Today was a touring day so I have lots of pictures. I’m coping with the jet lag admirably.
I had plotted my route to Montmartre before I left the hotel this morning, but had a problem finding my chosen metro station. They are all different, and really just a stairway (in my defence) so I asked a nice looking lady “Excusez, je cherche le Metro station École Militaire”. Well my question must have convinced her I actually spoke French because her answer was long and involved lots of hand signals and words I didn’t know. I did hear tout droit and it seemed there might be a roof over it, so I thanked her beaucoup and went tout droit. Paris is really cosmopolitan and you hear many languages. Usually people are happy to help you in English.
I found my metro station, paid my ticket, and felt lucky there was a train right there. Not so lucky though, because an announcement kept repeating that referred to the police and vingt cinq minutes. After vingt minutes the message hadn’t changed (i.e. it was still 25 minutes away) so I left the train (I’d out-waited several people) and walked toward the Seine looking for another metro station on a different line. Crossed the Seine and found a working station, hopped aboard and looked for a connection to Line 12. Nope – didn’t exist. So I got off that line and looked for another one, finally finding one that did connect with 12. That was 3 metro tickets!
I came across this marvellous chocolatier in my wanderings. Made me miss my chat bleu.
Finally I did get to Montmartre and here are some pics to prove it:
You can see it was a smoggy day. I took the funicular up some of the way. (That’s yet another metro ticket!)
Took a very different route back directly to Pont Neuf (only one transfer and one more ticket) where I boarded a Seine river cruise and took more pictures.
Notice the merry-go-round at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. That would be a fun ride for another time!
Today I was approached by several people looking for help finding something. My theory is that I appear more confident that I did yesterday. I was able to help one lady who spoke only French! I used the plus lentement on her and it worked.
There is delicious food everywhere. A person could eat all day if one wanted to. Everywhere there are bakeries, cafes, restaurants and grocers. The wine is also delicious. I decided to have French onion soup (for obvious reasons) and popped into a tiny cafe. While I was there 9 other people came in who were obviously regulars. I felt like a native!
You’ll see in the pictures that Paris’ trees don’t have leaves yet. It’ll be much more beautiful once spring hits. I’ve seen a few spring blossoms but not many.
There is lots of music on the metro. The musicians even ride the trains so you get music the entire trip and not just at the station.
Paris is not for anyone who doesn’t like stairs. Yesterday there were stairs to the catacombs and today this sign coming out of the metro.
There were many stairs down to the river cruise too.
Overall a good day. Tomorrow is a travel day. I hope I get to the right town! I should have done some research but have felt too busy.
Love to you all.
A Canadian in France 