It was a complete downpour when I left my hotel in Nice (La Malmaison – I definitely recommend it) to walk up hill to the train station at 5:30AM. For some reason a taxi never crossed my mind. Technically, rain never crossed my mind. After sitting through a six hour, cramped train ride in wet clothes, I arrived in Paris, France at Gare de Lyon (train station). From Gare de Lyon, I managed to find my way to the Montparnasse station, where I was meeting my mom at the Paris hotel we would stay at for the next two nights. As I rode the elevator to the fourth floor alone (because I was the only person that would fit), I started wondering what the room was going to be like. Well, we both got a laugh out of it. The two twin beds were so close together one would think it was a double bed had they not been made with separate sets of sheets and bedspreads.
Despite the small size, it was very clean and the bathroom had to have been redone recently – it was nearly the same size as the room itself. Note: While I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to any honeymooners, it was in a decent location and we did manage to sleep through the sound and vibrations of the train station below us.
After checking into the hotel, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed into the city, toward La Seine (the river). A quick jaunt across the famous Pont Neuf bridge, and a few wrong turns later, we ended up at Cathédral Notre-Dame de Paris, just one more large church to add to the list I have visited this summer. I think I’ve been in more churches this summer than I have in my entire life!
We wandered the streets awhile longer, found a chocolate store (where we bought ice cream because the chocolate was outrageously expensive) in what we thought was the Quartier Latin but later found was not, and passed the Sorbonne.
I’ve noticed that people are really well dressed here. Trendy. Kind of like they just stepped off the runway. Perfect, always styled hair and perfect makeup. Maybe they are from Ralph Lauren ads…
