Jeri’s title. Don’t blame me. Explanation to follow.
We seem to be slowly drifting to a state of normalcy. I say “seem” because I know we did a crap ton of stuff yesterday but I’ll be damned if I can remember just what it was. I know it involved doing shopping junk, eating a lot and trying to find and Amazon locker hidden in an underground parking garage. I will endure anything to keep up my Amazon fix. With this early onset dementia memory loss I apparently have, I may need to update more frequently. Wait, what was I saying?
OK, so TODAY we lingered a while in the morning, getting caught up on news and dealing with the shifted news cycle. Here it’s generally in the late afternoon that news stories from the US appear. Our mornings consist of stale US news. Anyway, it was cold and rainy, so good choice.
We decided we wanted to do our usual walk to the Seine River and the Louvre. We had previously stayed in a different area of Saint Germain and that’s where we started the walk. However we were maybe a couple of miles further out, so we took a Metro to our usual starting point. Before we started for the river, we went down a covered passageway we hadn’t seen before. These are narrow streets, closed to traffic, with shops, and a roof. Think of a mall in the 1800s and you get the idea.
We then started on our favorite walk to the Seine. It runs along narrow streets with little traffic. At the Seine, there’s a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river and dumps right into the Louvre. Remember the robbery last year? It was right there. It seemed like a good time for a potty break, so we decided to pop into the Louvre for the bathrooms.
How is this possible? Aren’t there long entry lines, timed entry tickets, and you know, costly tickets? Why yes, there are. But there’s a hack for that.
Last year we joined Amis du Louvre (Friends of the Louvre). For 150 Euros, it provides membership for two people for a year. Enter as many times as you want, through a private entrance with no lines. And every few months they mail you a fantastic glossy magazine, although in French. It’s too classy for us. Considering how expensive just normal museum entrance is, and the hassle of being assigned specific entry times (if they are even available), one of these passes are worth considering for even a normal visit to Paris. So just pop in for the bathrooms? Bien sur!
(As an aside, I’ll mention we also have similar passes for Versailles and the Orsay Museum. Both have private entrances, unlimited access, and the pass for the Orsay, the Carte Blanche, allows access a half hour before the museum opens to the regular public rabble. Hacks!)
After that we felt the jetlag creeping in and decided the wise choice was to head back to the apartment, via Metro. Before that we swung by the Saint Germain Market for food. It a bunch of food stalls and there’s a little Italian one that sells homemade lasagna. We have a routine we’ve developed over a number of visits, and this is one. So we staggered back to the apartment, had Lasagna and watched TV. Just in time, since it then dumped rain. Life is good.
After lunch, and the sun peeping out, we decided on another outing to get a fresh baguette. Yesterday, in some solo adventuring I barely remember, I found a nice, small boulangerie that had killer cinnamon rolls. These weren’t like the smack-you-in-the-face Cinnabon style, they were rather light. But damn tasty. Since it was only a couple blocks away, via a non-obvious route, I wanted to show Jeri how to find it so she could feed herself. I will attempt to indulge you people wanting food pics, thusly:
After that we needed to hit a supermarket for other staples, like Coke Zero and toilet paper. I noted there was a Monoprix near the boulangerie and we headed over to it. I had previously equated Monoprix to a Super Target, but this was even more so. This one has now become officially “our store”. They even had an Old El Paso display of Mexican foods, which somehow was being decorated with a Halloween theme. There are many things here I don’t understand and just choose to roll with.
Picking toilet paper was a major adventure, as the typical TP here is what you’d find in a Greyhound bus terminal in the US. They even sell rolls “sans tube”, which is what you think it is. This all required a high level of caution and judicious use of Google Translate. Oh, and price. We wanted what fancy people bought. I think we did OK, with a Kleenex brand. “Murica!
We also heard from the relocation service person that’s going to handle the acquisition of our ultimate apartment. She gave us a very detailed timeline and a request for us to fill out all sorts of stuff. I won’t get into the details right now, but renting an apartment in France requires a huge upfront cost. If we can keep it under 10,000 Euros I’ll take that as a win. There are so many entities that get a piece of the action. It’s gonna hurt.
Looks like there are more Yellow Vest demonstrations scheduled for this Saturday, and the following one. France is very civil in their civil disobedience, and they usually schedule these things well in advance. The city and police issue public maps of the planned locations, and the routes of any marches. If one doesn’t wish to take part, they are easy to avoid. Here’s a map put out by the Yellow Vests themselves. Very accommodating. The nearest one to us is a couple of miles away, and it’s a minor one. The big one, at the place de la République, is quite a distance away. If any shit goes down, that’s where it will be. However, the French are horribly embarrassed by last Saturday and I suspect the police will be out in heavy force at République and taking absolutely no crap. And possibly heavy rain on Saturday to keep the tear gas down. Fun times!