I haven’t been to Paris since 2001 on my inuagral overseas trip which was a Contiki tour. Now I had a great time on the Contiki tour, but its also not my style of travel anymore and Paris is a bit of a blur. It was the first stop after leaving London, we tried escargot, visit the eiffel tour at night and I forgot to take a spare roll of film so I didn’t get many photos. Of course my knowledge of photography back then was not great let alone only having ISO 400 film meant the photos I did get were “le shit”. I know we saw the Louvre, the over-hyped Mona Lisa, the Arc du Triumphe and Notre dame cathedral. It was a whirlwinf trip but i didn’t really love it. The onion soup though from memory was great.
So on my return to France 25 years later, I gave Paris a whole afternoon. I thought that was generous. The city just can’t win me over. The fact the cigarette smoke walking out of any building attacks my senses immediately doesn’t really help either. Especially not with a cold and a cough. Still i managed to negotiate the Metro and got myself to the overcrowded Arc du Triumphe. The only thing thats changed is the number of idiots tying to get photos with the Arc, by walking out onto the road. Honestly i have a solution for the French. screen off the Arc from the street and then setup “Platforms du Selfies) and charge a euro with a turnstile to go up and take a photo with the Arc.
I then walked to the Eiffel Tower to see how crowded that place was. Yep crowded but there was a change. They have put up a glass wall around the base of it so if you want to go in you need a ticket. Still plenty of photo opportunties from nearby and much further waya of course. I didn’t pay to go up, I’m not even sure if there were tickets available. It is an impressive sight regardless of my dislike for Paris itself.
And in a short afternoon my time in Paris is over. I know I should give it more of a chance one day, but when there are so many places I do like and would rather go to, its hard to find time. Maybe in retirement I’ll spend a few days here and see if I can enjoy it more.