Bienvenue à Paris!

Welcome to Paris! Luke's new home for the next 6 months as part of the year abroad requirement of his degree. I was up at 5am this morning to get to our local station by 6am, to get the train to St Pancras where we boarded the Eurostar for Paris. The train journey seemed to go so quickly and before we knew it we were in Paris.

His apartment was about a 25 minute walk from the station so we decided we would rather walk than get a taxi - Luke pulling his two large heavy suitcases and me with my tiny overnight bag! His apartment is well located, in the 10th arrondissement, which seems to be off the main tourist area and it is quieter with more local residents instead of tourists. I have added an extra of the little courtyard one enters off the street before entering the building. Thankfully his apartment is only on the first floor as very few of these buildings have lifts. The apartment is fine, with a separate bedroom area and a sofa bed in the sitting area for over night guests. 

After helping Luke unpack we went in search of a supermarket - not so easy to find in the middle of a large city. We found one, but it did not seem to sell any fresh meat or chicken - not sure why as we did not see any butcher shops either. We ended up buying from one around the corner but it seemed very expensive and did not have all the things we needed - like no loo paper! Later on we discovered a really nice Carrefour around the other corner and so we bought more stuff there and I am sure that is where he will do most of his shopping from now on.

We found a cafe for lunch which was very pleasant sitting outside in the warm sunshine. Then after lunch we walked quite a distance, going to see Notre Dame cathedral - where I got my blip - and then on to St Germain where we had a half price cocktail during happy hour. By now it was very hot and we were quite pleased to sit down and have something cold to drink.

We then walked on to the Louvre, and then finally on to a restaurant for supper. I think we walked over 10km this afternoon.

Tomorrow we are testing his route to work - checking which metro he needs to catch and to try and find the office. It is located in the La Défense area so I am looking forward to getting some architectural shots. We also need to find a department store to buy some small items for the kitchen.