Thursday in Paris

As was usual, we were woken before dawn when the first of the delivery trucks pulled up outside one of the shops in the street onto which our room window looked onto. Once in a while is fine, but once the third or fourth truck has pulled up, the driver coughed a few times, called out to his friend, or the owner of the shop, the novelty really began to wear off.



So, we lay awak, or dozed, and watched as dawn's light crept into our room. We asked why the air conditioning was not working, only to be told that it would be switched on on June 1st; so we were left with either having the window open and the noise of the street or have it closed and to be in a sauna.

Not that it was that bad to be honest, but broken sleep is never fun.

Having walked a bit the day before, we began to realise that Pasis is not that big, and we decided to walk into the city and to the Louvre and see what the weather would bring to the day.

First up was to buy a raincoat or an umbrella; which should have been an easy task, but the opening hours of Parisian shops although it said on the door the shop should be open, quite clearly talking animated to coleagues was much more important than actually selling things.
After crashing out in a few sports shops; we found an umbrella in a tourist shop, and so now protected we set off regardless as to what the day would throw at us.

The wide boulevards and narrow alleyways were all abustle, shops opening, deliveries still taking place. Cafes had wonderful smells coming out of them, and having one every 50m or so, or so it seemed, meant that any sudden thirst or desire for coffee could be satisfied very quickly.

We came to another wonderful cathedral, all flying butresses and curves and carvings. It seemed the spire almost pierced the leaden clouds above, and it was only a matter of time before the heavens would open.

And indeed, the rain began to fall. We took shleter under a row of identical trees in a park under the shadow of the Paris stock exchange and got our some holiday reading, and inbtween paragraphs we watched the local and tourist walk by.

Even though it was less than a couple of hours since breakfast, it is always time for coffee, and we found a very swish place that served us expressos and bagettes with salted butter and cherry preserve. We dunked the bread in coffee and tried to look local.

After working out which way round to look at the map, and which palatial building that one was, we walked towards the Louvre down another wide boulevard. People were laying flowers at the statue of Jeanne d'Arc; I took pictures, because without us Brits she would just be another crazy listening to to voices inside her head rather than a national heroine.



There was a bang, and a police van crashed into a parked truck, ripping it's door off; many more vans whizzed by, whilst the police in the van surveyed the damage. Dozens of tourists took pictures.



The queues outside the Louvre were huge, and we decided to forgo a wander round until the weather got really grim. I made do with taking many more pictures and listening to tourists as they wandered past.



We followed the wide boulevard up to L'Opera, a spendid guilded building, although it's spleandour ruined by the racetrack that was the road and junction below it's decorated walls.

It was by now lunchtime, and we headed into a side street to find somewhere to eat. We found a little family owned place and sat on a table on the pavement to watch the chic and great walk past. We ordered tandori chicken salad, and it came in a popadom bowl which could be eaten; it was light and tasty.

Little did we know that there would be some real entertainment for us; three ladies of the night tried to ply their trade in various doorways, trying not to look too obvious. They failed in that, but did get some trade. They had coffee in the cafe opposite. Not that I am an expert in such matters, but these ladies did seem rather old, ond the tallest and oldest was a dead ringer for Steve Tyler from Aerosmith, not my ideal looking lady, but she seemed happy enough.
That we were in a swish area, with posh shops and eateries around, and this other life was playing out under people's noses, and nobody batted an eyelid was something else.

We left the ladies to their work, and headed back to the hotel for a snooze as the bottle of wine had taken it's toll; as had the lack of sleep, and so in the quiet of the afternoon we grabbed 40 winks.

That night we went to a local place to eat, and had veal followed by creme brulee. It was all very nice, as was the burgandy and the conac.