Paris Final Week - 7/21 The Bus from Hell, Musee d'Orsay, and more Rain

Got up early to head to Paris so we could get to the Musee d'Orsay before  the crowds.  Unbeknownst to us, the RER C (Express Interurban Train) had other plans.  

After waiting on the train and then having the train go back one stop, we returned to Les Invalide and noticed some guys apparently answering questions.  There were no written notices about any routing changes.    We should have checked the RER web site (and hunted for this closure) to see that they re-routed passengers to buses at the stop called Les Invalides - one stop before Musee d'Orsay.

Then we made another decision to regret, we got on their 'free bus' knowing that it did go to the museum.  However, it went to the museum by way of Gare d'Austerlitz (almost to the edge of Paris) and a change of bus and then back by way of Notre Dame and Ile de la Cite - with incredible crowds trying to get on the bus.  An hour and a half late, we arrived as did everyone else in Paris.  We could have walked to the museum in less than 10 minutes!

The bus ride did provide an apartment building that was interesting.
But it was mainly a pain.  There was an Asian coupe who didn't understand and the bus people couldn't help them, but we heard they wanted to get to the museum so we had them tag along.

There was an English couple who had wanted to Notre Dame as one of their grandchildren was due to sing there and they were also irate.  We had a nice chat and they finally arrived in time for the concert.

Musee d'Orsee is an old train station converted to this museum, but there were no pictures allowed (oh goodie) so check out the museum link.  We tried to do Rick Steves museum tour, but many parts were hard to find so we used the book and saw some wonderful masterpieces.

We left and went to Rue Cler for lunch and to do a bit of shopping and then went home.

Lee got an excellent haircut from a lady in Le Port Marly and we got home in time for the rains to start again.

Short video on YouTube shows a bit of the Storm.

We did another batch of Fried Chicken and hunkered down to see what the floods brought.

Paris Final Week - 7/18 thru7/19, Ducks, Rain, Hair, and Fried Chicken

We putzed around the boat since most businesses are closed Mondays. 

Lee worked and I did laundry, some cleaning, and photographed the river and its' new duck family.  I saw them crossing the river and, at first - no camera in hand of course, could not figure out what it was.  They traveled as one and only when they got closer could we see it was the mother and her 9 very new babies. 


We fed her some bread and the babies snapped at bugs while they kept following her towards the bread. 


I took a video of them and uploaded "DucksOnSeine" to YouTube.  Ignore the audio... Apparently, I cannot speak well when I am filming something.

The weather was quite disturbed and it rained off and on most of the day.

Tuesday, the 19th, dawned nice, but turned to crap fairly quickly.  Good news was that the duck family was OK in the morning, bad news was that we didn't see them the rest of the day.  

Di braved the gangway and the rains to go get her hair done... a foil - they called it a 'mesh' and they did it with plastic wrap, not aluminum  foil - and a haircut.  This was fascinating especially with no one speaking English in the Sergio Bossi salon.  Alison did a great job and it looks quite good. 

And then the rains got heavier and the water level kept rising. 

There were 3 buoys that the rowing club uses; 2 of them are gone and the third moved about 30 meters down river and the river was flowing over it. 

Where is Noah when you need him???    I think the fish were washed downstream!

Dominique told us later this week that he has seen the water up over the road where the cars are parked - meaning the gangway went down to the road not up to it.  So this wasn't so bad.

We had fried chicken and potato salad for dinner trying to get a picnic 'air' in the wet.

Paris Week 3 - 7/17, a Departure, Sacre Coeur, Monmartre, and Pigalle

Early rising today so we can get Doug and Joan to the Gare du Nord for their high speed train through the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) to London.  There were very few people on the trains for the trip from La Pecq to the Paris North station - this was good since they did have suitcases this time. 

Hint to travelers:  Do not arrive in or depart from Paris at either the morning or afternoon rush hours and expect a seat on the Metros.  Be prepared to be mashed into the train cars and have to balance luggage and be pushed as people enter and leave the trains.  And in summer, it is hot and stuffy in the subway.

Anyway, D&J got to the station in plenty of time and we left them in the line for their train and headed over to Sacre Coeur.  The weather had started out sunny and promising, but turned windy and overcast when we got to the metro near the church.  This area of Paris is filled with narrow streets and neat old buildings and quite a few people out and about at an early hour. 

The church itself is impressive and getting to it can be done via  the Montmartre funicular (one metro ticket for each minute and a half ride - up or down... yikes!) or hiking up the paths.  We chose to hike up and see the changing views of the church and the city. 

Sacre Coeur itself can be photographed from the outside but they have people strategically placed inside to stop people from taking any photos inside.  I tried to take one and it just didn't turn out - message from above, I suppose.  At this Sacre Coeur link, you can see pictures of the inside - it is beautiful!

Not sure what the odd bricks are for.

We then walked Rick Steves tour through Monmartre and down to Pigalle. 

Bus driver has guts!

Vineyard

There was a vineyard - the only one left in the city - that still is used for wine by the nuns, I believe.  There is a festival every October, if I'm remembering correctly.




Any there are numerous properties of interest...

Windmills were popular

We stopped at a bar / cafe for a Cafe au Lait and meandered to Pigalle.  Wow! 
The red light district in Vancouver was active, but Pigalle takes the cake.
 

Lee with some Fascinating Fashion

We stopped into the Museum of Erotic Art, but did not go through it.  
The rains increased so we headed back to the boat.  What an interesting tour! 

Paris Week 2 - 7/16 Le Port Marly Dam and Heavy Rain

Today started out overcast and did not look promising for sightseeing, so the four of us made a late morning trek over the Machne de Marly dam to the Ecluses de Bougival (locks) on the island across from the boat. 

It is about 1.5 to 2 miles one way.  The dam was very interesting as were the locks.  We got drizzled on for awhile and then encountered heavier rain as we got closer to home.




The rain continued most of the day and we decided not to walk to La Creperie for dinner.  We drove, and it was a good thing as the downpour made the unpaved road near the boat almost completely 'puddled' and it also overwhelmed the street sewers.



 
The dinners at La Creperie are good and Alex fit us in again without reservations, though it was quite a busy Saturday evening.  

La Creperie's page gives the history, but if you translate the page to English, the only correction is that Veronique and Alexandre Manta are the owners, not Veronique Alexandre.  

 Doug and Joan leave tomorrow, so it was a sort of sad celebration, sad because they were leaving and a celebration of their time with us.  

And oh yes, we did kick out the jams. 

Paris Week 2 - 7/15, The Louvre and a Bar-B-Que

We got an early start today to avoid the crowds, but it's the Louvre... one cannot avoid crowds there.  The place is HUGE!  The entrance is through a set of shops and restaurants (including the 1st Starbucks we've seen) after getting off the metro.

We got an English map and tried to do the Rick Steves suggested tour; Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, etc.  Even with the map and museum people stationed strategically throughout the halls - we got lost. 

There are at least 10 'collections' one could try to see.  The museum has 4 floors and each floor is separated into 3 huge sections (Denon, Sully, and Richelieu each of which are again broken into rooms and sub-sections.  It will make you tired just looking at the map and walking around will make you crazy because it doesn't seem to conform well with the map.

Anyway, the Mona Lisa was nice; the milling and pushing crowd made it difficult to truly take it in.  

These 3 paintings are simple examples of the range of items to see and these are just ones that struck my eye.

We spent a lot of time in the sculpture collections. 

Venus was quite striking and, as Rick Steves indicates... you can see where the halves of her are stuck together at the robe on her hips.







There were hundreds of other sculptures around a main gallery.  Here are a few of them:

 The summer is probably the worst time to visit... I would like to see either Spring or Fall and return to the Louvre to sit and ponder specific items. 

We stopped on the way home and found a bright charcoal grill on sale, picked up some steaks at the Marly-le-Roi butcher, opened a bottle of Cote du Rhone (Domaine Chamfort 2009 Vacqueyras) we found at "Inter Caves" in Le Port Marly, and had a Bar-Be-Que.  The steaks were a bit tough, but it felt good to grill at the end of a beautiful day and the wine was Incredible.

Paris Week 2 - Bastille Days; Avoiding the Crowds

On the day before Bastille day (7/13) we went to the Nanterre Ville Street Market.  It is held every Wednesday and Saturday morning and they have tents or umbrellas set up to sell just about everything; produce, bread, meats, milk, cheeses, spices, hardware, and small electronics.  They had clothes too; suits, dresses, casual clothes, underwear - from plain to sexy stuff, shoes, and purses.  It was all new stuff, inexpensive and it reminded me a little bit of Canal Street in NYC.  


The spice and rice/legumes counters were amazing. 

The foodstuffs all looked good so we got the makings for dinner,and wandered back to the train.


We had heard that people start celebrating Bastille Day on the 13th and that was correct. The fireworks started when the sun went down (about 21:30) and continued until around 1.  The cats were not happy and stayed close to the boat.

We got up early on Bastille day and headed to the train to scope out Rue Cler and the Eiffel Tower.  This was perfect because almost everyone else went to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the parade!!! No crowds - yay! 

Oh, and is Rue Cler nice!  It's about 4 blocks long, but packed with little shops.  Talk about good produce, meats, and cheese!  Expensive, but very nice.

We wandered and noshed our way to the end of Rue Cler and back to the main drag then headed over to 'La Tour Eiffel'. 

The Eiffel Tower is amazing... no matter how often you see it.  We started at the Ecole Militaire end of the Champ de Mars and worked our way to the tower.  

The Bastille day celebration had started - I believe - with one concert the night before and they were gearing up for another as we wandered through the park.  This was late morning and people were already staking out their territory for the evening's show.

Everyone was taking pictures and there was a lot of magnificent posing going on.  We are so boring... not trying to touch the top of the tower or lean against it!




After it was built for the 1865 World's Fair, the French people thought it was an eyesore and asked for it to be taken down.  I'm glad they didn't. 

The closer you get to it, the more it seems to overwhelm.



We didn't go up in the tower as the crowds were lined up and more were milling about.

It was starting to get crowded and hot so we headed back to the boat... we had great timing on this venture.

Paris - Week 2 - 7/10 to 7/12; a walk-about, a hike, and an Arch

Sunday was a day of laundry, resting, and walking around Le Port-Marly.  We found there is a Picard store  (sells only frozen food) and a wine / liquor store.  Our timing was off and we found the stores closed after we had lunch - Dang!

The cats lounged around the boat... they are cuties. 

Louis on the Gangway

Marie above the Patio

 

 We had a family of swans wander in and we fed them bread, then a lone male stopped by.  He enjoyed bread, too.  In fact, he hangs around a lot.  His bill looks like it had been fractured, but he seems to eat OK once he soaks the bread.




On Monday, we did a hike Lee found on the internet.  This older guy and his older dog supposedly trudged over the bridge from Le Pecq toward St Germain-en-Laye and then up to the Forest.  He said it was about 2 miles and took only a couple of hours.  Well, the old guy and his dog beat us on every point.

The bridge is beautiful and the 2 stone statues guarding each river looked like - as the gentleman said - they had done major squats for eons!
Then the hike took an upward turn, quite an upward turn and it got hot.

We saw Paris in the distance and we hiked along the 2 walls protecting the chateau and its' forest and got to a nice, shady park area.   Then we had a rest and did a couple of dipsy-doodles on the way back to the car.



Walked through some neighborhoods, saw the train from a new angle, and were extremely happy to get back... 4 hours later.  That old dog must have been some hardy hiker!



Tuesday we did a test run to the Gare du Nord (Paris /North) train station to make sure we have no issues getting Doug and Joan to their Chunnel train this Sunday.  Then we stopped off at the "Etoile", the center of which is the Arc de Triomphe.  The traffic was funny there and it is apparently different from all other 'round-abouts' in that people entering the circle have the right of way.  This had people a tad confused.  There were a lot of tooting as people cut others off when turning or people just stopped - in fear for their lives. 
 



We took the lift to the top of the Arc and the sights from above were awesome.   The day started out rainy and hazy and then started clearing.  



12 roads form the "etoile" or star and they were all busy.  But the view from above was spectacular.


                                         

There was a sculpture on the way down from the top of the Arc that seemed to have the "Holy Crap, did you see what that guy did?" look of everyone viewing the traffic. 

 We took the train back to the boat and relaxed... it is SO nice not to have to drive in Paris.