When last I left this travelogue I was in my hotel room in which despite the room's tiny size the plumbing still managed to get lost on its way to the toilet.
Once back in the room, I immediately went to bed and slept, on and off, until 1st light the next day. Another reason the hotel is very inexpensive: every time someone flushes a toilet it sounds like it's raining in my bathroom. I suppose I treat my downstairs neighbors to the same experience. I came to find the sound relaxing, as I do real rain. Somehow I did manage to get quite a lot of sleep that day/night. The morning sunrise woke me. It was Friday Oct 24th.
My first order of business was breakfast. The day before, during my brief excursion on Oberkampf, I found a restaurant with a sign in French which my phrase book told me meant "Breakfast." Much to my surprise, I had studied enough from my phrase book that I could make myself understood and understand the French waiter well enough. Every day I was in France started with the same continental breakfast: tea, orange juice and a croissant. Still feeling a little embarrassed by my encounter with Monsieur Grumpy, I handled the money carefully and had calculated the tip in my head well in advance. In France the tip is figured into the bill, so you only leave a small, token amount.
My next task: obtain train tickets to Luxembourg and then from Luxembourg to Nimes. Following my trusty Artwise map of Paris I headed southeast to the "Gare de Lyon" train station. Along the way I came upon a very old church, which I later determined had been built in the late medieval period. Just walking along, minding my own business and then *surprise* medieval architecture. French children just grow up with this all around them.
I had a scare when I tried to buy train tickets at the Gare de Lyon. After taking some time with me to work out my itinerary, the ticket seller tried my credit card twice and it failed both times. I found an ATM and thus could pay in cash, but I could not pay cash for the whole vacation. I returned to my hotel and asked the desk guy to run my card to pay for the room. No problem. It was only the Gare de Lyon. This would cause some confusion later at check-out time, but it all worked out well in the end.
My next mission was lunch and a phone card. I needed to call my neighbor from my building in San Francisco to arrange to give him his absentee ballot and also to contact friends of friends to arrange to visit them. As I walked along one of the main thoroughfares I spotted a mobile phone store. Probably not the place, but I had to start someplace. The young man behind the counter said "non" to my request in (recited from my phrasebook) but then attempted to communicate further with pantomime and French I could not understand, to tell me where I *could* buy a phone card. I watched the show for a while. When he made a gesture with his hands like smoking I wondered if he meant that he would tell me if I gave him a cigarette. Then he said something to the effect of "tobacco" which meant a tobaccanist's shop. Then I understood.
I proceeded to the street on which he told me I would find someone who would sell me a phone card. I walked past the store with the "Tabac" sign (somehow it just did not register) and asked in an internet cafe a few doors down (hoping to find someone who spoke English there). After they re-directed me to what I missed, viola! I had a phone card. Next step, find a public telephone. I kinda sorta noticed these glass booth-like things on the street but not until I saw someone inside one talking on the telephone did it hit me that these were phone booths. My brain failed to "see" what was obvious and right in front of me, probably due to it not being what I expected to see.
Using the telephone and phone card proved challenging. I had a phone card, a (I thought) functioning telephone, and a phone number. Put them all together and I get an error message in a recorded voice speaking French I do not understand. I wandered around trying to see if the phones were at fault - I tried several. Same result, or worse, odd sounds from the receiver. What I failed to realize at the time was that once, by accident, I dialed the number correctly but the "ring" sound in Europe is so different that I thought it was another error tone. Oops.
Here's how I went wrong. All the phone numbers my friend and neighbor gave me looked something like this (not an actual phone number): +36 6 1234 5678. The "+36" is the country code (France), the first digit, "6" means it's a cell phone number, the remaining 8 digits is the number itself. I needed to substitute a zero for "+36" to make the phone card work with the telephone. After I figured this out then dialed the zero first on purpose, I waited, despite the odd sounds coming out of the receiver, until my neighbor answered. Hallelujah! I arrange to meet him on the Champs Elysees later.
For lunch I tried a crepe from one of those tiny places without seating that's just a grill and the ingredients and the person who makes the crepes. I ate a wonderful cheese and mushroom one as I walked around looking for a telephone. This crepe did not resemble any of the ones I have had in the U.S. I can not tell what exactly made it so much better. Not questioning a good thing.
For my afternoon tourist excursion I chose to go look for the Eiffel tower. Easier said than done (I have an appallingly bad sense of direction and have been know to get lost despite having a map and copious directions). I first found the "military school" (Ecole Militaire (sp.?)). From there I could not find the Eiffel tower. Yikes. How do you miss something that bloody big? Wandering around a bit, I finally looked in the right direction from the right spot and saw the top of the tower above the roof-line. With that sighting to guide me, I quickly found my way to a public park between the Military School and the tower. According to a book my Library Director lent me for the trip, the first battle for control of Paris in recorded history took place on the spot where they built the Military school and on its former parade ground "Champs du Mars" - the park. You have likely seen photographs of the Eiffel tower with rows of trees in the foreground. The rows of trees would be the park.
Those who are not history nuts may not understand the excitement of walking through a place where some great or ancient historical event took place. "Walking in the footsteps of Legions," corny as it sounds, that was what was going through my head as I proceeded towards the Eiffel tower. The Romans fought a Celtic tribe, the Parisee, where I walked, over 2000 years ago. I realize it did not look at all as it does now. But I still felt a "sense of place" there. A bit delusional, but it's my vacation and I can be as delusional as I like. The tower itself was far too crowded for me to try to enter. But it I did not find that as important as other "tourist stuff," so I did not feel disappointed.
After I had coffee with my neighbor and handed him his ballot, I walked around Paris at sunset. I found a restaurant with menus in various languages, including English. My first dinner in Paris was "cod brandade." Codfish baked in mashed potatoes and herbs. I never had anything like it before. The herbs must have been fresh (not dried). The fish seemed to melt into the potatoes. I had not yet learned that in France when you sit down to dinner you "own" the table for as long as you like. No one tried to rush you and the waiter never offers or asks if you want the check. The customer has to ask for the check when he's good and ready. I write in my travel journal for a only a short time before I ask for the check. Later on, when I came to feel more comfortable with remaining at a table after I finish my meal, I spent more time writing before asking for the check.
I finally have a CD of my vacation pictures. The next installment will be illustrated. -- Steven.
