Anita's Travel Tales: Paris Before the Storm

My pano of the Louvre on Sunday morning of our Paris visit.

I love Paris. Most of the flights home from our Bordeaux wine river cruise (see last month's blog) stopped in Paris. I thought to myself "Bill and our friend Steve have never visited Paris. What a great opportunity. Let's go!" Even though we'd only have two nights there, I couldn't resist a return trip to a city I loved and first visited in 2006.

I purchased train tickets for the ride from Bordeaux to Paris, found a great boutique hotel in the arrondissement that I wanted, and started to daydream about Paris.

Twenty-two arrondissements or districts comprise Paris. Most of the tourist destinations are located within the eight central districts. You can sight see via the Hop On-Hop Off (HoHo) double decker bus or you can purchase a pass for the Metro (subway).

You can also plan specific excursions with a vendor who will provide round trip transportation from the airport, train station or a cruise ship and then take you to your hotel at the end of the excursion. In August, we'd take the HoHo. We could walk to one of the stops from our hotel. I love to use the HoHo when I'm seeing a city for the first time. It gives me an overview of sight locations and helps me use my time well.

My first visit to Paris was with a group of friends in February 2006. The city was chilly and we had rain on a few days, but we were in Paris!

Karen, Angela, Terri, and Dennis

Karen and Anita on a cloudy day in Paris

Approximately 20 of us flew from Philadelphia to visit Paris, armed with our one-week pass for le Metro so that we could come and go as we pleased. I served as a kind of translator since I remembered a decent amount of our school French. (I don't remember as much now, though!)

One day, while walking along the Champs d'Elysses Dennis said, "I feel like I'm home here." I responded, "Do you know why Paris feels like home?"

I explained that the first Ambassador to France from the U.S. was Benjamin Franklin. He loved Paris, and recreated several of the buildings in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a replica of the building pictured on the left.

I pointed to the Petit Palais which is replicated in Memorial Hall in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. I explained that City Hall in Philadelphia is a part of the Louvre.

Walking up the Champs Elysses, one of my friends said, "This is the Benjamin Franklin Parkway!" Yes, it is. Then, we reached the Arc de Triomphe, a replica of which can be found in Fairmount Park too.

One evening we dined at a very nice restaurant. The owner-chef approached us. When we told him we were from the Philadelphia area, he was very excited to tell us that Philadelphia's famous French chef-restaurateur Georges Perrier is one of his friends. Coincidentally, we recently had had drinks in the bar of his new restaurant in Philly.

So, Paris does feel a lot like home to me. Now, it had been almost 14 years since visiting Paris that first time. Time flies by so quickly, and I was going to return!

Since it was August, I had prepurchased our train tickets from Bordeaux to Paris. We took a taxi from the ship to the train station, and waited for our train to arrive. Each car had a luggage stand at the entrance where we stored out baggage. We found our reserved seat, plugged in our cell phones and watched the countryside pass by at 200 mph! We reached Paris in no time, where we grabbed another cab, then checked in to our hotel. We needed some lunch.

In 2006, we stayed in the 9th Arrondissement. This is the district where L'Opera is located. In 2019, I wanted to stay in the 6th Arrondissement. I found a great boutique hotel. We had a French door in our bedroom which led to a balcony with a small table and chairs--perfect for coffee in the morning and wine later in the day!

Across the street from our hotel was Les Deux Magots. We sat outside, bought a bottle of wine, and ate. Yes, the price of our lunch was inflated. It's a tourist sight, and we expected to overpay.

Les Deux Magots was the meeting spot for famous writers, poets and artists such as Geraldine Stein, ee cummings, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso. This was a sunny, glorious day in Paris! Next, we walked a few blocks to the Seine and across one of the many bridges.

We had two nights in Paris. During that time, we walked a great deal when we weren't riding on the HoHo. Just soaking up the mood of Paris--shopping in a small market for bottles of wine, trying outdoor cafes along our walks, watching the residents and tourists of Paris. Our weather was perfect, and this added to our feelings about our visit to Paris. Back home in Florida, people were preparing for a hurricane. We had just moved to Saint Augustine a month before. When we'd left for our Bordeaux river cruise, a hurricane hadn't been a concern. During our time away from home, the forecast developed. So, we were a bit nervous about getting home and what we would face. We were concerned that our flight into Jacksonville would be cancelled; so we changed the flight to Chicago and drove home!

Still, nothing can detract from a visit to Paris! We decided at dinner one night that we'd return with the "kids" in a few years and this time, we'd spend more time in Paris.