Final days spent in France, in Paris. A few Scenes here! Public spaces, museums, department stores, ...
Too many photos to share (~250!) — Hard to believe we crammed so many things in these last two days. Paris Non Stop!
OCT 21 pm, 22
We arrived on time (8pm) in Paris, detrained with 100’s of others, made our way onto Paris Metro and arrived at our hotel by 9pm! Then had some wine and Avocado Toast, and caught a look at Tower Eiffel.
OCT22-135 Night Scene, with the tower.
From my Journal...
Our Last days in France! We walked 7+ miles. Highlights: a museum of archeology and art (just the garden outside the gift shop, and brunch in the café), the Seine River, the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, a vestige of “Swiss Village” from the ~1900 Exposition, dinner at Cafe du Commerce, and a quick trip back to our hotel on Paris Metro line 8.
Another mini essay on the day - Seven more miles walking around Paris today. Incomprehensible number of people, markets, restaurants, fashion stores, and so on. We went to the Petite Palais and L’Orangerie museum galleries (really?) for quite a few treats. We also went into the Galerie Layfette department store because we saw people at the top were gawking at the view. Went up 7 floors to the Terrasse to do the same, passing through various departments. We also went into a 2nd or 3rd adjacent building of theirs which had grocery market in an open basement (floor -1) and a couple dozens eateries offering food for consumption or to take home. Mind boggling that 1000’s of people were in those two stores.
Cafe du Commerce [LINK] is three levels! Quite a feeding machine. Photo of a cassoulet I had is on the Food page.
Musee du Quai Branly
OCT22-136 - Art on the wall outside the gift shop of Musee du Quai Branly.
OCT23-145 - Musee du Quai Branly. (Eiffel tower reflectionn in window!)
OCT22-142 - Garden under Musee du Quai Branly.
More Museums!
OCT23-147 Under Armor?
OCT23-149 Two statues wrestling?
Department Stores
Cynthia hauled me into Le Bon Marche .. an amazing department store that has every brand of perfume and stuff (whole first floor), plus your designer clothing, etc. I wandered up to a bathrobe, price tag €4850 ($5000). Okay... anyway my mother was the head cashier at the Bon Marche in Spokane Washington when I was a boy. Everyone in Spokane knows “The Bon”. No relation?
OCT22-139 Obviously Le Bon Marche
OCT22-138 Some squarish department store!
OCT23-151 Some round department store.
OCT 23 WED
Here is Cynthia Stowell peering through a “timescope”. We thought it would allow you to peer into the past to see what the city was like in different directions. But alas it showed what it wanted to show about the museum on the quay.
OCT23-154 Timescope? Ha!
Another art installation... To be noted here.
OCT23-155 Lollipops or Ballons?
Finally (?) we stopped into WH Smith English bookstore for espresso (not tea), and in the outer tea room, the staff was meeting with a British author of children’s books (David Lichfield) who was autographing stacks of books for them and chatting.
[LINK]
OCT23-Lichfield Display at WH Smith English bookstore
Staff actually discouraged us from buying an autographed copy unless we were a fan - please save them for his fans! Or, maybe they were saving them all for a later event.
Seems like the french are very sensitive in matters like these.
(Cynthia got me his book from Powells for Xmas.)
Bye bye to good old Paris! Less than an hour left before going to CDG. Had a little French breakfast in a happy little bar.. sitting in the Librarie of Hôtel Maldar with ambient music. Sad to leave, but it will be wonderful to return to Time Haven.
OCT23-150 Librarie of Hôtel Maldar
Packed our bags one last time the night before..
This morning, on a Metro we hop up to Opera, where we’ll take the Roissy Bus to Charles DeGaulle airport (CDG) and a ~4 hour flight to Iceland. Quick espresso at Joe and the Juice at Keflavik airport (KEF). Then an 8 hour flight to Portland Oregon (PDX). Here’s a statue of DeGaulle by Rond Point this AM. So long Charles!
We had a little french breakfast at BAR DU CENTRAL, then went back to Hotel Malar to check out. Upon arriving at 'Opera', we were too early to want to Hop on any Bus, so we had a second breakfast, at ENTRACTE OPERA... While we were seated at the table with our bags stacked up next to us, a passerby guy casually tried to lift my Briggs & Riley bag off my suitcase, but it was attached!!
Because of that upsetting distraction I forgot my backpack, and we were all the way out to CDG when I realized I didn't have it with me! Too many damn bags.
A Short Postscript on the return of my backpack may be added. You don't want to read the full story!
PDX!
At Pont du PDX, after our uneventful International Arrival, followed by crossing a river of cars to the Parking Garage, and finally being zipped home by August Winfield Miller & Savannah Julian!
