Paris 2008 - 23 Mai

23 Mai (Vendredi) - We got ourselves ready and walked down to get the bus to Gare d'Austerlitz. Once we got there, we had our first encounter with a rude bus driver. A bus that should have been going to our destination arrived, but it indicated that it was going to a place we didn't recognise. I asked the driver if it was going Place d'Italie. Evdently he didn't like the way I asked the question and lied, telling me that it was not going there. We got off to await one that was going to Place d'Italie. Then we started thinking; wait a minute, it has to be going to Place d'Italie no matter where else it might go, so the driver flat out lied to me.

At any rate, we were getting a llitle tight on time for our appointment to meet Rhino at Place d'Italie, so I suggested we take a taxi. We couldn't see any taxi stands, so we determined that if we went into Gare d'Austerlitz, we would certainly find a taxi stand. We did.

Upon arriving at the taxi stand, there were at least four people ahead of us and the taxies were arriving rather slowly. It finally got to be our turn, when some old woman and her husband showed up and thought they were going to jump in front of us. When the taxi came, she tried to push in front but I elbowed her out of the way and we got into the taxi and took off. It didn't take us long to figure out how to handle the queue jumpers, of which we've encountered quite a few on this trip. probably because we're using the bus instead of the métro. And it seems to be mostly the women who are the perpetrators. The men pretty much just wait patiently for their turn. I suppose they've been beaten into submission by the pushy women.

We got to Place d'Italie in plenty of time and waited at the métro entrance for Rhino to appear. He was running a little late, but no problem, we weren't in a hurry.

While we were waiting, Robb was accosted by two Indian-appearing women who were selling some kind of paper about feeding the poor. He paid €2 for it and then immediately regretted it. He got into a mini-confrontation with them but it apparently ended with both parties laughing about it. He because he realized he had been had, and they because they, too, realized he had been had.

Rhino showed up and we started walking down to L'Oisive Thé. Even though Rhino and Aimee know each other, he had not yet been to the tearoom. In the tearoom, Rhino and I had Aimee's wonderful chocolate cake while Robb had a huge salad. We all shared a huge pot of very good tea. We chatted for about three hours, with Aimee joining us for a while.

Afterwards, we walked with Rhino back to the Place d'Italie métro station, on the way to which we saw this neat building just down the street from the tearoom, and then we caught the bus back to Gare d'Austerlitz where I walked to the Pont d'Austerlitz to get this picture of the metro pont (if it has a name, I haven't been able to find it, but it's between Pont d'Austerlitz and Pont Charles de Gaulle) and one of the backside of Notre Dame. As we were approaching the pont I noticed this interesting contrast between old and new. Then we got the bus to the apartment. We have started riding the bus all the way up to Pére Lachaise and walking back because it's downhill all the way and a lot easier for me to navigate.

Back at the apartment, we indulged in another bottle of champagne. This one was even less expensive than the last at €2.20. It was a rosé and really quite good. Wow, who would have thought? We have checked the prices for our champagne of choice in the US and found they are more expensive here.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 22 Mai

22 Mai (Jeudi) - Robb fell in love with the jacket I bought yesterday and decided he had to have one too, so we headed for the bus stop. When it came, I decided we should get off at Place Léon Blum and take the 56 to Place de la République. While we were waiting for it to show up, someone came and put up a notice about another damned manifestation. According to the notice, the manif would last from 13h00 to 18h30, during which time the bus service would be disrupted. A woman came along and saw the notice, but like we, she also noted that the bus had just driven past and it was well after 13h00, so we all just sat there and waited and hoped the bus would come by. Sure enough, it did. But when we got to Place de la République, we got to see the actual manif. The notice had said something about the police, but the people we saw demonstrating were blacks. Yesterday, we had seen a black guy handing out brochures, but he only gave them to black people, so I assumed and still believe, it was some kind of black thing. Of course, that meant the second bus we wanted to take would not be running.

We started walking in the general direction of our goal and finally came across the police manif. Then we had a choice. We could continue to walk or we could take the metro. I figured walking was the lesser of the two evils. Does anyone hear that annoying buzz? So off we went. I thought we were following the correct street, but somehow we missed a turn. We stopped at a shop because I was hoping to get another man-bag just a bit larger. They had one that I liked but I decided to shop around a bit more. We asked the salesgirl for directions to rue des Archives. She supplied the info and we set off again.

People in France, and Paris in particular, love their plants and they can be seen almost everywhere.

As soon as we got to the corner of rue des Archives, I recognized it immediately. We walked down to the clothing store where Robb got his jacket, which I like more than mine and, indeed, looked at yesterday but they didn't have it in my size, although I might have been able to get into one a size smaller which is the size Robb bought.

We left the store and walked down to rue de Rivoli and the sidewalk shops outside BHV, where Robb bought a scarf. I was going to get one also, but they didn't have the color I wanted.

We then walked down by l'Hotel de Ville. We were going to just walk past on our way to the Notre Dame area a couple of blocks away, but I saw they were having some kind of exhibit and I suggested we should see if we could get in. No problem. We approached the gate to the entrance and a guy handed us an information brochure and we walked in. Just after entering, we had to stop and let them search our stuff, which was a simple formality. We entered l'Hotel de Ville and began looking at the stuff. It was about a French Navy aircraft carrier, le Charles de Gaulle. It was a great exhibition. They actually built a mock-up of the carrier in one of the rooms and there was a big screen movie showing life aboard the vessel, including the diferent planes taking off and landing, the section in which the guys slept and lived when not on duty, the mess hall and of course, the operational areas. Except for the cute sailors, I think Robb was kind of bored but I loved it.

We left and headed over to the Notre Dame area because the tourist shops there are the least expensive place in town to get souvenirs. The shop to which we went had the kind of scarf I wanted in the color I wanted. Than just to make the deal irresistable, they offered three for the same price everybody else in town was asking for one.

We were both getting hungry, so we stopped at a cafe just around the corner. I had a ham and cheese sandwich; Robb had a salad.

After eating, we walked down to the Pont Neuf and got the bus back to the apartment.

Plus à venir, mes amis.