Fast Train to Paris!

We got up at a reasonable hour to get our trip to Paris going. After watching the local homeless guy have a fit at the bus-stop and trying to get help to get an ambulance, we made our way to St Pancras to get the Eurostar VFT. As I said before, London is up to date with everything and all was modern and streamlined. There are endless opportunities to photograph the contrast of old and new architecture, which makes for a great image.

The train is extremely smooth running and fast, up to 330km/hr, so you get to Paris in about 2 hrs. Getting through the Metro to our pensione took just as long!! There was a slight hiccup with our booking so we had to wait an hour to get inside, then be moved to another room for just last night. We get our proper room today. It is like a B&B, in an expat American guy's flat, right next to the Pompidou. Very quaint.

Looks like the trend in begging in Paris is to have a dog that has had puppies. This attracts lots of cooing females and lots of coins into your pot. All well and good but what happens when the puppies grow up???? One guy had the mother and father dogs, (lab x) and the weeks old puppies. He had carriers to put the puppies in, and a few rats in a cage too. They seemed well fed but the beggar wasn't what I'd say 'affectionate' with them. We passed them again, sleeping in, at the Pompidou this morning.

It's all too much. I don't like the way one gets complacent about everything....'oh yeah, another really old, really big, really elaborate building'. We walked part of Paris today, (Notre Dame to Eiffel Tower and back), and it is so much to take in. It is Saturday here, which means the busiest day. Consequently we didn't want to queue to climb the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre. I have been up the Eiffel Tower and Tim was content not going up. We will schedule the Louvre for Monday morn up early. We'll do the Musee Dorsay tomorrow morn early. Opens at 9.30 so we can get there before the crowds. Our theory is that there is so much to see, one may as well see some things well and relaxed, rather than rush and stress everything.

We are here now in our 'flat', having nibblies on a Saturday afternoon. Our host is Domingo, an expat Yank who teaches English in Paris. He says he's been here too long and is forgetting some of it (English that is)! His partner, John-Paul, prepares the rooms and dealt with our miss-booking yesterday with many apologies. We are listening to Peggy Lee on the CD and contemplating the Parisian lifestyle. Very nice.

We have heaps of photos so I hope you're checking out Tim's blog too, and we have many others. I have almost given up taking photos with my camera as Tim has a much better eye than I, ha ha, (i know, hard to believe) so I leave it to him.

BTW, the first two photos are from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It is just a jaw-dropping place, full of religous relics, sculpture, pop culture EVERYTHING! The rhino was a costume, with tail and eyes operated by a chain, in a London theatre production, and the park is in the middle of the museum, lovely.