So…..We’ve been really busy transitioning from airport to hotel to finally our first apartment. We haven’t really had time to peruse the news. But when we did, the US news feeds were all going on about this “Paris” place. It’s apparently a lawless dystopia with riots everywhere. Tear gas, flash bang grenades and stores looted and burned. I’d definitely say don’t go to Paris, unless you’re into that sort of thing. OTOH, I could heartily recommend where we are, Paris, if you want to have a relaxed and wonderful time. Oh…wait…OK, I’ll get there eventually, but I prefer to blather in a linear fashion.
We arrived at CDG without incident, a little early. Because we had craploads of luggage, I was concerned Customs could find something to object to, if they wanted. So I added on an Air France “Concierge Service” to our already stupid expensive ticket, for a hefty $550. I hoped this would smooth our passage and get us to our hotel. It turned out to be damned impressive.
An Air France representative was waiting with our name on a sign as we walked off the jet bridge. They took Jeri’s carryon and we headed off to border control. However, we did not travel with the ordinary rabble, no. She was leading us there, lifting the ropes forming the queues and we sorta traveled in a straight line. At one point we went through an access labeled “Flight crews only”, with Jeri and looking at each other with raised eyebrows. When we reached the border control checkpoint, she took us directly to the front of the line, because we were apparently entitled VIPs. At baggage claim, she appeared with an oversize luggage cart from somewhere, and got all our junk on it. We then headed through the last Customs checkpoint without stopping. Just…wow. So this is how rich people travel.
At the curb, she handed us off to a partner, who would drive us to our hotel, the Hilton Opera. Because of all our luggage, they assigned a really nice Mercedes van. And off we went.
I had been monitoring the protest levels and asked the driver how it was going to be. He really wasn’t sure, but the main area of activity wasn’t where we were headed. But with Paris, you never know.
If you’ve ever traveled from the airport into France, you know how difficult a trip it can be. Traffic usually sucks, and the smart money always uses the RER train. Because of the amount of luggage we were travelling with, that wasn’t an option for us.
However Saturday afternoon traffic was a dream, and we got into Paris quickly with zero protest delay. However, a block from our hotel, and small horde of students started to flow into the intersection, about to block it. But our driver made a really quick left, and we just barely skirted them and landed at the hotel.
After we checked in, we did our usual and headed to the lounge to hang out and have something to drink. Hilton’s lounge is on the second floor, looking out over the large street below. And from the commotion and hollering, we knew a fair sized bunch of protesting students began passing.
It was highly entertaining. They were shouting and waving hand made cardboard signs. They were taking up the street and the drivers weren’t happy, but otherwise it was cute. Or it was to us. But not apparently to others in the lounge we took to be ‘Muricans. They looked rather anxious.
We had a different perspective. We were last in that same lounge in January of 2020, just before the pandemic. There were serious protests going on in France then because the government wanted to raise the retirement age, third rail sort of stuff. The labor unions were having none of that shit, were highly pissed and out in force. What we were seeing back then, from the same vantage point, were bonfires in the street, tear gas and riot police. Now THAT was a protest. This, today, was amusing. Had we not been so tired and jetlagged, we probably would have gone down and walked with the students a while, just for the experience.
Now there was some sketchy stuff going on at the Place Republique a few miles away. Many demonstrations start there, for historical reasons, and sometimes it gets out of hand. I’d equate it to the mess that often happens in the US with some cities who have a team winning a national championship. There is always a small percentage of revelers who are lowlifes and are just looking for an excuse to smash a window and loot a flat screen TV.
So we weren’t unnerved at all by the protests. For us, it was quite the opposite and was fun. By late Sunday morning it was all cleaned up and everything was business as usual.
On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and moved to an apartment, where we’ll spend the next 25 nights. It’s in the ritzy Saint Germain area, a bit west of Luxemburg Gardens. It wasn’t our choice to stay in this slightly unfamiliar location, but we had to scramble after getting cancelled by our first choice in apartments. So we hoped it wouldn’t be awful.
It is not awful. It is “wow”. It is insanely large by Paris standards and we are still getting lost in it. To be fair, it has a very odd and unexpected floor plan. We wanted a two bedroom, using the second bedroom to store our junk. However, the (small!) second bedroom here is at the top of a spiral staircase, in the middle of the living room, without a friggin’ handrail! It’s the craziest set of stairs I’ve ever seen. I did an exploratory initial trip up the stairs, and noped right back down. So we’ve instead clustered our luggage under the stairs which keeps us from getting too close and hitting our heads.
I could send pics of the place, but we’ve ruined it with all our crap spread everywhere. When we saw the listing, we assumed it was shot with a wide angle lens, and really wouldn’t look that big. It is, in fact, that big.
After an initial unpack, we realized it was late Sunday afternoon, and we had no food. This could get bad. So we set off on a supply run. Along the way we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants for some excellent Beef Bourguignon. I had a request for more food pics, (implying less writing??), so here’s our meal.
If that isn’t enough of a French cliché, we then went to a favorite boulangerie of ours, just across the street, and picked up some croissants and a baguette. We then totally broke the cliché meter by taking our baked goods on a walk through Luxemburg Gardens.
Since then we’ve been settling in, adding French phone numbers to our phones, trying out our Metro passes and eating too much. Later this week Jeri is going to a women’s luncheon, held by an expat group we joined, so she’ll have to navigate there on her own. So that’s her big challenge. For me it was figuring out how to buy crap on Amazon.fr and have it delivered to a nearby locker. So, what we couldn’t bring, I can now buy. Isn’t this an amazing world we live in.
In unexpected news, we went to one of the larger markets, Monoprix, which is much like a super Target. It has everything. To our amazement, they had a full counter display of Mexican foods! Granted, much of it was Old El Paso junk, but it’s something we can work with. Tacos now become a possibility.
Oh, and lastly, in news only of interest to geeks, I’ve set up our home theater PC on the network here. At home we use a mini-PC to download all our viewing and play it on our TV, which really just acts as a monitor. It’s small and light enough I was just able to pack it and hook it up with an HDMI cable here. Feels just like being at home, but with a touch more of rioting.