Day 3 - A look at the Eiffel Tower before heading west to Vernouillet for the Psychobilly Stomp Festival.
Montparnasse Tower looked fairly close to our hotel so we headed there before breakfast, the 59 storey skyscraper has a viewing platform on the roof and we were considering going up if the price was right. At €15.50 each we decided not to bother though, €7 max and I may have considered it.
Instead we spent our money on some breakfast, this morning we were keeping it as traditional as we could at a local patisserie.
A friend at work had suggested dipping a croissant into my coffee, I can't bear dipping biscuits into my tea in case crumbs fall in but I survived to tell the tale here.
As we hadn't bought any quiche in Montmarte yesterday we decided to share a slice here. It was heated up for us and tasted excellent, we went for spinach and ricotta.
Having spent under €10 on breakfast we were not about to blow a fortune on seafood, it did look great though.
Our plan this morning was to visit the Catacombes of Paris, a massive network of caves underneath the city. It sounded amazing but when we saw the queue that went around the block and doubled up on itself we decided to not bother and take a look at the Eiffel Tower instead.
The metro station opposite the Catacombes entrance was another fine example of Art Nouveau.
Close to the Eiffel tower we spotted a pair of rabbits, if you stroke them or take a photo then the owner will demand money. If like we did you don't give him any he will most likely get a bit angry and be quite rude.
I loved this view of the Eiffel Tower.
Having been up it before we decided to not bother this time, there were long queues here too. Instead we started to walk back towards our hotel, it was almost time to leave Paris.
On the walk back we discovered a street of just crepe restaurants, we decided to try one but it was difficult deciding which one to try. One was offering a savoury galette, sweet crepe and jug of cider for just €12.50, it sounded reasonable so we headed inside. The owner was very passionate about what they served there explaining to us that the galette was made from buckwheat and it was traditionally always served with cider. There were a number of fillings to choose from, once we had made our choices the cider arrived and we sat waiting in anticipation for the food to arrive.
I must confess to being gobsmacked when a plate arrived with a hessian place mat on top of it, the owner looked very proud of it though. Ok, so this was the galette but visually it couldn't have looked any less appealing..
It tasted fairly nice though and I did find some chicken and cheese inside.
The crepe was slightly better but didn't really excite me very much.
There was some chocolate sauce inside but this was certainly the low point of eating out in Paris. We left the restaurant slightly disappointed, collected our suitcases from the hotel and headed to Saint Lazare station.
Our next desination was the Psychobilly Stomp festival in Vernouillet.
The festival had a great line up of bands but had no hotels nearby so we had to stay in the next town, Villennes Sur Seine. It was a beautiful but sleepy town with barely anyone about, our hotel was 30 minutes walk away from the station here, located between a duel carriageway.
The room at the Ibis hotel was a bargain at just €90 for 2 nights.
From leaving the hotel it took over an hour to get to the festival, it was inside a large venue with an outside terrace area.
My wife and I generally drink vodka or cider and avoid drinking beer or wine. With a drinks choice of beer, wine, sangria or champagne we were not particularly impressed..
What the hell we thought and proceeded to drink our way through the drinks menu!
Outside we spotted a food stall, perhaps we had better eat something to soak up the alcohol we thought, any excuse!
1 ticket costs €2.50, sandwiches and fries were the options though.
My wife chose fries and I ate an incredible ham baguette with mayo, well worth the money and delicious!
Between eating and drinking we caught some bands, firstly The Gutter Demons from Quebec. The sound here was excellent and the festival had a really nice atmosphere.
Next on were The Griswalds from the UK, a fun and entertaining set.
My favourite band ever The Meteors finished off the night, they were on top form as always!
After the last band had finished we headed outside to catch a coach that was dropping people off at their hotels. It was 1.45am and we had just missed one, we waited for what seemed like an eternity for another coach to arrive and finally got dropped off back at our hotel at 4.30am.
The following morning I found this photo taken of the hotel vending machine, I guess we ate some of these!?
Quite possibly some Mikado too? Who knows!
No comments:
Post a Comment