Square du Temple – Elie Wiesel
Great couple of days at the Olympics rugby sevens. The absence of beer at the ground turned out to be a blessing as the temperatures hit the high twenties. We were lucky enough to be in a box where it was easy to pop inside every now and again and watch the games from bar stools.
We weren’t that impressed with the catering facilities generally as they seemed to run out of things on a regular basis and didn’t have enough staff working. This is in marked contrast to the cricket at Trent Bridge where they had a large number of people working behind the bars which meant service was almost instantaneous.
Despite the catering we had a good time. Was incredible how many people they shifted out of the stadium afterwards. Eighty five thousand people walking to the RER station twenty five minutes away. Shuffling really.
It was still less than an hour door to door and Simon and I managed a welcome cold beer in the bar over the road to the hotel when we got back.
Last night we hit Le Procope. I had planned to stop by Harry’s New York Bar afterwards but we were all knackered and it made more sense to find a bar local to the hotel.
Our hotel, the Beaurepaire, was a classic low cost Parisian joint. Tiny rooms with no air con. The room did have a fan but that made a terrible racket as the fan kept clicking against the metal cage housing. The windows did open wide but then let in the noise from the bar across the road and the many police sirens that are a feature of the streets in Paris, at least whilst the Olympics are on 😀
Don’t get me wrong. The hotel was clean and the staff friendly. Also the lift worked and brought with it the distinction of being the smallest lift I’ve ever been in.
We are now on the 10:59 to Caen from Gare Saint-Lazare, unaffected by the chaos that would appear to be the Eurostar service following concerted arson attacks last night on high speed lines.
Good to be leaving the concrete jungle that is Paris. I quite like the cafe culture but many of the normal touristy things were off the menu due to large sections of the city along the banks of the Seine being closed to regular punters pending the opening ceremony tonight.