Veteran's Day in Paris

We took off from Burlington International Airport on Thursday night and made it to Charles de Gaulle airport around 10am local time. Getting on the RER was no big deal once I remembered where to go for tickets. Bought a few carnets of metro tickets as well so that we were set for the next few days. We snagged a bad snack at the station and got on the train.

Our train car was full by the time we hit the Luxembourg station and we had to nearly kill some French people to get off the train. No one would move out of the way. Gigi got off and walked away to put her bag down as the warning horn sounded. I ended up yelling at her to put her body in the door so I could pull the luggage off the train. It had to be amusing to someone...

I figured out where we were and suggested a cross street to put us in the middle of the road where our hotel was located, but Gigi said something about starting at the top of the road instead. So, of course, I picked the wrong direction on St. Michel and walked away from everything. By the time I realized it, we had walked to another Metro stop. Had to turn around and go back to the cross street I wanted and-Bingo!-the hotel was thirty meters from the corner.

We got settled in a tiny Comfort Inn on rue Gay-Lussac, a classic old French hotel with tiny lift and equally small rooms. The “Double and two Twins” room meant that they had added a futon in a room that normally had a double bed and a twin bed. It worked. It had a TV and a phone and a toilet. (Note to self: bring a hair dryer next time. The built-in one would work on my hair, but not a girl's. Another Note to self: bring a travel iron. Tiny hotels don't offer them due to fire code. If you want to wait a day, the pressing shop next door will do it, but you can't go to dinner that night with wrinkle-free clothes.)

The women settled in for a nap. I went in search of a men's shop. Being the rocket scientist that I am, I had sent out my navy blazer to be dry cleaned before the trip. I also had an old blazer that doesn't fit cleaned so I could give it away. When packing for the trip, I had reached into the closet and grabbed the blazer that was in plastic, overlooking the 50/50 chance of getting the wrong one!

The concierge sent me down St. Michel near the Sorbonne to find shops. After striking out on a bunch of crap suits for $49 complete, I found a nice store that had a good selection of Hugo Boss upscale suits and jackets. I picked out what I wanted and was all set. The guy said the sleeves were too long, but that he couldn't do anything for me that day. However, if I brought it back on Saturday morning, he'd do the adjustments before the day was over so I could be well dressed for Saturday. Very cool. His English was better than my French, but I kept pushing myself to do as much as possible in his language. He has a cousin in Poughkeepsie and may look me up next summer.

Armed with a new “vest de costume”, I walked home and crashed with the family for a couple of hours. We took the Metro to the stop in front of the Moulin Rouge for dinner and the show. I considered getting off at Pigale, but thought about being with the girls. We had wanted to see Sacré Coeur, but the nap took precedent.

They offer three prix fixe menus or a la carte. The show has a bar minimum and then the menu pricing. Funky split deal to make it work. Prices were the same as they quoted online, just strangely presented. I didn't care; it meant half a bottle of champagne and half a bottle of wine for each of us. Dinner was pretty good. Wine was acceptable. Show was really cool.

It was a mix of Vegas show girls (but topless), variety show vaudeville and can-can. They had a juggler guy, a balancing act, a ventriloquist who told jokes in five languages, plus all of the "show" part. A mix of songs in English, French and Italian. All were clearly picked to be recognized by the native speakers of that language. You'd see pockets of people break into song during the show.

We took the Metro back and called it a night.

On Saturday we hooked up with Ani & Kiki, the teenage daughters of friends who live in Paris, and visited Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. We climbed Notre Dame’s towers, oggled the really cool stained glass in Sainte Chapelle, and walked along the Seine. The gargoyles at Notre Dame were incredible.

We got lost on the Metro for a little bit. Ended up a few stops away. Got off, tried switching directions by getting on the other side of the island platform and got even further away. Then we got smart and actually read the map. Back in the right direction, we walked through Notre Dame station to St. Michel-Notre Dame and got back to our hotel. Spent too much time at Gare d’Austerlitz!

Saturday night was dinner on the Bateaux Mouches. Food was really good. Wine was pretty good. The tour was fun. I had forgotten there was a Statue of Liberty on the Seine. The boat took us below it so we had a view of the statue with the Eiffel Tower in the background. For some reason I never saw the sparkly things when I was there last time. Timing was such that the tower was going nuts when the view of the statue was best, but low light and motion don't mix, so I didn't bother to photograph it.

We took the Metro back "home". Learned that Metros are less frequent late at night and that youngest daughters get teary when it is really late and you're trying to adjust to a new time zone. We survived.

Up on Sunday. We did food. The local boulangerie is nothing compared to the Gosselin place near the rental apartment where we stayed last year. Still got the “pain au chocolate”, but it wasn't as good. Our local Ernie’s Market—on a good day—is actually better. But, it was the only place open early on Sunday besides the florist. Next trip, I'll scope out the pastry shops in advance. Then off to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and a bit along the Champs Elysées before heading back to the Seine where we commissioned a street artist to do line drawing portraits of all four of us.

Ani and Kiki invited the girls to sleep over at their place, and their mom invited us over for drinks before we went out. The girls all went for pizza and Joan (Ani and Kiki’s mom) put us in a cab to Ile de la Cité for dinner at Au Vieux Paris. The cabbie got us close, and I figured I could find it from Notre Dame. We walked along rue Chanoinesse, a pretty dark alley, and ended up back on the main drag. I asked a curio shop guy for directions. He explained there is Au Vieux Paris Restaurant and AVP Bistro. We clearly wanted the restaurant and he pointed the way back down the dark alley. This time I looked at street numbers and we found a dark restaurant. All closed up. Not a light on in the place. Locked tight. From the sign on the door, it looked like they didn't serve lunch on Sunday and Monday. But I wasn't sure if it was inclusive lunch-through-lunch or just that lunches weren't served. Regardless, they weren't open that night.

We walked to Hotel de Ville, ate at a Quick burger joint and headed back to the room. At least that’s how Gigi wanted to tell the story! Actually we walk over to the Hotel de Ville to use the telephone. We called Joan and asked for emergency suggestions. She sent us to Place Dauphine back on the island as it had several good choices. We walked over and found two that were open. One that went from the main street all the way into Place Dauphine and another one. We called Joan back and were told that the first one had good food and wine, and that they were very gracious. So we settled in.

Had fun with the waitress. Her English was only a bit better than my French so we each spoke native language, but slowly and it worked. I would try French and she would try English. None of knew the fish in the other language. Bar roti was a mystery for a while. The chef got involved. Said it was an animal, then came up with wolf fish, which was no help. I've since learned that they have a fish they call loup de mer (a Mediterranean fish, sometimes called “bar” in French, which is somewhat similar to a striped bass,) but I don't know what it is. The matron of the restaurant came by and said bar is catfish, which is also an animal. It was in a spicy sauce so it made sense. There was one other fish that I don't recall that we had to figure out with a drawing on our napkin using the corkscrew as stylus. With some charades, I figured out it was flounder. The waitress wrote down her new words and we had a little celebration. Didn't order either one in the end, but....

Gigi had the entrecôte (beef rib steak) and I had the bar (sea bass). Both were really good. Had a bottle of Margaux in honor of e-Margaux.com (brownie points anyone?) and dessert. Was a good time. We made it home on the Metro without incident.

Not sure what happened with the reso. Either it was for the wrong day or they had something come up. I got the feeling it was a family restaurant. Maybe they had to close for personal stuff. It was also Armistice Day weekend, which seems to be taken fairly seriously in France. Thoughts anyone?

Got the girls back in the morning and caught the train to the airport. Tried to get coffee to go but it wasn't happening. I asked Ani if there was a place and she tried to send me to the cafe next door. I explained the “to go” concept, and she said, "Well, you can stand at the bar and drink it." Too much time in Paris; she didn't understand the idea of Starbucks.

I found a grocer with Coke Light and grabbed some snacks. Also picked up a flask of Ricard. The combination amused the grocer. He didn't even bother to try French with me. He looked at my choices and went straight into English! Those damn ugly Americans…

We made it to Charles de Gaulle painlessly and then began the long trip home. Twenty two hours later, all spent awake by me, we were home in time for work and school. All in all, it was an excellent trip. The kids want to go back. Gigi wants to do it for our 20th anniversary for a week or more. I'm all over the idea.