Paris to Bayeux

Sunday July 28th: As usual, I am writing this on Sunday, but it covers the adventures for yesterday.  Not much an adventure but we had some challenges, which all went in our favor.  Overall, we traveled from Paris to Bayeux, which is in Normandy on the northwest coast of France.  The town of Bayeux is an important tourist destination and famed for the Bayeux Tapestry and its cathedral - more on that tomorrow or later today.

Flashback to Friday evening -- here is where we had dinner and how we "saw"  bits of the opening ceremony to the Olympics.

Italian restaurant -- excellent 

Watching the Opening Ceremony from the sidewalk.....

There is a athlete boat on the TV screen.....

Yesterday after a disturbed sleep (worrying about potential travel complications), we were up and out of the "Luxury Studio design by KENZO with Jacuzzi" (the name of the apartment we spent the last 3 days in) early.  Fortunately, the overnight rain had stopped and we dragged our luggage to the Bastille Metro Station.  A kind passerby helped  us buy tickets, traveling first  on Line 1, then changing to Line 14 for the Gare de Saint-Lazare.  

Overall, the metro and train stations are old style, with few escalators and lots of stairs.  Surprisingly, one enters the Bastille Station by going down under ground, then climbing up to the platform, which is situated above the Arsenal Boat Basin.  The change over to Line 14 at Chatelet involved more stairs.  But the trains came every 5 and 3 minutes respectively.  After getting to Saint-Lazare, we exited the Metro area and escalated up numerous levels to the top of the regional train station where the boarding tracks originated.  Being uncertain when we would actually get to the station and as advised by the train company, via the internet, I bought tickets for an 11 am departure on the high speed train to Bayeux.  We arrived in time to have caught an 10 am train but changing tickets was not possible.  So, we sat in the train station, had coffee and pastries, and watched the other travelers and occasionally a squad of army soldiers carrying rifles stroll by.  The mascot for the Olympics came by also (Betsy thinks it is slightly creepy).

What is the mascot called?

 Fortunately the French arson attacks of the previous day seemed to have no effect on the train services and we boarded our train on time and departed the station without delay.  The ride was uneventful.  We arrived at Bayeux at around 2 pm and walked about 1 mile to our hotel for the next two nights.  The Grand Hotel Luxembourg is very nice (four stars).  After leaving our luggage, we went off to get crepes (recommended by the hotel clerk) -- excellent meal, rich and savory.

After lunch, we strolled around town, stopping at the Cathedral and then walking to the entrance for the Bayeux Tapestry, checking out logistics.  We returned to the hotel and went to its pool to cool down and await the arrival of the rest of the bicycling gang -- Leslie and Dennis (L&D) and Jan and Ron (J&R) arrived next and brought market-purchased happy-hour snacks.  They had heard from Tyrae and Brent (T&B) who wondered if we could wait for them until after 7 pm to go for dinner.  (Tyrae and Brent had traveled from Munich, via Paris, so were having a very long day.)  With the snacks we were fine waiting.  

When they arrived, we went to a recommended restaurant, which was full for the evening.  We went next door to a bar and had drinks and tapas.

After dinner, some of us went to the Cathedral for  a light and music show -- see the photos.  The show started after dark, 10:45 this time of year, and lasted about 15 minutes, with repetitions that ran till midnight.  

The Cathedral before the show while we were waiting for it to start.

Ditto.

The show, accompanied with classical music.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Another stroll around Paris

Saturday, July 26th:  Yesterday, we went exploring north and east of the Marais area, visiting a couple of parks and markets, then returned to our apartment via the river where the Olympic athletes' barges will emerge onto the Seine.   There appears to be a place just at the Arsenal Basin exit that the public can stand, potentially to see some of the Opening Celebration.  As we passed by at 2:00 pm the space for people on the sidewalk was nearly completely taken.  The ceremony commences at 7:30 pm.

Invader strikes again, but not with little squares.

Our stroll took us first to Temple Square, a park in tribute to Elie Wiesel.

Statue to Elie Wiesel

Across the street from the park, at La Sancerre, we sat on the traditional round table facing the street and enjoyed the standard breakfast - orange juice, coffee and a croissant.  We then retraced our steps a few blocks to find the oldest market in Paris -- Marche des Enfants Rouges (named for red clad children from an orphanage next door).  It opened in the year 1615 and now features stalls selling delicious-smelling prepared foods.  

One of the entrances.

About four aisles of glorious foods.

The dates were large.

We then headed past the Place Bastille toward another notable market, first passing through Square Trousseau.

An art-deco building overlooking the park.

In the market, and the official Olympic banner.

The Marche d'Aligre, which has outdoor produce vendors as well as a covered section with fresh meat,  fish and cheese.

Olive sellers.

One of the covered aisles.

We next wanted to walk over to the river, passing by the Gare de Lyon. 

Front of the train station.

Ditto.

We made it to the Seine and walked downstream, passing under the Austerlitz Bridge, and the start of the river float for the athletes.

On the way back, this is what the intersections look like -- police are out in numbers.

This street curved on me, so I was unable to capture the very long line of police vehicles.'

We chilled in the afternoon until 6:30 pm, then went out to see what we could see.  There was little action so we walked north into the neighborhood and found a very nice Italian restaurant.  We were the only patrons and the chef/owner explained the offerings on the board with descriptions and photos.  We both ordered insalade mista, two different types of ravioli (mushroom in butter sauce and crab with seafood sauce) and wine.

After dinner, we walked back to the main street and stood just outside sidewalk cafes to watch opening ceremonies on their TV's.  The water parade, using the regular Seine tourist boats, began the Greek athletes, followed by other countries in alphabetical order according to the French names.  The river boats frequently contained teams from several countries, especially if the delegations were small.  The festivities included other entertainments visible only by TV.  It started to rain so we got rain gear and continued watching.  We bagged it after Great Britain went by and retired to our room.

A day in strolling around Paris, Right Bank

Friday, July 26th:  Yesterday, we mostly wandered around the Marais area and visited the Pablo Picasso National Museum, in a 17th century building housing 5,000 pieces of artwork by Picasso, his own artwork collection and archives.  Every time he moved, he took his collections with him.  The exhibition highlighted the connections between the visual images and historic ideas he collected in the archives and his artwork.  We toured all four floors and then rested in the garden.  There are lots of photos.

Prior to the museum, we had a great night's sleep, and didn't make it out for coffee and pastries until noon.  Our apartment has two small windows that face onto an inner courtyard so it is dark and quiet.

We had breakfast at the Festival de Pain patisserie, then walked to the Place des Vosges.  In one corner, one can see the Cour and Jardin de l"Hotel de Sully (Court and Garden for the palace).  We then walked a few more blocks to the Picasso Museum.

Front door (only door) to our Luxury Apartment.

The front door of the building complex in which our apartment is located.

The Cour and Jardin de l"Hotel de Sully.

One side of the Place des Vosges -- one very nice cloister.

One of hundred of Invader's tile mosaics scattered throughout Paris.  The artist's name is actually Franck Slams, and he got started depicting space invaders and the like from early computer games.  But he has widened his choice of art now.

A Police horse patrol.

A dog park we went in and watched two dachshunds play with each other - one puppy and one tolerant long-hair.

Another Fika coffee shop, using the same name as the one we have in Sisters, OR.

Another Invader mosaic.

Front entrance to the Pablo Picasso Museum.

The Goat.

An introduction for the museum.

A key to the layout of the first series of rooms - one for each theme.

The Rape (or Abduction, or Kidnapping) of the Sabine Women, painted by Nicolas Poussin and an inspiration for Picasso.

His interpretation or treatment of the Sabine Women.

Related to previous art - machine-like soldiers against vulnerable women and children.

Minataur theme

More Minotaur.

Hero.

7 Musketeers.

Self portrait by Rembrandt, described below.

Explanation of two early "cubist" paintings by Picasso, shown below.

Fully embracing his famous style - a swimming woman with her head where her foot should be.

An interesting building with fancy staircase windows.

The man with a lamb bronze.  Picasso made art in lots of mediums - iron rods, pottery, 3-D paper and other materials, sculptures, and brass etchings.

Timber framing on the top floor of the 17th century building.  The timbers are about 12 inches wide.

The broad view looking north from the museum's top floor.

A telephoto shot of a detail in the previous photo -- Sacre-Coeur Basilica.

A collection of Picasso's models and lovers.

Invader strikes again -- an appropriate mosaic for the street.

The State Archives Museum.  We arrived just as it was closing but visited the garden -- not much.

A very fancy building decoration, maybe support for an Olympic Country.

Dinner was at a Tapas place on the route home.  

Following the Wednesday evening closures, the situation on the Parisian streets and sidewalks is much better - in particular, crossing major barricaded streets is possible at most intersections.  And the bike riders are back on the streets with access to bike lanes.  After my negativity in the last blog, I thought I would detail some of the "good" things about being here.

• The city is quiet - the only noise one hears are emergency vehicles (which have access to the closed streets) and motorcycles.
• There is little worry about being run down by speeding cars -- there aren't many.  Neighborhoods further from the river have more normal traffic. 
• Pedestrian friendly.
• There are cafes on every corner and blockface. 
• Great people watching from the sidewalk tables.
• There is no dog poop on the sidewalks and rather few dogs (the few dogs we have met are friendly and quiet).
• While we have not yet used the Metro System this trip, it appears to go everywhere.
• The food is excellent.
• Our apartment location is very convenient.
• It is easy to pay by credit card by tapping.

There are probably more, but I can't think of them now.

More news tomorrow.