BigWeather's Blog

Awoke at the standard 6a or so and packed, wrapping up just before breakfast at 7:30a.  Our taxi arrived at 8:30a and it quickly became apparent that not only did the driver not speak English but he wasn’t interested in putting up with my French.  Fair enough.  Michelle and I rode the hour mostly in silence, watching the city pass by.  We got one last look at Notre Dame as we crossed Ile de la Cite.  We saw a poster in northern Paris advertising the UPR, a right-wing French party, and their support of a Frexit from the EU.  Ugh.

Arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport and whip out the credit card (as our hotel had said that credit was no problem and we had done our darnedest to spend all of our paper so we didn’t have them going home).  He just pointed at his card reader and said “broken”.  Eeeep.  I had 30 euros and was trying to figure out what to do.  I asked, in my broken French, if he could have another driver charge the fare and give him cash.  Apparently he wasn’t keen on that but luckily Michelle was able to get 40 euros from an ATM so we could settle.  Phew.

Stood in line to check-in only to have the automated kiosk ask us to go to customer service to finish the process.  Stood in line there for a bit before a guy waved us to him.  He chatted with us a good fifteen minutes as he sorted things out, he was in his 30s and former French military.  We talked about traveling (he liked to go places out of his comfort zone, like Japan, and had also gone to Scotland, etc.), his prior career doing IT programming, etc.  His supervisor stopped by and asked him why he was so laid back in his chair, the guy responding that he must need a new chair and some whisky or some such.  I’m not sure if he was just stalling while some security checks were run or something or if he was just chatty but it was quite entertaining.

Sailed through security pretty quickly, looked around for something for Addison to no avail, bought some bottle water, and made it to our (quite remote, in an odd saucer-like structure) gate.  There was a group of Playstation demo stations.  Boarded shortly thereafter (around 11:20a) and took our seats at the rear of the plane (same row, opposite side as the trip over).  A French lady and her young girl were across the aisle.  Though she was occasionally a bit fussy she was really well behaved in general.  Due to the headwind it was about an hour longer than the flight over, about eight and a half hours.

Despite that the flight went fairly quickly as I spent the time (until the battery on the Surface died) choosing pictures for the blog.  Thereafter I watched a bit of Solo and passed the time watching the progress on the in-flight map.  Michelle slept some and watched a couple of movies.  Food-wise we had some pasta with tomato sauce (and olives, blech) with the usual accompanying gang of roll, butter, Laughing Cow cheese, salad, and an apple crumble.  Later in the flight we got a small container of chocolate ice cream.  Finally, just before landing we had a barbecue hand pie snack.

Landed in Chicago about 2:30p and, after visiting the restroom, suffered through re-entry to the US.  Long line for the kiosk to scan our passports followed by a long line to get our passport looked over by a human.  Then proceeded to board a bus to transfer to terminal 3 (we had arrived at 5), whereupon we had to go through scanning our bags.  A particularly rude and annoying woman behind us was making snide comments about the people ahead of us taking too many bins, taking too long, etc.  Then when Michelle was taking out the Kindles (as it clearly stated anything larger than a phone was to be removed) she gave Michelle some lip.  That was it, she and I shot back and told her to chill the heck out.  Sheesh, first rule of airports — be patient and find your happy place, you’ll need to go there often.

Anyhow, past security we had some time to get some bites to eat.  Michelle and I grabbed some Chinese food and I chased it down with a Starbucks frappe which was quite tasty.  Boarded our plane for Raleigh at about 6p, right on time.  On board we sat next to a nice lady who had been traveling around the Mountain West (Glacier, Yellowstone, etc.) with her son and husband.  I also spent a good amount of time watching small towns and larger cities pass by below, including Lexington, Kentucky.  As we passed over the Appalachians I could see fog in the valleys.  Really neat.  Landed at a bit past 9:30p, grabbed our luggage, and waited for Addison to arrive around 10:30p and take us home.

It was a very interesting trip.  Our first trip with just the two of us since… well, other than a brief trip to the mountains a few years earlier, 1996 or so and our trip to the UK.  It was a bit more relaxed than I expected it to be, despite the compressed time frame (just eleven days, two of which were pretty much just travel).  We saw a bunch of stuff, including a bucket list item in Mont Saint-Michel and many “exhibition” type things like the Tolkien exhibit, Harry Potter tour, and of course the Paris museums.  Bayeux’s cathedral and Notre Dame were absolutely stunning.  Despite not seeing many of the monuments of either major city (as we’d already seen them on prior trips) we did get a feel for both and ate as local as possible including regional dishes.  Hamilton wowed us both, and we’ve since began afternoon tea time as time allows.  In all a busy, but yet relaxing, trip.

Woke up closer to 7a and went down for breakfast at the Hotel Prince de Conti in the basement, a charming space.  While they had eggs and bacon I opted for just doing croissants and pain au chocolate (chocolate-infused croissants) with strawberry jam and tea, though Michelle did have some eggs and bacon.  Headed back upstairs briefly before heading out for the day’s sightseeing.

We walked the short distance to the Seine.  There were several boats parked (berthed?) next to each other.  We were surprised to see that they had plants and small trees to create patio spaces complete with tables and chairs.  Crossing the Seine via the pedestrian-only wooden plank Pont des Arts we saw a large collection of locks surrounding a lamp post.

As the entire bank of the Seine at this point was dominated by the massive Louvre we were there immediately.  We still had a decent walk, however, to the famous glass pyramid that was the entrance to the museum.  From there we could clearly see the Carrousel Arc de Triomphe, not to be confused with the much more famous one on the Champs-Elysees.  There was also a bride getting photographed adjacent to one of the nearby fountains.

A long line had already formed but after about thirty minutes standing in the chilly morning air we got in and past the security check then… got to stand in another line for about thirty minutes to get our tickets via automated kiosks.  Sadly only two of the four were working so it took a while.  I passed the time chatting with a gentleman from Melbourne, Australia who was traveling about Europe (Ireland, UK, France, and Denmark) with his family.  In the lobby was a circular staircase with an elevator that rose in the middle core area — really neat.

Tickets in hand we actually entered the museum proper a little past 10a.  We started on the top floor as it was blissfully quiet due to not having any of the major works housed in the Louvre.  Room after room was filled with Medieval art and objects such as helmets, swords, shields, religious objects, and the like.  There was a huge banner thanking the public for contributing to buy King Francis I’s “Book of Hours”.  Wow, we thought, that must be spectacular!  We wandered about the floor trying to find it, complicated by on-going renovations (a common theme on this trip) that blocked direct access.  Still we persisted and there it was — all couple of inches by couple of inches of it.  Despite its size it was still really beautiful.

The crowds increased as we went down a floor and went through some Persian and Greek antiquities.  Next up was Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace), a Hellenistic original (rather than Roman copy) marble statue, which stood prominently over the grand staircase.  After a few more large rooms (one containing a beautiful marble statue of Athena) we came upon the gallery displaying the Louvre’s star attraction — Mona Lisa (or de La Jaconde as the French call it).  It was, predictably, quite crowded.  Rather than wade to the front Michelle decided seeing it in the distance was enough for her and we moved on.  I’ll say this, though — the new gallery is a lot better than the one it used to hang in when I saw it in 1988, allowing for far more people to view it at once.

We wandered through a few more galleries packed with paintings we recognized (like The Coronation of Napoleon or Liberty Leading the People) in search of the last major attraction, the Venus de Milo.  Despite (or due to?) lacking arms the statue is quite beautiful.  As we were at peak people saturation we decided enough was enough and we still had quite a bit to see during the autumn-shortened day.

A bit after noon we left the Louvre through the underground shopping mall adjacent to it.  Michelle stopped by the Fossil store (as ours all closed) but nothing interesting was to be found.  We emerged onto Rue de Rivoli and walked east to Cafe Musee where we ate lunch at a little past 1p.  Michelle had a ham and cheese panini while I had a “mixte” — basically a baguette (in this case a very long one) with ham, cheese, and butter (yeah, I know — though not that bad!).  We also shared an order of fries.  Michelle had a scoop of vanilla with chocolate sauce while I had a scoop of strawberry (sweet) and lemon (very tart).  Plastered all over the news was the death of Charles Aznavour, a French singer, at 94.

About 1:45p we continued on down the road until we got to the park with Tour Saint-Jacques, a tower from a sixteenth century church that was destroyed during the French Revolution.  I took some pictures before we moved on through the park (Michelle even saw a giant rat) and turned south, crossing Pont Notre-Dame onto Ile de la Cite.  It was here that we got a good look at some gorgeous round towers of the Conciergerie — a fourteenth century royal palace turned Revolutionary prison for a bit — and the very top of the Eiffel Tower way off in the distance.  We emerged in the courtyard before the Cathedral de Notre Dame.  Not the most impressive cathedral in my mind (heck on this trip alone Bayeux had it beat) but the imposing facade of the two Gothic towers never fails to impress.

Inside is where Notre Dame wows, however.  In addition to an interesting series of sculptures depicting the life of Jesus as well as the normal altars, relics, etc. Notre Dame has the amazing Rose Windows.  It is hard to capture just how beautiful they are, particularly when the sun filters through them and splashes parts of the cathedral in color.  I tried to capture it, however, taking picture after picture.  Very beautiful and awe-inspiring.

We left Notre Dame right at 4p and headed south again, via the Petit Pont – Cardinal Lustiger, to the Latin Quarter.  After a short distance we arrived at the Musee de Cluny, home of the Musee National du Moyen Age (National Museum of the Middle Ages).  The museum was built in the 1500s on top of the ruins of a Roman bath.  As the museum was being extensively renovated so the entrance fee was greatly reduced to four euros each.  There was a small room displaying seventy items or so from their collection, mostly ivory or gold including a gorgeous rose done in gold.  There was also an exhibition on the evolution of the mythology around unicorns.

The crown jewel of the museum was also on display, the six tapestries known as “The Lady and the Unicorn” that were made around 1500.  The first five tapestries related to the five senses with the last (and most famous) one showing the lady, her companion, the lion, and the unicorn in front of a blue tent.  All six tapestries had a red background and were covered with animals such as foxes, monkeys, and rabbits.  It was amazing how great the color was.

After buying a magnet and a pillow case we left the museum at about 5p and headed for the hotel.  Along the way we passed a used bookstore and a grocery store with its basement dedicated to wine.  There was a small place (plaza) with an old-timey metro sign, one of the newspaper stands, and a cart selling candies.  A short distance later we were back at the hotel where I lined up a taxi to the airport for 8:30a and we napped a bit until just past 8p.

We dithered between multiple restaurants but finally settled on Pizza Cesar on Rue Mazarine.  It was fairly small with tables close together.  A lady next to us was speaking French a mile a minute.  Michelle and I ordered bruschetta for an appetizer — it was excellent.  For our main course Michelle had a four cheese pizza and I had a ham, cheese (mozzarella), and egg (though I never found it…) calzone.  Not bad.  For dessert we each had a slice of lemon meringue pie that was very good.  Could’ve been a little tarter, perhaps.  They had a drizzle of caramel that had been fire-hardened that was both impressive visually and tasty.

Left just before 10p and headed back to the hotel to off-load pics (but not save to the cloud as the upload speeds were total crap), blog a bit, then bed around midnight.