My visit with Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde

It's our second last day in Paris and both Molly and I were pretty exhausted from the whirlwind, roller-coaster trip to London. I sensed that she may feel like hanging around the flat for the day recuperating but although I was somewhat tired, I needed to make the trip to Père Lachaise Cemetery where there are many notable and famous resting places.

Most importantly, I needed to visit Jim.

When I was about 17-18 I was fascinated with The Doors, their story and that of Jim Morrison. I was experimenting with poetry at the time and influenced by their lyrics. When I was 18 and visited Oceanside (California), I had a chance to visit Los Angeles. My first priority was to walk on Venice Beach and visit the Hollywood Bowl before any Hollywood touristy stuff. I distinctly recall driving into L.A. around 9am with the morning sunshine filtering through thick smog as the car approached the familiar skyline. In the back seat, I had "L.A. Woman" just starting to play on my cd player. It was a perfect moment.

Jim Morrison was a charismatic, enigmatic rock (& blues) singer/performer who wrote some fantastic songs and poetry. Like several other talented people who were presented, plied and subdued with excess or who used what was available to cope with sudden fame and wealth, it is sad to me that he died in a bathtub in a Paris hotel.I recall having a poster of his grave in my bedroom. I found it beautiful.

I was glad for this time to myself today to be completely absorbed in my own personal mission.

Just one of the beautiful pathways lined with mausoleums

My confidence in using the Metro made it an easy 15 minute trip to the East of Paris and I was directed to the Administration office to pick up a map of the cemetery. The map is a paper print-out with notable graves marked as numbers on each zone in the cemetery. The cemetery is huge by the way--110 acres.

It was raining. The kind of rain where you need an umbrella, but there's no wind and it's not bouncing up off the ground. It was the absolute best weather to visit a 211 year old cemetery. The main pathways are all cobble-stoned and only in some areas are the cobble-stones smaller and a little easier to traverse. A good portion of the cemetery is uphill and there are many winding paths and intersections.

Blossoming trees in the cemetery

I knew that Jim's grave was not immediately noticeable and you had to look for it. As I made my way a second time through the section I thought he might be in, I turned a corner and saw a grey metal barricade linked to a couple of others and knew right away that I would find his grave there.

I was the only one there. I almost started to well up a little bit and snuck through an opening in the barrier to get a little closer to the site but a cemetery security person happened to be silently lurking nearby and asked me to step back behind the barricade. I apologized and stepped around it and stood for a while looking at it and remembering what he brought to those teen years of mine and how I was shaped by discovering his music and poetry.

Edith Piaf

Moving on, I took some general interest photos trying to capture the beauty and history of this cemetary and later on was asked by a girl carrying a camera if I'd found Edith Piaf's grave yet. I was in fact in that area and together we Googled on my phone to get an idea of which markers were nearby and we were able to find her headstone. We were her only visitors at that time and each took some photos and went our separate ways after she had directed me to where I could find Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde

The time had slipped by and suddenly I realized it was 5pm. I must have been there a good 2 hours carefully walking on wet cobble-stones protecting my camera from the rain under my umbrella while clutching an ever-dampening paper map. Paris rush hour was something to take into consideration, so I started making my way back to where I thought the entrance was. I walked for about 10 minutes before realizing that I was having great difficulty getting oriented; thankfully my phone was charged and I used Google maps' GPS tool to get myself down to the principal entrance and back to the Metro.













                                       Goodbye Jim. xo.

Our visit to London-UK, travel ordeals and the kindness of strangers

With a two week stay in Paris, and London only a 2-hr train ride away, it seemed like a fantastic opportunity to visit London over the course of two days (less than two days really). Tuesday morning we left Paris on the super-fast Eurostar and arrived at St. Pancras Station for 10am GMT. Using the android app for the London Underground, we had purchased the Oyster card and then rode the Underground to St. James's Park where we got off and found our hotel just around the corner.

The Sanctuary House Hotel is situated above a Fuller's Ale & Pie pub and is a gorgeous little boutique hotel. They kindly allowed us to store the bags we brought with us so that we could fit in some sightseeing before actually gaining access to our room. In this time, we walked around the corner to Westminster Abbey and stood in line for tickets. The Abbey is stunning--I so wish I could've taken photos to post because it is really just an incredible place. To walk amongst the tombs of kings and queens is such a strange feeling.

After the Abbey, we took a bus to St. Paul's Cathedral which I had wanted to see since Princess Diana married Prince Charles there in 1981. All the buses are red and doubledecker, and I was so bemused by seeing all the classic red telephone boxes! At St. Paul's Cathedral, I was constantly looking up at the arched and dazzling ceilings and again--could not take photos. We went through the Crypt in the basement as well. Given a choice between the two, I would revisit Westminster Abbey in a heartbeat.

We headed back to the hotel to fully check-in and then had lunch in the pub. I would also recommend The Sanctuary House Hotel to anyone who wants to stay in London-UK because it is cozy, it's extremely central and they look after you.

Next on the list was the London By Night sightseeing tour to start at 7pm from Victoria Grosvenor Gardens. We found our way there and ended up being the only two on the bus, however at 7pm it's not really "night" and I was kind of hoping for an "illuminations" style tour showing London in its lit-up glory.




If you've held any disdain towards humanity today, let this portion of the post renew your faith that there are good people out there.

In preparing for this trip, I did a lot of research and thanks to Wolter's World on Youtube, became aware of what to do when you lose or have your passport stolen. After educating myself on that and other travel security tips from his channel, I had made a detailed itinerary available to several family members, including the names and numbers of the hotels we would be staying at and scanned images of each piece of identification we both had, stored safely on the internet.

We rode the London By Night tour bus and got off at the stop for the London Eye. According to the schedule, the driver was to return back to the same stop at 9:49pm but just in case we talked to him before we left and said we would be waiting for him when he came back around.

Our ride on the Eye was great fun, but it had gotten quite cold in the evening; colder than what we were prepared for. We wasted as much time as we could drinking hot chocolate and hanging out in souvenir stores until we headed back to the bus stop hoping that his bus had remained empty and maybe he would be there early. We hung out in a bus shelter (it's really just a half-shelter) and when his time came and went, we started to wonder. It was then 10:20pm before we angrily set off towards the next Underground station a short distance away.

Cold and tired, we had to make a connection to another train, so we stepped off and looked at which direction we needed to go, just then the doors shut on the train we got off of and it was at that moment that Molly looked at me and said "oh God, where's my purse??"---the train left. 

My mind started to race, panic and try to problem-solve at the same time; her purse had all her cash, credit card, all her ID and passport in it. We went up to the nearest security person and told them of the situation. He brought us into a control room where there was a dispatcher. She called ahead to each station and alerted the other security personnel who would then each board the train and look through the cars for the purse. Of course everyone reported back that no bags were found or turned in. She said that her next step was to call the British Transport Police and then handed the phone over to Molly.

I started bawling because in preparing for this situation I had heard that as soon as a passport was reported, it was invalidated and had to be replaced by the Embassy which I believe is not an immediate process. Later, once I had my wits about me, I realized that it was only the passport-owner who could report the passport missing to the Canadian Embassy and it's at that point that it would be invalidated.

While Molly was on the phone with the BTP giving them details, I was a sobbing mess and the dispatch lady was very kind and caring and tried to calm me down. All I could think of was how expensive this was about to become for Molly and that we may not be able to leave London, UK to get back to France to get back to Canada on time. Molly's Oyster card (the one we used to use the Underground each ride) was also in her purse, so they kindly just let her through so we could continue the ride back to the hotel.
I have to credit my grandmother for being cool as a cucumber during all of this kerfuffle, believing that it would work out.

Our plan was to go to Canada House for 9am the next day to start the process and I tried to get something done before going to sleep because I was still on "red alert" mode. I left Molly in the room to get settled and I came back out to the reception desk with my dead cell phone which I hadn't been able to charge because I didn't have the appropriate adapter to work with English outlets--I thought the ones that I had for France would work there. The person at the desk was far more helpful than the person we had earlier in the day and as I was explaining the situation and started to ask for help to print off the copies of her ID, I was sobbing at the desk. He kindly let me charge my phone using his own USB charger and kept my phone overnight to charge it fully. But it was just then that the phone rang and he looked up and said "Molly B?"

I blinked---"yes??" and he passed the phone to me. My Uncle Mike (her son) was on the other end letting me know that he had been contacted by a lady named Jane who had picked up the purse and wanted to get in touch with us. Fortunately Molly kept a little contact book in her purse in case of emergencies and this is how she got the phone number. How serendipitous that I was at the reception desk when the call came in trying to deal with the problem.

I called Jane and she was extremely nice and she had explained that she didn't want to turn it in to the train staff because she was worried that all of Molly's money and ID would not be left in the purse once we were able to get it.

Jane had said that her husband worked at the British Council, right behind Canada House and they were thinking of leaving it there the next day so we could pick it up there. I asked her if we could pick it up from him at his work instead because if the purse was dropped off at Canada House with a passport in it, they might consider that passport as "lost" (since it had been in someone else's possession and turned in) and then we may have had problems. So her husband agreed to do that. Molly, who had been pretty level-headed the whole time taking it in stride was thrilled and thankful to know that someone trustworthy had picked up her purse. I went back out to the same fellow at reception and asked if the pub was open downstairs because we really needed some wine before bed. He said that it wasn't, but he took me down anyways and then helped me pick a nice wine and added the wine to the room bill.

This morning, we took a cab to the British Council and picked up her purse with all of her cash, ID and other items in it. I also got my cell phone from the new reception person this morning since it had been tucked safely away in a drawer once it was done charging.

I can't even describe the relief!


Soldiering on with the rest of our plans, we turned back towards the Admiralty Arch and walked up The Mall to Buckingham Palace hoping to see the changing of the guards. We had a great position and the police were wrangling tourists behind barricades preparing for the parade and the ceremony when a light drizzle then turned to "rain". The ceremony was cancelled--meaning that there would be no big procession with instruments being played. However I did see them marching to the side entrance of the Palace and saw sentries standing at their sheltered posts.

From there we took a taxi back to the hotel to dry off and check out. Then we rode the Underground to Tower Hill to visit the London Tower. By then it was cold, raining and windy and after seeing the Crown Jewels, we decided to leave because neither of us was happy about being cold and wet. I know that we missed a lot but it also looked like a place with lots of stairs and Molly had already been doing a lot of stair climbing. I hope to go back someday soon anyhow to fully take in London and that will be on my list on a sunnier day.

From Tower Hill we rode to Bond Street to visit Selfridges, specifically because we've both been watching the BBC series and because we wanted to be indoors in the shopping district. Selfridges was fantastically huge and expensive with an overpoweringly fragrant first impression as you enter through the old revolving doors.

Anything you see in a Vogue magazine was there. Prada clothes hung in glass cases! It was immense and sensational. I saw a mother dressed in haute couture pushing her stroller around with bags on her arms.

Once we finished at Selfridges, we decided to take our last ride on the Underground before the real rush hour hit and left for King's Cross/St. Pancras Station where we arrived with plenty of time to sit and have a beer and reflect on the madness of the last 30 hours.

On our way home to Paris we saw a huge double rainbow as the sun set and we are now cozy and warm with a red wine glow for each of us as we look forward to a real night of rest and a very late morning which of course should involve the reward of croissants.

Mid-day observations and comparisons

Unfortunately last night's dancing has aggravated a hip condition I have going on right now so I am limited today in how much I can walk. We had to shift gears and decided instead on having lunch at the 50's diner across the street and to go shopping at the mall just nearby as we both decided to buy rubber booties and not have to deal with soggy sponge-feet again since there is some rain yet to fall before we leave.

As well, I need to conserve whatever hip-strength I have for tomorrow's journey to London, UK! I've fervently been looking forward to this particular interlude in the trip : ) We have a lot of cool stuff to do and see in a short span of less than two days.

Since we'll be turning in early tonight, I thought I would use this time to draw some comparisons and make some observations about Paris vs. home.

Here's what we haven't seen or encountered in Paris:

• ugly road signs
• dollar stores
• convenience stores (as you and I know them) but maybe in other neighborhoods with small produce stands outside
• larger "one-stop shopping" stores such as Walmart, Shopper's Drug Mart & Loblaws--except for Monoprix but it sells some clothing and housewares..not a lot.
• dog poo everywhere like the rumors say
• Dr. Pepper (or Diet)
• Crown Royal (also, their "Mickeys" are packaged and hung on pegs behind the cash desks)
• hardware stores or anything selling large equipment
• hardly any shopping malls for a city this size
• no tall apartment buildings due to very old rules for buildings in Paris
• large grocery stores--instead there are small grocery stores everywhere
• refrigerated eggs---they keep theirs on shelves around the corner from the refrigerator aisle
• North American wine--if they do have it, it is probably in a specialty shop
• food trucks, no hot dog stands
• no "sub sauce" at Subway (what the hell??)
• no smelly metro stations
• no rude waiters

Stuff they have that we don't have:

• Coca-Cola Green (sweetened with Stevia)
• touch-screen kiosks to order food in McDonald's
• yogurt in little glass jars with tin foil lids
• a fantastic and comprehensive public transit system including the bike rental system
• pharmacies every hundred meters or so
• Boulangeries
• mostly cobble-stoned areas, the difference being whether they're old or new, big or small
• traffic stop lights both at eye level and hanging over the intersection
• public toilet stations every few hundred meters (not porta-potties). There's actually an app to find the nearest one
• free prescription drugs, hence pharmacies on every corner
• roaming groups of police officers and French army carrying machine guns and other types of security around monuments
• a police department (prefecture) in every arrondissement
• roasted chestnuts as a typical sidewalk fare you can buy
• paper money of different lengths and widths depending on denomination
• bottled soft drinks served at restaurants (for the most part--that's why they're expensive, ie: 4Euros)
• red wine by the keg in restaurants--if you ask for the house wine, you get it drawn from a big keg. I'm not aware of any Canadian restaurants that do the same
• French-made movies and French actors on all of the movie posters. I haven't seen any movies that look familiar with familiar faces advertised
• Self-Coiff : a budget hair cutting salon where the prices are reduced if you dry or comb/brush out your own hair
• their tap water tastes great!
• signs warning you to watch out for pickpockets
• luxurious taxi cabs who offer to charge your cell phone for you and offer free WiFi
• tobacco pouches to roll their own cigarettes (while sitting at the bistro with their friends who are smoking)

Here are stereotypes we have come across more than once every day:

• riding bicycles 
• a sense of fashion and carefree self-expression in their clothing choices
• men wearing scarves and cool spectacles
• smoking! oh God...so many smokers (I saw a guy waiting for his gym to open having a smoke)
• most people walking their dogs are walking small dogs or teacup dogs...including pouffy poodles
• wearing stripes
• baguette carrying & eating
• packed bistrots on every street until late at night
• parks packed with people laying around eating and drinking and enjoying the nice weather
• wine being cheaper than pop...in fact I bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for 2.89Euros

A very soggy but musical day in Paris

Today's plan was to go and explore the Marche Aux Puces-Saint Ouen (antique flea market), home of the famous and campy Chez Lousiette restaurant tucked away amongst the vendors.

The metro ride there took us through Gare Du Nord train station, so we lucked out in being able to do a dry run of the early morning ride to board the Eurostar for London this coming Tuesday.

As warned, to get to Marche Aux Puces, you need to walk through a gauntlet of tented vendors--the type who sell clothes, shoes and sunglasses for a cheap price. We did find our way to Chez Louisette for lunch and it was everything I heard and hoped it would be:

• campy/kitchy decor
• French singers accompanied by a synthesizer and accordion
• mediocre food at high prices

It was so worth the trip! The Marche Aux Puces itself is a group of   markets, each with their own entrance, they each look a bit different from one another. It is the place to go to find large antique items for homes or offices that's for sure. We didn't stay too long and as we decided to go, the rain started pouring down. The tented vendors were running everywhere trying to protect their wares and our feet got completely soaked so that each step we took felt like a wet sponge in each shoe.

Once home, I decided to go to the West Coast Swing dance over in Ivry-Sur-Seine at L'Orchidee as recommended by some Parisian WCS dancers I had been put in touch with. Earlier in the week I was wondering about how to get there and was apprehensive about the walk from the metro station to the studio and as well walking back to the apartment if I returned by metro. Instead, I decided to splurge on two cab rides and it was so worth it! By the way, G7 Taxis are beautiful cars (on the way back home it was a Mercedes-Benz) and they can charge your cell phone for you while you ride. It was a wonderful, sweaty evening of event-quality dancing with the best DJ I've heard.

Upon arriving home, I am  super-hungry and I was irritated that I hadn't thought to pick up a fresh baguette on our way home. Instead I ate mushroom soup and wine.

I will know better next time to *always* have a baguette in the kitchen :)

A day for a meander and a night to go up the Eiffel tower

Today I slept in until 10:30am. Well actually the last few days it's been that pattern : )
So this is what a vacation feels like!

I'm glad that when I ate breakfast at the Hampton Inn on the 19th that I shamelessly pocketed 5 mini-boxes of cereal at the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I've been having those for breakfast several days now, as well as gleefully enjoying coconut-flavored yogurt that comes in little glass pots with gold foil lids that you peel off. I'm saving all the glass pots to make some sort of use out of them back home.

We finally figured out how to heat something up on the stove--these people who own the apartment seem to like their fancy appliances that are not intuitive whatsoever. We felt like happy cavemen when the element started to warm up so we could enjoy soup for lunch. We are still astonished that the laundry machine takes 2.5 hours to do a load of laundry.

As well--buying milk at the grocery store is completely confusing. Some of it's refrigerated, some of it isn't but the bottles look the same. They're stocked in 6-packs that are shrink-wrapped and if you want an individual bottle from the pack you just tear open the pack and customers pick their milk jugs out of it. There's "demi-creme" and other confusing names but nothing seems to be 1% or 2% etc. I will have to google the milk situation. I think I might have accidentally bought a lactose free dairy product since I neglected to notice that it doesn't say "lait" anywhere on it.

Today I googled the Top 5 passages in France and noticed that Passage du Grand Cerf (pronounced as "sare") was just down the block. So I showed Gran the exciting tool that is Google Streetview to help us visualize our route and we took a walk, arm-in-arm down to Passage du Grand Cerf. It was okay, very pretty to look at but not as lively as Passage du Jouffroy (pronunced "zh-oh-froy"). However when we came out the other end we found that across the alley was another Passage, so we went through that and when we came out the end of that, suddenly we were in the midst of a very popular, mostly-pedestrian market street called Rue du Montorgueil. Here we cris-crossed from store to store, bought the most succulent croissants I've had yet, enjoyed watching some Brasilian Capoeira buskers in the street and just had an amazing time feeling that sense of discovery. It is primarily a food market street with lots of meat, fish, cheese stores, bakeries, of course a couple of pharmacies, bistros, toy stores etc.

Later in the afternoon, I took a walk over to Les Forums des Halles which is a mall that is primarily below street level and extremely confusing. It's also where we can catch the Metro and RER trains.


Tonight was our night to go up the Eiffel Tower. I had actually booked the tickets up the tower a few weeks ago when the 11pm slot was all that was left. I had been wondering over the last few days what the best way to spend our time was to ensure that we were in the area for our 11pm elevator ride. We ended up booking a custom 1-hour tour with our favorite driver, Vincent of 4-Roues Sous 1Parapluie. It was technically his night off, but when he was contacted by his company and they explained who we were, he gladly agreed to drive us around. I thought it would be best to have Vincent, not only because he's a delicous Frenchman with sparkling blue eyes and an engaging personality, but because..............I forget now.  Oh yes--because he would already know where he has taken us.

He took us over on the East side (10th and 11th arrondissements) where there are more immigrant communities and along the Canal St. Martin. He drove us past where he lives, along past Pere Lachaise Cemetary etc and we saw another side of Paris with lots of graffiti and people who hardly ever see a vintage Citroen driving tourists in Paris through.  When I mentioned the time, he started back towards the other side of the city where the Eiffel tower is and under the very same tunnel where Princess Diana died in that horrible car crash (August 31, 1997) against one of the supporting beams.

It started to rain a little bit and there was no time for him to pull over and put the cover over the car, so I opened my newly-bought, cheesy "Paris" umbrella and held it up over the open top of the car---just like the logo shows!

Once at the tower, we had a very short and fast-moving line to stand in and we ascended to the second floor. We got out and looked around the city, took some pictures and a little video and enjoyed the view. If you ever go up the Eiffel tower, go to the very top as I'm sure the view would be even more stunning. Since it was late, we didn't stay long or seek out any historical education while we were up there--the 2nd floor is a little underwhelming but still an experience to enjoy.

On our way home, Molly said she enjoyed it more than she expected to, but raved more about the tour through the area of Paris no tourists seek to check out.

Discovering a Paris "Passage"

We had another day left on the L'OpenTour bus tickets (it's 32Euro for 1 day and 4Euro more for another day, so it only made sense), so we decided to make practical use of it albeit briefly.

Using my trusty Metro app, we took the Metro to the Grand Boulevards area (Bld Montmartre, a touristy spot) and found the Passage Jouffrey that Molly's friend had told her about.

As a side note, we grabbed a McDonald's pop first (wink-wink @ Kelly). In Paris, you can order your food on a touchscreen kiosk much like how we can go into the movie theaters now and buy/print tickets at the kiosk and then you walk up to the counter and pick up your order. As well, McDonald's are clean and I don't recall hearing the annoying "meeeeeeeep meeeeeeeeep" of a fry basket ready to be removed from oil--am I right??

Oh also, before took the Metro we stopped in at Monoprix and I tried to find conditioner. Here's a tip: French bottles don't say "Conditioner" and don't immediately sit arm in arm with the shampoos that they compliment. They say "apres-shampooing". So a quick scan of the shelves and all you see is "shampoo" in all the product packaging.

So anyways...we found the Passage which is open to the street, but is like a covered alley with stores and restaurants lining each side. Some of them may be multi-level; we're going to check out Passage du Grand Cerf which apparently is close to home tomorrow and is two levels.

They're also referred to as "arcades" and are probably the first indoor malls.

We came upon Le Bistrot and had to sit down and soak it all in. I had trouble with the menu as there are some things on the menus here that I didn't recognize and the waitress did not speak much English. I had a delicious French lunch of turkey covered in mushrooms and a cream-based sauce, white potatoes and salad in another type of dressing, accompanied by a glass of red wine and some pieces of baguette and butter.

The whole experience was made absolutely wonderful by this trio of performers who showed up:

Later, we hopped on the L'OpenTour bus and rode it until the Louvre. We were allowed through the "reserved ticket" line without having reserved tickets. When we did stand in line for tickets, we were about 6th in line at about 5pm. My primary interest was seeing the Mona Lisa, anything else would be wonderful. Unfortunately the Louvre is not very accessible and there are a lot of marble stairs leading up to some things people would probably want to see. I personally shouldn't be doing stairs right now unless necessary and my Gran was also not enjoying the stairs and the large tour groups and people crossing hither and thither. So we decided to leave having seen what we wanted to see and headed home, both of us tired. I'm not a big fan of museums mostly because I could never get into history. I'm not trained in looking with an educated eye at art, so a lot of it looks the same as the next. It was a good idea to just pay as we go.

Doubledecker bus tours

Did I mention how men here wear scarves around their necks as much as Canadian men wear baseball hats or t-shirts? It's not even to do with the weather! It's just what they do. Today I saw a man with a very playful big-polka-dotted scarf and I was so appreciative of how refined the men of Paris seem to be. The other day I saw a man walking his little dog with a glorious mane of silver/grey hair, a neat pair of jeans and good shoes, a blazer, a dress shirt and a cigarette.

As well, I must also add that I have yet to experience any sort of neglectful and cold service from any waiter or waitress here. The only person who seemed to have an attitude was that one cashier at Monoprix who literally tossed our reusable bag at the groceries we needed to hurry up and bag.

At the same time, I am speaking as much French as my brain and memory can handle. There are times when I'm not sure that I've said something correctly, so I tell them "pardonne, mon Francais est limitee" and they tell me "no---ees very goo-d". I will often ask "parlez-vous Anglais?" and then I will continue to ask them or respond to them in French where I can so as not to rely too heavily on their comprehension of English.

Thanks to my grade 7 (or was it 8?) group French project (a fruit salad we had to create for class), I had a use for "pamplemousse" today. Stacey, Christine & Kelly will love to hear that. As a side note, we were so last-minute that we basically brought a bowl and each of us brought some fruit and cut them into halves or quarters throwing them into the bowl as we named the fruits in French. We figured that the goal of the project was to say things in French, not serve an edible and appealing fruit salad.

Last night we decided that Thursday and Friday would be touring days using L'OpenTour (paris.opentour.com).

If you are someone who is researching these double-decker style bus tours in Paris, let me help you a bit:

L'Open Tour: only a few bucks more than the Big Bus Tour with 50 stops and 4 lines to travel on. The best option I found.

Big Bus Tour: this tour circulates close to the Seine and all the major attractions, similar to L'OpenTour's Green Line circuit but is probably a great choice for those who just want to see the "essentials"


Bustronome Tour: dinner on a double-decker bus (not open top) with lunch and dinner tours--pretty pricey. This one I only learned about in transit when I spotted it from the upper deck of our bus today.

FoxityTour: this one I had also only learned of today when I spotted it from the upper deck of our bus and haven't researched it, but it also didn't seem to come up in any major bus tour info from the websites that are most regularly suggested.


I'm loving the open top bus tour idea. It's a great way to be elevated above the tree line (mostly) and not have the view of traffic in the way (mostly) and you can plan which stops you want to get off to try and take in some side-interests that probably wouldn't be worth the hassle to visit in order to get back to the rest of Paris. It gives you access to most of Paris without having to walk it or having to burrow underground and figure out the Metro route to get to where you want to go (not that there isn't a sense of adventure in navigating the Metro).

We bought a 2-day pass on the L'OpenTour since it's only 4Euros extra to do so. Today we did the popular Green Line, tomorrow maybe we'll focus on another line. You can hop on and off between different circuits if you want, but with the sun beating down on you when you're not traveling under the shade of trees lining the smaller streets and boulevards, it can make it extra tiring.

Today we hopped off at the Printemps stop in order to have pizza for lunch at a little side-street pizzeria and instead went over the Galeries Lafayette because I had seen the gorgeous cupola and gold balconies facing into the center of the massive department store. It did not disappoint! However, I fell in love with a pair of shoes there, so I learned my lesson to stay out of the giant, opulent department stores who sell things you absolutely must have : )

This evening, my Gran and I chatted more about her life as a wife and mother and her entrance into the Nursing profession in her 40's. We experimented with a couple of red wines we bought at the Carrefour around the corner and cut off pieces of Beaufort and Brie cheese.

In a fantastic moment of female bonding, I showed her Lady Gaga's Oscar medley of Sound of Music songs and neither of us made to the end of the performance without crying--that's what kicked off the rest of the wine, cheese and baguette night lol.


Bon nuit mes amis xox

-Rachelle

The Palace of Versailles

It was another gorgeous weather day here in Paris and it was the day we scheduled a 4-hour, small-group tour with ParisCityVision.com to go to Versailles.

If you are ever trying to decide whether to do a full or half day tour at Versailles, do a full day tour if you can. I say this for a couple of reasons:

1. It takes about 40 minutes to get out of the city to Versailles and about 50 minutes or so to get back in due to the rush hour (and we'll talk about Paris traffic in a moment).

2. It takes about 20 minutes to find parking and to walk to the front entrance.
3. It takes another 15 minutes for your tour guide to go and get the group registered and then get everyone into the first room to view.

Once the tour is over, you'll be given some time to do whatever you want and are to meet your tour guide at a designated spot.




The gardens are HUGE.

It took us a full 35 minutes to briefly go through the gift store and then head down a cobble-stoned slope to where we thought we should be going and it turns out we came out about 3 blocks away from where our tour guide was probably waiting on us stragglers to get back to her. She did tell us that she would not wait if anyone was late. Fortunately she waited 5 minutes for us. I tipped her 5Euro for that.

Versailles is incredibly opulent and it is wonderful to see as much of it as you can.  If you would like to check out the video I made of our tour, you can find it at: http://youtu.be/IiRHMnoyHvk


Paris Traffic

I am so glad I didn't consider renting a car for this trip! While I also researched the public rental bike system "Velib", there's no way in hell now that I'm here that I would risk myself to use one.

There are no lines on the roads really--they're imaginary. Just watching the chaos going around the Arche Due Triomphe three times now is enough anxiety for me! Cars appear to be cutting each other off--today I saw a car on the inner ring near the Arche, cut across two "rings" of traffic to get to the outer ring. It seems like 40% of the vehicles are motorcycles and maybe another 20% are bicycles and they are all very daring. A few times I've heard a motorcycle's mirrors knocking and scraping against the side of vehicles. The people on motorcycles are from all walks of life. They're not your typical "biker" like we may see in Canada, these are people coming to and from work, biking in fashionable wedge heels and a dressy pant suit with a helmet. I'm not talking about a scooter. We're talkin' motorcycles.

 Bon soir mes amis!

Metro & Museum adventures

Today was scheduled to be a museum day. Molly's one and only "must-do" for Paris was to go to Musee D'Orsay and visit the impressionist paintings. Specifically she wanted to see the famous works of Vincent Van Gogh and  Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec.

We chatted over breakfast deciding on how best to get to the Musee D'Orsay and the possible side trip to Musee Rodin. If you ever come to Paris, download the Paris Metro app and you can use it to calculate and provide you a list of steps to get where you're going.

The ride on the Metro was pretty straightforward if you paid attention to the visual cues and for us, also because I had written down the route beforehand.  I should also add that I watched about 2-3 videos on Youtube.com about how to ride the Metro and that was also helpful.

There were no unsavory characters and a couple of young guys gave up their seats to us immediately which was very polite. We connected onto the larger double-decker train (the RER) to get to D'Orsay and it has quite the step up/down compared to the Metro which is at platform level. Seriously. If you go to Paris, get the Paris Metro app and for the love of God, don't make the same mistake I did and charge your cell phone before you head out.

In planning this trip, I held off on pre-purchasing the Paris Museum Pass which helps you skip the line and gain entrance to several museums and monuments. It's a great value if you're going to spend a good chunk of your days going to enough of these locations to pay for itself. However, this is my first time traveling with a senior citizen and I needed to determine what her stamina was like first.

Besides, we waited in line to get in for all of about 10 minutes and the people in the Reserved queue waited about half that time but paid more than we did. It also gave us a chance to enjoy the lively French music of the trio playing nearby on a bass, accordion and drums.

Amongst all the art we stopped to admire, we saw works of:

• Van Gogh
• Toulouse-Lautrec
• Monet
• Renoir
• Cezanne
• Degas
• Gaugain

Of all that I saw, I was most enamored with a sculpture by Degas, "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years" mostly for what the audio guide explained about how controversial it was at the time and how people accused Degas of "taxidermy" because his sculpture was far too lifelike, especially with the incorporation of real material and real ballet slippers in the wax and bronze figure. Personally, for all the interpretations made of it back in the day, it just looks to me like she's pleasurably stretching her shoulders while in third or fourth position.

From there, we decided to move on to the Musee Rodin but we were also foot-tired. We decided to grab a Pedicab (a cycle-rickshaw). The driver spoke the absolute barest amount of English to know where we wanted to go. And so we pulled out into busy Parisian traffic at about 3:45pm with Florentine at the wheel. What a ridiculously fun thing to do in Paris! A L'Opentop tour bus pulled up behind us and because I was smiling back and forth with the driver he edged his bus close enough to us to allow me to poke his windshield :)

Florentine stopped to show us Les Invalides and point it out on the map and then proceeded "a droit" in the wrong direction. He had to stop and ask for directions and did a u-turn to go around the other side of Les Invalides to bring us to Musee Rodin. Here we saw a lot of Rodin's sculptures (ie: The Thinker and Molly's favorite the Bergers of Calais) but the beautiful gardens are a draw on their own. In reading the descriptive plates next to several sculptures, I can't help but think that Rodin must have been so pissed when so many of his sculptures were not used after he was commissioned to do them or rejected, or he was ignored when it was decided how and where to put a sculpture on display. And yet he persisted onwards with his art. We stopped and had beer and gelato in the garden and I listened to her reminisce about her life as a young woman just as she met her husband.

Finding our way back home via the Metro was a bit of a challenge considering my phone was dead and I hadn't thought to map out our return trip. We stopped at two Metro Information kioskis...."Parlez-Vous Anglais?". Almost everyone answers, "A leetle". We found our way back without much of a hitch other than the two times where we stood at different crossroads wondering which direction to take and whether we had made ourselves understood to the last Information person.

To wrap up the day, we decided to go for dinner at the restaurant/bistro/bar just under our apartment. I said "deux" and "a l'exterieur" to eat outside. We sat and ate quiche & salad and "cote de boeuf avec frites". Many of these bistros serve soft drinks in their old-school glass bottles which is thrilling for me. The waiter brought me a bottle with "Princesse" on it : )

After a delicious dinner we came up to the apartment and reviewed what we're doing for the next few days and now Molly has gone to do her crossword puzzles in bed listening to the restaurant's din below and here I sit again with the windows wide open listening to the same from the dining room.

Today's bonus win: While sitting in the Pedicab, a truck was beeping playfully behind us. I looked over my shoulder and two handsome Frenchmen were waving and flirting at me : )

Ah Paris. Vous etre tres magnifique xox.

Seeing Paris at night in a 2CV Citroen

I am sitting here in the very wonderful apartment I found for us on AirBnB.com. If you ever travel, really consider this as an option so you can feel like you are "living" alongside the locals.

It's nighttime and I have the tall windows open to let in the sounds of the cafe right below. It's a constant stream of conversation, punctuated by laughter and the 'clink/clank' of plates and cutlery. Cigarette smoke lingers in the air and has found it's way up to our 4th floor.

I've just had a hot chocolate and several chunks of baguette and butter. Let me tell what the last two days have been like:

Day 1....as the plane made its descent over Paris in the early morning, I spotted the Eiffel Tower which looked like a toy. Our driver picked us up in the silver Mercedes-Benz van and dropped us off at the Dupont Cafe across the street from where the apartment is. It was then that I realized that bringing two 42" suitcases, a carry-on and a tote was too much luggage to manoeuvre over the parts of the street that were cobble-stoned. A rookie mistake, I agree. But really, I didn't pack an unreasonable amount of clothes given how varying the weather forecast had been leading up to the trip.

We set down our things, got acquainted with the apartment and then took a walk down Rue du Rivoli discovering a park around a monument and then found ourselves crossing over the Seine river past the oldest hospital in Paris: Hotel Dieux and then in front of Notre Dame with tourists flocking in front of it. We didn't bother to explore it at that time, but it was nice to just happen upon it : )

In the evening, we were met by Vincent of 4Roues Sous 1Parapluie in beige colored 2CV (vintage Citroen, beloved car of France) and her name was "Tante Sophie" (Aunt Sophie). We covered our legs in blankets and were taken on a beautiful twilight and nighttime tour for 3 hours. We climbed the hill to Montmartre and looked out over the city, we saw old windmills, all the monuments, we saw where Victor Hugo lived, where Van Gogh and Toulouse Lautrec had been, we saw the Moulin Rouge, the restaurant from the movie Amelie, we saw the hotel where Jim Morrison had died and at 11pm precisely he showed us the Eiffel Tower as it burst into a sparkly, disco tower of lights!

Being a detail-oriented planner truly paid off in deciding that this would be the best way to be introduced to the "City of Light" and to kick off this type of trip.



Day 2...We both slept about 11 hours, so obviously the traveling had taken a toll on us and we didn't realize by how much. Our first order of business was to find a grocery store and for me to get my unlocked cell phone hooked up onto the Orange mobile network with a plan. We walked a few blocks to discover Monoprix which is like Target where the main floor was clothes and such and the top floor was grocery. They don't have long conveyor belts like the grocery stores back home, instead the cashier tosses your reusable bag at you and you bag it yourself hurriedly while she starts ringing the next person through. Smart and local Parisians come to the grocery store with a covered cart. Another lesson learned.

Fun grocery store find: little yogurts in glass jars with a foil lid that you peel back. Beer is sold in plastic beer bottles. The only pop they seem to have is Coke, Pepsi and some sort of Ginger Ale.

After walking a few blocks in one direction to find the larger grocery store, I found the smaller version " Monop' " just 2 short blocks in the other direction, so we'll be going there from now on.

Later this afternoon after the temperatures started to get more comfortable, we strolled along in our neighborhood, meandering our way over to Centre Pompidou to view some of the contemporary art installations there. There were some amusing things to look at and ponder, but overall probably not worth the entrance fee. However--an exceptional view of Paris when on the topmost floors.

Our 2CV driver Vincent had told us that most of the Parisians live in apartments. So many people hang out in parks together, laying on or sitting on any public space enjoying the weather and being social. On our tour, we saw countless cafes with outdoor seating; everyone seated facing the street (sitting side by side instead of across from one another at tables)...apparently a way to squeeze more patrons into the allotted space for each establishment. I realized that Paris must be an incredible social place to live. It seems that these people must hang out a lot after work and in the evenings.

Vincent also mentioned that every street in Paris has trees on it except for the area in front of L'Opera so that the trees don't disrupt the view of it.

It's so easy to fall in love with this place : )

1 Week Today...

One week from today--right now--we'll have touched down in Paris, been picked up by Blacklane car service and driven downtown to the "4e Arrondissement" very close to Centre Pompidou. We'll have met our AirBnB host, put down our stuff and probably chosen rooms to flop in and take a nap. Or will we be too excited to nap?!

Either way, it's coming! It's starting to feel a tiny bit real now. Certainly all the T's have been crossed and i's dotted, but it hasn't felt "real" and my planner-brain took over and did what was needed to prepare.

I can't wait to share everything we see and experience : )

"Pack your bags, we're going to Paris!"

It was early March and Gran (Molly) called me up to remind me that it was my Dad's birthday. In the conversation, she let me know that she was worried about a doctor's visit on the upcoming Monday where she thought she would receive bad news from a recent CT scan of her lungs. She said if it was bad news, "pack your bags we're going to Paris!".

Monday afternoon came and when I called her at home, I was happy to hear relief in her voice. Everything was fine! Her years as a nurse meant she had been exposed to Tuberculosis which would always end up showing up on CT Scans. The doctor reassured her that at 86, she was in great health.

"Let's go to Paris anyways!" I thought maybe she was just saying this from the relief and elation she was feeling after good results. But I also knew that she'd been talking about returning to Paris for the last 7 years. I called her a couple of days later and she had already told her sister Pat that we were going. I double and triple-checked that she was serious and when I was sure that she was, I started the process of planning the trip of a lifetime since she preferred that I take care of that rather than a travel agent.

A couple of weeks into the planning I was wired from the surreality of what I was doing and from the disrupted sleep (who can sleep when planning a trip like this??). It took another week or so to start pacing myself a bit more, but that's also because I managed to book all the important stuff quickly (flights, accommodations).

It's now April 5th and I pick her up at the airport in 12 days to start the journey. It still feels like I've been planning this for her and my alter ego in another universe. I think that I have no idea how big and fantastic this is going to be; how life-changing it may be. I may experience epiphany after epiphany, who knows!? 

I have taken great care to consider Gran's comfort and to research a ton of things ahead of time. So far the things that I find myself getting most excited about is the airplane ride in Air France Business Class ("I want to fly Air France! They give you champagne when you board." she said) and the cool new cabin that Air France has built, the thought of the Paris flea markets and our excursion over to London. These are things I can more immediately relate to or have experienced before in some manner.

12 more days!