Our Last Hurrah in Paris

Wednesday and Thursday, July 24 & 25, 2013

We started the day going together to Sacre Coeur; the famous white church on the hill. It is much newer than Notre Dame and St. Chapelle being completed just under 100 years ago. Beautiful inside and out it is visible all around the area.










After Sacre Coeur we parted ways with Wayne, Janel and Jake who were planning to explore the Louvre, some bone-filled catacombs and other sights that we had seen on our previous visit. so we wandered over to the nearby Montmarte, which is a haven for local artists and many tourists pose for a souvenir portrait here in the shady plaza. Elane has hers done when she was in high school, a few short years ago.

We also came upon these street performers. I expect that someone better versed in opera could tell us where the costuming came from but their songs ranged from the operatic to the Billy Joelific.

After Montmarte and an espresso we found our way to the Museum of the Middle (Moyen) Age. It was housed in the same neighborhood as our hotel in a  beautiful old building that served as a hotel dating from the 1300's. (Note the sundial on the wall behind Elane in the picture.)

Pieces in the collection include middle age sculptures, original glass from St Chappelle, the original heads of the kings of Judah that adorned Notre Dame for 550 years. They were removed during the French revolution and lost for almost 200 years until they were found in the 1970's serving as part of the foundation of a house.

This museum was a highlight of Paris for all of us (it turns out WJ & J toured it, as well). When the museum closed and we were escorted our, we met the rest of the family for dinner back at the Polidor, returned to the hotel to pack for home and went to bed. But tonight this would be a challenge as it seems that Hotel Claude Bernard is used as a home away from home for American youth groups in Paris with all of the subsequent pounding on the steps and shouting in the hallways. C'est la vie.

The next morning, our last in Paris, we met the kids again wandering the hotel lobby in their pajama bottoms while we, and the hotel management, shook our heads in amazement.

The End.

A Day of Cathedrals and Food

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The five of us hung out together, today, spending the majority of it on the Ile de la Cite - an island in the Seine hosting several important structures, the most famous being Notre Dame.

After admiring the wood work on a cabinet in our hotel lobby, we headed out to Notre Dame - arriving early to beat the worst of the crowds waiting to explore inside and climb up the cathedral tower. I never went into the building on my last visit and it was as spectacular as advertised. It is hard to believe that this type of structure could have been conceived and executed so long ago. The construction of Notre Dame was started in 1163 and completed/consecrated in phases up to its final completion in 1345 - 182 years later. I can't imagine giving one of our prospective clients a time frame like this and not being robustly kicked to the curb.

After touring the inside we joined the line outside waiting to climb the tower - waiting being the key word. But we got there and it was worth every minute. To be up over the city and enjoying the view at the construction details by peaking around gargoyles is a once in a lifetime experience. I even found a secret passage where I could call out Jake's name without him seeing me and messing with his head. We lost track of time on top but, after countless pictures, we returned to the streets below for crepes and gelato.










Our next stop took up just  few blocks down the island to St. Chappelle. St. Chappelle, while being constructed in the same period as Notre Dame was, certainly of a different style. St. Chappelle is known for the light provided by the abundance of stained glass. Being much smaller the structure could be much less massive and provide the opportunities for windows. St Chappelle is adjacent to La Conciergerie, the infamous prison that held the nobility destined for the guillotine after the French Revolution. Not too much to see there but interesting, none the less.

Now off the island to tour the enormous and beautiful Luxembourg Gardens where Wayne & I managed to get in trouble for abandoning the group while we perused a display of photography from the 100 runnings of the Tour de France. Hopefully, we made up for it with another fabulous meal; this time at Le Pre Verre, another Rick Steve recommendation and well worth the price. A footnote - the cost of eating well in Paris is probably less that you might expect, after factoring how inexpensive wine is, but the time commitment is the real surprise.You rarely spend less than 2 1/2-3 hours over dinner - and no one seems to notice it passing












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There's got to be a morning after...

Monday July 22, 2013

On our own, today. No wake-up call, no buses, no racing bicyclists and no free SWAG. We checked out of the Hotel Astrid because we need to relocate to our new home away from home at Hotel Claude Bernard.

But first we will explore this area some more with Wayne, Janet and Jacob. Leaving our bags in the lobby of  Hotel Astrid we head back out. I mentioned in an earlier post about small towns in France that around any corner you could be treated to a great sight. The same applies to Paris but on a grand scale. Beautiful structures with exquisite detail can be found on the shortest walk. Or the simplest of necessities. Lots of cars in Paris & no room for a gas station? Plunk some pumps into a traffic island and make a fortune. Again, all roads lead to the Eiffel Tower so we let them wander there while we explored the open market on the river.

A Day with Julie and the end of the Tour

Sunday, July 21, 2013

I promised another surprise and what a great one. After being able to spend Wednesday evening with Debbie in Grenoble word came to us that Julie would be arriving in Paris from the far SW corner of France to spend some time with us. After a mis-communication and a cross-town romp Julie met us at Hotel Astrid. After hugs we proceeded to take a walk around the neighborhood. We passed the Arch de Triomphe and its huge flag then gravity pulled us to the Eiffel Tower. As we walked we learned about Julie's angelic daughter, Ava (otherwise known as "my evil baby"); Ava's happy grandparents and, of course, her husband.

We ended up having lunch in the Rue Cler neighborhood. Our waiter seemed surprised to find a French lady with a couple of older American's. After lunch we looked for the hotel we stayed in our previous time in Paris and we disappointed to find it closed.

After returning to the hotel we had a tearful goodbye and joined our group for a walk to our grandstand seats to see the end of the tour. After the terrible events at the Boston Marathon I expected some substantial security around the grandstands but there wasn't anything at all. But there was shade, and for that we were grateful. It was a scorcher. No SWAG today but we had a great view of the Jumbo-tron to watch the riders as they left Versailles and made their way to Paris. Most of the mileage today was for photo-ops of the riders congratulating Froome, the tour organizers and sponsors to get some love, and to set the stage for the finale - ten laps up & down the Champs d'Elysee. The first time the riders came around the loop I was trying to compose a photo. Just as I was about to push the trigger the arms of all of the spectators in front of us went up with their cameras/cell phones to take pictures. Couldn't see/shoot a thing. After a few loops the excitement let up and people had enough pictures. The riders went around and around, first an attempted break-away that was absorbed by the peloton, and finally, a sprint right in front of us. Great fun.

We were treated to a light show that was projected on the Arch de Triomphe and some drinks before be

d.

Stage 20 and on to Paris

July 20, 2013

Today we say goodbye to Grenoble and the beautiful view from our hotel window. We had to get up early, again, this morning because if they closed the roads ahead of us this time we would have a 10 mile walk to our viewing location.

We will take over a restaurant along the route and watch as the racers climb through the crowded street.
This is the tour that we see on TV back home. people waving their flags at the cars, political signs, fans lined up in the streets and waiting to encourage their favorites even if it means being run over in the process.


 


Spirits were high and everybody joined the excitement. Barring some tragedy the winner of the general classification was already determined. The King of the Mountains might be the only overall prize still in contention. But nobody seemed to care. It was fun, it was an exhibition, it was a beautiful day.

Wayne and I celebrated by getting mirror-image Tour de France tattoos which resulted in requests from strangers to take our picture - from behind. And Jake made sure that he wasn't confused as someone who might be part of the same family.



More caravans, more laundry soap, some sausage in a bag, and racers right there, close enough to touch. What a ball!

Then our last bus trip...the one to the train station for our TGV (high-speed train) into Paris and a late arrival at Hotel Astrid - just two blocks from the Arch de Triomphe.

Tour de France Stage 19 - Another 2-fer

July 19, 2013

We didn't need to get up as early this AM and we were going to get to get to see today's stage from two different locations. So back to the buses...

Our first stop to watch the action was at the small town of St. Remy de Maurienne. We had some time before the caravan came through tossing goodies so we wandered into the village to grab some food. There was only one place - a little grocery - so the owner happily stayed open through lunch while we gutted his shelves of food and drink. The locals who happened to need something just waved at him to show him what they had so he would know that they would return later to settle up. Even the smallest of towns/villages have quaint churches and memorials worth seeing if your travels happen to pass them by.


At this location, the riders would be barreling down the descent after climbing the Col du Glandon and have to negotiate a small traffic circle before heading up to climb the Col de la Madeleine (another famous climb/TdF obstacle). (Both of these climbs are classified for difficulty as "hors categorie" - beyond categorization - like the Alpe d'Huez.) We had a great location to view the riders at high speed flying around the tight curve. They were grouped as the finished the previous climb; first a couple of pairs, then a small group, then the peloton. (Elane got a neat video of the peloton coming around the bend. I hope that I'm successful linking it in, here.) I had to feel a little sorry for the guys at the back of the peloton. While the support vehicles trailed the main pack of riders down the mountain and around the curve, the guys at the back were all mixed in with cars, loaded with spare bicycles, motorcycles and what-not. Gave me the willies just watching it from my position - hiding behind/leaning on a police car.

After this excitement we moved on to the downhill finish at Le Grand-Bornand. Our bus arrived too late to be able to drive us to the finish line so we were treated to a 3 km (1.8 mile) hike each way. Beautiful scenery along the road packed with spectators. With the crowds at the finish we resigned ourselves to watching most of the action on the jumbo-tron before the hike back to catch the bus for our last ride to our base in Grenoble. The viewing at St Remy was very exciting and Wayne got a few more packets of laundry detergent so, all in all, another great day with the tour.

Finally, Bicycle Racing! Stage 18 - Alpe d' Huez

July 18, 2013

When speculating about how this trip might go, back in May & June, I envisioned rolling out of bed late, grabbing a late breakfast and coffee, exploring the town a bit and then, in time to arrive at the days finish line around 5:00, we'd hop on a bus in the middle of the afternoon, see the excitement, and head back for a late dinner and drinks. Ummm - I was a little bit off. At dinner last night Alina, our guide, announced that we needed to be at the lobby of the hotel at 7:30, fed, and ready to board the bus. After a couple of hours on the bus we would be boarding ski lifts to take us to the finish line and there we would wait for the fun a few hours later. Oh, and by the way, it was forecasting rain.

Keep in mind that, for most of the group, this was their first morning in France and needed their sleep to recover from jet lag. There were about 20 "but, why's?" from the group so she explained. The roads that the riders will be on are closed well in advance, sometimes more than a day. "This isn't like the Tour of Italy where they go shoo-ing people off the roads just as the bikes are approaching..." We had to be on the roads and off the ski lifts before everything got so plugged up we couldn't move.

So this morning we were off. A bus ride to a ski village on one side of the Alpe d'Huez (Oz en Oisans - nicknamed "Oz"), a ski lift (enclosed) to the top of the mountain, then another ski lift down the other side to the pass where the racers would be. Beautiful vistas, cool pubs, good pizza, entertaining people, a hand-made wooden bike; and it rained.

For the uninitiated, the Alpe d'Huez is one of the most famous climbs of the Tour de France and is included every year or two since the 70's. Many of the most memorable finishes have occurred on top. The climb has 21 switch-backs and is 12 km long at over an 8% average grade making it one of the harder climbs in any tour of which it is a part. On this day, the racers would be climbing it twice! The first time they would veer off just before the finish, take a short downhill, climb to an even higher peak, descend to the bottom, and do it again to the finish at the top.


The trick was to find a good position for the first climb then fight the crowds to a good viewing location at the finish. Sadly, our guides weren't much help on figuring this out. Luckily, we had Australians. The Australians, fanatic tour followers, especially since Cadel Evans' win in 2011, always seemed to know what was going on and were friendly enough to share - with the help of an interpreter.

The other thing that we had to work out was "the caravan". This is something that I had never heard of before but an hour or two before the riders a caravan made up of the various sponsors rolls past the crowds and tosses SWAG (stuff we all get) out to them. From t-shirts to hats to candy to laundry soap (ask Wayne if you ever need some) it all comes hurtling out to the crowds. And they do this for all 2,000 miles of the tour. Some spectators will cause bodily harm to capture a free refrigerator magnet. At one point, one of our neighbors, who will be forever remembered as "the SWAG-inator" because he could grab SWAG like nothing I ever saw before, dove for something at my feet and send me tumbling through the open doorway of a ski shop to the surprise of the shoppers and staff inside. The Swag-inator, nice guy that he was, gave me a hat and a cookie for my trouble. Good thing, too, because I was getting nothing on my own.

We ended up in a great spot to watch as the rider we were cheering on, T J Van garderen, was part of a break-away and crested the first climb on the heels of a French rider. Now, TJ was out of contention for the overall tour victory already by this point but it didn't stop us from cheering him on, or the Australians from doing the same for Cadel. So we saw his group come through and then the rest of the riders, including a close pass by the the overall leader, and eventual winner, Chris Froome. The rain had let up by this point but continued to threaten but we moved on the finish line where the bikes would pass by again in an hour.

Little did we know from our vantage point, and hearing the excited announcements in French, that TJ had lost 40 seconds on the next climb due to a mechanical problem. All we knew was that when the jumbo-tron showed the lead racers coming up to the top of the final climb TJ was in first with Riblon, the French rider, in close pursuit. It looked good for a while until, finally, TJ just ran out of gas and Riblon passed him to the stage victory. And the French spectators, justifiably, went crazy.

We quickly left the area to get back to the line to the ski lifts and took a couple of hours to get back to the bus and to Grenoble to dinner and bed.