Where In The World Wednesday: Paris

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for Where In The World Wednesday again, hosted by the lovely Classy in Philadelphia. Why don't you take part too? All you have to do is post a picture (or many like I do!) of someplace in the world. Don't forget to use the WITWW button in your post, and to visit Classy in Philadelphia later to post a comment on her WITWW, so that other participants can visit your blog too.

Today, I'm going to tell you about a long weekend we spent in Paris back in January 2004. It was my 30th birthday treat and my first trip on the Eurostar, back in the days before St Pancras International was built, and when the trains still left from London Waterloo...I always thought it was slightly cheeky but rather funny of the Brits to remind any French passengers arriving in London by Eurostar that "My my, at Waterloo Napolean did surrender" (yip, a childhood in the 70s/80s means I do have ABBA lyrics on tap).

As might be expected in mid winter, it was absolutely freezing and raining quite a bit of the time but we did get some good breaks of sunshine, hence my pictures of the Parisian landmarks are just a bit hit and miss....

Notre Dame in the gloom

Sacre Coeur in the sunshine

Behind Sacre Coeur

Tour Eiffel by night

The greatest challenge of the weekend (apart from trying to use my schoolgirl French on the world's rudest waiters/shopkeepers/ticket vendors/hoteliers) was getting up the Eiffel Tower...not because we tried scaling it like cat burglars or anything as exciting, but because ze gods seemed adamant that we would not get to the top! The first morning, the iconic symobol of Paris was completely shrouded in mist, then when the weather finally cleared later that afternoon, the tower was closed because of a Chinese New Year celebration parade taking place along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées....I'm not too sure why this would impact on the Tour Eiffel, but as they say in Paris with much shoulder shrugging and mournful lower lip protruding going on....."Je ne sais pas pourquoi"!

Finally, we made it up the tower on the Sunday afternoon with just enough time to get back down again and catch our train back to.... "Waterloo! Promise to love you forever more!"

Avenue des Champs-Élysées from the Tour Eiffel

Looking down from the top of the Tour Eiffel

The day after we got back from Paris, I had an interview for what would become my first medical writing job...the job that would get me out of the lab and into a new career field, and would mean moving out of London, presenting the opportunity to buy our first house. So, I always look back on that weekend in Paris as one of the turning points in my life, and not just because I hit my 30s.