| Paris (10/2-10/6) - On Thursday, October 2nd we board a plane in San Diego for Atlanta and a connection to Paris. We arrived on the morning of October 3rd in Paris already quite tired after 13 hours of flying. But our first day in Paris was complicated when Lauren left her purse on a Metro station platform in Paris. When we returned it was gone. We spent the rest of the day filling out police reports, canceling credit cards and getting new cards secured. Accommodations were Paris’ 2-star finest and Lauren’s favorite hotel of all time. This was the first of what would be many cracker box Motel 6 challenged hotel rooms. But in the midst of the first day we managed to sample some of the pleasures of Paris; a view of the Eiffel Tower at night, the smell of really bad French BO and Friday rollerblading night in Paris. Things got particularly dicey that day when one individual with hygiene-challenged feet took off his shoes an hour into our 9 hour transatlantic flight. Ever feel trapped with no place to run? That night we walked to the
Eiffel Tower to dodge raindrops, hang with the weirdoes, street vendors and Friday Night Rollerbladers at the Eiffel Tower. We had dinner in a smoky café near our hotel. Everybody smokes here! After dinner we tasted homemade coconut rum –very tasty actually. Frenchies seem to love their Malibu coconut rum. On Saturday our second day in Paris we went to the
Louvre to see the best art collection in the world. We viewed DaVinci,
Venus de Milo, Raphael, etc., etc. Seeing such an esteemed collection of art was the first of many humbling experiences on this trip. We also saw the first of many, many sets of
marble genitalia on this trip. On Sunday we took the Metro train to the
Musee D’Orsay on a cold day. This was a nice museum, mostly
Impressionist Art displayed in an old train station, but suffered from being the first museum we saw after a Louvre visit. We then took the RER train to the
Versailles Palace on the outskirts of Paris. What an amazingly
opulent and decadent palace! We saw horses with literal
poop chutes. On Monday our travel day we awoke early and visited the US Consulate to get a new passport for Lauren. Then we went to the Delta Airlines office on Champs Elysee for a new airplane ticket for Lauren. Saw the Arc de Triomphe—big deal! After taking care of this we went back to the hotel to check out, (hotel’s CC machine down--had to pay cash--Ouch!) then rode the Metro & RER trains to Caen. Dietary Note: The French love jambon et fromage (ham & cheese) sandwiches. No other sandwich varieties exist in France. |
John
& I arrived at CDG airport surprised at how empty it was. It was
8am Friday morning Paris time, and the airport was a cavernous ghost
town! The flight wasn’t bad, a 9hr ordeal from Atlanta made worse
by some passenger who took his shoes off and turned the air in our
767 coach cabin near toxic in a matter of seconds. We took the RER
train into Paris, transferred onto a Metro line, and I’ll never
forget the aroma of freshly baked croissants wafting about in the
station. By this time, we were in the midst of the morning rush
hour, and every Parisian was underground walking a very fast pace
trying to catch the next train. In the midst of all this action, I
did something I’ve never done before – I set my purse down on a
chair to take my jacket off and left it there. Of course when we
returned it was gone. We spent the rest of the day getting the
situation under control: AmEx had a replacement card ready to me to
pick-up within a couple of hours of the incident, a police report
was filed, and we found the US Consulate office for passport
replacement, though they were closed until Monday. Later that night
after a long 5hr nap and wide-awake at 11pm, I managed to convince
John to get up out of a perfectly comfortable bed and go for a walk
at night. That turned out to be the best thing we did our first day
in the city. We took Rue Grenelle west about 3 blocks and voila! We
caught our first glimpse of
the Eiffel Tower between the buildings, and it was glowing and
sparkling with what seemed like a million white lights running up
and down the tower. What a sight! As we kept walking towards the
tower, we could hear dance music coming out of a mini-van parked
under the tower, and a crowd of young, hip Parisians on rollerblades
dancing -- a rave on rollerblades! The next day on the way to the
Louvre, we walked down Rue
Cler to get to the Metro station. Picture a cobblestone street
filled with boulangeries offering piping hot croissants &
baguettes with a line of people out the door, boucheries with a
variety of meats fresh & cooked on display, fromageries, cafes,
flower shops, fruit/veg stands and even a shoe
store! At the corner across from the café was a 4-pc. jazz band
playing “Hello Dolly”. This is what I dreamed Paris would be
like, and here I was living the dream. The Louvre
is an amazing place, though the Mona
Lisa was a bit disappointing. The Musee
d'Orsay has fabulous art & architecture, and of course Versailles
left me speechless. Everyone is fashionable is Paris, and very
polite. I must have been a French poodle in my previous life,
because I feel right at home in Paris. |
