Paris and Beyond, March April 2011, a serial report
Mar 31st, 2011, 11:52 PM
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Paris and Beyond, March April 2011, a serial report
We are at a Marais apartment after a short ride from Boston on AF337, a 747-400 that was only one third full. It was like the old days; we each got a row to ourselves to sleep. Very professional crew who happily supplied 3 cups of albeit not very good coffee for breakfast. Bad food in coach. Of course, the fact that the plane arrives at 5:30 AM doesn't make it attractive to leisure travelers, though business travelers can make connections and get in a full day of work without any trouble.
We couldn't get into our apartment until late morning, so we killed some time waiting in the airport railroad station, then took the RER into Paris, transiting the nightmarish station at Chatelet-Les Halles where you transfer from the railroad to the Metro, in our case Line 1. Some lovely Africans helped us carry our suitcases up several flights of stairs, and we bumped them down others. What a mess! But when we came out of the Metro at St Paul, we were in Paris for real!
**Lessons learned:
1. We are in our later 60's and are too old to deal with the transfer at Chatelet, which we used to do without strain. Next time, we will find a different way into Paris.
2. It would have been worth searching for a day room at an airport hotel, napping, and going into the city when we are rested. We were able to drop our bags but did not get real possession of the apartment until mid afternoon. We were pretty whipped by the time we got in.
3. Some RER ticket machines do now take US non chip-and-pin credit cards, though we used the ticket window since I needed to break a 50 euro bill.
After getting into the apartment to tidy ourselves a bit and leave the bags, we went to the cafe on the corner, where we have been eating for twelve years or so. We had a big delicious rich lunch, since we hadn't had any breakfast, and watched the French passing by. Lots of kids on Razor scooters, including two little boys wearing kippe, one tennish, the other about 4, and navigating traffic like madmen.
I ate muscshrooms stuffed with snails and steak tartare. My wife had echine de cochon noire after a slice of house pate. The place was full of slim young women who in the US would be eating salad and yogurt at their desks instead of chowing down on big steaks or duck with pasta and glasses of wine. We had a nice conversation with an Italian woman at the next table. She is resident in France and a grandmother, so we had three things to talk about: food, our countries, and granddaughters!
Then we went for a walk through the Place des Vosges and down through little narrow streets to the river Seine. We walked along the river a bit enjoying the new bright green spring leaves on the trees, then came back through St Paul for a nap. After, we went to the G7 mini supermarket, which is about the size of a 7-11 where we bought a few supplies for overnight. For supper, my wife had a bowl of cereal, and I had some garlic sausage and fresh tomatoes. Yum! And about all we could handle after our lunch.
I think we will have an early night, but it is still very light out at almost 8, so sleeping may not be so easy. Lots of advil for the aches and pains. A friend joins us early tomorrow, and we are going to the opera Friday evening.
We couldn't get into our apartment until late morning, so we killed some time waiting in the airport railroad station, then took the RER into Paris, transiting the nightmarish station at Chatelet-Les Halles where you transfer from the railroad to the Metro, in our case Line 1. Some lovely Africans helped us carry our suitcases up several flights of stairs, and we bumped them down others. What a mess! But when we came out of the Metro at St Paul, we were in Paris for real!
**Lessons learned:
1. We are in our later 60's and are too old to deal with the transfer at Chatelet, which we used to do without strain. Next time, we will find a different way into Paris.
2. It would have been worth searching for a day room at an airport hotel, napping, and going into the city when we are rested. We were able to drop our bags but did not get real possession of the apartment until mid afternoon. We were pretty whipped by the time we got in.
3. Some RER ticket machines do now take US non chip-and-pin credit cards, though we used the ticket window since I needed to break a 50 euro bill.
After getting into the apartment to tidy ourselves a bit and leave the bags, we went to the cafe on the corner, where we have been eating for twelve years or so. We had a big delicious rich lunch, since we hadn't had any breakfast, and watched the French passing by. Lots of kids on Razor scooters, including two little boys wearing kippe, one tennish, the other about 4, and navigating traffic like madmen.
I ate muscshrooms stuffed with snails and steak tartare. My wife had echine de cochon noire after a slice of house pate. The place was full of slim young women who in the US would be eating salad and yogurt at their desks instead of chowing down on big steaks or duck with pasta and glasses of wine. We had a nice conversation with an Italian woman at the next table. She is resident in France and a grandmother, so we had three things to talk about: food, our countries, and granddaughters!
Then we went for a walk through the Place des Vosges and down through little narrow streets to the river Seine. We walked along the river a bit enjoying the new bright green spring leaves on the trees, then came back through St Paul for a nap. After, we went to the G7 mini supermarket, which is about the size of a 7-11 where we bought a few supplies for overnight. For supper, my wife had a bowl of cereal, and I had some garlic sausage and fresh tomatoes. Yum! And about all we could handle after our lunch.
I think we will have an early night, but it is still very light out at almost 8, so sleeping may not be so easy. Lots of advil for the aches and pains. A friend joins us early tomorrow, and we are going to the opera Friday evening.
Apr 1st, 2011, 06:56 AM
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We arrive on Sunday. It looks like we will be getting some good weather. Yeah!!
I agree with you as far as taking the RER goes. After doing it a few years ago I have decided I won't do it again with luggage. It is not worth the effort or the worry at our age.
Hope to hear more from you.
Suzanne
I agree with you as far as taking the RER goes. After doing it a few years ago I have decided I won't do it again with luggage. It is not worth the effort or the worry at our age.
Hope to hear more from you.
Suzanne
Apr 1st, 2011, 07:27 AM
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Ackislander: I will follow this with glee and anticipation. I love your reports and we are going to Paris in late September for the first time in about 12 years!!
Looking forward especially to " tipsfor the elderly" cuz we are even older than you!
Looking forward especially to " tipsfor the elderly" cuz we are even older than you!
yet, I have been helped by African men who carried my heavy luggage up metro stairs more than once. They are amazing.
Apr 1st, 2011, 02:21 PM
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We take the RER but only have one carry on suitcase each so it isn't difficult. We are one retired and one near retirement and are still taking the train from CDG, but have gladly taken cabs from other international airports.
Apr 1st, 2011, 02:35 PM
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Your report is making me very nostalgic. My husband and I stayed at an apartment in the Marais in September. Are you on Rue de Turenne? We became very familiar with the Metro @ St Paul. Isn't the Place de Voges beautiful? I look forward to reading more. Enjoy!
Apr 1st, 2011, 03:33 PM
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I think the RER with luggage is fine as long as you don't have to change at Chatelet. We figured once that we walked as far underground in Chatelet as it would have been to walk from our destination to our apartment!
Apr 1st, 2011, 11:12 PM
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Day II Friday April 1
Our nice ten hour sleep was interrupted by a phone call from our friend D’s wife. His plane was delayed 6 hours, and we should not expect him for breakfast. In fact, he did not arrive until after lunch, a good lesson for all of us who plan on touring madly as soon as we arrive at our destination.
He came on the same flight as we did, a day later and on a different aircraft. I did not mention that we had experienced what pilots call a “hard landing” on our own arrival, and it apparently caused enough damage to the aircraft that they had to find and substitute a different plane for subsequent flights, leading to the delays.
So we potted about the apartment and had a leisurely and very light breakfast until about ten, when we caught the 39 bus to Opera. It was a gray day with a cooler breeze than we had expected from the weather forecasts. Still, it was nice enough to be out and about, and we explored the small area between Opera and the Madeleine. There isn’t much to see in the Madeleine, but it has an active religious life, and the view of the steps out over the Seine to the General Assembly and the Invalides is pretty spectacular.
We wandered over to the Place Vendome and looked at all the security preparations jewelers have taken to prevent further robberies by Croatian gangs. We also saw a plaque noting that the main Resistance radio station during WWII was operated from one of the buildings, right under eyes of Germans shopping for luxuries.
We went on to lunch at Le Rubis in the rue de la Marche St Honore. It is a modest wine bar with 26 seats upstairs serving the French equivalent of soul or comfort food. Walk to the end of the bar away from the street, open the door and go up the very narrow stairs. Menus are on chalkboards on the wall, and no English is spoken. On Fridays, they have brandade de morue (salt cod mashed with potatoes, cream, olive oil and garlic), which we had, preceded by an order of rillettes, and followed with a pear clafoutis for my wife. With wine and a fat tip because I love this place, it was 44 euros. We went at 12:05 and were the second couple. By 12:30, all the seats were taken. My other recommendations are the jarrette avec lentilles and the boudin noir. Again, lots of thin women eating this stuff along with house painters, businessmen in suits, and a general cross section of people.
After lunch we caught Metro line 1 from the convenient Tuileries stop and were back at the apartment greeting the exhausted D by 1:30. We took naps.
Around 5, we got up to think about the important topic of where we would eat before the opera. Neither my wife nor I could face a bite, so the topic turned to where we could eat AFTER the opera.. We wandered around the neighborhood looking at menus (and architecture, and into galleries, and at people) until we found ourselves in front of Bofinger, where we made a late reservation.
We had a 7:30 curtain at the Opera Bastille to hear Verdi’s Luisa Miller, not prime Verdi, but good songs, well sung. One amazing features was that just before curtain time, the ushers invited those of us in the relatively cheaper seats to move into the better seats in the middle. Amazing! It was of course a scene. Microskirts on girls whose legs are the size of my arm are all over Paris this year, and the opera was no exception. A wonderful evening.
Afterward, we joined the throngs at Bofinger, where I pushed through to learn that they had lost our reservation. But, pas probleme, we were seated immediately and had the very unusual experience (for me) of eating dinner at 11 PM, and not just dinner but a Choucroute! The place was packed, upstairs and down, it was an amazing scene with everyone from tatooed rock musicians to French couples, bourgeois to BoBo couples to young Americans who work for US companies to us. Home through the Place des Vosges and to bed at 1, only a few hours before I usually get up!
Our nice ten hour sleep was interrupted by a phone call from our friend D’s wife. His plane was delayed 6 hours, and we should not expect him for breakfast. In fact, he did not arrive until after lunch, a good lesson for all of us who plan on touring madly as soon as we arrive at our destination.
He came on the same flight as we did, a day later and on a different aircraft. I did not mention that we had experienced what pilots call a “hard landing” on our own arrival, and it apparently caused enough damage to the aircraft that they had to find and substitute a different plane for subsequent flights, leading to the delays.
So we potted about the apartment and had a leisurely and very light breakfast until about ten, when we caught the 39 bus to Opera. It was a gray day with a cooler breeze than we had expected from the weather forecasts. Still, it was nice enough to be out and about, and we explored the small area between Opera and the Madeleine. There isn’t much to see in the Madeleine, but it has an active religious life, and the view of the steps out over the Seine to the General Assembly and the Invalides is pretty spectacular.
We wandered over to the Place Vendome and looked at all the security preparations jewelers have taken to prevent further robberies by Croatian gangs. We also saw a plaque noting that the main Resistance radio station during WWII was operated from one of the buildings, right under eyes of Germans shopping for luxuries.
We went on to lunch at Le Rubis in the rue de la Marche St Honore. It is a modest wine bar with 26 seats upstairs serving the French equivalent of soul or comfort food. Walk to the end of the bar away from the street, open the door and go up the very narrow stairs. Menus are on chalkboards on the wall, and no English is spoken. On Fridays, they have brandade de morue (salt cod mashed with potatoes, cream, olive oil and garlic), which we had, preceded by an order of rillettes, and followed with a pear clafoutis for my wife. With wine and a fat tip because I love this place, it was 44 euros. We went at 12:05 and were the second couple. By 12:30, all the seats were taken. My other recommendations are the jarrette avec lentilles and the boudin noir. Again, lots of thin women eating this stuff along with house painters, businessmen in suits, and a general cross section of people.
After lunch we caught Metro line 1 from the convenient Tuileries stop and were back at the apartment greeting the exhausted D by 1:30. We took naps.
Around 5, we got up to think about the important topic of where we would eat before the opera. Neither my wife nor I could face a bite, so the topic turned to where we could eat AFTER the opera.. We wandered around the neighborhood looking at menus (and architecture, and into galleries, and at people) until we found ourselves in front of Bofinger, where we made a late reservation.
We had a 7:30 curtain at the Opera Bastille to hear Verdi’s Luisa Miller, not prime Verdi, but good songs, well sung. One amazing features was that just before curtain time, the ushers invited those of us in the relatively cheaper seats to move into the better seats in the middle. Amazing! It was of course a scene. Microskirts on girls whose legs are the size of my arm are all over Paris this year, and the opera was no exception. A wonderful evening.
Afterward, we joined the throngs at Bofinger, where I pushed through to learn that they had lost our reservation. But, pas probleme, we were seated immediately and had the very unusual experience (for me) of eating dinner at 11 PM, and not just dinner but a Choucroute! The place was packed, upstairs and down, it was an amazing scene with everyone from tatooed rock musicians to French couples, bourgeois to BoBo couples to young Americans who work for US companies to us. Home through the Place des Vosges and to bed at 1, only a few hours before I usually get up!
Apr 2nd, 2011, 10:25 AM
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Enjoying your report!
A question re RER ticket machines. Being Canadian I have chip and pin cards but out of curiosity, when you say "some of the RER ticket machines take US cards" how is one to know?
A question re RER ticket machines. Being Canadian I have chip and pin cards but out of curiosity, when you say "some of the RER ticket machines take US cards" how is one to know?
Apr 2nd, 2011, 10:52 AM
#19
Love reading your report. We will be back in Paris and June and will sure keep an eye out for the "lovely Africans" to help with all the steps at the Chatelet. And I would also like to know how to identify the the RER machines that take the US cards. Thanks
