Paris day 5

In the morning we went to the museum of design and industry (Musee des Arts et Metiers). My vote for the best museum in Paris. Then on to Place de Sulpice to what was supposed to be a flea market, but turned out to be lots of expensive antiques by dealers. We then found a cafe for lunch which was OK (not great). Then we walked along the Seine and browsed all the art/book dealers. After a rest at home, we walked to our Place de la Republique and could not believe the crowds. (When we got home later in the evening and turned on the TV we found out it was the celebration for inauguration of the plaza after its renovation). We then walked along the canal Saint Martin. It was full of people sitting on both sides of the canal for as far as the eye could see. The number of people out and about is astonishing. (I guess Parisians do not have any yard work to keep them occupied at home).

Paris day 4

We started the day with a walking tour. First stop was a church St Madeline. Immense church. I have had my fill of Churches. From there to the place d Concorde and the length of Champs Elessay. Bo fulfilled the obligatory shopping experience by buying a cute jacket there. After a brief rest at home we went to the neighborhood market (Marche des enfants Rouge) with food venders. The lebanese vendor made us great sandwiches and spoke a little Armenian. From there we walked to the George Pompidou center. A large museum of modern art. The ticket machine dispensers would not take my credit card and the attendant told us it only accepted French bank cards. Even the subway ticket machine accepts my Visa card! We went to the attended window where they accept Visa and asked for 2 tickets. She handed me the Visa printout to sign and it said €299 ($450) and the ticket printer kept spitting out tickets. She said OOPS. But they cannot refund it on the Visa card. She said the paintings may be modern but their accounting system is ancient. After a 5 minute wait the Manager showed up, filled out some forms and gave us the €299 in cash. We were unhappy but they redeemed themselves by giving us the 2 tickets for free. At one point a screaming alarm sounded. They made some attempt to evacuate everybody but not very successfully. After 5 minutes the alarm stopped and everybody resumed. We spent about three hours looking at the exhibitions, then walked home. The oldest market in Paris (Marche des Enfants Rouges which first opened in 1628) is one block from our apt. It is where we had Lebanese food. We went there again and had Moroccan food. Then we walked to Place de Vosges and park Louis XIII.

Paris day 3

We started the day by setting off for Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. After much walking we arrived at the base of the funicular where there were many funky stores. Bo was able to find a birthday gift for Phoebe and a funky purse for herself. We passed on the funicular and hiked up to Sacre Coeur. From there we followed a walking tour suggested in the Paris guide, after which we took the metro back and rested for 2 hours. Then it was off to the Louvre to meet Phoebe et. al. We searched for a place to eat and found a nice restaurant. However, the food was not great but nowhere near as bad as last night's sausage. From there we walked to the Luxembourg gardens. Al had an ice cream cone for $7 and the kid rode a swing for 5 minutes for $2. From there we walked toward Montparnasse and stopped in a patisserie for coffee and cake. We finally found a metro which brought us home. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

Paris day 1 and 2

Wed June 12 Up at 4:45 (The hotel forgot to give us our wake up call at 5). They also did not call us a taxi as we requested but a hotel employee said he would take us for he same fee. We got to our gate at 7. Boarding was delayed until 7:45. After everyone was onboard and the doors closed the captain announced we would have to sit there 80 minutes since Paris had not given clearance to land. We finally took off at 10. At Paris airport we spent at least an hour with Air France to ensure that our return leg to NY was still viable. (we had been told that if we don’t use a portion of a ticket the remaining pieces may be cancelled). We finally left the airport and got to our apt. It is very nice in the Marais district. We spent the evening walking and had a nice French dinner in the neighborhood Café de Charlot. ------------------------------------Thursday June 13---------------------------- Rain. We bought Metro tickets and went to Museum of Contemporary Art and Palais de Tokyo, which is devoted to very contemporary, cutting edge art. Unfortunately, they were under construction/installing new exhibits to open on June 21. In the rain we walked to Musee d’Orsay. The lines were very long. This was Bo’s third attempt to go to this museum. We left and started walking in the rain but went to a café for lunch. Bo ordered a sausage that she had read about. It was so foul smelling you could not get it close to your face. I swear it smelled like open sewer. I had to cover it with a napkin so I could breathe. (from Wikipedia: True andouillette is stronger in scent when the colon is used. By contrast, true andouillette is rarely seen outside France. All have a strong, distinctive odor related to their intestinal origins and components. Although sometimes repellent to the uninitiated, this aspect of andouillette is prized by its devotees.) The waiter was nice enough to take it away and bring something edible. After a 2 hour rest we went back to Musee d’Orsay and braved the line. We spent about 4 hours there visiting the permanent collections and the special exhibits, including a very interesting exhibition of Dark Romanticism art called “The Angel of the Odd”.

Warsaw and Opole

Warsaw & Opole The Air France flight NY to Paris was good. Paris to Warsaw just OK. There are no pictures of Warsaw because we didn’t encounter anything particularly interesting. These are Al’s impressions: The society there is unfriendly and greatly unhelpful. Bo took care of her obligations and we were anxious to leave. The 5 hour train ride to Opole was OK. But the Opole train station was another case of ineptitude. From the train platform you have to go down a long flight of stairs then immediately up another long flight to street level. There are no ramps, escalators, or elevator so you have to carry your luggage down then up. Then the jackass cabbie dropped us off at the back of the Avis building so we had to drag our luggage half a block to the front, because he wouldn’t drive around the block to the front. We are very anxious to get out of Poland. The wedding in Opole was good – so was the reception. The next day we drove to Ostrava in Czech Republic and spent the night at Bo’s friend. The next day we started our drive to Warsaw but decided to break it up. We stopped in an unpronounceable town of Mszczonow. Brand new hotel but left a lot to be desired. We got an e-mail from Air France stating air traffic controllers were staging a labor outage June 10 – June 13 and we should go to their website to see about our flight. It showed it was cancelled. We tried to call using the hotel phone but got a message that we have exceeded our allotment. We went to the front desk and the said each room has an allotment of time. We told them that we just got to the room and this was our first call. From the front desk we called a different airline and booked a flight to Paris. Hopefully we will get there. The next day we completed the drive to Warsaw and returned the car. Bo’s only task was to buy a cell phone for her father with simple 1 button dialing to a few numbers. We found a phone but it took 2 people almost 2 hours to program 3 quick dial numbers.

This is our 40th trip together. We start from Bo’s house in Atlantic Beach Florida. Bo is having fun decorating and furnishing it. Al is having fun building things for it in CA and shipping them to Florida and growing things in Florida (quite different from CA). Attached are picts of our new house.