Girl Trip 2024: Ciudad de México: Day 2
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Buenas Noches –
It was a very full day in Coyoacán today. We had a light breakfast at the hotel. By the way, I’d highly recommend H21 Hospedaje Hotel… it’s really great and very well located. Nine rooms; staff is young and very helpful. The hotel was renovated beautifully, rooms are spacious and very well appointed, and the landscaping (all interior courtyards) are delightful and well-tended.
After breakfast we walked around Coyoacán and stopped at the wonderful mercado which measures about two blocks by one block—chock full of taco stands and juice places and quesadilla stands and every kind of food imaginable—all surrounded by stands that sell spices, and fruits, vegetables, household goods (from washing bins to toilet paper), wonderful stalls with all sorts of skeletons and handmade trinkets. We strolled to every corner of the market, eventually leaving and walking around the main square and a brief look inside the big cathedral on the square— San Juan Bautista Church—which dates to about 1525.
Then we hopped into a taxi to get to our 2:00 (brunch) reservation at San Angel Inn. We sat outside in the fabulous courtyard. The hacienda dates back to the 1600s and changed hands many times and today this wonderful restaurant is housed at the Inn. We decided to focus on the starters and shared plates and skip the “main meals.” So we started with two different ceviches (one with scallops and shrimp and a vinegar-y salsa with mangoes; the other a fish ceviche in an Acapulco style). Both were wonderful and larger than we anticipated. Then we shared the duck tacos and the cochinita pibil, and the assorted quesadillas. Oh, all of this was preceded by wonderfully pure and classic margaritas (heavy on the tequila!). While the postres looked great, we opted to pass as we were totally stuffed. I would be remiss not to mention the high fashion sported by the women coming in and out of the Inn—all dressed to the nines; we were definitely under-dressed!
We then took a taxi to the Museo Trotsky, which is back in Coyoacán. It includes a museum, and the house Trotsky lived in when he was in exile in Mexico City. Apparently, the museum is administered by an organization that works to promote and protect political asylum. Trotsky lived in the house with his second wife for about a year and this is where he was murdered in 1940. It’s been kept intact since that day. The house is surrounded by lovely gardens and high walls which include a set of watchtowers. Trotsky left the Soviet Union in 1929 because of his criticism of Stalin. He and his wife moved to many countries and eventually wound up in Mexico. Visiting the Trotsky House ties into our Frida Kahlo theme since it was Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo who convinced the Mexican government under Cardenas to give Trotsky asylum. Upon coming to Mexico in 1937, Trotsky and his wife lived at Frida Kahlo’s house (La Casa Azul), located nearby. But there was a falling out between Trotsky and Rivera—some say it was ideological, and others say it was because Trotsky had an affair with Kahlo (or perhaps a combination of both). After this falling out, Trotsky moved to the house we visited. The Trotsky story of his time in Mexico and the assassination are complicated and interesting, but no time to discuss in this note. I will, however say, that the exhibit points to the importance of good preservation of photographs, which was definitely not done for preserving this part of history. And the exhibit only has intermittent English, so it was difficult to follow. My Spanish is definitely not good enough to read the various explanations of politics and political history that hung on the walls.
From there we decided to walk back to our hotel – a 30+ minute walk through Coyoacán’s lovely tree-lined streets. It was Sunday and very quiet.
We were supposed to go to an upscale restaurant for dinner, but we were all still full from lunch and opted to go to a nearby vegetarian-forward café where we just had homemade vegetable soup and shared a “small’ pizza.
That’s it for now for me
More tomorrow.
Fern
Girl Trip 2024: Ciudad de México (Nov 16 2024)
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Greetings from Mexico City / Saludos desde la Ciudad de Mexico
For those of you who follow this travel blog series, you know that I participate in an annual “girls trip.” There are about five of us, with two who are the regulars (and probably considered the instigators and planners) and there are another three who join in from time to time, depending on availability, timing, and interest in the particular location. Over the years, we have gone to Marfa, Texas; Santa Fe, NM; Detroit, MI; Washington DC; NYC; Toronto; Amsterdam and surrounds; Montreal; Provence, France; and more. So this time it’s Mexico City and there are three of us. I’m the only one who’s been to Mexico City; the others have been to Mexico but not Mexico City.
My flight was fine except for my seatmate – an Aussie who went to Harvard Biz School and who thinks Trump will be great for America… and the world. Thinks Trump will “shake things up.” I rarely talk to anyone on the plane and usually just have my Earpods on and shuffle papers if anyone wants to talk. But he asked a question and somehow we chatted a bit… just as the food came, so that I couldn’t really hold any papers. And he started to talk about the US election and it was downhill from there. Fortunately after he made a few statements about his point of view (which I naturally objected to), I decided it was enough and put my Earpods in and that was that. At the end of the flight as I stood up to leave he wished me well and he said that he had never talked to anyone who was so opinionated about politics.
I managed to find my two friends at the airport despite landing at different terminals, so that was a good start. We had decided to stay in Coyoacán as the starting point; we will relocate after a few days to be more central. Once we decided on Mexico City and realized we only had about 5-6 days, we decided we needed a “theme” for our trip. Given that Mexico City (to my mind, having been here several times before, for longer periods than this trip) is like NYC on steroids, we thought having a focus would be a good way to see specific and also other things. Our theme is Frida Kahlo (and Diego Rivera), so the plan is to visit Frida’s house and museum and several of Diego’s extraordinary murals. And then, in between going to these destination places, I’m sure we’ll be stopping at many markets and walking different neighborhoods. Still it’s a very short time.
We arrived at about 7:40 pm tonight and taxied to our hotel in Coyoacán and were delighted when we arrived at the hotel: H21 Hospedaje Boutique Hotel. It’s a wonderful, very small (I think only 6 or 8 rooms (and we have three of them!) located on a narrow street about a block from the main plaza which was totally bustling when we walked there at about 10:00 pm to get some dinner. I love that it is easy to get dinner really late and that most restaurants are open until at least midnight every night—- my kinda town! We had dinner at Corazón de Maguey— foodie alert. Food was great, especially the guacamole with grasshoppers; plantains stuffed with brie cheese, sitting on black mole with cream and a sort of goat cheese. We also had little empanadas and chicken sous vide.. oh and of course dessert –a corn cake with vanilla cream, blueberries, and vanilla ice cream. We finished at around midnight and strolled through the plaza which was still buzzing… and then settled into each of our rooms.
By the way, Coyoacán is Mexico City’s oldest neighborhood and what I remember is that it is totally charming. In the 1500s Cortes made Coyoacán the capital of “New Spain.” Then the capital was moved to Mexico City which is a bit north. Originally there was farmland and lake waters that separated Mexico City from Coyoacán. But by the 20th Century this physical gap between the two “cities” was overcome with urban sprawl and Coyoacán got incorporated into Mexico City… Still, Coyoacán retains a very distinct feel amid the many neighborhoods of Mexico City and is less of a tourist destination than many other neighborhoods (or at least that used to be the case, so I hope 10 years hasn’t changed it much). When I last stayed in Coyoacán (about ten years ago on one of my many efforts to learn Spanish) it was a bit sleepy and had only a few really good restaurants. Well I know that has changed. It’s flooded with great restaurants and I think we will be challenged trying to figure out which to choose.
Coyoacán means something like place of the coyotes and that brand (coyotes) is everywhere.
More tomorrow. Need to unpack and get to sleep.
Fern
Happy New Year 2024/2025 Geneva
Happy New Year!
This note is being written on January 1 on board flights from Geneva to DC/ DC to SFO. Given that we won’t land until about midnight on January 1, you will most likely get this on January 2 once we are settled at home and “re-connected.”
While Mike seemed better, he certainly is still not up to his normal, “perky” self, but he is beginning to make some snide political comments, so I’m thinking he’s moving in the right (or rather left) direction.
We hung around the hotel most of the day, beginning to catch up on the news (all of it pretty bad) and grateful we had made the change to La Reserve rather than having been stuck in the tiny room at Tiffany Hotel. Not much to report except New Years Eve dinner.. so, this note is probably mostly for the foodies in this group.
We did keep our New Years Eve dinner reservation at the hotel and knew that Mike could probably only eat some of the many different courses being served. And he continued his non-drinking/not even wine routine… in the hope that by the time we get home he’ll be back to normal. In one photo you see Mike sipping something with a straw— it’s one of those fancy non-alcoholic drinks with some kind of yuzu flavoring.
Well, the dinner was quite wonderful (some of the dishes are shown in the photos) beginning with three little cubes… one with foie gras and pear; another with lobster and citrus; and the third was beetroot and ginger… each one perfect little bite. This was followed in succession by: spider crab with green apple (sliced so thin it was like paper) and lemon; then turbot and mushroom raviolis; then wagyu beef with polenta and I think a bordelaise sauce; and then some very wonderful local cheese sitting on a sort of blueberry compote; then a mango and passion fruit “thing” with vanilla cream; and some kind of wonderful fresh lime and lime leaf dish… all followed by “mignaridises”— an assortment of little sweets and chocolates to take to the room. And I did have some wonderful wine.
We didn’t stay at the restaurant until midnight to partake in the “festivities” since we needed to pack and I don’t think Mike could have made it that long. So we retreated to pack and watch the midnight festivities around the world on CNN. As a good Nyer, it’s never New Years until I see the ball drop and for me, that’s it. And since for about the past 30 years we have nearly always been out of the country for New Years, I celebrate twice – first wherever I am and then when I see the ball drop at Times Square. Come to think of it, we’ve celebrated New Years (and my NYE birthday in some pretty exotic places, and would have been in Sofia, Bulgaria this year had we not been hit by whatever bug is going around Europe—although I’m hearing from lots of people that a similar bug is in the US as well.) in places like Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia; Fes, Morocco; Amman, Jordan; Cape Town, South Africa; Singapore; Quito, Ecuador; Copan, Honduras; Antalya, Turkey; Zanzibar; and more. I’m not complaining.
Anyway, I must admit that watching the midnight events around the world on TV made it really clear that Paris gets the prize. And for whatever reason they did it bigger than usual this year. While I’ve been in Paris on New Years, I’ve never actually gone to the Arc de Triomphe where the action is on that night at midnight. But, Paris capped midnight 2024 with a total extravaganza turning the Arc into a canvas for an incredible light show that celebrated the city’s landmarks and vibrating clocks that showed the passage of time. The spectacular fireworks display was beyond anything I’ve seen before and the use of graphics on the arch itself using great fonts to spell out “PARIS” was really beautiful, making the word “Paris” evident on every possible selfie and Instagram as “the” background. Frankly, six hours later when the ball dropped, it was more than disappointing—it was a commercialized stunt! Everyone in the crowd had hats sponsored by Plant Fitness emblazoned on each and every hat on every head and even the countdown showed the minute-by-minute waiting for midnight and the second-by-second wait for the ball to drop with every notice as to time change with “Kia” car dealership noted with the time left until midnight.
Oh well.
We arrived home (in Oakland) safely at about midnight on January 1, moving into January 2. The house and both cars were parked on the street and were unharmed. No catalytic converter stolen (combined we’ve had 7 stolen); no car windows broken (combined we’ve had 10 car windows broken in the past 18 months); we park on the street. Tomorrow (Thursday) seems like a good day to unpack and get resettled.
All the best for 2025… we can only hope it will be better than what we have all predicted.
Fern
PS –How can we not think it will be a better day coming when looking at the photos in this email of Ella wishing us (and all of you) a happy new year.
December 30 2024: Geneva
Greetings –
We managed to squeeze in a short visit with Emma who came to the hotel and it was nice to catch up.
Although Mike still is not completely better, we decided that some time outside the ‘rehab center’ (La Reserve Resort and Spa) might be invigorating. I had already decided that I was going to take the train into town, but at the last minute, Mike decided to join—thinking some exercise (walking) could be beneficial. So, following brunch, we ventured out into what the meteorologists said was a sunny day although cold… but that sun is quite elusive and in reality, it was yet again a typical Geneva grey day. It was also in the 30s. But we walked to the train (about 5 minutes) and went three stops to the Central Geneva Station where numerous trains going to and coming from diverse distant places converge. We had decided to head to a photo exhibit called “The Deadly Beauty of Cinema.” The exhibit, hanging on the walls of a former movie theater in downtown Geneva which is now undergoing a big transformation into a mixed use building that will include a cinema, included about 50 large-scale color photos depicting abandoned, reused/rededicated, and other movie theater buildings from about 10 countries, including the US (California and Texas), Cuba, France, Italy, Switzerland, and more. It was a good exhibit, well put together with minimum text but enough to understand the demise of the traditional movie theater.
From there we walked to the national bank. Turned out that I had brought with me about 200 Swiss francs that I had accumulated on previous visits but had never used because using a card is soooo much easier. But when I tried to use the francs the other day (thinking I might as well get rid of them as I am less and less likely to use them in the coming years), I was told that these were “old” francs, and no one can take them except the bank. Apparently, Switzerland periodically creates “new” (and better) currency (without changing value) and the old bills need to be exchanged for the new ones. My bills were from 2021. The new ones are smaller, don’t have pictures of any people, and are sort of plasticized. We walked over two bridges across narrow stretches of the Rhone to get to the bank and in a few minutes, I had fresh new Swiss franc bills.
We then strolled a bit, intending to see what might have been an interesting exhibit about urban spaces, but it was closed… did some window shopping, saw a parade, and finally walked back to the train to go three stops and walk four minutes to be back at the hotel. Saw the shoes in the picture and figured they’d be great for me (NOT!)
One piece of serendipity I forgot to mention yesterday. We had taken a taxi to visit with Elizabeth and we gave the address to the driver. As we approached the house, the driver whose English was awkward suddenly said “house of Julia, house of Julia”… and we realized somehow, he knew that Julia had grown up in that house. We tried to explain with our limited French and his limited English that Julia no longer lived there, but her mother was still there. We then determined that somehow, he knew Julia or he had a friend who knew Julia. We got his name and mentioned this to Julia, who thought the whole episode was pretty funny. She hadn’t seen him in more than 20 years; she crossed with him when she was in high school and had a retail job over Xmas and he, too, was working in the same shop! Switzerland is small, Geneva is very small, and Carouge is tiny…. So I’m sure these kinds of things happen often. But it was truly serendipitous for us to wind up in a taxi whose driver knew Mike’s niece!
Tonight we ate at the hotel’s other restaurant—Chinese (which is odd in Geneva since there is not much of a Chinese population). So, we were suspect, but we kept hearing over and again that this restaurant holds a Michelin star and that it is very special. Well, I’d give it a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. We have three favorite Chinese restaurants in Oakland/Berkeley which I’d give a 10 when compared to this and prices would easily be half. Mike chose very mild dishes, including your basic wonton soup and a noodles dish. He says the soup was lukewarm and was just your basic wonton soup that you could get anywhere. I had something called red rice roll with shrimp as a starter. It was good, but certainly not “great;” I had a Szechuan beef dish with the “special rice” and again it was good, but nothing to write home about. There was a little starter that the restaurant provided to everyone—a little shrimp wonton which was definitely overcooked and again not hot enough. But it was good that Mike at least ate something…
I spent about four hours on the phone before dinner dealing with our various hotel cancellations and the cancelation of our pre-paid new years eve dinner in Bulgaria. The plane flights were easy to cancel and get “credits” so we had done that on Friday. We had also started to cancel hotels on Friday and then hit all sorts of snags. After stating to the Munich hotel that since they would not cancel the reservation (with a refund), I told them that we were going to have other people stay in our room—and that we were contacting a homeless shelter to provide three good nights of sleep to two clients, the reservation manager (who stated “we accept everyone into our hotel”) somehow seemed to figure out how to cancel the reservation without charging anything to our credit card. We still need to show medical documents to the Sofia hotel, but that seems to be able to work. And for the New Years Eve Dinner which had to be prepaid and where the manager was absolutely unwilling to move at all on the pre-payment—we have contacted two NGOs and offered the dinner to two staff members. We have not yet heard from them, and I fear they are off for the holiday, so we don’t know what will happen there. These were all very uncomfortable and angry calls on all sides.
Hoping Mike perks up tomorrow.
All the best-
Fern
December 29, 2024 At the “Rehab Center”
Geneva, Switzerland
Happy Day Before the Day Before—
Thanks for all the kind words about our health situations. I am fine and Mike is a lot better than he was on the 26th. Almost back to normal.
But all of this changed our travel picture: We are still in Geneva but at an upscale “resort” located about 20 minutes from Geneva’s downtown. It’s important to remember that Geneva is a really small city, with a population that is less than half that of Oakland. But it is the home of the highest number of international organizations in the world, making it a global city. And of course it is a large financial center where lots of wealth management takes place at non-publicly listed banks and private banks, and there are also a lot of foreign-owned banks as well. Given my vast knowledge (or lack thereof) of the financial world, I can only say that it sounds a lot like money laundering and non-taxable funds, and that every time we are here we are struck by the cost of living and the obvious wealth in the region. The larger metropolitan area has a population of a little over 1 million.
And Switzerland has time and again decided against becoming part of the European Union. And despite many different reasons, most people say it’s because Switzerland is “too rich and too stable to want to join.” Instead, Switzerland has some kind of “special relationship” or “special status” which seems to work for Switzerland, and I assume that it works “well enough” for the EU. But I’ve heard other reasons as well: the Swiss can call elections on issues several times a year and some worry being in the EU could constrain that form of direct democracy; immigration concerns related to peoples’ free movement within EU countries and the impact on wages; Switzerland’s funding within the EU would force it to pay more than it would get back in services and programs; Switzerland doesn’t see itself as having a security problem given its geographic location; and Switzerland’s desire to be independent and neutral.
Anyway, back to our situation. We are now comfortably ensconced at our rehab center (aka La Reserve Hotel and Spa), a luxury resort that is about 20 minutes from downtown (by train or car). It’s located on about 10 acres of landscaped property on the shores of Lake Geneva. There are two restaurants (one is Michelin star) and one additional lunch place that is in the health spa. There are two pools (one indoors), lots of spa treatments (or so I am told), and diverse sports options. Obviously being winter (and pretty cold—between 30 and 40 degrees), I assume many of those sports options are only for the hardiest. La Reserve has a safari theme (get it “La Reserve!”) so all the art/paintings and photos hanging on the walls are of animals in the wild. And throughout there are other indications of this theme, like on the glasses and the leopard patterned carpeting. It’s a bit dated in the plan and furnishings (not at all poorly maintained; in fact everything is impeccable; but the design is sort of 20-years-old and the hotel isn’t that up-to-date technologically, but they compensate in other ways).
For example, after returning to our room last night after dinner, during turndown they coiled all of our many electronic cords that were dangling everywhere, with little leather “straps” to make them neat. And at my computer was a little packet that held a cloth to clean the screen of my computer!
We arrived mid-afternoon yesterday after visiting with Elizabeth (Mike’s sister-in-law) which was the reason we were stopping in Geneva and why we come pretty much annually. She’s really been under the weather (some kind of bug) for more than a week but seems to be on the mend, but not yet up to her normal state. We had a chance to catch up and drop off gifts for the family, but didn’t linger so that Elizabeth could rest. We had hoped to have some time with Emma/Hem and Finn (niece, husband, and son) who live in London but who had been skiing in the alps over Christmas, but we all crossed in transit. Emma will be staying on in Geneva so we will try to connect in the next day or so.
Oh yes, the weather… Whatever app you look at for the weather in Geneva it shows bright sun… but it is quite overcast. Perhaps that is winter sun here in Geneva. At least no rain. I’m using the day to catch up on work and prepare for next Maui trip and interviews. It’s sort of a good transition moment—no need to do any touring as we’ve been to Geneva so many times… so it is a very very pleasant and probably much needed R&R with great food and pleasant surroundings.. and we are sort of ignoring this wildlife theme… even a Christmas decorated glass elephant… still rather strange.
Let’s see… the other photos above include the giant chess and checkers games (about 10 sets) outside the restaurant Kiosque des Bastions where we had dinner (but only ate a few bites because of stomach concerns) on Friday night…. One more shot from Le Trein Bleu … just because it is so damn photogenic… and the tree with Xmas messages on the streets of Carouge (where Elizabeth lives and where Julia and Emma grew up). For those interested, Carouge is a little hamlet at the edge of Geneva proper. It used to be its own town but is now a district of Geneva. It’s quite quaint and supposedly modeled after Nice, but many Swiss say it is the “Greenwich Village of Geneva” because it has a lot of boutiques and artisan studios—but it is a very sanitized, romanticized miniature of New York’s Greenwich Village; In any case Carouge is quite sweet.
That’s it for today.
Oh, the other change in plans is that we will now fly home from Geneva, several days earlier than we would have had we been in Sofia.
See you stateside in 2025.
Fern
PS – Will write again, for the foodies among you, after we try the Michelin star restaurant and if we do anything interesting beyond lounging around here.
Day Seven Paris: Septième Jour; Christmas Eve Day
Joyeux Noël et joyeuse Hannukah…
Greetings from somewhere between Paris and Geneva on board TGV fast train.
This note is from yesterday, December 25 and I doubt that I will be sending any note tonight since (other than dinner) most of the day is being spent in transit… Hotel to Gare de Lyon; TGV to Geneva; transit to Geneva hotel, etc. But I will try to send just a little photo spread of Le Trein Bleu at the Gare Lyon station… later tonight.
Yesterday (December 25/ Christmas Day) we started out early to catch the train to Angoulême, to spend Christmas Day and dinner with Julien’s family who are from this small city (approx 200,000 people) and live in the outskirts, about 15 minutes from the center— in the countryside. [To get you oriented and know who is who—Julien is married to Julia, Mike’s niece. They have three children and live in Geneva. where Julia grew up. Julien’s aunt is Katerine and his mother is Joelle.]
Because plans for Christmas were up in the air for a while, and we only confirmed that we would come to Angoulême a few days ago, and because it was Christmas and everyone is traveling somewhere, we were unable to get the fast train from Paris (which would have taken about 1.5 hours). Instead, we needed to take the train to Bordeaux and change trains in order to get to Angoulême. So the trip took about three hours and 15 minutes. We left Paris where the mist was still strong and arrived in Angoulême where it was quite sunny and a bit warmer than Paris.
Christmas dinner was at Julienne’s aunt Katherine’s house; Christmas Eve had been at Joelle’s house, but we missed that one. For those who have been following this travel blog for decades, you know that we come to Geneva almost annually and then generally travel elsewhere after the Christmas holiday. This year everyone’s plans were up in the air and it was difficult to coordinate. So we decided to head to Geneva to see Mike’s sister-in-law (Elizabeth) but also to see Julia and her family (three children: Louis who is 7; Ella who is 5; and Sienna who is 1), which meant heading to Angoulême for Christmas Day. Over the years we have met much of Julien’s family—at Christmases and at the wedding. But we had never been to Angoulême (and in retrospect probably should have come for a few days–as Julien kept insisting–rather than just Christmas; but the day was good.
Katerine lives (part-time, I think) in a sprawling “homestead” with several stone buildings built originally about 900 years ago (and renovated on the inside numerous times). The property is exquisite and includes a landscaped garden in the English tradition with hedges that form a maze of sorts. There is a lovely terrace and a large field and a swimming pool. Inside the stone house are about five bedrooms, sitting rooms, living room(s), dining room, and numerous foyers, and a wonderful large, modern kitchen. We were given a tour of the house by Margaux (one of Katerine’s grandchildren who is about 8, I think. She doesn’t speak English so the tour was translated for us by Ella who is 5 and Louis who is 7). They had a definite plan for how to see the house which started from the gardens and around the outside and then the inside, including all the bedrooms and bathrooms.
After wine/champagne and snacks, and a bit of catching up on how everyone is doing—and the kids opening tons of presents—we moved on to dinner—which seemed like a classic French Christmas dinner with foie gras and tasty small plates with meat; a game dish, potatoes au gratin, and lots of other selections. This was followed by a selection of local cheeses and then a wonderful chocolate covered chestnut dessert…. And ofcourse lots of wine.
Louis (Mike’s great nephew ?) and his cousin Matteus (who is a few years older) engaged in a pretty hot game of gin rummy; the girls were busy drawing and using lots of new art tools that were part of the barrage of presents.
We left by train (thankfully, the fast train) at 9 :30 and were at our hotel in Paris by about 11 :30 pm—tired and stuffed— in time to pack up and get ready for the train to Geneva in the early afternoon.
Happy Happy-
Fern
Greetings from the TGV from Paris to Angoulême on Christmas Day. PHOTOS TO COME
Spent a jam-packed Christmas Eve day in misty, moody, drizzly Paris. We have been to Paris many times in the winter and the weather is always very unpredictable. We’ve been here when it’s been beautiful but cold; cold and snow; rainy; sunny; and more. This year it’s been overcast nearly every day, but sometimes wonderful bursts of sun at odd moments. We are headed to Angoulême to have Christmas dinner with family but will return to Paris tonight (very late). Angoulême is supposed to be sunny all day and a bit warmer than Paris (probably in the low 50s.)
Anyway, we got our full value of our day passes on the Paris Metro yesterday as we must have been on about 12 different trains over the course of the day.
We began by heading to see the Lavirotte building, a fantastic circa 1900 apartment building in the 7th arrondissement—a wonderful example of Art Nouveau architecture. The front façade is decorated with all sorts of sculptures and tiles. Would have loved to see what the inside lobby and the apartments are like. The neighborhood gets wonderful little hidden peeks at the Eiffel Tower, especially of the base of the tower from the sidewalk. It was a bit eerie given that the top of the Tower just disappeared given the dense mist and cloud cover.
From there we headed to see the Samaritaine Building, a luxury department store affectionately referred to by Parisians as “La Samar.” It was built in 1925 and boasts a riveted steel frame supporting a huge glass pyramid in the Art Deco style. It’s a dramatic statement with the whole store (5 floors, I think) sitting under the glass roof with a café and bar at the top level. The escalators are in the center. There is some kind of mural that surrounds the underside of the roof that has a golden-yellow hue, so the entire store seems sunny and bright, despite the rain. Didn’t look at what the store sold, but I think it’s probably like Galleries Lafayette except focused only on the higher end brands, so the clientele is smaller and wealthier. Maybe Galleries Lafayette is like Nordstrom and Samaritaine is like Bergdorf Goodman. It was pretty quiet given that it was the day before Christmas. By the way, the story of the creation of La Samar is quite interesting including the construction of a pump house in 1607; the opening of a small shop in 1870; a marriage between the owner of the shop and the head female retail assistant in the dressmaking department of Le Bon Marche (a competitor); closure of the store due to fire concerns; rebuilding; and transfer of ownership to a global corporation.
From there we took the Metro to the Gare de l’Est and Chateau d’eau neighborhood which was a far cry from La Samar. The neighborhood is an ethnic stew of Indians and Pakistanis, other diverse Asian cultures… Here one can find haircuts for just nine Euros and lots of street food, spice shops, and assorted tiny shops where you can buy almost anything you can think of—cheap. There are also hundreds of little restaurants that line the streets and the famous “passages” (covered walkway/alleyways).
Then we were off to the Palais des Glaces which I really wanted to see. It’s an amazing structure that was rebuilt in 1924 and has been used for a variety of performances from circuses to theater (and especially this winter because of the centennial of the reconstruction). In the winter it is used as an ice-skating rink. We walked in the rain for about 1/3 of a mile after getting out of the metro. But we couldn’t find it. Then we checked the address and ostensibly we were right in front of it. Alas, our research was not so thorough. We were standing in front of the “petite” Palais Glaces which has a theater (small) on the second floor where comedy groups perform along with upcoming artists. The actual building/rink was about a 20-minute metro ride in the opposite direction. We might have done it, but it was raining and cold and getting dark, and we had dinner reservations for Christmas Eve.. Moreover, Mike’s back was bothering him. So, a bit disappointed we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel to recharge before heading to dinner. (Next Xmas, we’ll make the Grand Palais a priority!)
After arriving back at the hotel, we headed to Le Christine for dinner. Le Christine is a small restaurant on a very tiny street at 1 Rue Christine. We had assumed when we made the reservation (which was done very recently after realizing that we would not be going to Geneva for Xmas Eve/Christmas Day) that Le Christine was the restaurant inside Le Relais Christine located on 3 Rue Christine. We knew this very wonderful hotel because about 20 years ago we stayed there for New Years Eve and remembered it well and loved it. But it turns out that the hotel doesn’t do dinner and Restaurant Le Christine has no relation to Relais Christine (except perhaps that they are adjacent to one another). The restaurant was fine and only a 6-minute walk from our hotel; in fact, the dinner was quite good (although overpriced—but then again it was Christmas), but the service was pretentious.
After dinner we headed by Metro to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysee to stroll and see the wonderful Christmas lighting along the boulevard. It was tasteful and fun, with lots of Parisian families doing the same stroll we did. We walked about 2/3 of the way to Place Concorde, along the Champs Elysee and then popped into the Metro to head back to the hotel. By then it was about midnight, and we had a really early and busy next day to tackle (Christmas Day). More on that tomorrow.
Happy holidays
Fern
Paris to Geneva by TGV… And Then…
Greetings on December 27 with update from December 26
Greetings on December 27 with update from December 26.
Hope you had a good Christmas and are enjoying Hannukah.
We began the day (December 26th) packing and heading to the train from Paris (Gare De Lyon) to Geneva (where we were to stay just two days (visiting family) and then head to Bulgaria and finally Munich. Mike had felt queasy for a few days, and in fact, didn’t have any wine at Xmas dinner. But yesterday (12/26) by the time we got to the train station he was feeling pretty miserable with stomach pains. Still, we managed to stop at Le Tren Bleu at the station for a salad and dessert. Le Train Bleu is a restaurant steeped in history. It began in 1900 as a buffet at the time of the Universal Exhibition and later became the very elegant Le Train Bleu restaurant. It was designed by Marius Toudoire, the architect who also designed the train station clock tower and facade. While we tried to eat simply given the stomach issues, we just couldn’t pass up lunch in that amazing space.
We boarded the train fairly smoothly except that we had more baggage than usual, because we were lugging Xmas presents around, so it was a little tough boarding and deboarding (especially since Geneva was not the last stop of the train, so we needed to move fast). We were in first class on the train, so they served lunch—looked very good, but by then we were both apprehensive about eating anything rich…and the French don’t know anything but rich foods. I nibbled; Mike declined.
And about four hours later we were in Geneva.
We checked into the Tiffany Hotel, where we have stayed many times before. It’s centrally located and easy to get to Carrouge where Elizabeth lives. But it’s definitely not the lap of luxury. Rooms are very small and cramped and it’s sort of dark. And by now Mike was definitely sick, and I was beginning to feel nauseous. It was about 7:00pm and we decided not to have dinner. Julia, who is still in Angoulême suggested we go to a clinic to be checked out. Within an hour we decided that was a good idea. Well… we have now experienced the Swiss medical system!
At Julia’s suggestion, we went to a “private” clinic (there are also public ones) with an ER (sort of like our Urgent Care places but better equipped. Naturally it was immaculate, well appointed, very “white.” At one point I left the waiting room to go to the bathroom and when I returned Mike was gone and my purse was just sitting on a chair (unattended). I tried to figure out where Mike was and then someone came to tell me he was in an exam room because he had fainted — twice… the second time he was momentarily unconscious. They said I could go to his room once they finished some tests.
In the meantime, they also checked me in for some kind of meeting with a doctor, but later decided all I needed was some anti-nausea pills.
When I got to Mike’s room, he was in hospital garb with lots of tubes —- nutrition, dehydrating liquids, pain killers. They had done blood work, EKG, and assorted other tests. And they decided they wanted to do a CT scan. The good news is that Mike’s internal organs are in good shape. So, they finally decided it was stomach virus, and I probably had the same thing only less severe. They also gave Mike anti-nausea pills. By the time we left, it was after midnight and we needed to go to a pharmacy to have the prescription filled. Before leaving they hit us with the bill (they had told us immediately upon arrival that our American insurance would not be accepted). When it came time for the CT scan they reminded us that we’d have to pay for it and we could decide not to do the scan. They also said the scan would be expensive. Mike joked with the doctor about whether it would cost more or less than a Mercedes… She said she didn’t really know the cost but probably $1,000. Well, the bill for all of Mike’ tests came to $4,000 which we needed to pay on the spot; fortunately they took American Express. Then we taxied to the 24-hour pharmacy near the hospital to get our medication ($80). We didn’t realize the pharmacy would be very busy so I asked the taxi to wait for us, so that Mike could sit in the car. Well, the pharmacy was very crowded, so the taxi had to wait about 20 minutes with the meter going.
Turned into a mighty expensive day. But the good news is that we are on the mend. Still being careful with what we eat… and not eating much. And Mike is sleeping a lot.
But all of this has pushed us to make some big changes to our travel plans. We decided we were in no condition to fly today to Bulgaria and that we needed a few days to recoup. So, we will stay in Geneva for the next four days but relocate to an upscale resort-style hotel on the Lake—about 20-30 minutes from downtown Geneva — La Reserve. And then we will fly directly from Geneva to SFO on January 1. It will be a lot different from our planned New Years in Sofia, but I think it makes sense. Maybe some massages? It looks lovely and Julia and Julien have stayed there many times.
Our visit with Elizabeth will turn out to be some kind of lunch or tea… She has been sick for the past week, so had we gone to Bulgaria we probably wouldn’t even have even seen her.
More tomorrow.
Think health!
Fern
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 5th 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.
Quatrième Jour Paris: Day Four
Notre Dame dans toute sa splendeur — December 22, 2024
Greetings from rainy Paris – Il pleut et il pleut et il pleut et il pleut !! While tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, today it just rained and rained.
After brunch in a small cafe populated by what appeared to be university students, we headed by Metro to Ile de la Cite to see the newly repaired and renovated and very cleaned up Notre Dame Cathedral. It was very smart of us to have booked the reservations because as we arrived we could see a very very long line snaking around the front plaza. Probably about 700 people standing and cueing up in the rain, which by then was actually pretty strong. Along the route from the metro stop to Notre Dame we caved in and bought some chintzy plastic touristy plastic domed umbrellas with illustrations of the Eifel Tower along the bottom rim. Good thing, because as we walked the last few meters it was a downpour.
Hard to say much about the “new” Notre Dame…. First it’s totally packed with tourists. Hundreds of thousands of selfies being captured each minute, I’d guess. Throngs of people trying to capture the moment ?? It’s a bit strange to see it all shined up like this; everything very white and crisp. After all it is 860 years old. Not sure how people who are religiously affiliated feel about it. Somehow it didn’t feel as much like a sacred space, which I think it did on prior visits when—you sensed the history and there were moments without throngs of people. They’ve also added lots of chandeliers with fake candles and flame shaped bulbs which were throwing off a lot of light which enhanced the brightness of the space. So that too took away from the more mysterious feeling of past visits. I think they could have done a better job with the lighting using some kind of hidden reflective lights,
Another touch of contemporary life, there are credit card tap machines all over so that you can pay for your votive candles without the need for a cashier or carrying cash. While the candles are $2 the prompt on the screen lets you pay whatever you want, and has pre-set amounts from $10 to $50. Lots of people were buying candles. Not us.
Still, it was an amazing feat to use the same methods of construction and repair that were used centuries ago. Probably would have been good to have some kind of model and photographs that depicted “then” and “now.” The restoration has taken five years which seems like a miracle in and of itself given the devastation caused by the 2019 fire. Most of the roof and spire of the cathedral were destroyed and only about one third of the roof remained. The remnants of the roof and spire fell on the stone vault that was underneath, which is really the ceiling of the cathedral; some of the art suffered smoke damage.
Construction of the original cathedral began in the 12th century… and over these many centuries the structure had many compromising structural issues including dry-rot, water leakage in the spires, and problems with the stonework brought about by age and pollution. Indeed there was reconstruction work going on in the spires when the fire started.
We spent about 90 minutes checking out Notre Dame and then faced the rain again. We decided to duck into some place to get a snack and to stay dry. Many other people had the same idea so we eventually wound up in a pretty awful Chinese restaurant and had bowls of wonton soup. At least it was hot. And the rain did begin to lessen as we walked to the metro and back to the hotel.
Tonight we walked to Poni for dinner. It’s just about a half mile from the hotel. Very casual, on two floors connected by a spiral staircase ! Food was better than predicted. We had ceviche followed by a (much bigger than expected) salad with chunks of goat cheese slightly breaded, arugula and other greens, black cherries, apricots, cherry tomatoes, and other vegetables. Had we known the salad was going to be that large, we would have ended the meal then. But we had also ordered the duck to share. So we were more than full when we finished eating. Our waiter, by the way, loves California—especially Santa Cruz (his dream location). And his son wants desperately to go to Lycee Francais in San Francisco. That led to some conversation about American politics.
We walked along the decorated streets in Montmartre back to the hotel—mostly on Rue de Martyrs which did a really nice job of adding lights across the facing sidewalks.
I’m going to end now as we need to pack up in order to transfer to our next Paris hotel in Saint Germain.
More from Saint Germain tomorrow.
Fern
