At the present time, I’m on a TGV Elyria train, racing it’s way south to southest through the eastern countryside of France. Our destination is the city that holds the title of “Best Quality of Life” in the world, Zurich, Switzerland. Switzerland doesn’t have their own language, so the primary language is dictated by geography. The western part of Switzerland speaks French, the southern region speaks Italian, and the rest of the country speaks German. From what I’ve heard, English is commonly the second language, so I don’t anticipate any problems, but my host knows German, so I should be ok.
The hardest part of the train ride is staying awake, the ride is so incredibly smooth and quiet that when combined with my early wake up call in Paris, has already led to two relaxing naps. However, now I’m definitely awake for the rest of the ride, the scenery is just too nice to sacrifice any of it in the name of sleep. The huge windows of the train afford an incredible view of the rolling hills supplemented by a lush blue sky.
Rewinding back to Saturday afternoon, after officially locking up my flat one last time and passing my keys off to the key warden (who wasn’t nearly as intimidating as his title would suggest), I took the short tube ride over to St. Pancras International. The station in North London is the new English hub of Eurostar, a high speed train that primarily connects London and Paris, but also makes it’s way to Belgium. One interesting trick of the Eurostar, when I went to book the one way trip to Paris, the cost was over 200 pounds, or more than $400. However, if you book at as a roundtrip, it’s only 59 pounds. If you ever have to travel that route, obviously buy the roundtrip and chuck the return ticket.
The trip itself was an incredibly smooth one, about 45 minutes above ground from London before reaching the southern border and spending 30 minutes in the tunnel below the English Channel. Then another hour ride through northern France before the train pulled into the station on the northern part of Paris. A friend of mine picked me up at the station and we went through a nice evening stroll through the central part of the city, stopping off to see Notre Dame. The sun setting on the western facing church made for an incredible view. As dusk hit, we decided to make my way to my friend’s parents’ house out in the near southern suburb off the Juvisy stop.
The suburb is pretty posh, and given that it was August, the month when most of the Parisians leave the city on holiday, the town was empty. Blocks and blocks of large houses asleep for the month, with some obvious exceptions when a family’s kids were watching the house and naturally having big parties. The houses were very unique and stratified along the hillside town, so it was about 200 steps up pedestrian passageways to the place I was staying. This started my run of about 2,500 steps ascended in my 60 hours in Paris.
The next morning opened with dark clouds and a promise of a perpetual threat of rain from the weatherman. The good news is the heavy downpour never really arrived, but the clouds were pretty menacing all day, which took a bit away from the scenery. Nevertheless, we explored the Sacre-Couer, an incredible basilica at the highest point in Paris. To get to the church, it involved climbing a couple hundred steps. Then of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the 350 step climb to the top. After that we spent the day hiking around the city, which was perfect for setting me up for an efficient following day, given I was going to be by myself. Navigating the city was second nature by that point. A look at the metro map would give the impression that Paris is as massive as London, but it is much smaller. The train stops are very short distances from each other, when compared to London. This made getting around super easy, even if the metro map wasn’t as intuitive geometrically as London.
In the evening, I was on my own and wandered the city. The rain was becoming more imminent at that point, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me. I made my way through an amazing cemetary, with elaborate marble coffins/tombs, often adorned with a family name and the various family members buried there. From there, I grabbed some dinner and stopped into a pub to watch an outstanding traditional Irish band before making my way back to the suburbs.
The skies finally opened up overnight and it was pretty violent, leading to a virtually sleepless night, since I was staying in a spare bedroom in the attic. For hours Paris was pounded by this storm and it led to a wet start to my last full day in Paris, so I made my way to the Louvre, formally a royal palace, now one of the most famous museums in the world. The museum itself is massive, and one could easily spend a full day or more, but I was a bit limited on time, so I had to do a more fast paced run through. I did see the biggest attractions, including the Venus di Milo, Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, and of course Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. However, my favorite parts of the museum were Napoleon III’s apartment and the French sculptures in the very open and bright sculpture rooms.
The rain finally ended its punishment which gave way to an incredibly beautiful afternoon and evening in Paris. I walked along the Seine, enjoying a delicious crepe de jambon e fromage (ham and cheese) and eventually came back to Notre Dame, this time with an opportunity to explore the inside. After that, I settled my bags into the hostel I would be staying in that evening. I decided to take advantage of the availability of a room at a great hostel who’s proximity helped me get home at a decent hour and saved me a lot of time commuting in the morning. That evening, I walked down to the Arc de Triumphe, and of course, climbed the stairwells to the top. The view was incredible as Paris and its roadways treat the arc as the epicenter. The main drags, including Champs d’Elysees, all meet at the arc, so walking around the top is great for watching how each road points to each area of Paris.
Then I was ready for the highlight of Paris, a trip up the Eiffel Tower. As expected, the lines were pretty long, but that was perfect for letting dusk settle on the city, allowing for an amazing nighttime view of Paris. There are three levels of observation decks, the first two accessible by stairs or elevator, but the only way to get to the third level is by elevator. Unfortunately, they had stopped selling tickets to the top about the time I got halfway through the line, so I was left to enjoy the view from the 2nd level. It was definitely enough to get the experience though. You’re already pretty high up and the summer breeze making pushing through the tower, made for an incredible setting. The tower was lit in blue for the night with the front of the tower displaying the circle of stars found on the Euro flag. I believe the 10th anniversary of the Euro was just a couple weeks ago, leading to a unique display of the Eiffel Tower.
Every hour, on the hour, for about 10 minutes, the hundreds of strobe lights on the tower are set off. I have some video of it that will be displayed (here) when I get a chance to upload it.
All in all, Paris was a great time. It felt a bit like London, with Notre Dame being a lot like combining Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s, the Louvre similar to combining London’s National History museum with the National Gallery, the Seine much like the Thames, and the Eiffel Tower a much older and more exciting version of the London Eye.
Of course, you hear quite a bit about the relative unfriendliness of Parisians. While I definitely didn’t witness the warmth of Londoners, I never really felt like anyone was rude, either. It helped that I had a translator for the first half of the trip, but I was on my own for the second half, not knowing anything more than a few key phrases in French. However, what I’ve learned through all my travels is that as long as you have a good attitude, people anywhere are going to be really nice to you.
As for my travel details, the good news is so far my concerns about using my InterRail Pass, given it slightly bends the rules, should be ok. There was only a brief once over of my travel documents before they were quickly handed back to me. The problem I’m facing though could get a bit annoying. The representative at the office I hit in London to book everything, made a mistake. My pass allows travel for 5 days over a 10 day period. Overnight trains are supposed to account for travel only on the day that you arrive. However, if the travel originates before 7pm, it counts as 2 days. Originally my Zurich to Budapest trip was supposed to depart at 11pm and arrive in Budapest at 11am. However, that train wasn’t available, for some reason, so I accepted a route of heading up to Munich in the evening, then changing over to an overnight train to Budapest. The problem is the Zurich to Munich train leaves at 6:15pm. So I’m going to have to research buying the original overnight train, but for tomorrow night. We’ll see. It’s just a bit annoying that the girl at the travel center went through her whole series of checks to prevent something like this, and it happened. Oh well.
I had been wondering how exactly border control is happened when you are taking a train from city to city. Just now, some border police jumped on the train when we made a brief stop in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. They took a quick look at each person’s passport, then move on. Much like at other passport gates, I get quizzed quite a bit more. It’s not surprising as I’m not a standard traveller. I’m presenting a passport for a country I haven’t been in for over 6 months. So they’re required to research a bit deeper when trying to figure out exactly what I have going on.
Anyway, we’re making our way through the mountains on our way to Zurich, where we’ll be arriving in a half hour, so I’m going to close up and get packed away. The next leg of my journey, an overnight train from Zurich to Budapest, is by far my longest. However, I have good friends there and am really excited to see Budapest for a couple of days. Anyway, I hope to be able to punch up a Swiss recap during that trip and will try to publish it when I get to Budapest. It might be tough for me to push my pictures out to Flickr because it’s a long process, one I usually let run overnight while I was in London, but I’ll try to get at least the highlights out there when I next get a connection.
Phil
