Positively Paris
Thursday, October 19, 2011
On the plane…every time I rearranged my hunched over, crunched up body I noted that Jody had her eyes wide open, staring at the tiny t.v. without benefit of headphones…she was in the throes of acquiring a nasty cough and cold thing that she would be fighting the entire trip…upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport Susan ventured off by herself to make the first of many purchases…she never showed a bit of reluctance in her purchases the rest of the trip…we left our luggage at our hotel and ate at one of the many Brioche Doree shops to be found around Paris…for about $50 we bought two-day tickets for the “On and Off” tour bus…we climbed to the top level to begin our exploration…we returned to the hotel after freezing our body parts, bought Jody emergency food supplies and headed uphill to Sacre Couer without her…Sacre Couer was even more beautiful than I remembered it as we were seeing its smooth whiteness and soft shapes against the dark sky…in the Artist’s Quarters we discovered a small creperie with a sweet maitre de…I asked, in French, for a table for “trois femmes” (3 women)…he responded, “ahhhh, trois femmes et trois hommes” as he indicated himself and his two waiters…all I could say was “parfait”.
Friday, October 20th, 2011
After a good night’s sleep we rejoined the tour bus…our losses, in the two days, now included one of my red gloves, Jody’s magazines and puzzle book and Susan’s pedometer…I mourned the loss of my glove until my leather bag was stolen including the remaining glove and various odd valuables including 100 Euros…at the Eiffel Tower Susan and Carol climbed to the platform while Jody and I observed dogs and owners and people simply enjoying the beautiful day…after Beef Borgignon and Creme Brulee we headed home…we would have slept soundly had the clientele of the sex club next door and the bar two doors down been able to control their surly voices, broken glass and screeching tires…the hotel staff should NOT have asked how we slept if they really didn’t want to know…
Saturday, October 21st, 2011
This is the day I forgot to take care of my bag and left it hanging in the North Train Station… the bag was, probably, gone long before I went back to look for it…the loss could have been much worse…camera, credit cards and passport were back at the hotel…next, Carol and I visited the Louvre and Jody and Susan exercised their shopping muscles…I was, as usual, overwhelmed by the Louvre. The amount of art and my lack of understanding of it is flabbergasting but I still like the feeling of all the artist’s attempts to express something about the world in which they were living…dinner found us in an adorable fondue restaurant…our waiter,Bruno, was charming and funny. He flirted and teased, at one point pretending to strangle me with an electric cord…he made fun of how I pronounced “chantilly” and then sang along with my rendition of “Chantilly Lace”…
Sunday, October 22nd, 2011
I opted out of the Versailles excursion in favor of a Salvador Dalí exhibit…next came the Tuileries Garden and the Place Vendome…Angelina’s was next with hot chocolate and cake to go…the Versaille trio arrived home late, separated and robbed, as we would discover later…Carol lost her camera to four young men crowding her while distracting her with trying to sell her a ticket…meanwhile, Susan and Jody were waiting for her at the subway and were happy to see she had arrived safely at our lodging…
Monday, October 23rd, 2011
Now, we were ready to pick up the rental car and head to the Loire Valley!
