Storyline: Virtual Itinerary
Charles De Gaulle was the airport from which we would have flown back to Toronto on May 5th this year. We love Paris. After Italy, visiting a friend near Munich, swinging around for a week in Prague then back to Germany to see the fallen Berlin Wall and spending a few days in Cologne, we’d have taken a train to Paris for the dessert of our vacation. The last time we were there was in 2014.
I fell in love with Paris in the early 90s, visiting first for work from Brussels University, and later in 1994 with the kids.
What first comes to mind seeing the Louvre is eating our sandwiches while standing in huge line with the kids, at a time when mass tourism was unheard of. The kids were disappointed with the Mona Lisa being locked behind reflective glass. They also needed to be hoisted up above the heads of the crowds milling around, in order to even see her. Bobsi, then 14 years old, observed that she had “fat hands”, and did not really understand why that painting was so famous, why people considered it beautiful and why we had to stay in line for hours just to see it. Then he discovered the museum’s technology – the display monitors at the end of the corridor leading to Mona Lisa. He sat in front of one, viewing photo after photo of the exhibits on that same floor and decided that there was no sense to go with the crowds, barely seeing anything, when he could see it on the screen. “Find me here when you are done.” And so, we did. Let’s just say art wasn’t his thing. Buku, on the other hand, was fascinated with the art as she was a year earlier with Gaudi’s architecture in Barcelona.
There is so much written about Paris and its atmosphere that I won’t bother with it. But it won’t come as much of a surprise that we have loved it each and every time we’ve been there.
My first visit with Alex was in 2004. We stayed in the lovely little boutique Hotel Lindbergh, in the artsy St. Germain des Près district. Family-run, in a traditional Haussmann-era building, with friendly staff and a reasonable price. We have really fond memories of our stay then. Dili (aka Buku) was with us so we had a big (for Paris) triple room. A buffet breakfast was included the in price, that at 110€ per night and a strong Canadian dollar seemed a bargain for this area of Paris. Alas not so any more.
Ten years later, in 2014, we looked for it, just to discover that it was quite unaffordable. The hotel is now named Hôtel Signature Saint Germain des Près. For this year’s planned trip, I hadn’t progressed as far as booking accommodation in Paris when the Covid disaster struck, and I had to cancel all the reservations. I wonder what the price will be post-Covid, when the world opens up for travel again.
Alex and I adored our time together in the city of love. Since it was his first time in Paris, we covered the must sees. Eh, almost all of them. There is never enough time for an art gallery, even the smallest one. There would be another time. We dreamed of spending months in the city when we’d retire.
One thing off the beaten path was visiting the claimed oldest restaurant in Paris – La Petite Chaise. It was just 5 min walking distance from our hotel. Open since 1680 it is said to have been a gathering point for artists and actors at the beginning of the 20th century. I remember the fantastic French onion soup. Great food and atmosphere, and extremely small tables crammed together.
Our most recent time in Paris was in 2014. Both still working, we had only a short week there. This was the time we discovered Airbnb and were pleasantly surprised by the possibilities it had to offer. I was quite skeptical initially, but given the hotel prices I got over my reluctance and went through the Airbnb verification process.
Spent lots of time reading reviews and communicating with potential hosts. Eric, a designer who was selling some funky household items online (many of you have seen one that ended up in our guest bathroom), was the host I chose.
Our experience was fantastic. Since the service was relatively new and the owner needed a stable income renting his home, the price was quite good.
Having a one-bedroom apartment in a great central area, often referred as Sopi (South Pigalle), for a fraction of what one would pay for the cheapest hotel in Paris, was an extraordinary experience that would set us up as fans of Airbnb.
Eric was a wonderful host. At the time, meeting the host in person was the norm. We had a nice chat with Eric, learned a lot about his business and himself, enjoyed his apartment while he was staying with his parents and said goodbye at the end of our stay.
Kept in touch for several years after. This was before many business owners took the advantage of services like Airbnb, bought and converted condo apartments in big cities to short-term rentals, and Airbnb lost its basic model of being part of the shared economy. Subsequently I’d spend lots of time searching for a real person as Airbnb host, not an anonymous business, and so far, we’ve been lucky and happy with all our rentals around the world.
Our 2014 week in Paris was spent mainly enjoying the atmosphere. It was during the world cup soccer finals, so it wasn’t difficult to discover the crowds and mingle with them.
We enjoyed the local markets and preparing some of our meals in the apartment. And we quickly determined how to maximise our grocery budget….
The first morning Alex went out to get a few breakfast and lunch supplies. The list was short and consisted primarily of some vegetables and fruits. 30€ later, he returned with a small bag that wouldn’t keep us going for two days. We later went back to the store and bought several cheeses, baguettes and a few bottles of wine…for 30€. That settled it. And we now understood the French penchant for baguette, cheese and wine.
We set foot in every one of the twenty arrondissements in one day – and have the memories of sore feet and legs to remember that day. The Bois de Boulogne, Montmartre, the roof of Printemps store, Luxembourg Gardens,
The Eiffel Tower where, when Alex asked at the ticket counter what would be the best time to get tickets, he was answered with a little Gallic smile and shrug, “December”.
Finally, we visited the famous Château de Versailles. The latter was actually our first experience with overtourism. And because of it, Versailles was a bit of a disappointment.
We literally were sardined within the crowds that moved us along with their shuffles. Being short, I could not see much of anything, and Alex was just snapping photos with his arm holding the camera stretched above the boulder field of heads pressing ahead and sucking us along with them.
I’d see the photos later. We eventually moved to a place where we could find an exit and called it quits.
However, we enjoyed the gardens that were spared from the crowds. Don’t know about 2014, but in 2017 the Palace of Versailles received 7,700,000 visitors! This tells it all.
We of course didn’t know or expect it before we went there. And never after this experience have we fallen for being among such a big mass of people. If you followed us through Italy in 2016, we found our way to visit famous places without being overwhelmed by the rivers of people descending from cruise ships and being bussed to a tour destination for a day’s lightning trip.
Alas, 2020 wasn’t meant to be the year to revisit this amazing city we love. Given our new health challenges we do hope that the pandemic will eventually disappear without us getting the virus, and we’ll have the opportunity to return. Although that time could not come soon enough. Looking into the 10-year interval between our past visits, 2024 would fit the pattern for Paris, however we for sure hope we can travel again much sooner.
This is our last post from the Virtual Itinerary storyline. Stay safe everyone.
If you are new to the “Virtual Itinerary” storyline: All the stories here are real, although from the past, some from a quite distant past. It covers travels to countries and places we had in our real Spring 2020 itinerary. If not for Covid-19 we’d be traveling right now.
Great post ?