ailbhe: (couple)
ailbhe ([personal profile] ailbhe) wrote2005-04-03 11:15 am

Paris: quick summary

First impressions: Oooh, nice weather. Ewwww, what a smell! Mmm, good food.

Everyone in Paris smokes. It's probably to kill off the smell of stale urine. I ca't decide whether it smells better or worse than Barcelona - less rubbish in the street, but more cars.

Also, I now understand people who are reminded of Paris by Dublin.

And we had a fantastic time; we didn't go into much, but we saw the outsides of the Arc de T, the Louvre, the Sacre Coeur, the Ch. of St V de P, a stolen Egyptian obelisk, Pompidou scaffolding, Notre Dame c., Bastille monument, and the Champs Elysees. And one or two people.

Parisians adore children and Linnea is greatly disappointed with the adulation she receives home in England - it's not nearly as enthusiastic. We could hardly move in Paris for people talking to her (incomprehensibly) or to us (slowly and carefully, simple things like "tres jolie"). Here she gets little smiles and winks and reserved "aren't you pretty?"s. Small beer.

We're planning when we can go back, but next time, we will bring some sort of gas masks or lung-scrubbers. We're all coughing.

When we got home, we washed Champs Elysees gravel off Linnea's knee-grazes and put her to bed.

[identity profile] murkee.livejournal.com 2005-04-03 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
The Paris Sewers are THE place to be (http://www.flickr.com/photos/murky/5040459/in/set-127107/)! A must visit site.

I think Paris is a great place, there is smoking, but I never really felt it was problemmatic - I could have just been lucky.

I like the open-ness of the place, it's a *thought through* city.

[identity profile] sierra-le-oli.livejournal.com 2005-04-04 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you enjoyed yourselves. You sound like you covered a lot of ground!

The Dublin/Paris comparison never occured to me but I think I see what people mean. Both places have a cool, relaxed vibe about them.
pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)

[personal profile] pauamma 2005-04-04 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm trying to remember at what time we popped in and out of Notre Dame. I'm thinking around 9pm local time?