Sunday, September 11, 2011

Nobody # 877

Nobody Asked Me But:

Our trip to France was wonderful, and I don’t think we will return. It was not as good as our trip to England, but I don’t think we will return there either. We have pretty much decided that there are plenty of places in the U.S. and Canada to visit or re-visit that will delight us and keep us busy for the rest of our traveling lives. The surest sign that this decision is correct is that, at least at this time, neither Barbara nor I feel any regrets about it. Will we change our minds some day? Perhaps, but probably not.

Our tour story is much the same. We enjoyed Tauck, although it was not without a few problems, and liked the people we traveled with, but our best times were when we were completely on our own.

I still wouldn’t mind living a month in Paris or London and probably Rome, Venice or Barcelona, but since that is not going to happen, we will stay closer to home.

For this report, I will divide our trip into two parts. Today, I will write about Paris and next week, Southern France.

What thrilled me about Paris (After the first two, the list is in random order.)

1. The patisseries – Call me shallow if you want, but if I lived in Paris these would be daily experiences for me, followed by 5-mile walks to work off the calories. The fruit-filled cream puffs and napoleons were delicious beyond my poor power to describe.

2. The Musee d’Orsay - The building itself (an old train station) is spectacular, much like the Tate Modern in London, and the modern art superb. The Van Gogh’s were my favorites.

3. The beauty in the oldness of Parisian buildings.

4. The surprises – you walk down what seems to be an ordinary street and suddenly you find an upscale specialty story – food, clothing, candles, leather, mustard, etc.

5. Mustard on tap - At Boutique Maille, a mustard store at Place De La Madeleine, you pick your type of mustard and they fill a crock for you from a tap spout.

6. Laduree - This beautiful tea shop and patisserie on the Champs-Elysees makes the best and most colorful macaroons in Paris and many other delicious treats as well (including a wonderful napoleon). Since coming home Barbara found out that they recently opened a Laduree in NYC.

7. The Eiffel Tower – I have always thought the ET was overrated, but now I know better. It is a wonder during the day and breathtaking when lighted at night, especially from a boat on the Seine.

8. Berthillon – This store on lle St-Louis supposedly makes the best ice cream in the world, and if this is an exaggeration, it is not much of one. We taxied there on our first morning in Paris (priorities) to discover how lucky we were, in that it was their first day open after their August vacation. (Almost everyone takes August off in France.) While they didn’t have many of their unusual flavors, my very dark chocolate was incredible.

9. Standing at the bow of the dinner boat mentioned above and watching Paris drift by.

10. Wandering along the Left Bank and through the Latin Quarter.

Not a thrill but a delight

1. Department store interiors and window displays. I think the best word for them is classy.

2. The Illy Café in the basement of the largest of the department stores, the Galleries Lafayette. As most of you know, I am a big fan of their iced coffee, so stopping by for a frozen whipped crema in a double-jigger glass was great.

3. The frites. We had some great ones along the Champs-Elysees. Oh, did I mention that they were from the McDonald’s there? (Which reminds me that other than the sweet things I mentioned and an excellent crawfish risotto, the food was just ok.

so(Of course we didn’t eat in fancy restaurants.)

4. Our hotel, the Hotel de Louvre was very nice. Our third story room looked out upon history, in that just across the street was the Palais Royale, Cardinal Richelieu’s home. Richelieu, I am sure you recall, was both a prince of the church and the state (neither by birth) and the great villain of Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers.”

5. The Apple store across from the Opera was way cool. It was in a very old building, with a main floor surrounded by a narrow open balcony.

6. Whisky tasting – in the duty free section of Airport Charles de Gaulle there was a small table containing several open bottles of whisky ready for tasting before you buy. (Perhaps this is common in many airports, but I don’t get around much.)

7. The Mona Lisa

A CHILL, NOT A THRILL

1. It was hot, if not hotter than hell, then quite close, and humid too (about 300%). I thought I was visiting the Mona Lisa in Florida.

2. The Parisians we met were mostly quite nice, but the people on the street rude enough to make the NYC crowds almost angelic.

3. Airport Charles de Gaulle – It was beautiful and nicely set up but the language barrier made finding our plane quite difficult.

4. Bee sting – In Vermont last year, Barbara had a splinter in her finger that bordered on becoming infected. This year, while waiting by the carousel a bee stung that same finger giving her some pain during our last three days.

5. Up the Eiffel Tower – I love roller coasters, so I am not a total coward, but I did not love the rapid outside ride.

6. Driving through the tunnel where Princess Diana died.

NEW STARBUCK’S

Yes, I went to # 400 in Paris, and also #s 401 and 402. They were all very neat in different ways with 402 being the best.

# 400 – This was in the Latin Quarter. Hemmingway, F. Scott, Zelda and Gertrude Stein probably did not hang out here, but I can dream, can’t I?

# 401 – This new, small, modern Starbuck’s with a small loft (all three SB’s had upper levels) was in a small shipping area under the Louvre. It was great for people watching, mocha drinking and Jimmy Durante listening.

# 402 – This one was near the Opera and was in an old building with great chairs, a table in front of the door and a fine upstairs with windows overlooking the Rue de Opera. It is most certainly one of my ten best.

Next week - Southern France