Let Them Eat Crepes

Paris

July 24th-30th

The alarm watch went off at 4:30 am for our train to Paris from Annecy. This was going to be a long day. Thankfully we had conversed correctly with the cab company the day before and the driver arrived on time to get us to the station We had a four hour ride to Paris. I tried to make the best of the trip and got in some writing on the blog but after about 30 minutes my eyes got a bit heavy and I was in a deep sleep for a good 2 hours. After disembarking from the train it hit us-we were in Paris. Of all the cities we have been in we would have to rank Paris as being the most beautiful. The architecture of all white stone buildings with ornate carved details, flower boxes filled with red or orange flowers on every window which were encased by black decorative iron railings along with the double rowed tree-lined streets make this a remarkable city. The amount of open space and parks for the people is undone by no other. Also we were thankful Paris was a bit more accommodating to tourists and they had English speaking guides to provide us with the Metro information and directions to our hostel. Once you get your bearings though, Paris is a very easy city to get around. The Metro is great and if you want Paris is very walkable and safe. Our hostel, ironically named the Aloha Hostel, had a lockout period so after dropping off our bags we had about 8 hours before we could get in our room. No luck in taking a nap so we decided to torture ourselves and go do the 4 hour guided walking tour of Paris. It was free! Our guide was a young college graduate from Scotland. A funny young lad. We started in the Latin Quarter (which is not named because Latin people live there but because the students at the university nearby only spoke latin), we went by the Louvre, the Museo d’orsay, along the Seine River, the Champs Elysee, and over several of the famous bridges in town, even the one Mr. Big and Carrie stood on for the final episode of Sex and the City. I guess it is considered the “romantic bridge.” Our guide gave a complete history of many of the buildings and told us that Paris was saved from destruction by the Nazi’s because Hitler thought it was the most beautiful city and did not want it destroyed if he was going to be its ruler. Unfortunately toward the end of our tour it started raining. (I think the rain is following us). It did not last for very long and we were able to finish the tour. At this time my feet were going to fall off. I was so exhausted and just wanted to lie down. We still had to make it back to our hostel which was about a 20 minute metro ride. What seemed like an eternity we finally made it back and got the key to our room and immediately proceeded to our respective bunks and crashed! After a couple of hours we arose from the dead, took a shower and headed out in search of dinner. Our hostel was in a very cool neighborhood in the Monumental District. This was our first encounter of sticker shock and we quickly found out why Paris is considered one of the most expensive cities in the world. (examples: coca-cola $6, one beer $10, load of laundry $10) even Mcdonalds was expensive. I guess they do not believe in the 99 cent value menu. We got smart and learned how to eat like a local. Sandwiches and crepes on the street, buy snacks and fruit at the markets, and eat lots of pizza. Actually one night we thought we did well and bought a rotisserie chicken from the butcher for 6 euros, but when you do the conversion that is closer to $10 and twice the amount you would pay for one at Costco. It was good though and we used the leftovers for our sandwiches the next day.

Once we got settled and started reading the guide book to determine our plan of attack we realized that the three days we had tentatively scheduled for Paris was not going to be enough time to even scratch the surface. Paris is definitely a city of sensory overload and has way too much to see and do. We decided to stay three more nights because we knew one day was going to be dedicated to the finish of the Tour de France, so I got on the computer to find us another hotel for the other days because our hostel was going to be full. Once we secured a reservation we headed back out on the town. I told Roby I wanted to take it easy. We decided to only do the Eiffel Tower and the park nearby. We decided to walk to the Tower which was about 2 miles away but it allowed us to venture through the city and see the neighborhoods. Instead of waiting in the 2 hour line for the elevator to the top of the tower we chose to climb the 800 plus stairs to the viewing deck on the tower. My Mt Rainer “rest step” training came in handy. Being at the top of the Tower is somewhat like seeing the statute of David in Florence, you know you have arrived.
Only having had a half a day of site-seeing we had enough energy to go paint the town red. We hit the showers and even had the luxury of a hair dryer at the hostel. Having read our guidebook and listening to our guide from the previous day, we went and bought our own bottle of wine and enjoyed it in the confines of our dorm room before going out on the town. We felt like we were back in college sneaking alcohol into our dorm and drinking it as fast as possible not to get caught. Feeling good, we put on our fancy clothes and headed to the Latin Quarter. What an awesome place at night. Everyone is out and about of all ages. The Notre Dame is in the area and is beautiful all lit up at night. Street musicians line the area whether down on the walk near the Seine or across the street from the church. All the restaurants line the narrow cobblestone meandering streets and they are all outdoor seating. Everyone just hangs out and enjoys the night. We noticed the best cafes were on the corners of the street intersections-better for people watching, so we settled down at one for a few beers and enjoyed the view. The only bad part about Paris is that everyone especially the women all smoke and when you are seated outside the tables are right on top of each other and they don’t mind blowing their smoke in your face. I do not understand why Paris is a no-smoking city inside their buildings, restaurants and trains, because everyone smokes. It is funny watching them get off a train and within seconds are lighting up a cigarette. Unfortunately it is still cool to smoke here. Nevertheless, we did not let this hamper our perfect evening because we were going to indulge in our first Nutella Crepe. They were made right in front of us on a hot stone and lavishly filled with Nutella. We were hooked. It was going to become a staple in our diet and for only 1.50 euro you couldn’t beat it. One of these crepe stands would make millions outside a bar in New York-(hint hint Miss Jules). We crawled into bed about 2:00 am knowing we could sleep in a bit because we were doing the Tour de France the next day.

Our roommates-two young girls woke up before us and with the clamor of the hostel we were up with 15 minutes to spare in order to get our breakfast. As mentioned before the French breakfast consists of bread, jam, and coffee and juice. I don’t get it where is the protein Don’t they know if they eat too many carbohydrates it will only make them hungrier sooner. Oh well-it was free. Now that we were Tour de France experts we decided to arrive around 12:00 noon and chose to walk down to the Champs Elysee because the metro was going to be a mess. When we initially arrived Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong” organization had set up a zone along the Seine River where you could go and write words of wisdom in yellow chalk on the sidewalk. Roby decided to adorn the area with a “snobyscape” and he drew his version of the Tree of Life. His first piece of art on exhibit in France!!! We wondered around the Tour version of “Deadom” but did not have as much luck finding a good spot to watch because there were many more people for this stage and a much more limited area. The biggest obstacle was finding a bathroom or toilette. No public restrooms exist in the city nor do they have them in the metro stations. How do you have an event for over 100,000 people and not have rows of j-johns set up. Over half of those in attendance were women and the other half was men drinking beer. Poor planning, but it seems the norm. We went to a restaurant and they demanded that we be customers so we went to the bathroom and sat down at a table and were going to order a couple of beers. When we did not order a meal, they kicked us out. No problem we did not want to have to spend $20 for two beers anyway. Thankfully the riders were going to be coming through soon so we picked a spot with a bit of a grade so we could see over those in front of us and Roby could get some pictures. When they come through the Champs Elysee they do 5 laps around so it is not the 5 second blur like in the Alps. However, when the riders make the turn and are on the same side of the road as you are standing, they are going so fast they almost look like when you draw a cartoon on the bottom of several pages of a book and flick the pages to make it look like the character is running. It is that fast. After watching several loops we walked down to the big screen to watch the finish and the awards being handed out to the winners. We were very near the stage but the crowd was too large for us to get a real close-up. Roby did his best getting pictures. Once the Tour ended the mob scene commenced. Everyone was hurrying for the Metro. We decided to let the crowd settle and hung out in the grassy park, took off our shoes, and relaxed. After being on our feet for 6 hours we needed a break before our 2 mile walk home. As Bill Bryson said- “We DID the Tour de France”.

We were supposed to leave the next day but instead we moved to our new digs on the other side of town in the Bastille area. It is supposed to be a hip-part of town. Our hotel was not as nice as our hostel nor were the staff members as nice or helpful, but we made due. After climbing the 6 flights of stairs with our backpacks (our butts would be getting in shape if it weren‘t for all the pastries), we headed to the Louvre. It was the perfect day because it was a bit grey and rainy; a perfect day to be inside. The place is unbelievably huge and cannot be done in one day unless you run through it. The amount of people who go through is also too much to count. People were fighting their way up to see the Mona Lisa, crazy!! Most of the artists are neo-classique. The Louvre would not permit impressionists (Monet) into the museum so most of them are housed over at the Musee d’Orsay. The scale of some of the paintings are over the top-about 40x15 feet that is. We saw the Venus de Milo and some of Rembrandt’s paintings and we were really going to see the Lace Maker by Vermeer, however, when we arrived at his location it was missing. They had sent it out on tour to Japan. Roby was crushed. The Louvre had a section for Egyptian artifacts and a sculpture room. A truly amazing place. After 4 hours we made it through the sections we were interested in and ventured out of the museum. The clouds had parted and the sun had come out. As we were walking from the Louvre we entered the Touilleres Gardens and came upon a large 60’ diameter fountain encircled by movable lawn chairs where people were just hanging out. With our weary feet, we decided to join them. Probably my favorite part of Paris. We sat in a couple of reclining chairs put our feet up on the edge of the fountain and shared our last French “Juice Box” and some cheese and crackers. (We found these 8 ounce juice boxes filled with red wine in the grocery store and took them with us-the best invention by the French and really not bad tasting). We talked, read our books and just enjoyed “being” in Paris with her 70 something temperatures.

The fountain scene was topped the next day by our visit to Versaille. As our friend JP always says “It is good to be the King.” This castle is humungous and the gardens go for miles. No attempt to describe it would do it justice. We chose to do the garden tour only which took us 4 hours in and of itself. We walked through the different sections and marveled at the landscape but our favorite was our afternoon nap on the lawn next to the Grand Canal with a view of the Castle and the boaters on the water. Although we had another day in Paris, this would have been a perfect way to end our visit.

Our last day was somewhat of a hodge podge. We had to go and see Jim Morrison’s grave which was actually in a very cool cemetery near our hotel (if a cemetery can be cool). It is like a small village of old world tombs and crypts almost little houses lining cobble streets with huge old trees and signage outlining where all the tombs are located. The cemetery has quite a few famous people in it-Chopin, Bellini, Wadsworth and of course Jim Morrison. Roby thought for sure Morrison’s grave would be one of these ornate house-like structures but of course with cool Doors on it. It is probably ½ a mile in each direction. Next on our list was the elevated garden, only the 2nd one in the world-the other being the one we saw in New York. Both are renovated rail lines. This one is more of a gardenesque walkway rather than a useable space like the one in New York, but nonetheless just as beautiful. We completed our 8 mile loop and came home for a rest. Our next conquest was going to be the Couer de Sacre-Church of the Sacred Heart in the Montmartre district. This was the “crazy” end of town near the Moulin Rouge and red light district of Paris. Although not as good as Amsterdam, it had its fill of pleasurable places. We were going to see the Moulin Rouge show but it was beyond our budget even beyond our splurging budget!!! Instead we climbed the stairs (a feat of its own) of the Sacred Heart and had the most spectacular view of the city. The sun was going down, the breeze was cool and we enjoyed the music from the local musicians. Our farewell to Paris!!