Random Errands

Everything I wanted to see and do was checked off on my list which made today a random errand
day. I spent the morning sleeping in and doing some blog work. Afterwards I secured my
ticket to Cologne, Germany at the Gare du Nord train station and decided to check in at the
Gare de Lyon station to see if my lost bag had been left there. It turns out it hadn't, but
at least I tried my best to get it back. I feel slightly better that I at least have A scarf
instead of none.

By the time I reached the hostel again it was time to eat. To keep things simple I stopped at
the grocery store and picked up a random smattering of foods: chocolate pudding, berry yogurt
and a carrot. I also polished off some bread I had left over with a bit of Nutella. It was
all quite yummy and served its purpose.

I've had some postcards from S France hanging around in my bag that needed mailed.
Fortunately the post office was nearby. Inside however, there were no instructions and the
lady I asked about what to do spoke only French and pointed across a busy room indicating
where I was to go. I guessed what she meant and hopped into a line with people who appeared
to have envelopes and such to mail. I pulled out the last stamps I had bought in France to
show the guy who was trying to help me. He looked at them like I found them on Mars, but
checked with his co-workers to see if they were in stock. He returned saying he was sorry
they didn't have them. When I said I needed to mail postcards to the US, he seemed to have a
solution for that. Eventually I got the stamps I needed. It's strange having the old lick
and stick stamps again. Like stepping back in time!

On the way to the post office I noticed another grocery store. Another errand I was
attempting to complete was to find some saucisson sausage to bring back home. This market was
much better than the first one I entered. They had a larger selection on most things. I
found a small chunk of saucisson and picked up some mint tea bags for future enjoyment. All
that was left was to eat dinner and to decide on evening entertainment. I was in the mood for
a movie and the hostel had advertised a theater that showed movies in the "version origional."
None of the English movies sounded good. There was, however, one playing in French which I'd
seen posters for all over France and figured I would have to watch it later on when I returned
to the US. I figured why not just see it now?? One for Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec please. The show was 1.5 hours away, so I found a restaurant just S of the hostel offering salads. [Notice the PA license plate on the wall!] I thought it was time for some veggies. I had a HUGE salad with shrimp, salmon and mayo on dried bread, tomatoes, egg and two dressings--one a mustard and one a ketchup base. It took longer than I thought to find the restaurant, so I had a brisk walk back to the theater. The theater was really nice with stadium seating and comfy chairs. Just like in the US they run pre-show entertainment music (sorry no trivia!) and commercials with the previews. Looks like some good shows are coming out in the future. The movie was really good. I thought it would be more of a kid movie as it was billed like a cross of Night At The Museum and The Mummy except with a female lead character. I was puzzled when only adults walked into the theater. Naturally the movie was classically French--i.e. brief nudity and a quizzically grotesque twist to the plot (think Edgar Allan Poe/Alfred Hitchcock rather than gorey). I still enjoyed the movie even without subtitles. It would be nice to have them though to enjoy the dialogue more. You could tell from the movie context that some jokes went by without my knowing the full reason for why they were funny. Great way to spend the evening.

Catacombes

This morning I took it easy by sleeping in and spending the morning working on my blog.
Manuel and I planned to meet up this afternoon to tackle the Catacombes which promise to be
spooky, but interesting. A whopping 1.6km long series of tunnels underneath the S central
area of Paris has become the home and resting place for millions of human bones. Originally
formed though mines and quarrys to procure the much desired bedrock of stone for building, the
tunnels also played a very important role in the various wars as part of the resistance
movements. The displays in the Catacombes are a combination of lack of in ground graveyard
space, thousands of deaths due to multiple wars throughout the 17-18th centuries, a desire to
honor those who died and a great tourist exposition. First you must descend an untold number
of stairs to get down to the catacomb level. With a few boards of interesting history you
begin walking underground through narrow tunnels for quite a long time before finally coming
to the section where the bones are kept. Once you reach it there's nothing in the rooms but
bones. They are stacked about 4-4.5 feet high with varying patterns of leg/arm bones and
skulls. Every so often there are poetic quotes about death and plaques stating which war or
cemetery the bones came from and when they were moved to the Catacombes. You happen upon the
bones as quickly as you leave them. In one room and not the next.

Once back up top we walked over to Rue Moufftard again and picked up some tasty morsels for an
outdoor dinner in the Jardin du Luxembourg. We picked out 5 different French cheeses (strong
bleu/chevre/munster/2 I cant remember), herbed ham, saucisson (french salami), mousse de
canard (duck mousse), another sausage I don't know the name of, poppy seed and plain baguettes
and a half bottle of Cote du Rhone red wine. It was all so delicious!! The cheeses were so
varied from mild and fruity to pungent. The bread was fresh and the meats full of flavor.
This was yet another very French way to spend time in a park.

We took the metro to the Latin Quarter to scout out a jazz club. The area is not so much
latin as it is Greek. For a while I thought I was back in Athens with restaurants offering
moussaka and gyros. We were about an hour early for the jazz show, so we stopped into one of
the bars for drinks while we waited. This place was pricey! Tea for E4!! Usually it's
around 2 or 3 tops and that's for an entire tea pot of about 18oz. This was only about 12oz.
The alcoholic drinks were even more expensive: E7 for a pint. The only interesting part
about this place was they had the futbol game on of Lyon vs. a German team. An important game
for France to see if they could make it into the European World Cup. The club was right
across the street and we headed in around 10pm. The music didn't start until 10:30pm, so we
sat around for a bit and watched some more of the futbol game. A group of 3 teenagers were
interviewing the lead band member with some fancy video equipment. It seemed like a couple
times a day I would run into a group of teenagers filming something right where I was trying
to see something or walk.

The jazz club had an underground, metro/subway, old church design to it. It reminded me of
the place I would go swing dancing in grad school at the Wabasha Street Caves--literally a
series of subway like rooms built into the side of a rocky mountain/hill on the S St. Paul
side of the river. Downstairs there was what appeared to be a dance floor and some people
already dancing as the band did some skat warm ups. I wasn't expecting to dance and Manuel
informed me his dancing was like an epileptic crab. I will be cracking up over that for a
long time! The band was quite good. Most of the musicians were from the Provence area. We
heard Take the A Train, What A Wonderful World, and one other song I recognized, but couldn't
remember the name of. Before long it was about 11:45pm when I wondered what time the metro
stopped running. Manuel thought it was around 12:45am which is when we decided that with 1/2
hour rides for each of us, we'd hear one more song and head home. Shame we had to leave early
with such good music and dancing. At the metro we realized this would probably be the last
time to hang out since tomorrow was my last day and he had work. It was great having my own
personal tour guide for Paris. I think I got some of the inside scoop of what it's like to
live there and a taste of some classically French food and customs.

I Get The Impression That...

The much anticipated Musee D'Orsay was on the docket today. I love impressionist paintings
and this was my chance to see them since the Louvre refused to have any on their walls. The
museum is housed in an old train station which has been restored quite nicely. The
unfortunate part was that a large portion of the museum was being renovated (I think
everything in Europe is being renovated right now) and I may have missed some of their
displays as they tried to cram an entire floor's worth of artwork into the main foyer. What I
was able to see was quite spectacular however. Works by Degas, Monet, Manet, Cezanne,
Cassatt, Van Gogh, Renoir, etc. Putting them together in one area helped you see the variety
of styles from very fuzzy impressions to stippled effects to pastel drawings and even
sculpture by the same artists. I was most content despite the hordes of people swarming
through the museum like bees darting back and forth.

Upstairs was a mixture of more paintings, sculpture and decorative arts (tables/chairs,
fabric, glass, etc.). After such a wonderful selection downstairs, they had to put the less
exciting pieces somewhere right? The paintings were 95% blah with a few exciting pieces here
and there. The decorative art pieces were very original. Some displays had bedroom or dining
room settings with intricate wood work or creative metal fixtures. There were more than a few
times where you'd look at a setting and think "What in the world would that have been used for
in this room? Oh wait...it's art--meant to look pretty and not necessarily be functional."
Finally I had walked through all the rooms and seen everything they had on display. I'd grown
quite hungry and decided to grab a sandwich at a cafe I saw on the way to the museum. I
chowed down on a huge tuna baguette that must have contained 1.5 cans of tuna on it. The only
down side was the lack of dressing on the sandwich like say mayo or mustard.

I opted to pass through the quaint shops Manuel had directed me to the other day where we ate
the strawberries. I found Rue Moufftard relatively easily, but decided I should continue on
to the Jardin des Plantes before it closed for the day. The trip there was also a nice walk
past a mosque and some wonderful architecture. I was preparing to see lots of plants--at
least more than I had found in Paris parks up to this point. Yet again I was disappointed by
French horticulture. Is it really too much to ask to add a few spots of color here and there? Even if you go all green, how about some leafy texture or shrubbery? There certainly was more colorful flowers in this park, but the overall design and shaping of the garden was once again wide paths with the classic white gravel dust and always flat spots of grass with the occasional grouping of blooming flowers. If you ever visit Paris, do yourself a favor and
don't waste your time at the gardens unless you prefer minimalist/reserved scenery.

Being so close to the train station where I first arrived, I thought I would stop in and see
if my bag had made its way to the lost luggage office. After some very typically French
confusing directions and maps, I managed to find the office which had closed some 20 minutes
earlier at 5pm. Worth a shot at checking.

Yesterday I had planned to visit the Eiffel Tower, but when my camera battery died I figured
there was no point in going if you couldn't take pictures. Today, armed with a fully charged
battery, I navigated the metro to the Trocadero stop. This leaves you off at a large building
you must walk around to even see the tower. When you come around the end and finally see it
perched in the distance, the sight is quite lovely. Nothings so clearly trademarks and says
"Paris" like the Eiffel Tower. From the NW corner of the building the tower was framed by the
green park grass around it and a slight haze of pollution--just enough to give a softened look
to the hard metal forming the tower. It truly does grow in majesty the closer you get and the
taller it becomes. By the time you walk up to it you feel like a dwarfed ant as you pass
underneath the monstrously large metal legs. I'm not one for city skylines where you can't
quite make out what you're actually looking at and thus didn't spend the E12 to take the ride
up to the 2nd floor. Photographs and staring at it from the park was satisfying enough for
me. Besides, I had already seen the skyline for free from the Sacre Cour cathedral.

Not wanting to walk far for dinner and trying not to buy any more metro tickets, I went a few
blocks away from the Eiffel Tower figuring there must be tons of places to eat nearby.
Surprisingly there were very few. Along the street I was taking toward the next metro stop I
would use to get back to the hostel, I found a decent looking place with a good menu outside.
I went with the meal plan where I could pick an appetizer, main dish and desert. I selected
Muscadet white wine, pate, rotisserie chicken, zucchini au gratin and a slice of peach tarte
for dessert. The only flaw in my plan was that I think the pate was also chicken. Nothing
like adding extra protein to your diet. All was very tasty and most filling. I looked
forward to the .5 hour long metro ride to settle my food a bit.

An American In Paris

This morning I realized that I was missing a plastic bag of things. It finally dawned on me that I had left it on the upper rack in the train yesterday. My beloved blue scarf is gone along with a tin of cookies, some maps from the last few trips to Aix-en-Provence and Avignon, and another scarf I had just bought the day before. I am quite angry about this. [Still angry on the 21st as I write this.]

Today I met up with my friend Manuel who lives here in Paris. We met in Archaia Corinthos, Greece which seems like ages ago. I'm glad I have this blog or I wouldn't remember much of what I have seen and done. I wasn't sure how much time Manuel had to spend with me and thought we might just plan out an itinerary over coffee. He kindly served as my tour guide for the day as we walked around Central Paris. Our walk started on the E end crossing the River Seine and following it until we were at Notre Dame Cathedral. This globally recognized church was filled with people walking through the outer circuit of the interior (the area roped off for tourists to pass through). It was quite noisy despite the Silence signs as everyone talked in their own language to their people about what they were seeing. Amidst camera flashes and the clank of coins being dropped into the medallion machines (yes, you can purchase your own Notre Dame coin from vending machines throughout the church), the atmosphere--if there ever is one--was nonexistent. The Gothic style did nothing for me. The stained glass was not pretty. The walls/ceiling were composed of stone block which made the entire place look like the metro of Paris--i.e. tacky and dingy. Compared to Sacre Cour in Montmarte, Notre Dame is a hollow building for the commercialism of religious goods. I was not positively swayed or moved.

Further down the river we walked into the Louvre and grabbed some information on times and prices. There are three buildings of fun waiting for me to discover! We took a stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries next to the Louvre which is really more of a sandy, deserty like park with trees in it. Not overly pretty and very bright from the white dirt/rocks on the pathways. We walked past the Obelisque and crossed the river again and passed the Assemblee Nationale building (their legislative/political building). We wandered through the St. Germain area looking for a another church which we eventually found. It's very similar in architecture to Notre Dame with high arches and stained glass windows, but very quiet as no tourists really come here. We walked back W to the Hotel des Invalides which is now a military building. I wasn't too interested in seeing the military history museum through the revolution up to Napoleon so we took a bus to the Jardin du Luxumbourg where we strolled around though a park that at least had grass in it. Most of our walking had been relatively quiet for the international metropolis of Paris. Most Parisians seemed to be on vacation (similar to spring break) or in the parks as we noted in Jardin du Luxumbourg. The place was packed! we stopped for some coffee and then wandered through the Quartier Latin where there are some lovely traditional French shops and markets. A guy was playing a crankable music box cart with paper cut out music while singing. Cheese, fruit, fish and vegetable stores tempted us with their delicious looking foods. Manuel picked out a tub of strawberries that are presently in season and we feasted on them. My Mom would have been jealous for how fresh and sweet they were.
[Paris skyline at night from Sacre Cour--apparently I didn't understand the slow exposure time. Still a cool photo though.]
We hopped on the metro and went to meet up with one of Manuel's good friends as they were growing up and his wife. We had drinks and appetizers at Le Rhumerie. I had a tasty fruit juice drink of pineapple, orange, banana and coconut juices. We snacked on some fried fish balls, something similar to bruschetta and what I think was a blood sausage with spices. All quite yummy. From here we parted ways with Manuel's friends and found a traditional Bretangne restaurant (region of France) where we had egg, ham and tomato crepes with apple cider wine. I was incredibly stuffed by this point. No dessert for me or I would have exploded! We headed up to Montmarte by metro to see if we could find a jazz club, but everything seemed pretty quiet up there. I was wiped out from all the walking and eating, so we headed home for the night. We planned to meet up tomorrow to head to Versailles.

Amelie, Montmarte

Much like my trip to Avignon, the train strike was still in effect which meant I only had to find a train going my direction and see if I had to pay once I got on. I met a girl while checking out of the hostel who was trying to get back to London, but her flight was canceled due to the ash from the volcano in Iceland. She was trying to take trains from Marseille to Paris to London, but didn't understand about the buying a ticket piece. We ended up walking to the train station together and sitting across from each other on the train. She didn't talk much and we both ended up napping on our way to Paris. Once I'm on the train I get in the mode to find my place and figure out transit.

Finding the metro at the Gare de Lyon station was quite confusing. The map of the station shows where it is, but the orientation of the map is not easy to understand. I finally found the connection for line 1, bought a ticket and dragged my bag up and down stairs to get to the platform. What no one tells you about the Paris metro is that the connections to different lines require quite a bit of walking. Sometimes this involves stairs. Fortunately I hadn't done much today, so I had the energy to move my things around. The change to line 5 was pretty easy and finding my stop was simple. Finding the turn for the street of the hostel was somewhat more difficult. It was either not marked or listed under a different name: both very common problems in Europe. When I spotted the next metro stop I knew I had gone too far. Fortunately there are maps of the metro at almost every stop so I was able to navigate my way back relatively easily and checked in. I noticed on the welcome map that there was a tour of Montmarte at 6pm. It sounded like an easy way to see some of the city and check off something on my list of things to see.

The tour was excellent. We started outside the Moulin Rouge (red windmill) and heard the stories of how this poor part of town bred artists as well as seedy characters in the red light district. We walked all over Montmarte [Martyr Hill--where Christians were taken to be executed in Catholic France during the revolutions] (which is quite lovely by evening stroll) and our guide Ann Marie from Ireland was chipper and made the stories quite interesting. I learned about Van Gogh's distraught and challenging life when we passed the place where he used to live. We saw the Au Lapin Agile where Picasso challenged the owner to feed him in return for artwork which later turned the owner into a millionaire. The buildings and apartments are quaint and places you can only dream of living unless you have say E500,000 you just want to toss at a small European apartment. Sacre Cour Cathedral was by far one of the best stops we made. The views of Paris are excellent (including the Eiffel Tower) and the church is gorgeous. Made out of travertine stone, the building is self-cleaning (like the free public toilets on the street :) ) when the rain naturally whitens the stone. We wound our way down the hill through Place du Terte where local artists vie for a lifelong seat in the square doing portraits. We also stopped at a few of the places where the movie Amelie was filmed including the cafe and the market. The director spent 18 months going each day to the cafe to ask the owner if he could close the cafe for 4 months in the high tourist season to film. He's glad he consented now! Business has never been better.

After such a busy day I opted to eat at the hostel where I had a large plate of lasagna bolognese style filled with beef, green/red peppers, cheese and onion. Tomorrow I meet up with my friend Manuel to discover more of Paris, so a good night's sleep is in order.