Month: May 2004

Some things here are surprisingly cheap. You ask for water, non bubbly and you get Evian. Except over here, since it�s made here, it�s just simply �water� as opposed to some fancy imported French water that spelled backwards is “naive”.
Pain Chocolat is just an Euro, great way to have a fast breakfast. Coffee is good and reasonably priced as long as it’s not Starchuck’s.
The Metro has a tourist pass that�s not a bad deal too.
Some things here are surprisingly expensive, such as doing two loads of laundry. You see, I had this plan to get up early (which I did at 0700), go to the laverie nearby my hotel (I did) and do my laundry (I did not, at least right away).
The laveria had a machine that dispensed detergent. I wrote that in the past tense because the machine was not working. The coin thingy was bolted up and there were no other vending machines in any of the three laverias nearby.
I had to wait until 0900 to go to the Marche to get detergent. Then I did laundry.
A medium sized box of detergent cost about 2 Euro.
It cost 4 Euro to run the washing machine. Since I did two loads, that�s 8 Euro.
Then it took 20 minutes for one load and 30 minutes for the other to dry. That�s 1 Euro for every 10 minutes. Total for dry clothes: 5 Euro.
Add that all up and it cost 15 Euro for two loads of laundry. That�s close to US$20!
Chi Sin!

This Paris trip was fun! Here’s how it really began:
I was chatting with Andrew about a month back or so and just casually mentioned that I was heading out here. He said, “wow, Ellen and I are going to be in Paris in May too on (dates here)”.
So I just did the Paris leg at the beginning of my trip instead of at the end. Which makes sence since I’m flying back to CA from LHR instead of CDG, get it?
Now by an incredible coincidence, Meghan is also here in Paris for a couple of weeks, staying with friends. We exchanged emails and phone calls and voila, she’s at the Orsay with me!
But since you can overdo appreciation of art, we ducked out and visited the Eiffel Tower. The weather didn’t get any better so we passed on going up. That goes on my list of “things to do next time I’m in Paris”. However, we walked around a lot and caught up.
We wound up in the Latin Quarter, having coffee at a famous Cafe (Meghan, if you’re reading this, what was that cafe’s name again?) and dinner at a reasonable French chain restaurant. The mussels were good and the main plates were pretty filling.
Then it was time to go home…tired again!

Ellen and Andrew flew back to LAX this AM via SFO from CDG so I slept in! I didn’t realize how much running around we did here because I slept hard until 1000. And then realized that it wasn’t raining.
I finally visited the Arc d’Triomphe. It’s in the middle of a traffic circle but you can access it via a tunnel that runs underneath it. They wanted 7 Euro to go up to the top and since it wasn’t wet BUT it was windy and cold, I put that on my “do it next time I’m in Paris” list right below “visit the Dupont store” because they were closed for remodeling all this past week.
Since yesterday was the 59th Anniversary of VE-Day, there have been observances all over the city. On many of the buildings, there are plaques that remember those from the Maquis or the Underground who fought the Nazis throughout the Occupation.
There was a humongous tricolour hanging the height of the Arc and their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was immediately below. There were a lot of visitors.
After a brief snack (which is one of the things you do a lot in Paris because the food is good and good priced), I headed up to the Musee d’Orsay which houses art from the 1800s to the present.
The Orsay is located in an old train station that was built for the 1900 Paris Exposition but fell into disuse and disrepair over the years. When they created the Musee, they took all the “modern” art from the Louvre (they didn’t want it anyway) and began a gallery that is more accessible (not as much fire and brimstone religious art) and for many people, more enjoyable.
After about an hour there, I met Meghan, a former SMWMer/co-worker there and we puttered in the Musee for a few more hours.
Art!

Since we’ve spent so much time in Tulieres and the Opera District (because that’s where their hotel is), we all thought it would be neat to explore Montmartre.
And that’s fine with me because I’ve not see much of this district besides all the places I walk past (closed) at 0100 when I’ve been getting home for the past few nights.
It’s an interesting district. I’m apparently in the nice neighbourhoody part of it because when you go to the other side of the hill that Sacre-Coeur sits on you hit…
Massive Hom-Suppyness!!!
After getting disoriented (very hard to do since we’re all Asian, ha ha!) and walking in the wrong direction, past the pet store (puppies!), the hospital and around the cemetary, we finally found the way to go after a local guy, seeing three Asians clustered around a map in a book, one with a beeeeg backpack (not me) on, offered in english, “are you lost”?
Sweeeet! Anyway, we were sent in the direction of Sacre-Coeur. That direction took us past the Moulin Rouge where we took pix and scared a bunch of mainlanders who were in line to see the show with a growl of “puuuutonggghuaaaaa?” They were totally freaked out.
After Moulin Rouge, we continued our search, passing such places as the Sex-a-Torium and the Sex Museum. We actually took a brief look in the Sex Museum. Then we saw that they wanted 7 Euro for admission and they were open until 0200. This is an actual museum with stuff from the 1700s and 1800s in the front. Just not up for it so close to dinner….yeah, that’s it.
This stretch of barely legal businesses went on for about 5 blocks. Then 20 minutes after that, we find Sacre-Coeur. Since we’re all hungry, we take our pix and we leave. Visiting inside and watching the sunset from the big hill goes on the “next time I’m in Paris” list. Now time for dinner near the Bastille district.
Montmartre, district of artists, has a big church in the middle. On the back side of the hill is a nice neighborhood. And on the front side is the sex trade. Fun!

It does get better!
There’s a Metro stop that coincides with a district called Madeline. If you like food in any way, shape or form, this is the place to visit. Foodie heaven.
We first went to a place called Fauchon that puts Dean and Deluca to shame.
Shame shame on you Dean and Deluca! And not just because you don’t have the Egg Cream outside of New York!
Well, I shouldn’t be too harsh, after all they’re not in the Madeline district. But they ARE from New York which food wise, is the closest thing. They should be able to compete…
But there’s NO WAY they can! I mean, I gained about 5 pounds just looking at all the food they had there! Custom chocolates, cookies and the like. All kinds of jam and spreads. Spices and coffee galore! And that’s just the main floor. They have wine and related stuff downstairs and really fancy teas and a tea room upstairs.
Since I possibly couldn’t bring back everything I wanted to, I settled on a small jar of Vanilla Milk (?) Jam and a small Strawberry Jam. I think that one is going as omayage for Yumi-chan on Monday.
Then we went next door to the Chocolate shop!!! The chocolate was really good, we met a gent from Oregon who is out here with his niece on an exchange program who shops here all the time. He gave us a lot of tips about the chocolate and because he was a regular, the owner(?) knew exactly what to get for him.
And she is used to people having the reaction to her shop that the three of us had (utter amazement and shock). After we bought a lot of stuff there, she gave each of us a 1 Euro chocolate coin.
That was sooo cool. I felt like I was 6 again.
That whole chocolate search was for a mythical chocolate shop that is made with 70% less sugar than typical fine chocolate and is supposed to be excellent. Andrew’s not a big sweets person so Ellen and I were leading the charge for this one.
heh.

Today is Andrew and Ellen’s last day in Paris. They fly out early in the morning tomorrow. Yeech.
Ellen still has some things she wants to do so the morning was for them to do stuff while I woke up and located where the Musee de la Police was. We decided to meet up for lunch near the Pompideau Center. While we were working this out on the phone via texting, I run out of credit on my SIM while on the Metro.
No problemo, right? Drop into a Tabac shop and get a recharge voucher. Follow the prompts, right? Easy, right? Nod your head violently.
Ha ha ha young bison. As if it were going to be THAT easy…
First of all, all the documentation is in Francais. Second of all, when you activate the SIM, you only get one choice of language, Francais. And when you go into the service menu, it’s all in le feu-rapide Francais. Which renders me useless (my Francais skills being high school French many many years ago).
Please keep in mind my experience in Asia with prepaid SIM cards. First of all they are multilingual. Second, it’s not as expensive and Third, English is one of the options! So the way they do it in France was a bit of a cold water shower.
Eventually the lady who runs the place was able to help me reload, but not until 20 minutes passed. Now I’m late for lunch and by the time I find them, they’re ready to leave because I couldn’t respond to their SMS/VMs because I had no credit.
And to top it off, it started to rain in ernest AND the food was so-so for lunch.
It does get better after this though, right? Of course it does…this is Paris you know!

After a late start (because it’s hard to wake up sometimes), we staggered onto the RER for the short trip to Versailles.
That’s a big house.
For one guy and all of his support staff and his concubines. And his wife too I think.
It’s very impressive. I liked the Opera House and the reception rooms. Wasn’t too crazy about the bedrooms, though they were impressive. Do the guided tour. You’ll see much more than the unguided tour and it’ll be explained to you. Get a combined ticket so you’ll have access to the gardens and the grand canal. Wah! I’d guess that the entire complex is as big as the Richmond District back home.
The Hall of Mirrors, where the peace treaty that ended WWI was signed was being refurbished. It’ll take several years to do, but imagine the history in this room. Most of the problems we face today in the world stem from what was done in this very room.
Makes ya think, huh?

Today was an all day trip. To Normandy. Where the second front in the fight against the Nazis was opened. Where Europe was saved by American, British, Commonwealth and Free French troops. Sixty years ago.
Where the 1st Rangers climbed rocks at Point du Hoc only to find out the big guns they were supposed to silence were gone, stripped out to fight the Soviets on the Eastern Front.
And lots of other stories of heroism and sacrifice abound.
We went to Omaha, Utah and Sword beaches. Sword Beach is near a small resort town that’s kinda fun looking. Point du Hoc is still in the same condition that the Army and Navy left it in. Lots of craters still. We also visited the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.. Very moving.
We started the tour at the D-Day museum in Caen with a catered lunch and time to muse the museum.
You need to do the basi tour to see Normandy Beach unless you are planning to rent a car. Just cough up the dough to take the tour. It’s easier that way. Bring your AAA card though. If you buy it there in person you get 10% off.
It was a 3 hour or so bus ride to Normandy. The three of us got seats in the front. It was on the upper deck of the basi and it had a good view to fall asleep with.
On the ride back, though, I was faced with UA Nightmare #2. Some baat poh decided that I was too comfortable with an empty seat next to me and declared that she got carsick if she sat in the middle of the bus and said that her needs were more important than ours and plopped her fat ass next to me.
Now, for those of you who know me, I snore pretty loud. To the point that there are only two others who sleep louder than I do. But since this baat poh was next to me, that meant no sleep for me.
Guess what she did? She popped some pills and promptly passed out. Couldn’t she have done that where she was??? And because of that, I couldn’t sleep. No space. Too cramped.
Did I mention that I had to wake up at 0500 to get to the tour office by 0645 to be on the basi by 0700? I was a cranky dude man.
We got back around 0930. But we found a ramen shop for dinner. Then we found a souffle place for dessert. So the day ended on a nice note.

Off to the Bastille district for dinner.
The Bastille used to be a prison for Political Prisoners that was stormed by the common people in the Revolution of 1789. You’d figure that it would be preserved or something like that.
Nope. There’s a memorial. On an island. In a traffic circle (big). So much for my idea of “storming the gates”. If I tried to storm the statue, I’d get hit by a car but not before being pinched for jaywalking by all the cops around…
Bastille is also a district that’s has decent restaurants. We went to one of the recommendations in the DK Paris guide. The food was excellent, the service was good and the average age of the staff/manager was 28 or so. We wound up eating a LOT and talking a lot and hanging around a lot even after we finished our meal. Just like everyone else in the restaurant.
The coolest thing was, as we were leaving, the manager asks us, “Do you live in Paris? Because we’re having a customer appreciation party on the 19th, can you attend?”
Sounds like one helluva party, according to the flyer.

After we escaped Notre Dame, it rained. A lot. Like my Grandpa used to say, “rainlikeaheeeellll“. Since it was after 6, getting into the Louvre is discounted on Wednesdays.
So off we went. And wouldn’t you know it, the weather cleared up. By the time we got to the Pyramid, the sun was poking through. Since we had dinner plans (but no reservations), we visited the smiling chick (AKA Mona Lisa) and the goddess with no arms (Venus de Milo, AKA Aphrodite). Saw some of the art inbetween (mostly bibical and part of the fire and brimstone genre) but since we didn’t have the 5 weeks experts determined that it would take to see the Louvre properly, we bugged out for dinner in the Bastille district.
First thing we heard was “Do you have a reservation?”. Hearts sank when we were told to come back in an hour. But we puttered about for an hour and got seated. The place looks pretty fun…