The girls in front of the Louvre.
I have 3 days to cover in this post. On Sunday we left London and took the Eurostar “chunnel” train which goes under the English Channel to France. It was a comfortable ride and only took about 2 1/2 hours (not including the underground/subway rides to/from the train OR the trip Michael and I took on the underground the second time to see if someone found my i-PAD — which I stupidly left on the train — and took it to the Lost Property Office — which of course, they did not). By the time we got back, it was late afternoon. We found the hotel in Paris to be quite different than our London accommodations. The rooms are very small (in fact, Lexi and Brittney can open their door only about 2/3rds of the way because it hits the bed)! Our room is a little larger, but we have no closet, only an open valet to hang our clothes. The elevator only holds 2 people with luggage, 4 without. The upside is that we are directly above the most wonderful Patisserie filled with incredible baked goods, all made on site. I swear, we have died and gone to tiny hotel/pastry heaven!! The first day here was really about travel, settling in, and getting something to eat. For lunch we found a Pub and had great food, including cheeseburgers, pizza, and fish and chips. While the food is delicious and plentiful, water is a rare commodity and ice even rarer. Often, if you ask for water, you will get a liter bottle of water sans “gas” (that means no carbonation) and several 4 oz glasses. If you are lucky, you will get an ice cube in your glass. Contrary to stories I have heard; so far all the service people have been very nice and extremely patient with our inability to speak their language. I did learn quickly why the French are so thin, in spite of the wonderful pastries, cheese, wine etc. You must walk everywhere and/or take the metro buses — all located up and down millions of stairs (really, only a slight exaggeration). I don’t know what disabled people here do! Elevators and escalators are few and far between. It is common to go up and down stairs 6 – 10 times for one trip on the metro. My bad leg is very unhappy, but I am trying very hard to keep up.
After returning from our unsuccessful trip to find the i-Pad, we found a bite to eat and went to bed. The next morning, we got up and went to the breakfast buffet at the Hotel. After the wonderful food at our London hotel, we were very disappointed in what was offered at the 55 Montparnasse Hotel in Paris. In fact, after the first day, we had breakfast at some of the many nearby Pubs, where we found a French breakfast each day, consisting of orange juice, coffee or hot chocolate, a croissant and a baguette with butter and jam — delicieux!!
The next morning, we went to the Louvre. What an amazing museum! The place is huge and includes the famous Mona Lisa, the Athena statute and Venice De Milo. We only saw a small portion of the displays. They say it takes 3 days to actually see every single item! After we left there, we walked to the garden and had lunch. What a treat – we had crepes! Our waiter was one of those Frenchmen you hear about — calling each of the girls “Bebe” (baby — add the french accent), flirting with each of us with abandon! It was fun, but he did mess up our order a couple of times – oh, well, C’est la vie! When we finished lunch, it was still early, so we wanted to go to the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon to celebrate several military victories, for his soldiers to march through when they returned to Paris from the battle field. We were quite tired of walking and I spotted a TukTuk (basically a golf cart) and asked Michael if he would see if we could get a ride to the Arc. Yes, we could! We squeezed in and had a great ride to the next attraction. Once at the Arc, everyone but me walked the 275 steps to the tower for a fabulous view of the city, including the Eiffel Tower. Because we had already walked for hours, I was not about to attempt it (while holding up everyone behind me). We then walked back to the Metro and worked our way back to the hotel in order to clean up and get ready for dinner at the Eiffel Tower. We also treated ourselves to a taxi ride back to the Eiffel Tower. I don’t like elevators, but was willing to take the one up to the first level of the Eiffel Tower to get a great view of the city and have dinner at their elegant restaurant. We were seated at a table near the window and had a wonderful dinner. Everyone got champagne, but not everyone drank it (guess which 3 did not). We had 3 courses to choose from – an entree (appetizer), plat (or plate) and dessert. It was delicious. We all kept looking at the view and pinching ourselves, saying “WE are in Paris!”. Lexi then looked around and said “This is freakin’ AMAZING” so that was our quote of the day.
At the Louvre.
The TukTuk that took us to the Arc de Triumphe.
The French waiter flirts with Brittney and Hailey.
Eiffel Tower
Brittney and Hailey get silly while trying to get on the pedestal to take a picture.
The next day, we took the metro to a hop on/hop off bus station and we bought tickets for everyone. Our first stop was the Lock Bridge, where visiters from all over the world decorate locks and put then on the bridge. The girls brought the locks they decorated, including the one Brittney made for Amanda and Henry, and put them on the bridge. Just at that moment, a Korean News Crew came up and started interviewing Brittney, then Lexi. They were doing a story about tourists who place locks on the bridge because a section of the bridge railing had just broke due to the weight of the many locks. It started raining really hard and we all got ponchos and umbrellas. It was suddenly coming down in sheets. Nonetheless, we toughed it out and waited in line to get into the Museum D’Orsay, where we saw the Van Gogh exhibit. While in line, 2 people cut in front of us and Hailey said “Hey, those guys cut!” Then another couple joined them and Hailey said something again and the new couple said, “Well, we’re with them”. Hailey said, “Yeah, they also cut!” The first couple turned around and they told some stupid story about the directions for lining up aren’t very good and they were in one line, then told to go to another…” Hailey said something like “I don’t care, you just cut in front of us and all the people behind us!” The woman said, “Well go ahead then” but we had 7 people with us, so that wasn’t so easy to do. Then Hailey very loudly said “Just commit to the cut, commit to the cut, people!!” Lexi, Brittney and I laughed so hard we could hardly stand up. I’ve never seen my oldest granddaughter be so assertive. Quote of the day for Tuesday “Commit to the cut!”
Brittney getting interviewed by a Korean TV Station about the locks on Lock Bridge.
Lots of Locks!
Lots of Locks!
The whole group in front of the bus station.
We went back to the hotel early because it was raining so hard and everyone was very tired. We rested for a couple of hours, then went to dinner and all laughed and acted silly. What a fun day – in spite of the rain.
Waiting for our train in the underground.
Amanda, Hailey and I posing as the French flag.
Wednesday, June 11th was another travel day. We made reservations for a couple of shuttles to take us to the airport to catch our plane to Venice; unfortunately, to our dismay, on Wednesday there was a scheduled national taxi strike. The Hotel clerk had warned us that the shuttle drivers may support the taxi drivers and also not run. He said he would tell us for sure Tuesday night. When we returned from dinner, we got the bad news – No taxis, No shuttles! We would have to drag all our luggage and carry ons through the Metro system (up and down those damn stairs) to get to the airport. He warned that it would probably be very crowded so we should go really early to ensure we got to the airport before our check-in time. Although our flight wasn’t until 9 pm, we left for the airport at 1 pm. We wanted to get to the airport before the evening rush hour, which would be even worse due to the taxi strike. When we got on the first bus, it didn’t seem too bad. According to the woman at the information booth, we only had to take two buses. We got on the second one okay, but before we were half way to the airport stop, a woman on the bus said “This isn’t going any further, you should all get off.” We were very confused, but since the bus was almost empty, we got out. Finally a Metro worker came along and said “This bus is not going to the airport, you have to go up those stairs and get on the train and it will take you to the airport.” So, up we went, shlepping all our stuff. We got on the train with everyone else, hoping it was the right train and hoping we would end up at the airport. A gentleman moved his bag to let us put our luggage near his and I said, “Merci” and he said “I don’t speak French very well.” I said, “Well, neither do I. In fact, that was pretty much the extent of my French.” He said, “Surely you know ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ or something?” I admitted I did and he said, “Well, there you are, you already tripled your French vocabulary!” He was a pleasant man from Chicago (there are a LOT of Americans in Europe.) Anyway, he has been working in France and assured me we were on the right train, going in the right direction. The rest of the trip went off without much hastle, although we ended up in the Charles de’Gualle airport 6 hours early – a very long wait indeed! Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention what the Hotel clerk said to us when he was explaining the strike to us and what impact it was going to have on our transportation to the airport — “I apologize for France” No doubt, this was the Quote of the Day! NEXT – VENICE
Safari So Good 