Paris – Saturday, March 28, 2009
Today is the day that I became an independent femme en Paris!
We (the sisters and I) woke up early today so we could get breakfast in and any last-minute packing before the shuttle came to pick Debbie & Judy up for the airport. We were a bit overanxious, I think, because we ended up sitting in the lobby for over a half hour. That’s ok though, it gave us one last opportunity to be together. Who knows how long it will be before the three of us get together again? We’re talking about going on some sort of vacation again in another year or two, though.
The shuttle came and the driver carried the luggage out to the van. Debbie slipped trying to get into the van and fell on her behind on the curb. I hope she’s ok, she seemed to be but it was just adding insult to injury as her ankle is quite sore after a week of walking on it while it was sprained.
After they left, I left my luggage with the hotel and took off on the Metro. My destination was Trocadero, just across the Seine from the Tour Eiffel. Why? Caching of course. There are five caches within walking distance of that stop and I intended to find all five of them. The weather was nice, getting warm and sunny while I was in that area. (More on the weather later.)
The first cache was in the Cimitiere de Passy. This was a typical, though small, French cemetery. All of the graves and monuments are above ground. The entire cemetery is surrounded by a high stone wall, it was hard to find the entrance but I managed, after heading the wrong way first. I dropped my MamaBear travel slug (copy) there so that hopefully MamaBear can enjoy Paris after I’m gone!
I headed for the second cache, which was in the Jardin de Trocadero. This was a pleasant surprise as it was a wooded and flowering area, complete with a small waterfall. The bridge railings were concrete but made to look (somewhat) like wood. Unfortunately, I did not find this cache. I kept going back and forth on this one path that brought me close. There was a Frenchwoman there taking pictures of birds in the trees. I think she thought I was strange, but also that she needed to explain what she was doing because she started talking to me – I caught oiseaux (birds) and she had a big fancy camera so I figured she was taking pictures of birds. Didn’t understand much else that she said but she was friendly anyway. I would have had absolutely no idea where to start explaining what –I- was doing (searchez pour le boite plastique?) so gave up the search and moved on.
Cache #3 brought me down to the quay on the right bank of the Seine. An absolutely beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from a different perspective. The cache was on the wall of the quay (if it was there) about 2.10 meters up. I saw a couple of places it might have been (was supposed to be behind a white rock) but they were all too high for me to reach so another DNF (did not find.)
I had more success with cache #4. It was called Une passerelle avec une vue superbe, near a passenger bridge over the Seine. There was a metal slide on the edge of the steps – I think to slide luggage down? – and the cache was in a magnetic container attached to the underside. I had to sit down and pretend to be reading my cache book while I reached underneath and found the cache.
The last cache was a virtual. It involved finding the Liberty flame that is at the Pont de Alma. This is an unofficial memorial to Princess Diana as it marks the opening of the tunnel in which she was killed. I had to take my picture with the GPS and the flame. Not easy, I hoped a friendly tourist would offer to help me but none came by.
I took the metro back up to the Etoile and headed down ave de Wagram one last time. I decided to stop at MacDo’s on the way and upload last night’s blog, plus I logged the caches that I’d done so far in Paris. I left MacDo’s about 1:30, went to the hotel and picked up my luggage, and headed for the metro to take it down to my new hotel. It was not the easiest trip as I’ve accumulated some extra baggage along the way…using my blue Rick Steves bag that Eric gave me for Christmas. I’m going to have to send a package (or even two) of stuff home from Spangdahlem, that’s for sure. Hey Scott, if you read this before I come, can you stop by the base post office and pick up a few flat rate boxes if you don’t already have some? The metro was, of course, the most crowded it’s been and I had to stand up the entire way with my suitcase pack on my back. That 26 pounds of suitcase is probably closer to 36 now with guidebooks and other additions.
I made it to my new stop, Louvre de Rivoli, and walked the rest of the distance to the new hotel. I am now at the Residence Vauvilliers, a beautifully charming one star Parisian “experience.” Not. It is located on a narrow little street that is only one block long. I’m up on the fourth level in room #9. There are only 14 rooms altogether. It is very basic. A bed, which looks a bit cockeyed, a small table with chair, a window that opens out onto the street, and a shower. The toilet is right outside the door for the three rooms on this level. A bit shabby but for two nights it’ll do. The price is right anyway – 45 euros per night. Our previous hotel would have cost me, as a single, something like 160 euros per night. Mrs. Hotel Keeper was very pleased to have “une Americaine” staying with them, guess they don’t get too many. She was much less pleased that I was only staying two nights instead of the six I had reserved for. After much discussion between her and Mr. Hotel Keeper, I was allowed to stay for the two nights I needed, especially after explaining that I changed ONLY because I was now able to go to Germany to see my son in the “militaire” because he was not sent to Iraq after all, and that I had sent an e-mail two weeks ago requesting the change. She told me it would have been much better to call. I thought later about how difficult that would have been with the language barriers.
After dropping off my luggage, I took off again for the metro. My plans were to go up to L’Opera to catch the yellow L’Open tour bus to tour the Montmartre area. I thought I went the right direction once I reached the Opera area, but ended up walking up to the Hard Rock Café where I waited for quite a while but a bus finally came.
The bus ride was COLD and RAINY. And did I remember to grab my umbrella out of the bag before I left? Of course not! The weather, which had been sunny in the morning, had turned colder with intermittent rain. I was determined to ride on top as it wasn’t raining when I got on, and once I was damp I might as well stay there. It never rained really hard but it was enough that my teeth were chattering when I got off about an hour later. We went through Montmartre. I had thought about getting off at Sacre Coeur but it was just not nice weather, decided to stick with the bus. We also went past the Moulin Rouge.
Left the bus and took the metro back to Louvre Rivoli, after stopping in the station for a cup of chocolat chaud to warm me up (hot chocolate.) Walked around my new neighborhood for a bit, trying to decide what would taste good for dinner. Came upon a Franprix (grocery store) so decided to eat in tonight. After all, I’m now on the budget plan (a.k.a. paying my own way.) My “dinner” tonight has been a pineapple and coconut yogurt drink, cheese, and crackers. After I returned to my room, I did notice the sign on the wall that said “don’t eat your meals in room” but since I already had the food in the room, oh well. Maybe I will eat out tomorrow night though. We’ll see.
I’m planning to spend the evening inside as it’s still cold and damp outside. Promised my sisters I wouldn’t walk around Paris alone at night anyway. A good night to catch up on pictures and maybe even watch a movie on the computer. I’m going to go out to Versailles tomorrow so will probably find a place along the way to post this. Au Revoir!
Postscript 9:30 p.m. (local time – at home it’s 4:30 p.m.)
I’ve been working on pictures the last few hours and only have two days of my own pictures finished. It’s gonna be a long haul…. Fairly quiet night life out on the street (my room overlooks the street) except a window across the street has had a red light shining all night, I kid you not. I don’t know why and I probably don’t want to know, do I? I’ve remembered that Europe goes on Daylight Savings Time tomorrow, so I’m going to lose an hour AGAIN only to gain it back when I get home. That means I need to get up earlier to get out to Versailles so better get some sleep.
Today is the day that I became an independent femme en Paris!
We (the sisters and I) woke up early today so we could get breakfast in and any last-minute packing before the shuttle came to pick Debbie & Judy up for the airport. We were a bit overanxious, I think, because we ended up sitting in the lobby for over a half hour. That’s ok though, it gave us one last opportunity to be together. Who knows how long it will be before the three of us get together again? We’re talking about going on some sort of vacation again in another year or two, though.
The shuttle came and the driver carried the luggage out to the van. Debbie slipped trying to get into the van and fell on her behind on the curb. I hope she’s ok, she seemed to be but it was just adding insult to injury as her ankle is quite sore after a week of walking on it while it was sprained.
After they left, I left my luggage with the hotel and took off on the Metro. My destination was Trocadero, just across the Seine from the Tour Eiffel. Why? Caching of course. There are five caches within walking distance of that stop and I intended to find all five of them. The weather was nice, getting warm and sunny while I was in that area. (More on the weather later.)
The first cache was in the Cimitiere de Passy. This was a typical, though small, French cemetery. All of the graves and monuments are above ground. The entire cemetery is surrounded by a high stone wall, it was hard to find the entrance but I managed, after heading the wrong way first. I dropped my MamaBear travel slug (copy) there so that hopefully MamaBear can enjoy Paris after I’m gone!
I headed for the second cache, which was in the Jardin de Trocadero. This was a pleasant surprise as it was a wooded and flowering area, complete with a small waterfall. The bridge railings were concrete but made to look (somewhat) like wood. Unfortunately, I did not find this cache. I kept going back and forth on this one path that brought me close. There was a Frenchwoman there taking pictures of birds in the trees. I think she thought I was strange, but also that she needed to explain what she was doing because she started talking to me – I caught oiseaux (birds) and she had a big fancy camera so I figured she was taking pictures of birds. Didn’t understand much else that she said but she was friendly anyway. I would have had absolutely no idea where to start explaining what –I- was doing (searchez pour le boite plastique?) so gave up the search and moved on.
Cache #3 brought me down to the quay on the right bank of the Seine. An absolutely beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from a different perspective. The cache was on the wall of the quay (if it was there) about 2.10 meters up. I saw a couple of places it might have been (was supposed to be behind a white rock) but they were all too high for me to reach so another DNF (did not find.)
I had more success with cache #4. It was called Une passerelle avec une vue superbe, near a passenger bridge over the Seine. There was a metal slide on the edge of the steps – I think to slide luggage down? – and the cache was in a magnetic container attached to the underside. I had to sit down and pretend to be reading my cache book while I reached underneath and found the cache.
The last cache was a virtual. It involved finding the Liberty flame that is at the Pont de Alma. This is an unofficial memorial to Princess Diana as it marks the opening of the tunnel in which she was killed. I had to take my picture with the GPS and the flame. Not easy, I hoped a friendly tourist would offer to help me but none came by.
I took the metro back up to the Etoile and headed down ave de Wagram one last time. I decided to stop at MacDo’s on the way and upload last night’s blog, plus I logged the caches that I’d done so far in Paris. I left MacDo’s about 1:30, went to the hotel and picked up my luggage, and headed for the metro to take it down to my new hotel. It was not the easiest trip as I’ve accumulated some extra baggage along the way…using my blue Rick Steves bag that Eric gave me for Christmas. I’m going to have to send a package (or even two) of stuff home from Spangdahlem, that’s for sure. Hey Scott, if you read this before I come, can you stop by the base post office and pick up a few flat rate boxes if you don’t already have some? The metro was, of course, the most crowded it’s been and I had to stand up the entire way with my suitcase pack on my back. That 26 pounds of suitcase is probably closer to 36 now with guidebooks and other additions.
I made it to my new stop, Louvre de Rivoli, and walked the rest of the distance to the new hotel. I am now at the Residence Vauvilliers, a beautifully charming one star Parisian “experience.” Not. It is located on a narrow little street that is only one block long. I’m up on the fourth level in room #9. There are only 14 rooms altogether. It is very basic. A bed, which looks a bit cockeyed, a small table with chair, a window that opens out onto the street, and a shower. The toilet is right outside the door for the three rooms on this level. A bit shabby but for two nights it’ll do. The price is right anyway – 45 euros per night. Our previous hotel would have cost me, as a single, something like 160 euros per night. Mrs. Hotel Keeper was very pleased to have “une Americaine” staying with them, guess they don’t get too many. She was much less pleased that I was only staying two nights instead of the six I had reserved for. After much discussion between her and Mr. Hotel Keeper, I was allowed to stay for the two nights I needed, especially after explaining that I changed ONLY because I was now able to go to Germany to see my son in the “militaire” because he was not sent to Iraq after all, and that I had sent an e-mail two weeks ago requesting the change. She told me it would have been much better to call. I thought later about how difficult that would have been with the language barriers.
After dropping off my luggage, I took off again for the metro. My plans were to go up to L’Opera to catch the yellow L’Open tour bus to tour the Montmartre area. I thought I went the right direction once I reached the Opera area, but ended up walking up to the Hard Rock Café where I waited for quite a while but a bus finally came.
The bus ride was COLD and RAINY. And did I remember to grab my umbrella out of the bag before I left? Of course not! The weather, which had been sunny in the morning, had turned colder with intermittent rain. I was determined to ride on top as it wasn’t raining when I got on, and once I was damp I might as well stay there. It never rained really hard but it was enough that my teeth were chattering when I got off about an hour later. We went through Montmartre. I had thought about getting off at Sacre Coeur but it was just not nice weather, decided to stick with the bus. We also went past the Moulin Rouge.
Left the bus and took the metro back to Louvre Rivoli, after stopping in the station for a cup of chocolat chaud to warm me up (hot chocolate.) Walked around my new neighborhood for a bit, trying to decide what would taste good for dinner. Came upon a Franprix (grocery store) so decided to eat in tonight. After all, I’m now on the budget plan (a.k.a. paying my own way.) My “dinner” tonight has been a pineapple and coconut yogurt drink, cheese, and crackers. After I returned to my room, I did notice the sign on the wall that said “don’t eat your meals in room” but since I already had the food in the room, oh well. Maybe I will eat out tomorrow night though. We’ll see.
I’m planning to spend the evening inside as it’s still cold and damp outside. Promised my sisters I wouldn’t walk around Paris alone at night anyway. A good night to catch up on pictures and maybe even watch a movie on the computer. I’m going to go out to Versailles tomorrow so will probably find a place along the way to post this. Au Revoir!
Postscript 9:30 p.m. (local time – at home it’s 4:30 p.m.)
I’ve been working on pictures the last few hours and only have two days of my own pictures finished. It’s gonna be a long haul…. Fairly quiet night life out on the street (my room overlooks the street) except a window across the street has had a red light shining all night, I kid you not. I don’t know why and I probably don’t want to know, do I? I’ve remembered that Europe goes on Daylight Savings Time tomorrow, so I’m going to lose an hour AGAIN only to gain it back when I get home. That means I need to get up earlier to get out to Versailles so better get some sleep.
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