Author: iscottharrison

Travel

Tour Eiffel, Cafè non.

Sharon and I did two very different tours today. You could say they were chalk and cheese, but in reality it was more iron and cheese. Emma wanted to go and see the Eiffel tower again, so I pre-booked some tickets and took her down there around 12.30pm. Sharon was booked into a Parisian food tour. I did a similar tour last year when I was in Paris for a day, and it would have to be one of the best holiday experiences I’d ever had. As Sharon is a foodie, this was something she had to do as well.

The food tour did not disappoint, Sharon had an awesome day with the group sampling some of the food wonders that Paris and France have to offer. Its just astounding how how good the food is here, even my lunch (which I’ll cover in a minute) was actually pretty good. I’ll do a seperate post on Sharon’s food tour over the next day or so

The only thing that seems to be outside the realm of food goodness here in France is coffee. I’m sure there are a few awesome places here, but I’m yet to find them. Its not something that is on every street corner in the same way it is at home. On our way to the tower I didn’t actually have any coffee, as everything i saw was machine made which I’m not inclined to pay €3-4 if I can avoid it. Even Starbucks was closed early on Sunday, so I just went without. My head was complaining about its lack of caffeine fix a few hours later.

We got to the tower and it only took a few minutes to enter the complex, then only a few minutes more to go through the “pre-purchased e-ticket” queue on the “North Tower”. I can’t stress enough how important it is to pre-purcase these tickets if you wish to visit and not spend hours waiting. People who hadn’t purchased faced at least a 30min wait to get into the grounds, then an hour wait in the hot sun to buy a ticket, then another 30min – 1 hour wait to get in a lift to go up the tower.

If you don’t pre-purchase a ticket, this is you far-queue.

Our queue was virtually non existent.

Emma and I were both very hungry after wandering the tower for a while, so we grabbed some hotdogs from one of the carts underneath. Yes, these cost a fortune (water, fries and hot dog were €13) however the hot dog was surprisingly good. It wasn’t in the standard sugar laden soft bun, it was in a lovely hollowed out baguette. Sharon of course at this time was having amazing food, and even had a really good coffee.

Once we left, we headed to the station where I was interrupted by a gypsy begger (and I managed to completely avoid). Sharon had a couple bother her on the way to her tour. It wasn’t as bad as it was here in France 2 years ago, and certainly not at bad as it is in Italy where you literally can’t walk down the street without being harassed. There were also none in Poland, however the reasons for that when I think about it is actually very disturbing. There are a few Syrian refugees around the stations with signs asking for money, but not as many as I’d expected I’d see after reading some of the media before getting to Paris.

Once we got back to Saint Lazare station, I had my cold coffee here whilst Emma did some shopping. Kids do grow up fast, just over two years ago it was the Disney Store and stuffed toys that garnered her attention, now it’s clothes, makeup and handbags. And for those things she is in the global shopping Mecca.

later in the night I did a bike tour, again which will get its own blog entry. Sorry about the lack of photos but there is an issue with the internet in the apartment they are trying to fix and uploading a stack of pics just isn’t viable at the moment.

My coffee today was generally a complete fail. I ended up having a cold ice coffee espresso from Starbucks, then a tin of Baileys Iced Coffee Latte. Now, coffee and alcohol is certainly a match made in heaven.

Travel

Fraternité Café

Our first full day and first coffees in Paris ! We got into Paris really late last night due to some cancellations and delays with the EuroStar. When we got into Paris we went straight to the hotel and got some sleep. Due to the way Eurostar costs work, a trip in on Saturday morning was way more expensive than getting in late on Friday night. As I’d already booked the apartment to start of Saturday, we just stayed in a hotel close to Gare du Nord station.

Gare do Nord is probably in the shittiest part of central Paris. It has two major train stations right next to each other, Gare du Nord and Gare du Est (North and East station). Something about major rail stations globally, they always seem to be in seedy locations. Not unlike staying right next to Central in Sydney. There are lots of cheap hotels and hostels here, but the one we had was really nice. We were right on the top floor, basically an attic conversion.

After checking out in the late morning we headed across the road to the nearest Boulangerie to get something for breakfast. It was probably the crappiest bakery in the crappiest are of Paris but the croissants were still excellent. I’ve had way worse coffees here in Paris, at least this one was hand made and not just a button push machinejobbie. I’ll give it a 6/10

My bother and sister in law were in Paris this week and we caught up with them before they had to get their train to Brussels for their flight home to Australia.

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Julie and Sharon had a look in Diptyque which is apparently a famous candle shop. I guess selling lumps of nice smelly wax you essentially set on fire for €65 each they would want to be pretty well known and very good. They did have a nice chair for bored husbands to sit on…

Shane and Julie showed us a Boulangerie they discovered which sell the best croissants in Paris, as judged this year. They are only one euro and they are spectacular.

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We had a wander through the Pantheon where you can see tombs of some of the French greats such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille and Marie Curie, Alexandre Dumas. Quite often not the entire body is kept here. There are urns with hearts and other body parts buried elsewhere. A little odd

 

We had lunch at a little cafe opposite the Luxembourg gardens. I had one of the most delicious club sandwiches I’d ever had. Emma had a gigantic salad and Sharon had a croque monsieur. Shane and Julie shared a sandwich.

 

By this time I had to leave to get the keys to the apartment. It’s not the original one we booked, before we arrived a previous guest had an accident, caused a fire and the apartment was gutted. Maybe they bought one of those €65 candles……

This one was found at short notice. It’s Ok but small. At least it has a lift. Our accomodation last time in Paris was just amazing, unfortunately we will always compare to paris stays to that one.

 

After checking in, I headed back to the hotel we had overnight to pick up our luggage. Even though we decided to travel light the bags seem to have multiplied during the stay in London and navigating the metro with them (plus some of today’s shoe and bag shopping) was going to be difficult so an Uber Van was organised.

Headed out late for dinner, which is where I’m typing up most of this waiting for our meal at a Brasserie on Rue De Rome in the 8th only a few min walk down from our apartment. It’s 9.30pm at night but it’s as light at it in at 6pm in summer at home.

 

Some more pics from today

 

Uncategorized

Associated Coffee

On the way to the office today I swung by Association coffee to grab the daily fix. On the way was an interesting sculpture, which is actually a cross section from an Airbus jet. Calling it a sculpture in my opinion is a bit of a stretch, I’d call it a cut out cross section personally, but it was interesting none the less. Especially considering its right in the middle of central London.

The coffee from Association was very good. I think the coffee from Secret Frog is still slightly better, however this is of course dependent on the barista of the day who makes it for you. As a bonus, they also do Vegemite on toast, and after not having it for two weeks it was a divine experience.

Association are obviously quite proud of their coffee, they have on display a London Coffee guide, and sure enough they are featured in it. If I’m here next year I’ll be grabbing a copy of this one !

Obligatory Daily Gherkin with Secret Frog Coffee below. I had to pop out to the post office yet again to post another book home, so swung by Secret Frog for one last fix before we head out to Paris tonight.

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Travel

Eurostar or Jetstar ?

Our first bad experience with the Eurostar today. Thankfully we were on the last train out of London and we didn’t get the full Jetstar treatment with our train being cancelled. That happened to one or two earlier today due to some signalling issues on the tracks in France. Luckily we only copped a delayed departure and far-queues from hell trying to get though immigration and into the departure lounge

Love the British and their orderly queuing, a few queue jumpers got caught, publicly shamed and sent to the end of the line.

A few trains departed with out catering. Luckily it’s only 2hrs to Paris. Thankfully even though it took forever to get through our train was only 40 minutes late. I was also somewhat surprised we had a spare seat next to us given the earlier cancelled trains.

The Eurostar people even helped load our luggage. Not long after departure I’m reminded of all the things I love about the Eurostar, comfortable seats with legroom, it’s fast and you get a great view.

At the end of the day, the Eurostar wasn’t Jetstar.

Sharon brought these delicious strawberries to nibble on during the trip. They were perfect, sweet all the way through. At home we sometimes get strawberries with a slightly tart taste, not these ones.

We have finally made it to Paris. We get our apartment tomorrow. For the night we are in this corner room on the 6th floor of a hotel right between Gare Du Nord and Gare Du Est stations. More pics of that tomorrow.

It does have a lift but I love these stairs

Travel

Working towards the Globe

Whilst I was at work (and sampling a few coffees) Sharon and Emma were doing a little more sightseeing around London. Their plan had been to check out the Churchill War Rooms (I’ve done this twice already – they are awesome) however the three hour queue for entry killed that idea.

Instead they headed over to the Victoria and Albert museum. Before heading in for a look around the coffee and cake there was sampled, with reports that it was quite good. The cake certainly looks alright !

after a good look around here they had lunch in the grounds of St Paul’s. A truly wonderful spot for lunch on a warm London summer’s day

At 5pm we all headed down to the Globe Theatre for a evening showing of Hamlet. Stopped for some Italian food along the way at Zizzi

Some excellent advice from Josh back at home we got great seats. More info on which seats to pick below

Even if you are not a Shakespeare fan, from a historical perspective its worth a visit. In terms of tickets, for London theatre its reasonably priced, you can get seats for around £30 (way cheaper if you want to stand in the pit in front of the stage, only £5). Whilst the building is a modern construction, its as close to the original as modern safety and fire codes will allow. Its not on it original site where it was in the 16th century, but its very close. The original site is only a few hundred meters away and its worth walking around the corner to look at it.

One of the most interesting facts about the theatre is that its the only building in central London thats allowed to have a thatched roof (they learnt a lot after 1666). Lots more info on it over at good ol’ wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_Globe

In my opinion the best value seats are in the lower gallery. There are a handful of cheaper seats (slight view obstruction) but they have no one in front of you so there is stacks of leg room and no on behind you so you can lean up against the wall. Also very close to the exit.

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After Dinner we walked back to the apartment and took some photos. Glorious warm night to be walking along the river

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