Sh's Adventures Continue...: In Paris Playing with Friends: The Beginning

The train back to Paris was fun. Flying through hay fields already harvested, corn fields awaiting maturity and a few towns and villages. Arriving in the din of Gare Austerlitz told us we were no longer enjoying the country life. We managed to check in to our new apartment at 63 Bis, Rue Cardinal Lemoine in the Latin Quarter. The apartment looked great, with a big king-sized bed in a front room that we left for our tall friend Kevin and Evie, and a back bedroom that suited us just fine. The kitchen and living room combo had lots of room for the four of us, a pleasant surprise where real estate is so pricey. The little lift in the hall got our luggage upstairs, and two of us could travel in it too if we held our breath. All was great, except our landlady warned that the woman downstairs could be cranky about noise and we should take our shoes off and not pull chairs around, oh, or come into our bedroom and pull the trundle bed out too late. Really? But we get it. Okay. No problem.

The first couple of nights Dennis and I crept around by ourselves whispering and then wondered what the heck we were doing. This is a rental place. We are civilized people, we are not loud. We don't generally polka in the living room, so we were good. Sunday morning, it was getting hotter, so we opened the big french floor to ceiling windows, and getting out of their taxi were Evie and Kevin. Dennis called, "Hi!" over the balcony and I went down a floor to get them and as we were all coming in a lovely woman on the stairs greeted us with a smile and asked where we were all staying. I was very proud that my French let me say,"Le deuxieme étage" when she proceeded to drop the smile and take off at full speed where I was understanding every third or fourth word about noise and quiet, and old building, and her living under us, etc. I smiled, nodded, smiled some more and gave her a Namaste bow and said "Have a good day," as she returned to her apartment. So finally, I get to really say hi to our friends and Kevin says, "What was that about? I have no idea what she said, but I could tell she was pissed off." We go up to our flat and just as Evie drags her suitcase into the living room it catches an edge and crash a plaster umbrella stand smashes on the floor. I feel very bad for Evie, but I am thinking that the woman downstairs probably thought we did it to spite her and it gave me a giggle. As we would come to know over the next week, this apartment is so NOISEY when the windows are open that you can barely carry on a conversation for the sound of buses, motorcycles, the fire house across the street and celebrants coming from the host of bars and restaurants up the street. So for the record, if you plan on booking VRBO Property #3867783, be warned, unless you are almost deaf and then you may just love it!

Kevin and Evie were ready to go the minute they arrived; jet lag be damned, but the most interesting thing we discovered was on our way back from dinner. We decided to take a little neighbourhood walk and thought that a building looked suspiciously narrow at the end we could see.

Further investigation revealed that we had stumbled upon the ruins of an arena from Roman times, back when Paris was called Lutetia (in French Lutèce). While they were likely built in the Roman times, they were only discovered in 1869, perhaps when they were building that apartment that got very skinny on the end, because the arena was behind it. They were fully excavated in 1947-48. Cool. I have to shake myself sometimes to remember that Paris, in some form, has been here since the 1st century AD.

Walking and Boating
For the first few days of their arrival Evie and Kevin went on the Hop on, Hop Off buses and boats. We had done this on our first trip and found it a great way to orient ourselves to the city and jump off and see sites as we were inspired. So while they hopped, we boated a bit to see Paris from the Seine. It's a different view.

One Tower of the Louvre

A First Glimpse of The Eiffel Tower

One of the Sculptures atop the Grand Palace

Bridge Abutments are Always Beautiful

Parts of the New Paris Looking Fresh Out of the Shrink Wrap

Odd Shopping Experiences
(Well we didn't see this from the boat, but got off for a bit in the new action of town to visit a wonderfully air conditioned shopping mall - did I mention it was HOT!)

Views of Interesting Apartments Overlooking the Seine $$$$$$

Back to the Louvre

And Not to be Missed
Under a bridge we saw the 'Distribution Centre' for all the unauthorized trinkets sold by a band of hawkers under the Eiffel Tower, which is about four blocks away. These sly characters disappear, like smoke, the minute police appear.

Musée D'Orsay
The day we went to visit, Kevin and Evie left first to walk to the his Museum and get in line to buy us all tickets. We followed a bit later by Metro, since I am still hobbling until the drugs kick in. Jumping on the Metro, we travel half the way, only to be told that the stops near the museum aren't operating at present. Reversing directions, we pick a new route and are now very late. Kevin and Evie have made it inside and secured our tickets, but have been told that we will have to wait in the now several-hours-long line to pick them up. We arrive to find our tickets inside and Kevin advising us we will have to get past the line and clear security to get them. Oh la la! We head to one door and explain our cause to the security guard. He tells us to get our friends on the phone to prove it, which we do, and instead of letting us in, he sends us to the other side of the building! We go through the same process, this time with Kevin waiving from inside to the security guards and damned if they didn't let us by. Thank heaven for small mercies to first world problems.

The Orsay museum lets you take pictures, and last time we were here I believe I photographed every artwork, (If you want to see those, check my Facebook photos from 2010), this time I will share impressions of the building that I call "My happy place," and if a work of art creeps in, well all the better.

A giant clock dominates the building at one end. It is about two-and-a-half storeys high, the glass behind it covers walkways. The space used to be a train station and the fact that it is open adds so much to experiencing the art.