Paris - a wrap up

Paris General

We did some things in Paris that don't rate a blog on their own but are worthy of mention. Also I'll include a few hints that others may find useful in traveling here.

Firstly Robyn and Fitz came from England to visit. Robyn and I worked together in the Napier Hospital before I was married and has been a friend of Bob and mine since. She spent time in Karlsruhe in Germany with us when Simon was born which I remember fondly. We had not met her husband Fitz before but were able to celebrate his birthday with him and get to know him. Did Robyn and I talk a lot - YES. I felt quite bereft when you left Robyn. It was great to see you both.

We went to a concert - yes Vivaldi - Four Seasons again in the beautiful Le Sainte-Chapelle with it's 13th century stained glass windows. A wonderful experience.

We like to go on guided walks to learn about places. We found Discover Walks to be very good. The guides are all young and native Parisians. You don't book but turn up at designated places and find them in their pink vests. There is not a set charge. You pay them what you think it was worth at the end although they do suggest an average amount. We went on the Montmartre and evening river tour with them.

However the biggest find with walks was Miguel whom I mentioned in the Catacombs blog. We did an individual left bank walk with him and also the Louvre. His knowledge is amazing. He's from Portugal but has lived in Paris for a few years. We thought his enthusiasm and perspective from being not quite an insider was especially interesting. He had a drink with us after one of the tours and kissed me on two cheeks when he left and I felt just like a Parisian!

I loved this window display In Montmartre with the legs as a lamp stand. This heron was quite at home in the pond in the Tuileries Garden with the summer crowds.

The Tour de France

We had eagerly anticipated watching the end of the Tour de France when they ride up the Champ Elysees. We've often watched this on TV in Australia and thought how great it would be to be there - especially the year that Cadel Evans the Australian won.
We didn't follow the tour as much this year because we did not have an English TV channel in our apartment. I usually watch the villages and countryside more than the cyclists and we both enjoy it. This year was the first final to be in the evening.
So we duly turned up about three hours before and joined the crowds just like on Bastille Day. We didn't see much. The bikes whiz past at a great speed - far too fast to identify individual riders. They went around 10 times about 8 minutes apart but it only took a few seconds and they were gone. It was hot and the crowd was a bit cranky I thought although I did have a nice conversation with a man from Niger.
Bob was lucky to get this photo.
We couldn't get near the presentation area afterwards so did not feel like we'd seen much at all. However the Arc de Triomphe was lit up afterwards which was pretty. We went into a side street and had pizza while waiting for the crowds to clear.

           
                 These firemen above and climbers below had better but not longer views than us.

What else did we do in Paris?
         - since we were there for 3 weeks we bought transport - Navigo cards which the locals use. Similar to London's oyster cards and Melbourne's Myki. We had to provide photos for these although they were never checked. We went to a photo booth in a railway station to take them and both look like gangsters in them. A hint if you're traveling for a time is to bring a couple of spare passport photos for such things. We could use the Navigo cards as much as we wanted on trains and buses after paying a weekly fee of 20 Euro each.
Usually we traveled by metro. It's an excellent system. I don't think we ever waited more than 5 minutes for a train and usually less then 3. Parisians must keep fit going up and down stairs because there are plenty of them in the metro. There are some escalators but usually it's stairs.
The bus system is also great and is a good way to see the city. Number 69 goes from near the Eiffel Tower in the west to the Pere Lachais Cemetery in the east and passes many sites.
67 goes from Ile St Louis to Pigalle metro in Montmartre and also past a few landmarks.
          - Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cite is very close to Notre Dame but is not frequented by tourists much and a good place to have a meal and sometimes watch the locals play boules. Ma Salle a Manger was particularly recommended to us and we liked it.
          - we ate twice at Maison de la Truffe in Square Madeleine. They have a special lunchtime menu. Evenings are a lot more expensive. They were advertising Australian truffles. It feels very French to us to eat there and the food is good too.
          - we went to a comedy "How to become Parisian in one Hour" by Olivier Giraud. This was great fun and quite insightful as to how Parisians see the world.
          - TAJ Boutique - 13 rue de l'Echelle is worth a look for French made products bought directly from the artisans so at a good price
          - Paris is a great city to walk and look or have a very long coffee or drink and watch. I just love to do this and observe people and situations.
          - by  some good luck and good management we didn't have to queue for long for anything. As a part of the Catacombs tour Miguel arrived early and queued before we got there. He also bought our Louvre tickets beforehand. We bought tickets for the D'Orsay which often has long queues in combination with the Musee de l'Orangerie which has shorter queues.
          - the longest we queued was for Berthillon ice creams on Ile St Louis and that was a while - thank you Bob. They were delicious.