Picking up on the RER ride to Le Bourget, where I'm staying, I disembarked at Le Bourget and walked the 15 minutes to my AirBNB booking on Avenue Couturier. For a few terrifying moments I couldn't get past the security door, until I realised I wasn't pushing the door hard enough.
Once I let myself in to the apartment, I sat down for a while and gathered my thoughts. After about an hour, I went out to the Tabac (tobacco shop) down the road that supposedly sold the SIM card I was looking for. Sadly, they didn't, but I did manage to negotiate talking in French with the Frenchman running the shop, which was an achievement.
I also went for a run around the Le Bourget area, including over a massive rail yard, where I saw something you only usually see in Europe, a train with two decks of cars. I also went past a Carrefour, which is kind of like the Woolworths of France, except they have more smaller Express stores dotted around the city as well as the enormous ones:
Trains with cars. Only in Europe.
After getting back to the apartment, I grabbed my camera, backpack and tripod before heading down to La Courneuve - 8 Mai 1945, the local Metro station. I successfully purchased a carnet of 10 tickets and headed into the city. My first stop was the tourist information centre, where I was given the details of some local independent phone shops. A job for tomorrow me thinks.
I snapped a few photos of the Opéra while I was in the area, then boarded a Metro to the Jardin du Trocadero (Trocadero Garden). From there my plan was to walk the length of Champ de Mars and try and make it to Notre Dame and the Musée du Louvre if there was time.
I had my first experience of street hawkers at Trocadero, selling small Eiffel Tower trinkets. They were all being politely rejected, until he approached a group of American tourists. Keeping the 'American tourist' stereotype alive, this escalated into a standoff between the hawker and a man, with a woman trying to track down the police with the line 'Can you get the police? This guy is irritating.' Said the American:
A couple of my favourites from Trocadero Gardens
I learned so much in my first couple of hours of photography in Paris. It's much better to shoot away from the sun if possible, and I took this knowledge plus a couple of extra pointers the guys at work gave me before I left to improve my photography skills.
I eventually walked the whole of Champ de Mars, going from Trocadero Gardens and its fountains, to the Eiffel Tower, along the Champ de Mars and around the École Militaire (Military School), but it took much longer than I thought. I started the walk from École Militaire to Notre Dame at dusk, and made up my mind to stop when I got to the Musee de l'Armée, which had a fantastic garden. I made a note to try to visit it tomorrow:
My favourite photo of École Militaire
I had brought a small point-and-click camera with me, so that if I wanted someone to take my photo I wouldn't have to hand over my DSLR. But I gained new respect for the photography community today - there were enough people with good cameras that I felt absolutely comfortable giving them my own, all day.
I got back to the apartment having not eaten anything since breakfast, and realised I didn't really feel like anything. I sat around with Hassib and Kamel, my hosts, and watched the last of the first match in the World Cup.
That's the last of my travels in Paris for today, catch me again tomorrow for the Notre Dame, Musée du Louvre and the Champs-Élysées, among others. Be sure to check out my Flickr set for Paris, which will include my favourite/best photos of Paris:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645070916388/
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