June 15th

I am behind and it's hard to remember what we have done. In the morning we boarded the bus for the city tour. Beautiful buildings, beautiful gardens, crazy traffic!

We were warned at every turn to watch for pickpockets, so much that I get paranoid. We did have some young girls ask us if we speak English and would we sign their petition. That seems to be the one they are using now. They are dressing up a little more and wearing makeup, but the end result is the same.  Michael won't put his valuables in the front pockets. I picked his pocket and asked him where his phone was. I showed him I had it and told him if I could pick it for these pros it would be a piece of cake. 

We came back to the ship for fear we might miss a meal. The next stop was a trip to Montmartre. Luckily we took the train, a little wooden putt putt like the one at the fair, because it was all uphill!  We started at the red light district with sex shops on both side of the street. The train started right in front of Moulin Rouge.

As we rode up the crooked streets it changed to window-boxed cuter little apartments, old fashioned and shuttered. Then we moved in to the artist colony. It was once the hang out for some of our greatest. Renoir, Utrillo and Agile.

We checked out the top of the mountain.. the Basillica. This was a place for people to pray, but does not have regular services.  We were asked to follow the rules, signs that pleaded for people to respect others,  No loud talking or taking photos. So many were doing both and we were very annoyed with them.  

After that we explored the area of the artists, now and then. We saw where Renoir painted the gardens and the Moulin Galette, where Utrillo painted the pink house and the building that became the Agile rabbit with the little path going up the hill and the rabbit jumping out of the cup. These are pictures we talk about as art docents. It made me think of Donna and Janet again.

Afterwards the boys drank beer and we shopped a little before going back down the hill in the same little train and the bus hurried us to get back in time for.. what else? Dinner! Afterwards we had the hilarious boat crew show, low on talent, heavy on crazy Fun!

We were reminded that tomorrow would be our last day and we would need to get ready for dis-embarkation plan. That is always the sad part as we are so used to being spoiled and catered to.

Grove

 

June 16th.

This morning after breakfast we took off on the metro to get the passes we purchased on-line a month ago. It will get us in all the biggies of Museums and churches.. and a bunch we won't use. We bought a two-day pass to use two days when we are all together with Katie. The Metro station was a long ways away and not well marked. It took a while to find the place and when we started back, Michael remembered he left our Eiffel Tower tickets in the room. We had to run back to the boat and by then the only way we could make it on time was a twenty five euro taxi ride. We got there right on time and everything went great after that. 

We had tickets for elevators to the top section and though it was crowded no one was pushy or disrespectful. The day before had been the only hazy and overcast day we've had. You could not see the tower from Montmartre. Today however it was crystal clear with that beautiful bright blue sky and puffy white clouds we are used to here. We could see forever from the top of there and Michael took some great photos. Some he took on a walk to catch the metro to the Concorde were really better than postcards!

We went back to the park between the obelisk and the Louvre, split a gigantic Croque Monsieur, and got back in time to shower, put our tired feet up for a while and get ready for DINNER!!! This time we really didn't want to miss it as we were having the Captains special.. beef fillet with sautéed prawn and lots of other good stuff (except for the smoked salmon that I gave to Michael.) The chef came to our table and I told him my favorite was still the snails but of course all was really great. We had baked Alaska; they do with sparklers parading them around the room with all the crew en parade.

We bid everyone good bye.. especially hard to see Dianna and Bruce leave us. It was a wonderful trip and we made so many great friends! We are now ready to meet up with Katie for the next chapter of this adventure.

If you are still with me you can probably feel my winding down and the journal gets more lame!

Until tomorrow, one more sleep on the boat!   Grove

 

June 17,  2015  Back in Paris

Today we left the boat after one last breakfast and arrived at our hotel soon after. It was of course not ready for us but Leona and I sat in the lobby for awhile as Vic and Michael took off to get Katie. 

Thinking it would be several hours until they could travel to get her and get back, and being a bit bored sitting in a lobby in Paris we took off to explore. Of course with Leona's knee and my sore legs the exploration was on the slow side. We found the senate and hiked around it to the Luxembourg Gardens. We found a part we hadn't seen where all the tennis courts were and watched people walking dogs and kids having tennis lessons. After an hour we headed back to the hotel as we didn't want to miss Katie's arrival.

Too late!  They were already there but hadn't been there long. Katie had a wonderful week with her teacher. There were only four kids and two parents and of course Katie's teacher. Katie met three girls from River Valley and really bonded with one. They had a great time and several purposely got lost so they would see new stuff. She had used a pink highlighter to mark what she had visited and we were shocked at the many, many places marked in pink.

We got our room, but Vic and Leona's wasn't ready so we put all the bags in our room and hiked to the metro and on to San Chappell. The line was very long,  and since we have tickets there within the next two days, we decided to wait until a sunny morning.

I REALLY wanted to go back to the place where we stayed in 1972. I knew exactly where it was and led the way.  You know how they say you can't go home again?  Well they were remodeling our hotel there. I went next door to make sure I had the right place.  The guy remembered there was a hotel there at one time, but couldn't remember the name.  I told him it had a king's name but the guy couldn't remember it.  He told me to check at the restaurant down the street. The guy vaguely remembered a hotel there and Googled it.. onri  kat he said then I remembered that meant Henry IV!  I loved the little park and it brought many good memories of my first day ever in Paris! We all went to Pont Neuf and down to the end of the island below. We ended up walking both banks and across Pont Neuf and The Arts Bridge. 

They have cut off thousands of locks and put up a wall of art along the arts bridge. Sadly in protest someone tagged over it.  We had a big lunch, C.Ms for some and  club sandwiches for others, with fries, and were not hungry for dinner.  Around 10 pm some ate a few of the nutrition bars we had brought, but I was still full from late lunch so I just went to sleep. 

The hotel is darling as is Katie's little room of her own adjoining ours. There are a few annoying things. The building two doors down is a restaurant and they partied until almost 11 pm, motorcycles and sport cars feel the need to peel out on this road, there is noisy construction across the street(back hoes unload chunks of cement in the big bin they have parked in the street. kaboom), and there is a soup kitchen just next door. Some pretty smelly and seedy people line up for it and urinate in the street! Other than that...perfect!

The regular price of our triple room is 200 euros a night and we paid within a few bucks of it. It is much better than our other hotel because it is so well placed. Easy access to RER and Metro. 

Well tomorrow is another day!

Goodnight, Paris!   Grove

 

June 18, 2015

Not a great sleep... by the time the party and wild driving was over the Advil had worn off and my legs hurt! We woke up Katie. She had showered and washed her hair the night before so she just had to put on what she had laid out for the day. When I went outside it was raining and so she changed everything she was wearing because the pants she was going to wear matched too close to her coat and that might make people on the street think she was wearing a pant suit!!

We activated our two day  pass  and easily entered d'Orsay museum. Wow what a wonder!! There were so many  that I ran out my iPad battery taking pictures: Manat, Monet, Sisley, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin ,  Cezzanne, and more! The statuary were incredible. After four hours we met on the floor with the huge old clock and beautiful statues. 

From there we walked across the bridge to The Louvre. Our pass let us cut the line which went on forever. We ate lunch.. Michael and I shared a sandwich and Lays potato chips with roasted chicken  flavor.  

We started  going though the Louvre. My back started cramping and well into the tour the cramps were REALLY bad! I didn't want to ruin our tour so I sat down  when I could and pushed against a cold wall I could find. We stayed until it was closing and went back to the  hotel. After taking pain killer I brought from home and slept a few hours, I felt so much better I joined everyone to find a dinner place. We found a multi-cultural type of deli with tables upstairs with pictures of food that looked yummy. Michael and I chose chicken tandoori pitas with yogurt  sauce and fries... yum!!! Katie had a cheese and tomato crepe and then shared a Nutella crepe with her grandmother, but that ended up to be just one last bite. Nobody wanted ice cream but Michael and I, but  when we saw the FLAVORS, expensive and no coco, we just went to the market and each bought an M bar! Delicious!

Now we are back in the room. I will take another pain pill and hope to sleep until morning when we hit the floor a runnin'.  Good night to you and this magnificent city!

Grove

 

June 19, 2015 Leaving Paris

I know this is late but since some didn't get June 19th, I am sending a second time. Remember though this was written while still in France.    Grove

Hooray! Good night's sleep! The parties next door must have been cancelled so I only woke up when the big garbage truck came banging down the street. It sounds like he dumps big chunks of old cement!

This morning we decided to make a trip together to a wonderful bakery just three blocks away. We had chocolate filled croissants, sugar tarts, cinnamon tarts, and more. Yum! Vic chose a quiche over sweets. By then we were ready for adventure. The metro took us to our first stop, San Chappell. That was the "small world place" where Erick unexpectedly saw Heather on his trip with Jim after high school graduation. We climbed the left staircase and looked down at the last stairs and when Michael said "Look up!" We were blown away!! Stained glass all around the edges, telling the story of the bible from Genesis to the passion of Jesus! So amazing!!

We bought a few little things in the church downstairs and headed across to Notre Dame. Of course it was huge and impressive, but after Chartres and San Chappell, it mostly looked dark and dreary! It does have some beautiful windows but they seem to me to be overpowered by the massive columns.  There was a really interesting display showing how the church was built on a time line.

Then it was time to get our "hop on, hop off" bus pass that was part of the price of the museum pass.  We had to go across town and change from one metro to another but came up right by the place. They should have told us what line to take. There are many steps up and down for Leona's and my sore legs, but we just plug along. Some of the metro stops are quite deep with 80 steps out, but when we are lucky we sometimes found an elevator or escalator! Yea, Joan Boomer, I think of how you hate those escalators every time I get on one. The good thing though is that the trains come every two minutes so there is never a lot of impatient people pushing you or running like in New York where the wait can be much longer.

The Big Red Bus was quite a deal as it took us around to all the big tourist places so we wouldn't have to bother with other transportation. We sat up top with an unobstructed view of everything. It was a beautiful day AGAIN! We had about three minutes of showers on our whole trip but the weather prediction always said rain... kinda like California!

We opted for a big meal for our farewell meal with Katie, Vic and Leona. We will probably have a light dinner tonight together and they leave tomorrow early with Anne. I thought we should pack tonight but Michael says let's wait until tomorrow when we have time alone. The taxi does not pick us up until 11:00 a.m. We have a great appreciation of Paris and the people we have met along the way. We are anxious for our third and last chapter with Carlo's family in Italy!

Thank you for hanging along with us!   Love,  Grove

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There Is Something About The Skies And The Light In Paris!

 

 

No Wonder The Artists Flocked To It.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Notable Places In Paris

Artists Hung Out Around Moulin Rouge,
The Maison Rose And Lapin Agile

 

 

Assorted Churches Wow Us With Their Windows...

 

 

Saint Chappelle
But This Church Does It To The Max!
Climb The Spiral Saircase To The Second Floor... Close Your Eyes Until You Move Inside
(Maybe Just Look Down So You Don't Trip), Open Your Eyes And Prepare To Be Amazed!

 

 

'd Orsay Museum
This Is To Impressionistic Art What Saint Chappelle Is To Stained Glass Windows. It Was A Train Station And Now... WOW! But The Architecture And The Other Art On Display Is Magnificent As Well.

  Of Course There Were SO Many More!