Today I either foiled an attempted pickpocketing atempt, or I upset a couple of the locals.
Or both. But I’ll talk more about that later.
We slept well again last night. I’m still waking a couple of times during the night and wondering where I am, but I’m going back to sleep fairly quickly. From all reports, MBW is experiencing the same.
I was right about being in pain this morning. When I was awake enough to swing my legs out of bed, I found that the mental process and the physical process were disconnected. I’m certain that my brain issued a “put your feet on the floor” instruction, but my legs didn’t respond.
And so it was with much groaning and moaning that I forced myself out of bed and into the shower.
Everything hurt. My feet hurt, my calf muscles hurt, my hips hurt, my glutes hurt … everything hurt. This body is not designed to take that kind of punishment that comes from walking more than 22,000 steps in a day when I usually fail to achieve my pitiful target of 7,500.
But a hot shower and the promise of more croissants for breakfast got me moving.
Breakfast was again – fortunately – croissants, baguettes, cream cheese, butter, yoghurt, cheese, and coffee with hot milk.
I won’t embarrass myself with details of the disgusting display of gluttony at breakfast, but let’s just say that I didn’t need to eat again for quite some time.
If I’d been able to find a warm, hot rock I would have laid down and gone into hibernation for the winter.
Today was a pretty easy day, with only a walking tour of Montmartre planned at 11.00am. The problem was that walking hurt, and Montmartre is at the top of a hill that we needed to walk up.
We decided to risk a bus trip to Montmatre. It turns out that Google Maps is smart all over the world, and it told us which bus to catch, where to catch it from, and where to get off. We purchased tickets from the driver for €2.50 each.
We got to the meeting point early and so we just wandered around and looked in some of the shops.
Across the road from the meeting point was the Moulin Rouge and we got the history on how the Montmartre district came into being. It was all to do with a move by the current (at that time) royalty to try and reserve the centre of Paris for the wealthy people, and so this was achieved by moving all of the factories (and working class people) out to the north of the city.
Because this became a cheap place to live, all of the poor artists moved out there also.
Anyhow it was an interesting – although painful – 90 minute walking tour, and we finished at Sacre Couer. It is a magnificent old building built in various styles that were in vogue at the time.
Entrance was free, so we queued up and did a walk around inside the church.
We did a wander through the Montmatre area where all of the painters and artists gather. I acknowledge that it was a Saturday, but the sheer volume of people was mind-boggling! Cafes were crowded and the streets were choked with people.
We have been warned that this is an area that draws pickpockets and scammers, and we had been advised to be on high alert.
We were getting hungry, so we decided to go in search of a boulangerie (French for bakery, but oh so much more than a bakery …) and a quick Google search determined that there was a highly rated one about 500m away called Pain Pain (= Bread Bread) … which seemed oddly appropriate.
Roast beef, mustard and salad on a baguette and a couple of other things for dessert for about €11.50 (about $18 AUD).
We did a quick walk through Galleries Lafayette which is like an exclusive shopping centre with a ceiling that would rival the Sistine Chapel, and also a walk through the Covered Passages. These are like shops inside a mall (or walkway) between two streets.
The other thing that we really wanted to see was the Palais Garnier (kinda like the Sydney Opera House, but probably built 1000 years earlier). We got there at about 3.50pm only to find that it closed a 4.00pm, so we decided to head towards home.
Google Maps told us which bus to catch, and from which stop …but when one finally turned up, the driver only had one (1) ticket available for sale and didn’t seem particularly concerned that it meant that we couldn’t board.
All reports are that the transit police here in Paris are pretty ruthless and unforgiving, and the possibility of a €50 fine because one of us didn’t have a valid ticket didn’t seem like a particularly appealing prospect.
Plan B was the Metro (train), so we found the station, bought tickets, and caught the “8” train towards home with only one transfer to a different line.
We have been warned about pickpockets – particularly around train stations and on trains. Their tactics include moving in a group and pushing you, then getting irate while they are quietly stealing stuff out of your bags or your pockets.
In fact, there are more warning announcements on the trains about pickpockets than there are about upcoming stations, so it is obviously a problem.
There are a couple of things that I remember about Paris from the last time we were here 30+ years ago, and people pushing and shoving on the trains was one of the standout memories.
The other vivid memory is the steak tartare that i ordered in error, without realising what i was ordering, but I’ve never made that mistake again in my life.
We got to our destination station and there was a crowd of people on the platform. When the doors opened they just surged forward while I was trying to get out. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I probably had a 20kg advantage over a young lady who was leading the charge onto the carriage and we collided, with the result that I kept my forward momentum while she was pushed backwards into the crowd behind her.
And then there was some shouting from her boyfriend (or perhaps her fellow pickpocket).
He could have been saying “welcome to Paris”, but I suspect that he was telling me to go somewhere else. Somewhere hot.
In any case, their behaviour was either incredibly rude, or classic pickpocket and frankly I wasn’t concerned either way. A quick check confirmed that I still had my wallet and my phone, so we were good to go.
And besides, it just goes to show that those extra croissants came in handy after all … 🙂
We came back to the hotel for a bit of a rest, then got ready to go out for a bite of dinner at a proper sit-down establishment.
Many of the restaurants in Paris (possibly France) have set menu option, so for the grand sum of €12.90 each (plus another €4.50 each for coffee), we had a reasonable 3-course meal from the set menu – about 6 options each for entree, main, and dessert.
And that was dinner for the grand sum of €34.80. It doesn’t sound like much, but when you add another 50% of the value to bring it to AUD, it wasn’t exactly a cheap meal, although not an expensive one either.
The most disappointing part of dinner is that the French still allow smoking at outside tables, which inevitably leads to drifting second-hand smoke as a complement to your meal.
And that was about it for the day.
We are both still pretty tired from the travel and jetlag, but so long as we keep up a regular schedule we will get over it soon enough.
We are on the second floor of the Hotel Cluny Square overlooking a busy street, and the Saturday night revellers are pretty noisy, but I’m sure that tiredness from walking another 17,500 steps today will overcome any noise from down on the street.
Tomorrow we are off to see Saint Chappelle and the Conciergerie, so I’m sure that will be an education. Then tomorrow night we have a dinner cruise on the Seine starting at 8.00pm.
Should be fun, and I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.
#Europe2025
Ciao
