So I changed hotels on friday, moving from Boulogne-Billancourt (south-western suburb, about 20 from city centry by subway) to Chattilon (southern suburb, about 20 from city centre by subway.. after a 20 minute walk to the nearest metro station, which happens to be the end stop of that line). The hotel's wireless service is extremly expensive : 17 euros all you can surf until the next stroke of midnight or midday. This means that if you start surfing at 8 PM, you get 4 hours worth of surfing for 17 euros. In the other hotel, I get a 24 hour frame I could surf in a 3 day span. I didn't go out friday night since I didn't know the metro time schedule yet and I was too tired to even bother. I planned my trip for the next day from some webpages I cached offline and went to sleep in my double bed (even though I made reservations for a single one). Saturday morning loud banging on my door woke me up. I shouted something that might've sounded like "un instant", put on some clothes and by the time I got to the door (still very sleepy), there was no one there. Apparently some lady was on the wrong floor and thought it might be fun to wake me up instead. About half an hour later, the desk clerk called to let me know I was in a double room (no kidding?!?) and asked me to come down later and get a new room assigned. I took me about an hour (slowly does it) to take a shower, repack my bags and head down.
I headed to the subway station (after gettting some juice and croissants) and got off at the Lamarck-Caulaincourt station (which is also in one of the Amélie scenes). I found a decent park bench, ate my croissants and started my Amélie tour around Montmartre. I already found the metro station so I now headed towards Masion Colignon (in the movie, this is the little grocerie shop downstairs from Amélie) in the Rue des trois frères. From there on I walked to the Place des Abesses where I had a nice chicken salad in a cosy diner. Walking back along the Rue des Abesses and turning off down the Rue Lepic, stopping at the Café des Deux Moulins (where Amélie worked as a waitress). The Sacre Coeur is nearby and it's worth visiting so I turned back and headed up some stairs. The view was quite spectacular. I asked the address for the famous cremerie on Ile-St-Louis earlier so hopped on the subway (with my Mobilis 2 zone day pass) and got off at Les Halles. It's only a short walk from Les Halles to St. Louis-en-l'ile and it's worth it. I rained that afternoon so I decided to find something to read during the dull moments. The only giant store I know is Fnac so I started my quest. I noticed some people with Fnac bags so I figured it couldn't be far (how wrong I was). I was soking wet when I finally discovered the Fnac was in the same Les Halles complex that I arrived in by subway. I only got to the music section of the store but picked up Moby's 18 (favorite song at the moment: Jam for the ladies) and Garbage's Beautifull. I have been planning to buy an iPod for quite some time now and I banged my head against the walls many times for not brining my Minidisc man... so I did it!!
YES! I DID IT!
I bought an iPod
Well, I bought an iPod Shuffle... and I'm already hooked. Anyway, after my grand purchase, I found a cheap place to eat some supper. Beware of the soda prices! 3.5 euros for a coke isn't uncommon! I headed back to the hotel, installed my iPod, updated with the first songs, let it charge for 4 hours and was very much asleep by that time. Today was quite similar. I took the metro to Lamarck again and walked around a bit. I ate a salad at the same place on Place des Abesses, had a coffee in Café des deux moulins and sat on the stairs at Sacre Coeur for about 2 hours, enjoying the view and the weather (I must be in tons of people's pictures). I walked around the city a bit, visited the Eiffel Tower again (the queue was huge so I didn't actually go up), walked around the Parc du Champs de Mars. I went back to the cremerie (ice cream shop) on Ile-St-Louis for another ice cream. After walking around city some more, I thought it might be a good idea to pick up my suitcase at the hotel and make my way to the Gare du Nord. The clock in the subway station said 6.30, mine said 5.30. It hit me really late that DST had struck again and that I had barely enough time to pick up my suitcase and get to the station in time.. and I did. The lady sitting next to me on the Thalys also enjoyed the episodes of Blackadder I brought.
Re:Another hotel
Beatnik on 2005-03-28T02:28:09
You'll like it probably.. I mean, any swedish film you see is foreign to most 'mericans:)
