Paris - Recap

Our TGV ride back to Paris went off without a hitch, and we took the metro back to our hotel. (The same one we stayed in earlier.) We wandered about a bit to look for Le Maison du Chocolat, a famous Chocolate shop. On the way there we went into the Bon Marche a large high end department store. After only a few minutes, we felt out of place and exited the Bon Marche. We finally found Le Maison du Chocolat and purchased a few items before starting to make our way back to the hotel. On the way, we passed Napoleon's tomb and we visited the Eiffel Tower one more time. We went to dinner for a final time and had a nice meal before taking a stroll back to the hotel.

Napoleon's tomb

Au revoir Paris

In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to the airport.

Overall we had a great time on this trip. We enjoyed Paris, but it reminded me just how many people in Europe smoke. (It seemed like 80% of people over age 12 in Paris.) It has been a while since I've been to Manhattan, but Paris seemed dirtier. Most likely due to people not picking up after their dogs. (In defense of Paris, they encourage street disposal of garbage like cigarette butts into the gutter where they are washed into the sewers daily.) However the air was warm and humid and left me feeling dirty every day. It took some getting used to opening the doors yourself on the metro as well, but these are quirks that are enjoyable about traveling. At first in Paris we were very shy about talking to people and we got better throughout the trip as well. There are plenty of world class museums in Paris and lots of interesting things to do. We mostly stuck to the touristy things, but those can be fun too.

Alsace was a nice change from Paris as it was small towns and cooler temps. (At least they felt cooler.) It was fun to start sampling regional cuisine and get out on bicycles. It was a wonderful experience staying in the Medieval town and in an old building as well.

Burgundy was fun too. We were hoping to have more time, but the train mishap killed that time for us. Another bike ride to vineyards was scheduled, but we had to drop it. If we were going back to France, we'd hit the dining scene in Lyon more and give Lyon a second chance as well.

What can I say about Chamonix? I could live there. Well, except for the alpinism as fashion thing. Way too many people walking around the village in mountain boots and action pants. They aren't wearing backpacks, so theoretically they could have changed into more comfortable shoes (and pants) where they left their backpack. It is like people who leave their ski lift tickets on their jackets. That style sort of irked me, but the town is nice even with its limited options.

Provence was pretty great too. Unfortunately due to the holiday, we kept our Provencal excursions to a minimum. This meant we did not make it to the French Riviera which was on our list. I am also bummed about not getting to swim in the Mediterranean Sea. Oh well, I guess there is next time. Dining in Provence gave us more access to vegetables which seemed lacking during most of our meals farther north.

We also were unable to fit in a viewing of Le Tour. This is mostly because we planned last minute and bookings were hard to come by. But also because we planned our itinerary to be almost opposite of where the tour was. We were in Colmar a week before the tour was supposed to visit, and we really hoped to watch it on TV when we got back home, but you need cable to watch the tour. Oh well. This is one reason I would consider going back during high tourist season.

We had lots of great food on the trip as well. However, I (being from the NE USA) am not used to the slow eating. Sitting down to eat would mean at least and hour and a half of restaurant time. The only way to eat quickly, which is what Jennifer and I did was to buy a baguette and cheese and eat it in the park. It is also quite difficult for Jennifer as a vegetarian in France. Fortunately she eats fish, but there are not a whole lot of main courses that don't involve meats. Some restaurants we had to seek out because they had vegetarian options. Others had noticeable vegetarian options so we chose those. It did mean we didn't always get to eat where I would like to, but compromises need to be made. France is also great for the ability to eat outdoors. I think we ate inside only three times on the trip (not including trains.) This made for some enjoyable dining. Except for when smokers would sit at the table next to you. So if you wanted to avoid smoke it made sense to eat indoors.

Our train travels and limited French vocabulary also made the trip interesting. Although it made us discuss entering The Amazing Race a bit more every time we traveled. We had a lot of fun overcoming the adversity and it made us stronger. Neither of us ever got frustrated to the point of being un-fun. (Although I was close with the unadvertised closing of the line that went to Versailles.)

Attempting to speak French was also a funny experience too. I had a few classes about 5 years ago before moving to Seattle, Jennifer actually got to finish the class, and had previous Spanish lessons, so I thought she would be better. But she often confused Spanish words with French words, while my French made me feel like I was fluent in German. (Which I am NOT.) We got by and had some fun with most people who did not speak English.

On that note, the people were very pleasant in France. There was really only one incident that is not indicative of society that stood out. We were walking down a street and a homeless Parisian man mumbled some angry stuff at me and then spit in my general direction. I am not sure that had anything to do with me being a foreigner as he may not have know that. Many times we would order from menus or ask for tickets at a museum and get replied to in French. Although I did ask for a map at Versailles (in French) and was asked if I wanted the English version of the map. (I'm sure my pronunciation is terrible for most things.) It was nice to know we could get by with our limited language skills.

Jennifer really enjoyed the trip as it was her first time off the continent of North America. Every place we went was new and exciting to her, and she always said we should have spent more time there. She had a lot of fun and it was her first time seeing, touching, and being in human structures that were 400+ years old.

It was overall a fun trip, and one that I wouldn't mind duplicating in a different country. Although I am not a big fan of going during high season because of the crowds and the costs. There are advantages though which was more festivals, special events etc. happen during the tourist season. But in the future we will have more time to plan. For now, I am glad to be back home in the Cascades.

Paris - 07.02-05.09

So this is our honeymoon. Since I was not working and Jennifer was about to start work and had time off. This was an ideal time to take a multi-week vacation. Since we didn't have much time to plan, we made a hasty plan to go to France and visit a few regions. We were intending on doing mostly the tourist stuff, and packed accordingly. I'll be posting the phases of the trip separately as I have over 1300 pictures to go through, and it will take a while to do all the typing. (French keyboards made even applying for jobs while in France difficult, let alone writing a blog.)

The idea was to sleep on the plane on the way to Paris. I think we were both too excited about the trip, and me too in love with the view out the window to get any sleep. (Sights early on consisted of a nice fly over Glacier Peak and later pack ice on Hudson Bay.) We had a short transfer in Amsterdam, and were in Paris by late morning. Since Northwest Airlines (and Air France) fed us well, we hit the ground running. After taking the metro to our hotel, we walked around the neighborhood a bit. We mostly viewed the Eiffel Tower and then our exhaustion hit us. We headed back to the hotel for a nap, and then took off to walk the neighborhood again before finally finding a location for dinner. We had a nice formule meal (Prix Fixe in the US) at a Creperie near the hotel. It was four courses (aperitif, salad, main, dessert) with delightful crepes and decent prices. We hit the hotel for sleep after that.

The second day started with the Louvre. We got there when it opened and purchased a museum pass to use there and at other locations in the city (and including Versailles.) The museum is overwhelming. Lots of great art and artifacts housed in a equally captivating building. We saw the two main attractions (Mona Lisa, and Venus de Milo.) We spent 3+ hours wandering around before we were Louvred out. Since the admission to the Louvre is re-entry, I'd recommend doing the museum in two blocks of time at different parts of the day. We had the first of our many bread and cheese lunches at the museum cafe and headed out.

We visited the Notre Dame Cathedral after the Louvre, and decided the line was too long to attempt to go to the top. We toured the inside and enjoyed the architecture before visiting the Jewish Deportation Monument. This was a very interesting small 'museum' behind the cathedral and was moving. The artist did a fine job.

Afterward, we wandered over to the Pompidou Centre for some modern art. This pretty much exhausted us and finished us on museums for the day. There was some great exhibits there, and the building was fun as well. The curator did fine work linking associated artists and art influences etc. After our time at the Pompidou, we hit the square next to it for some dinner and later had a light snack in a nearby neighborhood before retiring to the hotel.

The next day we started early with a visit to Versailles. Due to track maintenance that was not posted, we took very long to get there. (Our goal was to be there by the 9am opening, but wound up getting there later.) There were huge crowds of tourists being dropped off by the busload. We were able to get inside quickly with our museum passes and toured the building. While the palace is a nice example of the architecture, it gets redundant after seeing gilded room after gilded room. But it was an enjoyable time. The gardens are supposedly where it is at, but since it was Saturday and the fountains were on, this cost extra (8 Euros?) and we opted not to go for a stroll. We returned to Paris to hit the Picasso museum and the Arc de Triomphe to round out our museum passes. The Picasso museum was nice, if a little out of the way. (Although the neighborhood has some good Jewish eats if you are not visiting it on Saturday.)

The Arc was actually more enjoyable than expected with great views from the top. Since we were there on the Fourth of July, there was some type of ceremony going on. There were plenty of retired French troops, and a few American WWII vets. We must have missed the ceremony, but they were walking around afterwards and there appeared to be some wreaths laid. (The arc is also home to France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.) After our climb up the stairs in the arc, we walked down the Champs-Elysees. This is similar to walking 42nd street in NYC or the Times Square area in general. There are tons of tourists, and lots of shops. Some shops were high end, while others, quite touristy. A unique addition is the car dealerships. Mercedes, Renault and Peugeot were represented and the dealerships are more like museums and boutiques than dealerships. Some even had sit down Formula One car simulators to try for free. After that we headed back to our neighborhood for dinner.

We ate at a place recommended by Rick Steves which was enjoyable. Then we headed to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top. As we got to the tower, we watched a free concert nearby where there was Middle Eastern music, and Whirling Dervishes doing their thing. (This concert lasted from the time we arrived, to at least the top of the tower, if not later.) After watching the concert a bit, we made our way to the tower. We decided due to finances and wait time that we would take the stairs to the second level. (You can only take an elevator to the top, but have the option of stairs or elevator to the second level.) We hiked up to the first level and did a lap before continuing up to the second. The stairs are actually numbered every 10th step so you don't have to count them. Although the official stats say there are 700 stairs, the last stair labeled before the second level was around 670 or so. Anyway, a decent workout that I wouldn't have wanted to do with the sun high in the sky. We bought our tickets and got in line for the top elevator. The view was great looking down on the sights of Paris at night. We then got off the tower and headed back to the hotel for sleep.

After yet another (buffet, all you can eat) breakfast at our hotel, we spent our last day in Paris on this leg starting with a trek across town on the metro. We were heading to the highest point in Paris, Montmartre, where the Sacre Coeur Cathedral is. The cathedral is stunning white because it is made with travertine. It is located on the highest point and has a pretty good view. We hung out a bit and explored a few old windmills in the area. (The Moulin Rouge is down the hill from the cathedral as well.) We then made our way across town to the catacombs.

The catacombs are the result of Paris development and needing to use space occupied on the surface by cemeteries. In the late 18th century the city started putting the remains from surface cemeteries in old limestone mines under the city. This became the catacombs. After yet another bread and cheese (or was it bread and butter?) lunch we got on the line to enter. It was long, and we feared we might not make the cutoff of 4pm when they let the last people in. We made it to the head of the line with plenty of time to spare and started our journey. This consists of going down what seems like an endless spiral staircase before getting into the tunnels. The tunnels start as standard mine tunnels with a wet rocky floor and walls. At some point you reach the doorway to the burials. Beyond this point most of the walls are femurs and skulls. You occasionally see other bones like ribs and spine, but mostly femurs and skulls arranged in an orderly and artistic manner. At one point there is a chapel and it is wet and dark. After about 45 minutes of wandering, you get to another set of endless stairs that take you to the street.

After the catacombs, we headed back to our neighborhood and got dinner. We walked around a bit before going to the hotel to pack for our train ride the next day.

Overall, Paris was good. I think the museums are great, but it is pretty intense to try and do them on consecutive days (which is required with the museum pass.) The city itself seems similar to Manhattan, although the metro is cleaner than the subway. The weather while we were there also gave it a Manhattan feel. Hot and humid. Spending enough time outside, or in the metro left you with a film that wouldn't come off without a shower.

The dining was good, but not spectacular. According to Rick Steves, Paris does not have its own cuisine, and borrows from all other French Regions. This may be true, and may be why the food did not bowl us over. We enjoyed eating, but it was expensive and not "out of this world."

All the walking we did made my feet feel the way they did after hiking out of the Enchantments in June, and we were both feeling weary because of it.

Paris pics are here.