Day 21 – Our Dernier Jour en Paris

It’s our last day, so we are gentle with ourselves…nothing to rush to, nothing left on the agenda. We stroll rather than walk in the brisk style we are now used to. This change in pace lets us know that we are tired. I suspect I will have no trouble sleeping on the airplane tomorrow.

We stroll our neighbourhood, because we realize we have spent no real time in St. Germain des Pres. We walk side streets letting our eyes and noses pull us where they will. Brunch is from a little pastisserie – a brie baguette sandwich for me and a deep bacon and cheese pizza for Dennis. We are not going to be able to keep up the rich diet when we get home, but things are so good here we cannot resist!

On our walk we find at least three more churches, one of which was built in 540 AD.

We also find the famous eateries: les Deux Magots, Café de Flore and Brasserie Lipp, all huddled near each other. They are famous for the writers and philosophers that used to enjoy them, like Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

We try the famous macaroons that are little pastries and have nothing to do with the coconut concoctions we call macaroons. They are like a tiny hard shell meringue on the outside stuffed with creamy fillings and are melt in your mouth delicious! I have mint and caramel and Dennis tries coffee and chocolate. Yum.

We return to the apartment to arrange things for packing and change to go out for dinner. We have four Metro tickets left, just perfect to go somewhere downtown to eat.

Our meal is at Brasserie Marguerite…the only restaurant we have returned to because we like the food. Dennis has a smoked hake plate du jour and I have escargot and onion soup. We want dessert, but we fill ourselves, so no new pastries.

We stroll across the Seine, beside Notre Dame and head home by Metro. Now I finish this as Dennis packs. The cab comes tomorrow at 7:30 am!

Paris has been wonderful, we both agree. We will miss the beauty, style, art, and proximity to ancient architecture. We will miss the great wine at a cheap price, the great fresh food in every block, and the efficiency of the Metro.

We look forward to home for the quiet that no big city can offer, and access to nature – animals in the yard, real grasses and beaches that we can relax on. We look forward to friends who will welcome us home, and family that will visit soon. You have all been with us in spirit on this journey; now we will work on that lottery win thing so we can all do it together! Following are just a few general observations about this wonderful country. For now, a bientot!

General Observations and Je ne sais quoi

· We were welcomed and treated well by young and old. By and large people are friendly and provide good service.

· Parisians are very polite, greeting people and excusing themselves if they step in front of, or inadvertently touch you.

· Ageism is not apparent.

· Little dogs are everywhere, on leashes, in arms, or little bags, with men and women. They sit under tables in restaurants and travel with their people on trains and subways.

· Driving is aggressive and pedestrians need to be at least as aggressive at crosswalks. However, jaywalking at crosswalks – meaning when pedestrians don’t have the light – is prevalent.

· Scooters and bicycles go anywhere they like, including sidewalks, even though on most roads bicycles have their own path.

· Parking is insane and scooters use the sidewalk to park all the time, seemingly with impunity; cars do too when they can!

· Style is important to people and the interpretation of style means it’s not just the latest fashion, which is refreshing; this makes people watching very interesting and pleasant.

· Clothes are very well constructed and often much more intricate than in North America. There are details sewn into or affixed to almost all attire. Fabrics are good quality and fit is paramount.

· Shoes are a sign of personal expression for men and women and are so diverse in colour and design they are like jewellery. Very good quality shoes are available at good prices in comparison to at home.

· However, if you are touring, wear shoes that are comfortable for walking on a variety of surfaces from cobblestone to open grating. I brought stylish shoes that I thought were comfortable and still ended up in my sandals made by Crocs (no, not the garden variety!)

· Trains are a fabulous way to get around. They run frequently and are clean and comfortable. The three TGV trains we took had a snack bar and bar. The shorter run trains may not have this service. 2^nd class is plenty comfortable; we saw no reason to pay for 1^st.

(DD: We took the TGV from Paris to Nice and back and then from Paris to Giverny and back and from Paris to Versailles and back and were only checked for tickets on one leg of one trip! We understand that the fine for getting caught without a valid ticket is steep but . . . )

· The Metro in Paris is fast to get around on, and while not as lovely as the trains for comfort and amenities, it is cheap and efficient. The bus system is likely the same; we just never used it.

· Wine is wonderful, readily available in corner and grocery stores, and cheap! We’ve had fabulous bottles for less than 3 Euros that would easily be $20+ at home. You can also drink it virtually everywhere…sitting in a park, on a bridge, or at the edge of the street. Given this, we saw little drunkenness.

· Rose wines and champagnes are also everywhere and drunk as frequently as other varieties.

· Beer Blanche is likely a wheat beer and is served with lemon floating in it. Draft beer is “un pression” and can be bought in 25cl glasses, 50cl pints, or litres. Ask before you try any strange name on a beer menu or you might wind up with sweet pink concoction we got with lemonade and grenadine added – we did and while it was pretty it tasted vile!

· Monuments and most of the sights we think of in Paris are BIG…like often too big for my point and shoot camera’s wide angle. It’s not a coincidence that a lot of pictures of the Eiffel Tower have bits cut off…their owners were probably too tired to walk across the river to get the whole thing in the shot!

· Reserve ahead. Long lines at museums and sites can be avoided with reservations and they are easy to do online.

· Starbucks are prevalent in Paris but there aren’t as many as there are McDonalds and Subways. We saw no Starbucks in Nice, but you can get a café just about anywhere. (DD: Typically you get an espresso when you order a café, which is fine because it seems less acidic than our expressos. They usually serve a small glass of water with it. Café-au-lait is pretty much a latte and there is also Café-Americano which is a good expresso watered down with hot water. There is a way to get a coffee with milk that isn’t steamed, but I never figured that one out. Sipping a tiny cup of espresso on a hot day in a sidewalk bistro in Paris is a very pleasant way to spend a 1/2 hour (or longer)!)

· Food is fresh, flavourful, readily available and largely fabulous. They do use all of the animal and I am limited in how adventurous I want to be sometimes, but have had no trouble. The only disappointment has been lettuce, which is often tough and bitter in salads…and yes I know arugula when I see it ;-).

· Ham and cheese are staples and can be found on any menu.

· Cheeses are wonderful. A plain cheese sandwich will have something like emmental in it, or brie. Four cheese crepes are exquisite.

(DD: We saw a lot of cheese shops and despite the fact that I was looking forward to tasting some right from the shop the displays in the front windows and cases turned me off! I don’t eat mold. Period. Blue cheese has never been on my list of things that I want to put in my mouth and most shops had displays of cheeses with mold on all of them! Everything was fuzzy! They looked like something Poe may have stumbled into while searching for the Cask of the Amontillado.

We also ran across a couple of fruit/vegetable stands (which are usually set up like works of art deterring anyone from actually removing a piece of the perfectly arranged fresh produce) that had complete flats of moldy fruit. Both, that I saw, were what appeared to be moldy peaches. Perhaps there is a special recipe for moldy peaches that we aren’t aware of?)

· Many places have been retrofit from their 15^th, 16^th, 17^th century beginning, so wiring and plumbing are exposed in hallways and sometimes on the exterior of buildings. This has also led to things like toilets and showers that are on risers to allow for pumps underneath. Sometimes toilets sound like they are taking off when they are flushed! This also leads to some tiny showers. Dennis says his elbows are still bleeding from shampooing his hair in the first apartment we had that had a shower we had to turn sideways to enter! Good practice for RVing, I say.

· Retrofits also mean that gas stations in many places are just pumps on the sidewalk, and that kitchens have the washing machine where we would often place the dishwasher. Dryers are not in evidence anywhere…it’s a rack on the terrace or a line in the window.

· People use their whole face to talk. Eyebrows move, lips pout, eyes roll – it’s fabulous; especially when combined with hand gestures and what appear to be full body shrugs.

· I see many women alone and being treated well in cafes, on the subway, etc. – good news for solo women travelers.

· Cell phone providers must have very powerful signals. The number of people we have seen chatting on their phones while in the subway careening through tunnels is huge. Can all these signals running through the air run through us? Hmmmm.

· Traffic lights are different here. They are mostly at the corners of streets on posts, not overhanging the roads. And on the posts, there are the usual three lights at the top and then lower down, aimed directly at the driver, not down the street, are another set of smaller lights to ensure the driver sees them. Of course, whether they pay attention is a whole other thing!

· We refer to maps and compasses a lot. Seriously, we are both very savvy when it comes to finding our way in and out of places but this city turned us around like the old parlor trick and laughed when we were dizzy. There are many angled streets with multi-street intersections and nothing is on a grid. If you are directionally impaired…bring a GPS!

· “Velib” bike stands are everywhere. You have to get a pass somewhere, which I think is relatively easy, then you can ride the bikes for the first half hour for free. There are lots of places to drop them within the half hour distance. If you ride longer, I think it is 3,5 Euros per hour.

· In money, and numbers, where we would use a period, the French use a comma. Ones look a little like sevens with a long, sloping front, and sevens have a cross on the stem.

· Oh, and finally, they have mustard flavoured potato chips, which are awesome! And they have Roast Ox and Handcooked Ham and English Mustard, which I don’t even want to talk about!

Go to Paris! She rocks!