The tourist information centres at the
Charles De Gaulle airport are excellent, so take advantage of these friendly
and helpful English speaking staff before you get to the city booths which may or
may not be so helpful.
We checked into the Auberge de Jeune Ferry
youth hostel near Republic. I’d got the list of YHAs from the info centre and
then cross referenced with the Lonely planet. Not the best of their
recommendations I’ve used. The cleaning lady was quite impatient and bossy and
ordered us to take our bags out of the lobby the minute we’d checked in. The
bathrooms are pretty old and grimy and the internet stalls hard to use when not
frozen or completely out of order. Furthermore, their spiral staircase is
unending, and I pity the guests staying on the 5th floor as we’re
already worn out being on the 3rd.
Our afternoon was spent on Montmarte where
we shared a bottle of wine on the grass just under the towering white basilica
in the warm spring sun. The local buskers were out and proudly displaying their
talents. So we sat lazily and were serenaded by a nearby guitarist while
watching a man juggling a soccer ball while stripping. His act ‘climaxed’ with the
young and very fit man balancing the spinning ball on a pen, in his mouth,
while climbing up a light pole shirtless.
I suddenly have the urge to join a soccer
club.
