My first 24 hours in France have been pretty successful.
I had a reasonably good night’s sleep considering jet lag and residual COVID symptoms including a persistent sore throat. This latter is annoying but less apparent to others than some more flamboyant symptoms such as coughing, sneezing or sniffing.
I was looking forward to my morning coffee at breakfast only to discover they have the same powdered milk, push button coffee machine as the one at the private hospital back in NZ. Sugar makes anything taste good anyway so I was quite happy with my cafe au lait.
The reception staff advised me what public transport app to download onto my phone, and I was soon stepping out into the morning drizzle.
Traditionally in August, Paris is emptied out of locals as they all flee to the sea or the countryside to escape the heat. In my extensive research into what French women wear in summer (white sneakers, ballet flats, espadrilles, sunhats, big sunglasses, white blouses, jeans, sundresses) there was very little that prepared me for a rainy day of 20 degrees. I think it’s my first trip overseas ever when I haven’t brought either a raincoat or an umbrella (usually I have at least one of each).
My Bonjour RATP app and Navigo card quickly got me through the metro to my first destination of the day, the museum of outfits, or Palais Galleria. The current exhibition is centred around clothes in sport, to match the theme of the summer which is the recent Olympic Games that I’ve missed by less than a week.
This was the view out of the window as I was leaving the building.
From there I walked along the banks of the newly refurbished Seine river for an hour until I got to the Notre Dane cathedral, which I don’t think I’ve seen since it nearly burned down a few years ago.
Some of the route along the river remains blocked off because of the games. The main summer Olympics are over but the Paralympic Games start soon. I kept getting flashbacks on my walk of a fun horror movie I saw on Netflix a few weeks ago about mutant sharks in Paris. A good antidote to Jaws which scarred me as a child, because this one was too silly to be frightening.
My app guided me to a bus to get back to the hotel for a short break before my planned afternoon excursion to Père Lachaise cemetery.
I decided to walk to the cemetery which was around 45 minutes from the hotel, some of it alongside a canal which was very pretty and I didn’t even know existed. Losing the view is one of the downsides of travelling by underground.
By the start of our tour, it had started to rain in earnest, and I was drenched by the end. Still, it wasn’t cold and there was no wind, and the rain seemed fitting in a cemetery. There was only one other visitor on the tour, a very Scandi looking young lady who it turns out was from Denmark.
The cemetery is an enormous park with mostly mausoleums rather than graves dug into the ground. It is gorgeous to walk around, and not too sad until you get to the bits where they memorialise the dead at Nazi extermination camps. Some of them are famous like Auschwitz but many I’ve never even heard of before.
Jim Morrison’s grave is one of the most visited, tucked away behind someone else’s more impressive tomb.
It’s got a protective fence around it now, and there’s also a big tree with its trunk stuck all over with chewing gum, like an art installation in honour of Jim.
Our guide, Mark, is actually Spanish, and his English is very good but not perfect. He kept telling us that the tombs belong to the owners who bought them for their whole life long, which doesn’t really make sense for a tomb. Actually it’s in perpetuity i.e. forever until no descendant can be found in the event of it falling into disrepair.
We spent a couple of hours exploring before I once again took a bus back to the hotel. A very vocal Frenchman had a heated discussion with me at the bus stop, I’m not sure what it was about but it didn’t need much input from me apart from smiling and nodding and going hmmm hmmm occasionally. There was something in there about bus drivers always being late, wearing white shoes in the rain – gesturing at my feet – and young people today always being on their phone. It was a little nerve racking so I was glad when our bus arrived.
As I was sopping wet and it was nearly six I bought a filled baguette at a nearby boulangerie and have just spent the evening in my room. I figure I’ve really done quite a bit for my first day.
