Hello from Paris France
Draft started Monday Evening – June 13, 2016 (nineteenth post of this travelogue)
Draft continued on flight from Paris to Minneapolis.
Post uploaded 6/15 from Evergreen.
Our Airbnb apartment in Paris was great. Even greater was the fact that we were the first guests of a wonderful family of six. The owners, Patricia and Herve, were so hospitable. Indeed, when they found out that it was Pat’s birthday, they brought cake to celebrate (photo). The even sang happy birthday to Pat in English.
The apartment is located in a mixed neighborhood of single family homes and businesses (map)
{google_map}48.935736 2.495572{/google_map}
We chose the location since it was away from the hectic pace of central Paris and the fact it was fairly close to the airport. Our journey from the train station (Gare Est) was a bit eventful. The estimated taxi fair was over $70 and we did not want to mess with taking the metro to the Nord train station and then a train to the airport and then a taxi to the apartment. So I decided to try Uber. I had gone to their site and had gotten an estimate that was from $25 to $50 depending on traffic. I went to the Uber app on my phone and tried to put in the destination (it knows your location), but it would not take it. In the process apparently I booked two different Uber cars. Then somehow I canceled the one that showed up. That was not a huge deal as he still agreed to take us there for about $45 but I had to pay cash rather than the normal process of Uber billing the credit card on file. Ok, all is well right – wrong! My phone started to ring – several times and I finally answered (after about the 10th call – phone calls are expensive if you answer them). It was the other driver I booked and he was upset and did not speak English. I gave the phone to our driver and he took care of the situation. However, I had to pay a $6 cancellation fee. But we got to the apartment safe and sound.
The apartment was so nice (see pictures).
We had been to Paris a couple of times and did not want to do any sightseeing. So, we just hunkered down. We had hoped to go to a nice diner to celebrate Pat’s birthday, but it was Sunday and all of the good restaurants were closed. Instead we had some leftover bread and cheese and just relaxed. Monday Patricia came over (they live next door) with a map and showed where there was a good restaurant not far away that served lunch (it and all the other restaurants are closed on Monday for dinner). We had a great lunch (photo) with enough leftovers for a great dinner.
As I write this part, we are on our flight to the US. We had paid a bit extra for extra legroom. As it turns out we are in the bulkhead seats (three seats wide but just the two of us). I can barely reach the wall in front of us. We could not have asked for a better situation for our 8 + hour flight (well maybe first class {grin}). The plane is a Boeing 777 and I think I heard that it was just put into service.
I will use the rest of this post to catch up on a bunch of miscellaneous stuff from a list I have been making.
Small streets and big vehicles. Everywhere we went the streets were very narrow, but that did not stop big vehicles like buses from using them. I tried to picture driving the Eagle down the streets and panicked {grin}. Most of the vehicles we rode in were as wide as the Eagle, but shorter.
Pickpockets. We had been warned many times before and during the trip that pickpockets were prevalent in many cities in Europe. Indeed, one SU demonstrator lost her wallet to a pickpocket and it was reported that another demonstrator got hit as well. We did not see any signs, nor did we loose anything.
Crops in Germany. We were amazed at the amount of farmland we saw during our driving tours. Even more amazing was the fact that we some a fair amount of corn, in spite of the fact that we were so far north. The corn did not look like Iowa corn, but it was not too bad. The following is a quote from a source I found:
Although 34% of the total area of Germany is devoted to crop production, production falls far short of satisfying industrial and consumer demand. Agriculture accounted for only 1% of GDP in2002. The total amount of arable land in 1999 came to 11,797,000 hectares (29,150,000 acres). In 1999, the average size of the 30,308 farms in the former GDR Länder was about 185 ha (450 acres), while in the old FRG the average size of its 401,000 farms was about 27 ha (67 acres).
The chief crops in order of yield in 1999 were sugar beets, 27,587,000 tons; wheat, 19,684,000 tons; barley, 13,322,000 tons; and potatoes, 11,420,000 tons
Delta Airlines. I don’t fly Delta very much in my business travel, but I wish I did. Our flights have been wonderful. On the two long flights we were served a great meal on each flight. The attendants were friendly and with the slight extra cost for the long flights we had great legroom.
Security at Charles De Gaulle. Wow, I wish the US had their act together like this airport. Without question, the security was thorough, but there were no long lines. The airport has several terminals and each terminal has their own security with all lines open. I don’t think it took us 5 minutes to clear security. They did check our passports several times along the way from the check in to the gate, but it was quick and friendly.
The bread. I have talked about the bread in several posts. You simply don’t see American type bread in any of the stores we went into. Every town has lots of bakeries and all of them have a great selection of freshly baked bread. The cost of the bread seemed to be less than ours.
Beer. I have always commented that the Beer in Europe is great. I don’t recall having one I did not like. I always ask for the local beer. In most cases I got that. I was surprised at our meal in Paris, I asked for French beer and they only had Belgium beer??? No matter, I think the Belgium and German beer is the best of the best.
Internet. In the past, it has been anywhere from a minor to major problem to find a connection. Every Airbnb had a Wifi with pretty good speed. The only real challenge was the Hotel in Kassel and the ship. For some reason the ship internet was worse than what we had experienced in the past. It was good to have good internet (when availale), as it allowed me to research information about each location that we were in. With our slower pace, the research actually enhanced the experience.
Computers. We brought both of our computers and I carried them in the backpack. It was not all that bad, as both are fairly compact. I had a bit of fear about mine. A few months before the trip, I bought a new Dell 2in1 (laptop/tablet) with the top processor. I felt reasonably comfortable, as we bought Best Buy’s service contract. Well, the computer crashed and Best Buy’s idea of good service was to send it off for a week or two. Yeah right. I opened up the computer so that I could remove the hard drive and download the data. When I put the hard drive back in to take the computer to Best Buy {teeth grinding} I thought what the heck I will try it again. All was well. Of course, I expected the crash to occur again – in the middle of this trip – but it has done well. I really love the size and power of the computer, and hope it is done with this crashing action.
I will make one last post for this trip in a day or two.
That is all for now.