Homeward Bound, Sept 30 & October 1

Sept 30

On the train to the airport

View from our room

    We went to the nearest bakery for a last wonderful croissant and a coffee. Then, we went back to the flat and cleaned up. As we had all day to get to the airport and couldn't check into the Sheraton before 2, we went to a touristy cafe and lingered over a not-very-good pizza, but it passed the time. Unfortunately, the train stop, St. Michel/Notre Dame was closed for repairs and we had to walk to Chatelet with our luggage. It's not far, but the underground maze is quite long. Luckily, we travel light.

  We took the train to Charles de Gaulle. It's so nice to travel by train.

  We checked into the Sherator (a very nice room, but expensive). Then, we walked to Delta and got our seat assignment. We won't be together, but Barbara will be directly behind Mark.

    We ate at the hotel.

Oct 1

      We got up early and went to the Delta Sky Lounge where we relaxed with some good food and coffee. Everything connected with our flight went smoothly. The plane was on time and it was very smooth with lovely weather. We both wore our masks the entire way. Willy was at Logan to pick us up which was lovely. He made Vietnamese Meat Balls for dinner. We went to bed early with jet lag.

Summary Comments

We had a jam-packed trip and a lot of fun. We saw family and friends. And, while our trip was cut short by about two weeks, we feel fortunate to have done what we did.

Cluny Museum & Reservations Rebooked & Cancelled, Sept 29

 Sept 29

    We started the day with our daily croissants from down the road.

    We walked to the Cluny Museum, a museum of Medieval Art in the heart of the 5th. It combines a Roman frigidarium (part of a Roman bath), 15th Century Hotel de Cluny, the mansion of the Abbey of Cluny.

St Barbara!

The Lady with the Unicorn

    It is definitely a WOW! place. Just the building is amazing.

   Art hails from Europe, Byzantium and the Islamic world. We took SO many awesome photos that it is hard to cull them for the blog.

     A  highlight was definitely the room devoted to the six tapestries made in the 15th Century called "The Lady With the Unicorn." Five are devoted to the senses of - touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight. The sixth is somewhat a mystery, but perhaps refers to a possible sixth sense dealing with the emotions and the heart.

A 15th Century woman teaching math

    From there, we walked to the Pantheon and to Le Cafe de la Nouvelle Mairie where we ate two years ago with Claudia and Michael and Nancy. We sat outside this time. Mark had a sausage dish and Barbara had a white fish with a somewhat mild wasabi sauce.

   We strolled home.

    We had quite an adventure when we got back to our building. 

     We got stuck between floors in a TINY elevator at our old Parisian building! It was so small that we barely could stand next to each other.  There was a yellow emergency button which we pushed and got a person who was hard to hear or understand, even though Barbara asked her to speak slowly so we could understand. We did give the address of the building and then she hung up. We had no idea if help was en route as we could not understand her response. We called back a few times as the minutes ticked away and got the impression that help would eventually come. Of course, it was rush hour, so we worried that it would be hours before anyone showed up.

Chapel Ceiling

    We took turns sitting down, sort of between the other person's legs. The standing person straddled the other one of us. We shudder to think what it would have been like if it had been stiflingly hot. And, of course, our phones wouldn't work in the elevator shaft! We periodically banged the door. Eventually a man who lives in the building heard us and he then called the elevator people which was a relief as he spoke at length and in French, of course. He assured us that help would come in about half an hour..... he hoped. (We'd already been there about that long.) 

   At any rate, a technician did come and opened the door. We were between floors and he helped the two stiff old people to clamber out.  So - on Saturday we had to walk with our luggage down 2 flights of winding stairs and then another narrow, but straight flight. Luckily we travel light, but it was still a challenge.

Today we  got the news that Alice, Marks' Mom, has taken a turn for the worse and is entering hospice care and end of days. We spent the next 4 hours (!) on the phone and online trying to change our Delta flight, as well as cancel our train tickets for the next 2 weeks. (Paris to Nimes, Nimes to Lyon, Lyon to Charles de Gaulle.) 

  The plane took the longest as we could never connect with a person. For a while it looked like we would have to totally rebook for a lot of $ ($9000). Eventually, Mark got a supervisor who waved his wand and got us on a flight for Sunday in Premium Economy as we'd have traveled on October 12. 

The elevator where we got stuck

   Barbara got hold of AAA in Acton, MA and the wonderful woman there who had booked our trains, managed to get us full refunds for two of the tickets, but not the one that was supposed to be for tomorrow. 

     We also managed to change our reservation for the Sheraton at the airport. The only dead loss will be the VRBO in Lyon which we are too late to cancel. But, as we have trip insurance, we hope to recoup that.

      All in all, we went to bed exhausted, but successful. 

Lovely Lunch with Becky near Palais-Royale, Sept 28

 Sept 28

   Today we met Becky Cavanaugh for lunch at the Metro by the Palais-Royale/Louvre. She is a teacher at the Parson's School of Design in Paris and lives with her family in Fontainebleau. 

    We walked through the Palais-Royale's gardens, a spot we'd never walked before. We had lunch at a French bistro and chatted away. While there, we connected her with Ritch Leone who had a significant impact on Becky who now teaches art history. 

    After she left, we came back to "our" neighborhood and walked through the flower market on the Ile de la Cite.

     

Picnic & Duck for dinner, Sept 27

Sept 27

The 'backside' of Notre Dame with less scaffolding than 2 years ago

Side of  one Notre Dame's towers - cleaned since last visit

   Another gorgeous day in Paris - perfect weather for walking - another 4+ mile day.

   We began with croissants from the wonderful bakery down the road.

We went to the Monoprix and bought some meat and juice and then make a picnic lunch with a baguette from the bakery. We then strolled to the near end of the Ile St Louis and had a nice picnic watching the river boat traffic.

Boat traffic from picnic, Sebastien freight boat

Picnic spot at end of Ile St. Louis

   Afterwards, we strolled to the other end of the Ile St Louis and wandered our way home. We chatted with Jerry on the telephone and read for a good deal of the afternoon.

   

For dinner, we had reservations at La Grange Aux Canards, a wonderful little restaurant that specializes in duck. Mark had crispy duck breast in a honey sauce and Barbara had duck confit. The waiter recommended these as two traditional ways to eat duck. They were SO good. We'd definitely return to this restaurant in the future. Besides our waiter, there was a new waiter doing his first shift. A hard job and in a small restaurant.

Duck confit

   Then - "home" - a nice day!

    

Monet & the Eiffel Tower, Sept 26

 Sept 26

 

   Today was another lovely, warm day. We took the RER train to the 16th arrondisement to see the Marmottan-Monet Museum. It houses over 300 paintings by Claude Monet, most a result of a donation by his son and heir, Michel Monet. 

Monet from time at Giverny

There is also a large collection of the works of Berthe Morisot, one of the first, if not the first, woman Impressionist. She married Monet's brother.

by Berthe Morisot

  Other paintings include Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro and Manet, but far few of those artists.

   The museum is housed in an old historic home, bequeathed by the Marmottan family to the Academie des Beaux-Artes.

St Bernard, gifted by Ephrussi family

    Also of interest are decorative swords to members of the Academie, including one to Marcel Marceau, the great French mime whose most famous character was Bip, the Clown.

 

The hilt of the sword for Marcel Marceau

One of the rooms in the museum

  Afterwards, we walked to a nearby patisserie, got sandwiches, water and some gazpacho and walked to a nearby park, Park Ranelagh where we had a picnic.

     Not ready to be done with our day, we took the RER to the Eiffel Tower which was very busy. We sat and lay on the lawn and watched people on the ground as well as climbing the stairs. We had no intention of going up the Tower as we did so in the past with the children.

   

Picnic in Ranelagh Park

 Then, we took the RER home. We had to wait quite a while for the trains today as only 1 of every 3 were coming through due to a work slowdown by the union.

    We had a nice chat with Nick and Sebastian. We fixed the data problem that he was having on his phone, which is quite amazing considering that we are in Paris.  Christian is enjoying kindergarten.

Montmartre & St.-Germain-des-Pres, Sept 25

 

Sept 25

Another day of over 4 miles of walking! Beautiful weather. 

 We started the day with croissants from down the  Our main goal today was the area of Montmartre. It took us a little while to find the entrance to La Cite Metro, but we it and it took us all the way to Barbes-Rochechouart Metro. From there, we walked to the Funicular and took it up to Sacre Coeur which was very crowded. We opted not to wait in the long line in the full sun to get into the basilica. The view of Paris was a bit hazy. 

After a bit, we took a touristy little train around Montmartre. It was a little hokey, but only 10 Euros each and it did wind us around the neighborhood which was good, especially as it is so hilly. A highlight was the cabaret "Lapin Agile" as the play by Steve Martin, Picasso at the Lapin Agile is one of our favorites. (Picasso meets Einstein....and Elvis!)

Lapin Agile

We found an excellent creperie where we each had a gallette. (The Comptoir Breizh) Mark found it on Trip Advisor which gave it 5 stars and so did we.

Next we took the Abbesses Metro (the deepest in Paris - so many stairs down!) to Sevres Sebastopol in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres district which was a bit further from our flat than we'd have liked. 

As a break, we went into the super posh store, Le Bon Marche and had coffee and split an apple-pear tart at the Rose Cafe, recommended by Christopher Kimble.

Ceiling of Le Bon Marche

From there, we walked a short distance to Le Grande Epicerie, a huge, gourmet (expensive) grocery store which was very interesting. 

Mark in The Rose Cafe

Then - a long walk home and a puzzle to figure out how to use the washing machine and then put the drying rack together. We never figured out the rack and think it has a piece missing.