Paris - Day 1

In mid-June, two weeks after James and I settled in Lyon, we headed off on the TGV (train à grande vitesse, the high-speed trains that travel about 200 km/h) to the one and only City of Light. It was the second visit for both of us which was good because we'd both done a lot of the major tourist attractions previously and this time could do more meandering. Aside from just wanting to see the city again and some friends that live there, we had a couple of other reasons to be there. One was that there was an alumni event for U of T and the second was that our friends Zac and Leanne were going to be visiting the city at the same time. Perfect timing!

We booked a hostel right behind Gare de Lyon as we had a 7am return train ride back to Lyon so we wanted to be able to get there easily. With three days in the city our plan was to meet my friends who live in Paris on the first afternoon and evening, so in the few hours before that we decided to stroll around our neighbourhood. We checked out the Place de la Bastille, the famous square from the French Revolution where the Bastille prison formerly stood (it is now a giant roundabout intersection with the July Column at its centre) followed by Place des Vosges, a lovely enclosed garden and the "oldest planned square in Paris" according to Wikipedia. We walked around a bit more before heading back to the hostel to get ready to meet my friend Mariana.

I met Mariana about six years ago when we worked in the same building, and in the last five years she's been living in France. She moved here to learn French and ended up marrying a Frenchman! After meeting up at the Madeleine metro station, she took us on a lovely walking tour of the area which is her favourite part of Paris. We went past the Opéra where I quite possibly saw the car of François Hollande, Place Vendôme which is a super fancy square and home to stores with the most expensive brands, le Jardin des Tuileries and on down the Champs Élysées. We stopped for a beer to people watch and chat, and because she is a super person who happens to work at the Eiffel Tower, Mariana gave us two complimentary tickets to go see it. Neither James nor I had ever been to the top so we were pretty excited! After a million thank yous we headed to the Arc de Triomphe for a photo op before parting ways.

Next we were off to meet up with Fanny who I met about 15 years ago when she and Natalia were foreign exchange partners and she lived next door to me with the Martinellis for three months. Natalia and I stayed with her five years ago in Paris as well, and even though it had been years since I'd seen her it felt like not much time had passed. My friend Benoît, who I'd met in Toronto through our French/English practice and thanks to whom we found our apartment in Lyon, joined us as well. Yay for convenient scheduling! It was a great little bar called Le Gobelet d'argent, with a tiny patio facing onto a square nicely tucked away considering it was in a crazy busy part of the city. It's also one of the oldest Irish pubs in Paris and possibly the smallest! We all talked both in French and English about lots of different things and it was really awesome to catch up. Feeling a little hungry Fanny and I crossed the square to order pizza for the group from a restaurant that conveniently delivered it to us on the patio at the bar. Amazing. 

After a great day and night we were pooped so we headed home to rest up for day two.