October 15, 2022
Back to Paris
Extra adventures
I'm starting off the day nursing a fantasy that we could still see Monet’s Water Lilies at the Orangerie in Paris this afternoon. Ever since we walked through his gardens at Giverny three weeks ago I’ve wanted to sit in the midst of the room-size paintings he created over the last 30 years of his life. We had tickets for the Orangerie on our last day in Paris but had to scratch it from the agenda when a general strike caused many of the museums to close for the day.
It’s not a crazy idea. The high-speed TGV train from Avignon gets to the Paris airport at 1:30 and the Orangerie is open until 6. After we stow our bags and bikes at our hotel near the airport, we’ll have to go back downtown anyway to pick up a couple bike boxes. The good people at La Chaumette bike shop are holding them for us and they're open until 7. There could always be a surprise or two, but we’ve done pretty well so far at fitting extra adventures into the day. Let's see how it goes.
The clerk at the Hotel Boquier indulges my request for one last photo with our kit before we ride to the TGV station. The 4k route is a pleasant farewell to the city as it runs on a path along the Rhone for half of the way.
At the Avignon station we do our usual anxious scramble to find the right platform. The TGV has a reputation for running on time but it’s late today, ultimately by 25 minutes. No biggie, there’s plenty of slack in the schedule. We relax and enjoy the train ride through the French countryside as I daydream about Monet’s luminous landscapes.
I don’t see any digital signs on the train to tell us about approaching stops and just listen to the announcements in French, which I kind of understand. When I hear the announcement about Paris we hustle to collect our belongings and queue up by the door.
As the train pulls away we look around the station to get our bearings and check the route to the hotel. Google Maps reports it’s 30k. Uh-oh. Did we really do this again? Yep, we’re at the Disneyland Paris stop. Didn’t know that was a thing. We made this same mistake on our first train experience in the Netherlands, so embarrassing. It's 9 minutes from Disneyland to the Paris airport stop on the TGV train but there isn’t another TGV for hours. I guess we’ll get our extra adventure for today, just not the one I dreamed of.
A short hop on the RER train to Neuilly-Plaisance cuts the ride distance down a bit, and we ride north from there for the hotel. Once again our mighty Bike Fridays are picking up the slack from my crappy skills at French and navigating trains.
The ride has a bit of everything, starting off with a climb up a narrow street with a line of drivers behind us. For the most part they are patient, more so than motorists at home. After that much of the route is on bike paths, the sun starts to break through the clouds and it’s a fine day to ride. I'm a little anxious about the bike box errand still ahead but we settle in and enjoy the changing fall colors.
It’s after 5 when we drop our bags and bikes at the hotel, too late to deal with taking the bus into the city. An Uber gets us to the bike shop in time to pick up our boxes. Carrying them on the busy streets of Paris is a trip. I have to concentrate on not turning around and clocking any innocent pedestrians or cyclists.
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We tote the boxes back to the hotel via subway, a train to the airport and a cab. I count eight legs on our journey today (bike-train-train-bike-Uber-subway-train-cab).
I've read about people flying with their bikes in a plastic bag, figuring baggage handlers will be more careful if they can see its a bicycle. It sure sounds easier than hauling a bike box around a big city, but yikes. Can you really count on that? I have trust issues.
By the time we get dinner and pack the bikes it’s 11 pm, late but par for the course on the night before a trip for us. Our extra bike adventure in Paris gave us one more endorphin jolt before the long flight home. Hopefully the bonus train lesson will stick for the next time. No regrets. Monet’s lovely paintings will still be here whenever we get back to Paris.
Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 669 km (415 miles)
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