Vacation Photos - Paris!
Finally we get to the good photos! The first day of the Lymond tour in Paris…
So, I took the Eurostar to Paris, then took the Metro from Gare du Nord to Odeon (despite the gate agent shutting down anyone who tried to talk to him in English with a loud "No! French!" I looked clueless and said, "Carnet?" and he sold me ten tickets despite appearing quite dubious of my American credit card).
I arrived around 10pm and from Odeon it was an easy walk to my hotel, the Hôtel Saint André des Arts. I loved this place--the staff was nice and it had so much character! It's a mansion from the 16th (?) century with exposed wooden beams and stone walls. My room was a surprisingly large single with a huge bathroom, directly above the lobby, with a window looking down on the Rue St Andre des Arts. The only problem was the noise; I could hear every time the phone rang or someone spoke in the lobby, and most of what was happening on the street outside my window.
But for 73 euros per night it was totally worth it, and the location was great--it's near the river but just enough off the tourist zone to not be swamped with tourists. The street is lined with cute little shops, and there was a smoothie place across the street where I could get good all-fruit smoothies and a Starbucks nearby where I could get soy milk in my coffee. (I know it's tragic to go to Starbucks in Paris but it was the only place I could find that didn't look at me like I was a psychopath when I ventured a hopeful "lait du soja?")
Also, I need to learn more French. Being in a place where you can barely understand anything that's going on around you is more frustrating that I realized.
But anyway...
The hotel lobby:
The spiral staircase leading to my room:
Thankfully the nice guy working there helped me get my suitcase up these stairs!
I didn't get any good photos of the room, but it was clean and relatively large and I loved the exposed beams and view of the street.
So that night I slept without an alarm to wake me, because I hadn't realized you need a different kind of power adapter for France than for England so my phone battery died. I woke up thinking it was maybe 10am or noon, only to go downstairs and discover that it was 2:30pm. Oops! I was already supposed to be at the welcome reception for Le Spit, the Lymond gathering.
So I got my coffee (THANK YOU STARBUCKS FOR YOUR POLICY OF HAVING SOY MILK IN EVERY CHAIN) and walked to the reception, at Le Cellier Saint-Paul (this place was awesome--look at the photos here). The organizers really went above and beyond--not only was the location amazing but there were tons of beautiful appetizers (which I couldn't eat) and tons of excellent wine (which I could and did drink). And then there was a toast with some kind of crazy fancy brandy (I think?). Wow.
I hadn't been able to get wifi in Sheffield or London, so I'd been out of touch since I left the US, but my plan had been to meet my parents here at the reception. And there they were! So everything went fine from my end, but my mom had apparently freaked out at not being able to get in touch with me for a couple of days, and then freaked out more that I was late to the reception, so by the time I got there she was practically hysterical and people kept coming up to me going "Are you the missing girl? What happened to you?!" To which I replied, "Uh, I slept in and took time to get coffee? (And my mom is weird.)"
Anyway. I hadn't seen my parents since Christmas, so we spent the reception catching up. They'd come to Europe a couple of weeks earlier and wandered around Switzerland and Germany seeing sights and looking up ancestors. That was fun to hear about, but I do wish I'd spent more time meeting and bonding with Lymond people. I didn't make any strong connections with anyone there which I'm sad about. (It was also frustrating that people kept asking, "Are you here with your mom?" To which the answer was "No, she's here with me." :P)
After the reception was dinner at Au Vieux Paris d'Arcole. It was a bit frustrating as I'd paid 60 euros and there was almost nothing I could eat--the chefs didn't understand "no fish, no butter, no eggs." I think I had some vegetables and tried to avoid the ones that were obviously butter-slathered. *sigh* But it was fun to drink and talk to the people around me.
Unfortunately I also drank the espresso that completed dinner; between that and the noise, I slept maybe two hours that night.
And then I was up at 6:30am (!!!) so that I could get to Notre Dame by 8am to meet the Lymond tour. I hadn't realized that nothing is open in Paris before 8am, not even Starbucks, so I had to get on the tour bus with no coffee, no water, and no food. There was also nowhere to get food at our destination, and we got stuck in traffic and didn't get back to Paris until 2pm, so I didn't eat or drink or have coffee until 2pm. That sucked.
But! The good thing about getting up so early was getting to see the sun rise over Notre Dame. Isn't this beautiful?
The bus, after crazy traffic, took us to the chateau of Ecouen, which once belonged to Anne de Montmorency and is now a Renaissance museum. Anne de Montmorency would have been a contemporary of Lymond--he's in the books in a few places--so it was pretty awesome to be immersed in that era.
View from the chateau:
Inside, a spinet:
Tapestry:
Ceiling:
This guy played us a concert of Renaissance music on an actual Renaissance organ!
Our group was so enthusiastic that he also took us to see the local church:
Walking from the church and the little town back up to the chateau:
And then after wacky adventures in traffic, we ended up in Paris and I finally obtained coffee, water, and FOOD! I got a sandwich at this health food store called Holy Planet; there was a really nice woman there who spoke good English and understood what "vegan" means. Woohoo! I ended up going back there a few times during the trip; it was really good to have it right nearby.
Unfortunately the lateness and scrambling for food left no time to visit the Musee de Cluny before our walking tour, but that was okay because I went back twice later in the trip. The walking tour was... logistically interesting, what with about 60 people (some with mobility issues) trying to fit through the winding streets at a fairly rapid pace without losing anyone, and with periodic stops in which everyone was trying to hear our leader speak. It wasn't perfect, but it worked better than I'd expected, and I have nothing but awe for Birgit and everyone who helped her put the program together. I can't imagine the intimate knowledge of both the Lymond books and the history/geography of Paris that it took to organize this!
So this tour was of the Latin Quarter, following the path Lymond took in Checkmate when he rescued the Marechale de St Andre from the Protestant gathering, hid in the college, and then escaped over the river. We also saw a building that was similar to the Hotel d'Hercule, which was a gift to Lymond from the King of France, and Birgit took time to point out anything we passed by that might have been around in Lymond's era.
Up toward the Pantheon:
Just imagine 60 ladies gawking at the college while the students mill around looking confused. "Lymond went here!" "Uh, who's Lymond?" "Uh, well, he's not actually real, but all 60 of us care enough about him to travel to Paris to follow in his footsteps..."
Our group amidst the crowded touristy streets:
Old and new street signs:
The walking tour ended at the Conciergerie, which was mysteriously closed the entire time I was there, and the Sainte Chapelle. There I was supposed to meet jaydk, but apparently we missed each other, so I got my luggage from the Hotel St Andre des Arts and lugged it over to the hotel jaydk and I were sharing, Hotel Henri IV (Rive Gauche). This hotel was fantastic--a short block from Notre Dame, a quick walk to the Musee de Cluny, around the corner from Shakespeare and Company, a block from the Metro and RER station at Saint Michel. Basically the most convenient location ever (though a bit overly touristy) and it was clean, cute, and excellently maintained.
Our room at the Hotel Henri IV:
View from our window of the church of Saint Severin *wistful sigh*:
There I did finally meet up with jaydk and she and my parents generously agreed to eat dinner at a vegetarian place, Le Grenier de Notre Dame. As with pretty much every place I ate in Paris, the food was blah but the wine was excellent.
Goodness, and that's just the start! I'm going to have to make these posts shorter.
Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please comment there or at Dreamwidth.