Paris 2019, Day 5

Another lazy, rainy day.  Supposed to experience a high temp of 39 degrees.  Yes, Barb, it's mighty cold here in December!

After our usual breakfast (today my egg was perfect!) we decided to visit the street everyone raves about and is the star of Instagram.  Rue Cremieux.  Okay, it's a cute street but nothing like was I had envisioned.

The street is blocked at each end, you can only ride your bike or scooter to your home.  These tiny homes (I understand that they are all one bedroom residences) are colorfully painted with lush trees and greenery along the sidewalk; the owners obviously take pride in their little lane.

As we walked down the lane we approached this:

How much fun the painters must have had!

As you see, it's a short lane but so sweet.  We did not stand in front of a door and take a selfie which the neighbors find abhorrent and have petitioned the city to put gates on either end of the street to stop the tourists from doing just that.  So I'm glad we got to see it before we were locked out.  The few people on the street this morning were walking down the center, politely taking pictures but not peering into windows or interfering with the residence's privacy.

This street is so sweet, even the closed restaurant windows are beautifully painted:

Back on the Metro to window shop in our neighborhood.  Hello, it's Sunday and everything is closed.  No matter, we can still look at the real estate ads in the windows.  One bedroom flats are around 1 to 1.5 million euros!  Nope, can't afford to live here.

So back to the room for a cup of tea and rest up.

I checked Amazon for this tea.  No dice.  Lori!  Mommy wants!  I swipe a few from the breakfast room every morning to have in the room during the day/evening.  Sure warms my bones.

Decided not to take the hop on/hop off bus tonight as it's just too darned cold.  We'll take the metro to Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up and whatever else we can see.

My father had a saying: "It was colder than a witches tit."  Now how he knew how to compare the weather to a witches anatomy is beyond me, but by golly after tonight I tend to agree with him.  Sharon and I have been wearing our scarves around the neck, leaving our ears unprotected.  Until tonight.  I would never have survived the open air bus (our original plan), it's currently 38 degrees, brutally cold.  We stood at the Trocadero for only a few minutes then it was time to go back to our neighborhood for Vietnamese food (a restaurant two doors from our hotel). 

 

It was just beautiful from across the Seine.  Neither of us had ever seen it lit up at night, quite the scene!

So nice to get back to our neighborhood and have a delightful meal with our warm hotel just right over there!  Time to settle in.  Pleasant dreams, more tomorrow!

Paris 2019, Day 4

Today was a lazy day.  Our plan was to check out the Christmas market at Saint Germain, enjoy the Christmas decorations at Galleries La Fayette, then take a nap in preparation for the night lights.  Well, it didn't quite happen like we planned (no surprise here)

[good news:  I found and photographed some amazing shoes!]

We made our way to St Germain and when we hit ground level there was a very small market set up on the street.  I liked the Yak scarves but didn't put one in my bag.  Where would I (or you) wear it?  Nice, heavy, warm and attractive, I just couldn't justify it.  The rest just wasn't interesting ... until I found some street art.  How about this in my front yard?

Placed just outside the Louis Vuitton store front.

Look hard, he's pretty weird.

After wandering about a bit, we jump back on the metro and we're off to Galleries La Fayette.  I'm trying to figure out how to get as close as possible to the store and Sharon is quoting a friend, "get off at Concorde, face Madeline and walk a few short blocks to the store."  Yeah, great idea, not so much.  So we ask directions from a guy on a bike pulling a jittney.  Right!  Next thing we knew we were in the jittney, he was covering our laps with a funny looking beach towel and we were off.  

He's pumping for all he's worth, no wonder he's so fit.

The price was highway robbery ... or was it?  It was an experience, and an amusing one at that.  He was a cutie, frequently looking over his shoulder to point out one outrageous store front or another, famous shopping and interesting people.  The ride was every bit of 2 or more miles and maybe 15 minutes.  Was it worth the price?  Sure, what the heck, you only live once (or so many people believe; me?  I'll be back!  But that's another story)

Where did he drop us?  Right outside the store, right next to a train stop (RER A) which, we later discovered took us straight to our home metro station!  Lesson learned.

The Dome over the Galleries La Fayette from the first floor

Tree from the sixth floor

The decorations were amazing and (almost) worth the body squeeze.  I don't do crowds well and it was a body crush for certain.  Parents, babies, children, young people all looking to see and be seen.  They had severely restricted ingress and egress with thick security at every entrance checking your bags and carefully arranged egress when you were through shopping.  I stopped to admire a Lancel bag (I'm quite fond of that brand having purchased one years ago when I was here with Barbara).  This bag was 650 euros which did not include the key chain that someone had attached to the handle.  WELL, if you attach it and it isn't included, heck I'm outta here!  I circumnavigated the 6th floor as Sharon admired the tree and watched it change colors.  I found a sweater that wanted to live in Prescott, 375 euros (1 euro = $1.10) and a cute, casual jacket that retailed for 350 euros.  Seriously, everyone can afford these prices?  Oh me O, oh my O, oh Cleveland, Ohio!  I was ready to move along.

Back to the room to chill, nap and prepare for lights.  Well, it's darned cold here and none of the buses have covered upper decks, so Sharon suggested we eat locally (pizza & a salad at the Italian place a few doors away) and I agreed with that.  

Dinner was delicious.  Now I'm writing and she is choosing a card for Tuesday.  Tomorrow we'll find those amazing doors on Rue Cremieux (the most photographed street in Paris on Instagram) and then we'll shop our neighborhood.  So far we've only shopped the outdoor market (on Saturdays and Wednesdays) and made a dash through the Printtemps (Prin TAUGH).  A simple day.  She just pulled a card for Monday so we'll have that to look forward to.  

I feel this particular trip is zooming by.  Probably because it's darned cold and if we don't rest between activities we catch a chill.  It's been an experience so far, but I don't think this time of year will be in my future travel plans.  

Thanks for following our trip, it really is fun!

Paris 2019, Day 3

I had the hardest time pulling out from my funk yesterday.  I ate too much at breakfast, then our tour was delayed ... and then cancelled, then we had enormous salads and I was cold, and I ate too much, and I was sooooo bummed that we weren't going to get to see our only big adventure (Napoleon's apartments in the Lourve).  Spent the day trying to shake off my funk, but it wanted to hang on. 

Side note:  I've never been able to spell Napoleon until I began playing Mahjong with friends.  One of the favorite tile goals is "Napoleon Babe".  I've tried it many times, now I can spell it!  Mom would be so proud.

My niece texted me to say she was in town by the Eiffel Tower and would I like to meet up for a glass of wine.  Well honey, I'm in jammies in the 12th.  I love you, but not putting on a bra (and the rest of an outfit) to travel to the Tower.  She was at the end of her holiday and left for the US this morning at 7:30.  So bummed because I adore this child and would have loved to hang with her for even a few minutes, but please, during the day when I'm at least human, not at the end of a very crappy day.  So it was not to be.  "Please, dear, next time!"  So my disappointment filled day finished with yet another disappointment.  Fly safe, sweet girl!

This morning I awoke clear headed, happy and full of excitement for a very fun day.  We started on Cite, the island on the Seine, we wanted to see the current condition of Notre Dame.  It's no longer completely covered in scaffolding, but it is completely surrounded by closed fencing, I mean completely, including the huge area in front of it and the entire back end - I couldn't even discern the flying buttresses through the foliage and fencing. 

 Close as I could get to a view of the front

You can see the parts of the roof under reconstruction

 The iconic Rose Window being repaired

Lots of repair work being done on the rooftop in the rear.

So sad until you consider the the amount of love, respect and engineering being poured into the restoration. 

I thought that they were having services now, I didn't witness any clues to that.  But I'm hoping that it will be repaired and refurbished during my lifetime.

And then we walked on.

On to Les Halles for another Christmas Market.  This one was small but sweet.  Les Halles is an enormous canopied shopping mall which was not on our list of places to visit, so after checking out the various booths, we left in search of falafalles in the Jewish Quarter.

As we remembered from past visits, they were YUMMO!

And then we separated.  Sharon was not remotely interested in fabric and I've been to Musee La Orange, where she wanted to be.  We met up in our room several hours later, both pleased with our afternoon.  (I found some beautiful Asian fabric, printed in Japan and sold in Paris (yes ladies, there will be fabric in your future.)

We napped for 30 minutes and then dawned our silks, sweater and warm coat for our meal in Vincennes.  We discovered Les Table du la Troy several trips ago and we have returned at least once each trip since then.  This time was especially nice.  Our server couldn't have been cuter or more fun.  This one spoke reasonable English and chuckled as I (as usual) butchered her beautiful language. 

I dearly love Steak au Poivre.  She didn't know "steak".  After a bit of giggling and pantomime we came up with boufe and I showed her the pepper shaker.  AU, she exclaims and points to the top item on the menu.  Sure!  We order for two, a bottle of my favorite wine to split and we sit back to people watch.  People walking their dogs, one or two or occasionally four; lovers hand in hand, the trashmen dealing with the trash in the night as the streets are so very busy during the day; the diners as they interact with the wait staff, our cutie coming to check on us and giggle some more.  Then she approaches with our meat to see if it is to our satisfaction:

Seriously?  That could feed a small army!

She asked if it would be okay and then the chef would plate it individually and beautifully with the sides, would it be acceptable?  Hah!  Hold that thought ... as I dug for my camera.  She held up the plate and was horrified when I wanted her face in the picture.  Isn't she a cutie?  

She took the platter away and I wondered how it would be presented.  Turns out the chef put it under the broiler, "thank you sir!" to add some color and crunch.  Turns out it was the PERFECT medium and cut in chunks.

Voila!

Seriously, could this be more beautiful?

It came with two sauces, one a pepper sauce, the other blue cheese.  The beans were devine and I had no intention of filling any spare space with bread or potatoes.  The meat simply melted into my mouth, it was beyond my expectations (and I had high expectations!).  Are we done?  No.

I saved room for dessert because, well because I wanted it!  "Two scoops of chocolate galleto, please!"  Well, that was beyond cutie.  So I pantomimed: Unh scoop (hand jesture), duex scoop (hand jesture) chocolat (the french don't add an E on the end).  She brightened up and babbled something in a language I've always been sorry I didn't study or learn, we smiled and nodded our heads.  And then she delivered this:

YUMMO!

The crisp was formed over a HOT cylinder and was almost sweet and very crisp and a lovely compliment to the chocolate glace (ice cream or galato, I wasn't certain).  We polished off all of it!

We were just before getting the bill when Sharon pointed behind me and said "grab your camera, and get a shot of this!"

Who knew?

Such a fun day to make up for the disappointment of yesterday.  I am well satisfied and happy once again!  Good night all,  S&S

Paris 2019, Day 2

November 28, 2019

Its been quite a day and it’s only 2:49 pm.  We started with an early alarm so we could leave the hotel by 8:30.  Our plan was to find the meeting place, identify our tour guide and visit Napoleon’s private apartment in the Lourve.  There was more "Humboldt drizzle" as we turned right, then realized the numbers were going the wrong way, turn around, cross the street and eventually find our meeting place.  We were 40 minutes early (we like to plan for plenty of time to get lost several times} and several times, we’ve needed every extra minute we budgeted.  

Eventually we found a tour guide (not ours) who informed us that the apartments were closed on Thursdays for maintenance.  Yes, every Thursday, including today.

Using my "pleasant, patient" voice, I said, okay how do we get a refund?  Since it's your company's error, can we reschedule?  She immediately pulled out her phone to text the company giving them our information and letting them know that we were willing to reschedule.  And now we wait.  Eventually, Ivan, the head tour guide, approached us to let us know that his company had made a huge mistake and offered to reschedule our tour to tomorrow at 10 am.  This was HIS tour, he assured us that he was an expert and was very funny and guaranteed that he would take special care of us tomorrow ensuring that we would completely enjoy ourselves.  How do you argue with that kind of guarantee?

I've never had a problem with human error.  It's really about attitude and how a problem will be resolved.  The company took ownership of the error and set about getting it resolved to our satisfaction,  Looking forward to tomorrow's experience.

[Update:  just got a call from the tour company.  It's not happening this trip as this is a very special tour and a guide is not available (wonder what happened to Ivan?).  She offered tickets to the Lourve or a refund ... which will be refunded to my account in four days.  They were very apologetic, but our tour isn't available.  I'm bummed.]

So we went shopping!  That would have been perfect timing to go out and find the fabric store I want to visit, but Sharon's purse now weighted in at half a ton (I hefted it and can verify it was darned heavy) so we decided to head back to the hotel to unload our "stuff" and regroup.

Today has rained off and on and then the sun came out blinding me.  I had left my sunnies in the room as the Weather Channel predicted 60% chance of rain all day and cloudy all day.  It lied.  Once we returned to the room I grabbed my sunnies and stuck them in my purse, guaranteeing that there would be no sun peakage the rest of the afternoon.

One of the cool things we have been noticing are shoes.  European men and women have the most stylish shoes I've ever seen!  I was noticing but not saying anything aloud when Sharon mused aloud that she had been noticing people's shoes.  I agreed and now I was fixated.  Today I began photographing shoes.  Haven't decided if I'm going to write about shoes, or just pepper my thoughts and pictures randomly.  Stay tuned for some interesting examples of shoes (or now that I've discovered this fact, perhaps I'll not see anymore good examples).

We decided to spend the afternoon in Vincennes, near the castle of King Henry of France and Queen Mary of France and Scotland.  We visited this beautiful venue several years ago when we discovered a favorite restaurant, La Table des Troy.  We visit them each trip.  Yum!  Today we each had a salad.  Eventually we'll return for a dinner, looking forward to Steak au Poivre

We wandered the neighborhood window shopping which was great fun and then suddenly I was cold and just a bit tired. Back to the room and dealt with more PC drama ... which I fixed moments before flinging my Surface out the window and sat down to write about the day and Sharon laid down for "just a minute".  She's back there sawing logs :).

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family.  We'e having a lovely time, we hope you are as well.

Shon and Sharon

Paris 2019, Day 1

We're back and loving it!

First, we couldn't get a direct flight from PHX to CDG unless we flew British Air and that wasn't happening.  Last year Gary and I flew BA to Heathrow in Premium Economy, couldn't have been worse unless we had been stuck with Delta, then I would have revolted because 10 years ago, Bea, Carolyn and I flew Delta on our trip to Italy and it was horrible.   So when I went to book our flight from PHX to CDG we had a stop over in ATL (Atlanta) on Delta (ARGH!) then transfer to Air France to CDG.

Well things change in 10 years.  Delta was a wonderful flight (we were assigned to Sky Priority in Comfort Plus class.  It was quite nice and we were very comfortable.  A couple of hours layover so we had an afternoon snack in a WONDERFUL bar in the international terminal, Jekyll Island.  We started with a Shrimp Cocktail (6 large poached shrimp) and Sharon supplemented with a pair of beautiful crab cakes (I was too full).  She had a Georgia Peach cocktail while I enjoyed a Scotch, neat.  Perfect amount of food/drink.

The 8 hour evening flight across the pond was uneventful  Sharon watched 3 movies while I completed 5 (she can nap, I cannot).  Oh my, went I went to cram my feet into my Danskos it was very difficult.  Typically we walk the plane when we have a long flight, but other than once to go to the far rear for a potty call, I never left my seat and my feet swelled.  By the time we cleared customs they were almost back to normal; once we collected our luggage, exited and found our driver (there's something quite nice about dragging yourself and your baggage out to a hoard of people holding out signs and spotting your name.  I still get a thrill to see a stranger holding up a sign with my name on it!  (doesn't take much to make me happy)

Arrived at our hotel and there was Rashid and Madame!  They have both been here for all of our trips, Rashid manning the deak and Madame running the breakfast room (and much else I suspect but that's how I "see" what she's about.  One year Rashid wasn't here ... turns out that he was completing college and is now managing the hotel.  Madame (I never knew her name) lit up when we entered and it was European cheek kisses and big USA hugs around.  Nothing better than starting a trip with excellent flights, prompt livery service, and finding hotel people you remember and who remembers you with such joy!

For once they are not full (winter months!) and our room was ready.  We went straight up, unpacked and crashed.  14 hours later we were both ready for a hot shower, breakfast and a good walk.

This morning we woke at 5am (we slept for 14 hours, remember!).  Eventually I crawled out of bed and got that hot shower I mentioned.  Mmmmmm, wonderful.  Sharon reminded me that the breakfast room doesn't open at 6 like I thought, it opened at 7.  Hmmm, okay I'll make an instant Starbucks that she is never without.  Blech, but I was desperate.  Still blech, but I partied on.

Finally went downstairs at 6:45 hoping they were ready and they were.  WHAT?  Everything had changed.  They had machines to make coffee ... which I was struggling to try to understand.  All the pictures of coffee had a foaming something, I just wanted a large cup of black coffee.  I had to resort to asking the night desk clerk to help me.  Coffee, no milk, PLEASE!  He just grinning at me and pointed to one of the coffee pictures that had foam on it, I don't remember what the label was but he assured me that it would not include milk.  I had three cups, delicious!

And I found the egg immersion cooker (can't remember the proper name), Sharon and I've been fixated on soft boiled eggs.  Took me three tries to get an edible egg (I'm usually lame on the first day).  Instead of being presented on a bed of ice, the yogurt and meats were in a small fridge.  Night clerk chuckled at me as I exclaimed that everything was new and hard to find ... my tiny hotel was getting a facelift and I was struggling with the changes.  All these new upgrades meant that the kitchen lady wasn't there anymore to be of assistance.  Hmmm, appliances replacing the working staff.  Bunny, you and I have had this conversation on more than one occasion.

Eventually, Sharon came down (this is our Paris habit, she grabs a few minutes more sleep as I'm in the shower and before I deal with my hair, I dash downstairs to grab some drinkable coffee and figure the the egg timing.  She finishes her morning routine and glides into the breakfast room all refreshed and then tries to find things in the breakfast room.

Eventually we're ready to find our first Christmas Market, and decide to go to the Tuileries.  Okay, so we're excited and managed to get there 90 minutes before they opened.  We walked, nothing was remotely ready, so we crossed the street to window shop and found a cafe.  I was looking for tea, Sharon suggested Mimosa and I was easily diverted from thoughts of tea.  It was a lovely cafe; not one employee was standing around looking at their phones, everyone was industrious, one polishing windows, one polishing shiny silver serving vessels, one sweeping floors, one moving things, setting tables, etc.

Our server could not have been more charming.

Really, olives at 10am?  Blech!  Sharon thought they were delicious.  At least they didn't go to waste.  We had a lime slice on the glass and a ton of pulp from the freshly squeezed oranges in our mimosas.  A lovely start to our day!

Eventually we made our way back to our first market.  It was sweet but a bit too much like a child's carnival.

Cute pic of Sharon with Santa

Weather was a bit chilly with a wonderful, gentle spray, what I've always described a "Humboldt Drizzle"

We decided that we were done with the kid's place and we would move on to La Defense as they had two markets, so we had a bit of drama at the Metro station (I had demagnetized my pass and Sharon's blew away) but once we got everything resolved, we moved on.

We had never stopped at LaDefense so it was fun to see this area.  Did I get a photo of the enormous Arc?  No I did not.  You all know about the Arc de Triomphe, well it is the middle arc: there are three in line with each other.  The giant Arc is located in LaDefense.  It is HUGE, I don't know how many floors, maybe 20.  Read more by Googling it:

The third Arc is near the entrance to the Lourve.  It is a much smaller version on the Arc de Triomphe and us typically noted as a meeting place for various tours.  They are all in line with each other.

Anyway, there are, in fact two markets at LaDefense and we enjoyed both.  Sharon always feels comforted when we see militia or police patrolling with their uzies.  I'm terribly uncomfortable.  Regardless, there they were, 12 years old carrying very large guns.  Stalls here were quite nice with lots of lovely things, we both enjoyed checking things out, much drooling, little buying.

I overdid my walking (not unusual for us in Paris) and my thighs are burning.  Actually that's a good thing as I've eating everything in sight.  Well, I managed to drop 5 pounds in preparation for the feasting.  

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I hope all of you have a wonderful day shared with family, good friends and food, and remember your blessings!

Love 

Shon & Sharon

Edinburgh Castle

Scotland and England waged war against each other for 100's of years until 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James I, King of Scotland and England.  Not that he was invited to rule, but royalty has always strictly followed the rules of succession.

When Henry VIII died, the crown went to his son, Edward, who lived until age 16.  Henry's first born daughter, Mary (from Catherine of Aragon) succeeded Edward.  Mary tried to bring catholicism back to England after Henry broke from the Catholic church and burned and tortured those who refused to return to her faith.  She is known as Bloody Mary.  Mary died childless allowing Elizabeth I to succeed.  Elizabeth, daughter of Ann Bolyn, was known as The Virgin Queen and brought about the reformation, peace and prosperity to England.

She and her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, were always at odds.  Mary gave birth to James VI and was forced to abdicate her throne.  Following Elizabeth's death, Mary's son, James became James I of England and Scotland.

Little trick to remember the outcome of Henry's six wives:  Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.  Quite the ditty..... (sorry)

As in many other great cities around the world, Edinburgh has seven hills.  The Edinburgh Castle is built on one of them, called a "crag and tail".   This refers to the shape of the hill ... ideally 3 of the sides are like cliffs and one side is a gentle rise.  This allows protection of the castle, while the castle's village is built on the slope allowing the villagers to escape into the castle should an army threaten.

This building houses the royal chambers and is home to the crown jewels.  Naturally this is this is the only area in the castle where photography is strictly prohibited.  The jewels are the second oldest royal jewels in the world, behind Hungry and the oldest in the UK (because Cromwell hated royalty and destroyed the British crown jewels by melting them down/breaking them up).

He was on his way to Scotland to do away with the royal family and their jewels.  The jewels were quickly spirited away and hidden within the walls.  The sword is broken in two pieces and crammed into the hole, then quickly covered.

Turns out no one kept notes of where the jewels were hidden and it wasn't until 1818 when Sir Walter Scott discovered the jewels in the wall.

 This is Margaret's Chapel named for a Queen Margaret from way, way back (I didn't take notes on the year :) but somewhere in the 1500s I believe)  It is still in use today.  Amazing!

 I took this shot because I just love what it says.  He is actually Security and today his job was to look into everyone's bag before gaining entry to the castle.  He's here to help.  He was very polite but I suspect he could take no prisoners if he found it necessary.

Tonight we  will have a "Scottish Evening" with dinner followed by entertainment at an annex of Presonfield House, set in the heart of Edinburgh, built in 1688 by Sir James Dick.  The description sounds lovely.  Tomorrow we'll be off to visit Britannia and explore Holyrood Palace, followed by our first farewell dinner.  About 19 of our group will return home while the rest will continue on for the post tour, headed to Inverness and then Glasgow.  

Oxford

Oxford University isn't anything like what I was expecting.  It is so many things.  There are 38 colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls of religious foundation within Oxford proper.  It is the oldest university in England,  When Henry VIII left the Catholic church, he dissolved the monasteries.  Mary I, Bloody Mary, reinstated catholicism, and Elizabeth I (the Virgin Queen) converted back to protestantism and instituted the Church of England.  Back to Henry.....

Trinity College

When he dissolved the monasteries, Henry VIII offered Thomas Pope any land he wanted; he chose Durham College, now Trinity University for his private holdings.  He turned it into a great estate and, because he had no heirs, he built a chapel to hold his remains.  Pope desperately wanted to be remembered throughout time.  Trinity University is the only college to be opened during the reign of Bloody Mary, founded in 1555.  Pope died in 1559 and was buried at St Stephens, Walbrook.  His remains were subsequently removed to Trinity College where his widow erected a semi-Gothic alabaster monument to his memory.  He was to be chanted daily since his death; the chanting continues to this day. 

 Trinity College Chapel

The lower left is where Thomas Pope and his wife's remains lie.

There are daily services where his name continues to be remembered.

Trinity College houses 400 students, a mix between under and post graduates.  The Oxford colleges are extremely difficult to gain entry.  They are rather liberal universities in the teaching style.  Students meet regularly with a mentor/tutor who collects the assignments, hosts discussions and then sends their student off to research, write papers, attend lectures, etc.  Students are encouraged to attend their assigned lectures and lectures of their peer students of other disciplines to better round out their education. 

Each college has its own library.  The oldest library on campus dates back to the 1400s.  Trinity College chapel is quite lovely and within the walls regular services are held along with debates and meetings.  An interesting side note:  Christopher Wren had a hand in building the chapel.

Simply couldn't resist another shot of the ceiling.  

Oxford is a lovely community.