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Paris Layover: Overnight en route to Mauritania

I decided to go to Mauritania. It had been on my radar for a few years. I was drawn to it because I knew nothing about it, it has a vast expanse underpopulated Sahara desert (which seems mysterious and adventurous), and it has the Iron Ore Train (about which I will say more in a future post). After my other pandemic travels were to more conventional destinations, I was ready for some proper adventure.

Getting to Mauritania involved a 22 hour layover in Paris, which was a bonus for me, since I hadn’t been to Paris since 2009. I arrived in Paris at around 5pm. Between the covid checks, the super huge queues at the airport, and train station construction, it took me almost two hours to get from tarmac to the Gare du Nord train station. It was just starting to get dusky as I walked 10 minutes to my hostel.

I booked a private room at the Le Regent Montmartre ‘Hip Hop’ hostel, just on the edge of Montmartre. It was simple, cute, and comfortable…and I spent as little time there as possible before getting out to see something of Paris.

I took myself on a walk through the area around Pigalle, with its sex shops, burlesques historic and modern, and vintage cabarets. I took a series of failed photos. I was just too impatient and wanted to keep moving, so I ended up with a lot of blurry snaps of neon.

I started to meander up to Montmartre, delighted that the cafes and restaurants were full, live music flowing out of open doors, crepe shops cooking up tasty treats. I wandered past the usual, notable sights in the area and enjoyed the busy squares and the Sacre Couer, but it was also wonderful when I found myself on an empty street so picturesque, perfectly French, and atmospheric.

I finally settled at a outdoor cafe just off the Place du Tertre where I enjoyed a glass of wine and a Partagas Series D No.4 (that’s a cigar). I think 3 people invited me to join them or asked to join me for a drink. I don’t know if people are just extra social now that the covid restrictions have been lifted or what, but that sort of open, hospitality to strangers would be very out of place in Vancouver and I appreciated the invitations, but I preferred to remain on my own.

I had the shortest of sleeps and got up early to see a bit more of the city before heading back to the airport. Still dark out, i took the metro to the Seine and walked along it, watching the sky change and the lights reflect in the water. I looped past the Louvre and into an area with cafes and boulangeries. I could smell the freshly baked breads in the cool air.

I settled in to one of the few open cafes and had a proper (carb heavy) French breakfast.

By the time I was finished the sky was light and I strolled back to the metro through the Tuileries Gardens.

*Everything looks so lovely in the early morning light*

I rode back to Pigalle, where the streets were filled with what I assume is a weekly flea market and people were already busy shopping for fur coats, old typewriters, and ephemera.

One last look at the Sacre Coeur, this time in the light of day, and I trained back to the airport for my flight to Nouakchott. It is a long journey and I have enjoyed it, but I am ready to just get to where I am going. Now the new arrivals are boarding. I find myself looking at them, trying to find clues about what to expect in Mauritania. A lot more traditional and religious dress. A group of young French speaking girls who I have overheard say they are on vacation for 5 days. My immediate reaction to that was, “who goes on vacation to Mauritania?” …right. Me. Well, there is some comfort in knowing I am not the only one. A couple more hours and my curiosity about my chosen destination will all be put to rest. Departure is imminent.

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8 hours in Lyon

It makes absolutely no sense. I wanted to fly from Montasir (the airport near Sousse, Tunisia to Djerba, Tunisia. The flight should have taken an hour. Maybe. The buses were too slow and the train doesn’t go to the island of Djerba, so I was set on flying and doing so today. Well, the only flight that came up in multiple searches was a flight from Montasit, to Lyon, France, and to Djerba. It seemed ludicrous…but the flight did offer an 8 hour layover in Lyon. That was appealing. I haven’t been to France in years and never to Lyon. So I booked it.

When I arrived at the airport for my 6:30am flight, the guys at check in thought it was crazy. One even offere

d to put me on a flight that connected in Tunis, but I declined. I was already looking forward to a coffee in the old city.

An 8 hour layover doesn’t mean 8 hours of walking around Lyon. It means 5 hours max. There are a few tricks to these just-long-enough-to-leave-the-airport layovers. I try to check in for both flights at the beginning and check my bag through to the end, so I’m not messing around with bag collection and checking in. That wasn’t possible for this flight, so I took my bag as a carry on and left it in the luggage storage at the train station. I also study ahead of time. If you’ve only got a half day, there isn’t time to figure out when you are there what you want to see or do. So I do my homework and determine what areas I want to visit and what I want to see and how I am going to get around. If I can (as I did in Lyon), I buy my transit tickets online ahead of time and I get foreign currency before landing so I don’t have to waste time in queues. And most importantly, I study maps intently. Like I am planning a bank job. I want to know, as much as possible, what exit to take from the metro and which bridge to walk across and what street to turn left on when I get to the other side. This satisfies both my desire to make good use of my short layover and my fondness for maps.

It all worked well today. I probably could have even spent another hour in the city but I didn’t want to risk missing my plane.

I took the express airport train and then the metro to Vieux Lyon; the old city…and also the most touristy, but it is popular with visitors for a reason. The streets are so charming, with old buildings hung with old signs, narrow lanes lined with cheese shops and quaint cafés, patisseries, and churches.

And overlooking it all is a cathedral on a hill.

I walked up and down the streets, stopping for a coffee and a pink praline tart – apparently Lyonnaise specialty. So good and disgustingly sweet.

I walked down the river for a bit, photographing churches and buildings.

Back on to the Rue Ste Jean, looking for number 53 or 54 and for a plain door, which would lead to one of the many traboules – hidden passages which lead between buildings to other streets and also to private residences. There are apparently 315 of them, but only a few are accessible or known to the public. According to the good book (Lonely Planet) some of them date to Roman times and the rest were in the 19th century. It was indeed a long passage, in some places providing access to apartments. Who doesn’t love secret passages? If only i had to pull a candlestick to gain access.

I then took the funicular up to the Basilica Notre Dame de Fourvière, which is a beautiful 19th century cathedral overlooking the city. There were priests wandering around, as well as worshippers, but they were outnumbered by tourists, so I was able to take pictures.

I then walked to Place Bellecour and took the train to Hotel de Ville to see some of the fancy buildings in that area.

At that point i headed back to the airport. I probably could have spent another hour, but I didn’t want to be rushing to catch my flight. I saw what I wanted to see, had an afternoon in France, and was on my way back to Tunisia.

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Home from Paris

A few more pictures from Paris…

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Versailles

Yesterday was the trip to Versailles. We took the train out of Paris and arrived at the palace. We joined the enormous queue to enter the building. It was not very well organized; thousands of people shuffling through one small door, single file. We waited in the cold wind for our turn, sure that the wait would be worthwhile. It wasn’t.

The palace is lovely – it is a palace after all, and perhaps if I had never seen such grandeur before I would have been awe stricken, but having been to palaces in Vienna and Russia, this really wasn’t anything new. Additionally, it was SO crowded. Rooms packed with tour groups wearing audio guide headsets and video taping every gilded nook and cranny…it was not the most pleasant environment for viewing. There was, however, a lovely display of portraits by a single artist (the name escapes me) that we enjoyed viewing. Also the hall of mirrors really was beautiful.
We had planned to stroll about the gardens and fountains at a leisurely pace, but there were two problems: the fountains were not turned on and the wind was blowing cold rain at an angle that made umbrellas inoperable.

Agreeing that we had seen elaborate palace grounds and fountains before, at Peterhof, we decided to bid Versailles Adieu and returned to Paris.

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Death and Chocolate

Monday was magnificent. We walked from our hotel to the Hotel des Invalides, an impressive military hospital and museum surrounded by a waterless moat and rows of cannons. Inside the complex was the Dome Church which contains the tomb of Napoleon. It was an imposing sight, as he was buried in six coffins, each inside the next, so that the final one is enormous.

From there we walked towards the Eiffel Tower, which became more beautiful with each step. It was magnificent; so towering and impressive in its construction. I found it breathtaking. I did make the climb to the top, pausing on the first tier to mail some post cards (yes, there is a post office up there). The view was incredible which made the climb all the more satisfying.

We celebrated this victory by dining in Montmartre at a charming restaurant founded in 1793.
Today we began the day with breakfast on the Rue Mouffetard – one of the oldest in the city. We enjoyed our coffee while watching the vendors set up shop, laying out tables of fruit and vegetables, bottles of wine, freshly butchered meats and fragrant displays of bread and cheese.

We meandered through a light rain to the Mosque, a fabulous somewhat hidden gem on the left bank. The mosque was ornately tiled and surrounded two beautiful courtyards containing gardens of leafy palms and wisteria in full bloom. In the mosque is a cozy tea room, where we sipped tea while seated on ornate cushions, watching tiny birds flitting through the open doors. Betty Lou was delighted.

On the way to the metro, we strolled through the Jardins des Plantes and the zoo, where we saw wallabies.

The metro zipped us to the Catacombs, which I have wanted to see since highschool. We descended far beneath the street and the sewers to the labyrinth that was once a limestone quarry, but is now filled with the bones of millions of late 18th century corpses, arranged in decorative formation. The bones line the walls of the passages along with grim quotations about death. It was swell. (Dawn, you would have loved it.)

We followed our brush with death with a fantastic lunch at La Closerie des Lilas – the famous cafe where Hemmingway wrote “The Sun Also Rises”. We dined on white asparagus and mango risotto with prawns, red wine, espresso, and two classic French desserts: creme brulé and profitteroles (i had the latter). I ate what seemed like vats of the finest, darkest liquid chocolate imaginable. My head is still spinning.

Was that all? Not even close! We then went to the Museé D’Orsay for a tour of impressionist paintings in a magnificent setting.

We walked home along the banks of the Seine where we bought art from a painter.
I think we have seen enough for today and we must conserve our energies, as tomorrow we tackle Versailles.
d&b
Post Script: Betty Lou has noticed that of the dogs we have seen, a great number have been Jack Russel terriers. We have seen but one poodle.

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Art & Opera

Yesterday we hit (nearly) all of the main tourist sights.

We walked from our hotel to the Louvre – a beautiful walk. We stood in line for no more than ten minutes and were inside. The museum is, of course, overwhelming with all there is to see, so we picked a couple of areas of interest and saw the “essential” sights.

We saw the Mona Lisa. I have never been a big fan of the picture, but i thought that it may be one of those works of art that one must see in person to ‘get’ it. I still don’t. No wave of transformation swept over us. We both agreed that there were more impressive works to behold at the Louvre. Napoleon’s apartments were very impressive and the Dying Slave is a masterpiece of homoerotic expression in marble.

From the Louvre, we strolled through the Tuilleries Gardens, watched the little boats in the fountains and a painter capturing the scene.

We continued past the obelisk down the Champs Elysees where Betty Lou bought a bottle of perfume.

Finally we (triumphantly) reached the Arc du Triomphe. BL enjoyed the breeze at the bottom while i made the climb to the top to take in the view.

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped for a dinner of cheese fondue and red wine, in which Betty Lou partook.

In the evening we went to the stunning Paris Opera House (the old one) and watched a very unusual performance of an Italian opera called “The Prisoner”. I can’t say that I liked it, but I enjoyed it. Betty Lou did not and at one point leaned over and said to me “I am going to sleep now.” And she folded her arms across her chest and slept for the duration of the show.

It was a very full day.
Presently, it is Monday morning and we are off for breakfast and then on to the Eiffel Tower.
Au Revoir!
d&b

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April in Paris

Greeting from Paris!

We arrived at 3:30 (paris time) on Thursday after an uneventful flight. Our lodgings: L’Hotel des Grandes Ecoles is wonderful. It is three buildings surrounding a medieval courtyard and garden, which is filled with birdsong. We are one of the lucky few whose room opens directly onto the garden. Our room is small and charming and very girly. We are completely ensconced in pale blue toile; curtains, walls…the works (except for our bedspread while is a massive, white crocheted doily.

Last night we wandered around in the pouring rain (yes, rain – stop your snickering right now though, because today it is 23 degrees and sunny) and ate dinner at a Tibetan restaurant, which was delcious. We were too tired for much conversation, but fortunately there was a table of lively American Entymologists nearby who kept us amused with tales of searching for rare insects in Alabama.

Today we visited the Pantheon, which holds a crypt containing the remains of famous French persons, including Victor Hugo, Dumas, and the Curies. We then walked across the Pont Neuf to the Ile de la Cite where we went to the Notre Dame and other places of historical note.
When visiting the Church of Saint Germain, we stumbled upon a funeral. It was lovely, really, which live music and bouquets of flowers. We made a point of looking solemn when the pall-bearers passed us with the coffin.

We just finished having lunch at the Cafe Deux Magots, where we enjoyed an assortment of cheeses.

Now, we are wandering around, exploring side streets and having a grand time.
My French? It is ok. Despite feeling foolish, I can express myself in a pathetic, yet comprehensible way and can understand much of what is said to me.

That’s all from us for the moment. On to more exploring,
Dale & Betty-Lou

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Bon Voyage

Greetings, all.
Today is the day of our greatly anticipated journey to Paris. Both Betty-Lou and I are sorely in need of a vacation (I to recover from the assault of law school and Betty-Lou to escape the chaos of home renovations – Thank you to Ron for keeping watch at home.)
Finally I will have the opportunity to discover how well my eight years of French education has served me. Betty-Lou is already sporting her beret and has grand plans to develop a taste for wine and Gauoilses. Between the two of us, i believe we have six guidebooks, so we are well prepared.
We do plan to chronicle our (mis)adventures, so check in for updates.
Bon Voyage!

Dale & Betty-Lou

(wandering norths)

Tag: France