Paris in Summer

Cooling tired and aching feet at the fountains of Louvre


The fountains of Louvre proved a respite to tired and aching feet


The Eiffel tower


Me with the Eiffel Tower in the background


The Eiffel Tower


The Eiffel tower

My birthday falls on the summer month of August so some years ago (2002), I told my husband that we should celebrate that occasion with a romantic weekend getaway in Paris. Sounded like a good idea and Siefko was convinced that we should indeed return to Paris (we were there for the first time in 1997) for some sightseeing and gastronomic indulgence. He thought my palate can now handle fairly well those European cuisines compared to our first trip where I almost starved because I was missing rice like crazy and that croissants were simply not my idea of breakfast staple.





I found some cheap all-inclusive deals on the internet for weekend arrangements to Paris which covered round-trip flights and hotel accomodation with inclusive breakfast. Making comparison with booking the high speed train Thalys from Rotterdam to Paris as well as the hotel accommodation, the all-inclusive deal was far cheaper to the extent of sounding like a too good to be true arrangement. I would find out later why?





Flying to Paris which took only 40 minutes from Schiphol to Charles de Gaulle was complicated by the fact that from the airport, we still need to ride a shuttle bus to the train station to get into a train headed to the center of Paris from where we can take the subway to our hotel. Taking the Thalys would have been far simplier because it's final destination was the city center of Paris. Comparing time spent from taking the train or the plane, they approximate almost the same but with less stress on the train.





Paris is simply hot in summer, particularly in August that locals simply get out of this city and retreat to their countryside homes. Only tourists remain in the city which is actually very beautiful and vibrant except that nights can be unpleasant in hotels without air-conditioning. Ours didn't have air-conditioning but to compensate for that, we would take walks at night and just absorb the beauty of an illuminated Paris at night. Our hotel was on the slopes of Montmarte where the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral was so it was simply nice to stroll along and enjoy long and unhurried dinners on one of those nice restaurants in the area.





One thing that I'll never forget was one evening when we were running very late for dinner and most of the restaurant kitchens were already closing, we landed in one restaurant which only had spaghetti with grilled salmon as the only available dinner. Oh boy, that was the best spaghetti which I have ever eaten in my life! Plain and simple spaghetti which I think has sauce made from sun-dried tomatoes. And what even complimented that fabulous dinner was a local chanson singer with his guitar who sang for us "Une belle histoire" by Michel Fugain. What a night and a way to cap our stay with the perfect ambiance of culinary gusto and fantastic music.





Paris in sweltering heat can be tiring but the city was lovely. One just have to be imaginative and resourceful with cooling techniques. That was what I've learned when I found myself cooling my tired and aching feet on the fountains of the Louvre.