Le Chic En Rose

Last year I did a relatively short trip (just over 2 weeks) to the UK to see my extended family for the first time since the Covid lockdowns and travel restrictions.

I went with my younger daughter, Mlle, who wanted to catch up with her London-based friends, plus had a wedding to go to in Portugal. We had a short stay in London initially and I blogged about revisiting old London haunts here, here and here.

However Paris seemed enticingly close, only a relatively short train ride away with Eurostar and it had been a few years since either of us had been there. We formed the idea that we could try and do a day trip there!

Mlle’s former flatmate (our London host and a Paris native) was somewhat sceptical and suggested an overnight stay was more advisable. Thanks to the generosity of her mother who very kindly let us make use of her beautiful bijou flat in the 13th arrondissement, we were able to make our dream a reality. We thought, “why not”? We didn’t know when we’d be able to do such a trip again and given all the travel disruptions of the past couple of years we decided to throw caution to the wind.

I don’t think a day trip would really be feasible unless you were going for a specific work event (as Mlle has done a couple of times when she was living in London). I also think it would be overwhelming and unrealistic to even do what we did (just over 24 hours) unless you were already well acquainted with Paris (as both of us are) and knew which areas to focus on.

All that aside, this is the first part of our 24 hours in Paris (we packed a lot in!).

I should add that we had planned the trip beforehand from Australia – we didn’t book last minute in London or anything like that.

I’ve travelled on Eurostar a few times on different routes (eg London/Paris, Brussels/ London) and fortunately have never had a bad experience. The most stressful part of the day was trying to get an Uber from Willesden (where we were staying) to St Pancras International Station at 6.15 in the morning. We were booked on the 8 am train and despite the throngs of people, easily passed through the ticket, security and passport checks (both UK and French Customs are done in London) without any fuss. I reckon it took us about 20 minutes or so to get through to the waiting zone, but I’d always advise allowing plenty of time even if that means hanging around a little while to board the train.

I meant to take some photos at St Pancras and also on board the train but in the end I realised I have precisely two photos, one of our “Pret a Manger” morning beverages and one a very blurred photo as the train departed the station!

We had booked Standard Premier Class, which meant we had a light breakfast served at our seats on the train – from memory it was pretty good.

Two and a quarter hours later we were in Paris (one hour ahead of London time). We took a taxi from the Gare du Nord to our lodgings on the other side of the Seine. Our only “duties” were to make sure the resident cat was looked after. He seemed a bit suspicious especially once his mistress disappeared off to stay at her friend’s for a day! He took up residence on the roof top garden (such an ingenious design in the middle of the city) but was lured back in by the promise of food. I’m afraid I rather overfed him, which made me very popular, but hopefully he didn’t put on too much weight!

By now it was past midday local time so we headed off to the local Metro station (Glacière) to catch the train into the centre of Paris. As I said before, we were staying in the 13th arrondissement, which is on the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) of the Seine and about a 20 minute train ride to Saint-Michel, the metro station for Notre Dame, our first port of call. Although quite close to tourist attractions, the Rue de la Glacière locality gave us a real feel as to how to live like a local in Paris – it was quintessentially French with elegant boulevards, small shops, markets and locals going about their business.

We were especially keen to see the exterior of Notre Dame Cathedral. We wondered what it would look like now that restoration work was well underway following the devastating fire of April 2019 (see here and here for more info). The fire broke out under the eaves of the old medieval cathedral, causing extensive damage and in haunting images beamed round the world, the iconic spire came toppling down. The stone facade and vaulted stone ceiling survived but the rebuilding work has taken several years. Much of the initial work was to make the cathedral stable enough for restoration work to start.

As we skirted round the city centre in the taxi en route from the Gare du Nord, we saw the rear exterior of the cathedral encased in multiple layers of scaffolding.

It was a surreal experience to finally be standing there in front of the facade with its beautiful stained glass rose window. It looked more or less as we remembered it but without the spire. The scaffolding around the side told a different story.

There is a comprehensive series of information boards surrounding the front and side of the cathedral explaining the history and the renovation project. We wandered round soaking in the atmosphere and marvelling at the scale of the work in hand. Most of the area is cordoned off to visitors but you can still take a look at the construction work and the vast scale of the project. The aim is for the cathedral to reopen for religious services and visitors in December 2024 (so not in time for the summer Olympics) but the full restoration work is not likely to be complete till 2028. I found an interesting article about the project here.

By now thoughts turned to lunch as we hadn’t eaten anything since our breakfast on the train a few hours earlier. We found a delightful spot for lunch – coming up in Part 2 soon!

Copyright © 2023 Rosemary Thomas Le Chic En Rose