Leaving Italy, Arriving France

After a short, day trip to Verona, we made it to Paris in good order.  

Verona is a very pretty and kind of big town with some amazing things to see, including the Roman arena (build in the 1^st century) and among many other things, Juliet’s balcony (of Shakespeare fame, but the truth is that the balcony is a post-Shakespeare work by a family in Verona whose surname is similar to Juliet’s Capulet but not the same – the Shakespeare work is or course fiction.  Nothing wrong with entrepreneurship and in this case, it really stuck!).

2000-year-old arena; what will we build that will be here in 2 millenia?

The seating is for the opera season

The stage

Contemplating things...

Verona skyline from arena

The arena is huge and would be a great venue for operat

Original outer columns and arches

 

A wall dedicated to love notes at the Capulet home

Reputed to be Juliet's famous balcony

Views from around Verona

Fire breathing sculpture at Giardini Giusti

Looking down on the gardens

One must eat....

But on to Paris!

Getting out of Italy was a bit of an exercise in creative Italian persuasion, beginning with our taxi driver who at 0400 figured that our bike box would never fit into his huge Mercedes van.  “It’s not normal.  Impossible!”  I agreed, “it isn’t normal but it is entirely possible!”  We had packed the box meticulously and to save on extra baggage fees, stuffed the box full of sleeping bags, parts, everything.  After some haggling and arm waving we folded down the two rear seat rows and it fitted in just fine.  Pay your money and get out.

The cheery folks at the Air France check in counter didn’t believe that the box was properly sized.  I assured them that it was in fact 5 cm smaller in total dimension than the maximum.  Again, hand waving and “it’s not normal” and, with the help of a credit card, we got OK’d.  But then take the box to the oversize baggage drop-off.  Take the payment receipt back to the check in counter and get your boarding pass.  That was easy, right?

Onto the plane.  A theme of this trip that has been pretty constant is small kids on planes that are totally screaming.  That’s usually not so bad, but on every one of our flights we’ve had kids in the next row that are about 2 years old that have 1 hour meltdowns.  Screaming, kicking, bouncing the seat.  Argh!

Once landed in Paris we fetched the bike box and were on a taxi in a matter of minutes.  The ride from CDG to our apartment in Paris (Ile de la Cite) took as long as the flight from Venice to CDG.   Traffic was worse than Seattle.  But our taxi driver was a mellow and understanding guy who wasn’t bothered by much of anything.  We appreciated his approach.

We had the combination for the door and put our bike in the “courtyard” (smaller than what you’d expect, but fine), then walked up the 4 flights to our apartment.  But it was still being cleaned, so we walked around a bit to get oriented.  We are in the 4^th arrondissement, on Ile de la Cite, just around a few corners from Notre Dame.  We have a fantastic view of the Seine and it is fun to watch the many tourist boats and working boats plying the river.  Across the river and adjacent is the Place at the Hotel de Ville (city hall) and they were setting up a stage and lights and stuff, for what looked like a concert.  Sure enough, we checked on what was going on and it was a series of concerts, starting on our first night.  Hopefully not Europop again, but probably loud, for sure.

Paris is, as ever, beautiful and interesting and charming and busy and everything else.  We both love Paris and having an apartment in the 4^th is something that is special.

Notre Dame from the "back side" -- our apartment is about 200 meters
from where the photo was taken

The walk-up to our place

The view from our apartment, which is pretty small but has a great view and everything
that we could need; kitchen, washer, dryer, etc.

From our front window, the view of Paris' beach

We got settled in an found a small restaurant around the corner and had a really nice dinner, salad and wine fondue with a nice Pinot Noir and coffee and dessert.  

Wine fondue (with apologies to vegetarians), salad; indulgences but worth it

Dessert.  Super-indulgence but super worth it!

Sufficiently stuffed, we headed back to our apartment around dusk and the music started.  Yep, it is loud.  But it isn’t Europop; more like alt Euro and actually fairly easy to listen to.  Except we had been up since 0400 and we were pretty tired.  The apartment is hot and we had to have all the windows open to get a breeze.  The concert was scheduled to run until midnight but despite the decibel level we were out by 2200.  We have a few videos and will try to post them when we're back in Paris on future posts.

Morning and after our fill of espresso made at "home" we’re off to Gare du Lyon for our trip to Saint-Gervais-les-Bain for stage 19 of the Tour de France.  We have a couple of transfers but the first leg is on the TGV and in first class.  Luxury.  We have a neighbor in our cabin who is an American working in Paris for the past 15 years for Hewlett Packard.  And he has a bike with him (mountain bike in a fancy case that SNCF will accept).  He also is heading to the Alps for the last few stages of the race and had lots of suggestions for good rides around the Paris area.

We had a 2 hour layover in the town of Annency, which is at the gateway to the French alps.  A beautiful town that is all done-up for the arrival of the Tour.

A canal in Annency with yellow parapluie for the Tour

Art in Annency

One must eat, and drink.  Beer and rose champagne in Le Fayette

We awoke this morning in the alpine village of Le Fayette, which is just down the road from Saint-Gervais.  Thunder, lightening and a light drizzle, becoming heavy as I type this post.  This stage of the Tour is a mountaintop finish and at about noon we will begin our hike up the mountain to get a good spot to watch.  Hopefully the rain will taper off, but whatever it does, it will be fun.

Our internet speeds at the tiny hotel we’re staying in are very slow, so maybe no blog post until we’re back in Paris.

Until then, au revoir.