Paris for a Day

Andrew hams it up for the camera.

During a cab ride a few years ago, my cab driver told me that we Canadians take way too much crap from our government. We are on the whole too complacent. We should protest more and have more active demonstrations against things we don't believe in. Instead we just go with the flow. "Take the French for example. They take crap from no one." the cab driver added. To a certain extent I'd have to agree after all they did lop off heads of royalty at one point in history.

Andrew (the fashion designer) and Josie were taking a day out of London fashion week to attend the Premiere Vision Expo to look at fabrics and I thought I'd tag along. Since the convention was in France, Paris to be exact, we took the Eurostar train to get there. A one stop direct route which would travel along the UK country side, go into a tunnel under water (the channel) and pop out to continue along the country side belonging to France and drop us off at Paris. The entire trip would last 2 hours and 20 minutes. Only 20 minutes were under water. (note: for those that want to travel book in advance at least three to four weeks to get the best prices).


French protestors

As soon as we got off the train into the huge station the cabbie's stereotype of the French people became solidified. We were welcomed by a mob of angry protestors. Since my french is slightly above the sesame street level it took a while to figure out what they were protesting about. It turns out the company that owns the Eurostar gets workers through some sort of temp agency. Because of this the people working on the train have no job security. According to the protestors, workers that get injured are laid off with no financial aid.


Eating a muffin

The protesters were armed with air horns, picket signs, yellow arm bands, pamphlets, and a few large banners. One of them read "Eurostar, No security...". Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two soldiers with large guns. As imposing as they were to me they didn't even phase one of the passengers who stood behind them eating a muffin.


"Are we on the right train?"

Andrew and Josie did a bit of asking around and we eventually found our way to the public transit train heading toward the convention centre. The public subway system had smells of trash and urine floating around. It was humid, warm, and dimly lit. It's something that really doesn't come across in those travel brochures.


Our stop


An ad located on the train platform


The train platform


One portion of the giant expo (hall 5 of 6)

The public transit took us right to the convention's subway platform. After a short walk from the station we were at the PremiereVision Expo. It was massive. I don't think I've ever been to a convention that large. The largest convention I had previously gone to was NAB, a convention for the National Association of Broadcasters. Located in Las Vegas it spanned three convention center buildings because one wasn't big enough. That french fabric expo made this look extremely tiny.

After getting our badges from the automated machines I had to check my camera gear. No photos allowed. This is to help prevent the stealing of designs I suppose. The convention consisted of many booths. Each booth contained a bunch of fabric samples from that particular fabric company. The booths went off as far as the eye could see. I don't think I remember seeing the other side of the convention centre. While reading the daily convention newspaper I saw an article boosting that there were over 100 types of denim alone.

As I'm not really into the whole looking at fabrics I could appreciate the magnitude of this place... and all the hot European women wondering around. I met some female British fashion design students in a line up while waiting to buy a few bottles of really expensive drinks. This was a convention centre after all. Two bottles of Coke-a-cola and one bottle of water came out to 10.6 euro. Gads. One of the girls was amazed at my "superb" french saying that I should have ordered for her. It was a nice comment knowing that I full well would be sneered at by francophones in Canada let alone Paris. Still it was a ground breaker that allowed us to talk for the rest of the wait in line.

After buying a few samples and doing a quick sweep of the rest of the convention we left. Andrew thought he could spend days in the place and not see all of it. Next stop, Notre Dame. Exiting the train station we came out on the other side of the street, across from the church. As we walked towards the church I found it a bit surreal. I couldn't really picture this building in a modern day setting even though it was right in front of me. I expected to see a hunchback swinging around the building or a mob of people with pitchforks and torches trying to get in. Instead there were a lot of tourist type looking people wondering around looking at it, trying to take pictures. There were student types all around the perimeter drawing the building.


An intersection near Notre Dame


Me in front of the church (photo taken by Andrew)


Notre Dame interior


A large stained glass window


Sight seeing, Fun for all ages


What are these girls doing?

The visit to the church was a quick one and served as a meeting place to hook up with Andrew's sister, who was also visiting Paris. After meeting up and walking through the church, we ate at a restaurant located a few blocks away. I'm not really sure where as I lost my bearings while walking down a few narrow streets after crossing a bridge.


A typical busy street in Paris


The house of gyros


A typical narrow European street


A couple checks out the baked goods


Cat in window checking out birds

The restaurant that we picked was a place that had combination meals for a set amount of money. You had a starter, a main dish, and a dessert. There were several different dishes you could choose from from each course. Being in Paris I figured I'd try eating the frog's legs. I heard it tastes like chicken. After consumption I would say it tasted more like chicken with a fishy after taste. Would I order it again? It was okay but didn't knock my socks off.


Frog's legs


Creme brulee


Some french ad


The train station

After the meal it was back to the train station and back to London on the 19:00 Eurostar train out. We arrived at the train station about a half an hour early. It was enough time to appreciate the size of the station and to find out that the protestors had some success. Because of them an announcement was made that there would be no food being served on the return trip.

Viva la France!

As a side note, One day in Paris with a convention to go to is really not enough time. I didn't even see the Eiffel tower. I guess this means I'll just have to go back.