Seriously, there is never too much time in Paris (in my personal opinion!). It might be cold and rather soggy right now, but we plan to make the best of our brief visit to this gorgeous place. And we’d like to go to museums and sites that we have not seen on earlier trips.
We arrived this afternoon after holding our breath a bit and wondering if our rail tickets would actually get used after SCNF (the French rail service) went out on strike for a day and a half. They went back to work this morning at 8:00 AM and we left Normandy on the Caen to Paris St. Lazare IC (intercity train) at 11:45. Whew!!!
On board the 2 hour Caen to Paris IC train
The train arrived late and stayed a mere couple of minutes as everyone was frantically scrambling on board, staking out seats, and trying to get their luggage on the train before we began moving again. It was quite chaotic since all of the people who didn’t get to travel during the 36 hour strike had the right to use their tickets today alongside those of us who WERE scheduled to travel today. What a mess these strikes make for the schedules of any traveller!
Right now we’re giving our legs a tiny break after climbing 5 flights of stairs to our top floor apartment in the Marais district. As our charming host Bruno told us whilst helping haul luggage up all of those stairs, it’s a 17th Century building with restrictions on what can and cannot be changed. So there will NEVER be an elevator inside!
Our budget friendly apartment on the FIFTH floor of a 17th Century building with NO elevator in the Marais district of Paris.
In more strike news, we had France 24 news on the television as we sipped a cup of tea and breaking news scrolled across the bottom of the screen. The employees of the Louvre Museum have walked out on strike in protest of the amount of PICKPOCKETS walking around inside!!! Life in France is certainly never boring.
Stay tuned for more posts from our 5 days in Normandy, perhaps a bit of our time in England, and maybe even a few glimpses of Paris before we head off to Brussels on the weekend.
We certainly ARE having a multiple-weeks-long adventure on our way back to Australia!
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