After 5 days on the photo retreat, I returned to Paris for a little more than a week to do general sightseeing and tourist activities. I finally managed to connect up with Maddy mid-day the day after the retreat, who was also traveling with her friend Alexandra. Maddy and Alexandra navigated via train, subway, bus to eventually get to me around noon. Alexandra had lived in Paris before, so she became our guide in navigating some of the public transportation.
Versailles Plus a Taste of the Local Music Scene
Our first scheduled tourist activity was to visit the extremely ornate Palace of Versailles. It was one of several venues for which I bought tickets for guided tours ahead of time, and by the time the ladies reached me, we were on a tight schedule. But we squeaked in getting there on time via train. We had a guided tour and it was cool to see some of it (20 rooms out of 1000s) plus the vast gardens. I liked seeing the opulence of some of the rooms, but the gardens were even more impressive to me. Afterward, we got a great french dinner in the area.
As an added bonus for the day, Virginie (Alexandra’s Parisian friend with who the ladies had stayed the previous night) was going to play music and have some live singing at a “private club,” and they urged me to come along, which I eventually agreed to. We used a series of trains and metros (subways) with some narrowly timed transfers to make it to the station in the north of Paris where Virginie, and her boyfriend Dan, picked us up. We ended up at this place NE of Paris in a large club room, apparently owned by the Mayor of the town, and they basically had open mike night for music enthusiasts who would get up on stage and play a few songs. This was a Friday night for the locals. It was pretty good and very unexpected, and a nice way to see an element of local culture not typical for tourists. Ultimately, we got back to Virginie’s house and then took an Uber back to the hotel, arriving quite late. This was a very interesting day with some very unexpected local flavor added in. [25,800 steps]
Eiffel Tower and Exploring on Foot
After sleeping in a bit we got out and had a nice lunch. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower and went into the underside area. There were various ticket options to walk up or take various elevators. We opted not to go up but enjoyed some time underneath, which was still pretty cool. After leaving there, we walked over and sat for a while by the fountains in the Trocadéro gardens. Walking back, Maddy identified a restaurant on her phone, so we walked uphill to a Brazilian-style restaurant where I had a very spicy Margarita and some dry-cooked meat (Andia). The place had a great atmosphere, but the food left us both feeling stuffed, though it wasn’t that much. Probably my least satisfying meal in Paris. Afterward, we walked back home and got some rest. [15,195 steps]
Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées
We began the day with some brunch, then meandered our way to the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile (Arc de Triomphe). On the way, we passed by the top of the Trocadéro, with a great view of the Eiffel Tower, and above the fountains where we’d been the day before. When we got to our destination, we went through the tunnel under, but not up the Arc, as there was quite a line, and you had to buy tickets. We strolled down the Champs-Élysées, which in my mind seems like one of the most Paris tourist things to do, and did some shopping at Sephora. Finally, close to home, we stopped for a snack/dinner. [15,480 steps]
Museum of the Army, Museum of the Liberation and Napolean’s Tomb
At the Eiffel Tower, Maddy had gotten a book with highlighted venues in Paris, which gave us some ideas of places to visit. One was Napolean’s Tomb, which interested her quite a bit. We made our way over there on foot, walking behind the Eiffel Tower through the Parc du Champ de Mars, and it turned out to a very interesting place. It is part of a complex that houses the Army Museum (Musée de l’Armée) that contains a collection of historical military elements from many centuries, and the Dôme des Invalides that includes large chapel Cathedral of Saint-Louis des Invalides, and also houses Napolean’s Tomb. I hadn’t realized how venerated Napolean was. The tomb was more like an altar to a deity. A giant sarcophagus lies underneath a large dome and the round base has monuments to some of Napolean’s offspring who also ruled France. It was a quite striking and beautiful place. After spending several hours going through the place, Maddy headed to public transportation to rejoin Alexandra and Virginie for a final girls night before Alexandra headed back home.
Musee d’Orsay
Paris is filled with numerous museums and amazing art, so we visited one of the more famous art museums, the Musee d’Orsay, which sits on the left bank of the Seine. We saw lots of beautiful French art, sculpture, and even furniture. We saw lots of famous pieces including a large collection of Impressionists. The museum purportedly houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist artwork in the world. It was quite impressive and I could certainly go there again.
The Louvre
It would hard to imagine visiting Paris without going to the Louvre, which is arguably the most famous museum in the world. On one of my days walking around before my photo retreat, I walked by it and into the courtyard. It was a weekend during the French school spring break and I remember feeling it was very large and that there were large crowds of people. We scheduled a tour, which was a useful way to go on your first visit. We got an interesting overview, starting with a history and its origins as an ancient castle then moved fairly chronologically through sculpture and then into paintings. Lots of cool Renaissance paintings. Saw some famous sculptures and paintings. We saw the Venus de Arles and Venus de Milo, original paintings by Leonardo di Vinci: John the Baptist, St Anne, Mary, Jesus with Lamb, and the Mona Lisa; also saw the famous (Lady) Liberty leading the people. As others have said you could easily spend days visiting this museum. We were on the guided tour for about 3 hours, and then stayed around another couple of hours finally ending up in the Antiquities of Egypt area, which held some interest for Maddy. I would definitely come back here if I visit Paris again.
Paris Catacombes
The last major tourist site that we visited again came from Maddy’s book. We went down and through the Paris Catacombes (Wiki). A very fascinating (and a bit creepy) place, with mounds of skulls and bones lining chambers and walls. We took an audio tour, and it was interesting to hear what led to this solution to a major problem.
La Fin
After 8 1/2 days of sightseeing around Paris, it was time to head home. The logistics were a little complicated as after I got to the airport I had to direct the driver to the right terminal (which wasn’t obvious), and then once in the terminal, I had to find the right counter to go to for my flight, which again wasn’t obvious. I finally sorted it all out, but luckily I had given myself plenty of spare time.
I had a great time visiting France, much better than I was expecting. The people including the waiters were quite nice in contrast to the stereotypes. I saw lots of historic sights and beautiful art, ate some great food, and walked a lot. It was great to experience this culture that I haven’t really been exposed to directly before. There is so much to see and experience, I feel like I just touched the surface. I would gladly return again.
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Upon returning from Mexico I immediately developed a significant leak when I turned the water back on. When I got a plumber out to look at it, he said my pipes were too old and his company wouldn’t let him touch them for fear of causing further damage. This led to me having to get a full re-pipe job for my house. I always knew this was an eventuality, but I wasn’t quite prepared to deal with it at this moment. It was expensive but not as bad as I was fearing it might be. As they couldn’t schedule it immediately I was with very limited water service for over two weeks. I jury-rigged some spades and plastic bottles to direct most of the water away from the wall and into a bucket whenever I turned on the water, but it was far from perfect. The work finally got done and I’m now happy to have up-to-date copper water pipes throughout the house.
Of course, it’s never just one thing, and the work kind of snowballed. I used the construction as an excuse to replace the vanity in my bathroom. This in turn pushed me to paint the bathroom. Since they had to work in my office, it forced me to clean up the horrible mess that I’d been procrastinating on for years, and throw out a ton of stuff. Also, as they opened the walls in my office, I used it as an opportunity to install some ground wires to the plugs, so I now have 4 truly grounded plugs and a GFCI in the bathroom. (This also allowed me to get rid of an extension cord that was snaked through my house for 30 years.) Painting the office is now also on the agenda. 
Just a few months prior to the plumbing work I also replaced my 50-year-old stove that was disintegrating. A month after the construction I also did some major repairs on my car that I’d been putting off for more than a year. So I’ve spent a lot of money this year, but I feel like I’ve brought several key parts of my infrastructure into the 21st century.
