Paris

Night Train

One of the tips I had from inter-rail travellers was to take some time out. I don't have pictorial evidence for it, but after the hard mattresses on the floor and the early morning call from Monica we went to Claudia's grandmother. She cooked a schnitzel along with some vegetables and potatoes, good hearty German fair. I didn't speak any German but the soothing voice and the gentle German tones made me nod off in front of her grandmother. She was not impressed!

Onwards to Basel on the 23rd of August where we met up with Loreto. We didn't really see much of Basel as the two girls prepared a large picnic in preparation for our overnight train journey to Paris. Frankfurters, bread, spam and sauerkraut among other things. On our overnight journey we were joined by two Irish girls who were in very good spirits despite having been robbed on a previous train journey. There were several of these horror stories about. We couldn't sleep with the heat, so we opened the window. We couldn't sleep with the breeze, so we pulled down the shutter which tapped noisily. We all laughed hysterically and resigned ourselves to no sleep!

Finally in Paris we checked into our grubby hostel which smelled of Urine. Not to worry, we had our picnic under the Eiffel tower along with the obligatory photos and even a selfie, but we didn't have that word back then!

Oh yes, we had bananas too, but the things I remember were the frankfurters and the sauerkraut. Nothing like a fresh banana in front of the Eiffel tower!

We continued by metro across the city. I was mesmerised that the metro had tyres, something I still remembered from my school trip 9 years previously. Claudia and Loreto spoke German together and I watched an overweight man as the metro accelerated he would slightly lean to his left and compensate due to the acceleration. When the train jolted forward or stopped, his cheeks and belly would jiggle up and down. When it stopped again, he would lean again to his right and again his belly and cheeks would shake like jelly.

We alighted at Mont Matre which was the Paris of my dreams, the romantic Paris we see in films. Small cafés, artists and musicians, small wandering narrow streets. I loved it.

The surprise from Paris for me was at La Défense which we caught the RER to. A futuristic area surrounded by tall skyscrapers and a modern version of the the Arc de Triomphe but much bigger and with office space inside. When I travel I always like to be surprised!

This was visit 2 of 3 to the cathedral of Notre Dame. Little was I to know that in 2019 I would again walk past the burnt out remains of this magnificent building.

Claudia posing in front of the centre de George Pompidou.

Me posing in front of the centre de George Pompidou. I was doing the peace sign or bunny's ears or something, not sure...

The view of the city from above.

A selfie, before the word even existed. This technique I learned from Claudia. Shall we tell the world that Claudia invented selfies?

The tomb of the unknown soldier. At the time of travelling, we still needed to show our passports at each border. France had been through two world wars and after 1918 had regained Alsace and Lorraine. The second world war had ended 46 years previously. As I write this, in 2021 that would be like saying the war ended in 1975. The war was something abstract to me, but in 1991 a lot of people still had continued nightmares as it lived in their memory, something which I only now appreciate.

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