A romantic weekend in Paris (with the Parents!)

A romantic weekend in Paris (with the Parents!)
Paris has been on my to-do list for a while so I organized a rendezvous with my parents in the city of Love, Jul 15th – 17th.
I Flew with Flybe from Dundee via Birmingham to Charles de Gaulle. Arriving around 22:30. I was meeting Mum and Dad in town so had to catch a train. I thought I would be clever and buy a book of ten tickets to save money and use one of these tickets to get from the airport into the city. I tried fruitlessly to get through the gate. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with my ticket. I asked the ticket officer (In English) and he was very unhelpful (he even suggested that I jump the gate, however I could get punished) in the end I worked out I needed a special Airport-City ticket. What a drama! I met M+D at Denfert Rocherau, they were looking very chilled eating club sandwiches outside a cafe. Then we walked to our accommodation “La Masion”, a B+B in the suburb of Montparnasse. On the way, an organised gang of roller bladers of about 1000 strong wooshed passed us, it was quite the sight. We retired for the evening around 01:00.
We were up for 08:00 and caught breakfast at one of Paris’s many cafes. We had what I guess would be a typical breakfast for Parisians, a Croissant, coffee and Orange Juice. We picked up food supplies for the day from a supermarket over the road and Dad popped into the local corner bakery for some sweet rolls. We had a bit of trouble finding metro station to start our journey. We had help from a friendly American lady. I discovered that my book of tickets I purchased the previous night could be used around the city, so I was pleased about that. We found a metro station (Eton Quinet). This took us to near the Eiffel Tower. We skirted the base of the famous landmark, then crossed the river Seine and got a great elevated view back towards the tower. We took photos with the masses as the weather started to deteriorate. Even the bad weather didn’t seem to deter the street vendors selling their Eiffel towers on their rugs, 5 for a Euro! We walked up to patriotic focal point of the Arc de Triomphe, which had a huge French flag hanging under the arch. We queued for tickets and walked up 284 steps to the terrace. We had a fantastic view of the whole city that seemed to branch in all directions from the Arch. We could pick out all of the major sites from this vantage point. After sandwiches at the base of the Arch we walked down the ritzy Champs-Élysées. Home to famous designer brands such as Louis Vuitton. We poked our heads into various sporting stores and car show rooms. Including the Mercedes Benz showroom, this had the very first Mercedes Benz on display. The Champs-Élysées was still decorated with flags and grandstands from last weekend’s Bastille day celebrations. Bastille day, celebrates the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison, which was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution.
We continued on past various fountains with sail boats and strolled through gardens. There was plenty of time for pictures; Mum got some great pissing pictures! We walked past Louvre Art Gallery; however the queues put us off entering. Our legs were starting to tire so we decided to head to the suburb of Montemarte. It was an interesting bus ride, a drunk was hassling a father and son, I then accidently dozed off and we went a few stops too far. We actually went off the map into a part of Paris that was a wee bit dodgy (Homeless people and textile rubbish all over the footpath). We wandered for 10 minutes until we worked out where we were, by this stage nature was calling for Dad and I, and we dashed into a local cafe go for a leak. Montemarte was a very cultural part of Paris with street artist’s painting portraits of people everywhere. We moved through the crowds of tourists and ended up in an impressive church (Basilique du Sacre Coer) that looked back over the city. We walked down the hill and stopped off in a music bar for a quiet drink. The weather turned again and we decided to catch the Metro to a restaurant recommended by a workmate of Dad’s on the Isle St Louis. It was a great restaurant it had a medieval theme; we went for the all you can eat style banquet of French food, washed down with plenty of French red wine. We had some great banter with a table of American Ladies, I think the red wine, helped lubricate the conversation! Paris was really pretty by night even in the pouring rain. We walked past Notre Dame Cathedral, then we got a mixed up jumping off the metro one stop too early on the way home. But we made it eventually by 12:30 a.m.
It was a slow start on Sunday. We had a much needed coffee in a cafe to get us going. We then decided on a game plan to visit some catacombs near the suburb of Denfert Rocherau. We walked through a cemetery and finally managed to find the entrance however the queue was longer the Nile river, because half of the catacombs were closed due to maintenance. So we abandoned that plan and decided to head to Bastille square for Lunch via the picturesque Jardins du Luxemborg. We wandered through some very crowded markets, before heading to a bakery / cafe for Lunch. Next item on the Agenda was to visit “La Defense”, The business district of Paris. The focal point was the grand arc, however there were impressive fountains, sculptures (Thumb) and the enormous glass and steel high rises which towered above us. That was virtually all we had time for, Mum and Dad had to catch a train back to Geneva, so they left about 4pm. I had a bit more time to kill, so I went back to the centre of town and tried to get into a couple of exhibits, including a renowned cathedral, whose name now escapes me. However Paris was starting to shut down, so I decided to head to the airport. I got onto the airport train, and just as the doors were starting to close, a man with a beard and three fingers stuck his hand through the door. He was carrying a large shopping bag, of bits and pieces. In place of his missing digits nestled a bottle of red wine. He was very loud, yelling and talking to himself the whole journey. But the worst thing of all was how bad he smelled! He caused the whole carriage to evacuate, and I was sitting with one other person, determined to stick it out. It was an interesting journey...
Plane was delayed on the way home and didn’t arrive in to Edinburgh until nearer 11 pm. thankfully good friend Carpes let me doss at his house overnight.

So summing up Paris....
A very expensive city, with oodles of tourists, particularly American’s. Every place we went had a queue. There was a lot of PDA in Paris, I guess that’s why it is known as the city of love. Cafe’s on every corner. And the locals were not always the friendliest bunch toward English speaking people. There was a lot of poverty noticeable in the city as well. But apart from all the negatives it was a great place to visit, and it would be nice to return and scratch more than just the surface of a city which has a lot to offer.