Day 44: Paris II

October 20, 2022

Boats upon the Seine

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By popular demand, I'll begin by explaining the subtitle of yesterday's entry: "Dammit, I'm a mechanic Steve, not an electrician!" This was a play on the Original Startrek meme in which Dr. McCoy frequently denies being trained for jobs he is asked to do. The most famous of these to me came when McCoy was asked to patch up an injured lifeform that was comprised of rock. "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer." was what McCoy said, and Captain Kirk replied " "You're a healer, there's a patient. That's an order.""

Yesterday Jonathan of Docto-Velo at first denied being able to hook in my new controller because its power connectors were incompatible with my battery connectors. He did say "I'm a mechanic not an electrician" and I said "This is an e-bike repair shop and that's an e-bike, so repair it!" And like McCoy, he did fine.

We are continuing our scheme of using regional train to dart into Paris, enjoying the calm (and hotel vacancy) in Maisons-Laffitte. It's about a twenty minute walk from our place through town to the train station, so we are beginning to learn what the town has to offer.

For example, there are a number of pastry shops to look in, including one made famous by the invention of the "Paris-Brest" type eclair by the owner's grandfather. The story of this is well known and can even be found on a wall poster at our hotel:

Also at Durand bakery, as shown in the photo below, they offer the "Opera" torte. Opera is made with layers of almond sponge cake (known as Joconde in French) soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee (or Grand Marnier) French buttercream, and covered in a chocolate glaze. Its namesake originates from the layers resembling the levels of an opera house."

Opera, rather than Paris-Brest, is in our sights for today. But we are ignoring the Durand Opera, not to mention other versions seen at the Maisons-Laffitte shops, including the darn bakery just around the corner from where we are staying. No, our Opera quest involves going to the Opera the cake was named for (the Paris Opera - Opera Garnier), and checking out the version in the nearest shop, which is the pastry floor of luxury department store Galleries Lafayette.

All this talk about the Opera torte is jumping the gun, because our first project in Paris today was to return to the Eiffel Tower and get on a boat that sails all the way up river to past Notre Dame cathedral before turning and coming back.

The closest RER/Metro station to the Eiffel Tower is Charles DeGaulle - Etoile. Etoile means star, and you can see it from the street map. There are about thirteen streets radiating from the Arc de Triomphe, which is at the centre of the star. This is the star formation that also creates what could be the world's most complex roundabout.

One of those radiating streets is Ave Kleber, which we will take to get to the Eiffel Tower. But another is the Avenue of the Champs Elysee, perhaps the most famous of them all. Here below is the Arc de Triomphe, with some further close-ups of the carvings on it. When you look closely like this, it's pretty wild! You,ve got somebody on there on the French Horn, which figures, but also one on the trombone.

Here is a look down the Champs Elysee. We would like to stroll there again, but it looks like not this time around.

The Trocadero lies between the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Yesterday I denied seeing any entrance to the museums housed in the palace. But yes, here they are:

There are a lot sculptures and fountains surrounding the Trocadero. It is a very popular and beautiful place.

One big feature of the Tocadero is the Eiffel Tower in the background. This leads many people to get photos taken in the area. Some of the otherwise trinket sellers also earn money by snapping posed shots for tourists, using the tourists' phones and the great background.

Paris streets are calm enough to do this.

Yesterday near the Eiffel Tower we encountered a young man selling tickets for one of the boat rides that leave from under the Pont d'Iéna. We told him it sounded interesting, but that we would "be back". "Be backs" are a thing in the sales world, and very often they are never seen again. But here we were back, and the young man recognized us. The cost of the cruise is 18 euros per person, but he sold us the tickets for 15. Afterward we found him again and told him the cruise was great and tried to give him a tip, but he refused. He said he felt like he had sold the tickets to his own grandparents, and asked to be in a selfie with us. I must say this young man was perceptive, in that he sensed that he had somehow encountered the famous "Grampies".

From the water you get a great view of the city, and even see things that are mostly invisible to those on land, such as statues that form part of the structure of bridges. And Paris is so focused on the Seine, that on the river you pass by almost all of the most important things. And of course, if you are going to pass all these key Paris things, then you can also experience the full Paris romance and impact.

Right now we don't have so many captions on the river photos, but knowing the name of a thing does not prevent appreciating its beauty. And for those who know Paris, it will be "Oh, I know that place!". Even so, as time permits we will add some ore captions to this section in the next day. Right now, as I am typing this little paragraph, it is a day later from our river trip, and we are preparing to sally off back into the city to see even more fabulous things. Stay tuned for Paris III, to see what we found!

There are working boats on the Seine, in addition to the tour boats. Surprisingly we did not see any private boats, yachts, or even rowboats, There was one small area of working boats that were converted to moored houseboats.

Our first view of the sadly fallen Notre Dame

This appears to be onsite workers housing or offices at Notre Dame. What a difference between utilitarian design and the romantic buildings of Paris.

Once off the boat we had to walk back through the Trocadero to catch a Metro to our next fun location. On that walk we could again watch the antics of the trinket sellers, who array their wares on cloths on the ground with grab handles, in case they need to close shop really fast. Another cloth on the ground based activity was the (old) shell game. We watched as one spectator seemed able to guess the location of the moving ball quite well, and got some payouts. But Dodie identified this one as a shill, whose jog it was to get suckers like me to think they had a chance. I got chased away when I tried to photograph the action. Too bad, because a slo-mo video of what was happening would have been fun. Yesterday we witnessed a really fast grab handle getaway from one of these shell games, as police approached.

The old shell game. (By the way, the trick to this is that the ball exits from underneath its original shell and is palmed, then replaced under a different shell. If you watch intently and know where the ball should be, based on the original placement, then do not choose that one. That might offer a 50/50 chance if you randomly choose one of the "wrong" shells.)

These fat pigeons looked on impassively.

Here in an actual shop one can see the actual base price of the trinkets sold on the street.

There are two main luxury department store chains in France, Printemps and Lafayette. Both have their flagship stores near Hausmann Street, Both try to be as glitsy as possible. Printemps has a really spectacular exterior, and Lafayette excels on the interior.

Inside Lafayette's pastry section, there is an immediate impression that every fantastical wonder of precision baking could be found here, and some items maybe only here. As with all Lafayette's retailing, the floor is really a series of independent shops, each one named for the genius or company behind it, and each one free to duplicate what others also have on offer. In that setup, if you are looking for eclairs they could be on many different counters, and could vary in price or quality.

The overall impression of the pastries on offer is that they are jewel-like and very precisely made. The other impression is that these jewel-like articles have prices to match. A standard chocolate eclair might come in at 5 euros, and per piece pastries could reach 9 or maybe 10 euros each.

Lafayette, of course, had more than just pastries, in the food line. Some was very colourful, like the salt. I think I have seen this before - like at Whole Foods.

Piles of colourful spices bring thoughts of exotic marketplaces.

There is a pretty big opera, but not so high.

Valrhona is in there with other big name chocolate companies, while we think of them more as a small regional business. We will likely visit their headquarters again as we pedal down the Rhone.

We finally chose this opera. It was good, but only lasted two bites. The lady from behind the counter was perturbed because she wanted to fit us out with a plate and utensils and a table to sit at with our opera. I think this is part of what you are spending your 6.90 for. Our style is more to throw a food item in the handlebar bag and inhale it later, standing by a roadside. That's about what happened here, and we gave back the dishes and utensils within seconds and moved on. Cretins!

Outside again, we went for a look at the Opera that made our pastry famous.

We ducked back in to Lafayette, this time to their women's wear section, and particularly shoes. Compared to ten years ago, the products on offer have grown nuttier, and the prices even more insane.

These are not simply the brand names on offer, but are shops run by the brands.

I think these shoes were in the 1200 euros range. (But you do get a pair, at that price.)

That's a pretty unique heel. But don't look for service at your local shoemaker if you snap one!

For the prices asked, I would hope to see fine materials and functional design. These sneakers might have been wearable (unlike some of the other shoe offerings), but does that make them worth the 690 euros?

We always think of that faux Prada shop in the middle of Texas.

By this point we were really tired out. Fortunately a RER -A stops at Opera, and were soon back in Maisons-Laffitte. We are plotting our next day's adventure. For a while we favoured making a dash over to Versailles, but finally balked at the travel time and ticket price of 55 euros for the "skip the line" version. We think instead we will dive back in to Paris, to Montmartre and then the Left Bank. It will be our last day before pedaling off toward the south.

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Laurie MarczakTalking to Joni on the phone tonight and we realized we have no idea of your return home date. A perusal back through the blog pages also provides no clues! Just how long IS this little jaunt going to be anyways?
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Laurie MarczakWe leave from Marseille on November 21. Guess we forgot to mention that, or we are in semidenial about actually having to leave Europe.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsAh, Paris. It's one of the few cities of the world I'm interested in returning to, over and over and over again. All the baked goodies in Galleries Lafayette have me positively drooling, and now I'm hungry!

According to the all-knowing interweb: "Sailboats, motorboats, and rowboats are all prohibited from circulating on the Seine's waters." That may explain why you didn't see many private boats.
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2 years ago

Keith KleinHi,
I see from your plan that you plan to be down here in four days. I will find out on Monday whether and how much my cancer has progressed, so I may be ready to celebrate or to mourn. If you get to Chagny on Tuesday, we can meet there for supper and chatter. I want Sue to meet you too.
Cheers,
Keith
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2 years ago

Rich FrasierSomehow I never get tired of looking a pictures of Paris. Thanks!
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2 years ago

Sue PriceLooks like you have perfect weather too! How do you choose from all those treats? I guess the price keeps you from buying too many though!
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Sue PriceYes, we will typically split just one. We are mysteriously gaining weight anyway. Must be the breakfast buffets.
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2 years ago