A few days in Paris

Most people say that in order to experience Paris properly one would need at least five days. So you can imagine our two-ish-three-four-ish days were a flurry of getting to and from, seeing sights, and hearing sounds as we moved through the city trying to take in as much a possible. The pictures below won't do justice to Paris, but they give a flavor of our own petit experience.  

Can you spot the tourist? The only person in Paris wearing shorts.

In Monet's garden at l'Orangerie-- So much larger than what I have seen in the art books. The paintings (there are eight) were a gift to the people following the Great War.

An obvious favorite from Musèe Rodin.

Some pieces that gave us longer pauses at the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre...

Hazy sunset, but still...

 

Philippe was so helpful and patient with our bike situation, and welcoming in all other ways... We shared great wine and stories and dreams of cycling.

Getting around anywhere is way more efficient by bike! The Velìb system is mostly easy--and pretty thrilling--once you get used to the practice of riding in Paris traffic. Thankfully, Parisian drivers seem to be very aware and courteous to cyclists.  

When possible, we tried to keep to quieter lanes, many just a block or two from major 4-lane streets.

One view from the top of the Pompidou Center...

One view from within the PC...

Alas, because of the setback on Tuesday with our bikes being delayed, this is about as close as we got to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur.

More favorites from Musée Picasso--a treat of a stop in the squirelly-laned Marais district.

 

Fitting... And perhaps foreboding that parts of our trip could be an ass kicker... "The Bull"

Chilly last morning ... Notre Dame 

Final stairs down before cycling to Gare de Lyon to catch the train to Dijon, from where we'll actually begin our true cycle "tour". 

Nous sommes arrives-- vrai, sans nos velos-- mais à la fin de la journée, tout est bon.

Okay, so perhaps I didn't compose that all by myself in French but many of the words were in my thoughts as I was writing. Thank goodness for Google translate to correct me.

But it is indeed true that we arrived in Paris-- feeling pretty confident because the flights had gone smoothly--without our bicycles! Not long after he reached baggage check we heard our names called over the intercom with a lovely French accent asking us to come to a British Airways representative. Our bikes had not made it through the connection in London. Merde! We were told that they would would be arriving on a later flight sometime in the afternoon and would be delivered to us.

In retrospect maybe we should've stayed at the airport to wait for them because of the inherent logistics of our situation, considering we do not have phone service in France and no easy access to the Internet, and no arrangement to meet up with our bicycling compatriot where we were staying until after 6 PM. But we chose to be the mules, and instead of having our bikes do the work, we lugged our gear through the Paris Metro and to the quarter where Philippe lives. He was at work all day, of course, so we sipped a beverage at a corner café, tried to get through to British airways baggage with the help of a friendly garçon and his personal cell phone (though I was on hold for much too long and never succeeded), sent an email to BA after finding a small Internet café, and observed simple Paris life go by for a few hours while thinking about when we could really get the adventure started. 

Granted, we didn't get to cycle into Paris and see some of the sites from our saddles, but long story short (well, not too…) by 1130 last night, our bikes were unboxed, still slightly dismantled but locked up, and we were finally getting to sleep, after being up for over 36 hours with just a couple hours of sleep on the first flight. The morning is clear, though, the bikes are now put together, our gear is reorganized and ready to be loaded so that bikes can be the mules again, and now we are about to step out and finally get to see some Paris!

Sorry no photos yet. We were a little preoccupied yesterday :-)

Half way

Half way around the world it is already tomorrow and our excitement is only tempered by our attempts of warding off jet lag by rising at 4am (or 3, or 2). Zombies today but tomorrow, well, we're already there.