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Report 1396: Roman Holiday

By Doug Phillips from Canada, Fall 2007

Page 14 of 16: Thursday – Saturday September 13-15 - Paris

Welcome to Paris

Yesterday Scotland defeated France 1-0 in a football (soccer) game. It was the first time in 57 years that Scotland had won on French soil. Wherever we went in Paris this afternoon and evening we encountered kilted Scotsmen celebrating the victory in varying, but generally deteriorating, stages of sobriety.

Our day began in our apartment in Trastevere in Rome and ended in the small 20-room Hotel Saint Louis Marais on rue Charles V in Paris. We spent our two days in Paris showing Brad some of the highlights of this most beautiful city. We didn’t see much of Steve in our time in Paris. He returned to the hotel late at night & left right after breakfast. He met up with a friend from Toronto. Her name is Jane.

While football was popular with the Scots we met, the highest profile sport in Paris when we were there was Rugby. The World Cup was being contested over several weeks and in several venues in France, including Paris. It was obviously a major sporting event in France. There was even a scoreboard on the Eiffel Tower and a very large inflated balloon between the first and second stages of the famous landmark.

I spent some time on a couple of personal projects - taking several photos of the beautiful Pont Alexandre III and tracking down the locations of the recent film, Avenue Montaigne, on the fashionable street of the same name.

We had a great time. Our joint activities included:

a Seine tour on the batobus
up the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe
flying visits to the Louvre, Montmartre and rue des Rosiers
return visits to two of our favourite restaurants – Le Florimond on avenue Motte-Piquette in the 7th and Chez Nenesse on rue Santonge in the 4th.

I don’t think Brad realized that food could taste so good or that a city could be so beautiful.

Our family adventure ended on Saturday morning as the four of us took the RER back out to CDG. Our sons had to return to Canada, while BW & I continued our journey with an additional ten days on a return visit to Provence. Our TGV train left before their flight, so we had a quick farewell and parted. Our story continues in another Trip Report - Return to the Luberon.

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