Four days in Paris

Today is our last day in Paris.  It is time to reflect on the past couple of days.  To tell the truth we are tired and in need of a slow day!  We have walked and walked, bused, travelled along a beautiful canal with locks, and ferried up and down the Seine visiting many of the main attractions of Paris.

I am composing this blog post in a little cafe called Nomade Cafe.  Here they have great coffee with first-rate customer service and Wi-Fi. The cafe is full of young people working on their laptops – digital nomads.  The female barista speaks excellent English and when talking with her she said she had lived in Melbourne.  This cafe could be anywhere in New Zealand or Australia.

Accommodation

Tracy booked our Air BnB months ago and it has been the best.  Dominique is the host and normally it is his home.  Size wise, it is very small with a Japanese theme and abundant Japanese memorabilia.  We are on the first floor, access gained by entering through two large wooden coded doors and climbing a very old wooden spiral staircase. There are approximately five small restaurants immediately below us along with a green grocer and patisserie.  What more could one ask for.

We have loved staying in this neighborhood.  All the tiny businesses are impressive, especially the butchers, fruit and vegetable, and cheese shops.  They open later in the morning and when we were walking home last around 6.30 pm these little businesses were very busy with Parisians collecting some of their supplies on the way home.

The fresh fruit and vegetables we have brought have been so tasty.  One needed to slowly consume the  peaches and strawberries – the flavours so intense.  The peach flavours reminded me of my childhood.

We are meeting Dominique this evening for a final wine before we leave our accommodation tomorrow for Chamonix, travelling by train.  No doubt another interesting experience awaits us.

Uber experience

Many of you are probably very familiar with Ubers, but not us.  We have never had a need to use them before.  Thankfully I had downloaded the app and set it up – for ‘just in case’ scenarios. After one of our boat adventures it was pouring down with rain and no way where we going to walk back home – we had no rain coats.  It was time to try Uber.  It worked perfectly.  We were picked up within minutes.  We had a Angolan driver who spoke very little English and delivered us safely back home.  No complaints and we are hooked on them.

French people & culture

We have found the French people to be very kind, polite and tolerant of us foreigners with little French language.  Delilah (my grand-daughter) had told Tracy about the translation app on her iPhone and this has been a well used.  Now that I have got my European sim card, Google does a pretty good translation also.

We have noticed a heavy presence of gendarmes, often seeing three officers walking together, along with armed military personnel in other places.  Dominique thought it was because of the Olympic and Para-Olympics.

We have found the history here is unbelievable – 100’s and 100’s of years old.  Makes New Zealand’s history seem like a new country!  We have been blown away by the streets and streets of apartment buildings and the various  architectural styles.

Transport – bicycles

Every type of person seems to ride a bike here and FAST along the designated cycle lanes.  They often weave in and out of traffic and with no helmets.  You have to be very careful before crossing any road.  We’ve seen every type of bike –  from very old 10 speed racing type bikes with thin tires, to gravel bikes, e-bikes, lime bikes.  From what we have observed there is no shown aggression by either motorists or cyclists.  The drivers just seem to swerve or merge patiently – no tooting of horns or verbal profanities!!  We kiwi and Aussie drivers could learn a lot.

While there are endless pedestrian crossings with lights, I haven’t noticed one orange road cone or one speed bump!!

We have really enjoyed our stay in Paris.  Loved our little neighborhood we stayed in – people so friendly and away from the tourists.  I must mention Tracy’s assistance in everything from bookings to navigation- it’s been a amazing – I haven’t had to worry about anything.

It’s now Friday evening, we have arrived here in Chamonix, scenery magnificent, and crowds of people.  Reminds me of Queenstown in the busy season!!  Looking forward to getting out on the trail.  Weather looking very fine and pretty warm!  Till next time, take care out there – Goldcard Gal 🙂

Scenes of Paris

I have tried to limit the number of pictures – didn’t want you to get bored!!!

Monument aux Parisiens morts pendant la Première Guerre

Oldest cemetery in Paris and most visited cemetery in the world (so it is said!).  The final resting place for Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison (The Doors), the only people we knew.  It was a fascinating place to visit.

The tastiest peaches and strawberries ever!