Happy Bastille Day!!

Fireworks

Saturday-Monday, 14-16 July, 2012

We are in the beautiful city of lights, Paris.  We found our apartment--it is in the 12th arrondisement near Gare de Lyon.  (Do you know that I even found a web site that pronounced arrondisement for me?  Isn't the internet great?)  It is a nice area and our apartment (or flat) is lovely.  We are on the 6th floor (remember in Europe the first floor is one floor above the ground floor) and the lift does not work.  We schlepped our bags up the stairs to find two rooms plus a beautiful bathroom awaiting us.  We have the world's tiniest balcony and big old-fashioned huge windows in our bedroom.   The sun is out for now, we are hoping for a sunny day for the Bastille Day fireworks tonight.  We don't have blanket or towels we can sit on for the fireworks and they're very long.  We'll bring a picnic dinner with us to get there early enough to get a good seat.

Notre Dame from the "backside"

Back to our flat; one bedroom with a cot to make up in addition to the double bed.  In the main room, the couch cushions fold out to make a bed.  The kitchen is along one wall--dorm fridge, two burners, and a microwave.  The shower is uber clean.  The owner said that the previous tenants had trouble with flushing anything down the toilet, so everything, including toilet paper must go into a plastic bag to go out with the trash.  Kind of gross, but what can you do?  We have wifi, a washing machine across the landing from us, and no need for air conditioning!   It is in the low 60s right now!  We even got to use the comforter last night an take warm showers!

Found a house in Monmartre that had a boo-boo

It is starting to rain--again.  The one drawback to the weather.  Last night we walked to Notre Dame in the rain, then to the street where our apartment was located last time we were in Paris.  We called it "Party Street" (it's official name is Rue de Huechette).  It is only a block long, lined in restaurants.  The Greek restaurant next to the door of our apartment building was gone--Anneliese was sad--the man always standing out in front would call out to her each time we passed and sometimes talk to her while we were punching in the access code.  It was fun walking down the street again.  Then we walked back to our apartment and dry clothes.   Our neighborhood has many mansard roofs and little balconies and looks very Parisian.

Today we took the Metro to Monmartre.  We were accosted by vendors again.  After telling one 5 times "NO!", I decided that the next time I would look into their eyes, say NO once and if they continued to bother me, I would slap them.  We walked up the stairs to Sacre Coeur at the top and, as we were resting, it started to pour.  We ran for shelter under the awning of a building (with about 100 other tourists) and sheletered our family under our two umbrellas.  Then we went down the stairs and back to our apartment.  I rested because my head ached terribly, while Randy and the children went to the grocery store for food for our dinner picnic in preparation for the fireworks.

Sacre Coeur

We took our picnic, took the metro, and found a space in the Champ de Mars (a public green space between the Eiffel Tower and the military school  (École Militaire).  This is the best place to watch the fireworks and fills up fast.  We arrived around 7:00 and were lucky to find a spot between many others already there.  We found some extra towels in the laundry closet and "borrowed" three--brown and black to sit on since the ground was wet from the several rainshowers throughout the day.  The sky cleared as we sat there, but the food made me nauseous so I didn't eat.  My back eventually got sore sitting there too (in addition to my head).

Waiting for the fireworks

By around 10:00, the crowd was getting restless and at 10:30 they started chanting "start, start" (in French, of course).  They finally began at 11:00 and everybody stood for the entire 1/2 hour show.  The theme was disco and a large disco ball was suspended at the first level of the tower.  There were no cool light effects with the tower as we saw three years ago, that was disappointing.  But the fireworks were fantastic and at one part it was such a funny memory to look around and see thousands of people singing the words to YMCA and doing the hand motions as the fireworks went off overhead.

After the fireworks, we walked at least halfway home (I was becoming more sick), because all of the metro stops were packed.  We walked along the river and finally found a metro stop that wasn't as packed as the others, then walked home from the one by us.  Once we reached our apartment, I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed and awoke the next morning achy, nauseous, with fever and chills, and with a monstrous sinus headache.  I was miserable.  I stayed in bed and Randy was superdad.  The children and I made a list of all of the things they wanted to see and Randy took them on the metro to go see them all! The list included the courtyard of the Louvre (with the pyramid entrance), the rose line, inside Notre Dame, buying souvenirs, and sitting in a cafe people watching.  They accomplished all of those except going into Notre Dame because the line was ridiculously long (and we saw it several times the last time we were in Paris).   When they came back, they were quiet and had a late dinner before packing their bags and taking showers.  I groaned and dozed.  I tried eating a few bites of a croissant and a few sips of OJ but that was a very bad idea--they stayed down for less than a few minutes.

The next day I had no choice but to get up, shower, and pack before the forced march to the metro station.  Randy was very sweet and carried my bag, held my hand, and talked to me to distract me as we slowly walked.  We took the metro to the RER (non-metro) train to the airport, then went through two hours of security before we boarded our plane to Dublin.  Then, in Dublin we had to go through pre-screening for customs which was weird because they showed us photos on a screen of the bags they had listed for us and we had to verify that they were ours before they would load them on the plane.  And everyone in the airport had to check our passports and scan our boarding passes.  Then, on the plane from Dublin to Chicago, just as we were over the Atlantic, there was a medical emergency on board and we had to turn back to the Shannon airport where the paramedics had to come on board.  Well, then they were worried about the plane, because planes are designed to land with empty fuel tanks and ours was very heavy.  They had to have maintenance people check out the plane, then refuel, and an hour later we were on our way.  We landed in Chicago an hour late, went through immigration, took the shuttle to the Alamo office, and picked up our rental car.  Since I was still not in a good place, Randy drove us home.  We arrived home at 1:00 and by 2:00 I was in my bed.