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Off to the French front I am in Paris, staying with occasional Samizdatista Antoine Clarke.
Photoed out of the Eurostar on the way, the M25 bridge over the Thames:
When I got there and after I’d settled in, we went out for supper and then went walking for a while.
Arc de Triomphe:
Old internal customs duties office, which ceased functioning in 1943:
Antoine on Twitter this morning:
Ice cold in Paris … And those nice straight boulevards make wonderful wind tunnels.
Michael Jennings on Twitter:
Brian is having a good time then?
Antoine:
Likes this.
Bastard.
We were going to go out walking today, but instead will be indoors, either at Antoine’s home or in some museum.
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Was there on New Years, that city is shite, 28 euros for a beer in the Hilton, I walked 10 km trying to find a cheap pub, the cheapest I could find was 10 euros for a bottle of Corona. Definitely will never go back unless I have to.
Four euro pints aren’t all that hard to find in Paris if you try. (Some of the studenty areas towards the western end of the 5eme have pleasant bars with cheaper beer, and there are good places to eat around there, too). Still not that cheap, but cheap enough to not be a problem.
Still, though, who goes to Paris with the principal aim of drinking beer? Wine I can understand. Beer, not so much. The main problem with going to Paris on New Year’s Eve is the “It’s f***ng freezing” factor.
True continental beer is usually pretty dreadful but the wine wasn’t any cheaper! I’ve traveled alot and never seen anything like it, cigarettes are cheaper than the UK, the food isn’t cheap but its reasonable but they charge astronomical prices for any form of alcohol. Maybe the French don’t have a drinking out culture, maybe Parisians make ridiculous salaries or maybe its some government attempt at nanny stateism via taxation but I’ve never seen anything like that even in Islamic countries.
Call me a pedant, but it’s actually the A282 bridge.
The M25 stops at junction 1a south of the Thames and at junction 31 north of the Thames.
Hope this helps.
Winston Smith
Yes, the point being that as certain classes of vehicle are not permitted on motorways, if this bridge was counted as a motorway these classes of vehicle would have to drive all the way to Blackwall to cross the Thames, and this would be silly. Therefore the bridge is not technically part of the M25. If you want you can call it the “Dartford Bridge” or “Queen Elizabeth II” bridge, and not worry about this.
True continental beer is usually pretty dreadful
Generalising a little, aren’t we? And seriously, go into decent but not fancy Parisian restaurant, order one of the fixed price menus and a half litre carafe of the house wine, and you will come out well fed, happy, and not too much poorer. The wine will have been drinkable but not fancy, and will not turn out to have been very expensive. And wine in a bottle to drink at home is taxed much lower than in the UK.