If I could hit a golf ball straight I could hit a driver from our hotel to the train station entrance. For the non-golfers out there it's around 250 yards. We had purchased our tickets well in advance so they were only around $75 per person round trip. We did hear someone buying a same day ticket last night and it was close to $200 one way. Moral of the story if you're going to do it, plan ahead.
It's just a little over two hours by train and at points along the way the train was going around 185 mph. No match for the bullet trains but that's still a lot of metal moving at a pretty good clip.
The weather in Paris yesterday was a little less than ideal. We actually left sunny skies in London and when we stepped out of the train station in Paris it was around 40 degrees and raining.
Armed with just enough information from our friends Ed and Judy Laue to be dangerous we took off on foot for the old historic district of Le Marais. This district became one of, if not the main Jewish community after the French Revolution. In spite of the wet and cold the 40 minute walk was rather interesting. We passed along a street that must be the wig and hair extension capital of the world for African women. There were literally shop after shop after shop for about 4-5 blocks with wigs and hair extensions of all types on display. I thought about seeing what they could do for me but because it was getting close to lunch time we trudged on.
Ed knows our passion for "hole in the wall" cheap eats and suggested L'AS du Fallafel which didn't disappoint. He told us to ignore all the other Fallafel places we see until we find this one and told us you'll know it because there will be a line. We took his advice and although it was a little hard to find we finally located it and there was a line. Thankfully because of the weather it wasn't long and we were seated in the small, packed to the rafters restaurant in about 10 minutes. Beth had the Chicken Curry pita type sandwich while I opted for the Lamb sandwich. I could say "not baaaaad" as a poor and overused Lamb joke but they were actually much better than that, they were excellent. Between the sandwiches and the mound of fries we did not leave hungry or disappointed.
We'd like to spend a little more time exploring this neighborhood when the chance arises.
From there it's was a walking tour of some of the more common sites of Paris. The 900 + year old Notre Dame Cathedral, along the River Seine past the Louvre (home to this little painting called "Mona Lisa") to the other side of Paris. By now the rain was pretty much over and although it was still chilly we enjoyed a stroll up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and finishing at the Eiffel Tower.
By this time we had probably covered 10-12 chilly, wet miles by foot and decided to take a bus back to the train station. When we arrived back at the station we were greeted by an interesting site. I had always thought of the French as being these uppity, look down at everybody type of people. While that may be true I guess the men also have a habit of peeing on the street in public. To combat this problem and the odor caused by this they have installed outdoor self composting urinals along the street. Ingenious I say! There were 3-4 men standing around one relieving themselves while helping the flowers grow!
http://www.thelocal.fr/20170131/paris-gets-new-green-urinals-to-civilise-street-peeing
We were back in the hotel by 11:00 having had a great day in Paris thanks in part to someone saying "Hey, let's build a tunnel under the English Channel!
