Paris

 25 May

We had a very comfortable business class seat on the train from Amsterdam to Paris.  Nouschka kindly dropped us off at the station so we didn't have to juggle all our luggage on the buses!  The train took just 4.5 hours.  At Gare de Nord we attempted to purchase a Navigo Card.  Like the cards we'd (borrowed) used in Amsterdam, you just load them up and tap on and off.  If only you can find one.  According to the website you can buy them at any tobacconist.  But... not the ones at this train station.  We lined up for a ticket machine - but it only dispensed paper tickets.  Further along was a long queue with signs above the machines saying  Navigo.  Thank goodness.  We joined the queue and inched forward to find... it only sold paper tickets.  You could top up your Navigo card.  If you could bloody find one!!  Feeling quite frustrated at this point we purchased some paper tickets and went to get onto the metro.  Only to encounter machines at the entrance designed only for Navigo.  Now I really felt like someone was having a big laugh at our expense.  Seeing our frustration a kindly local directed us around the corner where we could finally get into the metro.  And then...oh no!  Only stairs, no lift or escalator.  Just what you'd expect from a metro stop at a major train station??  What a relief to finally find our apartment.

The relief was short lived. The first apartment I'd booked and paid for in Paris was cancelled by air bnb - apparently it was undergoing renovations?  I really wanted to stay in the 2nd Arrondissement so I looked on booking.com for an apartment in the area.  This one was reasonably priced (if anything can be reasonably priced in Paris) and looked spacious enough.  I know the photographers are amazing at making a tiny space look decent!!  However, I forgot to check if there was a lift (which the last booking had).  Oh...it was on the FOURTH FLOOR with no lift.  Greg man handled our 40kg of luggage up the stairs while I lugged our hand luggage (which includes my laptop).  We were hot and sweaty and Greg was understandably quite shattered at the top.  I tried to suggest  he view it as a workout but that was not well received... The room, as expected, is very compact, with the "kitchen", "living area" and "bedroom" all in one room, with a teeny tiny attached bathroom.  Definitely a one person only at a time bathroom!!  But at least the shower is good!  And boy will those steps help our fitness...!!  245 steps in total.  I did a video for the grandkids and used my fitbit to count them!

Way back in 1987 Greg and I met Fran Killick in Burma when we were all backpacking around.  (The same trip we met Thomas and Hendrick!).  We lost touch - Fran was on the move after returning to the UK, spending time working as a doctor in Africa.  When I was clearing out one of my many boxes of letters a few months ago I found a letter from her and thought I'd try and find her.  No luck on Facebook or Instagram but a google search produced a Dr Fran Killick.  I emailed the practice and discovered she'd just retired.  I asked if they could please forward my message on.  She replied very hesitantly, saying she didn't think she knew me (of course she had known me as Cathy Wadrop).  I told her this -and then she was thrilled to realised it was me!  As our plans did not include the UK this time we arranged to meet up in Paris.  So we met up for the first time in over 35 years and it was like no time had passed at all!!  Fran's husband Joe was very welcoming (although he could well of been thinking, how crazy to arrange to meet up with people you haven't seen or heard  from in so long!!).  It's amazing the connections travel has bought us!!  We met up for dinner at the Hotel Du Sentier which was just around the corner from both our accommodations and had a great night!

26 May

This morning we walked to Fran and Joe's pension and we walked together to our bike tour.  It was a beautiful day!  It only took us 20 minutes. We found the Pelaton Cafe and our guide, Neave, who took us off firstly to collect our bikes.  You could chose to have a basket which was very useful!  Our first stop was the Bishop's palace, now a library.  It was one of the hotspots in the Revolution and a cannon ball is still imbedded in the wall.  The date has been put underneath!  Then we cycled around the corner and saw what is left of the original Paris city wall, which was built in 1190 by King Phillip Augustus.  He wanted to go off to the crusades and built the wall to keep the city safe in his absence, as most of the army was going with him.   To pay for the wall he built in lots of gates, and every time a merchant came or went they had to pay a fee.  There was no daily rate!  He was able to pay the wall off and continued the taxes! Now school kids bounce their soccer balls off the bit of the wall that is left.  There is a story as to why this bit of wall was left too: when Paris was being modernised this bit of wall was attached to a nunnery.  The abbess resisted all attempts, including from the king, to tear down that bit of wall and open up her nunnery to the outside... so it still exists!  Originally it was thick enough for a cart to go on the top of the wall. Onto the Place des Vosges.  This is the most expensive real estate in Paris - and in the middle is a lovely garden, which is open to the public and was full on this beautiful sunny day!  We also visited a "secret" garden which was just off the Place Des Vosges.  We continued onto an interesting building  which had literally had part of it cut off to make room for a road!  The other attraction of this building was the "space invader" mosaic on the wall - this is the work of an unknown artist who has put these all over Paris, and even overseas!  Apparently Jim Morrison spent his last days in this building too. We discovered that the Canal St Martin had been made by Napoleon to separate the wealthy Marais area from the poorer 5th androissment .  This canal can be taken all the way to Holland!  We could also see the memorial to the Bastille, which was pulled down brick by brick in the French revolution.  Our next stop was the lovely Jardin des Plantes.  Full of interesting medicinal plants, it was attached to the nearby university but is open to the public. We cycled onto the Grand Mosque, the largest mosque in France and the third largest in Europe.  Neave told us fascinating stories of the Jews saved by the Muslims who gave them false documentation, making them Muslims in the eyes of the Nazis, and helped many others escape - a little known story of the resistance.  Our next stop was the  Arènes de Lutèce.  This Roman arena, built in the 1st century AD,  was gradually filled with rubbish and forgotten for many hundreds of years, but when Paris was being renovated in 1869 it was re-discovered.  The author Victor Hugo spear headed a campaign to preserve it.  It was amazing!  We stopped for lunch in a little square and had Croque monsieur.  After lunch, a brief stop to look at the area that has been made popular with the TV show Emily in Paris (I have never seen it, but at least unlike most of our group, I had heard of it!).  Our final destination was the Pantheon.  This was being built as a church at the time of the revolution, and was instead used to bury famous French men (and a few women too, but the numbers are heavily on the male side!).  I really enjoyed this tour.  I hadn't been to any of the sights Neave showed us - it was fantastic!

It was such a glorious day that we continued walking to the Musee De Orsay, where were had 4pm tickets.  We stopped near the Museum for a refreshing drink before continuing on...We especially wanted to see the Degas/Monet exhibition.  The museum was packed, and the special exhibitions were really busy too.  It was hard to relax and enjoy the works as there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on!!  And... the museum closes at 5.30pm!  So we rushed through the exhibition and  tore up the stairs to see Van Gogh's Starry night (along with about two hundred others!) then exited into the sunny Parisian afternoon.  Such glorious weather.  Fran, Joe, Greg and I wandered our way toward our neighbourhood, and found a restaurant for dinner.  Disappointingly it was not great.  We had a  night cap and fell into bed... those 4 flights of stairs at the end of a long day seem very long indeed!

27 May

It was shaping up to be another beautiful sunny day.  So despite a 14 degree start Greg left his jumper in the apartment!!  We walked half an hour to the meeting point for the tour.  Our guide was Davide, a Czech who now lives in Paris.  He's worked in hospitality all his life, from front of house to kitchens, and also loves to travel.  Our group included three Malaysians - a couple and their 10 year old daughter, and four Americans - a couple from St Louis and two women having a girls week in Paris, one from New York (but married to an Aussie!) and one from Los Angeles. The entire tour was to be conducted in the 3rd and 4th Arrondissements, in the area known as the Marais.  This area was not part of the big reconstruction and clean up of Paris in the 1800s.  Heaps of buildings were torn down to create light filled boulevards and plumbing, electricity etc was improved.  However by the time it got to the Marais Parisians decided enough had been destroyed and changed in the city and drew the line.  So there are lots of twisting little streets in this area.  Originally a lot of palaces were built by the wealthy in the Marais.  Davide pointed out the huge doorways which led into courtyards so the nobles never had to step foot in the dirty streets of Paris.  They just went from courtyard to courtyard by carriage!  After the revolution it became less popular but in the 1960s the old palaces were revitalised as museums, which bought tourists into the area, and then restaurants and hotels, and now its very busy and bustling.  Our first stop was a bakery, Poilane, which has been an artesian bakery since 1932.  They have won awards for their traditionally wood fired loaves.  We tried their Pan au Chocolate and Croissant.  Both were very good.  Then we walked onto Pierre Hermé, who is known as a master macaron maker.  He has won awards for his macarons and chocolate.  We got to try both.  I had a Yuzu macaron and Greg opted for vanilla nougat.  They were mouth watering. The chocolates were delicious too.  It was very tempting to spend lots of euros and buy some but we kept walking... two doors up where we came to the Marché des Enfants Rouges (Market of the red children).   The name came in the 1600s from a nearby orphanage, where the children were dressed in red (the colour of charity).  Its a covered market which sells vegetables and cheese and has an assortment of street food.  Something Davide says is not very common in Paris.  We had a  Moroccan savory semolina  pancake filled with finely diced eggplant and spices (not very spicy!) t from Le Traiteur Marocain.  It was served with fresh mint tea, which would have been really good without the sugar they added!  Onto the Jewish quarter, which sadly has many plaques commemorating the families that lived there, and were killed by the Nazis and the sympathising French Vichy government.  They are not forgotten.  Here we had small savory meat pies (mine was filled with potato) called Pirojkis.  Very tasty.  Then onto a French bistro for a selection of delicious cheeses and French onion soup (luckily made with chicken stock!).  So tasty and of course I thought  of Tania who just adores this soup!!  Finally - feeling very full - we walked onto Maison Aleph, a bakery that combines middle eastern  ingredients with French techniques, and we had a bite sized "pastry nest"with Normandy cream (you could choose your flavours, I opted for salted caramel, Greg had pistachio).  Our last stop: a wine merchant to try a natural Rose and Shiraz, both very nice.  It was a lovely way to end the tour!

It was another 30 minute walk back to the apartment.  I kept taking photos of the huge doors, imagining the courtyards hiding behind them!  Some doors were open and it did look amazing.  The streets were absolutely full of people, all the restaurants were full, it was buzzing!  We came back, climbed our 4 flights of stairs and I worked on my photos while Greg hit the gym! Then we caught up with Fran and Joe for dinner.

28 May

It was only a 35 minute walk from our hotel to the start of our second Paris food tour, Chef PJs food and market tour.  This one had very good reviews so I was excited for it.  11 am came and went...tour leaders collected their groups...and there was a group of people left waiting at the Blanche Metro station.  Yes, we were all waiting for the guide from Chef PJs tour.  We waited about 20 minutes and then one of our group, Mark, found the number and rang them.  They didn't know what was happening.  Eventually the message came back that the tour was being cancelled, as Chef PJ had had an accident.  This didn't ring true to us as we'd be told another chef was actually taking the tour on that day, so Chef PJ's injuries should not have affected our tour; also, it seemed strange that it would take so long for the tour operator to be informed about what was going on.  Anyway it was after midday and no-one, except Mark, had eaten and we were very hungry.  And disappointed.

Greg then had the bright idea that we should go back to the Red Orphan's market and have lunch at the highly rated French food van Davide had given such rave reviews to.  Mark and his wife Vesna were keen to join us, so we took the metro to the Marais and joined the queue waiting for a table. It was Sunday lunchtime and it was very busy, and the queue was quite long.  The two French men in front of us assured us it was worth the wait.  They both work in hospitality and come here often because the food is so special.  We used the waiting time getting to know Mark and Vesna, who were a Canadian couple and a lot of fun.  We really enjoyed their company!  For lunch, I ordered the sea urchin with an asparagus gel, then mussels cooked in gorgonzola.  Both really delicious.  Greg had escargot and entrecote.  We were very happy with our meals and the wine, although it was the most expensive market meal we've ever had!!  A French woman joined us at our table.  She didn't speak much English but suggested we go and try a "Chou" at Popelini which was just up the road.   These little mouthfuls of perfection were so delicious.  Both Vesna and I regretted not buying more!  We went for a wander through the streets with Mark and Vesna, pointing out some of the places we had tried on the food tour the day before, and left them agreeing to meet up at the Seine River Cruise the next day!

Fran and Joe met us up at Montmartre at 5.30pm.  Fran had downloaded a walking guide to the area  from the Lonely Planet guide which was a great idea!  So we set off up, up, up the winding streets of Montmartre trying to find the relevant sites!  We started with the Moulin Rouge, very obvious on the main drag, then headed up the road to the house where Vincent Van Gogh's brother Theo lived, and Vincent also lived there for some time.  There are two windmills further up the road (although post walking research tells me one is one private property, and can only be glimpsed from the road, so now I understand why we missed it!).  The other one is on top of a restaurant and was easy to find.   Then onto the bronze statue of late French singer Dalida, whose breasts receive a lot of attention!  They are shiny from being rubbed!  There is also a bronze of a man coming out of a wall.  A writer who lived in the adjacent building (we couldn't qute determine which adjacent building) had written a story about a man who woke up with the ability to walk through walls, and this was to commemorate that!  We saw the last remaining vineyard in Paris!  Apparently all the wine produced is auctioned and the proceeds given to charity. Just past the vineyard was  an orange building, the Lapin Agile. This has been a cabaret since the mid-19th century and got its name from their speciality sautéed rabbit. Past regulars included local artists Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo.  The Musee de Montmartre was closed but looked worth a visit.  Finally we made our way to Sacre Coeur.  The crowds were overwhelming for me.  I couldn't believe how many people were packed into the space in front of the cathedral and on the steps leading down.  I am not doing well in huge crowds lately!  Fran understood my discomfort and we moved through the Place du Tertre, which was also heaving with bodies, and out down the hill.

Its challenging to find places to eat dinner.  You can't just rock up - the city is so busy that everything is booked out.  We were tired and wanted something simple for dinner - Italian sounded good!  I looked on google maps and found somewhere close by and made a booking.  We walked there, and discovered I'd booked for the next night - whoops.  The maître d' kindly found a table for us and we squeezed in with the other patrons into a very tiny restaurant.  Delicious food and wine!  Then we walked back to our apartments.

29 May

We had planned to go to Sainte Chapelle at 9am but it was booked out until the afternoon.  So rather than rush off we had time for breakfast.  We stopped at this cafe and had breakfast for 8 euro: freshly squeezed orange juice, tea or coffee, and a croissant.  It was seriously the most delicious croissant I've ever had!  Greg thought so too.

I was glad we'd bought skip the line tickets to the Arc De Triomphe.  It only opened at 10 and by 10.20, when we got there, there was a huge line.  We skipped through and then found...more stairs.  On top of the 245 we'd done that morning in our apartment.  The pace was steady and there really wasn't room to pause, so we trudged up and up.  Another 284 stairs.  But who was counting?  The best time to visit is apparently at sunset, however the views were still pretty good.  Seeing the amazing spiral set up of the Paris roads is worth the climb!  Oh, and the Tour Effiel of course!

It was Fran's idea to visit the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I probably wouldn't have even thought of it.  It was really interesting - lots of family tombs with generations of family entombed there.  Lots of famous people have been buried there, and we managed to find the graves of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, the artist Amedeo Modigliani, composer Chopin, and singer Edith Piaf.  It would take days to see all the graves there!  It felt very calm and peaceful until we were at Piaf's grave and a swarm of people surrounded us, which felt quite overwhelming!  We took the metro back into Paris to visit Sainte Chapelle.

I hadn't really heard of this church before but when we got there we discovered why - it has only re-emerged into public life after a long and extensive renovation!  The church has amazing, highly detailed and colourful stain glass windows, but for the last two hundred years they have been so covered in grime from pollution and cars, which had turned into a solid paste - apparently made worse due to humidity and visitors heavy breathing!  It took 7 years and cost  9 million  euro, and was completed  in time to commemorate the 800th birthday of King Louis IX, who originally commissioned Sainte Chapelle to store his religious relics, including (apparently, I didn't see it) Christ's Crown of Thorns.  

The restoration work was incredibly detailed - they took out each panel, cleaned and repaired it, then made an exact model in plain glass.  The plain glass is now on the exterior, with a small gap between it and the renovated panels (to allow for air to move freely) and hopefully they will look stunning for years to come.  It was certainly very beautiful and well worth seeing.  Greg opted out of the steps, which was unfortunate, as there really weren't very many!

We had arranged to meet Mark and Vesna, and their friends Bill and Frankie, at 5.30 at the pier of the Eiffel tower.  They had suggested we then go onto a bistro that had been recommended by friends - Richer Bistro - for dinner. We had a reviving drink near the Tour Effiel (and paid the prices you'd expect so near this monument!) and made it to the dock by 5.30pm.  Plenty of time we thought, however about 450 other people were also planning to go on this cruise (the boat holds 499 people, I was pleased to see).  So it was very busy.  We got onto the boat but there wasn't room upstairs.  I spent my entire time  zipping around the boat trying to find the best spots to get photos (and not always succeeding).  It was a beautiful evening and not cold at all on the water (which I was worried about, as I only had a wrap with me).  My camera ran out of battery!!  I had clearly overclicked! 

Mark suggested we take an uber to the restaurant as it was not near the Eiffel Tour as he'd thought.  It was about 15.50 euro with uber so we approached a few taxis nearby, who all asked for 40 euro!!  We found a spot where we thought an uber could pick us up and one second later, there he was.  Not to pleased about 4 passengers - they clearly don't want people in the front seat!  He whizzed through the traffic, giving us a different perspective on Paris, and we found the bistro.  We had a lovely meal, and great company!  I was delighted to see that we were only 10 minutes walk from home on google maps!  So we said our farewells and walked home with Fran and Joe.  A fond au revoir to them both - now we have re connected I know we will see them again!  It's been very special having them in Paris with us.