PARIS WITH FRIENDS
Left Amsterdam late Saturday morning for Paris. The train ride was a little over 3
hours. Took the metro from Gare du Nord
to our hotel. Checked in and headed for
the Pompidou Center to view several paintings on our list. The weather in Paris was gorgeous. We were
out for a few hours and decided to get back to the hotel to meet our friends
Marlene and Gerry and their daughter Annette.
They had been in France this past week on a tour of Normandy.
Sat in the lobby for an hour or so. Their bus was late due to the heavy traffic,
but it was great to see them when it did arrive. They checked in, deposited their bags, and we
were off to dinner. Ray had asked the
concierge for a restaurant recommendation nearby. A short walk to La Perla and we were settled
in for a night of eating and drinking lots of wine. We started with an octopus salad and focaccia. We all had pasta, but I think Ray and Annette
had the best entrée. Beef stuffed
ravioli with a ham and fig sauce. Sat
and chatted late into the evening.
Next morning Marlene and Gerry went to Notre Dame early with
their tour group. Ray and I slept in as
usual lately, and went to mass at a church a stone’s throw from the hotel. Ray
took many photos of the church as you all will see.
Back to the hotel and met up with the Carollos. Walked the Rue de Rivioli up to the
Louvre. Did some souvenir shopping along
the way. Annette wanted to show her
parents the Mona Lisa, but the lines to enter the Louvre were a bit much and we
wanted to do a few more things.
Decided on a Seine River cruise. Got to sit in the front of the boat
outdoors. Although the weather was grand
sunny and warm, on the river it was a bit windy and got cool every now and
then. The boat took us past many of the
Paris landmarks. Again, Ray took many
pictures.
Next on the agenda was a trip to Galleries Lafayette. Unfortunately, it was closed. The Opera House is right next door, and it is
a magnificent building. There was some
musical entertainment on the steps of the Opera. We noticed that the streets were closing,
which seemed odd. It was getting late in
the afternoon and we needed to head back to the hotel. There was a dinner planned for the tour group
and Marlene and Gerry had arranged for us to be their guests.
We took the metro back to the Louvre area, since Marlene and
Annette wanted to do a bit more shopping.
We noticed more street closing and music blaring. I asked some emergency service people what
was going on. It was a parade
celebrating the 20th anniversary of an Aids support foundation. As we walked toward the hotel 6 or 7 flat bed
trucks carrying bands and DJ’s rode by with hundreds of fans surrounding them
and celebrating. The road and sidewalks
were packed and of course we were against the crowd. After a while we made it back to the hotel.
Dinner with the group was at Au Pied de Cochon. It started with a huge crock of onion soup,
loaded with cheese. Main course was pork
roast with a mustard sauce and scalloped potatoes. Ray has pictures of the dessert. We walked
back to the hotel with one of the tour ladies who was a bit needy, but
entertaining.
Got back to the hotel and decided we had enough time to dash
off to the Tower Eiffel to see it twinkle on the hour. Well, after 2 metro rides we missed the
twinkling by a few minutes, but the tower lit up is pretty cool. Felt we couldn’t stay for the next hour
(11PM). Carollos were leaving the hotel
at 8AM.
Said our goodbyes, and headed off to dreamland.
Next day Ray and I spent the day at the Louvre adding
another 9 pictures to our list. We have
been to the Louvre many times, and every time we see new areas of the
museum. The place is massive. Had a late lunch at the museum and left for
some roaming around and gelato at Amorino, the best gelato shop in the
universe.
Back to the hotel to do some blogging and picking up our
luggage. Metro back to the train station
and headed back to Amsterdam. The train
was packed, but most of the passengers got off at Brussels and Antwerp. By the time we got to Amsterdam at around
11PM there were just a few of us. After
sitting for 3 plus hours we walked home from the station.
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