Tuesday, 11/8/16

Today is our Paris Greeter Walk in the 12th arrondisment.  We were to meet Gisele Gamelin at 10:00 a.m. in front of the McDonald’s at the Ledru Rollin metro station.  Jim wanted to get there a little early to get breakfast.  I had no desire to eat breakfast at McDonald’s, so I got a pane au chocolat before we left our neighborhood.  We arrived at around 8:30, just to discover that McDonald’s doesn’t open until 9:30.  Oh well.  There was a cafe across the street.  That worked out okay for him.
Gisele was very nice.  She lives in the 12th, so she proudly showed us around her neighborhood.  We saw the Bastille, the market Aligre, Canal St. Martin and the marina, and even Rue Cremieux, the picturesque street we stayed on in 10/2014.  This is not a touristy area and the market was clearly geared towards the locals.

Like many people we’ve met, Gisele talked about the election.  Today is election day in the U.S.  Will it be the first woman elected president, Hillary Clinton, or the first unqualified orange man, Donald Trump?  The newspapers and magazines here are full of articles about our election, and specifically about Trump.  Gisele took us to a shop to see the window, offering the feelings that they have here about Trump.

Trump appears to be pretty unpopular throughout Europe.  People have expressed confidence that the Americans are not stupid enough to fall for Trump.  I’m not so sure about that.
After our walk ended we went to the Marais and had lunch.  Then we walked to the Musee D’Orsay.  The museum is actually in an old train station.  We’ve been there twice before, in 2006 and 2008/2009.  It was time to go back.   We bought our 4 day museum passes there and enjoyed the museum.

I like the Impressionist paintings and this is where to find them.


After we got our fill of art it was time to make our way to the location where we were to meet Philippe for dinner.  He was coming from work in the 19th arrondisment, so we decided to eat at our friend Susan’s favorite place on Ile St. Louis. The plan was to meet at the Hotel DeVille metro stop.  He started walking right by us, only stopping when we said something.  I don’t think we’ve changed that much in 2 years!  We had a wonderful dinner at Le Flore en I’lle.  I can’t believe we didn’t take any photos with Philippe!  We did take some pictures on the way back to our hotel at the end of the night.

This view of the Eiffel Tower is at the corner of our street.

We went to bed not knowing who our new president will be.  It might be our last good night of sleep for a long time.

Wednesday, 11/9/16

I woke up around 5:00 a.m. and immediately grabbed my phone.  I had to know right away…who won the election?  I should have slept in, or better yet not checked at all.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Could it be true?  Trump won?  Impossible!  As it turned out, he won only because of the electoral college.  Clinton won the popular vote.  Either way, he won?  OMG!  We are in deep shit now!  I had what I can only assume was an anxiety attack.  Jim woke up and I decided I would try my best to not let this ruin my day.  I really, really tried.
We went to the Louvre,

the Orangerie, and the Palais Garnier (Opera)


We went to the Louvre in 2006 and 2008/2009, and to the Orangerie in 2008/2009, but this was our first time inside the Opera.  It is a stunning building.

Even all the beauty we saw today couldn’t get me out of my funk.  We decided to go back to the hotel.  Jim’s knee has been bothering him so a rest would do us some good.  I’ll admit I had more wine than usual with my dinner.  We encountered people who expressed sympathy for the U.S.  Good luck to all of us!

Tuesday, 11/8/16

Today we did our Paris Greeter walk with Gisele Gamelin.  We took the metro to the Ledru Rollin stop, where we were to meet her in front of the McDonalds at 10:00.  Jim’s plan was to get a breakfast sandwich there, so we arrived at 9:00.  Unfortunately they didn’t open until 9:30.  We went to the cafe across the street instead.  Gisele took us on a walk around the 12th Arrondisment.  We stayed in that Arrondisment 2 years ago, but didn’t spend too much time there. It was nice to see more of the area.  We walked through the Aligre market and flea market.  It was a market geared towards the locals, not tourists.  There were no souvenirs in sight.  We walked along the Canal St. Martin where we saw the harbor area.  Many boats were docked and apparently some people live on their boats.  We walked by the Bastille and down some small pedestrian streets.  All in all it was a nice walk.  We lucked out since it didn’t rain.  After we said our goodbyes to Gisele we went to the Marais and had lunch.

We were meeting Philippe at 6:30 at the Hotel De Ville metro stop, so we had time to go to the D’Orsay Musée.  We bought a 4 day museum pass there, then looked through the museum.  We had been there a couple of times, but after 8 years it was nice to see it again.

Monday, 11/7/16

We got our Navigo one week metro pass so we figured we would save ourselves from too much walking today.  My calves are killing me!  We didn’t wake up until 9:30 and by the time we felt out of the hotel it was 11:00.  We planned to do some shopping and whatnot.  I’ve been wanting to try Angelina’s hot chocolate and I saw there was a location very close to the Bon Marche department store.  We ended up walking there, just to find out is was takeaway only. It was getting close to noon and we hadn’t eaten yet, so we moved along trying to find a place to eat.  We ended up eating at the Bon Marche.  By then it was lunchtime, so we had chicken ceasar salads.  We took the metro to The Rue Rivoli area.  We did some shopping and ended up at the big Angelina’s.  The hot chocolate was very rich and thicker than any I’ve had before.  Yummy!

We did a little more shopping and ended up at Norte Dame.  Jim claimed he had never been there before, though I assured him he had been twice.  He recognized the interior after he looked around a bit.
Once again we walked more than we had expected to.  By the end of the day we walked almost 9 miles according to my Fitbit.  We dropped our things at the hotel and went to dinner at Pasco.  It’s just down the street from our hotel.  It was very good.  We are calling it an early night as we have a walking tour tomorrow.  I hope my legs feel better!

Sunday, 11/6/16

It’s my 60th birthday.  Weird.  I was wanting to do something really memorable, such as how we went to Buckingham Palace on our 29th anniversary or to the Fairmont Empress in Victoria for afternoon tea on our 30th anniversary.  There was one problem.  Almost everything is closed on Sundays.  Except museums.  And the first Sunday of the month is free museum day.  Everyone wants to go when they are free.  Except me.  I don’t want crowds.  So we wandered around Paris.  The Champ-Elysées was traffic free, so we walked as far as the Arc De Triomphe.  They were setting up for a huge Christmas Market.

We ended up at the Tulleries.  We thought about popping into the Orangerie museum, but the long line deterred us.

We went back to the hotel to get ready for our special dinner.

We had a reservation at Ciel de Paris, located on the 56th floor of the Montparnasse Tower.  The Tower is the only tall building besides the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank.  We had a fantastic view and a wonderful dinner.

We walked about 12 miles and explored new and familiar areas.  It was a great birthday in Paris!

Saturday, 11/5/16

Our flight landed at 9:30 a.m.  We breezed through immigration and took a taxi to our hotel.  We are staying at the Best Western Tour Eiffel Invalides.  Even though we were early we were able to get into our room.  It’s on the 6th (top) floor and faces the Eiffel Tower.  If the building across the street wasn’t there we would have a great view of it.

After we dropped our bags in the room we went down to wait for Sharyn and Holly.  Sharyn met Holly through the Rick Steves forum and they had already gotten together in Paris.  As we walked out the door, they were walking down the street towards us.  Great timing.  We hopped on the metro to go to Montmartre.  We had lunch at a place that Holly had been to, Chez Plumeau.

We went to the Painters Square and bought a watercolor to add to our travel collection.  Holly left and we walked a bit around Montmartre, taking in the spectacular views.

We then went to the Musée de Montmartre. 
Dinner tonight was at Cafe Constant.  It’s not too far from our hotel and comes highly recommended.  We took the metro to the stop near the Eiffel Tower and walked from there.

Holly never made it to the restaurant, but we were joined by June.  Sharyn met her through Holly.  The company, dinner and wine were superb.

It was time to call it a night.  We walked Sharyn to the metro and we went to the hotel to have a good nights sleep.

Friday, 11/4/16
Our flight from Sacramento was delayed.  Fortunately we had plenty of time between flights in San Francisco.  Our flight from San Francisco to Paris was uneventful, which is always a good thing.  Unfortunately neither one of us got much sleep. There’s nothing new there.

I can’t believe we leave for Paris in just 14 hours.  Two trips to Europe in one year is a splurge.  I’m turning 60 in a few days. Wow!  How did this happen?  I don’t feel older inside.  Of course my mirror tells me differently.  Anyway, I don’t dread it.  In fact I embrace it.  I feel thankful that I’m given the opportunity to turn 60.  Women on my mother’s side of the family don’t live to a ripe old age.  My maternal grandmother died at 53 years old from cancer.  My mother died at 58 years old from cancer.  My sister died last December at 57 years old from COPD.  I was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer 5 years ago, just a week before my 55th birthday.  But I’m a survivor.  I kicked cancers ass and I’m fine now.  So we are celebrating our birthdays in Paris, my favorite city!!  So Paris, here we come!