The Trip of a Lifetime: June 27 to 30, 2022 - Paris

June 27, 2022: Captain’s log: star-date 71; Monday, Paris
We walked to Sacre Coeur this morning. The view from in front of the church is spectacular. It’s one of several places we didn’t visit that we want to get to this trip. Montmartre is another, but we didn’t make it there.
Then we walked down the front way and got Shwarma. A little over 20 years ago we stopped and got a baguette sandwich and split it on a park bench. I took a picture of Roz sitting there. It hung on our wall in at least a couple houses. Today I recreated the picture, this time with shwarma. She had braided hair in the original, and still looks beautiful now.
This turned into the Nightmare on Rue de Poissonniers. The toilet seat was hanging off, so sitting on it was a lot like driving a zamboni. The owner kept asking for pictures to show what needed to be fixed. There was no heat and it was pretty cool last night. But worst of all, there was no hot water. They told us it is a common water heater for the entire building and to let it run for a while.
We ran it for a half hour and still freezing. We checked with the neighbors and they had no problem. Just us. I took a Creation/Costa Rica shower this morning! Brrrrrr!!!! When we looked at our confirmation from Air BnB, the people who had the place just before us left a review saying they had the same problems.
We contacted the manager and were given vague promises, but nothing was fixed, so we canceled the rest of our stay and after taking an $85+ Uber ride, moved to the Hotel Virginia. Definite upgrade. Tiny room, expensive; but everything here is sky high, so it is what it is.
We went from the high north and now we are all the way in the extreme south. Way different vibe here. Haven’t explored much because we just had time to grab some street food and shop for a few supplies before turning in for the night; well not really turn in, because we battled with Regions Bank for over an hour about why they keep putting fraud blocks on our purchases. Pretty embarrassing. For the third time since we got to France, they are telling us it is straightened out. We shall see.
jusqu'à demain

June 28. 2022: Captain’s log: star-date 72; Tuesday, Paris
I am falling in love with croissants. The one I had at breakfast this morning literally melted in my mouth. It is one of those things that I say I will start making when we get home, but I could never make them this good. Maybe I can find a French bakery.
The plan today was to visit Montmartre, the Dali and the Musée de Montmartre. We set off on the 68 bus, which was supposed to take us within a ten minute walk to our first destination. At some point, the driver told us the bus would not go any further and we all had to get off. He directed us to where we could catch the next bus and said it would be there in five minutes.
15 minutes later a 68 bus showed up and we all got on. It took us two stops and the driver said it was the end of the line. It turns out the line had been shortened. We walked up, up, up to Montmartre; it took a half hour. We stopped for a bite. My bite was a croque monsieur, something I’ve always wanted to try since we started watching Beat Bobby Flay. It was very good.
Then we did the Dali Museum. I never realized he was a great sculptor. I also never realized the depth of his work. Looks like he really struggled with Christianity and God. He was flippant about it, but you can see him fighting God in a lot of his works. Reminds me a lot of Jacob wrestling with God. Hopefully he lost the match.
He also was really into don Quixote. I think, behind the “I’m so great! I’m a genius” facade, he was the man of la Mancha being defeated by the windmills he imagined to be villains. I saw a lot of sadness in his work. A lot of greatness too.
Then we went to the Musée de Montmartre. It was all about the painters who lived there, not the writers or musicians. That was cool, but I would have loved to see things about Hemingway et al. Great place, though.
We had challenges finding the 68 bus back home. It took a couple hours to get here. We had Thai food for dinner, and then went back to the hotel and spent another hour+ on the phone with Regions, trying to set up our accounts too ransactions are not declined. Once again they said not to worry. Famous last words…
jusqu'à demain
June 29, 2022: Captain’s log: star-date 73; Paris
We did the Palace of Versaille today. As Judy Jones Beatty said, it is overwhelming. It was also very crowded. There were a lot of groups of kids and many of the adults were on guided tours, which clogged things up. Yiou needed patience to get through and see everything. I can say two things about Louis the 14th: 1. He loved him some Louis the 14th, and 2. He was into gold.
We got home at a reasonable time today and actually had dinner around 6:00, which is our time back home. I had a croque madame and Roz had bacon and eggs, which came with a salad. I think Forrest Gump was right that life is like a box of chocolates over here.
We spent the night trying to find places to stays and ways to get to them during this time of extreme inflation. We nailed down Amsterdam for July 8 to 15, so Roz will be spending her birthday there. Sweet.
Tomorrow is going to be a work day. Wash, shipping more treasures home and booking the rest of the trip.
jusqu'à demain
Frank

June 30, 2022: Oops forgot this…Captain’s log: star-date 74; Paris
We spent a cold, rainy last day in Paris doing laundry, shipping things home, buying new belts (they sell a lot of cheap stuff here) and booking most of the rest of the trip. Shipping was so much easier here than in Madrid. There, with the boxes already taped and addressed it took an hour and a half for three boxes. Here it was a half hour to get boxes, build them, fill them, fill out the label and customs form and ship them.
Speaking of Madrid, I’m glad we got out of there before the clown car known as the G7 Summit rolled into town and shut everything down. We were thinking of staying another week, but everything in our price range was booked. Now we know why.
I figured I would use this down day to reflect on Paris then and now. Then was 2002 and 2006. In 2002 we were here twice; once on our way to Biarritz and once for the marathon. I studied French for six months for the trip, but was barely conversant. We stayed in the heart of the city both times, I think in the Latin Quarter. We enjoyed it, but didn’t have much time to explore.
In 2006 we celebrated Roz’s birthday here. I studied French for another six months and got to where I could hold a conversation with a patient person. Her birthday is July 14, so we figured we would not be able to afford anything near the action.
We started looking for a hotel in December. At first we were priced out, but then riots broke out all over the city and there were cars being burned on the Place de la Concorde, and prices for hotels wound up dropping. We lucked out and booked at the bottom and wound up staying at the Westin Paris Vendome. I think it was called the the Intercontinental back then.
We went to a downtown firehouse on the night of July 13th for the drunken revelry and then got to walk to the parade the next day. It’s an interesting parade with soldiers on horses and military jets leaving bleu, blanc et rouge contrails in the sky overhead. We got to do the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Musee d’Orsay. Orsay was my favorite by far. We also got to go out a little from the center, but not much. There was so much we hadn’t experienced.
Well 2022 has been a completely different experience. We lived in two neighborhoods this time, because stuff is really expensive here and people are yearning to travel. One neighborhood was in the extreme north and the other was in the extreme south. The north one was filled with Senegalese and Moroccan immigrants. The southern one is a mixture of all types of French people.
We got to visit my two Paris bucket list places this time; Montmartre and Sacre´ Coeur. Roz got to visit the Palace of Versaille, although she didn’t seem impressed. This trip was completely different than the others. We ate shwarma and dealt with people who don’t speak English. No one bent over backwards for us because we are tourists. We weren’t in that kind of Paris. Well our hotel did, but that’s it.
Which do I prefer? They both showed me a different part of what makes Paris Paris. It’s almost a draw. I am a romantic, so I liked the romantic a little better. Now we go off to new worlds; parts of the world we’ve never been to. I don’t speak German or dutch, so it will be challenging in a different way than Spain, Morocco and France have been. Wish me luck…
jusqu'à demain