Day 1 - Rotterdam à Paris - 02 Septembre 2019

Arrival in Gar du Nord

Day 1 - Rotterdam to Paris - 02 September 2019

I went to work, filled the NMR with liquid nitrogen and had a pleasant lunch. I left ear and waited 90 minutes in Rotterdam Centraal. The train was on time, but who blocks the windows on a train journey?! Yeah, those guys on my left and on my right!! As we get closer to Paris I moved to the corridor so I could see outside.

Citizen M hotel

I arrived at around 19:00 at Citizen M hotel. Time to freshen up and make a plan. I looked for food and I found a random restaurant which looked French. I had gazpacho with thick crisps on top and delicious bread. For the main course I had a lovely omelette with chips. I asked the waitress if the omelette was vegetarian and to my dismay she replied "les oeufs". Ah well, in Holland they sneak meat into almost anything! Dessert was a "mousse au chocolat" which was really nice! Just one wine, chablis. Onwards to the gay scene, Le Marais. I didn't feel safe for some reason as I walked along the Seine. I passed the burnt out ruins of the Notre Dame cathedral on the left.

Le Marais was a very pleasant neighbourhood, it reminds me of Brussels. I had a beer in one place, and ended up staying in a bar next door called "Freedj" where I met and spoke with two South Africans who were travelling together, one white one black I spoke a few words of Zulu and got a smile! I decided it would somehow be nice to go another bar, so I arrived at "Raidd" where the doorman openend my bag and demanded I dispose of my water bottles, WTF? I returned to Freedj and had some rather bad acidic French wine and ended up sticking to Heineken! I rejoined the South Africans and we were soon joined by people from Benin and Côte D'Ivoire. Good craic had by all!

New friends in Paris

Later I returned by metro to the Citizen M Hotel and headed for the rooftop bar. I ordered a very nice red wine! The first decent wine I had since I arrived. I also finally go to view the "Tour Eiffel" albeit from a distance.

#Paris #gay #lemarais #thalys #nederlandsespoorwegen #wine #vin #france #train #velikibalkanskiput2019 #turasmórnambalcán209

View of Paris

In a word #content