PARIS
Sunday 14 August
What can I say about Paris? It is still the most beautiful and most vibrant city I have ever visited. It has changed in many ways since I lived here nearly 40 years ago, but of course much of it is still exactly the same. The timing of our visit was not ideal – the middle of August when there are simply millions of tourists (both French and foreign) teeming about all the monuments and filling out the spaces in road side cafes and restaurants. However, by some miracle, the weather turned perfect for the duration of our stay – neither hot nor cold, simply balmy with blue skies and puffy white clouds.
Our first afternoon, after check in, we wandered up the river to the islands – Île de la Cité and Île Saint Louis. There’s a new project on – turning the banks of the Seine in this area into ‘Les Plages de Paris’ – the beaches of Paris. It was great fun, lots of activities going on all up and down the banks, including a ‘Thé Dansant’ alongside sun worshipers on sun loungers and a jazz band with the magnificent Notre Dame as a back drop.
We wandered back via the Hôtel de Ville where we bought a cd from an Ecuadorian street band called Relaxy Pan Pipes and watched crowds of youngsters playing volleyball.
Monday 15 August
The 15th of August is a public holiday (something religious) regrettably, so the streets were once again heaving with tourists. We took our bikes and explored my old stomping ground of Saint Germain des Prés in the 6th arrondisement. We visited the two streets where I used to live, Rue Jacob and Rue du Dragon and the famously expensive Les Deux Magots (which I seldom patronised).
Some familiar old landmarks have gone and others have been somewhat ‘gilded’, like the beautiful Place Furstemberg which now has a couple of modern sculptures crowding its sedate simplicity. It was one of our favourite spots in Paris and is still gorgeous – one just has to get used to all this very modern sculpture and wrought iron artwork (especially on skeletal metal frames). As a matter of fact I like it very much, but it looks so odd bang up against the classic beauty of ancient architecture.
Then we went on to visit UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), where I was underemployed and overpaid for four very happy years in the Seventies. We tried to go in but being a public holiday it was closed for the day - the guard was most pleasant in turning us away and told me he regretted not being around when I worked there forty years ago!
I actually managed to find what was the fantastic working man’s restaurant where I used to take an excellent three course lunch every day including a carafe of wine and coffee for the princely sum of £1 (dead cheap even in those days) but it has now been turned into a chic bar/cafe called Le Zig Zag. Bien sur.
Then, of course, we took in the Eiffel Tower......
........as well as numerous other fabulous landmarks on the long cycle back along the banks of the river.
Paris has been well adapted to cater for cycling, as a result of which there are thousands of cyclists. Most streets have a two way dedicated cycle track, running alongside.....
.... but on the busier boulevards the cyclists have to share a lane with the buses(!). Coming home that evening in the 5 o’clock traffic, which was hectic even on a so-called holiday, was terrifying - one foot skimming along the pavement trying desperately not to ricochet off the sides of the buses and pedalling like mad when a gap appeared, keeping a wary eye out for more aggressive cyclists (and roller bladers!) who would thread their way perilously through the buses and cars. After a while one gets used to the adrenalin rush and you find yourself in danger of developing the same recklessly cocky attitude of the more experienced Parisian cyclists. Mike certainly did so more than me and hurtled so far I lost him at one point. When we finally came to a stop near the Arsenal my wrists ached from the strain of clutching the brakes and I felt rather surprised, and grateful, to have survived the journey without injury. 
Tuesday was spent doing washing, blogging, meeting new people in the marina, finding out that the chandlery is closed for the month of August (of course it is) and exploring some more.
Paris is full of enchanting gems, like this doorway on the Quai des Celestins.
We did a little shopping including a bottle of cheap bubbly which we nailed that evening as Kir Royal aperitifs, then drank a bottle of wine with dinner. After dinner we took a romantic walk across the Pont d’Austerlitz at sunset and strolled up the Quai St Bernard on the ‘rive gauche’ where we once again found a huge crowd dancing to live music. It seemed impromptu, people both young and old joining in whenever they wanted, but the footwork was incredibly professional looking. The crew and passengers of a large cruise ship looked on.
Returning to the boat, we finished the evening off with a couple of Irish coffees – a very good evening.
Wednesday morning we leapt on our bikes again and cycled via the terribly posh Rue de Rivoli to visit the Georges Pompidou Centre, bought a few postcards, paid our bill and (boo hoo) said goodbye to Paris, taking the lock out of the marina at 1.30 pm, and joined all the big boats and Bateaux Mouches trundling tourists up and down under the bridges in the trendy part of the river. The bridges on the Seine in Paris are stunning and you only get to see some of the artwork when sliding under them by boat.
It didn’t take long before we started hitting the huge skyscrapers....
...and pretty soon we could have been in any large city in the world. If we came in the posh and beautiful side of Paris, this was the less beautiful more industrial end that we passed through. It wasn’t long enough, but we both had a truly wonderful time in Paris and managed to see all the important things on our list. For me it was a very nostalgic walk down memory lane and I loved sharing it with Mike.
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