Today the plan was to go to Giverny, Monet's gardens. Fortified by another terrific meal by Barb (a skillet with eggs and our leftover veggies), we set off for a bus and then the train. When we got to the bus station, though, there was a sign posted that we could tell was announcing the bus was not running to this stop. This is quite common right now in the area by the Eiffel Tower because of the football games.
As we puzzled over the sign and what to do next, another kind Parisian came and helped us. In the end she walked with us to where to get on the bus we needed, going out of her own way as others did. She was quite a character. She had lived in Paris for something like 50 years but moved away when her husband died. She was visiting now. We told her we were celebrating our 60th birthdays and she said her 80th (!!) is in a week. We told her she could join our party, but she looked around at all of us and said she wasn't tall enough.
She led the way with a brisk, purposeful walk, even turned around sometimes and pretended to count, making sure we were all keeping up. An Australian young man joined our crew for a bit, too, since he was looking for that bus as well. We asked our helper's name but she did not want to give it, and when I went to take her picture she would not let me. Barb told her, "You're beautiful!" and she said, "You are laughing at me." We protested but by then we were at our stop and she hastily crossed the road as we called out "Merci!"
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| Unbeknownst to our helper, I caught a few shots from behind. |
There was a digital sign indicating the number of minutes until the bus arrived. It started at 4 minutes, then went up and down and all the way up to 15. At that point we decided to just get on the Metro. Thankfully, both Barb and Susan are good at figuring out our routes.
This time, even though they did have the route correct, we seemed to be in the Metro and then train system extremely long, following one sign after another, going down one hall after another, and not to mention climbing one staircase after another. At one point I said this was like the Seinfeld episode except we were in a train system instead of a parking garage.
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| In the Metro, where we spent an inordinate amount of time today. |
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| Classic Metro stop in Montmartre |
We finally made it to the train station where we needed to buy tickets to Giverny. First we stood in quite a long line, then before we got to the front we thought we had the ticket machine figured out so we got out of line. After much consulting and trying to understand the French on the screen, I got back in line in case we wouldn't be able to figure it out. Finally, Barb came over and said they were debating not going to Giverny after all and would I be okay with that. Definitely.
So, Plan B. We decided to go to Montmartre. We got there with no transit problems (again thanks to Barb and Susan), and took the funicular up the hill. Was it ever crowded! We walked around a little bit looking for a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves. He definitely had good advice on this one. The restaurant was a little off the beaten track, nice and quiet, and good food.
After lunch we went through and around the church, then back down the hill and back home.
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| French onion soup! |
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| Prayers night & day, year after year. |
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| View of the city. |
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| From the little tram we took down. |
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| Montmartre vineyard. |
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| At the bottom of the hill, a kind of racy neighborhood. |
It's been raining off and on during our entire visit and I think today has been the rainiest day of all. Our apartment is right above 3 different restaurants so we decided to treat ourselves to NOT figuring out how to get somewhere, and made reservations at one of the restaurants there.
