Ooh la la, the city of love

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The River Seine
Getting off the train we were hit by 35° heat which was a bit of a shock after London. I had booked an Airbnb room in a 17C apartment on the 6th floor that gave us a stunning view over Paris; the lift had only been installed 18 months ago. We could just see the tip of the Eiffel Tower to one side of our window and Sacre Coeur to the other. Our host Etienne was a delight. On the first day he gave us a French breakfast and explained places to go and how to get there.

Notre Dame from the side


The easiest way to get around Paris from our base was by train, everywhere we wanted to go was about half an hour using one or two trains. I cannot believe the amount of people they move, every four minutes a new train arrives – most of them are nearly full. The trains don’t have air-conditioning and with the amount of people, they become very hot regardless of how cold it is outside; a breeding ground for germs. And we both got incredibly sick. To be in Paris and not have the energy to explore! Luckily I managed to see a fair bit before it really dragged me down, unfortunately the last day and a half I spent in bed.

The Louvre


After carrying the tripod around all day in London, we decided not to do that again, but to go back home and go out again. Lindsay got sick on the second day, so I went out after dinner by myself to photograph the Eiffel Tower after dark. I had gone before sunset as I wanted to get some shots the sun went down and then I had to wait until they lit it up after dark. It’s not much fun waiting on your own. I was fairly confident using the train system now and I managed to get home without getting lost!
La Tour Eiffel
We bought a prepaid SIM card with 1Gb of data so that we could use it to navigate ourselves around. It worked for a few hours and then stopped. We took it back to where we bought it but he couldn’t work out, he said it looked like we had used it all up. 1Gb already? We thought we had turned everything off, but obviously not.

So if you live on a barge, you might want to take your car with you
A boat trip down the Seine is a lovely way to spend an hour. Etienne suggested a small boat which was leaves from Pont Neuf. I booked our tickets online which gave us a discount but didn't lock us into any one time or date. The weather was great so we were able sit on the top level.

There are so many buskers on the train, they have you as a captive audience and then ask for money!

Arc de Triomphe


The lovers locks weigh so much the bridges have to be rebuilt





Location: Paris, France

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