Paris

We caught the Eurostar train from London to Paris, and only really knew we'd arrived in a new country when the cars appeared to be driving on the other side of the road. The buildings changed from industrial concrete blocks to rustic french cottages, nestled in country farmland. Arriving to the station in the afternoon, we set out onto the streets of Paris with Josh's parents and sister Sophie to navigate our way through the centre. The first country we'd been in that didn't speak English (as Singapore really doesn't count), our limited palette of french words became initially apparent - and we realised how bad the New Zealand accent can sound when attempting to speak the language...

The river Seine was our magnet and our point of navigation, so we took off in that direction. We arrived at the Louvre, which we only realised as we turned the corner and were faced with the pyramids of glass in the expansive courtyard. Sadly, our visits to most places were so limited we couldn't venture into the depths of the gallery to see the works, but we took solace in knowing Paris is only a short trip for our planned final destination. We will be back... Settling instead for delicious pastries in the park, near miss attacks from pigeons, and a riverside walk down the Seine (where the same set of side markets appears at every corner), we ended up at the courtyard of Notre Dame. By this stage it was late afternoon, and we needed to arrange dinner in time to make it to Porte de Saint Cloud - just out of the centre of Paris, where our very first Couchsurfing hosts lived. We decided to leave visiting the church until the next day, and headed back towards Josh's parents' hotel (through the back streets, as we didn't know any better, which was an interesting move!). We had experienced London rain, and got our first belting of Parisian rain on the way home, saturating us to the core. It wasn't that warm either, but the forecast for the next day was looking a lot better.

'I must remember to look the other way when crossing roads', became our rule to live by during these two days in Paris. It is easy to slip into road-crossing habits from home, which is terrifying in a city where pedestrian crossings mean nothing. The five of us settled for dinner in a french cafe, and after trying to decipher the menu, except for Creme Brulee, we thankfully all ended up with a decent meal. Soph did get the Creme Brulee, which was amazing... Josh and I then left to catch the metro to our hosts place, and were very thankful we knew how the London underground worked so we weren't completely out of our league, and we made it there in one piece, despite Josh's butchering of the french language, and his misuse of an apology for taking up so much room with our luggage that came out something like 'excuse me mwa', which got a laugh from a resident. She promptly replied with 'that's okay', so a conversation began in English, which was very rare for the subway. We finally made it to Porte de Saint Cloud as night fell, and met Julien and Caro, our fantastic hosts, who sat up with us chatting with cups of tea, sharing stories, and they marked out on a map exactly what they would do if they only had one full day in Paris, as we did... Amazing hosts, who made us feel so welcome in an unfamiliar city. They also had the privilege of seeing some of our favourite Flight of the Conchords french episode, and hopefully didn't find 'Foux De Fa Fa' offensive...

The forecast was right, and the next day was a hot and sunny 27 degrees. Our lovely hosts left work for the day, leaving us grinning at their sweetness, as two places had been set at the breakfast table for us. We caught the metro into town, and were introduced to Paris as the city of love... people are honestly embracing in passionate tongue-laden kissing wherever you look... in the middle of the footpath, on the side of a bridge... everywhere. Our first suggested stop by Julien and Caro - a creperie near Notre Dame, was where we first got to use our limited grasp of french, but successfully ordered two different crepes without a word of English. Not hard yes, but an achievement for us! We brought truth to the rumour that the locals are much more responsive to you if you at least attempt the language, and a tourist who stopped by as we were leaving got treated the opposite when he didn't... We then lined up for Notre Dame, which seemed like a huge queue, but took five minutes, and took in the incredible stained glass windows and statues. The place does feel ruined by tourists, and it just seems wrong to have a photo in front of holy statues. Well, it did to us, but apparently not others.

We then walked down some typical french streets, just off the beaten path, and headed towards the Eiffel Tower, where we were meeting up with Josh's parents and Sophie. A longer walk than we had intended (which seemed to be the case more often than not), we were put off climbing to the top by the hoards of tourists lined up like ants. They didn't even appear to be moving, so we decided there was much more we could be doing with our limited time, rather than waiting in line all day. We instead bypassed a market, which was sadly packing up for the day, but managed to get some fruit, and the sweet old lady gave Josh a wink and slipped in some blackberries for him (maybe it was the attempt at using french...). I begun to get an obsession with beautiful doors, so many around! We visited the Arc De Triumph, and were fascinated by the lack of order to the traffic. We sad mesmerised by the traffic going round and round the roundabout, where there were no lines marking lanes. Josh's dad recounted a story of a friend of his that got stuck going around it for an hour...

We then walked down the Champs-Elysees, where more crepes and drinks were had in the sun, and we got to see a practise run of the jet plane acrobatic display that would be happening on Bastille Day the following week. We made our way slowly down the street amid other parade preparations, and eventually made it back to Porte de Saint Cloud, where we had promised to cook our hosts a meal for their hospitality. First stop was the Supermarche, which was such a pity, as we later realised there was a Fromagerie, a gorgeous deli, a wine store and fresh bread all within five doors of it... grrrr... but we managed to at least get some Olives from the deli to add to a nibbles platter. After a roast meal (and the addition of fondue for dessert by Julien and Caro), some amazingly cheap french wine, stories about their other travels and photos, they offered to take us on a night tour through Paris. We managed to see the Eiffel Tower during it's ten minute light display that happens every hour, and up into the hills of the lively Montmatre, overlooking the city, and finally driving back down the Champs-Elysees, to the soundtrack of melting french music... Josh drifting off to sleep...