Time change is always a bit of a struggle for us. We woke up early, dozed abit and woke again without much energy to leave the bed. WiFi comes in handy at moments like this. On line, Pat finds a great night bike ride that starts from the Hôtel de Ville at 21:30 hours. We should be up by then! More internet searching indicates rain starting at 15:00 hours. Hmmm that is not promising and we have found weather forecasts in Europe seem to be pretty accurate compared to home. Something to shoot for anyway.
Petite dejeuner was in our studio apartment but the necessary ingredient of coffee was missing. So, that would be the second stop right after picking up our pain au raison. We sat in the sun at a local coffee shop and enjoyed our coffees and discussed what to do today. The train station where we had arrived yesterday was just across the street and we thought why not get day transit passes and see where they take us?
A most interesting toaster. It is like an electric camping toaster. Turn on and watch carefully as there is no automatic off when done.
Pat's cappuccino was 5.80 euros and an all day transit pass was 7.50 euros. I will leave it to you to figure out what Scott thinks is the better deal. In this comparison, the exchange rate may not be necessarily relevant but just to assist -- the CAD to Euro is about 1.5 times. A $9.00 coffee? Pat reminds me that a draft beer is about 12 bucks Canadian. Still..... the day on transit is a bargain. Yesterday, the train ride in from the airport was 10 euros each. Another great deal!
A line up for the Catacombs of Paris. An interesting story of emptying the graveyards of Paris into the tunnels of an old limestone mine. But we did not line up - far too macabre for Pat.
After figuring out the ticket kiosk (with much assistance) we got on the first train and began to tick off the major Paris sites - Notre Dame, Latin quarter, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, the lineup of people waiting to get into Les Catacombes, Place de la Concorde, Hôtel de Ville.... check, check, check. Not exactly romance in Paris but the transit was great fun. And, having been up close and personal with the Mona Lisa in 1987, we chose to avoid the Louvre.
Notre Dame. No chance to get near the church today.
No explanation needed here. We laughed as on our first visit we ran accross the road to the honking of cars not recognizing there were underground tunnels. So much traffic today we wouldn't even consider it plus we are much slower now!
Late in the afternoon we returned to our home street, Rue Daguerre, for a beer outside on the patio of a local bar. Just enough to encourage a mid afternoon time zone recovery nap. And that it did! We woke at around six pm and the heavy rain had arrived as forecasted. The night ride sadly, was no longer an option so we used the time to build the bikes and plan for a late dinner. Bikes built, we left the house in the rain and hurried exactly 44 metres (according to google maps) to reach our restaurant choice - Chez Dany - a local French bistro. Excellent food and service. Family run place - in fact, Dany himself was our waiter.
Back home in the rain, again just as we remembered Paris from years ago. Maybe we bring Vancouver weather with us. We note that it is sunny and 20 degrees at home but ahh we are in Paris! Tomorrow we hope for drying conditions to test the bikes.
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Scott AndersonGreat to be able to follow along with you. It’s been so long since we’ve been to northern France, but in spite of the rain you Canadians are tempting us to go back. 5.80 for a cappuccino though? That’s astonishing. Down here in Calabria, they’re a euro. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Scott FenwickTo Scott AndersonYou know it. Even my single espresso is 2.50 euros. It's becoming an expensive habit. I recall one of your previous post about testing your aging brain with automated coffee machines. Today I used a Bosch unit I have not seen before and quite pleased with my results - even gettimg a result. The price for the coffee is better too. Following along with you and Rachael too. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
