Paris in the spring
Ah, it’s summer, isn’t it?
Took the gf on a surprise trip to Paris for the weekend. We got on the Eurostar which did a quick and effective job of shunting us from Waterloo to the Gare du Nord, where we found that navigating the Metro was relatively easy as long as you can tell your nord from your sud. The hotel was easy to find, and turned out to be pretty swanky (thank the lord!).
We had a wander around the Palais du Luxembourg, the market outside St Sulphice, then up to the islands and the Notre Dame. Had dinner in a little bistro that gets pretty good reviews where I had an astonishingly good steak, and enjoyed the Americans at the next table arguing with the waiter about decaffeinated coffee.
Next day was spent having a look around the inside of the Notre Dame, the Louvre and finishing off under the Tour Eiffel. The Notre Dame was an amazing experience but unfortunately not a pleasant one. Firstly, they were allowing tourists to tramp through while they were performing mass - if I ran the place I would shut it for a hour of peace - but worse still: the tourists that were there were talking, clomping up and down and taking hundreds of photos with flash! Quite apart from the fact that the flash gun won’t do you any good, it gave a religious ceremony an atmosphere that was closer to a football game, or a film premiere. One older asian chap was actually taking a flash photo of the congregation, which I thought was a bit off.
The Louvre was very large - I like the antiquities, reminded me of the British Museum. Eiffel Tower was quite tall 
Overall: an excellent city, thoroughly recommended. It’s one of these sorts of places that really lives up to the stereotypical view of itself; it really is a relaxed, beautiful place full of cafes, churches and flowers. Would visit again!!!