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| La Tour Eiffel, still elegant after 100 years |
As always, the blog is limping a little behind in the
time/space continuum. These initial words are being written during a British Airways flight from Munich to London, and I am just now beginning my account of
Paris. During my layovers at Heathrow and DFW (altogether six hours, if the
flights are executed according to schedule) I hope to upload the text and pics
so that the blog is updated by the time I get back to Lubbock late tonight. (As it turned out, the update posted while I was still in LHR.)
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| Huge pre-Valentine's chocolate concoctions in a chocolatier's window |
My trip, coming so shortly on the heels of my visit to Ecuador,
was of a similar nature as what Judy and I used to do on an almost-annual
basis: a quick sojourn in the City of Light during a time of year when tourists
tend to shun the city. Altogether I was in Paris for only four nights. Sabine
had arranged for an apartment in the 11th arrondissement through the house-sharing site Airbnb, after she had
stayed together with her son in the same
general neighborhood last year. The two of us met up at Paris' Charles de Gaulle
airport, flying in from our respective domiciles.
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| View from our Airbnb apartment, which even had a tiny balcony |
Having traveled to Paris many times before and knowing the
city well, we didn’t see the need to go to every tourist attraction—I’ll keep
that for the time I’ll show Wes and Susan around the French capital, or
somebody else. Having the apartment (instead of staying in a more sterile
hotel) gave us the feeling of being immersed; we overlooked a beautiful small
park in a typical Paris ‘hood, with the bakery just 2 minutes away for fresh
croissants in the morning. We explored the vicinity on foot, and after a day we
used Paris’ fabulous bike share program, the Vélib’, to go farther afield. Vélib’
stations are located every few hundred meters so that one can use the bikes to
get around the entire city even though individual rental times are limited to
only 30 minutes without any surcharge to the daily 1.70 euro fee. With a metro
ride costing exactly the same, using the Vélib’ for our transportation quickly
added up to our money saved for wine and food (neither one of which is even close to being affordable).
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| One of the largest Vélib' stations that we saw—most have only between 25 to 40 bikes |
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| To use the Vélib' you MUST have a credit card with a smartchip (that little gold-colored thing) |
What did we do? Picnic and watch the speed-chess players in
the Jardin du Luxembourg; visit Notre Dame during the Candlemass service; explore
the new citizen-friendly garden-scapes along the Seine; eat at a typical Parisian
restaurant, the Café de l’Industrie; gaze at the wonderful fruit, meat, and
seafood displays in so many different markets; and look at the Eiffel Tower
during its big restoration project. In general, we tried to take to Paris a
bit more like locals than as tourists, even though we saw touristy things—you just can't help it! Since we hit Paris on “Free Sunday”
(on the first Sunday of every month all museums feature free entry) we also revisited
the Musée d’Orsay and had a first look at the interesting ethnographic museum
on the Quai Branly, the Musée Branly.
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| Speed chess in the Jardin du Luxembourg |
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| The ham and salami from this tiny place were simply out of this world |
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| Parisians love fresh flowers |
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| The Rue Mouffetard has one specialty food shop after the other |
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| Oysters, oysters, and more oysters—and all different |
We also had time to talk. Some of you may have wondered
about some of the dynamics and aspects of a more-than-fairly close relationship over 5,500+ miles that has been ongoing for
quite a while, and so had we. The blog is a relatively open and public forum,
so suffice it to say that in the future there will be fewer entries that show
Sabine and me in exciting places. We have decided that a solid friendship and
the occasional visit or maybe even trip
together will serve us better than trying to maintain something much closer,
something that we both felt was not sustainable. When Sabine dropped me off at
the Munich airport this morning, we parted as the same good friends that we
have been for almost 40 years, but not as the same couple as that of the past
three. We both are optimistic about our respective futures, wherever they may
lead, and we are glad that we still consider each other very close friends.
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| Three views of Notre Dame de Paris: from the back ... |
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| ... inside, during Candlemass services ... |
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| ... and with a Bateau Mouche and the Seine |
So, in some very significant way this trip to Paris was not what we had
necessarily expected, but thus is life. On Monday, we took an Air France flight
to Munich, from where I had scheduled my return to the US this morning. On
Tuesday, despite foggy, freezing conditions, we went for a really, well, uncomfortable
31-mile bike ride, which would have been befitting for any of the Belgian “hard-man”
bike riders who go out in conditions like this for not just two hours at a time
but six or even eight—but they also aspire to win Paris – Roubaix come March, which I don't. Quite likely, we killed almost half a bottle of rum in the hot
tea that we drank afterward. On Wednesday—OMG, just yesterday!—I visited my old
friend Inge who has been living by herself for the past year-and-a-half ever
since her husband, Wolfgang, died in 2012. The last time we had seen each other
was during a meeting in one of Munich's beer gardens, when Wolfgang was still alive—a
summer blog photo featuring giant beers and pretzels is still floating around the cybersphere.
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| The old clock of the Orsay train station |
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| A bit of golden porn on top of the July Column in the middle of the Place de la Bastille |
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| The Musée d'Orsay is housed in a retired train station |
So, that has been the winter Europe campaign. The weeks and months to come will see changes as well as constants. The high school racing season is about to start this weekend, and in a month's time I will have returned from another trip to Central America. I invite you to stop back by once in a while, just to satisfy your own curiosity and but also cater to my desire to share so many aspects of my life with others.
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| Vieux Paris still exists—can you see and hear Jean Valjean and Cosette? |
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| Le Café de l'Industrie—old-fashioned yet hip |
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| Bonne nuit, Paris.... |
À bientôt,
Jürgen
