Location, Location, Location

This is my third day in Paris now, but let me tell you a little about my trip to get here.

I am always amazed by America’s changing landscape when I fly across country from San Diego to, this time, New York City.  San Diego’s landscape is never very green, so I love to see the changes from dry, desert to mountains to green rolling hills, and from sea to shining sea.  This trip, I finally kind of fulfilled a bucket list item which is to see the Grand Canyon from the air.  Our flight path took us a bit south of the Canyon, but you can see the rim.

Later, what I thought were clouds turned out to be snow-capped mountains majesty.

We flew over farmland in geometric patches of squares and circles, over Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, finally to New York.  New York was very hazy, and I was hoping to see Lady Liberty.  She’s in the picture I took, somewhere!

Otherwise, the flight was long, long, long!  I went through weeks’ worth of magazines (really just skimming).  I tried to be nice to one of the old-lady flight attendants, but she was not in the mood.  I had to wait a bit to meet my nephew Trevor and his friend Herschel during my layover.  We went to an airport diner that was pretty good before I continued my journey.

The flight from New York to Paris was also long, long, long.  Seating on the plane took awhile.  Up until the day of the flight, it looked like there would be an empty middle seat.  The gentleman who caught the middle seat really made our row uncomfortable.  There was a lot of seat-switching for several people who were trying to be able to sit with their travel partners.  Our middle-seater came and went several times before we ended up with an empty middle seat.  The gentleman on the aisle gave me a big thumbs up, with which I concurred!  I went through more weeks’ worth of magazines.  Caught catnaps.  The Atlantic seemed to be blanketed by clouds all the way across.

Customs in Paris was painless!  There were no lines.  The French Customs gentleman glanced back and forth from my passport picture to me, and indicated I looked different because of my Bonnie Raitt white stripe of hair.  I said, C’est l’âge.  He said, Me, too.

I was met by Philippe who would take me to the apartment we rented.  This was such a treat to actually be met by someone with your name on a notice and to not have to hunt out a taxi or mess with baggage on the train.  This is a service offered by the apartment owner, and the price is very reasonable compared with a taxi or a shuttle.  Only going into Paris by train is cheaper and is a lot more hassle than one would want to deal with after such long travel time.  Once we arrived in the city, Philippe sped through narrow, car-lined streets!  I was just waiting for someone to open a car door or for a car to pull out in front of us.  Soon I was able to see La Tour Eiffel between buildings and foliage and began to get my bearings.

We arrived on rue Cler at about noon time on market day—actually, rue Cler is a market street just about every day.  The weather was beautiful, and I was almost totally out of it!  Philippe’s boss (I did not get his name) met us at the door to the apartment building.  Philippe injured his back a few days previously, so his boss was there to help with my bags—another treat especially because it turned out that the lift (elevator) had broken the day before.  The last thing I wanted to do just then was climb 7 flights of stairs!  The apartment is on the 6^th floor; however, the French call the 1^st floor Floor Zero.  We were a motley crew between Philippe with his back, me with asthma breathing problems, and his boss who was not happy about the situation either! 

I met Lucy and Letitia in the apartment.  They were busy cleaning up after the previous tenants.  The windows were open, and there was a nice breeze.  I sat for a while and had some water until Lucy and Letitia left.  I have to say that I was quite disappointed by the lack of welcoming features that I guess I expected from previously renting apartments in Paris.  At the very least, the owner welcomed you with some flowers and a bottle of wine, in addition to making sure some basics like milk, eggs, and butter were in the refrigerator and coffee in the pantry.  This time, absolutely nothing was provided.  I did find some tea, and thankfully, I brought some Pepperidge Farm cookies with me because that was dinner.   I just could not face having to climb those stairs again so soon!

I left the windows open all night and listened to the street sounds of people and dogs.  There were some musicians who played and who brought a lot of people to their windows and balconies.

I had bigger plans for Sunday than I managed to achieve.  I descended from aloft to purchase some basic supplies like coffee, croissant, pain chocolat, baguettes, brie, jambon, and of course, wine.  Sunday, May 31 was Mother's Day in France:  Bonne Fête des Mères.  People were lined up at the three flower shops on rue Cler.  

And up I climbed afterwards to deposit my goodies and to get a sweater and an umbrella.  The rain began in earnest.  I walked to La Tour Eiffel and attempted a selfie to show I actually am present in Paris!  

Then I spent several hours at a favorite café, La Terrasse.  I had a window seat for watching people come and go on the métro.  

Before ascending the stairs for the evening, I stopped at the souvenir shop across from the apartment.  Meet my new amie Frannie:  Frannie for France and Frannie for my neighbor’s Dalmatian Frannie, to whom we said good bye last year.

So now it is almost 11 am Monday morning.  I have had my coffee and croissant.  Time to get a move on.  Today (and for the next week), the infamous love locks are being removed.  

http://mashable.com/2015/05/29/paris-dismantle-love-locks/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfejQ3Yndzb25nOGE1N2ZyYSJ9



The Weather Channel says Sunny for today but the view out my window seems to indicate otherwise.  Do I take the parapluie or not?