At last! Halfway through this trip and finally some news from the wanderers. I've been waiting for a day off. Today is the day. No day-by-day report, just some highlights of our visit so far.
We arrived on Thursday, September 23, the day of the big "strike", yet we found a taxi from the airport in two minutes and traffic from the airport wasn't especially heavy. So far on this trip, despite several major strike days, life seems to somehow go on. We were greeted with a sparkling clean space and a cornucopia of gifts left by our friend Randy and his family, who spent a month here during the summer. Thanks for care and the thoughtfulness, folks.
Our
first obstacles were technical. The AC Adapter on my computer
lasted all of ten minutes before dying - in effect limiting me
to whatever battery time might be. I figured perhaps three hours,
tops. Not an acceptable situation. Off we went to find a replacement.
First stop, the next morning, was FNAC (think Fry's, I guess,
as an equivilent). There was one at Ternes, over by the Arc de
Triomphe. It opened at 10. Off we went.
We watched the markets set up on Rue Bayen. It was a beautiful outing. Lots of early shoppers and trucks double and triple parked delivering scads of vegetables, fish and meat.
Found the FNAC, but no remotely comparable adapter was available. My computer's power supply was a brick compared to those on sale and the connector at the rear is larger by far than any we saw. Time to get some professional help.
But first we had to settle in. Here are some views of our "cave", quite literally our little corner of the excavation space below the ground floor of the apartment. Our space is through the second door behind Karen in the center picture.
Given my computer problem, the fact that we hadn't recharged our Paris cell phones and a defective landline phone (thanks for the replacement, Randy - it works fine AND we found an English-language instruction manual on-line!), it wasn't easy to get in touch. Still, I spoke to Francisco and we agreed to meet, along with his friend, Bruno, on Saturday at Super Hero, a comic store near Pompidou. While we were out, Sylvain called and I told him of my problem with the "brick" and he thought he might have a solution. After the comic shops we arranged to rendezvous with Sylvain for a coffee. Alas, his "solution" proved inadequate, but he had some ideas of where else in Paris I might search. Again, Francisco to the rescue and we took off for Surcouf, near Opera. No luck for the computer, but as we were walking from Surcouf to St. Augustine and Galler Chocolate, I did get a photo of King Kong in front of Printemps - something to do with a special celebration of New York. Why pink? C'est la mode, I suppose.
Saturday was the Marche aux Biologiques and a long, long "chat session" on Karen's computer with the Dell support staff in India. Even after bumping things up a level to a supervisor, I could not get them past the mantra, "Of course we understand and will help. We will make sure you get a replacement and it will be in Paris within 10-15 business days." But, doesn't Dell have a presence in France? Can't they get involved? Is there a place locally where I could go and pick it up? Is there a non-Dell alternative you could recommend?
"Of course we understand and will help. We will make sure you get a replacement and it will be in Paris within 10-15 business days."
I finally, after an hour and a half, got them to commit to getting in touch on "Monday or Tuesday" to at least give me an expected arrival date. I signed off figuring I'd won a teeny battle in a long war. Imagine my surprise when I got a call Monday morning from Dell.fr saying they'd have a replacement delivered tomorrow. Was I at a business or a residence? Would I be there to receive it? And voila! There it was and I was only about 200 emails in arrears, but a near-crisis was averted and a hearty "Bravo!" to Dell.fr and a puzzled frown at Dell chat support for not knowing what they were capable of.
For
the record, Sunday was the flea market at Porte de Vanves and
lunch at Da Pietro. Monday was an excursion to Berthillon on the
Ile Saint Louis. Some cleaning or restoration was happening to
the front facade of Notre Dame and as always there are new aspects
of the cathedral to admire and to puzzle over. What exactly WERE
they thinking when they added all these bizarre details?
Berthillon
was closed, but there are always other outlets and we chose one
that we thought served the real stuff, but we ended up next door
and had some second-string glacés. Next time we won't risk
it.
Invalides was on our things to do list and we finally made it. Originally conceived in 1670 as a retirement home/hospital for French veterans, now it's a museum that features Napoleon's tomb. The current exhibition was on Charles de Gaulle's career from his service in WW1 through his Presidency of France in the 1960s.
Another Paris destination we'd been meaning to explore for years is the Catacombs. As Paris grew over the centuries, so did the crowding in the graveyards and the caverns from which the limestone to build the city was quarried. Want more Paris? Take the bones out of all the graveyards and stick them down where the stone came from. So in the 1780s, that's what they began to do. The entrance is near Place Denfert-Rochereau in south-central Paris. You enter through an ordinary door across the Place from the magnificent lion in the center of the roundabout. You go down 60 feet on a narrow spiral stone staircase and then walk about a half mile through narrow, barely lit tunnels with barred off side passages and strange pools of water off to the side, before actually getting to the first bones.
The next day we took a trip to Galerie Daniel Maghen to see the display of Charles Vess artwork they were having. Charles would be there on October 1st and we planned to attend, but since we were going to be in the neighborhood (near Notre Dame), we thought we'd check it out early. We said hello to Olivier who assists M Maghen at the gallery, enjoyed the art in an uncrowded atmosphere and then headed to the Ile Saint Louis where Karen wanted to buy a bread knife to match the cheese knife that Randy & Family had left us. At the foot of the Pont St. Louis we were greeted by a humongous bubble and, at the Pylone store, a herd of multi-colored cows. We had some genuine glaces Berthillon since we were in the area.
Not to forget food - here's us at breakfast at Damini's and a picture of Jessica who handled the camera for our rare joint appearance in these pages.
That same day, October 1st, was
the gala opening of Charles' show and we arranged to rendezvous
there with Patrice. We took the bus and traffic was heavy, so
we arrived about a half-hour after we had hoped. We finally, after
20+ years got to meet Charles' wife, "my Karen", but
we couldn't find space in the crowded gallery to get her into
the picture. So here's Patrice, Charles and Karen in front of
some beautiful Vess artwork. Turned out to be a good show for
sales and it's still on display if you happen to be in the neighborhood.
Since we were in the 6th Arrondissement, we opted to go to dinner at Da Pietro after we left the gallery. The gala was in full swing and was getting more and more crowded. By then it was nearly nine o'clock and we were pretty hungry.
It was tres amusing to follow Partice, BlackBerry Google map in hand, as we walked the familiar streets toward Mabillion. "I think it's this way, Jim." "Yes, but it's faster down here, Patrice. That's Blvd. Saint Germain and Mabillion Metro is right over there and ..."
Patrice eventually let me lead and chuckled to see that we
knew as much about this section of Paris as he did. It's fun to
show our Parisian friends some of the places we have become familiar
with.
Sunday turned out to be a series of misadventures as Charles and I attempted to rendezvous for a trip to the Marches aux Puces at Porte de Clignancourt. For a plan that was conceived for a Saturday and got postponed to a Sunday, I failed to take into account both the fact that the 74 bus didn't RUN on Sundays and that Charles was more adventurous and self-assured than perhaps he had ought to be in a strange city. Suffice it to say that "my Karen" and I met at the bus terminus to which I had directed Charles but he wasn't there. He'd spotted another bus stop for the 74 about a block and a half away (without a cell phone) and decided to wait there instead - for the bus that never came.
Monday, I did it right. I met Charles at his hotel and we set off for a quick (or, as it turned out, no so quick) trip to Clignancourt. Our first stop was the Metro Arts et Metiers on the 11 line. It's a station designed by a Belgian comic book artist named François Schuiten (pronounced similar to "Guyten" according to Charles). It's a joyous departure from the traditional blue and white tiles of nearly every other Paris Metro station.
From there we wended
our way via Metro, taxi and bus to the Marches aux Puces and wandered
through the Marche Dauphine, where the 1er étage is home
to a wide variety of old book and magazine dealers. Then off to
Librarie de L'Avenue, a large store just filled with hidden treasures.
Sadly, one of the most troublesome aspects of hunting for books
in Paris is that all of the skills and knowledge we have developed
and internalized over the decades is pretty useless here. We don't
recognize spines or book styles or publishers like we do in the
U.S. We're starting from scratch and, quite frankly, it's a bit
demoralizing because we're all pretty GOOD at finding books at
home. Charles did find one thing to add to his accumulation of
French old books, but only one.
Patrick, Charles' French publisher rendezvoused with us at the apartment and he showed us a tremendously large book on the Eiffel Tower that his grandfather had found when they were removing the contents of Eiffel's workshop on the tower - if I got the story straight. It is an incredible manual on how to BUILD the tower, with architectural plans for all aspects of the construction. A real treasure.
As was Patrick, as he drove Charles back to the hotel on the
Quai des Grands Augustins, saving me an extra trip down to the
Seine.
We had initially planned to go to Beaune on Tuesday, but opted for a day at the Museé de Arts et Metiers and do the train ride on Wednesday. So we spent a pleasant afternoon in the Museum above the Metro. It's devoted to technology and boasts a collection of scientific tools and instruments that is awe-inspiring - like Baise Pascal's calculator shown below. It was designed and built in 1642! Wow!
I could go on and on about other experiences of these first two weeks, but I think you get the picture (ha ha). We have been thoroughly enjoying the city, again and anew. There are STILL so many aspects of it we haven't explored, as you can tell from all of the new sights we've seen so far. Next will be our trip on the TGV to Dijon and from there to the wine center of Beaune. But that's for next time.
A'bientot.
