photos of famous cafes. Deux Magots derives its name from the statues of two Chinese traders which are within the café. But we were too busy watching the world go by and forgot to go in and take a peek.

We then walked a little around the St Germain area. First stop was Louis Vuitton, right next to our little café. But in the area (not that we went to all of these shops) are Dior, Sonia Rykel, Agnes B and more mass market places such as Sinequanone, Kookai, and so on. I suppose they are all taking advantage of the tourist traffic in this area… Our one and only purchase was at Pierre Herme, to pick up some macrons.

We also visited two churches – St Sulpice and St Germain. St Sulplice was very large, but in the process of being restored, so we did not get a good sense of what this church looked like. Inside, it was surprisingly active. The organist was having a practice session and there appeared to be an art class going on inside – students with large sketch pads sat in clumps around stately sculptures or even near the main altar, hard at work. Around the church are some little shops selling religious artefacts – painted icons, statues and the like.

St Germain, by contrast was more quiet, with all the activity – café life, shopping, going on around it. There is a small close next to the church with a children’s playground inside – peaceful, quiet. St Germain is reputed to be the oldest church in Paris (built originally 542 by King Childebert), rebuilt around the 11th century and heavily restored in the 19th century. The majority of the surrounding church buildings were apparently destroyed during the French revolution. What these walls would have seen...

We finally picked up our luggage and checked in our apartment around 6pm. Our little home for the week is situated in the Rue Aux Ours, in the Marais area of Paris. It is on the fourth floor of an apartment building with a travel agency, Turkish restaurant and little sandwich shop at the bottom of the building. (Kebabs for dinner last night). Facing us, is the Hotel de Police du 3eme arrondissement. That would be the police station, yes. Did I say there was no lift? Lugging our bags up was tiring; and the downward climb at the end of the week is the most likely dampener on any shopping expedition now.

But the apartment itself is charming. There is a living/dining area with attached kitchenette, furnished in warm woods (cherry?) and green, with a vaguely African theme (there are bow and arrows décor on the walls). There is a small little toilet, which has to be entered from the main corridor – a good thing considering that there is no separating door between the bathroom and the little bedroom.

But it is extremely central, large enough for the two of us to get around without falling over each other, and a CD player with CDs provided. We listened to Ravel and Rachmaninoff whilst sipping our tea and eating macarons. Highly civilized.

Problems, however, with getting my internet connection. I do appear to be in some hotspot but the homepage is in French and I need to register etc, I think. Not sure what to do next.

More France photos here (and more to be added in coming days).

(Note: this post was originally written in Paris, but thanks to my lack of internet connection, only managed to post it on my blog on 1 Jun - date still appears earlier as Blogger now has the backdating feature :-) )