Paris 2008 - 5-6 Juillet

5 Juillet (Samedi) - Robb has been chomping at the bit to get back to La Défense, so we bopped on over to Nation to get the métro. For at least the fourth time, we had a problem trying to use our monthly tickets on the turnstiles. This time it was my ticket. The thing is, if your ticket doesn't work, you have to squeeze in behind someone else, and they're not always happy about that because they think you're trying to beat the system and get in without paying. But you can't use the same ticket twice at the same location. We've tried that both with mine to let Robb through, and Robb's to get me through. When we got to La Défense, I went to the ticket window and got a new ticket. I'll admit that it's not a problem to get a new ticket, but the point is, you shouldn't have to get one.

We wandered around Les Quatre Temps simply amazed at the number of people trying to buy out all the stores. Here's a shot of the escalier mécanique to the third floor. It is the time for the second annual sales event (Soldes). I didn't expect that much craziness at La Défense. And we joined right in. Actually, we only shopped in one store, C & A, where Robb bought a really nice jacket and I bought a pair of jeans.

We wandered around a bit more and then stopped at a bistro for a café. Twice, while we were sitting there, water poured down from some place. I never could figure out where it was coming from, but it was like someone had emptied a bucket. The first one was right next to two Japanese girls sitting to our left, who screamed in surprise. The second one was about three tables in front of us.

We left the bistro and wandered to the back of la Grande Arche, where we came upon another neat sculpture and a lot of very modern buildings. It had the feel of being in a science fiction movie.

When we tried to leave, it was Robb's turn to have a ticket problem. Fortunately for him, a young French girl let him squeeze in behind her.

We had dinner again at the Q Bar. It was quite crowded.

6 Juillet (Dimanche) - We had planned to take the 69 bus to Champ de Mars from which we would go somewhere to eat and then check out la Tour Eiffel after dark. But, of course, being in Paris, you can't make plans like that. Both of the buses we needed to get there were not running today.

Instead, we went for a long, long walk. Down Avenue Ledru-Rollin, with a few side trips to rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, during one of which I found this interesting place. Then, we caught the 61 to Pére Lachaise where we came upon a large crowd. It only took a few minutes to realize it was some kind of mobile soup kitchen. There were two vans givng out bags of food to anyone who got into the line to get one. Robb saw a guy with a shopping bag in the line. I took a picture and was chatised by a Muslim woman with a bag in her hand. It occured to me later that if I had been a TV reporter, she would had been the first to try to get her picture on TV.

You may have surmised by now that I'm not crazy about most of the Muslims in Paris. Whenever you go into the métro, the people you see begging are Muslim women. Their children think nothing of asking total strangers for money (Robb and I have been approached several times by them since we've been here). They just seem to have no shame when it comes to begging. I know it's not easy to get a job in France. but to come here with no intention of getting a job and just live off the state and begging in the streets, is wrong, and yet, that's exactly the impression I get of most Muslims in Paris. Okay, rant over for now.

After taking the picture, we continued up Boulevard de Ménilmontant to Boulevard de Charonne. We walked a few blocks and then started back toward the apartment. We did stop at the Petit Casino and bought orange juice.

Back at the apartment, Robb was having hunger pains so we popped open a bottle of champagne and spread out some crackers and pâté.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 27 Juin

Vendredi - I got the possibly brilliant idea that Robb and I should try to get our Juillet métro tickets now. That way he could maybe use that instead of having to buy regular tickets which are only good for one ride, one way. We walked down to Place Léon Blum to the Voltaire métro station, but not only do they not sell tickets there, there wasn't even anyone there to tell us that. We had to take the bus up to the Pére Lachaise station, where we got them with ease. We still don't know whether or not we can use them now, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

When we went to dinner at Les Casseroles on Wednesday evening, it was next door to a Libanaise restaurant, Fakra, which looked interesting, so that's where we went for dinner tonight. Once again, we've found that when going to small places, the owner is usually also the waiter, and is always very friendly and helpful and chatty. We had some amazing dishes, the names of most of which I've totally forgotten. As has been the case here on this trip, the portions are super-sized and I cannot even come close to finishing what they bring to the table. Tonight we also had our second bottle of Lebanese wine. If I hadn't seen the label, I never would have known.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 28 Mai

Mercredi - At last!

The sun came out and lasted most of the day. I could breathe sufficiently to do something beside sit around the apartment.

After sitting around the apartment for the past three days (going for groceries doesn't count), we finally got out and did something. Of course, hanging around the apartment did afford me the opportunity to wash the jeans I had worn for the karaoke drama. But, because of the tiny size of the washer, they were barely cleaner than when I put them in, so they're going to have to go to a real laundry facility as soon as we get around to it.

We walked to the bus stop to take the bus down to Place Léon Blum to get the métro to Franklin D. Roosevelt. I've been wanting to go to the top of l'Arc de Triomphe and today seemed like the perfect day for it. I checked the bus schedules but we would have to have taken at least different busses to get there, so I opted for the métro with only one train all the way over. I did miscalculate the vicinity. I thought FDR was one of the streets radiating from l'Arc de Triomphe. It isn't. It's off the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées. So we ended up walking the rest of the way to the Arc. Passed a lot of neat stuff, of course, including the Renault showroom where I saw this beauty. We also passed Ladurée, but decided we would stop on our return to the métro. Then we passed a theater where people were lined up in what would have been about two blocks if the line had been straight. Today was the first showing of Sex and the City, Le Film.

Upon arriving at l'Arc, I began looking for the tunnel that takes you under the traffic swirling crazily around it. It's possible some brave souls might be able to somehow get through all those vehicles, but I didn't want to even think about trying it. It's much easier and safer to use the tunnel, which brings you right into the ticket office if you want to go to the top, and that was our goal. I have been putting it off for years, thinking it would just be too difficult for me. Then, after all these years of visiting Paris, I only recently discovered that there is an elevator to the top of l'Arc de Triomphe, well, almost to the top. You still have to climb stairs for the last few feet, but it's nothing daunting.

It's worth the trip no matter whether you climb to the top or take the elevator. What a gorgeous view. And what a gorgeous day it was for us on which to finally make this trip. I really don't think it could have been any better. Of course, I took the obligatory pictures; La Defense, Sacre Coeur, Tour Montparnasse and la Tour Eiffel. It was so beautiful, we didnt want to leave, but it was getting late and we wanted to stop at Ladurée.

Ladurée was great. We each had an éclair café, followed by a café. Then I purchased a box of 15 mini-maccarons, while Robb bought a couple of croissants and a couple of strawberry tartes. I had wanted the regular size, but remembered how long it took me to eat the one we got about a week or so ago, and figured the minis would be just right.

We left there with the idea of getting the métro back, but I thought that since we were so close, we should check out the Petit Palais to which entrance is always free. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong street. So close and yet so far, we were only a couple of streets off. I knew we were close but I couldn't remember which street it was. Oh well, next time.

Since we couldn't go to the Petit Palais, we went down to get the métro. Every one that pulled into the station was overflowing with passengers. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally jumping onto one that wasn't quite so crowded.

Back at the apartment, we indulged with a framboise mini-maccaron. Now we understand how Ladurée got their reputation.

Around nine-ish, we decided to go out for dinner. Robb wanted to go to a place we've passed several times in our travels about the area, Le Rey, so we walked down to Boulevard Voltaire, taking a bit of a different route so that we could check out some new things.

Once at the restaurant, we wanted to sit inside, but Robb wanted to sit all the way in the back, where we couldn't see the street or any of the other customers, but we did find these signs of the new times in Parisian dining. I would have preferred sitting a little closer to the action, mais c'est la vie. We started with a Kir Maison, which was champagne, Mandarine and Grand Marnier, that was served with a plate of sliced ham of a kind with which I am not familiar but it was a bit like hard salami. Then Robb ordered his salad, which for anyone else would have been a meal. For our main courses, I ordered Duo de Côte et Selle d'Agneau Grille (lamb chops) and Robb had Cou de Canard Farci Maison Lentilles du Pay (duck with lentils). I like lentils and tasted his; they were really good. After we got our main courses, the place started filling up and became somewhat lively. Because of all the food, and the snack at Ladurée, we passed on desert and just had coffee.

After dinner, we went for a short walk down to rue de Charonne for a look around. It was quite nice. We are, if you haven't guessed yet, looking for a place we can afford in a section of Paris we find attractive (which is most all of the city).

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris, Thanks

27 Novembre, 2005 - We had planned to have Thanksgiving dinner with Robb's niece, Wendy, but Wednesday night, Geoff was at our place drinking a bit of the juice of the grape. He mentioned that he was going to Paris on Thanksgiving. Then, almost like thinking aloud, he said it was too bad we couldn't go with him because we know our way around Paris. Then he mentioned something about getting us into business class (which used to be first class) and before we knew it, we were booking the flight.

Geoff had said we could stay in his room, but we didn't think that was such a good idea, because if he had been caught smuggling us in, it could have resulted in very bad circumstances for him. I got up Thursday morning and booked a room for Robb and me at the same hotel the airline uses (Sofitel Paris Forum Rive Gauche in Montparnasse).

So on Thanksgiving evening (6:00 PM) we flew to Paris.

We arrived Friday morning around 9:00 AM Paris time (3:00 AM US time). Robb and I took just a carry-on bag with one change of clothes, so we only had to clear immigration and leave the terminal. Goeff, of course, was taken to the hotel in the employee shuttle. Robb and I decided instead of a taxi, we would take the RER since we had only one little bag each (The RER is a train that runs through the city and goes to some of the outlying areas like Versailles and the airport. There are five lines in Paris, the "B" line is the one that goes to the airport.) . I had been wanting to do that for a long time. It was really neat. Just as we approached the outskirts of the city, Sacre Coeur appeared in all its glory. What a beautiful site on a clear, crisp morning! I had checked the weather on the internet before leaving and snow had been predicted. Although it was very cold, it did not snow.

We got off at the Denfert-Rochereau stop and walked down Boulevard St. Jacques to the hotel. It was really, really cold. As you know, we were here for Christmas and the New Year one time, but it wasn't as cold then as it was today. Still, it's Paris! It wasn't that far to the hotel from the RER station and once there, we signed in, prepaid our room, got our key and went up to our room on the sixth floor (seventh floor in the US). It was an interesting turn of events, because we were in 655 and Geoff was in 628 at the opposite end of the building. He had a great northern view while we had a view of another section of the building. We cleaned up a bit and walked down to Geoff's room.

We spent a while discussing what we wanted to do and it was decided that we wanted to go to a nice store to buy some wine and other stuff to bring back with us. We also wanted to go to lunch in a real french place. We decided to have lunch at a nice little bistro that I knew on Avenue d'Italie, Le Canon de Tolbiac. From the bistro, we could walk down the street to Monoprix, a large super market/department store. The Glaciére métro stop was only about a block from the hotel. We took the line 6 to Place d'Italie where we got the line 7 to Tolbiac. At the bistro, we had moules et frites (mussels and fries). There's something about the way they make fries in France. I think it's because they use fresh, real potatoes. Robb and I drank wine, Geoff had a french beer. We walked down to Monoprix, stopping to check out a few places on the way. In Monoprix, we bought some wine, some tea and some chocolate. We made our way back to the métro and rode back to the hotel. We were all pretty tired after the long flight and the shopping trip, so we decided to get some sleep before deciding where to go for dinner.

After a nice, but short nap, Robb and I showered, dressed and walked down to Geoff's room. Originally, we had thought that we might go to one of the oriental restaurants on Avenue de Choisy, but it was so cold that none of us wanted to walk that far. We decided to check out the area around the hotel. There was a restaurant in the hotel, which I thought looked great, but neither Robb nor Geoff wanted to go there. There was a pizza place right next door (although pizza was their speciality, they did have regular stuff also). We walked a bit further and found a really nice looking Italian restaurant and went in. The owner actually was Italian. I had Penne alla Arrabiata (lord it was spicy), Robb had Veal Marsala and Geoff had the Viande Plat du Jour. Everything was great. Robb and I ordered a bottle of Italian wine and, again, Geoff had a beer. Desert was Panna Cotta for the three of us. Robb and I finished with our usual café noir.

We walked back to the hotel. Geoff wanted to go the the airline crew room and check on the number of available slots for tomorrow's flight back to Miami, but when we got there, there were only two computers. One was tied up for quite a while and the other was not working. Since we couldn't use the computer, we decided to spend the rest of our time in Nellie's bar. It was nice, but it was all I could do to keep my eyes open and we finally called it a night around midnight.

Saturday morning, I woke up, looked at the clock and let out a shout. The alarm had not gone off and we were forty-five minutes late getting up. Somehow, we managed to get ourselves ready and got a taxi to the airport only twelve minutes later than we had planned. It was total pandemonium in the aiport. I've never seen so many people in one place. To make matters worse, the airline ticket counters were not clearly marked like they are in most airports, so we had to look for little signs to know where we were. We finally got our boarding pass and made our way to the security check point. Our plane was to begin boarding at 10:35, at which time we were still in a long line waiting to be checked. But the security check point is near a window and I saw that it had begun to snow pretty hard. The last time that happened in Paris, the flight was delayed by seven hours. This time, it was only four hours. It was an extremely bumpy ride. But thanks to the lovely stewardesses and several glasses of champagne, it was a good flight.

We arrived in Miami at 9:00 PM, five hours later than scheduled. We got through passport control and customs in pretty good time and met Geoff just at the door from customs to the transportation lobby. We all boarded the employee bus and rode to the parking lot to Geoff's car. We were home by 10:00.