Europe Part Two--Paris

Ah, Paris. The city of light and one of my favorite places on the planet. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, but our stay there didn't start off well at all.

We arrived in Paris on Thursday night and the bus took us directly to the restaurant for dinner. Nothing wrong with that, except that we were told our bags would be safe on the bus and most people left everything there except for small purses. Well, they weren't safe.

When we returned, two backpacks were missing--both of them were black and both had been sitting on seats near the front of the bus. One belonged to our tour director, Eve, and the other to my student, Ashley. It appeared that someone had somehow boarded the bus (even though the driver swore it was locked) and took the bags. It was, at least momentarily, a stunning blow. Ashley had left her money belt in the backpack and lost her credit cards, quite a bit of cash, and her passport, as well as her cellphone. Eve lost her laptop with all her trip and work info on it, plus her camera and other important personal items. It was hard to see Paris in any kind of positive light after the theft.

Then we went to our hotel. Not a nice place. We stayed at a lovely hotel in London, but the one in Paris, while located next door to the metro stop and very convenient from that perspective, was pretty much a dump. Plus, the air conditioning was, shall we say, anemic at best?

Still, we settled in as best we could and Eve spent ages on the phone to the police and EF offices and began getting things in order.

Next morning, my first job was to accompany Eve and Ashley to the local police station. Thankfully, Eve's French is excellent (much, much better than mine) and she took care of making the report. However, she eventually had to go and take care of the rest of the tour group (it was their morning on the bus with a guide and a sightseeing tour of Paris) and Ashley and I stayed to finish up the paperwork. I am so thankful that if this had to happen, at least it happened in Paris, where I could be of some use language-wise. I would have been totally lost in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Austria, but in Paris I knew enough French to muddle through the remaining questions at the police station and get the report completed. The police officers were so nice. (I know what people say about the French--especially Parisians--but I am here to tell you that I met only nice, helpful people in Paris and one was truly an angel, but more about that in a bit). I was able to understand enough to answer the basic questions and at the end, when our officer was trying to give me some advice that I couldn't figure out, she found another officer who spoke a bit of English. Between his bit of English and my bit of French, we understood that they were advising us to put our valuables in the hotel safe. We thanked them for their help and kind concern, and headed off to the U.S. Embassy.

Another blessing--we were in a capital city, with the embassy located right there. Plus, I've been to Paris six times now and am very comfortable with getting around on the metro. I could easily get Ashley and myself anywhere we needed to go--and I knew exactly where to find the embassy. So, as I told Ashley, even though the Lord does not necessarily always prevent bad things from happening to us, He certainly helps us cope with them. He blessed us a lot in taking care of a very trying situation.

Whew.....security at American embassies is impressive. They went through my purse and took pretty much everything except some tissues. Cell phone, toothbrush, comb, lipstick...all into a plastic bag to be saved until we completed our mission.

In we went, to take a number and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally, it was our turn and we explained Ashley's lost passport and the need for an emergency one. Then paperwork and more waiting. But, after three and a half hours (and a mere $100), we had it. A new passport, completed and in Ashley's hands. Again, very nice, helpful people. (The wait wasn't their fault; the place was mobbed with people). They even let me use their phone to call Eve and give her an update on our status. We got the passport, picked up my phone, etc. and finished just in time to join the rest of the group on a visit to the Louvre.

It was another madhouse filled with people, but when in Paris, one must visit Mona and the gang. It's truly a beautiful place. Probably my favorite is the Winged Victory, beautifully displayed at the top of a staircase and lit by sunlight streaming in from above. It's always breathtaking.

We wandered around, visited Mona, saw the Venus de Milo, and admired the other paintings by Leonardo da Vinci (there are about five others in the hall on the way to Mona, but most people just pass by them in their frenzy to see the famous lady). Of course, the Louvre is so enormous that you could stay there for weeks, but we saw some beautiful things and then it was time to go.

From there, we hiked along the Seine to Notre Dame. I'd been in before, and Kara was starving (and she must be fed regularly or she literally gets sick), so we went for food, but some of the others visited the cathedral. It is beautiful, as is the walk along the Seine. We even went down the steps and walked along the water for a bit. Every city we visited had a river, but I think I like the Seine the best. It seems more friendly, perhaps because the French have put it into what amounts to a large concrete culvert. It's lovely, but tamed. The Thames in London seems much more powerful and intimidating. The Seine is intimate, crossed by many, many lovely and elegant bridges. It's definitely more romantic than the larger rivers.

Dinner required a metro ride to the north side of Paris, but we had no more "lost" people after that one episode on the tube in London. The kids were soon veterans of subway travel, making connections, following the twisting, turning tunnels to our next platform. Kara soon took the lead and guided us through, since she was there last summer and was quite familiar with it all. Sometimes you have to walk a long, long way underground just to find or change trains, but I surely wish we had such a system here. You can go anywhere in Paris quickly and cheaply on the metro.

After dinner, we headed to the Eiffel Tower for our trip to the top. We already had tickets, so we skipped the endless lines at the base, and headed up. You have to change elevators at the second level to ascend to the summit, so we had quite a wait there, but eventually we made it to the top. It was already about 8 p.m., but in the summer, the sun doesn't go down in Paris until about 10, so it was light and clear and we could see for miles. The city is in a river basin, and it is truly beautiful--white and cream colored buildings, a river winding through it--what's not to love?

When we reached the second level on the way down, the kids (Kara, Paige, Alyssa, Brennan, and Ashley) decided to walk down the 200 or so stairs to the bottom. Trudy, Joann and I waited (again) for the elevators, and the kids actually got to the bottom first. Apparently they were singing Broadway show tunes as the went down and were belting out "It's Raining Men" as they passed two British ladies, whose response was "Hallelujah!"

After La Tour Eiffel, we boarded tour boats for our cruise down the Seine. It was lovely. We were in the outside seats (not having to look through cloudy plexiglass) and had a great view. It was a relaxing trip down the river, past Notre Dame, around the Ile St. Louis and back. The girls all sat quite far in the back of the boat and had a great time as well (except when two fellows on the bank mooned them....) We arrived back at the Eiffel Tower just as it began to get dark and the strobe lights came on at 10 p.m., making the tower sparkle madly. It's a beautiful sight. Then, we stopped by a crepe stand and had delicious crepes on our way back to the metro. Street food in Paris is yummy!

So ended our first full day in Paris--passport taken care of, money still to come.

Eve had arranged the schedule so that we had almost all of Saturday as a free day, so we got up fairly early and tried to get to the Musee D'Orsay when it opened at 9. We were only a bit past that, and the line was short, the museum wasn't mobbed yet, and I was very happy. We spent about an hour and a half there, and it is one of my favorite museums in the world. If you love Impressionist paintings, you must, must go. Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Manet, Sisely, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat--all there. It's amazing. Trudy and I loved it. I'm not sure if the girls did, but I hope so. At least there was a cafe with refreshments when they were tired of admiring the art.

Then we went in search of a Western Union office. Ashley's parents had wired her some money, which we needed to pick up. Eve gave me an address in the 8th Arrondisement and off we went. It was an area new to me, so I was consulting my map as we came out of the metro station. As I said, "I think we need to go this way," another of those wonderfully helpful Parisians, said (in perfect English) "Yes, it's that way." (I'm telling you, the Parisians have been getting a bad rap all these years). So, off we went. As the trek looked like it might be a bit longer than we anticipated, we found some lovely benches under trees (the Parisians plant trees everywhere along their streets and often have benches, too. It's a great place, Paris). So, everyone else sat, while Ashley and I continued our search. However, when we finally found the correct address, it was not a Western Union office. We knocked and tried, but the door was locked and things were not looking good. I was about to give up, when I turned around and saw a lady behind me walking her dog. I thought I'd try to find out where the office actually was located. "Nous cherchons Western Union" (we're searching for Western Union) I told her and (wonderfully) she answered in English, saying this was not it and she didn't know where the office was. Now, here's where our angel comes in. Out of nowhere, a man came walking up. He also spoke perfect English, and he had a cell phone with internet access. In short order, he had googled Western Union in Paris, found two offices on the Champs Elysees, and walked us back to join our friends. There is no way this just "happened." I am convinced he was sent by God to help us poor little lost Americans in Paris. He even told Ashley, "Don't let this (the theft) spoil your experience of Paris." I'm telling you again, Paris is filled with lovely people. (Eve, a skeptical Brit, said I must have met the only nice people in Paris, but I think she was joking).

The Champs Elyssees is one of the most elegant and beautiful boulevards in the world (when we got to Budapest, they even said their main avenue was modeled on it). We had lunch in an Italian restaurant (Alyssa got to choose because it was her birthday) and enjoyed it greatly. Then Ash and I went to find Western Union--and it was practically across the street. The lady there (again!) spoke perfect English, was very helpful (again!), and in short order Ashley had cash. All in all a great day.

We finished our free time with a quick trip to Napoleon's tomb. I just had to see it again after visiting Lord Wellington's in St. Paul's in London. And, as I mentioned, Wellington's does mention Waterloo, while Napoleon's does not. Nonetheless, it's a very impressive tomb. Stop in at Les Invalides if you're ever in Paris. Napoleon lies eternally and magnificently dead underneath a gold-encrusted dome.

Then it was time for us to get back to the hotel, gather up our things and head for Gare de L'Est (the eastern train station) to catch our night train to Berlin. I am not a fan of night trains, but that story comes in the next installment.......