Our last full day in Paris!

Hello on Friday early evening – although truthfully, it starts getting really dark around here by 5!  Busy day today … now I just have to remember what we did!

Eiffel Tower from our hotel

 

First of all, while I got to sleep by 10 pm last night, I didn’t wake up until 9 am!  Incredible!  By my count, that makes for 11 hours of lovely sleep … I guess I really needed it, but it was even rough getting up then!  Oh well!  Into and out of the tub (it’s really lovely, with lots of hot water), but it’s not that easy to get out of as all the faucets etc. are on one side, and need to be cleared to get in and out!  Down to breakfast about 10 am and out the door about 10:30 am.  

 

And as seen from below!

Headed first to the Tour Eiffel just to make sure it was still standing – and it was!  A clear plastic/glass barricade was built all around it at the base, which was new, at least for us, but as it has been a few years since we were in Paris, not sure how old/new it is.  We had thought about going up to the top this trip, but honestly, we just ran out of time.  Paris is truly one of the most wonderful cities on earth, and there is SO much to do and see!  

From Champs de Mars, we caught the bus to Monmartre.  They used to run a tiny bus all around the Monmartre/Sacre Coeur area, but that was no longer working, and the #40 bus – not quite full-sized, but definitely an improvement over the Monmartrobus has taken its place.  Honestly, though with the crowd of tourists, traffic, delivery vans that are clogging those streets, it’s amazing the bus ever gets through! 

Boats coming and going on the Seine!

  

Our first stop was Sacre Coeur, and it was lovely being inside once again.  They do have some beautiful stained glass, and quite a view from the front of the square, although today was a lot hazier than it has been.  

 

Imagine driving a bus through this?!

From there we walked through the central plaza to look at the artists as they painted, but either they are taking some time off for good behavior, or have decided that it is way too cold to paint, there weren’t nearly as many painters in the square as we have seen in the past, and we actually didn’t see anything we really wanted to buy!  (I did pick up a few souvenirs, though – some embroidered hand-towels and a Paris apron or two…can never have enough of those!)

 

Headed back down the hill, and we have to admit that the #40 bus is a great improvement in getting around the area.  Back to Place Pigalle, and voila, the #30 was waiting to take us back to le Tour Eiffel.  And that’s where it got interesting!

Sacre Coeur from the side

 The first night we were here, last Tuesday, something was going on around the Paris Opera Garnier, as the streets were blocked off and lots of sirens and police everywhere.  Basically, our bus just stopped and everybody had to get off!  Well, it happened again, this afternoon!  We were back at the Eiffel Tower spot, and here came our 82 bus, which we planned to take back to Luxembourg!  Problem was, the 82 was only going one stop further on, as there was some sort of police activity that was closing the streets!  What now, we continue to ask ourselves?!

 

Interior of Sacre Coeur

So, we walked to the RER C line, which basically traces the left-bank of the Seine for a distance … but that didn’t really work out either, as the train was only going as far as Les Invalides, which was something like one stop!  So … followed the signage up and out and toward taxis – only to find that these streets were blocked  too – so not only were there no taxis available – the buses here weren’t running either!  Good grief!

  

So … back down into the underground, and caught number 8 Metro train as far as Le Motte-Piquet where we were able to transfer to line 10 to finally make it back to our neck of the woods at Cluny-La Sorbonne.  Thankfully, the streets there weren’t closed by the police, for which we were very thankful!  I was starving by this time (as we hadn’t eaten since 10 am!) so we stopped for a sandwich and Coke before catching a number 27 bus a bit farther up St. Michel.

Some lovely stained glass

 Wow!  We haven’t seen such disruption since the time we were in New York City when the United Nations was opening its session and, to add to the chaos, the Pope was visiting.

 

R napping for another half an hour or so, when he’ll need to run through the shower and change clothes before we meet our friends and former landlady (from the wonderful apartment we rented for a month in 2006!) Graciela and her husband, Alain at La Coup de Torchon for dinner tonight!  

View from the front!

Dinner later!

Much love,

m

xxx

 

Allo!  Just back from our wonderful dinner with Graciela and Alain!  It was SOOOOO great to see them!  As near as we can figure, we haven’t seen them in almost FIVE (5) YEARS!  Way too long to not see good friends!  

 

We had been to La Coup de Torchon several times with them for dinner, and it has always been wonderful!  But tonight – even better than we remembered!  We got there a few minutes before 7, and it was SOOOO good to see them!! (I know I am repeating myself, but it was!) The only problem is that it was after we separated – them to the train back to St. Leu-la-Foret and we to our hotel – that it occurred to either of us that we didn’t have a photograph together!!  Darn!! 

 

So … dinner!  Alain started with a wonderful-looking onion soup, and R had a salad with avocado, asparagus, peppers, shrimp and other things – not a bite left over!  For mains, Graciela and I ordered their boeuf bourgignon – and it was terrific!  

Locks all over the place!

Alain had veal for his main course, and R got Duck.  (R has never been able to find good duck in the U.S. and he feels it’s because they always use frozen, not fresh).  Here in France, that doesn’t seem to be the same problem – and he very much enjoyed it!  For dessert, Graciela, Alain and I had their tarte citron – excellent, and R had their crème brulee, which he very much enjoyed!  

Wonderful Boeuf Bourgignon

Time passed way too quickly, but it was fun to catch up – they now have three grandsons, 13 years, (Charly), 4 years (Sasha) and 9 months!  It sounds like they spent a goodly amount of time with the boys, and are kept very busy!  Graciela’s son-in-law apparently is a proficient rock climber; we are very much hoping that we can persuade he and Carla (who live in Georgia) to visit us in Tucson at some time with Graciela and Alain – Arizona definitely has mountains to climb!  (The son of our dear friends Marc and Renee is also a rock climber, so I’m sure we could get some good tips to share!)

Robert's duck

At any rate, we had a really lovely evening, and were so sorry to have to say good night!  A visit to St. Leu-la-Foret is definitely in our future!

R's creme brûlée

To bed now, as we need to get repacked in the morning to catch our train to Lyon!  

Fabulous Tarte Citron!

Onward and southward!

Love,

m

xxx

One final comment!  

Our friends Katy and Hilary are very much into textiles and cloth; they both make brilliant things on a regular basis!  I just remembered that they would love the wall coverings in our room -- and here are two photos!  The "paper" is basically fabric with things glued to it; stunning but an amazing amount of work!

Love,

m

xxx

Wall coverings in our room!