Day Five Paris: Cinquième Jour

Greetings from Saint Germain area –

Woke up to a clear and sunny day, which we hope will be our new norm.

We got off to a late start and had to pack up since we were relocating to the Saint Germain area (Metro-Odeon). Had a quiet breakfast in another café which also seemed to be populated by the 35 and under crowd, several with babies. 

Once we finished packing, we took a taxi from Montmartre to Saint Germain. It took nearly 45 minutes to go less than four miles in the taxi. Traffic is really a mess in Paris. Add to that the Christmas shoppers and window shoppers as well as tourists and bicycles and you’ve got solid gridlock—everywhere. But the metro is pretty packed also. We would have had to deal with suitcases on busy trains, so we taxied. We had a long list of things we wanted to do today, but then Mike was feeling under the weather—hopefully just a cold brought on by walking in the rain all day yesterday. We’ll see how he does tonight. That said, we may pick up a Covid test tonight… just to make triply sure. (But I’m pretty sure it’s a cold)… So Mike stayed in the hotel room and I ventured out. Good thing we changed hotels (which was always part of the plan). Hotel Le Relais—Saint Germain is small but tasteful (albeit a little inconsistent in the décor. Our room is large with lots of extra space to maneuver. We have a full-size couch, as well as a circular glass-top table (which is what I am using to write to you at this moment). It’s a far cry from the cramped, dark room we had at the Montmartre hotel. And we have a really big bathroom.

So, while Mike went to sleep, I headed by Metro to see the famous Christmas decorations at Galeries Lafayette (and to finish last minute gift shopping). The decorations did not disappoint. Galeries Lafayette is all decked out with a huge tree-like form designed in the style of a chandelier. I am told it has 20,000 programmable lights and a fiber-optic lighting effect at the top. I managed to squeeze in with the hordes of people entering the store and see the “tree” from both the main floor and the better views from the third floor. I totally got lost on the 5^th floor as I tried to get the missing gifts. Galeries Lafayette is 750,000 sq feet (main store) and there are some additional stores for housewares, etc. adjacent. The store is 130-years-old and for nearly as many years it has been creating a hub of excitement with its Xmas themes. But the real highlight of the store is the neo-Byzantine stained-glass dome which is 43 meters tall (141 feet). That is what is worth seeing over and again.

From there I walked to the Passage Vivienne which is a wonderful set of enclosed walkways roofed over with glass. It too was very decorated (tastefully, I might add) for the holidays. I strolled the Passage… and then walked to the Bourse Metro station and headed back to the hotel. 

Mike seemed to be in better shape, so we headed to dinner at a restaurant that was about a 15-minute walk from the hotel:  Les Parisiennes—at the Hotel Pavilon Faubourg. It’s a quiet, upscale place where we figured Mike could find something agreeable to eat. And although it is close to a lot of the hustle and bustle of Saint Germain, it is on a small street and is a peaceful place which is what we needed. We shared carpaccio as a starter and then the vegetarian main course which was a melt in your mouth array of vegetables inside a puff pastry. Naturally it was all dripping in butter… but excellent. And we shared an order of the sweetbreads (one of my favorites).. Then we walked back to the hotel… I had many other stops I had hoped to make today and will try to get more in tomorrow. I did want to stop at the d’Orsay but didn’t get tickets in advance and they were booked straight through until January 20. 

It’s been nice to see a few new things and to retrace old steps. Not sure how many times I’ve been to Paris, but it’s been many… and like NY it never seems to get old. What’s really nice is that I don’t need to go to the main sites since I’ve seen all of those places.. So just strolling without a plan works well. Tomorrow will be the last real day here as we will head to Angoulême in the southwest of France on Wednesday, returning late that night (just a day trip) and then head to Geneva on Thursday. Fortunately, the weather forecast does not include rain for the next six or seven days. We had our fill of that yesterday.

Good night on the evening before Christmas Eve.  Bonne nuit la veille du réveillon de Noël —- not sure that is really the correct way to say this. And on the night before the night before the start of Hanukkah. 

Merry Merry and Happy Happy

Fern

PS – about 15,000 steps today/ 6.5 miles. It’s adding up, but then again so are the calories being gained from French food.