Paris

And yes... Paris taxi drivers are just like in the movies. I sat frozen in my seat on the way from the airport to our hotel with my hands over my eyes, sure that I was going to die. My daughter sat in the back laughing at me until she saw a huge truck bearing down on our little taxi which was whizzing in and out of the traffic. I was so relieved to get to the hotel that I gave the taxi driver a larger than normal tip. My only other taxi trip in Paris was just around the corner and up the street to the railway station when we were leaving the take the train to London via the Channel Tunnel. I think the driver had been tranquilised because it was a very sedate ride (for Paris anyway).

The one word that exemplifies Paris is 'atmosphere'. You feel the city more than you see it. You wake up in the morning and feel the city pulsing around you. It is indescribable and many people - myself included - had heard about the Paris atmosphere but we didn't really understand and therefore didn't believe it. Of course there are the wonderful sights which all visitors find mandatory. The top of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louve, ChampsElysee, shops, restaurants, galleries... what a host of things to see.

There is nothing quite like sitting down to lunch
at a sidewalk cafe just down the road from
Notre Dame and watching the lights of Paris
come on in the middle of the day. Yes, this
photo was taken at 12.10pm - just after midday -
during the last solar eclipse of the century and
millennium on Wednesday 11th August 1999.
A wonderful thing for tourists who hadn't even
heard about it and wondered what was
happening when everything started to go dark and all the lights came on. It gave my daughter and I quite a jolt until we realised it was the eclipse and then there was much scrambling for cameras. Just one more thing to make our trip to Paris so memorable.

The pub featured here was just up the street
from our hotel and it was fabulous. It was just
a little pub but the people, food and of course
drink was marvellous. I have never drunk
quite so much cappucino at one time and my
daughter taught the bartender how to make
Kalua and milk. I am sure the poor bartender
thought she was nuts mixing alcohol and milk
but that was what the younger generation were drinking in Australia at that time. She had a marvellous time and a very good nights sleep that night.

Only Paris could combine such a blatant display of the old and new with such stunning effect.
A glass cone in the foreground of a building
which has seen so much of the Paris life for
hundreds of years.
A fabulous example of the French ideas.

JM
1999