Our main motive for our stay in Paris was to get to beds ASAP on arrival and spend a couple of days getting over jet lag before we met up with our friends Marg and Chris who would be finishing their Viking cruise in Lyon. We’ve been to Paris a number of times (and Linda did a semester abroad here) so mostly we wanted some slow travel and rest, some good, but not fancy food and to enjoy the ambience of Parisian streets and spaces. Tuesday we woke up a bit late, more like NYC time and ambled around the corner to a cafe for breakfast. Wonderful French coffee as expected, Linda had the “Anglaise” - over easy eggs with white bread toast and I ordered a tomato & onion omelette that came with more interesting bread and a lovely salad.
Our next mission was to try to book Assistance for the disabled passenger for our SNCF train rides. After attempting it online several times from home and emailing the SNCF, I was told I could go to the station and arrange it. The RER (light rail) station was near our hotel so we walked over there. Job one - find an entrance with an elevator for the walker. That required a bit of circular hiking and multiple conversations, only to end up very near to where we started, but there was indeed an elevator. Further pondering of signs, conversations with passengers on the platforms, and a trip up an escalator with the walker (strictly”INTERDITE”, happily no gendarmes in sight) which led us to a place with an information booth containing a human being. Unfortunately on the other side of a turnstile. Since we hadn’t needed a ticket to enter, we had none to get out with. Linda pointed out that they take a dim view of being ticketless at the end of a journey. I looked around for a solution, and saw a green button with a flip up glass cover that said it was for assistance. With no other alternative, I flipped and pushed at which point an ear-piercing alarm went off. I closed the cover right away and thankfully it stopped. Even more thankfully, it got the attention of a very nice woman whose French was slow enough for us to follow. She patiently explained that the RER is linked with the metro system and has no connection to the SNCF train office of Assistance. She did explain how to find it (though I was pretty sure it wasn’t as simple as she indicated). So good thing we started early, but really had not much to show for our morning’s perambulations.
Second objective for the morning was to wander the neighborhood around the Saint Germain church, suggested by Linda’s reading as an area with interesting shops and art galleries. So we cabbed over there to save my legs after the many steps earlier. There were a few shops of interest, including one called Moustaches - a pet store with some fun items. Including this fetching number, modeled beautifully by a visiting customer.
We decided Billy didn’t need one at the price, but enjoyed the fashion show. A little fruit and veg shop caught my eye. It was called Potager which my French mystery reading taught me was the word for the soup garden near a house. They had some humongous carrots and the smallest cauliflowers I’ve ever seen. Also some teeny sweet plums thatI initially thought were individual grapes. Not much in the way of art galleries, but a diverting stroll anyway. Several cafes were festooned with flowers.
By then it was time for lunch and we found a lovely Greek place that had the best moussaka I’ve ever tasted. Linda is getting in touch with healthier eating lately and Paris is certainly a good place to explore salads. No picture of hers because I forgot until after I had removed the objectionable olives, cucumbers and beets, but I wanted to credit her efforts.
Next item on our slow travel/foot saving agenda was a boat trip on the Seine. Touristy, but a pleasant way to see Paris on a warm breezy evening. The clouds produced a spectacular sky and thankfully only a tiny sprinkle here and there.
This woman was making some sort of video, lip synching to music and with a videographer opposite her on the other side of the staircase. We never learned more.
By then we were hungry so, against all advice not to eat within a hundred yards of a major tourist attraction (in this case the Eiffel Tour), we went in search of dinner. The side walk hawkers were out in force, but we resisted them and were rewarded with Chez Ming - a simple pan-Asian place with Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese food. We learned during some trip past that eating mostly other ethnic cuisines in Paris is cheaper and lighter than traditional French fare. Successful so far on this trip.
