A Tale of Three Cities - Paris

In August 2013 we took a cruise tour of the Easter Mediterranean and stayed in three of the major cities in Europe, Rome, Paris and London.

We reluctantly left Rome via Vueling Airlines from Roma Airoporto Fiumicino, one of the busiest airports in Europe. We should have known that this leg of the journey was going south as we flew North. Vueling is a Spanish-based Air-Cheapo that code-shares with Iberian Air. The flight mercifully was only a couple of hours to Paris, because the distance between the back of your seat to the front of the next is suitable only for those with a maximum girth of one metre (39”), If any part of you is larger, you will feel squished. In North America we take for granted that some non-alcoholic beverages (water, coffee, juices) are often provided without charge. Not so with Vueling. Accepting an offer of water cost us €2 each for a 250ml bottle of water.

Paris went downhill from there.

First WARNING: Never, REPEAT, NEVER take a taxi when in the city of Paris. A €10 fare one day will be €30 the next, to and from the same locations. The Metropolitan (Subway/Underground) is €1.70 in each direction per person.

Second WARNING: Listen to your travel agent. Go ANYWHERE else. Except the HÔTEL DE LA GARE DU NORD .There is a reason it is so cheap (€82) – it is more like a backpacker’s special than a special deal. If the youth hostel is full, this is the next step up (down?).
Small, even by European standards, the management does not take the time or have the pride in their property to keep the rooms in good repair. We had mould along the baseboards, the outdated wallpaper was torn in several areas, there were gouges in the walls and the shower sprayed 75% down and 25% in every other direction. Air conditioning worked as long as you wanted it no cooler than 19C. We had a street side room which proved to be very noisy since Paris does not shut down, even in the less than desirable parts of town where we were located.
The front desk staff spoke passable English, and my French is barely passable, but no other staff spoke anything other than French – even staff who interacted with world travellers. Fair enough were in Paris, where the general attitude of the populace was egocentric at best, condescending towards all other living creatures, including their fellow Parisian.
The ‘Breakfast Bar’ (€9 extra) - open 7am (or whenever they decided to open thereafter) until the latest at 10am (or wherever they decided to close) had coffee; as long as you wanted cappuccino, espresso, or café latte. If you wanted black coffee – go somewhere else. Scrambled eggs (advertised as omelette) were almost raw, and you could boil your own egg to your own specifications. Yoghurt was available as was packaged apple sauce. If you want a wake-up call – be sure to write it down and give it to them. My 7:15am turned into 7:50am.

My recommendation is to spend the additional € and stay someplace where you can sleep comfortably, and where the homeless do not sleep on the street next door to the hotel – unless of course if you are backpacking through Europe, then this just might be your cup of tea. 

Touring Paris is an adventure in itself. I will recommend the Louvre if you have either the time, or a definitive plan as to what you want to see. The museum is HUGE – 1Km X 1Km X four floors huge! Not something you can cover in a day or two, but worth the cost of admission, especially if you at minimal have an appreciation for art – whether it is sculpture, paint, pastels, modern, post-modern, classical or abstract. If you are expecting a nice quiet museum, think again; Paris is a city of 12 million plus as many tourists. The day we were there, hundreds of people were just in the shopping plaza area, never mind around the popular exhibits (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, etc.). The surrounding grounds are very peaceful and a great place to relax.

We spent a day in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, which was very nice except for the omnipresent odour of urine that permeates the city of Paris. We had a crepe made at the base of the tower and took a tour on the Seine River. At night we watched at the top of the hour as the entire tower lit up with sparking lights for about five minutes to the OOOOOHHHHS and AHHHHS of the crowd.

We walked from Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine  took the lives of more than 1,300 people (including King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, Princess Élisabeth of France, Madame du Barry, and  Maximilien Robespierre), during the French Revolution, to the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile along the picturesque Champs-Élysées.   The Champs-Élysées has been called la plus belle avenue du monde ("the most beautiful avenue in the world"), a description with which I would not argue. If you need retail therapy in Europe, the western end of this 2Km street (closer to the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile) is where you want to start with an empty credit card and be prepared to “shop ‘til you drop”.

Unfortunately Parisian citizens have a well-earned reputation of being rude, pushy, and over-all ego-centric to the maximum degree possible. Whether you are on the Metropolitan, in the Louvre, standing in line to get on a water taxi, be prepared to be pushed, shoved, and generally taken advantage of in every possible way. A local citizen noted that there are more pickpockets in Paris than any other city in the world – and they are very, very good at what they do for their ill-gotten gains.

Next Stop: London