Busy morning packing up clothes, cameras, cables, computer, iPod, Nintendo DS, games etc., for the flight over. I took the Mac PowerBook 12" "Silver" which I'm using to type up this, and to download and store all my pictures. Meredith's Mom and Dad drove us to Houston well in time for our 4pm Continental flight to Newark and we had a couple of hours to kill in George Bush Intercontinental airport. It was past lunchtime, so we headed for Taco Bell which is one of the few fast food places that I'll eat at these days.
After a lunch of baja gorditas we headed for the bookstore and I bought a book called 'The Fuckup" which I thought was kind of cool.
The flight up to Newark Liberty was kind of bumpy, and really full so it was a moderately unpleasant but uneventful 4 hours. As always, despite the varied load of passengers, the Continental Flight Attendants were great and did their best to keep us happy.
Our layover in Newark was quite short and I needed to charge the Mac back up after working on it on the flight up, so I headed to gate C120 to find a power point and feed it some juice.
It was funny at the gate to see about three separate families all using laptops as DVD players to entertain their kids. The great thing was that all these kids were sitting transfixed in front of various, presumeably favorite movies. Who says technology doesn't improve life? The power supply arrangements were a bit off the wall though, with one power supply plugged in about six feet up and dangling from the wall.
Once again, we boarded a Continental jet, and once again it was a cramped and tiring experience, like all economy air travel, though the flight attendants fed us and kept us safe and well-watered. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours towards the middle of the flight, which really helped, though Meredith was pretty upset since she didn't manage to get any sleep at all. When I wasn't sleeping or reading Slashdot or Digg, I worked on some data analysis software that's been on my out of work hours list for a while.
I woke about 2 hours from landing just in time for breakfast, and the coffe, croissant and fruit salad helped wake me up for the arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris... By this time it was 10 am European time Sunday 22nd January ...
We got though customs quickly and picked up our luggage and headed for the taxi stand. We were both pretty tired and in need of a shower and some lunch. AirportPictures
We reached the hotel after about 20 minutes, but were too early to check-in. This flattened Meredith who had been rather hoping for a bathroom and shower, but her hopes were dashed. I led the dilapidated, dejected and despondent dame towards the direction of a random bar or restaurant which duly appeared.
After getting settled at the Village Michel her hopes were dashed again by the pay toilet, though there was an available urinal (male style) outside the stalls of the male, female shared facility. After a few minutes, relief was finally granted by the friendly patron who brought us the requisite token to open the portal of the pay toilet, and pressures could be released.
A token was also brought for me, but I managed to somehow squander it, and reverted to using the essentially public urinal in the corner, though I had to avoid the puddles that a previous user had left, perhaps having one or several beers too many.
After these trials, we ordered coq au vin, along with a beer for me (Stella Artois) and a water (avec gas) for Meredith. The food was excellent, and hopefully a taste of things to come. I'm sure I've had coq au vin before, but none of those dishes bore any resemblance to the resilient, strong textured and flavored meat in a heart red wine based sauce, whole boiled potates placed on the plate like rocks in a zen garden. A real point of note in the dish was the size of the bones. Initially I refused to believe it was chicken at all, since I figured it had to be some kind of gigantic fowl to be so heavyset and large of bone. But chicken it was, and delicious it was.
After this repast, we returned the few hundred meters down the street to the hotel and checked-in. As always, the first thing uttered on entry related to the lack of resemblance to the expensive room on the booking web-site and the cheap room we had actually paid for, and were now entering. Infact, the room was clean, bright, adequantely furninshed with a bed, desk, wardrobe, chair, window (with view) and bathroom with shower. HotelPictures
The room cost $70 a night for the two of us, so I think we're getting a pretty good deal. This way undercuts the prices we saw displayed at the hotel.
After getting showered and freshened up we headed off to check out the Montmartre neighbourhood.
Rue Ordener across the road from Jules Joffrin Metro
Paris has lots of two wheeled transportation
Flower shop near the Metro
Cafe Albert, which we never did eat at
One of the main attractions in Montmartre is the Sacre Coeur Basilica. This looks to be on one of the highest points in the Montmartre quarter. Our hotel is about 3/4 of a mile North of the basilica, with the basilica being between the hotel and the central part of Paris. There are several choices to reach the basilica including a long windy road, a bus, a funnicular from the Paris side only and a series of steep steps. We of course took the steps initially, and switched to the road near the top.
Meredith on the steps up to Sacre Coeur
Not looking quite so happy after 10 minutes of walking
We did pause on the way up ...
...and found a convenient bench
Once you get to the top, you are rewarded with the sight of the enormous Sacre Coeur Basilica.
Our first view of Sacre Coeur Basilica
Door detail
People entering Sacre Coeur
Detail of arch and dome over door
Statues, below the level of statue of Jesus
Photography is not permitted inside the Basilica, and when we went a mass was in progress. We did see at least one would be photographer being firmly ejected for transgressing the rules.
After returning from the Basilica, Meredith napped for a while and I worked on the computer. After an hour or so, we were both ready for some dinner so we headed off to explore Montmartre again. Our wanderings led us past a little Chinese food place that either sold the food cold for taking home to reheat, or they would heat and serve the food for you to have at a few tables in the shop. We opted for the latter course and enjoyed potstickers, chicken kebabs, rice and a beef and vermicelli samosa each for about 18E. Including a coke and Heineken!
After dinner, we both felt somewhat energised, and we caught a train down to Champs du Mars, which is the station for the Tour Eiffel. It's really cool, and similar to Tower station in London, in the way that the first thing you see on emerging from the station in the top of the Eiffel tower. The view is very impressive close up, though taking a good photograph may involve lying on your back.
Meredith trying to get the Tour Eiffel in the frame
Here's one I prepared earlier
The Metro and RER train systems seem well integrated in Paris, with easy to use touch screens, though only in French, for buying tickets that are useful in both systems.
Meredith looking at ... colors, shapes, lines
Very strange double-decker RER train
After returning to the hotel, we noticed one thing that might have knocked ten bucks of the nightly rate. The green metro line runs right under the ground nearby, so everything rumbles a little when a train goes by. It's not bad though, and I'm sure we'll get used to it in a day or so.
