Paris - thoughts on planing for our trip & our blog

I get just as much of a thrill planning a trip as going on the trip. The local library was a great place for travel books, videos & DVDs and if something wasn't in they would order it for me. Rick Steves & Lonely Planet were my favorites, lots of information.  TipAdvisor is a website that I use all the time. In the forum section there are questions & answers. This site covers everything you would want to know about your destination. I was reading about scams in Paris & sure enough the 2nd day there I saw a young girl do the gold ring scam on 2 tourists. Two days later a young fellow tried it on Chris & I. We both burst out laughing & he took off running.
As for the blog I got the idea from a fellow hospice volunteer Shirley T. She had started a blog in 2006 when she was doing a pligrimage walk to Santiago de Compostela in Spain This is a 800 km trail starting on the French border & ending in Spain. She did this alone. In 2007 she added to her blog when she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro & her next entry will be in 2009 when she climbs to Machu Picchu. I thought this was such a great way to keep in touch. So I announced to Chris that we were going to do a blog. I think she's done a great job. I sat on the couch with my wine & threw ideas at her while she madly typed. I wouldn't let her have any wine till she was finished. Thank you everyone for sending your comments & emails to us. Every morning we looked forward to reading them. It was great having company.


Travel Tip:
Rick Steves has 4 podcast audio tours for Paris. These we downloaded & used in Versailles, Louvre, d'Orsay & on a walking tour of historic Paris. There are many other podcasts on the internet.

Paris - reflections about our trip

I have received complaints that there have been no postings for the last two days. Apologies, the web connection wasn't that great on the plane. We are home again and happy and sad to be here. We had a wonderful holiday and it was hard to see it end even though we were anxious to see our families and friends again.
A few reflections on the necessities of a holiday in Paris.

The last Thursday

Well Paris is blowing us out of town. There is nasty weather coming at us from the Channel telling us it is time to leave. By a vote of 2 we think the best time to come to Paris would be the middle two weeks of October. The weather only got cold this week and last week was like summer. Today we are finishing off the shopping for kids & grandkids. Our first stop is the Bon Marche built in 1852 it is the oldest department store in Paris. When you enter you have to walk through the purses, hats, scarves & glove department not like home where you run the gauntlet of makeup & perfume. The first hat we noticed at Bon Marche was 240 euros so back to St. Michael full of cheap little tourist shops where we can do our last minute shopping. We wandered the streets and saw the Dior shop, Ralph Lauren etc. Off we go to find an authentic French souvenir made in Turkey. Hope you like my new chapeau .

We are off to Versailles

This morning with a blue sky looking back at us we decided to head to Versailles. We were going to go the day before but fortunately changed plans because we discovered later that the French President had used Versailles for his economy talks and we probably wouldn't have been able to get in.  It is very grand as you walk up the street toward it. The city is all around it which surprised me. I expected it to be way out in the country. I guess that a town grew up around it to support the palace.

The palace has ongoing restoration and there are tarps and scaffolding everywhere. Sort of reminds you of Vancouver and condo rot. Scarey on that scale.  There was a free headset with descriptions of the rooms but we didn't want to wait in the lineup.

Another day another bistro

The sun is shining and the beer is good. Just so you foodies know, I had a vegetable soup that seemed to be a puree of squash, carrots and some fabulous stock base served with a dark baguette. Lyn had the most delicious looking quiche with chevre cheese melted on top, that was about 2 inches deep and wide across with a salad. She said it was so rich it tasted as if it were made with heavy cream. As you can see by our plates it wasn't very good. (click on the picture for the evidence) It is a good thing we don't eat out 3 times a day or I wouldn't be getting through the turnstiles at the Metro. For my sister, the onion soup a few days ago was incredible. They use emmental cheese rather than the mozzarella I have had at home. C'est tres bonne!

Marais District

We can't believe it we have 3 days left on our holiday. Where did the time go? The weather this morning was cloudy but we could see blue sky in the distance. We talked at breakfast what we wanted to see in the next coming days-whether we get there who knows. Today we decided to take the bus to the Place de la Bastille & do a Rick Steves' walking tour of the Marais. This was where the rich lived in the 15 th century but by the 19th century it was a working class neighbourhood with a large Jewish population. We walked down toward Place des Vosges. This is Paris's oldest square. It has 36 houses surrounding a park that once hosted jousting competitions but now have children enjoying themselves on the swings. We followed the map through the narrow streets & back alleys.

Stopped at the Carnavalet Musuem which is 2 Marais mansions connected by a corridor. The museum was free so we had to go in. There isn't to many freebies in Paris. This place is a little confusing and we got lost a few times. We wondered if we would ever surface. All that traipsing made us thirsty so we had to stopped at a cafe for a Heineken & food. Have to get your priorities right.

Vimy Ridge

At 7 o'clock we woke to rain. By 8:30 the sky was turning blue so we headed out of the city to visit Vimy Ridge National Historic Site of Canada. We arrived at the town of Arras, after being told that we could either get a cab or join a tour bus to reach the monument. Exiting the station we are met with a total absence of cabs and no bus. Hmmmm. Others have been waiting 30 minutes to catch a cab. We talk to a young couple from Toronto and we agree to share a cab if one ever shows up. Yeah! We have a cab and off we head.

A quiet Sunday

Today we were up an hour earlier than usual because we didn't realize that the clocks went back last night. With the extra hour in our pocket we headed off to the street market to do some grocery shopping. Our first purchase after looking over all the stalls was the french version of KFC. It is a huge rôtisserie with chickens dripping and a pan at the bottom catching the "jus" with potatoes and olives cooking in the bottom. Oh my gawd. Oui madame, we want the "jus" s'il vous plait. Merci!!
Next to the cheese merchant, then veggie man, then bread baker, then fruit merchant for apples and then the flower merchant, then the Lebanese merchant for hummus, babba ganish and pita with chicken kabobs. Oh and the the jewlery booth. Boy, are our arms long. You may think we were stocking up for the famine.....where is my granny cart?

Thank you everyone

First we just want to say thank for the comments you leave us. We love to get up in the morning and read your messages while we have our expresso or tea depending on the Granny. It really makes us feel connected and nice to know that you are interested.

In the pics above: Chris is buying a book at the famous stalls on the Seine, The next one if you look close this is how they move their furniture into their apartments & the last is the fountain in front of the outdoor market at Place Monge.

Monet in the Orangerie

After leaving the Louvre we walked through the Tuileries again. There is an art installation in the park right now and there are some interesting pieces to see including one in the middle of one of the fountains. We then visited the Orangerie where they have a wonderful space dedicated to Monet. There are 2 rooms that hold 4 pieces each of his last major work. The panels are massive and the space had to be built to house them when Monet gave them to the Louvre in his will. They are magnificent and this tiny image does not begin to do justice to this wonderful work. They are meant to illustrate different times of day at his beloved Lily Pond in Giverny.
We are finishing our day with a lovely pate picked up at the meat market, delicious quiche and baguette from the patisserie and wine from a merchant who is begining to recognize us and smirk when we walk in the door. Life is good.

Travel Tip:
Musee Orangerie

Friday at the Louvre

With the last day of our museum pass looming we had to face the Louvre. Don't get us wrong but it is rather daunting in comparision to other museums. We did our research and found out what time the English guided tour was and headed out promptly. We arrived and managed to find the correct department (no small feat) and were faced with "So sorry mesdames, we are canceled for today!" So we gritted our teeth, clutching our guides of the Louvre, parted our ways and agreed to meet in 2 hours. So first thing, the guide has little relation to the actual route you will take and without a certain level of physic power and excellent French you may be at a disadavantage...You can't keep 2 old dames down. We made it to Paris and this would not be our Waterloo. Saw wonderful things and too many to relate in one go. We traded hints and clues when we met and headed back into the fray after lunch. We cannot imagine the crush in the summer. While we were there it was busy but at least comfortable.

Here are a few pieces of art that we saw today.



Travel Tip:
Louvre

Monet's Garden

Well today was very special day for both of us. We woke to a blue sky and crisp autumn weather. Today is a walking day perfect for Monet's garden. We caught a train to Normandy and the town of Vernon. We ran out the door to a bus leaving for the little town of Giverny where Monet built his famous gardens.

We can't to do justice to describing how every turn was a new wonder. The volume and variety of flowers was unbelievable. The colours were so rich.

Posting comments

Hi all,

I have been asked to post instructions on leaving a comment on the posts. Please click on the comment link at the bottom of the posting and follow the instructions including signing up. You don't have to open a Google email just a blog account. They will not use your email for any advertising. You can email us at twogrannys@gmail.com also.

Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle

Hi all,

Well today we finally headed off to see Notre Dame. We took our time getting there as it was a sunny day and we found a park and ate our lunch which we picked up at a local bakery. You can buy the most amazing selection of premade baguette sandwichs with the loveliest fillings. One of them is lots for Lyn and I to share. Today it was chicken with pickled tomatoes and fresh greens and lovely flavoured mayo. They have so many varieties. Someone told me about them but I can't remember who. (thank you! if you are following us). Yummy! About 3.5 Euros.

So we arrive at the island that the church is on and there are police everywhere. We head to the front and overhear someone say that Notre Dame is closed until 5:00. What is happening? Some special mass is being held. We suspected that there were dignitaries coming as the number of police was huge. So tonight on the french news channel we can't understand there was the mass on the news. A very popular nun that died 2 days ago at the age of 99 was being recognized at mass and the President was even there. We were not invited......

So off we went on a new adventure and explored some wonderful places. Here are some pictures of the  windows in Sainte Chapelle built in 1248 by King Louis IX. I can't begin to tell you how incredible it was. It is fairly intimate compared to Notre Dame and the church is stained glass 360 degrees around. The walls are painted vividly and it is beautiful. Click on the picture to see close up. A must see.

Travel Tip:
Sainte Chapelle

Leaving comments

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say we have adjusted the ability to leave comments and anyone can leave a message on the blog now. Slow learning curve here. We love to see the comments and hear from you. We enjoying having your messages with our coffee and tea in the morning.

Haven't had onion soup on the left bank yet Laurie but there is a good chance that will happen today. Melinda, I will have that soup with lots of bread and gooey cheese on top. Yummy.

I think we are off to Notre Dam today. Last time we were there it was on the weekend and the line ups were fierce. We have our museum passes now and we can get in more quickly. We have our Rick Steeves tours in our MP3 players and we are off.

Your giggle for the day is Lyn and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower in a hurricane! Yes I mean the tippy top. Way up there!!! See us posing in front before we got there and look at the little platform at the top. We were there!

Museum d'Orsay

We woke up to rain - there goes our sunny days - back to reality. We were going to Giverny to see Monet's garden but it is raining- so today is a museum day. Off to the Musee d'Orsay. As usual we didn't get our bums in gear so we didn't arrive till 12:30. Well the line was long! But we had bought a 4 day Musuem Pass yesterday & we went into a shorter line it was worth the price.

This museum is in an old art deco era train station. When you walk through the doors you are shocked by the beauty & size of this museum. The paintings are from the Impressionist School of Art (Chris's dictate) I am not familar with a lot of the art but I even recognized the pictures from Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec & countless more. We spent the whole day wandering from gallery to gallery. We have been taking the bus everywhere it gives us a chance to see our surroundings. Taking the Metro might be faster but I feel like a mole emerging from the ground not knowing where I'm at. It might be raining but you can't keep a Wet Coast Girl down!



Travel Tip:
Get a Paris Museum Pass. You can buy 2, 3 or 4 day passes that will give you entrance to more museums and points of interest than you will have energy to see. You can buy them at metro stations, museums or Tourist Information Offices. This pass will allow you to bypass the lineups that sometimes are hundreds of people long and get priority entrance.
Musee Orsay
We used Rick Steves podcast for the museum.

Dinner at the Bistro

Here we are eating again. We found this restraurant on the way home last night. We know the neighbourhood better now and the windows were very inviting. The name of the place is Restaurant Perraudin. We were lucky to get a table without reservations because this is apparently a very popular spot because it is an authentic bistro that sells truly french food that comes from the regions of France. As our lovely dining neighbours explained to us, there are two types of French cuisine. One is very arty and leaves you hungry and one is ethnic and fills you up with lots of food from the areas around France and this place did that kind of food very well. It was all delicious and we had no problem finishing it all off. The service was wonderful and there was no rushing us through dinner even though they were turning people away while we were eating. It was a bit of a splurge but we have balanced it against the last two dinner which we ate in.

Travel Tip:
Restaurant Perraudin we had dinner twice here what a treat! Be sure you arrive right at opening because it fills very fast. We had the homemade ice cream & it was delicious. Very small place but you get to meet the other diners.

Walk through Paris

Today was an outdoor day because the weather was so wonderful. We started the day buying a sandwich at a nearby bakery and heading out to see the gardens of the Louvre. The building itself is huge and they say that if you were to stop in front of every item for 3 seconds it would take you 3 months, 24 hours a day to see it all. So we just walked around the building. We walked around the grounds and through the gardens and stopped for lunch beside a beautiful pool with a view of the Champ D'Elysee.

Checking out our neighborhood

Bonjour Amis,

Friday night we arrived a little tired so we went to the Rue Mouffetard for dinner. We are 3 blocks away. Our first night so we thought we had to have a special dinner. This street is very busy with lots of tourists & restaurants. We found a small restaurant where we had a delicious dinner with lots of wine. Some how with our terrible french we were understood. Sunday morning we woke to a blue sky. We had to pinch ourselves we are in Paris & it isn't raining!

We can see the Pantheon from our balcony & hear the church bells.

We went to the Sun. market on the rue Mouffetard & it was very busy. The stalls are selling fish, cheese, bread & vegetables. It is open 3 days a week, this is were Chris & I are going to buy our food. I bought a teapot for 2 euros at a stall, they wanted 20 euros in the store. People just set up a table in the street & sell their things (like our garage sales - trust me to hit one of these) This afternoon we did a walking tourof the Marais district, the old Jewish Quarter. Chris & I have been on the bus. metro & boat, we are doing well.

Exploring and a Seine River Cruise

Sorry for the delay but my luggage arrived Sunday night at 8:00. The same clothes for 4, that is four days. Lyn is a dear friend to share her deordorant (probably in her best interest) and put up with my hanging underware for this long.

Saturday we got off to a slow start as we were a little jet lagged and took our time hoping my bags would show up. No luck so off we go to see what is outside our door.

My goodness it is wonderful! Can't really comprehend that we are here and we can do what we want. We started to wander and took a bus to Ile de la Cite and took a look at Notre Dame. The crowds were huge and that is in the off season. We will come back to see it on a rainy day. The weather is so wonderful. It is warm and sunny and we should have brought our suntan lotion.

Next we take a walk along the river bank (just like in the movies, ask us about the spys!) and at the end of the island there was a river cruise that was just about to leave so we had to do that and spent the next hour traveling past the major site like the Eiffle tower and museums and palaces and to many things to remember.

Travel Tip:
Take a river cruise it is a great way to see Paris & have your first sight of the Eiffel Tower. It also gives your feet a rest.
Boat cruise there are several tours that leave from Ile de la Cite.

We have arrived

Well here we are and it is about 10:30 at night and we haven't slept since Thursday night. I don't know what is keeping us going but we are starting to wind down. Our flight on KLM was great. The seats were not roomy but very acceptable. We actually got supper and breakfast. Free liquor and all the movies you could want on your own screen that you controlled and could start or stop with your own remote control. You could even make phone calls for a price. We got to Amsterdam and had a 3 1/2 hour layover and started to fade about then. We were back on the airplane with Air France and had a good flight which ended with my luggage not showing up. They were very prompt in attending to the eight of us and telling us to go spend 100 Euros to replace the items I couldn't live without and we were off to our apartment. Boy is rush hour awful here. Finally made it to our place and went out for a wonderful meal at a place around the corner. My luggage is coming in sometime tomorrow and I need to go shopping in the morning. to you later. Here are some pics of our neighbourhood, our view & our balcony.
Chris

Day one!

Here we are at the airport waiting for our flight. We are standing in front of a Bill Reid sculpture.
I am practicing on Chris's computer not very good & I type with 2 fingers.  

This is a wonderful picture of Lyn in Paris. I think that she was about 18 when she went on her adventure with a couple of other girls from school.

Bonjour,
We have booked our apartment Yea!! 9 rue Laromiguiere in the 5 arr. (Latin Quarter). It was hard deciding what web site to use there was so many. We used VRBO. The next step was the district. It was important to be close to all the major sites. We like to walk & we didn't want to spend our time on the metro travelling back & forth to our apart. So we narrowed it down to this one. It's a couple of blocks from the Pantheon & rue Mouffetard. We will send pictures when we arrive. It is on the 6th floor & has 2 balconies, that was what caught our attention. I can see Chris & I sitting on the balcony drinking our wine after a hard day of sightseeing. We are keeping our plans open, we have 2 weeks so we don't need to rush around trying to see everything. We'll do a couple of day trips to get out of the city. Versailles, Monet's garden, Fontainebleau & I would like to go to Vimy Ridge. There is a tour company that has daily walking tours, the same idea as the London Walking Tours & we really enjoyed those. Not to sure what the weather will be like, the last 2 trips in Oct. were very hot & we had to buy lighter tops. We'll try to see the weather forecast before we go. We both bought smaller bags & the apart. has a washer so we don't need many clothes. It has been 40 years since I was there. I wonder if I will remember anything. I looked at the old pictures & I can't believe I was that young.
Au revoir, Lyn

The Adventure is Started

Lyn and Chris have bought their airline tickets and were on the verge of booking an apartment, when the news came that the airline we were traveling on had gone bankrupt.Thank goodness our terrific travel agent Judy at Ladner Delta Travel, jumped into action and rebooked us on a new flight. We will be traveling through Amsterdam now and that won't make much difference in our travel time but we do have to stay 2 more days in Paris. Oh darn! The cheque has been sent to cover the first part of our rent in Paris and it looks like we can relax now and decide what we want to do rather than how are we going to get there.I am going to post some pictures of other trips Lyn and Chris have had together. We are such great traveling partners and have had such wonderful adventures. We can list so many picnics we have had at impressive addresses.Departure day is October 16 and we will be returning on October 31.

Getting Ready

So today Lyn and I will be selecting a place to stay in Paris. It is very exciting and a little overwhelming to have to choose a place so far away. We want it to be sort of central without living in the middle of tourist area that may be too busy 24 hours a day. Asking a lot aren't we. Fingers crossed.