Paris finally

Sunday May 26th, Paris France-

Arrived in Paris on the TGV after about a 2 hour ride. (Train Great Velocity) and arrived just in time for the protest du jour in Paris. Huge crowds of people men, women and children all protesting. (Side note -- we always see a protest in Paris reliably. It's funny and must be in the Parisian blood.) [Photos here a click-able to see them in a larger size.]

Monday May 27th, Paris France

Tuesday May 28th, Paris France-

Walked around and shopped. Went to the Bon Marche store which was a wonder. Just as an example of how splendid it was follows. We went to the sock department because looking at it I saw that they literally had a rainbow of colors of socks. Every color of mens socks that you can imagine (You mean there's more than blue,brown and black?). Didn't buy any socks but it sure was amazing. Plus like 5 people there to help customers out. (Looked like a few too many at least when we saw it.)

Lynne got the most amazing scarf that she is super happy with and just fits her to a T. Chet got a scarf also making him look a little French. (Apparently they're in style. Not that Chet would know this.) Went to the Jardin du Luxembourg museum and saw the "Marc Chagall during the War" exhibit there. Lynne really enjoyed this and covered his career from his early days to his fully established artist point. And yes if you recall this is the 2nd Marc Chagall exhibit we saw. The first one was the same named museum in Nice which really enjoyed.

Jardin du Luxembourg front entrance.

Outside of the Jarden du Luxemburg

Famous Marc Chagall painting in the museum.

Very expensive plate set in museum store. (Didn't buy it.)

Chet with new man-scarf.

Later we had dinner at Cafe Cassette where we had a modest dinner and a great desert of Pain Perdue with caramel sauce. Kind of like the French toast that Chet makes but better. Somehow they made it crunchy on the outside which really added to it's flavor.

And lastly after dinner we went to one of the bridges crossing the Seine to see the sunset which was nice with great whispy clouds which really enhanced the colors of sunset. Nice reds and oranges. We didn't have enough time to get to the Monparnasse building which is supposed to have the best view of the city and you can get the Eiffel Tower in the photo as well.

Vivid reds over the Seine at sunset

 

Wednesday May 29th, 2013 Paris France-

Got up late (as usual) and went shopping to get some things to bring home. We specially like the Hediard brand of preserves. (Not an endorsement.) We also saw "snoop the wonder dog" who might be the equivalent or our Joey cat shown below-

I think he was driving this motorcycle which might have been a French post office official function.

We came across this statue of Thomas Jefferson who was the USA ambassador to France from 1801-1809. One can only imagine the great time he must have had back then. In those days most everything that was any type of luxury item came from Europe so it must have been an incredible experience for him. I've been listening to a book about George Washington and hence reason I knew this.

Thomas Jefferson statue along the Seine in Paris

Yes some shoes were bought. (Shocker!) This is Lynne at her favorite store La Scarpa in the Saint Germain-Depre area.

Went to the Monparnasse building around 9pm to try to go to the top of building to catch the view and sunset. The building is 56 stories tall and is the tallest building in the area and is perfectly situated for a great view of the Eiffel Tower with the sunset very near it. There were showers in the area and we thought it would be nice but it ended up we had some rain squalls, but I did manage to get some nice night shots of Tower Eiffel. Every hour on the hour the tower sparkles like a gigantic sparkler and it's pretty cool to see. You can see the little sparkles on the photo below.

(Tower Eiffel at night on a misty night.)

Walked down Rue de Renne in the sprinkling rain to our apartment without a worry. We enjoyed this knowing we wouldn't be doing this in our local city of Oakland late at night.

Thursday May 30th, 2013 Paris France-

Got up and tried to check-in for the flight back. (24 hours in advance.) Tried to do this on the iPad and no luck. We tried for like an hour plus. Then we went to the FedEx drop-off point to ship a box out and got done with that and went to the Air France office. The agents there spent 45 minutes trying to check us in to no avail but they assured us there would be no problem when we would go to the airport the next day. It was now past 1:30 pm and we decided to go to the Orsay museum. We enjoyed the Orsay quite a bit as the collection specially the Impressionist collection is so amazing. We both really enjoyed the Van Gogh works as well. The central hall is specially nice because of the amount of natural lighting illuminating the statues that line the hall. We even saw some people who we had met earlier that day at the Air France office who were from El Cerrito which was funny because the last time we were in Orsay we saw our friend Paul Brande's brother and wife in the museum and exchanged hellos.

Then we walked directly to Cafe Cassette and found the same waitress we had before and now it was Basque food theme night. It's a fun little cafe and they seem to specialize in food versus being a bar that has a side aspect of food. We had a first course of Squid, Tomato sauce, Noodles, Bell Peppers and Pimento and it was very good. The main course was Pork, Potatoes,Tomatoes, Bell peppers and a light sauce. (Great for dipping a baguette into and, of course, Lynne asked for no Bell Peppers and they mostly got that right.) The waitress came by and told us they had three guys who were Basque singers. The Basque singing was great and sounded very different than the French we were used to hearing by now. We really enjoyed the whole event and then when we left said goodbye to the super friendly waitress who had helped us out. We shook hands and said "Are Revoir until next time"

Main course of our Basque style dinner at Cafe Cassette

Basque singers - guy with beard and #5 on back.

Basque singers at Cafe Cassette

Friday May 31st, 2013 Paris France to San Francisco, CA-

Travel day. Got to airport no problem and then got to Air France counter and they calmly told us our tickets were canceled. Lynne was incensed after we had spent 3 hours yesterday trying to check-in and also going to the Air France office where they spent 45 minutes trying to check us in. (And the same thing had happened to us on a previous trip with Delta Airlines.) To make a long story short it appears that Air France overbooked the flight and then since we weren't checked in they bumped us off the flight. They claimed they had notified us we were bumped but we didn't find any evidence of that.

Luckily we made the flight albeit in different rows of the airplane. We went to the Delta Airlines counter and talked to a gentleman who looked like the station manager and he walked over to Air France with us and they discussed our situation and he really pressed the AF person to do something but she just hemmed and hawed and the Delta manager even said to her that "she (meaning Lynne) speaks and understands French so you better be careful what you say" because the lady was not taking ownership of the issue. The Delta man stayed with us for a good 30 minutes to try to help us out. We were quite grateful for his earnest help. It's rare when a person at the airport goes with you and spends a solid amount of time helping someone out.

Bottom line if you can't check in - DO worry about it. You could be bumped if the airline has over-sold the flight and if the flight is a code-share be ready for infinite loop finger pointing. We suspect they had just over-booked the flight and then bumped people who hadn't checked in because the aircraft type had not changed from what it was planned to be to what it actually was. We ended up flying on a 777-300ER which while economy is tight if you're in the middle seats (we were) it was bearable. The food was even good (French origin) and we even had what tasted like real Camembert cheese with a meal.

 

 

this is a test of the

command that I don't know how to use

 

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Lyon days

Friday May 24th, Lyon France

Walked around and went to the Monoprix store and bought some things. Went to the Art Museum of Lyon which was very nice, but of the same scale as the ones in Florence.A nice collection all the same and had lunch there too.

Work of art in Lyon museum of Beaux Arts (Come Fly with me?)

Moses being presented to the Pharaoh.

Painting on cafeteria wall of Beaux Arts Museum.

The pastry / Viennoiserie in Lyon has some different things I haven't seen before. They have pink colored pralines which Lynne says are probably cashews that have been cooked in some type of sugar with a food dye added to make them pink. Good but nothing super special I thought.

Pastry with the pink pralines prevalent in Lyon. (Pretty but not much substance.)

You want jewelry?

We had a guy singing (really badly) and playing "bad guitar" on the sidewalk below the apartment and luckily for us he stopped singing right at 11pm Lynne said because maybe there was a municipal regulation saying that the area must be quiet after 11pm. Hard to believe from an American perspective that someone would actually pay attention to a rule but they did. We watched Ratatouille on TV in english which was fun.

Saturday May 25th, Lyon France

Chet woke up having a cold bug. (Tried denial first but it didn't work.) We didn't get out out of the apartment until about 11am and we decided to take the fenicular train (A cable car train.) up to the top of the large hill behind us to see the church called Fourviere. The church as really nice stained glass inside and is oddly youthful for France since it was built in about 1865.

Stained glass in the church was really great.

In walking around we saw some interesting sites including the usual carousel you seem to see in every french city and some very interesting Trompe L'Oeuil (House or structure painted with unusual shapes on them to make them look 3D. You've probably seen these done on sidewalks.) They do make for good photos anyway aand the word means "fool the eye".

Carousel in Lyon France

Trompe L'Oeuil on Lyon building

We walked around and we wanted to find a place for true Lyonaise Bouchon food which is the original style of Lyon food. We went to our first choice and it was full so we couldn't get in there. We wandered over to a different place called Leon de Lyon. The people were very nice there and we did have some traditional items such as Quenelle which is a fish souffle made into a sort of tear drop shape and I had Duck with Orange and carrots cooked in honey. And for desert we had an Apple tart which was good.

Peas, beans and bone marrow.

This is a Quenelle. Basically a fish souffle.

Canard Al' Orange

Then we wandered around more looking at the South end of the Isle where the core part of the city lies. After some wandering we found two large Roman Ampitheatres that are still being used today for theatre productions. We saw the actors rehearsing their production of Cyrano De Bergerac. It was cool knowing that we still use these ampitheatres after 2,000 years. Photos below.

Ampitheatre still in use after 2,000 years.

Play that we saw being rehearsed in the Gallo-Roman ampitheatre.

And then finally Lynne saw a silk goods store and so we went in here and saw the merchants very old loom equipment. The equipment was made in about 1805 and was still in working condition. He talked to Lynne and another person there for a long time about the work he does and how he does it. It was very interesting. Lynne got a very nice new scarf there shown below.

Lynne looking very happy with her new Silk scarf.

Silk merchant who told us the building we were staying in is from the 16th century.

Now we are on the TGV train to Paris for the last few days of this trip! High speed rail is nice!..

One other odd thing is we were walking to ride the train and passed 20 tourists who were dressed in orange jumpsuits. These were the kind thing you'd wear in Antartica so you can be seen. Or maybe it was a tour group for people who tend to get lost a lot. I had to laugh though - you'd never get me wearing that at least in the city.

 

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A great time in Nice

Wednesday May 23rd, Nice France-

Tartine and other morning essentials while traveling.

 

Got up and took the tram to see the flower market after stopping to get cafe au lait and croissant's at the local outside cafe. Enjoyed that and went to the flower market which was very large. We bought some trinkets and went to the beach or the plage as the French say it. The wind was way calmer than the first day we arrived so it was much more pleasant to sit and hang out at the beach for a while which we did.

Flowers - lots of flowers.

Overall view of flowers at Nice market.

Overall view of flowers at Nice market.

Sample of some of the goods at the market. Clementine jam.

The Eastern end of the market de fleurs.

We hopped back on the city tram which is silent and smooth and makes the Bay Area BART trains feel like something from the Flintstones TV cartoon. We hopped on here and went to the Place De Charles DeGaul and got a couple Pan Bagnat sandwiches for lunch for later. Our next stop was our 2nd attempt at going to the Marc Chagall Museum. We arrived and really enjoyed it a great deal. Photos below, which by the way, are all click-able if you want see them in a larger format.

Mark Chagall painting. (Chet's favorite one.)

Mark Chagall painting outside the museum.

We enjoyed the visit here and then headed to the Matisse museum where it was free to get in and we checked the place out but no photos were allowed. (Again for no apparent reason.) We didn't enjoy this as much as the remarkable colors of the Chagall museum which is free also.

Our next stop was the Museum of Archeology which had ruins of a Roman settlement from 2200 years ago. The signs there said that the area of Nice was a gateway to the rest of France so the Roman army had stationed 3 legions of troops here for 200 years. They had a small amphitheater there and a frigidarium, and heated baths. We also walked by what remained of business stalls and it was pretty amazing. See the photos below. It makes one wonder what will remain from our society in 2,000 years from now. Open to question. Also reminds me of the Monty Python movie where they say "So what did the Romans do for us anyway?"

Roman ruins right next to the Matisse museum in the background. This used to be a store in the ancient past.

Roman era ruins.

Then we got back to our pad for a while hung out and then went down to the water to find a restaurant to get some local fare like Moules (Mussels) for dinner. We ended up talking to a friendly couple from Cologne, Germany who wrote technical manuals for various aircraft manufacturers.

French onion soup. Had to have it once this time.

Mussels for dinner.

Lamb shank we had with potatoes.

Thursday May 23, Nice to Lyon France-

We are riding the TGV train right now which is super comfortable and smooth. Much nicer than the Italian trains we rode on. The train rides right in sight of the water along the whole coast and we've been seeing the towns along the way of Canne and realizing we definitely want to spend more time here in the future. We also saw the snow-capped Alps in the background too which was cool. The climate is Bay Area like. The water is spectacularly pretty and the skies are blue most of the time. Apparently it is sunny about 300 days a year here - not that different from Bay Area. Temperatures were in the 70 range the whole time and we did get a rain shower yesterday. There is really a lot to see here in case you are thinking about a trip.

The countryside of France is very pretty and the trees are at their spring greenest right now. The air is crystal clear blue and you couldn't ask for nicer weather. Lynne said she likes the train because we aren't cramped in, no airport security, no check-in etc. It's just comfy and nice and there is a nice slow view of the world going by.

Very pretty - We just past a outdoor flower nursery. Small vineyards, low ranging mountains / hills (probably 800 feet tall) covered with trees and small outcrops of rocks on their tops. The only downside is the trains usually don't go through the really mountainous higher areas so you're going to be in the low-lands mostly.

Just arrived in Lyon and we are going to start checking it out. Just had a rain shower and it's clearing up. More later on today.

 

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Time in Nice France

Monday May 20th, Firenze, Italy to Nice, France- Day 7

We got up early and headed out from our very nice apartment in Florence and headed to the series of 3 trains were taking from Florence to Nice. The train system in Italy seems to be very widespread and works pretty well as far as we can see. We are now riding somewhere North of Milan on our way to Ventimilia for the last train (a French train) to Nice. No word on if the tracks have a different gauge like they had between certain countries in Europe to "prevent" invasion by their neighboring country. Interestingly the tracks between Florence and Milan were 90% in tunnels because of the low rolling hills that they go across.

The (partially) topless beaches of Nice. Wind chill could be an issue here.

Nice beaches literally!

Arrived in Nice and was shocked by how pretty the coastline and water is. The water is aquamarine blue and the buildings are various different colors. Very pretty and they are French here so Lynne speaks the language. We just walked around for a few hours and checked things out. It's a nice town and the place we are staying in is small but livable. Going to bed early since we got up particularly early to get here. Our only excitement was finding a couple french cockroaches on the wall above the bed. The apartment here is the smallest one yet and neither Lynne or I can stand up straight in the upper bed area.

Tuesday May 21, Nice, France - Day 8

Woke up a bit late and went out and walked up to go to the Marc Chagal museum but it ended up being closed as were both that museum and the Matisse museum - what luck! Better planning next time I guess. But instead we again stumbled upon a festival called "Lu Festin De Nissa" which is a very old festival celebrated since the roman times greeting the return of spring and summer. We did manage to find some nice Pan Bagnat sandwiches which we had been looking for shown below.

Lu Festin De Nissa festival with kids on stage and kids getting ready to be on stage.

Groups of kids going for their turn to get on stage.

Pan Bagnat sandwich

Pan Bagnat sandwich in Nice

Delicious apple tart for lunch.

 

Matisse museum which we didn't go in yet.

The festival consisted of hundreds of French children performing dances to old music on a small stage. The children all had different sort of uniforms for example maybe a red sash, or a red striped pants things like that. It was pretty cool. We looked it up later and saw what it was about. It was probably the highlight of the day. The first day was another french bank holiday and the second day all the museums were closed. We normally have better luck than this. We then walked around the town away from tourists areas more so where the locals lived and hang out. Lynne wanted to see the Russian Orthodox Church so we walked over there to see that. It was built in 1865 and was quite elaborate. It was another case where we couldn't take any photos inside for who knows what reason. It almost seems like someone flips a coin and decides whether you can take photos inside or not.

We also came across a strange looking church that I thought looked like a spaceship. I'm not sure what the deal was with this. It looked like a Ukrainian church or something but I'm not sure. Maybe it was associated with the cult that tried to catch that comet a few years ago? Or a Buck Rogers cult?

We returned back to our cockroach apartment and Lynne found the chair to be broken which was my fault because I didn't tell her it was broken. It turned out we texted the owner and he said he knew about it so it was OK. We've never had bug issues before. Hopefully they don't hitch a ride home to America where they can meet their American cousins. (The food's better here in France.. haaa) We went out for dinner and wandered around in the local area and wandered for about 30 minutes not finding anything that caught our attention. We finally went back to a place where the owner charmed us in the door promising really good food and claiming to be the best food in the area. (I was incredulous about that just for the obvious reasons.) We ended up eating there and loving it. The owner said he had worked in a restaurant in NYC. The food ended up being great and we really loved it. We had a Niçoise salad and some fish and vegetables which was really good. I guess it's good to have low expectations sometimes!

Take off will be in 10 minutes!

Dinner of fish and vegetables that was wonderful.

Now we're debating what kind of feedback to give the apartment owner as we begin our last day in Nice. (Wishing we had more time to spend here because we're just scratching the surface of all the great things to see.) Plus we'll plan on staying in a better place next time as well.

 

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