Paris the first

Caution the continent: Amy has landed. Or rather neatly slid in. The Eurostar was amazing, super fast (not sure what speed it does but it was absolutely smoking the cars when it was alongside the motorway) and with an actual sense of crossing a distance, which you really don't get when flying. The Channel Tunnel itself was just, well, you're in the open, then you're in blackness, then out again. There's nothing to indicate you're magically under the sea and that an octopus's garden was bulldozed to make this.

I checked in to my hotel and went out and walked and walked, exactly where nobody will ever know, but I suspect a lot of it was around in circles. I put it roughly on the map, but I really have no clue. That's the problem with setting out to nowhere - you have no idea when you're there. I ended up heading away from most of the main sights (although I did see some of Les Jardin des Tuileries and the glass pyramid at the Louvre) and into some more colourful neighbourhoods, i.e. smelling of urine, but still quite delightful.

It's springy spring spring in Paris!

This is Place des Victoires. It's a roundabout, and I somehow managed to find it from three different directions over four hours. And every time, this bastard looked away from the camera just as I took the photo.

I looked at this for ages without remembering what it was or why I took it, but it's the building opposite reflected in a window full of antique sewing machines. Mostly it's just doing my head in.

The BEST THING IN PARIS, no question. That apostrophe.

And this is the view from my hotel room. It's pretty much exactly what I pictured Europe to look like the whole of my childhood, and now it's right there.

The breakfast here is mercifully bacon-free, although the option I just ticked lists bread roll with butter, and croissant, and pastries (plural), so yikes, I've just replaced bacon with butter. 

Also, did I mention that Paris is amazing?