Last Thoughts on Paris

So now that we're home and I've had a whopping 12 hours to sleep and refresh...here are some last thoughts on Paris:

• People say that "everyone in Paris speaks English" and at the same time they gripe that "the French are rude". What I found is that it is untrue that all of the Parisians speak French, and if they are rude, it might be that you've assumed wrongly that they understand you when they do not. Take the time to learn as much of their language as you can and you will see how friendly they really are!
  
  
• Always, without fail, greet people properly. "Bon Jour Madame/Monsieur/Madamoiselle" or "Bon Soir" if the sun has set will always set a conversation on a good foot.
  
  
• The French are not as casual as we are in speaking and greeting. Pepper your sentences with "please" ("s'il vous plait") and "thank you" ("merci"). They will notice and they treat you with the same courtesy and respect.
  
  
• The french are terrible about using appropriate stemware. Most restaurants will serve red wine in tiny little glasses. I find this irritating. They might not even have the proper stemware if you even ask for it.
  
  
• Learn to use the metro. Each line has a "start point" and an "end point" on the map. Figure out where you want to go, then which lines you need. Head in the direction of the endpoint that you need. Buy a carte orange (about 15€ for 7 days for areas 1 & 2) - take a small picture to Paris with you for your ID card so you'll be ready to go on arrival. The pic is required for your metro ID card. Max size is 1-1/8" tall.
  
  
• Pack lightly. Stuff a duffle into your carryon for purchases on the way home. Air France WILL weigh your carry-on bags (esp at SFO) so make sure yours is compliant.
  
  
• The French eat HUGE dinners. Breakfasts as we know them are hard to find. The French tend to eat a light breakfast as they're still STUFFED from the night before. Get used to this, or you'll pay top dollar for American style meals. Every block has a bakery. Maybe two or more.
  
  
• American style coffee is nearly nonexistant. Ask for a "cafe grand" if you need a lot of java in the morning. "Au lait" gets you some milk with it.
  
  
• Yes there is dog "merde" in the streets as well as urine. Watch for it. If you're lucky, you'll find them identified and tagged as we did.
  
  
• The pickpockets aren't as bad as you think, but the most unlikely will try to get into your pockets and wallets (ie, older women, children, etc). Put small locks on anything of value and keep the keys around your neck or deep in a pocket. You don't have to be paranoid of this fact, just be aware.
  
  
• Use ATMs to get cash. Your PIN might not work or it might be the last four digits of your PIN, or the first 4 (mine worked fine and is more than 4 digits). Call your bank before leaving to make sure. Ask them if they have a surcharge for converting dollars to euros. Most credit unions do not.
  
  
• 4€50 means "4 euros and 50 cents". It can be written like 4€50 or 4.50€. Euros are similar to American coinage.
  
  
• There's not a lot of great nightlife in Paris unless you like bars and DJ/house music. We didn't see a live band the entire time we were there. We DID look, too.
  
  
• Yes, the food is great everywhere. We had a lot of really great food in Paris. From the lowliest of places to very nice 5 course meals. It was all good.
  
  
• Not all croissants are created equally! Some are made with butter, and some with margarine. Ask for a "croissant du buerre" if you want one with the real thing. And if you happen to find the mythical shop in the Marsais that sells croissants with bananas and chocolate (as well as macaroons and sables), I will buy you dinner if you can give me the name/address/phone number of it!
  
  
• The Latin quarter is overrated. It's nearly the Disneyland of Paris. We preferred the Marais and Menilmontant by far. The Champs Elysees is dead at night except for the Buddah Bar, which is great for atmosphere, but way expensive for drinks (wine 9€, mixed drinks 12€) and comes with too much posing and attitude for our tastes. Dinner is outrageously expensive there, so don't even bother unless you have an expense account.
  
  
• Definitely avoid restaurants that advertise "we speak english" or post their menu ("la carte") in English. Also, check to see how busy a restaurant is to gauge how good it is. Restaurants don't get busy til 9PM or later, so this is only a gauge of it's quality if you are looking at this time or later. Always try to make a restaurant in person (calling is second best) to make sure that they can accomodate you.
  
  
• Order the "menu" or "plat du jour" when you can. The menu is a great deal, all inclusive. Meals in Paris include tax and service. If the tip isn't included, you can be sure that the waiter will let you know. They love Americans because they tend to not believe that the meal price includes tip and will often tip on top of that. If the menu says "prix net" anywhere on it, that is also a guarantee that the service is included. If the service is spectacular, leave a couple extra euros to show they are appreciated.
  

Again, I can't stress how friendly we found the people in Paris to be. Complete strangers would stop and ask us if we needed help when they spotted us scanning a map to try to find out where we were. In America, you'd be hard pressed to find this sort of behaviour. I don't know where people in America get the idea that people in France are rude or short with Americans. They are some of the warmest, friendliest people we've ever met, and I can only assume that Americans much be jealous on some level and by some weird twist of psychology, they have to turn them into something lesser in order to cope with their inadequacies.

They have great food, great wine, culture, a beautiful countryside, stunning chateaus and palaces and history that makes ones head spin, a great medical system, and much more.

Why wouldn't anyone be jealous of that? :-)

A bientot!
Linda et John

Homeward Bound

6:00AM and I was wide awake. Our wake up call did come in at 6:30AM much to my surprise. By that time we were both in full swing packing and gathing belongings.

We took the metro to the Gare du Nord where we'd be able to pick up the RER B to Charles De Gaull Airport. While at the Gare, John and I went to the Paul Pastissier and John bought about 18€ of croissant and pastries to bring home to share with his coworkers. I guess they must have thought that we were quite hungry!

It took some doing to figure out which RER B train we needed (there's like 5 of them) and determined we need the RER B3 train specifically. We stayed on the train until it's final destination, CDC2 and then exited. The metro lets out directly into the airport itself so it isn't even necessary to go outside to find the terminal that you need. Quite nice when the weather is bad. We had used our Carte Orange passes to get into the train area, but exiting was another matter. Upon exiting you have to put in your metro ticket in order to be released. We hadn't bought an "area 3" ticket so we were pretty much trapped. A nice Italian lady that we had chatted up on the way to the airport said, "just jump it!" so, behaving like locals, we did just that. The French trains run pretty much on the honor system, but if you get caught jumping over entrances and exits you can be fined. We saw a lot of this occur in the Paris metros, but also never saw anyone busted for this as well.

After having checked in at the front counter at Air France, we passed through the security checkpoint and then went on a dutyfree buying spree. We bought a number of bottles of wine and then sat down to have a cafe before boarding the plane.

Despite arriving two hours early, the airport was quite busy with people and we had just enough time to board the plane. We really didn't have any spare time after having coffee to dawdle about. We passed through the boarding gate and were directed onto a huge "people mover" vehicle on a "scissor lift" that shuttled us off to the plane, which was situated out in the field. Unbeknownst to us, our plane took off about a half hour late and we would arrive 45 minutes late in San Francisco.

As usual, Air France stuffed us with a great deal of food and wine. They really know how to make sure a person is fed and wined. Perhaps they do this so that we'll sleep on the way? They served us two meals and in between made a point of letting us know that there were drinks, sandwiches, and hagen dasz in the "self service" area in the back of the plane. Amazing. And we have a hard time getting a tuna sandwich out of American Airlines.

My only gripes about Air France are that the seats are scrunched way too close to each other. I am 5'10" and John is 6'2". We barely had room to cross our legs, and a few times the people in front of us would recline so fast that we nearly had our glasses of wine launched at our faces without warning at all. I think that the next time we travel abroad we'll try Virgin or KLM and hope that their seats are more comfortable. Hopefully the food will be as good and plentiful as it was on Air France.

While in the air, we took some photos of the ice sheets in Greenland and the mountains in Banff national park. The flight was slightly more bumpy on the way home than it had been on the way over, but I'm particularly frightened of turbulance and really notice it when it is present.

We arrived 45 minutes late, and slipped through customs without any problems. I asked for my passport to be stamped after realizing the French didn't stamp it on entry or exit. I like the idea of s stamp as a souvenier of a trip. I'll have to be sure to ask for them in the future.

John's dad was there waiting for us in the drive through pickup area. It was a nice warm day in the Bay Area and we both enjoyed feeling sunshine on us for the first time in 10 days.

4th: Leaving Agen - Return to Paris

Hardly slept at all last night. I had taken some 24 hour sudafed the day before and I was completely wired. I always overreact to medication, and this time was no different than others.

At 8am, Mrs Smith came to wake us up, but I was already awake. John showered and then we both quickly dressed, stripped the bed, and packed up our things. We dropped of the three children at their riding lesson (Roge) and headed to the gare in Agen.

Adjacent to the gare, in the same building, was a small cafe where we all stopped to have cafe et croissants. There was a strange woman that was exiting when we were entering...she stared at Mr Smith and made a funny movement with her mouth...like she was going to say something but was terrified. It was too funny and was the brunt of much of our breakfast conversation. We speculated about what must have been going on in her mind at that moment. Mr Smith said to her, "Ca va?" and she said nothing so he said next, "No ca va?" and she just stood there stupified. It was hilarious.

So we had our cafe grande, croissants, said our goodbyes. We had a spectacular visit with the Smith family and wished that we'd had more time to spend with them. They'll be coming to the US on the 12th to stay for a month - hopefully we'll get to see them again before they head back to the chateau.

Our train to Bordeaux was an older train, lots of stops along the way. Once in Bordeaux, we swtiched to one of the highpowered bullet trains. My ears ached all the way to Paris. In Paris we exited the Montparnase station and found that we needed to book a hotel for the night. We walked around the station a bit, checking for an internet pub but there was none. There were a few hotels, but it seemed we were in a bit of a red light district of sorts and figured that it wasn't the best place to stay. John's patience was running thinner and thinner so I suggested that we return to the Pont du Neuf cafe where we knew we'd be able to have wine, food, and surf to find a place in which to stay for our last night in Paris.

Pascal wasn't our waiter tonight. Instead we had the rude yound man that we'd had on our first visit to the cafe. (He refused to sell us a pichet of wine because we were "in the wrong room"). We ordered some fries, an omlette, and a small pichet of wine, and then logged on. I wrote to a number of ads posted on the Paris version of Craigslist and amazingly one person wrote back immediately. While he didn't have a room for us in one of his rentals, he kindly offered to help find us a place for the night. He found us a room in the Hotel Metronome (Marais/Bastille border) for a meager 65€ a night. It had a double bed, a twin bed, a private bathroom. What more could we want on short notice on a Saturday night in Paris? Most places require a two night booking on a weekend so we were really in luck!

The room was on the 3rd floor (deuxieme etage in France) and was on the cheesy side. It was faily clean and didn't smell like smoke so I was rather happy. We left our suitcases and headed out almost immediately. The clerk asked to hold our key for us and I felt very weird about that. It wasn't until later that I realized that we had paid for the room in cash, received no receipt, and then he had the key. I panicked and feared that we might have lost not only our cash, but our bags. That thought loomed in my mind for most of the night.

So our last night in Paris was a bit strained. John's patience was thin as it took us a few hours to find a place (not unexpected), and we hadn't done ANY shopping at all for friends and family. It was getting late and all of the major department stores were closed (Le Bon Marche, Samaratain, etc). We walkd the Marais, and luckily a few places were open, however, there really wasn't anything that we saw that we wanted to buy for anyone. Most items are "made in China" and bringing a gift from France should be FROM France, made in France, by REAL French people.

We gave up and decided it was time to grab a bite. John's blood sugar dangerously low, and he on the verge of a nuclear meltdown. We tried to find a street parallel to Rivoli that houses a good number of Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants, but we didn't find it. We did find a nice veggie restaurant in the Marais (Le Marais) and dined on the following:

Soy Protein Lasagne 9€
Tea 10€ (yes, TEN EUROS...insane!)
Pizza Napolitaine 9€

The service was slow, very slow, the pizza came to the table with the champignons that I was so looking forward to, and then there were oodles of people smoking adjacent to us, despite the fact that we were in the no-smoking area of the restaurant. Can't really recommend going back to this one ever again. The waiter was friendly enough, but the rest of the experience just didn't cut it.

We headed back to the hotel room and our desk clerk was there watching the Miss France competition. He unlocked the door promptly and let us in. I was relieved that all was fine and that we hadn't "been taken" for a ride. We asked for a 6:30AM wake up call even though I was fairly certain we wouldn't need it: I never sleep well before a day of travel. No idea where that behaviour stems from, but I's been that way my entire life.

I left the computer on so that if I got up in the middle of the night I'd be able to check on the time. I stayed up for about an hour writing in my blog and then crawled under the sheets. I didn't bother to even take off my clothes as the room was cold and I figured that the cold would be just one more thing that would keep me up that night.

Day in Villeneuve-Sur-Lot and Surrounding Countryside

We awoke about 10am. I showered, freed the little beetles that had made their home in the bathroom, and then we were off for the day.

Mr. L drove us to Villaneuve. I finally bought some hair conditioner at a very modern hair stylist place. We stepped into a newer red brick church for a moment. I lit a candle and asked for a safe voyage home for John and I. We left the church and went for coffee and crepes at Jardin de Gormand, right around the corner in the town square.

Aften coffee, we wandered by an immobilier (ie, realtor) office and I spotted a lovely castle in the window for 561.000E ($734,910USD). It's a tad out of our range, but it IS an asking price and we could easily come in at 500E and see what they make of it. John and I both took a flier of the property and stuffed them away.

We dropped off two of the three children. One child didn't feel well (too many crepes on an empty stomach?) and another went along to keep company.

Back on the road, we went to the bastide of Penne D'Angenais where Richard the Lionhearted fought his last battle. The bastide is atop a high hilltop and is covered with winding cobblestone drives and pathways. The views are stunning. Richard the Lionhearted is reportedly buried at the fort at the top of the hill there. There are very old remains of an old fort which date to 1000AD +/- 80 years (?) There's also a neat old church (maybe a cathedral...what's the difference? When is a church large enough to become a cathedral?) Underneath the church we inspected the old caves that were the original place of worship for the inhabitents of this area more than 1000 years ago. There was a statue of Mary and a stone altar.

We ran into friends of Mr. L on the way down the bastide path and stopped to chat a while with them. Afterwards we visited a tapestry store and perused their wares, and then visited a 'christmas boutique' where the village was selling locally produced goods for a benefit of some sort. I bought a bottle of local wine, and John a packet of handmade water color paper.

After our purchases, we slipped into a small coffee shop for some espresso. A local man came in carrying his abysinnian cat (lovely creature) and we oohed and ahhed over the little fur being. After finishing our caffeinated drinks we headed off to visit Roge, a horse riding school.

We then went to visit the friends of Mr. and Mrs. L that we had run to at the foot of the bastide. Their home is lovely and has an expansive view that seems to go on forever. Two unique elements to their home were, (1) their fireplace dates to Roman times and, (2) their staircase pole is carved from a single log that has been hollowed out. I didn't get pictures of either of these and am now wishing that I had. Sigh.

After our visit, we departed and stopped at a paint store briefly, then headed home where we snacked on a massive plate of cheese and crackers (yes, I popped some Sudafed that morning!) Mr. L opened a nice red to go with the cheese (1999 Chateau Les Cavailles Bergerac, Biaussat)

At 7:15PM we all piled into the car and John and I were dropped off in the town square while the L family went to dine at a friend's house. John and I had a 7:30PM reservation at:

La Gallerie
38 Bd de la Marine
47300 Villaneuve Sur Lot
Tel 05-53-71-52-12

Okay...for the menu, as always!

1/2 boutille Puisseguin St. Emilion
Chateau L'Eglise 2000 (15E for 1/2 boutille)

Green and black olives (yum!)
hors d'ouerves (meats and bread)

John's dinner:
2 eggs poached, atop bread rounds, smothered in morels and a brown gravy
Lotte kebabs in sauce w/vegetables and rice timbale
Assiette des fromages (blue brie et salade)
Tarte des pommess with glace vanille

Linda's dinner:
Tagliatelle carbonara with a egg yolk right in the center...very rich, lots of jambon
Tarte tatin with fromage blanc (which tasted like sour cream...dessert was too sweet for my palate)

We finished dinner at 10:50PM and although I suggested to John that we call for a cab right away, he thought that we should wait until we had a little walk. Well, by 11:15PM we had discovered that there were no taxi cabs to be found AT ALL at the time in the night in Villaneuve. We tried calling a cab ourselves using the taxi devise...alas, it didn't work. We also went back to the restaurant, but they had all gone home. We then found a bar and pleaded with the bartender to help us find a taxi. He called at least three taxi companies, and none answered.

Worried that we were doomed to either walk home or have to wait longer in the cold, I made off to the local police station where in my best french, I asked them to please find us a cab. On the first call they had success but at that instant, Mr L, his family, and John arrived at the front door of the Villaneuve police station TO THE RESCUE! I apologized profusely and thanked the police for their efforts...and then quickly departed. John and I were so happy to have the good fortune of Mr L driving by as he did. Whew...

So...back at the house, we stayed up for a short while chatting with Mrs L about local real estate, and with the children about how they could build their own websites. Before going to bed I promised to help the children build their own blogs. Maybe I will do this by Tuesday!

From Paris to Aquitaine!

Had a hard time sleeping last night...too much beer, wine, champagne?? Got up at 8am, made coffee, cleaned the apartment for Bill, and set off for the TGV train station. The TGV is the bullet train that you can get from a handful of train stations in the Paris area. (I think they also have non-bullet trains, but who wants to ride those?)

Took Rue Saint Maur metro (3?) to Montparnasse Gare. Bought pastries at the Paul bakery and had my first rude encounter with a Parisian boy with a unibrow. I asked him if the croissants in the back were "Pommes" (ie, apples) and he said "oui" and tossed one into a bag. Well, John came down from the train station and wanted something different. It was near impossible to tell this boy that I no longer wanted the apple croissant. He rolled his eyes at me, sighed loudly, and mumbled about me to his coworkers. He was so impatient.

Grabbed a sandwich and slice of tart for the train at another place near to Paul. We're seated in 2nd class so the seats aren't as roomy, but everyone says it's not worth it to travel first class.

As the train went through the tunnels it created a pressure vacuum that caused my ears to hurt intensely. Usually I can open my eustachian tubes rather easily, but with my cold (?) I found it near impossible to equilibrate. This is something we weren't warned about at all. The ear pressure is more severe than ANY plane ride either John or I have ever experienced before.

We arrived in Agen without delay, and right at the train exit was our friend who lives with his wife and two children near to Agen in the town of Villaneuve. (They'd like to remain private in this blog so I'll just refer to them as Mr. and Mrs. "L"). Mr. L took us to their home on the outskirts of Villaneuve and then ran off to retrieve his children. I was rather exhausted and took a short nap while John read downstairs. Their home was simply stunning and dates to the late 1600's. The oldest reference to the house was in 1693 or 1694, but it might be a tad older. The land was conveyed in about 1500 to the builder of the house, so he could have commenced thereafter....such intrigue! If I owned such a house, I'd have a hard time not studying every nook and cranny and would likely take a shovel to excavate as well. :))

That night Mr. and Mrs "L" had a friend over for dinner, and so we dined with the family, a friend of the children, the house caretakers, and the family's dinner guest.

Menu:
1999 Chateau Duluc Bordeaux
Veuve Cliquot Champagne
Pommery Champagne

Chicken, mashed potatoes, tomato surprise (very luscious tomatoes), cauliflower with onion sauce (I could have eaten the whole plate of it!), carrots, and a lovely homemade gingerbread pudding with a creamy sauce to go atop.

Talk about being spoiled.

After dinner, it was off to bed with the lot of us. I swore I'd sleep in until 1:00PM the next day.

The Myth of the Chocolate Banana Croissant (Croissant du Banane et Chocolat)

We finally heard from our friends in Southwest France. It looks like we are definitely going to be visiting them!

We showered, started our laundry, and were out the door rather fast. It was raining outside as we headed out we ran back upstairs to grab an umbrella. We hopped the metro to the 12e to try to find a computer store so that I could buy a PCMCIA flash card reader.

We went to a place called Sourchat (?). It's a store that is heavily advertised in the Paris metros with all sorts of computer deals blazed on the walls of the metro. It was larger than a typical Silicon Valley Fry's and I remarked that we were in a "French Fry's" which gave John quite a good laugh. I had seen such a card in a book that was back in our studio, so I knew that they had one for a mere 9€90. We found the item and headed for the cashier. What was odd here was that they put the item into a bad and the I went to the cashier to pay. I had to remove the item from the bag to pay, then have a man near the front door inspect the receipt (much like they do at Costco when you are about to exit). It seemed a little weird that they bagged the item first, but I'm sure there's a reason for it.

From there we walked down the street to the Gare du Lyon to buy our TGV (bullet train) tickets for Agen. We were able to get a 25% discount for traveling "a deux" on second class so our tickets wound up costing a total of 205€ roundtrip. I think that when I had checked airfare it was like 189€ each, so this was quite a savings on euros, but not on time, as the ride would be 4 hours in each direction.

Having bought our tickets, we headed to our favorite internet bar, the Pont du Neuf cafe, and had 25cL of wine, a chevre sandwich (not toasted! waaa!), and a mushroom omlette (delish!). By now we had gotten to know one of the waiters that by the name of Pascal. He was very friendly and even spoke English to us without us having to ask. He was always a warm cheerful face for us to see when we'd visit. This time he stopped by and chatted with us. We told him we were going to Bordeaux/Agena and that we were leaving the next day. He gave us his email address and we promised to drop him a line when we got home. Perhaps he will visit us here in the SF area should he make it this way one day.

We tried out the new PCMCIA card while were dining on our lunch and it worked perfectly in transferring pictures from the flash card to the laptop. We really needed to free up space on the camera as the camera was jammed full of pictures! This was a much faster method of of transferring pictures than using the canon cable. Besides, I wasn't able to get the canon software onto Randy's laptop as we didn't have the CDROM device. We checked email and then headed out to try to see the catacombs of Paris...something I'd been looking forward to since before we left.

We took the metro over to the Montparnase area and found the entrance to the catacombs was very very close to the metro. The entrance was actually in the Place (circular area in the middle of a bunch of streets that converge into a cirlce). Unfortunately, the catacombs are closed until May 2005 as they are undergoing a rennovation process. I was really upset that I wasn't going to be able to see them, but I know that John was relieved. He had been grumbling about being underground with 6 million skeletons since I first came up with the idea of touring them. No matter. They're not going anywhere and I will certainly see them on the next trip!

So instead of the metro, we hopped a bus and headed in the direction of the Musee Rodin. John noticed the tomb of Napoleon (Invalides) and decided he wanted to see that instead. It was somewhat late in the day and by the time we found the front of the tomb, it was too late to buy a ticket. Musee Rodin, according to a man at the door, was also closed for the day. So back to the metro we went. Along the way, we came across a parcel left by a Parisian dog. Amazingly, someone had gone through the time to stick a white tag into the pile of excrement with the lable "Merde" on it. I snapped a picture of this fecal oddiity and will post it here. If you don't believe that we made it to Paris, this is proof positive that we were there.

Back on the No 1 Metro, we headed for the Marais. We stopped at the Auld Alliance (first Scottish pub in Paris) and John went in to order us a pair of Guiness while I set off on foot to try to find the shop in the Marais that sold me that Banana Chocolate Croissant the first night we were in Paris. I was foiled by an immobilier office (real estate office) and stopped into to chat briefly with an agent. I took a card from her, a magazine of listings, and made my way back to my beer.

I didn't find that boulangerie/pastissier shop that sold me that fateful Croissant aux banane et chocolate, but if you, my reader, know where this shop is, I will be eternally grateful for the location. You see, I drove my dear John utterly crazy trying to find this shop a second time...to no avail. It is in the Marais, on a street that runs perpendicular to the Seine. The shop is on the right side of a narrow street, and a young man (a "brother", if you will) was running the shop. The shop was tiny, a window on each side for displaying the cookies to the passerbys, and upon entering the shop area for customers was rather small. I think the exterior of the shop was red, but I am guessing here.

I think I shall have to post a reward for the person that can find me this shop.

Meeting with Alex - Versailles

We got up and make our way up to the street market on Menilmontant. A 2 minute walk at most. We bought a pink lady apple (.65€), chevre (1€), and a nice sheep cheese (1€25). We went to the boulangeries where we bought croissants each morning and bought a nice loaf of bread with pointy ends. I forget the name of the loaf but it started with a "B".

We took the metro to Trocadero where we were to meet our internet friend Alex. Alex was waiting for us when we arrived. He was driving a very nicely renovated Mercedes sedan. We drove off and headed towards his house on the way to Versailles. Along the way we stopped and visited a Mercedes shop that had a couple older Mercedes sitting in it's lower level windows. The view from the workshop above gave us a rather nice view of Paris.

Before heading to his house, we exchanged the Mercedes for Alex's ponton. It started up pretty well for not being a daily driver sort of car. We drove off and headed towards Alex's home. We stopped at his house for a short time where we took a few pictures of his ponton out on the grassy driveway. He invited us in where were able to view a typical French home. It's pretty much the same as an American house except that the kitchn was more "high end" than most American kitchens, and there was a obvious lack of the typical overbearing refrigerator.

John checked his email while Alex and I talked cars. We had planned to have a short meal before heading to Versailles, but I think something was lost in the conversation, and instead of having lunch Alex took us directly to Versailles. Good thing, too, as Versailles was like the Louvre: a gargantuan building that would take the entire day to see properly!

We snapped a few pictures of the ponton in front of Versailles. Alex was shy and didn't want to be photographed...so the pics are of us, the car, and Versailles, looming in the background. After saying our goodbyes, we set off for yet another tour.

This time we booked a guilded tour so that we would be able to see the private apartments that were at Versailles. Before our tour began, we did our own tour of the general areas. We were a bit upset to find out that the Hall of Mirrors was mostly closed while it was being renovated. Having time at last to eat, we then went to the cafe to chow down on cheese, bread, and a Croque Monsieur (sandwich toasted with Jambon et fromage) before our guided tour began.

After the guided tour, we had hoped to have a bit of time to tour the extensive gardens. The day was over, though, and the weather had turned really cold and breezy. I figure Versailles is one of those places that is best viewed in Spring or early Summer when the weather is better. I think it would also be good to plan to take the entire day to be there so that one could also visit the smaller palaces that are off to the rear of the main palace. If we make it back in the Spring, I'd take a huge picnic and find a place somewhere on the grounds where we could eat al fresco. That would be special. :)

So we took the RER train back to Paris, and then the metro to Saint Michel which is in the Marais. John had a yen for pasta, but we weren't able to find a suitable place. The bakery shops were closed. We happened up Mariage Freres (highly recommended by Peter) but it was so late that they were no longer serving. We bought some chocolate and tea to take home with us and departed. John's blood sugar was at an all time low so I found a couple cookies (sables) and made him chow down to avoid a complete nuclean meltdown.

We stopped at a cash machine, withdrew some euros, and then hopped on the bus to Oberkampf. We passed by a few places that looked good, so we hopped off of the bus prematurely and headed back a few streets to a traditional crepe restaurant called "Morgane Creperie" (29 Rue Oberkampf 75011 - 01-43-55-68-17). Okay, it's time to post yet another menu of ours so here goes:

Pichet du Vin Rouge 4€

We each chose from the 12€ dinner menu

Homemade Bubbly Cider served in Traditional French Bowls

Salmon Crepe with Leeks (very light...not very filling) John
Gargantuan Crepe with Ham, potatoes, mushrooms (very filling!) Linda

Flambee Crepe with Orange John
Crepe Belle: Pear (poire), chocolate sauce, vanille ice cream, almonds, whipped cream Linda

Coffee

My meal choices were much more substantial than were John's. His crepe was light and had a single piece of salmon (saumon) in it. The sauce had a lot of leeks in it, but little else). I definitely think that I ordered better than did he this time. :-)

We waddled home after yet another very good meal and watched a dvd before nodding off.

Monday, November 29: It's My Birthday!

Today is my birthday. Or is it? I was born at 3:27AM at the Kaiser Hospital on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. So we've got a 9 hour time difference....so 12:27PM Paris time should be the beginning of my day. Okay the hospital is really in Hollywood, but that sounds so weird to be born in Hollywood.

We got up a bit early today and dashed off to the Louvre. Before heading out, I called up Le Bistrot de Breteuil and made a 7:30PM reservation for dinner. Amazingly, they understood my meager French and our rendezvouz was arranged. We picked up croissants and coffee in the Menilmontant area and then took the Saint Maur metro to the Louvre.

I have had "ideas" about how large the Lourve is, but let me tell you that it is gargantuan. When people say that you need a few DAYS to really see the Louvre, they aren't kidding. We started off at a slower pace, checking out the lower levels where the original foundation of the Louvre is exposed. This was at about 10:00AM. by 3:00PM we were literally marching down halls, glancing at the displays on either side. By 4:30PM we'd hit complete exhaustion and collapsed in the French or Italian sculpture garden. That was it. I couldn't bear to see another display.

We left the Louvre through the opening under the pyramid and headed out onto Rue de Rivoli. Heading south we made our way to the Pont de Neuf cafe, which looks out over the Seine. Not a direct water view, but it's pointed at Ile la Cite and the Latin Quarter beyond.

We checked email, had some wine, and then headed off on a bus to the other side of the Seine, the 7th arrondisement, for dinner at Le Bistrot de Breteuil (Place de Bruteuil, 01-45-67-07-27). This restaurant came recommended highly to me from my friend, Len, as the most romantic restaurant that he ate in in all of Paris. Len said that they served a 3 course meal with 1/2 boutille of wine for 25€ a person. Considering that taxes and tips are included in prices in Paris, this was an excellent deal.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were asked if we wanted "smoking" or "not smoking". This was the first restaurant in all of Paris where we were literally not inhaling second hand smoke throughout our meal. What a relief. The price for the prix fixe meal had gone up since Len had eaten there. It was now 33€ a person, a bit pricier, but heck, it's my birthday!

So here's the rundown on the courses:

Green and black olives drenched in olive oil
Rose Champagne
Basket of bread & butter

2001 Bordeaux
Cote du Blaye
Chapelle de Tutiac
Gironde

Dozen Escargot (bit salty) Linda
Mushroom ravioli with a chanterelle cream sauce John
*John thought both items were too salty. I agree about the escargot, but thought that his appetizer was superb.

3 Pieces of Lamb (D'Agneau) with potatoes Linda
Scallops with pasta (St. Jacques...) John

Profiteroles with Hot Chocolate Sauce (Sauce de Chocolat Chaud) Linda
Thin Apple Tart with Calvados (Served aflame!) John

Coffee

Damages? 33€ per person. Not bad considering how completely stuffed we were at the end of this meal!

We sauntered outside into the cold and decided to make our way to the Eiffel tower before ending the evening. It seems that the tower lights up with tiny little lights every hour on the hour for a few minutes. We actually shot a short movie of this which we'll post. We walked to the tower, but it was so COLD that I didn't want to go up the tower. It was that cold. We made our way to the bus but was told by a passing woman that we'd missed the last bus. So we took a footbridge over the Seine. There was a bridge, right on the other side of the Seine that we needed to traverse before descending into the metro station. It wasn't really a bridge so much as it was the top of a tunnel. I said aloud "I wonder if this is where Princess Diana died" and no sooner than I had said that, I noticed that the entire bridge was covered with grafitti written to Diana. It was really moving to read how many people had covered the bridge with messages. It was also interesting that the French govenment hadn't taken the time to clean up the grafitti. Instead, they left it where it was for people to see and remember.

We hopped on the metro at the Concorde (?) metro and made our way back to the studio. So I celebrated my 40th birthday in the Louvre, at a fabulous restaurant, and then under the Eiffel tower.

Can it possibly get anymore romantic than that?

Rainy Sunday

I'd set the clock for 8:50am so I would wake to call Alex in time. 9:30am came and the alarm had not gone off. I phoned Alex and his mother answered. She spoke perfect English, explaining that Alex would be back at 2pm and to call back then.

After showering and starting the laundry, we set off on our day. Forgetting to bring Alex's number along, we retreated: I for the studio to get the number, and John to the corner boulanger for croissants. Again we headed out, on foot, for Pere Lachaise, a long block or so away. The weather turned drizzley today and we were glad to have our umbrellas for once. (Okay, John was happy to have his, but my technicolored umbrella turned out to be a bit of an embarrassment for him!)

One isn't ready for the sheer monstrosity of Pere Lachaise. The cemetary is divided into districts, of how many, I cannot be sure as we didn't buy a map. (At 2E it would have been well worth the cost). In between each little district lay cobblestone footpaths or drives. Very few cars ventured here. Whereas we fond Collette's tomb nearly by accident, it took us about thirty extra minutes of walking to find Jim Morrison's. I guess the prudent thing to do would have been to merely follow anyone our age or younger, especially if they were toting a map along with them.

Collette's grave was decorated with fresh flowers and, oddly, fresh chestnuts. I wonder if they were a known favorite of hers, or, if her grave had become something of a shrine, like Jim Morrisson's? Jim's grave was merely covered in flowers, but there was a bar in front of his grave to keep people out. I wondered how the flowers arrived on his grave being that it was impossible to approach it?

Having our fill of the dead, and John still feeling no less immortal for having visited this army of dead, we set out buying our daily carte Mobilis, and hopped onto the metro no 2 heading north west towards the Arc di Triomphe. On the way, I suggested to John (with a wink) that maybe we should stop by Pigalle to see what it was like but the train map said that the train wasn't currently stopping at Pigalle. John seemed to want to exit prematurely, so I suggested that perhaps we should get off at Sacre Couer, which we did.

Sacre Couer is very close to the metro exit. Out of the metro, and straight up the hill, in fact. Before the journey up the hill, we stopped for sandwiches at a street vendor (un sandwich avec trois fromage et tomate, et un sandwich avec saumon....yum!). As we started up the stairs to the Byzantine domed church, we were met by a group of Jamaican brothers who wanted to play some sort of string trick on us. They were rather aggressive & persistant, but I kept saying "pardon!" and tried to walk around them. Of course whatever they were doing was contructed to separate me from some of my money, so I manuevered around them and continued up the hill.

Sacre Couer itself was quite beautiful, for a modern cathedral-like construction. The sheer scale of it was quite impressive, and especially noteworthy was the huge domed area in the center. Many say it is a dissapointment, but it IS beauiful in its own right, and the views of Paris make it worth the journey. The crypt below can be accessed for a fee of 5E but we passed. Behind Sacre Couer is a cute little village area, but it is jammed full of shops and restaurants that exist solely for tourists. Adjacent to Sacre Couer is a very nice church,probably 400 to 600 years old. The odd thing about this church is that the stained glass windows were all done by a cubist artist. I'll have to do some research to find out who redid the windows as they most certainly weren't original!

By now the weather had picked up. We realized it was time to call Alex and went off in search of a telephone. An oddity here in Paris, which we soon came to realize,is that there are absolutely no public telephones that accept currency. In order to make a call, you either need to buy a telephone card (260 minutes for 7.5E) or find a shop that will let you make telephone calls (sometimes internet shops have this service). The fee for making a call this way was 0.15E/minute. Outrageous? Yes, but when you're desperate, what the hell?

I finally got ahold of Alex. We both agreed that it was too late to meet today and decided, instead, to meet Tuesday at 11am at Trocadero Square at the metro exit. (Trocadeo is across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower). When the call was done, we bought a phone card for future use and were off yet again. We hopped back on No. 2 heading west and exited at Charles de Gaulle metro stop to see the Arc Du Triomphe. I wasn't really prepapred for how large this monument is. Like the Louvre, I envisioned this monument being much much smaller than it is in real life. It is a mass of stone that literally dwarfts those that stand beneath. There are a few plaques on the ground honoring those that served in various wars as well as one for the "unknown soldier" with a perpetual flame. A worker constantly cleaned the floor plaques from water and debris with a straw broom, a veritible task of Sisyphus, if you ask me.

There's not much around the Arc except the haunts of the fashionista...very few easily accessible restaurants, so back onto the metro we went, this time hopping aboard the No. 1 towards the Marais. We got off long enough to see the Place Vendome and the Parc directly in front of the Louvre. The weather had turned dismal and John was feeling tired and grumpy, so we headed onto the Marais (St.Paul stop) where we could grab a bite and rest a bit.

Being that the Marais is literally the Jewish quarter, we were sure to find a place to eat. The rest of Paris seems to shut down on Sundays due to a combination of union pressure and traditional Catholic values, but not here. Here in the Marais, the streets are FULL of people shopping, dining, having tea, and just socializing. We found a deli restaurant called Chez Marianne and sat down for dinner. John ordered an assiette du saumon (18E?) and a chimay (6E)...and I ordered a mezza with four items (12E) and a gamay (2.8E) John's plate of salmon, although quite a bit of salmon, was quite boring....it really lacked what we consider normal garnishings for salmon: onion, cornichons, capers, etc. Instead, his nearly 1/4 pound of salmon was garnished with a lemon wedge, four kalamata olives, and a basket of bread. Not quite what we expected. My mezza had four falafel balls, a small chunk of feta, hummous with way too much tahini, and a babaganouj that resembled anything but babaganouj. I think that the main ingredient of the babaganouj was sour cream...not sure where they got their recipe from. It was quite tasty, but couldn't help thinking it was something that I simply should not be eating being that I am allergic to milk. (Yes, I am eating cheese here, but I'm also picking my allergy battles as I choose them).

After dinner we walked around the corner to Sacha Finkelsztajn, La Boutique Jaune Patissier (42-72-78-91, 4e- 27 Rue de Rossiers). This is an amazing Jewish bakery that specializes in a number of traditional baked goods.They have three or more kinds of cheesecake (gateau fromage) that look like they are to die for. We forgot that they had tables inside where one could sit and enjoy the pastries...which would have been far preferred to the dinner we just had. But they didn't have what I was looking for in terms of dessert, so we continued on down the street to another bakery. This street (Rue de Rossiers) has at least 4 bakeries that all contain amazing baked goods. We settled on 2 croissants for morning as well as a piece of Sacher (chocolate cake) for dessert later on tonight.

Again on foot, we went in search of bus No. 96. Bus No.96 is our friend. It takes us from home to the Marais, to the left bank, and home again. So it is 8:05pm as I close and John is fast asleep in bed. The laundry is drying in the kitchen, french weather lady chattering away on the tv, and I think I can get away with that entire Sacher cake without waking John. Snicker....

PS. The Sacher cake was dried out. Should have stuck with the original bakery.
Sigh.

Oversleeping on Saturday

Slept in until 10:30am today, quite a late start.

Took the metro to Ile la Cite. We had a plan to start at Notre Dame, but we started at Saint Chapelle instead. Gorgeous place, paned glass so striking it gives one goosebumps.

Walked around the courtyard of the Palace of Defence, out and to the left to see the oldest public clock in all of Paris (and yes, it does still keep time). Walked along the building but then reversed ourselves and went to Notre Dame. Took pics of John in front of Charlemagne's enormous statue. I told John there was a resemblance: their noses. :-) (John is a descendant of Charlemagne....as are, no doubt, a few million people!)

Then we went and wandered on the left bank for a bit. We stumbled onto an old church, avec flying buttresses (hereafter referred to as "flying butts"). We weren't able to figure out the name of this old church, but the architecture suggested it was quite old. Towards the back a family was having a little boy baptised and he wasn't very happy about the cold water being poured onto his head. Rounding the corner, left side of the alter, we came across an old polish woman poised in front of a Polish redention of the virgin Mary...she muttered away something in Polish about the significance of this particular relic being Polish. Atop of the virgin were symbols of the flags of both Poland and Lithuania. I tried in a combination of Polish/French/English to figure out what she was trying to convey, but the most I could get was that there was a Polish/Lithuanian connection and that she was Polish. I told her in my best French that my grandmother was Lithuanian and my grandfather, Polish. That brought a great smile to her face. Too bad Florence or Betty weren't on hand for a quick translation.

About this time, John's blood sugar had dropped critically low (actually, I think it's always low) and we succumbed to a tourist trap of a restaurant on the left bank, a stone's throw from the Seine. We ate Mr. Croquet (6E) and washed him down with an inferior red (4.5E). Escaping narrowly, we wandered over to yet another tourist trap of an area...the footpaths that are south of Rue de la Huchette. At one time I'm sure that this area was indeed charming, but today it's a veritible Disneyland: restaurants of all varieties, tzatchkies everywhere, and all crammed into the tiniest of areas. No wonder Joy never found decent bread. It couldn't possibly exist in this area!

We continued down the Seine towards the Musee d'Orday and arrived there a bit after 4:00pm. We got in for 5E each although the posted price was 7E. We viewed most of the Van Gogh, Renoir, and Toulouse-Latrec exhibits. Just as we were approaching the Art Nouveau exhibit they closed down, and ushered us out in a veritable sweep of the museum. Although we did see 2 Henri Rosseau pieces and Gustav Klimpt or two, I would really have liked to have seen the Art Nouveau section, which included quite a bit of furniture, some of it rather substantial.

Leaving, we headed into the interior of the St. Germain du Pres. This area was literally swarming with people, much like the footpaths of the area near Hutchette was earlier today. I caught a glimpse of the infamous Les Deux Magots and quickly decided that it simply wasn't worth eating at if it meant dealing with the crowds close up. Besides, sitting in a cafe, being a tourist, watching other tourists, simply didn't seem to be an experience worth writing about. We hopped aboard the 96 bus on St. Germain and exited on Oberkampf and stopped at our local internet pub to check email and have a drink.

At 8pm, it seemed as though we were fated to be thrown out a second time today, so we packed up and headed off for dinner at a place we'd seen last night while lost in the 11e-, Le Chistera. (Another tenant of 27 Rue des Bluets had also recommended it). We arrove without reservations but were promptly seated and given a little dish of pate, bread, and a sausage much like pepperoni/capricolla?

We ordered a half bottle of a 2002 Bordeaux (Chateau Mauperey, Cotes de Castillon,10.5E), which was pretty decent for the money, but have really been tasty with some decent stemware. That is one thing I have noticed here in Paris: they insist on drinking their red wines in the tiniest of glasses. I would have thought that in the land, famous for its wines, that they would have the sense to use correct stemware. I have yet to see a single restaurant or bar use an appropriate red wine glass.

So for food, John ordered three courses (25E): mushrooms provencale style, seabass in a chive cream sauces with dry sauteed spinache, and prunes in armagnac. I ordered just two (20E): breast of duck with potatoes, and creme brulee. The mushrooms were tasty, with lots of parsley, garlic, and olive oil. We cleaned the plate with slices of our baguette. John's seabass was a fillet, pan fried and covered in a light sauce. The spinach was very different. Usually spinach leaves a wet mess on ones plate,but this spinach was pleasantly dry and flavorful. My duck was cooked medium rare and was served with a brown honey sauce and pan roasted potatoes. Superb. The prunes in armagnac were interesting, flavorful, and surprisingly the alcohol wasn't too strong. While the creme brulee was tasty, the texture was a bit off. The custard seemed to have seperated a bit and there was a lot of moisture left in the dish. Not that we were totally offended: we gobbled it right up. We finished off with espresso and chocolate coffee beans (5E).

After walking a few streets home, we both collapsed into bed and slept quite well.

Last word:
One thing that I am really pleased about when dining out is that prices include a near 20% tax AND gratuity. I'm not exactly sure how much of this goes to the waitstaff, but when you consider that we're accostomed to paying out 15 to 20, the meals we are eating here really are quite a good deal despite the dollar being as weak as it is.

Arriving in Paris

Our flight into Paris was long and smooth. I'm usually terrified by turbulance, but this flight was perfect and they fed us WAY too much. Dinner started with champagne and went on to include fish atop rice with a bit of baby bok choy, yogurt, fresh pineapple, bread, a gargantual portion of smoked salmon and a chunk of camembert, wine, snacks, and coffee. Breakfast was prawns and some odd sort of shredded vegetable salad, canned fruit salad (ick!), cold croissants and bread rolls, more yogurt (with granola), coffee, juice. We didn't even have to break into our snacks. Well, except for the chocolate Ritter Bar that John brough.

We arrove in Paris right on time, and I think that we didn't even "go through customs". There were no declarations, no searching of bags, none of the stuff we're accustomed to after our trip to "Friendly Calgary". We caught the RER to the Gare du Nord and then got off the train in search of our metro connection. A very helpful French man assisted us in getting back on the RER so that we could get the connecting metro train (3) to Rue St. Maur....our final destination.

Upon arriving at our studio on Rue de Bluets, our landlord Bill met us at the front door. Amazingly he had actually gone to the airport to retrieve us, but we didn't get an email from him in time to know that he'd be there. Also, he was waiting near the baggage pickup, holding a sign with our names, but we only had carryon luggage and didn't even pass his way.

Bill took John and I to a little coffee bar on Boulivard de Menilmontant and we each had a "petite noir" (ie, espresso) with a micro-mini bar of dark chocolate on the side. I had my first real experience trying out my meager French on the owner as I inquired if she had soy milk and explained that I was allergic to milk. She actually understood me and I was rather excited that I was able to communicate, even if on the level of a 4 year old. :-)

So afterwards we marched down Oberkampf to Rue Temple to the Seine as I had to see it to really feel like we were in Paris. And there it was, bigger than I had expected it. We passed through Ile St. Louis and to Ile la Cite and did an impromptu tour of Notre Dame at dusk. It was jammed with people. We took a lot of pictures, but until we acquire a PCMCIA flash reader we won't be able to post any pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

On the way back north towards our studio, we stopped at the most amazing pastry shop. John had a tarte aux poire et almonds and I had Pain Au Chocolate Banane....all I can say is, "Joy...I don't know how on earth you had bad pastry here....I keep tripping over the most amazing pastry shops!!!!"

So here we sit in a little bar in the Marias drinking our respective drinks....I think John is fading fast and it's only 6:30PM. We need to stay up until 10PM to avoid jet lag...so this is going to be difficult!

More soon....

Departure Day

It's nearly 9am here in California. John is still asleep and his dad is due to arrive in less than two hours. I, however, am frantically packing away last minute essentials: new toenail polish from Sephora (I know I'll probably never have my socks off for more than 5 minutes!), eyeglass prescription (would love some newer frames...wonder if lenses, as well as Rx, are less expensive there?), and I have yet to run to Kinko's to copy some mercedes steering column pages that he wants me to bring with me.

We've been pretty good about packing light. Two pairs of jeans and a nice pair of slacks for each of us. We're really lucky to have found a studio with a washer/dryer so that we can just rewear items. We did collapse a medium sized duffle bag into my carry-on suitcase so that we will be able to bring lots of things home. That is...if the dollar doesn't slip into oblivion.

Off to Kinkos!

Rainy Welcome in Paris

yahoo weather says that it'll be raining in paris the day we're due to arrive. sigh. guess we'll be packing umbrellas...hope the airport security doesn't confiscate them going through the security checkpoint! i am starting to think that those huge black boots of mine might make perfect puddle stompers, even if they are terrible walking shoes. :-)

Meeting up with Alexander

Alexander is a member of our IPOG (International Ponton Owners Group). He lives outside of Paris and he has a pretty 220S much like mine. We're going to meet that the ">Place du Trocadero, which is right across the river from the Eiffel Tower. From the looks of the map, I am willing to bet it will be a lovely area. I also suggested that perhaps we meet in Versailles on Sunday (on Sundays they fire up the fountains - something not to be missed!)

Getting Ready for Paris!

Linda always said she wanted to step on French soil before she hit 40. So with 3 days to spare, Linda makes her way to Paris.

Why Paris? Why not! The Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Musee Picasso, the catacombs, Versailles, the markets, the Latin Quarter, all beckon like nobody's business.

---

Making Plans for Paris! we've commited to the cute studio in the 11e- arrondisement. i think it was a good thing to do. here's the link where we'll be from november 26 til december 2nd:

http://www.marneweb.com/bnb/apt_desc.htm

it seems to be a general thought that it's not all that important to be "central" in Paris due to the metro being so accessible. also...i've heard that if you really want to interact with Parisians, if you get away from the touristy places it's more likely that you'll get a chance to really meet some new people. i was really hoping to stay in the latin quarter, or the ile st. louis, but at 100E a night and more, it seemed wiser to be much more careful of our travel dollars. my goal was to keep this entire trip to $2000 or less. we'll see if i can do it!

so far:

$1090 airfare
468 lodging for six of nine nights
=====
$1558 total thus far. i think we're going to breach that $2000 mark fairly fast!

after the 2nd of december we're really not sure where we'll be. we may stay at bill graham's B&B in Reuilly or head to Bergerac or maybe train on over to Amsterdam or London. John is actually being flexible on these few days despite a few his fear of "being in paris without accomodations!". i'm sure we'll figure things out once we have arrived. todd said he'll spend some time at our place to study and hang out so it's nice/comforting to know that our home will be occupied to a large degree while we're gone.