Paris - the day before IT happens back home....

Today was relatively uneventful, but still fun.  Switching hotels was not only a not great idea, but it also took time out of my day to bring my stuff there this morning and get back and forth to the sights.  It's less than a mile from my other hotel, but my other hotel was a relatively easy walking distance to Notre Dame, so it was easy to get into the thick of things.  I rolled my bag through Luxembourg Gardens to get here and then unnecessarily walked around the block, ya know, for the fun of it and whatever (these little hotels are not well marked!).   So, this one is not great, but it's good enough and I'm saving money for my next adventure.  I am also now assured that the new hotel is in a safe neighborhood because on my way back from dinner I noticed that there is a condom machine on the corner.  Safe!  :p

I was pretty sure that I was sorta on the route that the orange line of the tour bus went when I took it on Tuesday, so I headed off in the direction that seemed familiar.  Ahoy!  I saw the three cafes that were discussed on the bus's audio when I went through early in the week.  Woo hoo!  I strolled the neighborhood (Montparnasse) a bit and then tracked down a tour bus stop.  I didn't wait too long there and while I did I was munching on the most amazing chocolate croissant ever - there was a huge BLOCK of chocolate inside the thing!  Yum.  I only needed to be on that bus a stop or two to switch to the green line which would bring me to the yellow to get to Montmartre.  A decent amount of waiting, but not too bad.  While waiting at the first stop, I got to see a van with a police escort...followed by paparazzi on motorcycles!  They are just as reckless and absurd as imagined.  Of course, most of the motorcycle/scooter drivers here strike me as somewhat suicidal at rush hour.  I assume they were just trying to keep up to get whoever it was when he/she got out because the car windows were dark, but they still made a nuisance of themselves.  Didn't have time to get a pic. 

How cool is this?  The sign for the bus stop has a USB port so you can charge your phone!!

Finally made it to Sacre Coeur!!  It is quite beautiful but, alas, the view was not great due to haze.  Skies were perfectly clear, but everything looked fuzzy at city level.  :(  It's cute up at the top of that big hill though. 

Lots of artists ripping off tourists.  I let a guy take me for 10 euro - I never had a portrait done before and they looked cold and hungry so why not?  He wanted 60-120 euros.  Ha!  That guy should be retired by now if he's making 120 euros for 10 minutes of bad drawing.  Hmmm...new career?  I draw badly!

I strolled about and had a big lunch, accompanied by a glimpse through a break in a curtain of a show a whole bunch of old French people were being "treated" to.  There was an awesome female singer, but the guys did a combo of singing, impressions, and seemingly wacky storytelling, the charm of which was lost to those of us who can't speak French.  It seemed pretty irritating and this was my least good meal, but it was still ok.  I had the formule again - quiche Lorraine (not half as good as the one at Musee d'Orsay, steak au poivre (Tim makes better steak!), and a little chocolate cake which was pretty darn good.

I'm a serious eater, but I don't think anyone could put away all of this meal. 

All 3 courses for just 16 euro!

The bus back to the main attractions was crawling along in the afternoon traffic so I got off at Place de la Republique and walked through a cute neighborhood back to my "hub" - Notre Dame.  I explored some alleys filled with restaurants and shops for a while and then caught the last bus of the day back to my hotel.  Hotel, not great, but fine.  I settled in, charged some electronics, and headed out to find dinner.  The guy at the desk insisted on taking my room key while I was out.  I hate that, but whatevs.  It's not like they don't have a copy.  I ended up at a cute little place and had a nice salmon steak with veggies.  Ya gotta end with coffee here so I got the café gourmand - espresso with three little desserts.  :)  They were ok and I was getting full so I left a fair amount behind.  There's too much food, too little time. 

Not sure what happened to the salmon pic.  This looks nicer anyway.

I was torn about what to do tomorrow - Versailles, the Louvre, more wandering, a full day trip away from Paris?  I decided to go with what makes the most sense.  I'm right here and the Louvre is right here and everyone says, "ya gotta go to the Louvre!!", and I should, so I'm going.  I booked a skip-the-line ticket while eating dinner and it hardly costs more than it would to get a regular ticket plus audio guide, so it's totally worth it.  I also researched ways to get to the Louvre from here.  My bus ticket expired today.  After looking at all the options, including buying another ticket, it looks like walking makes the most sense.  It's just under 2 miles which is easy.  I just need to get my butt up and out early enough to get there by 10.  I can do it!  :)

Oh, those scamps at Charlie Hebdo.  For those of you who can't work out the French, the options appear to be:  espresso, hot chocolate, coffee without sugar, and BOMB!  <sigh>  #jesuischarlie

Not many pics today.  I was mostly in neighborhoods which, while lovely, are just more pretty buildings with iron balconies and I have plenty of pics of those so I was restrained. 

More Paris, More Sun

Today was easily my favorite day so far.  I started out by walking down to Notre Dame this morning where I hopped on the boat that was part of my tour bus ticket.  It went one stop past ND and then turned around and headed back towards the action.  I stayed on all the way up the Seine and then back a few stops and got off at Musee d'Orsay.  For half the trip, I was the only one on the boat and for the rest I was the only one on the open air back part of the boat.  The boat has a glass top, but when you look up you see mostly bird poop and you can't take good pics through glass, so why sit in there?  It wasn't that cold most of the time.  Definitely colder after we turned around at the mini Statue of Liberty.  It was basically photopalooza while I was on the boat and I managed to facetime my mom along the way and show her some of the sights. So great!

I had planned to walk over to the Place de la Concorde and jump on the bus to Montmartre, but it was cold and I heard great things about Musee d'Orsay, so I decided to check what the line looked like.  Zero line!  So I popped in.  I feel that there should be a reduced rate for those of us who can take in an entire museum's collection in a fraction of the time it takes most people.  I am very much the jock from a hick town that I am in an art museum.  I stroll through at a pace only slightly slower than on the street and think things like, "pretty," "interesting," "WTF?"  I like art, but I just don't get anything out of pouring over it.  I know, I am unenlightened. What was really awesome about this museum was the actual building and the lunch I had at the café behind the big clock you see on the outside.  I had Quiche Lorraine and a lovely rose.  Yum!  The quiche was soooo good and the space was really cool.  As usual, the bread was also excellent.

I tried to get back on task and walked over to Place de la Concorde to board the bus to Montmartre.  I got a little sidetracked by pretty things and stumbled upon the Paris Ritz, of Diana and Dodi fame (I'm sure they thought they were famous before that, but I didn't know about them so....).  I had to check it out - unfortunately, I didn't have to go to the bathroom.  Lost opportunity.  It was pretty nice and I can't say I dislike the way the staff in joints like that treat me.  I assume they are 99% sure I am not a guest, but they can't be totally sure without asking and if they ask and I turn out to be someone like the Tiffani Trump of my wealthy family, they're screwed.  So, they treat me like I'm classy.  It's nice.  :) 

Looking sketchy in the Ritz Gallery.

Anyway, back to the bus.  By the time we got through the Parisian traffic to Sacre Coeur, I was worried that there wasn't time to get up to the cathedral, look around, and get back down in time for the last bus of the day out of Montmartre.  I could have made it back on the metro, but I have another day of paid HO/HO bus time, so I'll go back tomorrow.  Instead, I did the full loop of the yellow line and saw more new stuff.  This city is sooo big and filled with pretty buildings.  I thought I would go to Versailles for half a day and maybe a full day trip somewhere else, but I don't think I can.  There's still so much to see and it's already Wednesday night.

I was so cold by the time I switched buses and got back to ND (did I mention I did the yellow line on the top deck and then waited about a half hour for the green?  brrrr) that I immediately started looking for a dinner spot in the super touristy area.  I checked 10-15 menus and before I was able to read #16, someone bounded out of the place and entreated me to come in.  I was cold and tired of trying to decide so I took it as a sign.  The guy was a serious piece of work.  I very much enjoyed watching him run for the door as soon as he noticed anyone glancing in the direction of this tiny restaurant.  Based on my observations, if you glanced, you had at least an 80% chance of dining there.  And the food was pretty good.  I took the plunge and made myself try...snails!!  They were ok, but I only ate half.  They weren't as slimy and creepy as expected, but they didn't really have any flavor I couldn't get from a piece of garlic bread fished out of the ocean so I probably won't try them again unless I'm at a really good restaurant or in the home of an excellent French chef.  I had lamb for the main course - amazing.  The meat I've had here is so tender that it's actually a challenge to pick it up by stabbing it with the fork after cutting a piece.  The final course was crème brulee - yummy, of course.  And, yes, there was red wine. 

 

I switch hotels tomorrow morning (this one gets super expensive starting tomorrow), so I'll start the day rolling my bag along Luxembourg Gardens to my cut-rate digs.  Then, back to Sacre Coeur.  I think.  We'll see.  :)

Paris: The Sun Makes an Appearance

And yet it was MUCH colder than the past two days.  I love the cold and was fine through the early afternoon, but as the sun started heading toward the horizon and the cold started to wear on me, I actually shivered.  So I did a lot of strolling after heading across town on the hop on/hop off bus, but my mid-afternoon I decided to hop on and not hop off again till I was back near my hotel.  Of course, the bus did not have a single heating element and there were two open staircases to the open upper deck, so it wasn't especially cozy but I did get to listen to almost a full loop of the audio guide on "The Paris Grand Tour" line.  There are three other lines I need to bang out in the next couple of days.

Quick aside:  if you are ever putting together an audio guide for a city, don't fill it with "local" music between major attractions.  There is so much most of us could learn about other places - fill the air in between "sights" with history, current events, amusing anecdotes about the area.  Anything!  Just giving a blurb about each one of the stops is lazy.  Just sayin.

Anyhoo, I finally saw the Eiffel Tower up close and personal.  I did a lap around it to see what the lines looked like.  The  security line on one side was much better than the other so I went back to that and sailed through security.  Then I saw the ticket line - ugh (though I'm sure it is far, far worse when it's not 24 degrees).  I was in the line when I saw an announcement scrolling on a screen:  the top is closed.  WTF?!  I'm not waiting in that line to go about as high as my office.  At least I was going to today.  Maybe tomorrow. There are other high places from which to get a panoramic view of the city, but the ET has that "I was there" thing going for it.  The effort seems a lot more reasonable when you can go all the way to the top, but we'll see.

I'm at the Eiffel Tower!!!

After that, I hopped back on the bus for a ride back over towards the Louvre.  Did some wandering there.  Checked out the Hotel du Louvre (ladies room).  If I had to give just one piece of advice that someone new to traveling might find valuable, it would be this - if you're out touristing all day, don't use icky public bathrooms or buy things you don't want at a restaurant, go into a big, fancy hotel!  They tend to be crawling with people so the staff doesn't know/care if you belong, they may have lobby bars which make you belong even if you don't, and they almost have lovely bathrooms!  I'm talking fancy soaps and real towels.  The good stuff.  I'd think twice about this if you're really casually dressed, especially in Europe, but if you have a decent coat on in the winter, you're probably good enough. 

Ah, then lunch after more wandering.  I wasn't sure about this one.  I wanted to try something new and didn't want beef (which is harder to avoid here than I anticipated) so I got a chicken dish.  According to Google Translate, the chicken was going to be minced and that had me worried about whether it would be cooked.  I've seen a lot of piles of steak tartare around here and did NOT want to see a chicken-style pile on my plate.  Luckily, Google Translate sucks!  It was chicken medallions in some sort of mild curry sauce, I think, with veggie rice that seemed a lot healthier than the fried rice you get with Chinese takeout.  Not nearly as good as yesterday and just one course, but pretty good.

I don't know what they wanted me to do with the ketchup and mustard.

Another aside, it seems I have succeeded in not looking too American and strolling with casual confidence because people keep asking me, in French (!) for directions.  I assume that's what they wanted because they each pointed to or looked quizzically at a phone or map.  Twice yesterday and FOUR times today, women speaking pretty good French (I can't actually vouch for quality, but it was fast so I think it was good) stopped me to ask questions.  And no, they were not part of a roving band of pickpockets - no one else approached me at about the same time and none of my stuff has been touched.  This happened to me a lot in Germany and Austria, but I figured I just looked Aryan.  I need to learn these language so my apparent approachability could prove useful to someone.

By the time I wandered back to the Louvre, I had made my decision to semi-permanently hop on the bus for the trip home (which was more than an hour ride/tour, a half hour or more of which I was all alone - creepy).  I had to switch buses near the end and ran into three Brazilians with whom I froze and waited for the first bus at the beginning of the day.  Poor things were a lot colder than I was.  They kept saying, when I went to the airport it was 35....  35 is Celsius for hot.  I hope they have a nice warm hotel room.

Views from the frigid bus:  Notre Dame

Arc de Triomphe

The Paris Opera - gorgeous building!

I dove under the covers when I got back to mine until I could stop shivering.  Then I had some work to do - yup, I made money in Paris!  A whopping 56 bucks for some editing, but it's better than nothing.  Given my work assignment and the cold, I had a couple of crepes delivered to my room for dinner and am now about to call it a day.  More to come tomorrow!!!  :)

Paris!

I finally made it to Paris!  It has been on the list for a long time, but just didn't work out.  So far, I love it!  I was a little worried at first as I encountered horrific B.O. on the jetway while boarding the flight to Paris.  Could it be true that most French people smell bad?!  Luckily, no.  Somebody certainly smelled bad, but he/she/they were not seated near me and I have yet to encounter another stinker.  Phew!

The highlight of day 1 was my inability to see any US news for most of the day.  I didn't activate my wifi until I got to the hotel and the hotel wouldn't let me into my room until after 3, so I was happily Trump-free for a long time.  I didn't do a whole lot.  I was exhausted after the overnight flight (no sleep, of course) and my tummy didn't feel right, so I just wandered around Luxembourg Gardens and the general area around my hotel.  I had a yummy croque monsieur at a nearby brasserie and then hit the hotel!  Upon settling in, I embarked on one of the longest sleep sessions (not involving the flu) of my life.  I was beat!  I took a "nap" at 4, didn't wake up till 10, and went right back  to sleep at 1.  I finally got out of bed at 10 the next morning because I wanted to hit the town, but I think I could have slept longer. 

First meal in France - croque monsieur!

Today was a wandering day.  I started at the Pantheon, a few blocks from the hotel.  To get in, I had to open my bag and my coat, to show that I was not a suicide bomber.  Hmmm.  Lots of info about dead French guys who made France what it is today.  It was an impressive building, but it just made me realize that I know almost nothing about French history.  Oops.  I'll work on that.

The Pantheon's Christmas trees!

Sweet dome on first floor of Pantheon

The crypt was a cool space

Important dead French guy

Next, I wandered toward Notre Dame, eyeballing every brasserie, café, and other types of restaurants along the way.  I had chosen more sleep over breakfast.  I just checked out the outside of Notre Dame today because there was a pretty big line to get in and I know I'll be back there many times this week - it's close and on the route for the hop on/hop off bus I plan to take tomorrow or the next day.  It's a pretty impressive place and the site of my first encounter with the Paris "State of Emergency" boys - cops/soldiers with huge assault rifles.  It's a bit disconcerting when one is (casually, not intentionally - I'm not who they're worried about) pointed toward you, but for the most part, I feel like they're a good deterrent. 

The SoE boys coming for me while I pretend I am not taking their pic.  Smooth.

Then it was lunch time.  Hooray!  A lot of the restaurants here have "formule" menus, so I got a 3-course formule:  cheese ravioli in, of course, a cheesy cream sauce, beef bourguignon, and crepes Suzette.  All were delicious.  Also had a glass of le vin du maison, of course.  Food pics posted on facebook.  Lunch is often my big meal of the day on these trips and it was today.  It's a nice mid-day break and fuel for an afternoon of more strolling.

I had no particular destination for the afternoon, but headed generally toward the Louvre along the river.  I didn't really know how far it was, but I knew I was close when I saw a "Musee du Louvre" on a building.  But it didn't look like any view I've seen - I had to walk BLOCKS to get to the entrance I have seen (ya know, the glass pyramid).  That building went on forever.  The Louvre is ginormous!!  Again, I didn't go in today - too late in the day.  I'll go in later. 

The pyramid is smaller and the Louvre much bigger than anticipated!

I continued on from the Louvre through some gardens, past a mini Arc de Triomphe and some North Africans selling selfie sticks and Eiffel Tower keychains (sweet), and to one of those big city Ferris wheels.  This one didn't seem too popular.  Also enjoyed some views (throughout the day, really) of the Tower itself (much bigger than on the keychains).  At that point, I thought, my feet are getting sore, maybe time to head back to the hotel to recharge my phone battery and my feet so I checked the map on my phone.  Just 2 miles away.  Ouch.  Oh well, more to see along the way!

Mini Arc!

Gardens with distant view of Eiffel Tower and big wheel

Another distant view of Eiffel

After a break, I re-did the morning part of my circuit to see how the Pantheon and Notre Dame looked at night.  The Pantheon isn't really lit up, but the lights on the row of Christmas trees in front were on.  There are Christmas trees all over the place - I don't want to hear any more snide comments about how long I leave up my Christmas decorations.  It's very French!  That means classy in America.  :p 

Nothing special for dinner, then back to the hotel to plug everything in and get started on this.  Bonsoir!