With a VIP (very important paragraph) by Jess

Our current location of Ballancourt sur Essonne is approximately 30kms south of Paris. This gave us easy access to Paris, with an hour train ride to Chatelet des Halles, which is a big transit centre for the Metro and the RER (rural train network) in Paris. Rod and I purchased return tickets from the Ballancourt train station the day before we left. Return tickets looked exactly the same, no dates, no seats. They are small, rectangular and are difficult to distinguish between RER and Metro tickets – keep this fact in mind for later. Rod being the city boy was in charge of the tickets. All weekend.

I had booked a 2 bedroom apartment in the 2^nd arr of Paris, central, 500m from the Metro and relatively inexpensive. In all fairness, it was clean, warm, safe and once we worked out how to use the key code, easily accessible. We had booked a personal tour guide for the weekend, a woman who tailors historical and art focussed tours for children and families. This was to be our big expense of the holiday whilst Jess was with us. Please check out her website www.isabellesouthgate.com  Fortunately she met us out the front of our building block, otherwise we would still be looking for it!

Going at Hamish’s pace and with an artistic focus, Isabelle navigated us around Paris. We learned how to use the Metro and read the timetables (we even managed multi-line journeys on our own!), saw Notre Dame, learned that gargoyles are really just fancy plumbing, learned about St Denis (who carried his decapitated head for 5 miles until he died), visited artist inspired parks, enjoyed the lock bridge (even though many Parisians hate it) and basically learned about the aristocracy of the city and how it was established. At lunch, we had to make the ‘go/no-go’ decision about The Louvre as Hamish was already starting to tire, we decided we would just have to deal with Mr Tantrum and we went. So very glad we did, it was amazing. Isabelle thought if Hamish could find the 5 stand out exhibits, this might keep him engaged (it nearly worked). We saw the Big 5: Venus de Milo, castle moat, Mona Lisa, Michelangelo sculptures, Winged victory of Samothrace.

We left Isabelle at the Louvre and we caught a bus to the Eiffel Tour. Rod accidentally gave us the RER tickets for the bus across town – so it cost us 25 Euro, where it should have cost 4 Euro. Hamish fell asleep on the bus and it started raining as soon as we got off the bus. We walked under the tower and directly to the Metro at Tracadero. By this stage, it was about 5pm. Jess was due to go out at 6pm with a former exchange student from Cathedral College and Hamish, well, you can imagine. He could hardly lift his legs. I gave him a piggy back for a bit, then Rod carried him up the two flights of steps at the Trocadero (plus the few steps before this AND uphill…if you’ve been there, you’ll know what we’re talking about). Hamish weighs about 20kg, about mid-way up the second flight of steps, a hawker tried to sell Rod a selfie stick. Hilarious. Got home just in time for Jess to quickly get ready and go out. We enjoyed a delicious café dinner with a very obliging waiter.

Jessica’s night in Paris

For the second time this holiday, I caught up with a former exchange student (thank you CC!). When I got back to our nights’ accommodation (at approximately 5.52 when I was due to leave at 6), I was tired and to even my own surprise, did not really feel like having a night in Paris. However, I’m not one to cancel plans – especially when they involve Paris, so, taking inspiration from Coco Chanel, I just had to “add more lipstick and attack” and I’m glad I did, as it was a really amazing night. Adrien (said exchange student) picked me up from my hotel at approximately 6.10 (because let’s be honest, I was never going to get ready in 8 minutes). After he discovered that I had run out of time to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees, he took me straight there. When you’re on a train underground, it is quite easy to forget where you are, but I definitely remembered when we walked up the stairs and I found myself standing right in front of the Arc. After taking an obligatory photo, we walked down the Champs Elysees and it’s true what they say, it is a busy street, however, we did not get down with everyone we meet.

Whilst walking, I could see a lit up Eiffel Tower in the distance and my desire to return was clearly very obvious as Adrien asked if I would like to go there and since our first visit was not quite the perfect ‘Eiffel Tower moment’ I was hoping for, I happily said yes. Before we got to the tower, we stopped at a bar that was far too fancy and expensive for two 18/19 year olds. Ignoring this fact, we got a glass of champagne and with one glass costing 18 euros, it was sure to be amazing. After visiting the Eiffel Tower, we headed up to the Montparnasse which has a viewing platform on the 56^th floor. This is definitely one of the most spectacular sights in Paris, I could see every landmark that I had visited that day all from the one spot. After this we decided it was an appropriate time to get dinner (approximately 9.30). Adrien was keen to go to an Australian restaurant for dinner and I was keen to see what exactly that was. I did get to see them from the outside (lined with didgeridoos and kangaroos, just like a real Aussie restaurant). However, they were extremely busy and it was getting later and later and we did not really have time to wait. We ended up having Pizza Hut at 10.30pm and after this, he took me back to the hotel apartment, it was a very long day and I practically fell asleep before I hit the bed, dreaming about ways that I could drag myself out of bed in the morning for another full on day. I’m super glad that I ended up leaving the hotel apartment, it was a pretty spectacular night.

Back to Belinda…

One the second day, we walked the streets of les Marais, Montmarte, visited Sacre Cour and took pics of the Moulin Rouge. On the walk up to the Sacre Cour, there are many hawkers/mafia workers, who put coloured string on your hair and then force you to pay for it or they call the police. Well, Isabelle took Jess in arm and they were stopped by a wall of (not being racist) but very black tall men. Isabelle was all over it with a firm “Non, Non!” waving her hands and being fierce. As the wall of men stood aside, one of them must have made a snide remark and Isabelle rounded on them with some sort of fiery exchange. She was awesome. They told her she was a racist; she corrected them. They were the racists! Go Isabelle, we thought. Amazing views of the city and a great lunch to boot. Hamish had another carousel ride and everyone was happy. Nobody hassled me. I’ve been called senora for the entire trip.

To cut a long story short, we caught the Metro back to our accommodation area, picked up our suitcase, caught the Metro the gare de Lyon, re-purchased tickets back to Ballancourt and found our train with time to spare. Hamish fell asleep within 10 minutes of the train leaving the station and the rest of us listened to our ipods; it had been a huge weekend. Friday’s Belinda had made chicken and vegetable soup so dinner was easily reheated and not a drop left over. We spent Monday recovering, washing clothes and shopping. Even the grocery shopping is fun. Le parc de felins tomorrow. UK Friday.