Marathoners and the Mona Lisa

I am still amazed by the very cool fast trains in Europe, and by our specific route that took us under the English Channel to France.  Zipping from London to Paris takes 2.5 hours to get from one town center to the other traveling at 210 miles per hour.  I am embarrassed to admit that the scent of stale sweat that hit us upon boarding was filed in my mind as the first hint of the French-ness we were fast approaching.  But no, very soon after departure my neighboring seat-mates admitted with apologies that it was them.  This unusual introduction led to a really interesting conversation.

They were headed to Paris for their first marathon.  Between work, school and training they had left too little time to prepare properly for the train trip. Hence the odor.  So while the kids (seated behind us) looked out the window, played games and enjoyed teacakes and fizzy waters I talked with these interesting boys who turned out to be from a part of Greenwich that we had just walked through the day before.  Of the three, only one had run a marathon before and even he had only done one.  They were nervous but excited and it was fun to  listen to them.  Our own adventures and plans interested them as well so the journey went really quickly.

Arriving in Paris at Gare Du Nord station, we were easily able to avoid a con man selling fake Metro tickets and find the line to buy our real ones.  The price is decent if you get a pack of ten (une carnet) that work on all buses and the city lines of the Metro system.  I just would NOT recommend arriving on a weekday right when everyone is getting off of work.  I thought we had smooth sailing; tickets in hand, route mapped, correct line found, train en-route BUT it (and the next one) arrived already jammed overfull.  When everyone around us crammed inside regardless I decided that, next train, we would too.  Which we did, luggage included.  Problems really started at the next stop, when dozens of people needed to get off but we, in the doorway, did not.  Poor Chris was knocked around, we all got separated and I was terrified.  But no one was hurt, we all stayed on the train and made it to the right stop where all was peaceful once we got off.

The hotel was a pleasant surprise, especially since it was a bargain for the area.  The walk from the Metro station was closer and easier than Google showed it, the bank I needed was right there as were several shops and everyone we saw was cheerful and friendly.  Checking in was nice with everyone speaking English and French all mixed together and welcoming us warmly.  They even gave us the internet code free of charge, and new ones again each time the kids went back down because we used up our allotment quickly from watching news, videos and mapping the plans for the next day.  About all we had energy for at that point was a quick stroll through the neighborhood and a friendly restaurant with the best pizza any of us had ever tasted.

Choosing walking and buses over more Metro made sense for our sightseeing day.  An early start let us enjoy a bright morning with pastries from the boulangere and coffee au lait in the cafe with cocoa for the tweens.  The coffee and cocoa stop cost more than anything else that day because we picked a fancy place on a tourist street that had a rare public restroom.  It would be hours of sightseeing before we got another opportunity, and then only because the nice girl in the sandwich shop near the Eiffel Tower let us use the tiny spiral stairs down to the basement where their staff WC hid.

We had a picnic lunch in the shadow of the Tower, listening to the musicians and watching families from all over the world take pictures.  I overruled the kids' desire to go to the top.  Up there it was windy, cold, extremely crowded and expensive while the experience at ground level was wonderful.  Several of the runners for the big marathon went by while we were there, but not our boys from Greenwich.  Hopefully that meant they were already well past.

Bus 69 from there goes slowly through the prettiest parts of Paris and along the Seine, leading to the Palace, the Louvre and beyond.  We rode around, walked cute neighborhoods and eventually got off at the Louvre.  I let each of us choose one must-see and the rest would just be enjoyed accidentally in between.  Maddy picked the Venus de Milo, Chris wanted to see Mona Lisa and I chose the Victory of Samothrace but we saw so many more pieces while looking for each of those.  The collections are stunning and the sense of history is overwhelming.

On the way home to the hotel we picked up a whole roast chicken, strawberries, potatoes in olive oil and herbs and some juice from street vendors.  The chicken was so good that we stopped by the next day to tell him, which gave us the chance to see that he was now roasting rabbits.  This looks so much like cats that we had to ask.  

I will be processing the sights, sounds and flavors of Paris for a long time to come.  The crowded areas were a real challenge with the kids and safety concerns but that happens in any large city.  The river, architecture, food, history and people here are wonderful.