Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Paris, Fance
Up at 8:00am, showers for all 4 of us moving like clockwork, and L and T packed up to go. Down to the corner cafe (Cafe L' Arbre) for cafe au lait and croissants for Tara and I, Jan and Leanne delayed a bit by hair dryer and packing. Back to room, a visit to Sephora for the girls and Jan, then off on a long and very pleasant walk in Paris to a Soap store.
Then a lovely lunch, with a table just by the window with a view of Paris society passing by. Disappointing, no spectacularly dressed Paris society women, with poodles of course. Just folks, just like in downtown Vancouver.
Subway back to the apartment, we really are comfortable as tube rats in the Paris underground. At 3:15 we headed to Paris Gare du Nord and saw the girls off and throught the Eurostar gates on their way back to London.
Jan and I took the subway (called the Paris Metro) to a tube stop closest to Sacre Coeur, near the Montmartre district. Then up and up and up, all the way to the cathedral at the top. Spectacular pictures, just see Jan's images below.
After filming everything we could, down we went on the staircase at the front of the cathedral, past the grassy lawns, into the tourist scrum of Montmartre. On down a couple of blocks, then turned right and walked all the way through Place Pigalle, Paris' red-light district and already raunchy at just before 6:00pm. Stopped briefly at the Moulin Rouge, with the red windmill on top and its blades turning slowly, and checked the prices. They started at 150E each, minimum price, for dinner and a show and a half bottle of champagne. Add a couple of drinks, an upgraded meal, and a tip to get us down out of the nosebleed seats, and it would have been 400E and more for two hours of our evening. Maybe worth it if we were cleaned up and rested, but we were hot and sweaty and tired, and in jeans, so we chose to pass. If we were going to do it, we would do it right and not be cheap, so next time we will plan for it.
Metro back to the apartment, stopping for dinner at 'La Cooperative', a strangely named Paris bistro, for a lovely dinner. Then home to pack, and a quick chat with L and T who had arrived safely home to London.
Checked the internet for train times to Nurnberg, found that an SNCF train leaves Paris' east terminal at 11:27am with a transfer at Stuttgard. That's the one for us.
