Why Do I Love to Travel?

When Bob and I arrived in Paris back in August, it was hot, we were jet lagged, and the sheer mass of humanity swarming around us was a bit much for two "Sequimites", used to our quiet little retirement community!  All of a sudden I realized that all of those French classes with Miriam, didn't mean I could talk fluently with the locals, or even understand a few sentences from our taxi driver!  The thought occurrred to me: "What have we done?  Why did we think living in Paris for 3 months was a good idea?"  

Well, here's why it was a brilliant idea:  The people you meet and the adventures you have are what make travel such an enriching experience!  At least for me, that's the reason I travel. Oh yes, you see beautiful buildings, dramatic scenery, great art, eat delicious and unusual food, drink good wine, etc. etc. but it always comes back to the people.  

On a trip to France 10 years ago, we spent a week doing volunteer work at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern France, near Aix en Provence.  It was such a marvelous experience that we returned the next year for two months and Bob organized several people from Sequim to join us in one week increments to do a large project.  While there, we met a number of young volunteers from other countries.  These young adults were all so wonderful that we put out an open invitation to any of them to come visit us in the U.S.  Annika, from Germany, came to Sequim a few months later and stayed for 3 months.  A few years later she recommended that Jenny, a friend of her sister come to see us.  One thing led to another and over the years we have had six other lovely Germans come to live with us for a month in the summer.  Also from that open invitation, have had two visits from Caroline, a New Zealander.  All of this is to say, that you never know where travel will lead you or how it will impact your life.  We never considered having other people come and live with us, other than for a night or two.  But here we are!  

Back to Paris... So here we are, and because of our previous travel encounters, we are enjoying a stream of visitors throughout our 3 months.  Right off the bat Jenny & her husband Basti came for five days.  Caroline has stopped by two times for a total of about 8 or 9 days.  

Last weekend we flew to London to visit Caroline & Jon whom we met on the Abel Tasman Track in NZ last year!  They not only showed us around the English countryside and London for four days... they let us stay in their home and gave us their bedroom rather than split us up into their daughter's bedrooms! During our whirlwind tour we visited a quaint village and met Fergus the Clydesdale.  He was a very friendly,cordial chap, but I don't think we will invite him to visit us in Sequim!

In a few days we will have lunch with two couples who will be passing thru Paris for a few days.  We know Sylvie and Alan from our yearly anniversary trip to Vancouver Island in British Columbia.  Marla and Alan we met while walking the Camino de Santiago.  (They have just finished riding bikes on the center section of the Camino, and Sylvie in the past walked the entire pilgrimage and she and Alan just did a week of volunteering at an Alberge on the Camino!) We will all meet for lunch on the Isle de St Louis and trade tales of travel adventures!  

Then, a day later Marco & Sara from Germany will arrive for a week's visit.  Followed by Annika, her husband Fabi and five of their friends!  So we have come full circle, back to Annika who started our "foreign exchange program" and opened our hearts to fellow travelers!

Meetup.com

One of the best tips Marilee (who owns the apt. we are living in) gave us is to check out a websiste called Meetup.  It's a site designed to matchup people with similar interests in a city or area.  In our case, Paris.  What a find!  Bob has really enjoyed the photo groups on Meetup, we both enjoy the walking and hiking meetups, and I was able to add a Bootcamp workout to my Paris experience thanks to Meetup!  It's not just a Paris phenomenon, I understand that there are Meetup websites in many large cities throughout the world.  

My first few tries to attend events on Meetup were nonstarters.  I signed up for a Circuit Training class in one of the many lovely Parks, only to have it cancelled a day before.  Even my first Bootcamp meetup was cancelled.  It would have been held in the evening (not my favorite time, as I enjoy having "wine time" around 5 or 6 each evening), and was cancelled because the instructor was having trouble getting back to the city after the August holiday so many Parisians enjoy.  The instructor, Chris, is a British man who married a Parisian and came "kicking and screaming" to Paris (his words).  It turns out that he also teaches classses ourtside of the meetup schedule that are in the morning!  Perfect for me! So now I am a regular Thursday "Bumper and Jumper", as he calls us. I also go on Saturday Mornings.  There are usuallly 8 to 10 others of varying ages and conditioning, so I can easily keep up. I'm sure I'm the oldest in the class, but it feels good  that I don't fall behind!

Since class is held at the Champs de Mars, by the Eiffel Tower, you never know what you'll see or who will see you!  The first Thursday class I attended, we were witness to a "rumble" between rival Roma groups.  They frequent the Eiffel Tower to hit up tourists for money by pretending to be deaf, or asking you to sign a petition and donate $$, or...  These two groups almost came to blows, and there was alot of yelling, and we assume cussing going on!  This Thursday, there was a man dressed all in black with a beret, who was filming himself juggling 5 bright red balls.  He must have done about 15 takes, each ending with a dramatic flourish and a smile.  He looked "oh so French"!  Of course, his backdrop was the Eiffel Tower!  We also have to be very careful about broken glass on the grass from partiers the previous evening. Another good reason for going to a morning rather than evening class!

Chris has invited Bob to come sometime and take photos, so perhaps next week I'll have more photos to share.  Here's one that Chris snapped of me at the end of class.  I just love the background view!

Other groups I've signed up for on Meetup are French Language and Sketching.  These are not as active of groups as some, but I did manage to get to one of the French Meetups, nevermind that the organizer was a no-show!  Unfortunately, she injured her back the morning we were to meet, but four of us met up at the Cafe at 8:30 a.m. and managed to connect.  It was a friendly group of young women: Kirsten from Minnesota working as an Au Pere for a year; Sandra from Vancouver B.C. here because of her French boyfriend, and Ann from Thailand, here with her husband and 2 yr. old child.  I was quite nervous prior to the meeting, afraid that my "kindergarten" French would humiliate me.  Well, I needn't have worried, the others were only slightly better than me. We talked in English getting to know one another a bit, but when we realized that Sandrine, the leader was going to be absent, we broke into French for the rest of the hour.  It was good practice and we all agred to come again if another meetup was publilshed.  I also joined a French for people of a "certain age" group (aka, over 50)... I will attend my first meeting of this group next Wednesday afternoon, so stay tuned!

Tomorrow is my first Sketching Meetup.  We are to meet at in the Parc del La Villette in the 19th Arrondisment.  There is a very large art installation there and we are to meet "near the huge Monkey in the fountain"!  More on this later....

Endless things to do and see!

Bob and I are overwhelmed with the possiblities of things to do and see here in Paris.  Each day is a new opportunity to discover a new neighborhood, park, market, festival, burst of color, you name it! Our visit here has been greatly enhanced by our Landlady Marilee's recommendation of the website Meetup.com.  It has opened up a number of opportunities to pursue our interests, and take walking tours of the city.  

Last week after we took our good friend Caroline to the train station to continue her holiday in Switzerland with friends, we took off on foot from the Gare du Nord and found ourselves in the Jardin des Plantes, a lovely park/garden that we had visited 10 years ago.  

from there we contined along the Seine, which is always a beautiful walk.  Although Paris is a huge, bustling city, you are never far away from greenery, trees, or the river.

Another day we headed to the Musee D'Orsay, our absolute favorite museum in the entire world, to buy a yearly pass that ourl allow one of us and a guest to visit it and the Orangerie whenever we wanted for only 70 euros!  We have been to Paris on two other occasions, but each of those times the Orangerie was closed. It is the home of Monet's famous water lilies and other priceless art pieces.  We arrived at the Orsay first thingin the morning only to find a HUGE line of people waiting to get in!  We decided to return an hour before closing to purchase our pass.  With time on our hands and a 5 euro set of plastic Petanque balls in our posession, we headed to the Palais Royal to play a game.  There we encountered the most beautiful, colorful Metro entrance in Paris! (see photo collage below). We also happened into a little piece of Azerbeijian, right across from the Palais Royal). 

Later that day, when we returned to buy the pass, the line was non-existant and we were able to get the pass with very little problems.  Since we had an hour before the museum closed, we went through to revisit the Impressionists!  Above you will see a lovely cafe that has been added to the Orsay since our visit 10 years ago!

Another day we stopped by the Orangerie for a quick visit.  There was no line, which surprised us!  As we reached the entrance we discovered the reason: Monet's Water Lillies were not there!  No problem for us... we will be here until November.  We went inside and enjoyed more Impressionis and post Impressionist art! Here are a few of my favorites:

I intended to share some about our Meetup activities in this post, but will save that for the next one.  Stay tuned!

So Much to See!

The days are racing by, and there is so much to share.  The problem with a blog is it takes time, and I'm not sure anyone is really that interested in every little experience I have while roaming around Paris. Oh well, it will make a nice diary for me to look back on after I return to the US.  

We are so very fortunate to be able to spend a large chunk of time here.  It affords us the luxury of wandering aimlessly some days, and for taking self-guided walking tours recommended in one of our books or online other days.  We've also discovered a website called "Meetup".  The idea is to bring people together who have similar interests and let them have fun.  We signed up a few weeks ago and are already making friends.  Bob has gone on 3 or 4 Photo excursions with the "photo group" and made friends and learned of new parks and places we could visit that would never show up in a guide book.  I signed up for French Language, Sketching/Art, and of course, exercise.  Unfortunately there hasn't been much activity in my groups until this week.  I have gone to two bootcamp classes on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower.  Pinch me, did I really do this?  The instructor is a very amiable Brit, whose wife in his words "brought him kicking and screaming to Paris".  He has a very playful approach to conducting bootcamp, which I have really enjoyed.

Today we went on one of the guided walks sponsored by Meetup.  It wasn't quite what we expected, but we saw a part of Paris that we would never have visited on our own.  The communications about the walk were all in impecable English, but when we arrived, we discovered it was going to be all in French!  Oh well, we can walk in any language!  There were a number of bilingual folks who would give quick translations of the main points.  Besides, Christophe, the guide, was a man of not many words anyway!  We pretty much kept moving for a good 2.5 hours and I spent a good deal of time talking with various people as we wandered through a few different neighborhoods, some more scenic than others.  Every time I tried to engage in French conversation, the person would quickly revert to English... I think they were trying to tell me something about my French.  One lady, who had been married to an English speaking husband laughed when I told her i spoke kindergarten French. Apparently he said the same to her all the time!  I tried to tell her in French that we went to Reims for a few days.  However when I pronounced it in the French manner, she gave me a funny look.  I finally said it was a trip to taste champagne, and she got it.  She said that the way I pronounced it sounded like a word used when food went bad!  So glad I had THAT conversation.  

Here are some photos of our walk.  Basically, the neighborhood is built on gypsum, which only allows for 3-4 sotry buildings.  There were many narrow passage ways and walkways between homes and apartments, giving it a very different feel than central Paris.  The building were mostly built 200 years ago, and were of many different styles, and quite charming.  The church had an interesting hisstory.  It was originally a German Llutheran Church, but the French government bought them out and gave it to the Russian Orthodox. Which explains the very different styles in one building.  

Tomorrow we will go on another walk from Versaiiles all the way back to Paris on the route royalty used to use way back when.  We will have Christophe as our guide and I'm sure will meet more interesting people.

Going Separate Ways

Tonight Bob and I decided to go our separate ways... He had a Meetup with a bunch of photography buffs at a Brasserie and I was scheduled to do Bootcamp at the Champs de Mars, near the Eiffel Tower.  The operative word being "supposed".  It was cancelled earlier this afternoon, so I had to come up with plan "B".  

So I hopped on the Metro and thought I would check out the Rodin Museum. Ten years ago you could enter the Garden free of charge, but not anymore... So I just started walking. I headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, but was soon drawn to my absolute favorite bridge over the Seine River: the Pont Alexandre.  In the late afternoon sun, it just gleamed!  

I went down the steps closer to the river to join throngs of people walking, cycling, jogging and roller blading along the pedestrian only roadway.  There were a couple of very chic looking Bistros near the bridge, but then a bit further along there were more casual eateries and lots of places for picnickers. (Guess where our nrpext picnic will be?). 

I walked past a little Creperie, but didn't get far before it beckoned to me... I have been in Paris two weeks and not had a crêpe!  Oh my, was it good!  I chose Carmel, and it was aaaamazing!

As I strolled along, the light got more and more beautiful... Bob should have been with me taking pictures with his professional camera, but I did the best I could:

Now it's time to sleep... I have a 9 am Bootcamp class tomorrow morning!

L