So much to do in Paris!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Bonjour!

As I said somewhere in these past entries, occasionally the blogger just has too much to do and runs out of time.  That is truly what happened yesterday!  To recap:

We wanted to be out of Hotel L’Esplanade by 6 a.m. to get to Orly airport in Paris by about noon time.  However, our alarm clock got us up at 4:45 a.m. so we were, of course, out the door and on our way by 5:30. 

Paris living/dining room

Shower

R in flat bedroom

"Kitchen" area

This trip being strictly a “pedal-to-the-metal” kind of trip, we first needed to make our way to the autoroute.  It took us about half-an-hour to wind our way through even more beautiful French countryside.  (Note:  When I went to bed on Friday night, the sun was still shining, and it was after 9:30 p.m.  Then, as we were working out way to the autoroute, it was starting to get light yet again, all before 6 a.m.  Lots and lots of daylight here now, which I love!)

Hit the autoroute about 6-ish, and headed north.  Not much traffic really anywhere, which was lovely, and the speed limit for most of the drive was about 130 km per hour.  (And please don’t ask me what that is, as I have absolutely NO idea!  70 mph??)  There were several sections of peage (toll road) which we are finding more and more confusing!  Sometimes you drive up and a machine tells you how much you have to pay, and you insert money or credit cards; and sometimes you have to take a ticket at one end, and pay at the other – of course all automated now, and we’re still a bit gun shy about using our credit card (with chip), but we’re going to have to break down one of these days and see if it works! 

Lunch at Brasserie Rue Royer Collard

R's salad with chicken and grilled veggies

My salad with ham, potatoes and cheese

It took about 5½ hours to get to Orly airport, which is located on the south side of Paris.  The signage was really great getting us there, and just a km or so before the airport itself, we were able to top up the tank and return the Europcar full.  We then grabbed or luggage and assorted accoutrements and head to OrlyVal, which is the shuttle rail service that goes back and forth between the airport and the RER train stop Anthony.  From there, it’s direct to an RER B train towards Charles de Gaulle, and we got off at our very favorite station, Luxembourg.  It is fortunate that we know where the escalators are, as we were able to reach the surface without any schlepping of suitcases upstairs. 

Lovely day to photograph!

La Defense Arch

Literally around the corner to Impasse Royer Collard where we were met by Thierry, for the small flat we will have the next few days.  And it is truly small!  Very tiny!  It’s on the 6^th floor (5^th floor on the European counting) with an elevator, and has a nice sized bathroom with a nice shower, a main room with a “cooking” unit which doesn’t look like it could do much, but there is a refrigerator of sorts.  In this room there is a comfy couch and a very high table and four plastic high stools that not only look uncomfortable, they ARE uncomfortable! (Robert initially set up the computer on this high table, but I was seriously worried that he might hurt himself on one of the goofy stools!  So, I suggested he put a suitcase on the bed and put the computer on that, and that is working out very well at the moment!)  Then there is a bedroom which has room for the very comfortable bed and about a foot around either side – no side tables and absolutely NO place to put things like clock, water, glasses, etc.  At the foot of the bed is a bed-wide box which is padded and holds extra things, I think.  We’re just making it into parts of Robert’s “office.” 

Me with Alain and Graciela

Porcelain show

Beautiful glass exhibit

As we were both very hungry now, we headed downstairs and only a few steps along the street to Brasserie Rue Royer Collard, where we have eaten many times in the past.  They had a really nice assortment of salads, which is what Robert wanted.  He had a salad with green beans (haricot vertes), chicken, grilled zucchini and grilled eggplant, and said it was delicious.  My salad had hard boiled eggs, ham, tomatoes and boiled potatoes with cantal cheese.  What really surprised me was that the cheese was melted over the potatoes, and the salad was absolutely delicious!  R had red wine, and I had a glass of white wine, with plenty of sparkling water.

Then all of 30 steps to the flat and down for naps before our friend, Alain, was due to pick us up.  We’re both pretty tired, but we were able to get about an hour’s nap before the alarm went off.  We headed downstairs a few minutes before 3:30, and Alain was already right outside waiting for us!  SO nice to see him again!  And, he was wonderful about giving us the guided tour on our way out of town to their place in St.Leu-le-Foret – passed Les Invalides, once around the Tour Eiffel – such fun to see all our favorite places again!  I think we got out to their house about 4:30 p.m.   

About 5, Graciela suggested we take a walk into town to look at the annual porcelain show. 

Alain and Christian

Beautiful dinner!

Apparently, St. Leu has hosted a show for artists for the last number of years.  They have one venue for porcelain – all created exclusively for this particular show – and another venue for glass, and a third venue for hand-made jewelry.  We very much enjoyed looking at things, and I did buy a lovely porcelain bowl that I plan to look at and not to use.  As we were walking down these very odd back alleys, Graciela explained that in past years, there had been a community of lepers and other infectious diseases.  In order for these people to be able to get out into the open air and sunshine, this very odd back alley was put through town.  She said that each of the people had to wear a bell that would warn the townspeople that they were coming, so that they could close their windows!  Very sad story, but we found it interesting.

Tour Eiffel at night!

Then, back to their house for a visit before their other guests arrived.  In all, there was William (aka “Willy”) and Chantal, and Nicole and Christian.  All very, very nice people.  I always get so self-conscious when I need to speak French, but with a little bit of wine, either my French improves or my inhibitions go away!  We started with some wonderful hors d’oeuvres – mushrooms, radishes, carrots and fennel, a very spicy dip as well as pastries filled either with spinach or cheese – YUM!  This was washed down with several bottles of pink French champagne!  Excellent!  Then into the house for dinner.  We started with two kinds of ceviche beautifully arranged on a bed of lettuce with avocado.  Following that was a wonderful pork roast with both plantains and sweet potatoes – excellent!  Then came (of course!) the cheeses (although by this time I was pretty full!) and finally, a wonderful pear and chocolate dessert – wow!  By this time, it was just about 11 p.m. and Alain and William were kind enough to volunteer to take us all the way back to Paris.  (We had been invited to spend the night, but had breakfast plans this morning, which ended up getting changed, so we should have stayed – but we didn’t know that then!)

We got back to our place about midnight, and both of us immediately went soundly to sleep!  Robert said that he felt like a boa constrictor that had eaten an entire goat, he had had so much wonderful food.  Graciela is a fabulous cook, and she and Alain are so incredibly generous and gracious!  (We are trying to get them to come to AZ so that we can pay back a small fraction of their hospitality!)

Bridge on which lovers seal their love with a Lock!

Me in garden at Albert Kahn Museum

Japanese Garden

Up this morning about 6, feeling like I wanted to sleep some more … so I did.  It is a really overcast day, and the forecast calls for a high in the mid-high 60’s, and rain in the afternoon and evening.  Not having a breakfast engagement, we debated what to do, and decided to pay a visit to the Albert Kahn Museum near Pont-St. Cloud.  We had been there several years ago, and saw a wonderful exhibition of photographs of Mongolia.  We had also been in the gardens, which are amazing!  Albert Kahn was a banker (who ended up losing all his money in the 1929 stock market crash).  But before he lost it, he was very, very philanthropic, and worked for world peace and public health, among other things. The exhibit today said that Andrew Carnegie had been his role model. (And this was in a day when there wasn’t really much trash collection, as who knew it was bad to leave around?) 

Alpine garden, complete with pine trees!

Stunning flowers, even when wet!

By the time we remembered our maps and validated our metro cards for the upcoming week, and went back for our umbrellas before we got on the bus, it was raining pretty hard.  The bus (the 27 to the 72) dropped us right off in front of the museum, which is in the process of being renovated – it’s a three year process, and will finish in 2017.  Fortunately, by the time we had finished with the indoor exhibition, which included photographs of Kahn and some of his work, the rain had let up a lot, making it much more pleasant to roam the gardens.  They are amazing!  As property around his house near St. Cloud became available, he would buy it, and eventually ended up owning most of the block!  He loved gardens, and worked very hard to create a beautiful estate.  Robert’s favorite is the Japanese garden, but I think I liked either the wetlands garden, or the formal French garden the best.  But when it’s so beautiful, why choose?

One thing that had occurred to me while we were in the museum, is that months and months ago I had purchased tickets for us for a concert at Opera Garnier – and I didn’t remember when they were for!  I’m not particularly interested in the specific concert, but jumped at a chance to spend some time in that wonderful old opera house!  Just needed to find out when! 

Japanese maple

We took the 72 back into town, getting off near the Louvre so that I could show Robert where I had stayed on my quick trip with Bob and Stew in November, and look at some of the places we went to dinner.  The Italian restaurant where we celebrated their 48^th anniversary was open and serving lunch, but we made a reservation for tonight.  The other restaurant – Le Petit Colbert – didn’t appear to be open on Sunday. Then, back to Avenue de l’Opera and a 21 bus back to Luxembourg. 

Checked the file, and guess what?  We hadn’t missed the concert – It’s TONIGHT at 8 p.m.!  And we haven’t had lunch, and I’m starving!  R decided now would be a good time to eat, so we went across the street to a little place that was open and serving food – both good things! 

Life saving chicken and frites!

We both ordered their roasted chicken with fries – and it was terrific!  Now I’m not nearly so cranky, and Robert should be able to stay awake during the concert tonight!  Time will tell!

So, I’ll close now and get this posted!  More from Paris tomorrow!

Much love,

m

xxx