Wilfred in Paris

Hello, it’s me!  Wilfred!  And can you even believe it, this week I went with my two dads  to Paris, FRANCE! 

Me in Paris, France, with Poppy.  I can't even believe it! 

A lot of people who live in London are from Paris, France, thanks to the Eurostar and the Chunnel.  So many Paris people live in our neighbourhood, our landlord, Mr. Drummond, says Londoners don’t call this South Kensington anymore; they call it Kensington du Sud.  At Ravenstone, I have four friends from Paris and there are just twelve kids in my whole class!

To get to Paris from South Kensington, you take the tube from Gloucester Road to Kings Cross and exit into St. Pancras station.  St. Pancras is one of the most beautiful railway stations in all London.  It was built in the Victorian times.  They were going to tear it down in the 1960s, but a man named Betjeman saved it and now it is all fixed up with shops and a huge statue of two people kissing (which is a bit yucky, but oh well...). 



Statue of John Betjeman, poet and saver of St. Pancras in St. Pancras station.

 

Yucky kissing statue in St.Pancras

 

The Eurostar!  At the platform at St. Pancras



The Eurostar is very fast, but to get to the Chunnel, it still took us nearly an hour going through the English country side.  Every time we went through an underpass, I kept asking, “Is this the Chunnel yet?!”   But once we were finally inside…it was just a long dark tunnel, so Poppy and I explored the train.  Twenty minutes later, we came out in the light in France!  An hour after, we were at the Gare du Nord! 

Me, Poppy and the Eurostar in the Gare du Nord

 


Me in the Gare du Nord



Getting to our hotel by Metro was a bit of an adventure.   Gare du Nord is a big station. Paris people are funny sometimes.  No one from Paris seemed to know how to use the subway…  I know only know a few French words like “Oui”, “Non”, “Bonjour” and “Arret” but Poppy knows lots of French words and he had to ask three people before we found someone who could direct us to the right track. 

 We took the Metro to Chatelet les halles and transferred.   Chatelet les halles is a commuter hub with lots of lines meeting, but by now Poppy and Dad were getting the hang of it and they got us safely to our final stop – Jussieu – with my help.

Our hotel was on Avenue des Ecoles in the Latin Quarter.  It is an old part of the city of Paris where for many hundred years there has been a University where in the olden days the students were taught in Latin.  Our hotel was down the street from a famous university called the Sorbonne.  As we walked along the street, I kept saying to Dad and Poppy, “I can’t believe I am in Paris… it is so beautiful”.



Me and Poppy and the Hotel La Familia.  Our room was on the top floor!

 Our hotel was called “La Familia”.  It only had four rooms on each floor and ours was on the sixth.  We took a little lift up to the attic and our room was perfect!  There was a perfect sleeping place for me and two little balconies.  We faced towards the Seine and we could see the spires of Notre Dame Cathedral.  The sun was beginning to set and it was so beautiful, Dad and Poppy were very happy -- I didn’t want to leave.   



Me and Dad in the little lift.  I made Poppy take the stairs



See the olden attic beams?

  

My little sleeping place with my own balcony

  

The view toward Notre Dame

  

My dads were so happy

Dad got directions to a little bistro nearby and we went there for an authentic Parisian meal.  Dad and Poppy had shrimp tartare and andouilette. I had a hamburger…

The next morning it was a clear blue day.  We got up for our petite dejeuner (which I guess is French for a bun and some juice) and then walked down to the banks of the Seine. 



Me by the Seine

   

Me and Poppy near Notre Dame



The back of Notre Dame



Me being an angel at Notre Dame

After a stroll around Notre Dame, we decided to take the Batobus, which is a boat that sails up and down the Seine.  It stops at places tourists want to see and you can get on and off, like the hop on hop off Big Bus Tour – Paris style, only on a boat.



Me and Dad and the batobus

Notre Dame is on an island in the middle of the Seine.  We sailed around it and headed back up the river past the Hôtel de Ville and the Louvre and got off at the quay next to the Pont Alexandre to walk by the Grand Palais (the big palace), the Petit Palais (the little palace) and up the Champs-Elysées (a wide, wide street with lots of gardens and cafés). 

Me and Poppy on the batobus

Me and Poppy on the Pont Alexandre

Me and Poppy on the streets of Paris

We stopped to have a snack on the Champs-Elysées (a petite dejeuner isn’t enough to keep an English Canadian boy going all morning...).  Poppy and I felt very posh until he asked our waiter for the facteure (the bill)… and then his eyes got really big. 



Posh boy on the  Champs-Elysées

 

We stopped to look at the Arc de Triomphe, which is a great big arch that I have seen in books.  It is in the middle of the etoile (a star – where 13 streets come together like beams from the sun).  An amazing thing happened! A Gypsy man and I found a man’s  gold ring lying on the sidewalk.  The man told Dad it would bring him good luck if I kept it as a souvenier - but only if Dad gave him some money.  Dad told the man to keep the ring...

We walked down one of the arms of the star -- the Avenue d'Iéna -- and suddenly, there it was on the other side of the river – the Eiffel Tower! I got a good look at it, but the line-ups were really long because not all the lifts were working.  We decided to skip the trip up until my next time in Paris.

Me and Poppy, guess where!



My up close look at the tower (I took this picture).

Instead, my dads let me go for a spin on a nearby carousel.  And I found the perfect seat!



Guess which seat I picked?



Can you even believe it?



It was a very busy morning with lots of walking.  My legs were tired! And I was ready for lunch!  So we headed back to the Latin Quarter. 


Me and Dad head for lunch!

After a bit of a rest, Dad had an idea where I could get a view of Paris, even if it wasn't the EiffelTower.  We went to this amazing building not far from our hotel - the Pantheon.



Me and Poppy in front of the Pantheon.

The Pantheon was built as a church, but now it is a monument to famous people of France who have died .  The inside is really amazing.  It is a great big space and eventhough it is not a church church anymore, it makes you want to whisper.

There are amazing statues and paintings of people who have done great things for France.



One whole wall has paintings that tell the story of a girl named Joan, who heard saints and angels tell her to free France from the English and make the dauphine king.  She fought like the best soldier - better than any man - and so the English thought she was a witch.  They caught her and do you know what they did to her?  Burned her at the stake!  I kept asking Dad why and he did his best to explain how people used to think strange things that they don't think anymore and how life is sometimes unfair to girls and then I didn't understand the rest.

A very cool thing in the centre of the Pantheon is the Foucault Pendulum, which is a big long pendulum that hangs down from the highest dome.  It looks like art, but it is really a science experiement that shows that the world goes around, which every one knows, but this just proves it.



The Foucault Pendulum

After we looked around for a while, we joined a group that climbed to the top of the Patheon's dome. It is over two hundred steps.  The first hundred or so are inside the walls.  That's when you get to go out on to balconies that look down on the Pantheon and catch your breath. 



Me and Poppy look down on the Pantheon



Then it was outside for an amazing view of Paris!  I was as high as the Eiffel Tower! But there were more steps to climb...



I can see the Tour Eiffel



More steps...

But from the tippy-top the view was really amazing.  I could see all Paris.  Even the Eiffel Tower looked small.



Me taking in the view

 

Notre Dame from the Pantheon



Me and Poppy.  Can you see the tiny tower behind us?

From the highest spot, we went down to the lowest:  the crypt, where many famous French people are buried or have memorials.

Voltaire's tomb



Other famous French people there

After the Pantheon, Dad said I needed to go outside and run around and blow the stink off me.  He showed me the way to the Luxembourg Palace, which has a really beautiful park around it, including a pond, where you can rent boats to sail.  I got a pirate ship!  Argh!!



Me and my pirate ship at the Luxembourg Gardens



Poppy watches me sail

I am a very good sailor

But soon my half hour of sailing was done.  The sun was setting and it was time for us to start thinking about dinner and heading back to our hotel.  We had an early start the next morning to take the Eurostar back to London.  But before we left Luxembourg, I just had to get Dad to explain something to me.  "How come the English burned that girl, again?" 
 

Dad explains Joan of Arc...one more time...

This week is my last week of Easter holidays and GRANDMA IS HERE!!  Tomorrow we leave for Scotland.  I will be sure to write you all about it.  Bye for now.   Wilfie 

 

I didn't want to leave