This morning we enjoyed not being in a rush. Got up a wee bit later, caught up on some internet stuff and did a big load of washing (much required by this point!). Grabbed an apple for breakfast then headed off in search of the train station. A kindly Frenchman wearing All Black’s trackies told us the way then walked us there as he was headed there himself. Tickets purchased successfully then we were on our way to Paris!!
We leapt off the train at St Michel Notre Dame. Up the stairs to admire the St Michel fountain before heading to Notre Dame itself, past the catacombs (Roni rediscovered that the Lutetia of Asterix books is Paris – had forgotten!) and oldest hospital in Paris plus the national Police headquarters – they have a HUGE presence in Paris!
We spent a fair bit of time in Notre Dame – not too many hordes and it really has some beautiful elements! We then meandered through the flower market and past more monuments before grabbing a baguette (and fries) for lunch in the park near the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation to sustain our exploration of Isle St Louis.
Here we saw a cat being walked on a leash along the Seine, the Biblioteka Polska, the St Louis en I’lle Baroque church and Hotel St Louis before heading to the tourist info centre at Gare du Lyon to activate our Eurail pass. We had tried this morning but our train station was too little and wee! En route Bray had a traumatic encounter with one of Paris’ free and self cleaning toilettes!!
Got to the info site where the lady sent us ‘past the green doors’. We eventually found the SNT booking office – after Roni inadvertently inserted herself in an armed patrol of the station – whoops! The queue was enormous so Roni waited while Bray went to find a beverage as we were fading! On reaching the front of the queue we were served by a ticket agent who had obviously had a long day. He couldn’t help much and told us it would cost over 80 Euro to get where we wanted to go! This was a serious blow as we believed the majority of our travel costs were all sewn up on departure from NZ.
Much deflated we trudged back to the RER station – via a boulangerie to purchase a baguette for dinner.
Once back at the campsite it was action stations while we tried to contact our travel agent and get things sorted! Weary from the day of excitement and lots of walking we hit the hay before 11.30.
