Month: September 2022

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Paris, Day 7

Tuesday, September 20th was a cool, cloudy, rainy kind of day.

Lucille had a physio appointment over near Arc de Triomphe after school.

Lynda and I walked over to the metro to meet her along the way and she’d show us where it was while we waited for her to be done.

We rode to the chosen stop and got off the train to wait. She was late getting out of school so we sat and watched a few trains come and go.

Finally she came rushing in and we hopped on the next train to the right station. It was few stops away but our end station – Charles de Gaulle – Étoile is huge and waiting there was probably not a good idea.

Lucille pointed out where our exit was and hurried off to her appointment. We continued on our way and made our way up the stairs.

I’d seen many pictures of the Arc de Triomphe and the thing that I marveled at the most is the size of the traffic circle without any lane markers in it. It is a crazy sight to behold.

We took a few photos and decided maybe we would go up to the top after lunch. So we picked a street at random and wandered down it looking for food.

We walked down Av. de Friedland a few blocks and decided on Brasserie Le Balzac.

Even in the cool weather, we were determined to eat outside.

We shared fettuccine and a meat sauce for lunch and were getting ready to leave when Lucille messaged that she was done her appointment.

We arranged to meet at the base of the Arc.

Once there, we decided that between the cold weather and the line to go up, we’d skip going up to see the view.

So we decided to window shop on Av. des Champs-Élysées.

Lynda was going to look for a purse for her mom but the line to just get into Louis Vuitton was a bit ridiculous so we we kept walking.

Hard for the social status differences not to catch my eye

We stopped at Starbucks and Lucille bought us all drinks so she’s shopped on the Champs-Élysées.

Finding the entrance to the subway is challenging along the avenue as they aren’t marked with the big Metro signs like the peasant areas of the city.

A very cool ice cream truck near the end of the park

We wandered through some of Jardin des Champs-Élysées before heading towards the river on our way back to the metro.

As we strolled along Avenue Winston Churchill near the sign for and looking at Petit Palais, we ran into an American woman looking for Avenue Winston Churchill. We told her she was there and she looked at the Palais and asked if that was the Arc de Triomphe? I see why so many places aren’t fans of Americans.

We were soon on the Pont Alexandre III. The official description calls it an ornate bridge but it looks a bit gaudy to me.

We continued towards Hôtel des Invalides.

We kept walking through more park area. Like Beijing, I would bet I could visit a park a day for an entire year and not get to all the parks in Paris.

And of course the streets and building continued to catch my eye.

Finally we were back at the subway to go to the apartment before we headed out for supper.

I honestly don’t remember where we ended up but I know it was good as I’ve yet to have a bad meal on the trip.

After we were back in for the evening, I liked the quality of the light outside so I shot a couple shots from the balcony. There wasn’t much colour in sunset but I still liked what I saw.

With over 14k in steps I had almost twice as many as yesterday so I should be keeping my average over the 10k/day goal.

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Paris, Day 6

Monday, September 19th was a decent looking day with a mix of sun and cloud but Lynda and I took it easy while Lucille was at school and Curtis was working from home.

I got some laundry done and worked on my blog that day.

The only photos I took were when we went out for supper to The X Pot; a hot pot restaurant. Curtis had made reservations as our last attempt at getting in didn’t go so well.

Making decisions
Spicy broth on the left, tomato based on the right
So much good food

It was super fun picking what we wanted and being able to add whatever sauce we wanted.

Lucille picked the spicy broth for us and I thought at first she was trying to kill me as it was more than a little spicy. But after I got past my mouth being on fire, it was very enjoyable.

So far, Hot Pot has been my favorite food in Paris; even with having to cook it ourselves. (There are a lot of close 2nds however.)

Everything was fresh and the staff were super nice. Pretty much everywhere we’ve been the staff has been great as has the food.

I got just under 8k in steps as my sitting around the house really hampered my walking. We’ll strive to do better tomorrow.

Paris, Day 5
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Paris, Day 5

Sunday, September 18th was a mix of sun and cloud with a bit of a breeze blowing. Summer seemed to be giving way to autumn in the flip of a switch.

We took the bus to Galway Irish Pub for lunch and some sightseeing in the area. There was quite a traffic jam and some closed roads as we got off the bus. There was some kind of event happening in the area to encourage people to bike or take public transit downtown.

I liked the names on the animals/figures
Cell phone shot.

With another good food experience under our belt(s), we headed in the general direction of Musée du Louvre. I’d love to spend time in the Louvre but it is a huge museum and I just don’t have the time to see all the things I’d want to see so we settled on checking out the outside area.

There were a few things to see along the way.

So many book sellers along the left bank of the Seine

Soon we were along the back side of the Louvre. It is a massive building.

As we walked we came to Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel – the entrance of the former palace where the Louvre is.

We continued on to Carrousel Garden and Grand Bassin Rond (which isn’t as big as you’d expect.).

When we got to Place de la Concorde, we found ground zero for the bicycle event.

A small sample of bikes at the event.

There was music and some kind of show going on and a really weird human powered something or other going around the Place de la Concorde.

We headed back over the river on the very opulent Pont de la Concorde. It’s pretty impressive for a bridge that’s over 200 years old. I wasn’t all that happy with my photos so none of the bridge, just shots off the bridge.

I love the look of so many of the buildings.

As we got near Lucille and Curtis’ apartment I saw something other than buildings that I liked.

We hung out at the apartment for a few hours and left to find a late supper near Tour Eiffel as my bride had booked us all a 9:00 pm tour to the top.

Many years ago, when I was a photofinisher, I had seen the Eiffel Tower from every angle you could imagine and never thought I’d have any interest in it if I saw it in person. (I was wrong) It’s an impressive structure and at night it is a sight to behold. They make the lights twinkle to look like it’s glowing for about a minute on the hour and sadly, my video can’t be seen here.

The breeze that was blowing at ground level seemed a lot colder up on the 2nd level.

The city of light you say.

In for a penny, in for a pound; we took the elevator up to the top.

I know the views should be similar just from higher up but something about being up there seemed different than the 2nd level.

We met a nice British couple and their baby while up there and another Canadian couple as well.

We decided against having champagne as the glasses were extremely small, the price extremely high and the cold wind making us want hot chocolate instead.

Curtis shooting a laser beam from his head.

Finally it was time to head back down.

As we were walking away so I could get an overall shot of the tower I was asked if I could take a photo of a young couple with the tower in behind them on their phone.

I took an couple of photos and the young man asked if I minded doing another one.

He quickly pulled a ring out of his pocket, dropped to one knee and proposed to the young lady. I snapped a couple of quick photos and switched it to video for them.

They were from Switzerland and not at all dour like Adam Kerr leads me to believe all Swiss are in the journals of his blog – Canada Slim.

I never thought to grab a photo of the couple I shot their engagement photos.

As a vertical panorama.
As a single shot.

We’d spent a couple of hours in and around the tower so it was more than time to call it a night as Lucille had school in the morning and Curtis had to go to work.

We got to the subway station after 11:00 pm and after a short wait, were on our way.

It was closer to midnight than we’d of liked when we got back to the apartment. I had gotten almost 17k in steps for the day. No wonder I was tired.

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Leaving Nice for Paris

We sadly made sure all our stuff was packed and ready to go for our 6:30 am taxi ride to the airport to go back to Paris for day 4 there.

I had thoroughly loved Nice. My go fund me campaign suggestion wasn’t getting any traction at all so we grudgingly shut the apartment down and went downstairs to wait for our cab. Maybe my love of Nice came from it being a mini vacation on my vacation. Or, more likely, I just really enjoyed it there.

Our flight was delayed over half an hour after we were all in the jetway waiting to board. We all lined up a 2nd time (So much for Speedy Boarding). While we were all waiting, a couple of police officers came up to the front of the queue, huddled with the ticket agent and scanned the crowd. The line barely started moving when we again stopped and the police were leaving with 2 men from the front of the line. They didn’t seem happy to go but they weren’t in handcuffs. As the line moved, 2 women got out of line and walked in the same direction the men had gone. Maybe we’ll have an empty seat beside us. (No)

Well, we are on the plane this time so maybe we’ll be on our way soon.

And sure enough, we were soon moving.

I think it’s a hotel. It’s really big whatever it is.

It’s so easy to just use my cell phone that I kept it out for the flight and never did take my camera out.

Soon we were off the ground and turning over the sea to clear the area.

I miss it already

By now we were heading north and I could see mountains. All I saw was clouds on the way down so it was a much more interesting flight going back.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was the lack of alpine lakes. Living in Canada spoils you to the amount of water we have. Most of the water I saw was reservoirs and not actual lakes. It seemed really weird to me.

The mountains gave way to flatter ground.

Soon, Paris came into view and as we made a turn to line up with the runway, I caught site of the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

As we were taxing to the gate, many people got up to get their luggage ready to disembark. (Even with the fasten seatbelt sign still being on.) We stopped and the announcement was made to exit through the front door. But no one was moving and time was ticking by. Suddenly it got light behind us (we were 5 rows from the back) and people were going out the back door. So, Lynda and I followed the small crowd. After crossing the tarmac and climbing the stairs, we were with the people who got out the front door.

It was a nice easy exit from the airport with no bags to wait for and soon we were in a taxi to Lucille and Curtis’ place.

The had taken their cats to the vet so it was a quiet, empty apartment when we got back.

They were back soon enough and we headed out for lunch and ended up at Le Circus.

I tried a Spritz. While not terrible, all I taste in it is the wine so not really my thing.

I tired their burger. Not used to being ask how I would like it cooked though. Even asking for it well done, it was pretty raw in the middle. It tasted good but was really different than I’m used to.

We walked to a local fruit and vegetable market. My wife got in trouble for touching the avocados (The sign on them started “Ne touche pas …” The lady there asks you when you plan to use it and she’ll give you on with the proper ripeness. In Lynda’s defense, we aren’t used to such large avocados and she was pretty excited to try one. (It was good, for an avocado.)

We headed back to the apartment for the afternoon until supper time came around.

We were going to try the new hot pot place – The X Pot – that opened at 6:45 pm. We walked over and arrived around 7:00 pm. We hadn’t booked a reservation so they had no available space for us.

It’s not like you can’t find food in Paris so we walked over to Italie 2 mall and tried Hippopotamus Modern Steakhouse.

I had a glass of champagne and a glass of Coke (No, I didn’t mix them together).

We ordered chicken nachos and a chicken skewer. Lucille was ordering in French and we all heard her ask for poulet and she pointed at the photo on the menu. The waitress asked how she’d like it cooked and with a questioning tone, Lucille said, “Pour poulet?” The waitress answered, “Oui.” So we all said, “Well done.”

And when the food came, it was boeuf, not poulet. Weird tasting chicken they have here in France. It was good, but not what we ordered. Lynda and Curtis got their drinks for free and we got a couple of apologies from the waitress and hostess.

At least it wasn’t something none of us liked.

Stopped in the grocery store at the mall on the way home and I have never seen a grocery store with ceiling so low. Usually there is a whole lot of room over the shelves but I felt a bit claustrophobic in there.

So apparently I didn’t take any photos in Paris today.

I got 14k steps in though

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Nice, Day 3

Friday, September 16th is exactly 4 months from Lynda and my 25th wedding anniversary. Since my wife and I were living in separate cities back in May, we decided to use today as our celebration day. With that in mind, we had a do whatever we want day.

We started with a late breakfast at Mamma Mia. We picked it because it was right at the start of the outdoor market and Lynda really, really wanted to shop in the market. That was the only place we had more than 1 meal in a place. (I’m not counting the bubble tea place.)

There is such a variety of stuff at the market and Lynda got some hard candies and some really, good black olives.

Walking through the market was a nice stroll but it was about 26 degrees C out so we stopped for a bubble tea. (See, 2nd place that we’ve been too more than once.) We had decided to walk down to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a shot glass for Curtis for his collection and taking a drink along helped a lot.

The walk was long enough and breakfast small enough that we could have lunch. We just shared nachos and I got a strawberry basil lemonade. (And it was awesome.)

We walked back through a park area and ended up in the square we had been in on our first day. It looked different with the sun shining.

The tram looked interesting but we never did take it anywhere.

As we walked we could see a fountain area in the distance. The water stopped as we got closer but we sat on a bench in the shade and waited to see if it would start up again.

After about 20 minutes or so, the water started back up.

Lynda was really looking forward to going swimming and I wanted to get to the top of Castle Hill – the “mountain” behind our apartment. There is quite a bit of stuff up there in a fairly small area that we had yet to explore.

We decided we could take the elevator up to the top of the hill and wander through and take the back stairs down to our street and go home and change for the beach.

The view from the top is really nice and the blonde girl makes it better.

I decided I’d do a panorama from the rail.

We wandered through the park to find the stairs. We knew we were close when we looked down to see the harbour our apartment faces.

Hey, we can see our house from here. Our apartment is in the building with the skylight, just to the left of the rock.

A bit more resting in the shade while I looked for things to take photos of.

Soon we found the stairs and headed down.

I got a photo of my bride coming down the stairs as the last photo I’d take today.

We weren’t far from our apartment and we were soon changing into swimwear. Wanting to keep it simple to keep an eye on our stuff, we wouldn’t bring a camera or a phone with us.

While it wasn’t as hot today as yesterda (Only about 28 degrees C) it was still warmer than I like so I was happy to go cool off.

Lynda knew I really didn’t enjoy the beach so when we got to Castle Plage – Waterfront perch offering Mediterranean-style seafood & artisanal ice cream, plus beach rentals, she said, “Lets go down there.”

So for a small nominal fee – $20 euros for the perch and $25 euros for the umbrella, we lounged in comfort along the sea. (3 rows back actually but that kept us dry from the waves.)

Lynda went and sat on the shore while I lounged for a bit before joining her.

The rocky beach is hard to walk on for people like me who never go there so getting into the sea seems easy enough but getting out in the big waves and steep slope seems a challenge so letting the waves splash me was good enough for me. I figure that my wife is a much better swimmer than me and she was nervous about it, why tempt fate.

Cooled off, we went back to our loungers and ordered a margarita each. It was a slush like I’m used to but it wasn’t as good as my Mamma Mia one from the other day.

Lynda finished hers before me and soon I had a drunk wife on my hands. It was pretty funny to watch but she giggled like a school girl and for the first time in a long time, I know she was relaxed. I enjoyed just sitting there holding her hand, watching and hearing the waves. It was very relaxing.

We lounged for over an hour before they came to close off our tab and we decide we’d wander downtown to look for food.

Luckily it wasn’t too far and we picked Di Yar as our supper stop.

Another Margarita for me (This one over ice, better than my last one but not better than Mamma Mia.) and my still more than tipsy wife decided on a Long Island Ice Tea.

Being how she can’t seem to eat and drink very close together, Lynda consumed her drink rather quickly.

More giggling ensued as our food came.

The meal was good but Lynda was too full of iced tea to eat much of her meal.

After supper, we decided to walk through the shopping/bar area around the side streets and alleys to take the “scenic” route home. I did have to hang on to Lynda’s hand the entire way but that is never a chore.

I wanted to find a Nice tee shirt to buy but the shop I thought I’d seen the day before was either closed or I was mistake on what street it was on.

We got our steps in and somehow Lynda got to 10k steps before me, and that was before she was drinking so I know it wasn’t from weaving from side to side.

Bed time was soon after getting back as we had an early start in the morning. Lynda was asleep (I would of thought passed out but I’m going with asleep) by 10 pm.

It had been a great day to celebrate our anniversary.

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Nice, Day 2

It was already 25 degrees C at 8:30 am, Thursday, September 15th as we waited for our van pickup to go on our tour to Monaco and Monte Carlo. The bus was late getting to us as we where the last stop and apparently there was a lot of traffic. We climbed in to make it a full van with 8 passengers. There was a mother and daughter from New York and Connecticut, a couple from Toronto, a couple from India (relative of the Toronto couple as far as I could tell) and us.

We were soon climbing the hills to the northeast leaving Nice. After a short drive we stopped for a photo opportunity at a familiar looking place – Villefranche-sur-Mer, only from the top looking down at the harbour and not the other way around like yesterday.

After a quick stop we started down the mountain road and traveled to Èze. Our guide had stated that Èze was a magical village. (Looked nice but to me it was mostly shops in old houses.) Still, it had it’s charms and I did like the other lemmings and took photos.

No park at City Hall

We only had about 20 minutes to explore the village so paying the 6 euros to get into Le Jardin Exotique – botanical garden, just wasn’t worth it.

We jumped in the van to get to the Parfumerie Fragonard – L’usine Laboratoire Èze – Fragonard perfume factory and lab for a tour.

The tour itself was interesting but I wasn’t there to shop so I think the tour guide was put off a bit by my indifference to her explanations. Lynda liked some of the scents and did get a couple little hand soaps.

Oh look, it’s Èze up the hill

The factory direct pricing was pretty good but for us travelling with carry-on luggage for the first time, we just didn’t have the space to buy any more.

Tour and shopping done, we all piled back into the van for our trip to Monaco.

Soon we were driving through Monaco on our way to Monte Carlo where we get dropped off near the casino.

We had less than half an hour to explore Monte Carlo before we had to be back at the van to go see the changing of the guards at Le Palais des Princes de Monaco, Monaco.

The other couples were late getting back to the van and our irate driver tried to get us there on time but this is the extent of what I saw.

Nothing to see here, move along.

We had another half and hour or so to explore Monaco. Seemed a bit anti-climatic now but we gave it a shot. We didn’t even venture very far from where we were dropped off to take a photo or 12.

The van pulled up and everyone was on time. (Now that we were heading back to Nice it didn’t matter as much.)

After driving through 2 or 3 of the 7 road tunnels in Monaco, we headed towards the expressway back to Nice.

This place was about 10 blocks from our apartment but I feel the name may be a bit misleading.

It was around 30 degrees C when we got back to the apartment so Lynda changed into her swimsuit and I put on shorts. (Yeah, and for those who know me, that is a rarity indeed.)

We headed out for lunch and for Lynda at least, a swim.

We were between meal times by the time we went for lunch and not all restaurants were still serving lunch. Luckily, we found El Merkado. The food was good and the staff seemed friendlier by the time we were done than when we arrived. Both waitresses did take a break while we were there so I think they were just tired. And, since it was right across the road from Hotel de Ville, Nice…

We got a bubble tea on our way to the beach and it was now about 33 degrees C out so I had it done by the time we walked the 3 blocks there.

The beach has never, ever been a thing for me and I found a spot to sit and wait for Lynda. I had my wide angle lens on and with the wind blowing like it was, I wasn’t about to change lenses to get a better shot of her enjoying herself.

Unlike the day we arrived, the waves were really high and she was a bit nervous about going in. It’s an all rock beach and there is about a 6 foot hill of loose stones before you get to the normal level of the water but the spray was coming well up the incline. Lynda sat on the top of the pile and let the water splash into her.

She’s the far left girl, so far away.

She was enjoying herself until a particularly big wave came in and hit her so hard it rolled her over on the rocks. She realized she still had her hearing aids in so she grabbed them before she even tried to get up. When she got up, she brought them over to me and was more concerned I’d gotten a photo of it than if she had been hurt. (She did get a couple of nasty bruises out of it.)

After laughing it off, she went back to try again. She did say she wasn’t going to try to swim in those waves.

Lynda left her shoes where I could see them but not her

After an hour or so on the rocks, I was starting to have trouble getting comfortable and Lynda said she was cooled off. (But we still got gelato on our way to our apartment.)

Our Airbnb listing stated it faced the sea. This is a true statement but the view of the sea isn’t all that easy to see.

The view from our table

We had noticed that sunset colours don’t last very long and I thought I’d try to at least get a shot or two before it was gone.

Leaning out our window with my “big” lens.

I decided to go out on the steps to see if I could get a better angle to shoot.

The Club Med 2 leaving on a cruise

Lynda even got her camera out to get a few shots.

My bride in the window

Only got 13k steps in today but we saw quite a bit of stuff and had a blast.

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Nice, Day 1

Wednesday, September 14th saw us leaving Paris early for a flight to Nice.

Our pilot told us it was a nice day in Nice and it was supposed to be sunny and 24 degrees. It was cloudy the entire flight so we didn’t see much until we broke out of the clouds near the sea. It was also raining quite heavily as we exited the airport looking for a taxi.

We’d arrived at 8:30 am and we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 3:00 pm so I asked the cab driver to take us to a good place for breakfast.

He dropped up near 2 places and recommended Cafe Du Palais as the better of the two. So we trudged the block or so in the now pouring (but not hypothermia inducing rain like Alberta) rain. We decided on sitting inside as the umbrellas weren’t always winning the battle.

Took this to tease Curtis that we had Nutella come with breakfast (which we didn’t eat)

It was almost done raining when we left to find a place we could drop our small suitcase so we didn’t have to lug it around for a few hours.

Bag dropped and off to shop for an umbrella.

When we emerged from our successful quest, the rain seemed to have stopped. Or so we thought.

We walked around the shops and made our way over to Quai des États-Unis to look at the sea.

It still looked like rain would arrive but we strolled along without it happening.

It’s not a big hill at the end of the Promenade des Anglais but even though it was cloudy, it was still warm so we rested at the #ILoveNice sign. Trying to get a shot of just Lynda was a bit challenging.

We stayed at the top of the hill killing time before I had to go get our suitcase out of storage.

Lynda waited for me as she didn’t want to walk down and back up the hill. I was there and back in under half an hour. We strolled in the direction of our Airbnb and we walked right past it to our harbour tour that Lynda had booked for 3:00 pm. I had thought we could check in at 2:00 pm so we had an extra suitcase to bring along.

We got our tickets and sat on a bench in the shade waiting for boarding time.

We moved to line up with others standing, waiting and the rain came back. It was just a light drizzle but only moments ago the sun was beating down on us.

The boat has room for 46 passengers, 22 of which can be outside on the upper deck. Rain or no rain, Lynda and I headed up top. I had razzed Lynda about bringing her jacket along to such a warm place but it was nice to have it to set on the already wet bench as a blanket. The rain picked up in intensity and the wind started blowing before we even left the harbour. Luckily, we had ourselves a couple of umbrellas.

So, we sat in the rain, huddled under the umbrellas as person after person left to go down stairs to huddle inside.

The wind was even stronger after leaving the harbour so I didn’t even try to get my camera out and decided I’d make due with my cell phone.

We exited the harbour and headed north east along the coast and turned into the harbour at Villefranche-sur-Mer. There are plenty of impressive houses to look at along the way. The rain had started to slow down so some of the chickens came out to stand in the way of our view. I was inspired by my friend Canada Slim aka Adam Kerr and his lazy faire attitude when it comes to level horizons and I snapped a few shots willy-nilly. (It still feels weird)

The tour was almost over when the rain stopped but we were heading into some bigger waves and we were starting to accelerate on our way back to Nice so even the cell phone camera was put away.

The tour is an hour long and not terribly expensive so I think it was worth it. The rain put less of a damper on it than the 20 something year old girls that couldn’t sit their asses down once they ventured out on to our level. We weren’t too wet when we were done and we only had a 5 minute walk to our apartment.

More stairs were climbed and it took us a while to get our keys as the directions weren’t 100% clear. (It is said that things are lost in translation and in this case, it was true.) But finally we were in and dropped off our stuff so we could head back down to town for supper. We picked Mamma Mia and shared a Pizza Margherita. I tried an actual Marguarita (It seemed weird not having any ice in it but it would be the best one I had in Nice.) while Lynda had Sex on the Beach. (The drink. Not… What are you people thinking? Lol)

After a leisurely meal, we decided we were tired enough to just head back to the apartment instead of exploring the town. So we again walked along the Promenade.

Seemed a bit early to crash but it had been a long day getting up at 4:00 am and all and I’d gotten over 17k in steps. Tomorrow we have a morning tour and pickup is 8:30 am.

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Paris, 2022, Day 3

Woke up at 5 am and didn’t get back to sleep. Laid around in bed waiting for Curtis and Lucille to go to work/school so not to be in their way.

After breakfast we threw a load of laundry into the washer/dryer combo. I didn’t set it properly so it wasn’t drying.

We were going to venture out on our own but it kept raining on and off so it was already after noon when we got out the door all by ourselves.

We walked through the tail end of a sidewalk market. (Might have to look for them next week.)

We checked out a few Pâtisseries and Boulangeries as Lynda was looking for pastries and I was looking for real food. We settled on Entre Potes Cafe. We had the Plat du Jour which today was a salmon quiche with a side salad and a bit of baguette. It was really good.

I’m trying stuff outside my comfort zone while on holidays. I’ve had weird meat, cranberry juice and seafood (I do actually like salmon though).

We walked up the street some more and wandered through a small park. I liked the look of the building in behind it.

We walked back the way we came so Lynda could stop for pastries. (They were really good.)

We headed back to the apartment to wait till it was time to go out and get supper.

Lucille and Curtis were getting their hot water heater replaced so we were all waiting around for the new one to arrive. Even though someone had come and measured what they had, the crew showed up (3 hours later than scheduled) with one a foot too tall to fit the space. So, down to the truck for a smaller one. Of course, it’s smaller than what was there so new piping needs to be installed. By now it’s well past time to go out and get supper so we ordered tacos in on delivery. They were huge. We finished eating before the hot water tank was installed. Still didn’t have 10k in steps so we went to the store for some Ginger Ale. That was only about 400 steps there and back so still not there.

Not many photos today obviously. Hopefully I’ll get my steps yet tonight and maybe I’ll get more photos tomorrow.

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Paris 2022, Day 2

Woke up at 5 am. Fell back asleep at 6 am. Woke up again at 9:30 am and promptly fell back asleep until 11:00 am. Now my back was sore so I had to get up.

Lynda and I got showers and breakfast out of the way before Lucille got back from school. She says French classes are going slowly but she’s still got a whole lot more of a vocabulary than I do.

We headed out for a light lunch while we waited for Curtis to get off work.

We walked a few blocks to Le Bobillot Cafe.

We sat in the shade and ordered a meat and cheese charcuterie. I wanted coffee but it was pretty late for that so I went with a double décaféiné, Lynda ordered a glass of champagne and Lucille had vin chaud. The waitress confirmed she wanted hot mulled wine in the heat. (She did)

We sat and watched the people while looking.

Église Sainte-Anne de la Butte aux Cailles

We walked up towards a mall while we were waiting for Curtis to catch up to us. We ended up waiting at Place d’Italie across from the Town hall of the 13th arrondissement of Paris.

The important looking building that we have no idea what it is

We crossed the street(s) to Café Jules.

Lucille and Curtis ordered Crepes for supper with a Porn Star to drink while I shared a crispy chicken cesar salad with Lynda and I had Sexual Healing for a drink.

It was a pretty good meal and the drink had a bite.

We stopped at the grocery store for some ice cream for dessert to save some money and the vanilla bean Lynda picked was very good.

We again got our 10k steps in.

We visited for a while and were up well after Lucille and Curtis went to bed. It was after 11:00 pm before we got to bed. (Lynda was half asleep by the time I was a little bit tired.)

by

To Paris, France

But first, a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

When I booked our trip way back in November of last year, I booked a direct Calgary, Alberta to Paris, France flight with WestJet on their 787 Dreamliner.

In May of this year, WestJet cancelled our outbound flight and offered us a short 2 hour stopover in Halifax if we flew on the 737 Max-8. We would be leaving Calgary earlier in the day and arriving in Paris before lunch time instead of mid afternoon like originally planned. As much as I wanted to avoid flying on a 737 these days, I really didn’t want to fly another day and I figured Halifax would be a lot easier to navigate than if we had to land in Toronto so I agreed to the change.

It was a full flight out of Calgary under blueish skies on Saturday, September 10th at 1:20 pm. There was a lot of forest fire smoke in the air so even at altitude, the sky wasn’t it’s usual shades of blue.

Somewhere east of Calgary
Steerage Class

It was dark when we got to Halifax at 9:00 pm local time and were glad to survive the really hard landing we had. With only a 2 hour layover I didn’t try to get any photos of anything.

11:00 pm had us back in the air winging east towards the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Europe.

We tried, and failed to get any real sleep on the flight. Between the air traffic and fog, we were almost an hour later than our scheduled 10 am local time arrival on Sunday, September 11th.

Getting through Customs and getting our luggage took over an hour ( I think the 3 mile walk to get there took the longest) and the cab ride to my sister’s place was over half and hour so we “arrived” around 1:00 pm.

My sister, Lucille and her husband, Curtis were waiting with bated breath, not so much to see us, but to be able to go have lunch.

We jumped right into it by walking over to the #21 bus and heading towards Notre Dame.

We had lunch at Galway Pub; an Irish Pub near the right bank of the Seine. The waiter we had, Matt, had an Irish accent, but is actually French American. It’s a weird combo but he was a nice guy.

After lunch we trekked along the river and crossed over to see Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Well, what we could see of it as it’s still closed since the fire in 2019.

Notre Dame rebuild progress.
View opposite Notre Dame.
Notre Dame rebuild progress side view from across the river.

We meandered along the river taking in the sites.

Wow, a bike lane in the city. Who would of thought it was possible?

A small musical group was finishing up their set as we walked by.

We made our way over to Hôtel de Ville. It’s a whole lot bigger and nicer City Hall than what I’m used to seeing in little ole Red Deer.

It was too big to fit in 1 photograph.
The Bubble Man was quite a popular guy.

We started heading towards the subway to got back to the Moffat’s apartment.

Apparently the Saint Jacques Gothic tower is the last remnants of a big church that got demolished during the French Revolution.

I took a few photos of the building along the way. (Surprising, I know. Or, as the locals would say; “Quelle surprise.”)

I liked the orange
Cool little Pharmacy in an old looking building
A lot of the graffiti is on the rolling shutters so not to get erased

We were back at the apartment for a few hours before heading out for supper at an Italian restaurant; Le San Giovanni. I didn’t take a photo of my spaghetti bolognaise but I can tell you it was a whole lot better than the spaghetti I ordered on my first night in Beijing back in 2015.

I did get a photo of my drink though.

Ange Bleu

It was only a short walk to and from the restaurant but Lynda and I managed to get our 10k steps in. (Unlike our flying day)

We crashed hard for the night around 10:00 pm and sleep came quickly.