Paris

Up at 6.30am to make sure we were ready when the taxi arrives at 8 to transfer us to St Pancras International train station for our trip to Paris via the Eurostar. We were both a tad nervous, I can’t understand why! I sometimes think we are like ‘babes in the wood.’ We both seem so naive and totally unsophisticated at times! I guess the anxiety stems from the fact that neither of us speaks any French apart from the obvious: bonjour, merci, bonsoir, oui, non and sil vous plait and that’s about it! Michael understands more than me as he at least remembers some school boy French but I never learned it at school. We were also unsure about booking in at the station, where to go, what to do and were the trains back to normal after the disruptions caused by the weather? 

As it turned out we needn’t have worried. We were there with plenty of time to spare and the whole process was very easy. I was a little sad to leave our London flat for the last time, but looking forward to seeing our new place in the second arrondissements’, very close to the centre of Paris. The trip was interesting, we went underground almost straight away for a short time then back into the open, not that you could see much for a lot of the way. The scenery was often quite industrial, or screened by track side barriers. When we did have a view it was of fields or small towns still covered with snow to different degrees. Sometimes the snow totally covered the ground while in other places either soil or vegetation showed through. The major roads all seemed to be fairly free of snow and ice but some of the minor roads looked positively scary starting as a black bitumen ribbon then trailing off to nothing as the coverage of snow seemed to gobble it up, the road became just part of the surrounding fields, before emerging further along where the ice receded.

The two of us on the Eurostar, speeding towards Paris.

The view from the train

some places were covered in snow

 The actual tunnel crossing only took about 20 or so minutes and was very smooth. The train was comfortable too, with good leg room and plenty of overhead storage for hand luggage and coats. As the small settlements, most united around a central church steeple, merged with the larger townships and then with suburbs where endless blocks of ugly, shabby, high rise apartment blocks began to dominate the skyline, I found myself thinking of our own Housing Commission flats in inner city Melbourne. I found myself feeling just a little disappointed, I had this romantic idea that everything in France had an air of beauty about it, despite being a little shabby; reality of course is quite different.   

Pulling into Gare du Nord station was quite impressive it looks to have been there for a very long time and is reminiscent of Paddington Station in London only with a French flavour. A huge barn of a place and freezing cold, with some mighty fine ironwork up in the window treatments at the ends, it was like Paddington but with a distinctly French bent. Once off the train our first challenge was to find a phone to call the agent so he could send someone to meet us at the flat with the keys. We had a few problems getting the phone to work and couldn’t spot anyone who looked like they worked there to help. Eventually I went and asked a girl in one of the kiosks. She put me on the right track and I made the call. Then we were off to the taxi rank at the front entrance to the station. The driver seemed unsure of the address I gave him and asked me to write it down, he didn’t say much which gave him the appearance of being a bit grumpy. He got us there in about 15 or 20 minutes. Benjamin met us outside the flat, carried my bag in and showed us how to open the front street entrance door with a code that let us into a dark covered area sort of like a garage not that I think it was a garage. There was a light switch on the wall once you got inside. We’ll have to remember to take our little torch with us if we’re coming home in the late afternoon as it gets dark early. In this area are post boxes and a grill gate where you have to swipe an electronic token to open the gate, this lets you into a small courtyard and the stairs to our flat are across this courtyard. Semi-spiral wooden staircases take us to our flat on the second floor, which means the second level, the French count the ground floor as the first floor, I was very thankful for this!

The stairs leading down from our flat

view of the flat from the front door

Our little Kitchen

After a brief tour to show where everything is and an explanation of how to use the heaters, we paid Benjamin the balance of our rent, plus deposit. He said “You can’t ask me any questions because I don’t know the answers, I am just doing this as a favour to Thomas, he is my friend and his assistant is on holiday so I am helping him!” then he added, “but if you have an emergency, and only a real emergency, you can call my cell number, I am closer than Thomas and I will help if I can.” He really was very sweet.

We settled down quickly after Benjamin left us. Put the kettle on for a cuppa, we’d brought some tea and coffee with us from London but didn’t have milk! We had black tea and the rolls we’d bought at the station, then rugged up again and set off for a walk; Benjamin had given us directions to the shopping strip just a short walk away and told us there was everything we would need there. He was right!!

First thing, a nice cuppa!!!!

Our first walk in the 'hood. The beautiful old St Eustache church in the Les Halles district, a 5 minute walk from our flat

Some of the local fashion

One of the Fruit shops

Our first dinner, take away Chinese

Tasty snack food

We are surrounded by fabric shops and really nice clothing stores and the food stores are very French: supermarkets, butchers, fruiterers, chocolatiers, bakeries and patisseries, plus a multitude of cafes, bistros and restaurants. I also found an internet café, the proprietor was very helpful and he spoke English, the computers however did not!!! Some of the keys are in a different place and there are a lot more symbols to be catered for to allow for the accents that are used in French, which means there are three choices on some keys, so you have to push the windows key for the third option and on one key this is the @ symbol which is on the top line in the centre of the key board. The . symbol is on the lower row but in the middle of the key board and at the top of the key so you have to use the shift key with it, the q and a keys are in different places too. I had a bit of trouble logging into Hotmail as I couldn’t access the @ key, the bloke realised I was having trouble and came to my rescue. The computer was set up for French so the red line came up under nearly every word I typed. It took a little getting used to but I managed. He said next time you come in I will have one set up for English for you. By the time we left him it was dark. We had walked down past the beautiful old St Eustache church and I had taken a photo of it, now it guided us back on course and we made our way along the shopping area stopping to buy some essentials, like milk, cereal, bread, jam and of course some snack foods. We decided to buy ready-made/take away so we wouldn’t have to cook on our first night, we bought Chinese and brought it home to heat in the micro wave, we’re getting quite good at figuring out how to work gadgets like micro waves and washing machines and ovens with the heat settings scrubbed off! It’s a bit like a puzzle and I’m very proud of the way we’re coping. We had one little anxious moment coming back from our first trip out into the neighbourhood. We hadn’t brought the street map with us and it looked a little different in the dark! We found our way safely back but used a slightly different route. It’s really interesting, before we left Melbourne I had looked at  rue du Mulhouse on Google Earth and ‘strolled’ down the street, so I knew that there were fabric shops at the end of our street, how amazing to now come face to face with those very same shops!!!!

Looking at the maps after dinner, it looks like we will be able to walk to most of the places we want to see. This is a bustling vibrant place and I think we will enjoy it very much.