September 24-25, Immenstadt to Paris, Romance on the Seine, The Eiffel Tower

BLOG ENTRY: September 24-25, Immenstadt to Paris, Romance on the Seine, The Eiffel Tower

A LONG VOYAGE TO PARIS

Immenstadt to Paris was a long day. At 8:15 we set out from the Stanicki household about 200 yards/metres to the train station, boarded our regional train to Ulm at 8:30 and arrived at 9:30, changed trains and left for Stuttgart at 10:30. We did not use our reserved tickets from Ulm to Stuttgart, for which we paid $24, because they would get us into Stuttgart at 11:30 just a few minutes before our train from Stuttgart to Paris was to leave, the only one available. We learned our lesson, not to have too little time between trains, earlier in the week. At 11:50 we boarded the shining TGV train from Stuttgart to Paris and at 4:30pm we were coasting into the Paris Est train station.

PARIS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Arriving in Paris from the East was not a pretty site. Graffiti is splashed all along the route. The houses were different. The ones on the outskirts tended to have roofs with small flattening curves at the bottom. They looked older and not as well kept as we saw throughout Gemany. As we neared the station the houses turned into 5-7 story buildings lining each side of narrow streets, nary a tree to be seen. This is a densely populated city. The station, in contrast to the jewel of a station in Berlin, was old. We headed out to find a large mall connected to the station, an old large looking old hotel and spreading into several underground metro stations and several exits.

After searching around for tourist information and not finding any we realized that this was not a simple task. Rose stayed with the bags, while I scouted out this massive complex. I found a book store but it did not have detailed maps for less than 20 Euro. Then I found a ticket office and bought 2, 5 day transit passes for 56.60 Euro, $95, and received a free small ‘Paris Travel Kit’, about the size of two 8 ½ x 14 pages folded to pocket size, which showed the city’s main routes and streets. A security guard told us our hotel was not far. We decided to get a taxi, but the driver said that our hotel, Hotel Meubeuge, which I had booked over the internet, was just ‘la bas’ around the corner by the Paris North train station. Who ever heard of the East and North train stations being beside each other? Anyway we set out dragging our luggage and thankful for the rollers on the bags. We turned the corner to find ourselves in what seemed like a five corner intersection with hard to find street signs (they are up on the buildings and old and fading), which seemed to be next to another 5 corner intersection, and everywhere there was wall to wall people. This is it, one of the world’s major cities. We walked and walked and looked at our inadequate map. Paris is nothing like Berlin. The streets and sidewalks are mainly paved (we learned at another time that during an historical Paris riot, the rioters had used the paving stones as weapons, so the authorities decided that pavement was better).

OUR HOTEL

Finally about and hour after getting off the train, about 5:30pm, we found our street and hotel. Rose was tired. There was a little door into the side of one of those 5-7 story buildings on a narrow street. We entered to find a little lobby. On mentioning our name the attendant behind the little desk nodded that he had our reservation. He gave us our key, one of those old plastic ones with holes to represent the door code.

We headed up to our room. This was definitely an old building. It had an elevator, about 3’x4’. We crammed ourselves and our luggage into to elevator, squeezing a little more so the door would close, and started up to 314. On opening the door we found our room immediately beside the elevator – ie elevator - door, no wall between them. The room was similar in age and workmanship to our Berlin hotel, eg indoor-outdoor carpet unprofessionally laid. However, this room was about 9’x9’ with a 3’ wide bathroom and shower. With our luggage we could barely move around the room. Rose could smell mould. I smelled strong disinfectant despite my clogged nose. Rose was not happy. She said she had expected more, something a little romantic in Paris. Oh Oh! I realized that this hotel was NOT A GOOD DECISION. I went down to the front desk and outlined our concerns, and Rose’s allergy to mould. The attendant said they were booked for the night but that they would see what they could do. I told him that we needed something different or we would have to change hotels. We each had a shower and went out for dinner, stopping at another hotel across the way to look at its rooms. They were a little better, but still had some mould around the tub in the bathroom. At 124 Euro, nearly $200/night we decided to stick with our 90 Euro $135/night hotel and see what they provided the next day.

The next morning at 8am we were going out for breakfast and the attendant told us they needed a few hours to find the room. We walked to the corner and picked the first place for breakfast. I had a plain ham omelette and Rose had milk coffee and a croissant. Cost with tip 15 Euro ~$24. Back at the hotel they still did not have our room so we went up to prepare for our visit to the Eiffel Tower. Coming back down around 10am they had a new room at 522. We went up to see it before agreeing. It was better, about 11’x14’, a little smaller than our master bedroom at home, and a bathroom about 4’x8’ with tub small tub. There was a little mould showing and some possibly painted over, but we decided to accept it, and headed out. The attendant told us that bus 42 which stopped right beside the hotel, would take us to the Eiffel tower.

We got off the bus within site of the Eiffel tower. On arrival at the base of this massive structure built for the 1889 World Fair in Paris, we discovered massive numbers of people, and extremely long lines for tickets, 2.5 hours. An attendant for one of the ‘lifts’ that was closed told us that later in the afternoon it would be better. So we headed off to look into the boat cruises on the Seine, right beside the tower. We decided to splurge and take a lunch cruise on what looked like a very nice boat, for 53 Euro each, total about $170, the lowest of the three levels of service, the highest being 73 Euro each. Boy was that the right decision!

A ROMANTIC CRUISE ON THE SEINE

The lunch cruise turned out to be everything a prairie couple on a world cruise could have imagined. The boat was gleaming with linen set tables in full banquet style. Even the bathrooms sparkled, but I’m not sure the men in there appreciated me taking photos (is that too much information!). On being assigned to our seats we were handed a Rosé mixture of red and white wines. Another bottle of white wine was placed in an ice bucket beside us. After my debacle of a hotel this hit the spot for Rose. For appetizers Rose chose the ‘Ceasars salad with Eggs, Chicken, Marinated anchovy, Olives and Parmesans shavings’; I chose ‘Snails and Asparagus Spears Pot, Asparagus Cream Mousse, with Green Asparagus Nage’. Added to mine were Rose’s egg and marinated anchovy which she can’t eat; all this with the white wine.

The waiter appeared with a bottle of red wine. The boat started on its cruise, leaving the Eiffel tower for our backdrop, as we cruised by the main tourist sites of Paris, all along about 4kms of the Seine river. We were serenaded with classical music by a violinist with accompanying keyboard as we passed the sites: the church of Les Invalides, L’Assemblée Nationale, Le Musée d’Orsay, Le Lourvre, L’institut de France, La Conciergerie, La Cathédral Notre-Dame (made partly famous by Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). L’Hotel de Ville, and lastly La Bibliothéque Nationale.

For our main courses, Rose had ‘Briased Shoulder of Beef on Mashed Potato, served with Parsley dressing’. I chose the ‘Salmon Steak Seared on One Side, Confit of Mediterranean Vegetables’. AND for dessert my taste buds were sparkling with ‘Passion Fruit, Nougat and Pistachio Vacherin with a Light Passion Fruit Sauce’ (take that Dairy Queen!). Rose was titillated with ‘Apricot Tartlet, with Babadére Ice-cream (Layered Apricot Sorbet, Pistachio Ice-cream and Morello Cherry Sorbet)’.

By the end of the cruise we were buddies with the people at the tables beside us, a young couple, just engaged, from Belgium. He sells Canadian Cedar wood products, and she is q newly graduated lawyer. The other couple, celebrating an anniversary, were from Briouze, South of Caen (were my uncle, Maurice (Slim) Rogers, a WWII casualty, is buried nearby at Brettville-sur-Laize. We would like to go there but with a cost of 100 Euro and a day, we might not make it).

THE EIFFEL TOWER

After our spectacular lunch cruise Rose was a little tipsy and gushing with romance. As we walked back to the Eiffel tower around 3pm she felt better and cooled off, so we bought our tickets to the second level, 8 Euro each. The top was closed. However, soon after reaching the second level, we rose to the top for another 5 Euro each. AND of course it was exciting and awesome to see again those sites we had seen on our lunch cruise, and the rest of Paris. It’s amazing that they handle so many thousands of people so smoothly. The only glitch was the conductor of the down lift, who barked repeatedly ‘nous ne pouvons va plus haut madame (Pardon my French writing)’ in response to Rose’s and other’s questions of whether he was going down.

We made our way back to our Hotel using the metro this time. Rose does not like the metro. We exited at Paris North, not far from our hotel, but got lost again for several minutes in the maize of little streets, tall buildings and people. Rose does not like being lost. The problem is that she is worse at directions than me, but sometimes is right. Try that situation and see if you remain friends. We did (remain friends), soon after finding our hotel.

LESSONS IN SHOWERING:

Lessons in showering in a 3 foot bathtub (at the bottom) without an enclosure in a 2 star European hotel. 1) Kneel and bend over the tub to wash your hair – no problem. 2) Sit in tub, knees up slightly, and run water over your body. Turn water off. 3) Stand and soap yourself. 4) Now, carefully, lean as close as possible to the wall, moving the shower head over your back and legs, taking care not to shower the floor, toilet and sink. Turn frontwards and do the same. 5) Dry yourself in the tub (there is no bathmat). 6) Step, carefully, out of the tub and finish drying. 7) Use the towel to wipe up the floor (don’t use the towel again and hope that they give you a new one). Now you are clean and ready for another amazing day in Paris.