Ooh La La!!!

Well, what are we to expect from a blog entry from me about my trip to Paris?

A list of places we went, and things we saw, with pictures of landmarks, the sort of thing that everyone who has ever been to Paris has bored the life out of everyone they know since they got back with? (As suggested by the picture below).

Can't be bothered to rotate it, so just imagine
she's having a  little lie down.


Or a wry off-the-wall look at the more amusing aspects of the trip, with a focus on Bicester Blogger's usual areas of interest such as food, drink and naughty stuff.

Is that Bicester Blogger going in, or just a lookalike?



I thought so. Right then - well let's get the logistics out of the way first. I don't go anywhere without doing my research first so was very happy to pay £420 for this trip which included Eurostar each way and 3 nights in the Lenox Montparnasse Hotel - chosen very carefully from research on Trip Advisor. #84 out of over 2000 in Paris cannot be bad and, wow, I was not disappointed. May write a review for them if/ when I get round to it.

Quick notes on the journey. As always the train journeys were 100% efficient and on time both in the UK and in France. All those years of us moaning about trains (11 minutes late as Reggie Perrin used to say) and I never hear anyone praising how efficiently it all runs these days. There aren't even crashes anymore.

One little travel tip from the way down. We needed to get from Marylebone across to St Pancras. Single trips on the Tube are very expensive. It's £4.30 for a single anywhere. Yes I know clever dicks will say "Get a one day travelcard" but that's not much use if you are only taking one trip. So it would be £8.60 on the Tube. I say - forget it! Think outside the box. We went outside and jumped into a Black Cab. Much more fun, makes you feel a bit more upmarket, you see more of London and get to have an "interesting" conversation into the bargain. The fee on our meter when we reached St Pancras? Amazingly - £8.60!

And so through the station - an international terminal, a bit like an airport but without all the aggro, and on to the train - it was all so simple really, and just over two hours later we rolled into Paris.

As an added bonus, about 10 minutes out from Paris, the grey skies lifted and were replaced by glorious blue sunshine, which we were to keep for most of our stay. We were just far south enough to escape the hideous weather pattern that has been ruining our summer here so far. As soon as we were out of the station we could feel the heat, it was as big a difference as if we had just stepped off a plane in the med.

I'll come on to the hotel (not literally). We were in an area of Paris called Montparnasse and it was a superb spot - located in the middle of a street with a Metro on either end, a lovely square full of restaurants at one end and a couple of supermarkets as well selling all the old favourites needed on holiday i.e. Diet Coke, Crisps, packets of ham and salami, beer and wine. So the first thing we did was stock up.

Now in the past I have had people accuse me of being tight on holiday with money when it comes to things such as the minibar. Well the fact is - yes there was a minibar in our room with a price list attached and I'm sure I don't need to tell you about the outrageous prices they charge. So for example, our minibar contained a can of diet coke for 3.50 euros. I however went into the supermarket next door, bought six cans for 45 cents each and put them into my minibar. I don't call that being tight, I call it being sensible. Save money on things you don't need to splash out on - and then you've got more money for the big ticket items like the meals out in the evening!

And even they were not expensive. Before I went I got a fair few people sticking their oar in, giving what I call their "perceived knowledge". What do I mean by that? I mean people who probably haven't even been to Paris just giving out stereotypical views because they think they are clever, so I had "Paris is really expensive" and "Paris stinks", in fact - no to both of those and various other comments. As for the expensive bit, well I mentioned £4.30 for a trip on the tube, well on the Metro you buy a book of 10 tickets for 12.70 euros. You do the maths.

Meals out in the evening? We had three. I'm sort of concentrating on day one in this blog so we went out for a lovely walk in the evening and I got this lovely shot in a little park we stopped in before dinner, just of a couple of old men enjoying sitting in the park, but it's kind of the olde worlde sort of thing you might see only on a postcard, but I was so pleased to see, it's for real.



Afterwards we wandered into the square and chose our restaurant. 3 courses, and two 50cl carafes of wine, all for around 80 euros, which was most acceptable. We both played safe on our mains the first night and ordered chicken. Now here was the only "bone" of contention over the meal. We each got a quarter chicken and it must have been a really big chicken because these were seriously meaty portions and done to perfection with a gorgeous sauce. However Claire got the breast and I got the leg! Now as you know I am very much a breast man. Well you get more don't you? Having said that, the leg meat was some of the best I've tasted, clearly this old bird had had a pretty decent life and somewhat more than the 56 days your average bland supermarket birds gets. And lovely loyal wifey also kindly gave me a very generous portion of her breast to even up proceedings, so can't complain.

Which leads me on the hotel for the last paragraph or so - remember this is only a blog of the first day - there is more to come. I mentioned that we had chosen well, and we had. Not only was it in a great location, but the room was great, and as an added bonus, on arrival, the receptionist advised us that all of the movies were free.

On getting into the room and checking the TV as you do, I was delighted to discover that there was a wide selection of "adult" movies available. Now most hotels have these as you may know, but never have they been free before and I have been a little reluctant to purchase them in the past due to an embarrassing incident on one of my first business trips away with Nielsen in the early 1990's. Basically I was young and naive and away from home and lonely and full of sap and did not realise that hotels sent detailed bills back to the company. Suffice to say, when my boss called me into his office a week or two later and advised me that "the viewing of adult films in hotel rooms whilst away on company business is considered unacceptable" I was forced to curb such interests for a year or two until the internet came along.

Anyway, I double checked with reception, "you really do mean ALL the films don't you", and the cheeky young mademoiselle gave me a knowing look with "D'accord". So - there we were. A married couple, suddenly released from all work, home and parental responsibilities, with unlimited access to booze and free pornography. What were we to do?

Well all I can say is this - think about those weather stories in the news, when they talk about flash flooding and "Over a month's average rainfall fell in a 24 hour period". Well it was a bit like that.

And judging by the amount of noise coming from the room next door, the flooding was widespread.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.

Jason xx






Comments

  1. Ouch my ribs... Can't wait to read the next two Paris instalments!!!

    ReplyDelete

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