Bonjour!
The earlier post left us getting off the train at Austerlitz. We caught a cab at the train station and took it to our home for the next week, a flat in the 7th arr. across from Napoleon’s Les Invalides (where he is buried) on Rue Segur. This is the flat with the non-functioning elevator…oh my… So, up the stairs – first time -- fortunately they are curving stairs, which somehow helps. (It does? – R) Should we keep track of how many times we walk up, I’m wondering?!
Into the flat. It is quite lovely – large living/dining room, large bedroom with very modern bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen only has a 2 burner cooktop, but it does have an oven as well as a dishwasher. The washer/dryer combination is in the bathroom. I unpacked everything, while Robert set up the computer. Impossible password for the WiFi (26 characters!), but hopefully once in, it will stay remembered. We also have a large flat screen TV so we are able to watch the French Open for almost the first time! (We got selected matches in our little place in Suances, but as the screen was so tiny, we couldn’t see the score!)
Decompressed for a bit, then decided to go out and take care of some housekeeping items. First, we need to get our Navigo Decoverte cards recharged. These are cards that allow us to travel anywhere within zones 1 and 2, metro, buses and RER for the week; a terrific bargain, and makes individual tickets a thing of the past! We got them the last time we were in Paris, and needed to get them recharged by the week (or month). Found the nearest underground station, and there was a recharging machine right there! Didn’t even have to talk to anyone to get the week added to our card! How fun is that?!
The second item of business was to re-up our memberships with Les Amis du Louvre, which had expired a couple of months ago. (We REALLY love to be members, as we can get in a special entrance and don’t have to wait in lines – right up our alley!) Took the metro (even though we prefer buses, the bus connections from the flat are TERRIBLE…) to the Louvre and entered in front of absolute HOARDS of visitors through the Carrousel du Louvre. It only took a few minutes to take care of this in Les Amis’ office, so as we were already there, we decided to take a look around!
Found first off, a truly wonderful special exhibition about Roman artifacts that have been discovered in the Rhone River just south of Arles beginning in 2007. It turns out that more than a couple boats/ships had been sunk on the Rhone during the Roman days. Archeologists have been excavating the past five years, and this is the first exhibition of some of the things they have found. (Unfortunately, NO pictures here; bummer!) In addition to displaying the artifacts, a lot of information was provided about exactly how these artifacts had been restored, with a special emphasis on how bronze pieces had been originally shipped (most with a layer of wax covering the bronze) making the restoration process much easier.
From here, we headed to the newly opened redesigned Mesopotamian section, which, after our travels in Turkey, took on a special significance. Fortunately, pictures are allowed here, and Robert did get a few good ones! It does remind us, though, of all the things we still need to see!
By now our “quick” look at the Louvre had turned into several hours, and we were a bit tired from a long day. We took a few minutes as a sit-down (Magnum Classic for me; chips for R!) then headed out through the Pyramid exit into a very COLD and blustery JUNE day! R needs to find a charger for his cell phone (now that we’re without a vehicle to charge it up!) and we walked from the Louvre across the Seine and up to St. Germaine des Pres. We found the Darty (French version of Radio Shack), but of course they didn’t have what he needed; across the street to FNAC where luck was a bit better…we have a charger now, but R isn’t convinced it’s the right one…so…we’ll see!
From St. Germaine we metro’d back and stopped at the closest grocery store (which isn’t very close…), a Carrefour, and picked up water, soap, T.P., cookies, juice and jam for croissants tomorrow (which we’re going to have to walk down to get…). Back up all those flights of steps for a brief sitdown – the posting from yesterday, and then regrouping to go out to dinner. As this was our first night, and we definitely didn’t feel like cooking, we took buses (several) over to our old stamping grounds in the 5th to go to our favorite Japanese restaurant. R left the camera home, but imagine soup, salad, white rice and beef sautéed with onions and garlic. Very good; nice to be back in the area!
Took several different buses back to get us close to the flat, and then walked a good ½ mile from the Seine to behind Les Invalides…I’m tired all ready! Back upstairs for the very LAST time tonight!
More later!
m
xxx
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