Paris Day 2

We got up this morning and grabbed a croissant on the go. We went to the Musee D'Orsay to see the Impressionist paintings, it failed to make an impression (and I am a fan of Monet, Manet and Van Gogh). There were very few works from each artist, and those there were were not the most widely recognized.

From there we walked back over to the Tuilerie gardens and had an early lunch at a little cafe. The gardens sit just next to the Louvre, so we walked over to see it (we didn't go in) and then caught our "double decker shuttle" to the Cathedral de Notre Dame. We finally went in a church Janice!! (though we're no longer at 'the heart of the Roman Catholic empire'). There was no line, that's why we went, and Mom wanted to see the Rose Window...we took photos of every window in there and looked up which was the rose in the gift shop...we got a picture! We walked from there down to the Luxenbourg gardens, swapped shoes because both of our feet were getting tired, walked through the gardens (really just a park) did a little shopping for Little Girl and the Girls, went home and dropped off our bags, skyped with Matthew and Carrie-Lyn, Jack and Little Girl (who looks JUST like Matthew as a baby), arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 6:15 tomorrow and headed out again.

We walked from the apartment back over to the Musee D'Orsay and got on the bus again and did the whole loop to get some more pictures of the Arc de Triomph, etc since yesterday my photos have a little glare on them from the window. We sat up top, the weather has been gorgeous!! It's a 2.15 hour loop - we had to kill some time and didn't want to stay in the apartment.

After the bus tour we got off and walked back past the apartment to the Italian restaurant we went to yesterday. Yesterday we shared 4 appetizers (eggplant parmesan, beef carpaccio, shrimp and octopus and asparagus wrapped in proscutto with parmesan). Today we shared 2 apps and 2 entrees (bruscetta, italian sausage with parmesan and then Mom ordered pasta a la Amatriciana and I ordered Veal Scalopini and we just swapped half (the veal comes with no side, so it was perfect). We arrived at 7 and were the only people in the restaurant! Another patron didn't arrive until after 7:30.

Off to bed since we have to be up so early.

Today is actually tomorrow (I'm writing his blog the day after). We're at the airport. Mom woke up at 4:30 and started thinking about her review of the apartment on HomeAway that she wants to write (not so negative that people think you're just a complainer) and couldn't get back to sleep. I woke up a little after 5 and dozed until about 5:45 then got up. Our cab was on time and he broke some kind of record in getting us to the airport in 35 minutes (we weren't late...they're just crazy drivers and there was no traffic). We have about an hour now before our flight...so we'll be home soon.

Jay wrote this morning that I have no idea how worn out he is...I think he needs a vacation! Where should we go? :)

Paris, 358•

We've come not quite 360 degrees from our original assessment of Paris and are still not 100% that we would ever feel the need to come again...but it's better than yesterday!

First, we woke up, checked our email to see if Baby Girl Dufton, who was born yesterday, has a name yet...no. Little Girl is what Mom calls her, since Matthew sent me and Mom each 3 messages on Words with Friends that all said "Little Girl".

Then we checked email to see if we got anything from the owner or the company that rented Mom the apartment regarding our complaint about it's less than clean state (there was hair in the sink in the bathroom, stains in the toilet and food in the sink)...no again. Mom's pissed.

So we went out for a Brioche and cappuccino (again, twice as much as Italy and the coffee is bitter) and then walked to the Seine...we thought.

We went into the Bon Marche because Mom wanted to buy something for Little Girl and I saw a lovely Dior dress...size 3 months, only 375€...what? Not reasonable?

Turns out we walked the wrong way and had to backtrack, back past the apartment so we both decided to come in to change into something more appropriate...never have I felt like I stood out as "North American" so much as here. We had to get dressed up to sightsee so we didn't feel out of place...it's THAT bad. If the frickin kids are wearing 375€ dresses at least I can go out in the GOOD clothes that I bought at the grocery store!


Anyway, yesterday we booked a Segway tour of Paris for today at 2, so the only thing we had to do was be there, at the South Foot of the Eiffel Tower by 1:45pm. After the backtrack, stop to change, take laundry out and hang it (though the apartment is so damp it hasn't a hope to dry - Mom is fooling herself if she thinks she'll be wearing her jeans home) and head out again...we walk to the Seine and catch the first double decker "I'm a tourist, target me now" bus we can find!

We do all the majors in an hour and it drops us off at the Eiffel tower where we have time for our best authentic French lunch yet...french fries!

Anyway - the tour was AWESOME... AWE SOME! Andre our guide was funny and very enthusiastic about his French history (he's Portuguese) and we had 4 hours of fun and information on every site we saw. Mom said she would come back to Paris just for the Segway!!

We walked back, a little over an hour and quickly got changed to go out for dinner and went for the BEST food since arriving...we ate Italian! Listen, it's our vacation, we can eat what we want. Italian wine, Italian food - tres bien.

We'll eat Italian tomorrow and surely love Paris all the more!!

Then back to the apartment...down to the dungeon...pull open the door and say "Heave!!!" Mom nearly pisses herself, she didn't pee before we left the restaurant..."stop it!" she says.

We're getting ready for bed, our nightly ritual...her reading the blog and wheezing (laughing) and me saying "what are you laughing about now?". Her answer this time? "we paid money for this apartment! I picture Aunt Jo-Anne reading this!!"

Paris

First, and foremost, I am officially an Auntie for the 2nd time (5th if you count my beautiful god children) since Carrie-Lyn couldn't hold on until we got back home and had a little GIRL today!!!! Yay! We are so excited, and can't wait to get home to see her!

Paris, vous etes arriver! ...huh...

I said to Mom last night that I think we should have come to Paris first, so that we wouldn't be comparing it to Italy.

In Italy the food is better, the wine is better, the coffee is better and the price is half as much.

Mom suggested last night that we take the Brunello wine back home with us and cook (me) a nice Italian meal...we had been saving it for Paris. But, it's not a sipping wine, and we aren't likely to spend too much time in our studio apartment, you'll see why later.

Getting here and into the apartment was great until the directions ended at the last subway stop and we had no way to know which way to go. We found it, but walked in a big circle from 12 o'clock on a watch to about 9 o'clock, when we could have walked counter clockwise. Where in Italy, the blocks and streets on a map are deceivingly short, here each number is a large building with 5 or 6 storefronts in it...at one point we were both wondering if Rue Du Bac even had a 101 or if Mom had been scammed!
Finally we found it, found the lock box, found the door and got it open (which is a chore in itself because you have to twist the key to keep the lock disengaged and pull with all your might because the door has expanded in the humidity). Then a not particularly pleasant odor assaulted you as it wafted up the dark, dank stairway from the basement...but, as you reached the bottom ahead there was a lovely wooden door. I tried the key, tried again, said to Mom "which key are we supposed to use?". The big one, yeah, it doesn't fit. "I'm not having fun right now". This is the first not fun I've had all trip. "the key doesn't fit this door"...then I turn my head and see a short, steel, utility door with flaking faded paint to my left...unless THIS is the door (surely no). Yup...4 turns of the key to release the vault like deadbolts, again hold the key in position to keep it disengaged and we're in.

It's lovely! It smells. On closer inspection it hasn't been cleaned. We can't get the wifi to work because it doesn't show up...disaster.

Let's get out of here and have a drink. We go to the restaurant they recommended, sit down, review the menu, get up, leave, find a suitable restaurant...sit, eat, drink, compare to Italy and think...we should have come here first. We would have loved it!

Photos

We have the technology! Wifi at last so just went and uploaded photos to Figline Valdarno and everything after.

Ate out again...it was good.

Dinner, as per normal, was absolutely wonderful.

Mom and I shared the pumpkin risotto as an appetizer and I had beef medallions with potato wedges and a sweetened onion that was amazing. Mom had the lamb shank with white beans...hers was delicious too I assume, since she didn't offer me a bite! We haven't really ordered a lot of meat dishes here unless they are part if a set menu, but this restaurant as you walked in you could smell the meat cooking and you knew that this was the place to order it.

We sat next to a very friendly Australian couple and chatted to them about our trip and theirs...Mom got talking to them about golf as well and even that couldn't ruin the perfect evening ;) we gave them some tips from our trip and they gave us two restaurants in Paris that they would recommend as well.

Mom had gorgonzola cheese icecream for dessert (I didn't ask for a bite), she really liked it and I had peaches with Grand Marnier and pineapple coconut icecream which was great as well.

Yummy dinner...Italian style, we chatted through first, second and dessert courses, enjoyed our dinner on the terrace and it's now 10:45, we just got in and off to bed.

Tomorrow back to Milano Centrale to giv'er another go and off to Paris.

Varenna, Lake Como

Seriously, how beautiful can one country be?!?

Varenna is gorgeous, but the wifi at the hotel is out, so again you don't get to see it. (we leave tomorrow for Paris and have wifi there, so photos will be posted soon - I have to email them to myself from my phone to post them from my iPad)

We met with some difficulty in our train travel today on every leg. First, at Vernazza departing to Levanto we couldn't print our tickets at the train office, so we decided we'd hop on without tickets and hoped that in the two stops before we transferred that we didn't get caught by a conductor because there is a 40€ fine. Then, in trying to get ON the train there was a large tour group disembarking and the doors started to close before we got on (we had 2 more trains to catch to get here!). So once again showed how similar in mannerism Mom and I are in that we both had wide eyes and we're saying "no no no no no no no no no" (picture an Indian war cry being shouted by two Canadian tourists) as we jammed ourselves between the doors.

We got on and didn't get busted...bonus.

We had a 30 minute wait in Levanto, but it was a small station and we had a paperless ticket reservation. The train was almost 3 hours, but in our "cabin" was an Australian couple and an American couple that we chatted with the whole time and the 3 hours flew by.

In Milano Centrale, Milan's main train station we had to print our tickets, but because it was a regional train we couldn't print them at the kiosk. We had 30 minutes (our closest transfer was 7 minutes which was NO problem, so we weren't anticipating problems, but that was a much smaller station) but the station was HUGE, like an airport. I had to go down 2 floors to the ticket office, so left Mom near the platforms and went down the movators and was faced with a line of about 40 people ahead of me and now 20 minutes to catch the train. I FINALLY got to the head of the line and passed my reservation number to the "officer" and said "I just need to print my ticket and RUN" but she wanted to discuss my ticket, that it was a regional train, to not forget to validate...just give me my frickin ticket!!! I now had 5 minutes to get back up to Mom and get on the train...I literally ran. We made it with a couple of minutes to spare and hopped on the first carriage, the caboose, even though we had a first class ticket and sat down...we were on! Awesome, who cares if our seats are pleather.

We sat with a guy from Varenna, Andre, who was so nice and so funny and so interesting. He grew up a few towns from here and pointed out information along the way, where he went to school, the mountains and towns - it was like having a free tour guide! He's been working in Beirut as a Project Manager on a construction project for a hotel and marina resort...I said "so...who exactly vacations in Beirut?". He said "nobody". He's been all over Managing projects for his company including Algeria, Siberia and Armenia (his wife is Armenian, but I'm not sure where he met her). He said "everyone wanted the project in Miami, but they said No, you go to Kazakhstan..ok, thank you". He was so funny. His wife was expecting their second baby and he's been away for a month, so he was excited to be home to see her and his 3 year old son. He even offered us a lift to our hotel when she came to pick him up at the station!

We walked the 15 minutes to our hotel and got checked in with no trouble. Our room is up 2 flights of stairs - this is another up and down town, lots of stairs. So we went down 2 flights of stairs to get to the front door and then up 2 flights of stairs to get to our room, which is at street level at the back but 2 storeys up from water.

After dropping off our bags we went out for something to eat. It was 4pm but we had had no time to eat in Milan as we had planned. We did a little explore of the town, bought some wine and are now enjoying sitting on our balcony on the water before we eat at the hotels restaurant, which was recommended to me by someone on Trip Advisor who had stayed here. The menu is expensive, but it's our last night in Italy and it's a roof top terrace...I think I might have the pumpkin risotto...I'll let you know how it is (and maybe take a picture!)