Vendredi le 10 Septembre
We left a windy overcast rainy Winnipeg at 16:00 after a day of half-frenzied/half-measured cleaning, laundering and packing.
The morning forecast was quite worrying as thunderstorms were expected later in the day, raising the unwelcome specter of a flight delay. Since the stopover in Toronto was to be tight already a delay would probably have been disastrous for making the connection. Ultimately there were no delays and we left on schedule. Great relief!!!
Taxiing out to the runway at Pearson on the flight to CDG. The flight from Winnipeg was uneventful and seemed very quick in comparison to the marathon flight from Frankfurt last year. We’re in row 35 about mid-way of the aircraft. Washrooms are about 5 rows up, no babies in the vicinity. I’m hoping for a nice, calm and quiet jump over the pond with minimal discomfort. I’m also hoping for at least one petit bouteille of vin to help the journey along.
I’ve brought Brideshead Revisited as reading material; it seems the only fiction I read these dates is on planes!
Hopefully the map function on the entertainment system decides to work at some point. No movies on offer look even remotely interesting so it might turn out that I get some zzzs.
Wheeeee! It’s hard to write when you’re rumbling down the runway! We’re off the ground now.
Dinner has been served. Beef or chicken. I chose the beef and am happy that it turned out to be a kind of boeuf bourguignon type thing with mashed potatoes. Quite yummy actually. On the side a strange cold veggie mélange of cubed squash, red pepper and peas in a vinaigrette. Really dense chocolate gateau for dessert. Wine? Mais oui. And not Chardonnay for a change! A Grenache blanc/sauvignon blanc blend. Happy times! After dinner I plan a long doze.
Samedi le 11 Septembre
So managed to get the teensiest bit of sleep and am fresh as a daisy on the ground in France. Passports: stamped. Luggage: collected. Explosion: controlled. Yes, you read that correctly. We were wheeling our way to the Roissy Bus stop when we along with the rest of the tooreests, were pushed back by an armed anti-terrorist squad. Fatigues, red berets, machine guns. Welcome to France!
As we milled around outside the terminal, I overheard one of the counter clerks explaining to some people there had been a suspicious bag left behind by someone. Hmm. She said it happens from time to time and that we could be standing around for 10 minutes or several hours depending on how the powers that be decide how best to deal with the thing.
We stood around with an ever-increasing crowd for about 20 minutes and then all of a sudden…KABOOM! And then, with no explanation from anyone, we were allowed to continue on our way. I can only surmise that the offending item was blowed up real good.
We’re now on the Roissy Bus literally going around and around the terminals. This place is a maze to me…
Made it to the hotel only to find that the room was not ready. We left our bags and went out for the first of what I hope are many delicious café crèmes. Grabbed a Nutella-banana crepe a emporter and made our way to the local Franprix to get some supplies for the room. Evian, vin, crackers, pâté with pistachios in it, brioche buns for breakfast, yogourt, Pellegrino, grapefruit juice, cornichons, camembert, baguette. Definitely the makings of a feast.
The room was ready when we returned but unfortunately it was not the correct room. I had to go back down to reception with my confirmation to show that we had booked a Club Room not a standard. The Standard Room was the size of a postage stamp – double bed, tiny bathroom, T.V. recessed into an alcove in the wall, and half a cupboard of storage space. We wouldn’t have had room to open our suitcases much less unpack them if we had to stay there. For one person it might have been alright, but not for two. Luckily the confirmation put an end to any possible discussion and the problem was rectified. No balcony this time but the rest of the room was pretty much identical to last year, down to the crystal chandelier and the artwork on the walls.
Anyhow it’s a gorgeous sunny afternoon and we’re thrilled to see that Paris is just how we left her.
Reyn is napping and I think I will join him. We have 19:30 tickets for an Eiffel Tower ascent this evening so rest would probably be a good idea.
Dimanche le 12 Septembre
Sitting at Café Orléans after going through les Catacombes. Feeling a few cobwebs after beaucoup de vin dernier soir. Currently awaiting our café crèmes and croque monsieur sandwiches.
There are millions of scooters in Paris. I know this because every last one of them droned by on the street below our window last night. I fell asleep quickly initially but awoke after about 3 hours (1:30 or so) then laid there awake until about 5:00 until falling asleep again until about 8:30. I had wanted to be in line at the Catacombs no later than 9:30 but that was obviously not going to happen. We took our time a bit but eschewed coffee and pastry until later. Ended up in line for only about 20-30 minutes anyway so no big disaster there.
We descended into the grisly gallery and after a few explanatory panels we followed the corridors for about 15 minutes before we actually saw anything. What follows after you pass through a doorway declaring the entrance to the empire of the dead is quite astonishing in scale. Now I know how much room is taken up by 6,000,000 sets of bones! There were any number of skulls that clearly showed their owners had not died of natural causes – bullet holes (in some cases both entrance and exit wounds) were plentiful and there was at least one fissure that looked to me like it could have been a sabre wound.
Anyway, we’re back at the hotel now after having the aforementioned café crèmes and croque monsieur sandwiches. With the help of our server we found a very nice pâtisserie before getting back on the métro. During the ride back we encountered the same accordion playing busker playing the same songs that we heard on the way to Denfert-Rochereau. Lol, I guess we know whose turf that line is!
We’ve just had our pastries. I chose something called a ‘divine’. It is a raspberry macaroon filled with raspberry-infused chantilly crème and studded all around its middle with raspberries. Another raspberry is on top. As I ate this eighth wonder of the world all I could think of was, “With pâtisserie like this how can there be war in the world?”
We will be heading out for the Opéra Garnier tour in a few minutes. This is another one of the unfinished business items from last year, so we’re both really looking forward to this!
Backtracking now a bit to yesterday evening. After a nap of about 2 hours we felt sufficiently refreshed to begin exploring.
Walked to Place de l’Opéra and then walked up av de l’Opéra on our way to Jardin de Palais Royal. Just as we neared the Palais Royal métro station we heard some musicians playing and as we rounded the corner came across what was basically a string section busking. 5 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 1 bass and 1 crazy lady who believed herself to be the conductor but who clearly was not anything of the sort. We stood and listened as they played Albinoni, took a bit of video and then went on to the garden.
Last year I had noticed a peculiar shop window along one side of the arcades leading to the park and I had been kicking myself all year for not taking a picture of it at that time. Fortunately the antique/used pipe shop seemed to still be in business so I was able to snap a few pictures of the not particularly arranged smoking implements in the windows. Unfortunately however, the pictures did not turn out that well – either a funny glare from the window glass or perhaps very dirty windows (from smoke perhaps?) kind of spoiled the shot I was hoping to capture. Oh well.
We sat in the garden for a spell, enjoying the sunshine and the fact that we had been able to return once more to this absolutely enchanting little corner of Paris.
The next place of pilgrimage was the famous store Dehillerin. It was only a short stroll away on rue Coquillère. The shop itself was crowded to the ceiling with all manner of cookware and gadgets for chefs and wannabes alike. The shop was also crowded with Saturday shoppers who did not on the whole appear to be tooreests. It was very hot in there despite the door being wide open and after I found the wooden spoons I was looking for and ruled out actually purchasing them, I was glad to exit. As luck would have it, just across the street was a café so we decided to have a bite to eat and a beverage.
Afterwards we continued on to rue de Rivoli, through the Louvre courtyards, and then on to the Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, along the river to Pont Alexandre III and up the other side of the Seine. We just made our 7:30 timed tickets for the Eiffel Tower ascent.
What can I say about the view from the second level? Well of course it is stunning however you cannot see the Eiffel Tower. Reyn and I pondered about whether we were ‘on’ the tower or ‘in’ the tower. There was no definitive conclusion. We descended before the twinkle show which kind of disappointed me, but one has to compromise with one’s travel partner from time to time. We made our way to the Brasserie Tour Eiffel and had some wine/beer and watched darkness settle on the Seine. We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel and then tore into the baguette, pâté, camembert and cornichons we had purchased earlier in the day. Deeeeeeelish! We loaded the day’s pictures onto the laptop and burned them to a CD as we savoured our wonderful snack. Lights out shortly after.
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