01.31
So, last week saw the arrival of Nete’s birthday once more. Usually, falling so closely after xmas, it turns out to be a slightly muted affair and so I decided that this year was to be different! Considering her passion for art and the art history degree that she’s just starting year two of, an obvious choice of weekend getaway was Paris.
Between us we’ve flown pretty much everywhere there is to go so we decided to go via the Eurostar train from Waterloo directly to Gare du Nord through the channel tunnel – first class… Have you ever done something, and immediately realised you may have made the most terrible mistake? Well, arriving to check in at Waterloo was one of those moments.
We went to a manned booth and were asked if we’d tried to use the machines slightly behind us. We hadn’t, so we stepped three steps backward and inserted our first ticket into the machine. It wouldn’t let us through – we were too early… 4 minutes early actually. Yep – 4 minutes and we couldn’t go through to the departures area until they had elapsed… Have you seen the movie ‘Meet the parents’? When the main character gives up and heads back home he has to deal with the airline staff – if you’ve seen it you’ll know what I mean. Well, the staff at the Eurostar have been to the same classes. Last week, there was a lot of press given to the fact that Eurostar was continuing to make a serious operating loss all these years into it’s operation. The CEO gave the reason as being competition from budget airlines but he’s entirely wrong about why. It’s the staff, the equipment they use and the fact that the service they offer cannot even begin to compete with the service offered by the nastiest of budget airlines – and you expect to be treated badly by them! Taking the additional time needed to get to Paris/London using the train needs to offer something special to make it worthwhile. If you are going to be treated like cattle then you may as well take the 45 minute Boeing 737 option no? Never again let me tell you… Never again.
Anyway, Paris, as a whole, was interesting… In a twisted kind of way it was refreshing to spend the weekend in the company of people who never smile or offer a kind word when you’re trying your best to enjoy their city. Really.
The Louvre is amazing, but far too intense for me. The Musee d’Orsay is simply amazing and much, much more engaging for the casual viewer such as myself. The food was amazing, at least at most of the places we went to. Watching American teenagers drink wine with every evening dinner was a treat I shan’t forget in a hurry for two reasons; firstly, they were bloody everywhere. I mean, are there any Americans left in the US!? And secondly, with fairly strict alcohol laws in the US these kids were totally making the best of their time there. Faces were flushed after the first glass or two and you could actually smell the hormones after the second bottle arrived. Very entertaining.
It’s sad to say that apart from the amazing art treasures we saw, the highlight for Nete was being smiled at by Hugh Grant as he passed us to sit in the next carriage along on the way home. And yes, he is that bloody good looking.
I’m sure I’d have done the same had I been there… woof.
