Gay Paree

24 September - Eurostar was not the most enjoyable journey i've had thus far - slightly reminescent of Vietnamese buses in terms of leg room but there was the rather unusual headrest which curved right around one's head - this means one actually gets some limited neck support and I almost dozed off once or twice. Still, an amazing journey - get on the train smack bang in the mddle of one city and get off in the middle of the other - and the customs is ridiculously easy as well. Had left my Parisian guidebook back in London so purchased the TimeOut magazine which seemed to have all the same things in it (and had the bonus of not looking like a guidebook so it was only my rucksack, complete lack of ability to speak French, Fat Pizza t-shirt (which everyone in London and Paris seems to love) and vacant expression of the perpetually lost that gives me away as a tourist.
First thing first was get rid of my bag in the left luggage and then I got out of that station and went to the first boulangerie I could find and had a very tasty croissant ... I wandered around for a bit and then I had another one. And then I had a brioche ... I had a coffee and then I had another croissant. Then I sat down because I didn't feel so well.
According to my magazine Paris is a walking city so I decided to walk. I went to The Louvre and got one of the audio guides (very good system, all the commentary is digitally recorded and is played back by punching in a code on the exhibit (although a lot of the paintings that you want commentary on tend not to have a code and a lot of jars seemed to have codes)) and went right through it. The statues were probably my favorite - there was a very impressive slightly obese Hercules and a wonderful Eros and Psyche statue (a few of them actually). There were also lots of paintings and some very edumacatinal displays about the history of the museum/gallery. And, of course, there was the Monna Lisa with her enigmatic(TM) smile - which was not disappointing (because i've been warned so many times how unimpressive it actually is). Was very glad to have seen it and ticked it off my list (as were the other thousands of people who also saw it today must have been). For some reason I avoided the museum last time I was here but i'm very happy to have closed off that particular mission.
Wandered down through the city, randomly eating things as I went, made my way towards Champs Elysee and the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the crowd was a bit offputting at the tower so I didn't head up (i'll be back in paris to do a few more things later on) and just kept to general sightseeing (and eating) for the day. Because I was in the main part of the city (and the toursist trail at that) I found myself surrounded by the most beautiful buildings - paris seems to be far more interested in maintaining its old grandeur compared to london, which is embracing some very different styles to prove itself a modern city. I have to say that constructions like the london eye and the gherkin are certainly not what you'd ever expect to see in paris - it was hard enough for the parisian people to muster up enough support to keep the eiffel tower.
Afterwards headed back to the train station to pick up my bag and then make by way towards Marne Le Valley (near Euro Disney land) - a bit of an effort working out where I had to buy a ticket and what train I had to get on (there was a transfer required), finlly got to the platform to get on the train and tried to call Alice (my step-cousin??? I think that would be our technical relationship) but found that there were no payphones available - asked some cops who sent me upstairs, asked some more cops but realised they were roughing up some young kid so I gave them a wide berth - finally asked a very nice parisian woman if I could use her phone and she was very helpful. Was met at the other side by Alice who took me back to Lesches - I met her partner, Marcel (not her husband though!!!! Scandalous!) and we had a very nice but earlyish night - will do some exploration of the countryside tomorrow I expect.