Thursday continued

Sadly the walk down this street led to a major problem.  As we walked west we noticed a shop where they repaired musical instruments.  Just inside the shop window were two men working away with workbenches and wallsfilled with fascinating tools and parts.  We had to watch.  Harley was fascinated with the process and I with the tools many of which resembled the multitude of tools and such that I just aquired to learn jewelry making.  It was about 6:00 PM and we had been standing at the window about ten minutes when a man, obviously deranged, made a very hard running push at me on my left side.   It felt like a footballer tackling me although i must admit I've never played football.   The next thing I knew I was on the sidewalk on top of Harley who had been standing to my right.  I was stunned and couln't figure out what hit me.  The young man from the shop rushed out and helped me up.  Then, with some difficulty, he managed to get Harley on his feet.  Harley was somewhat out of it.  I had been cushioned by Harley's body and was not physically hurt, but Harley seemed to have problems.  The young man brought a chair to the door of the shop and got Harley seated on it so we could roll him inside.  He was totally confused and when I took off his hat we saw that his hair was very bloody and there was a wound near the top of the back of his head.  The young man immediately called the French equivalent of the rescue squad while the second man in the shop ran to try to catch the pusher.

The rescue squad people arrived after 5 to 10 minutes.  There were several of them. They washed off the wound and poured some stuff, I assume antiseptic, on it.  By this time Harley was less confused and feeling a bit better so we decided not to go to the hospital right away as they suggested.

In the meantime, man number 2 returned to the shop to tell us he had caught the man and he was now in police custody.  Next the police arrived at the shop to find out the details.  They asked us if we would be willing to come to the police station to make a statement.  We agreed and we followed one of the men the four or so blocks to the station where we sat for what seemed like a long time until they were ready to tal to us.

What followed was an agonizing attempt at a recapitulation of events with one policeman typing and one helping with the questions and me trying to answer in my limited French and policeman number two trying to help with his limited English.  After more than an hour I asked if the typing policeman was writing a novel or perhaps a detective story.

Finally they were satisfied and asked me to read the report on the computer.  (The reason I was doing all the talking and stuff, Harley couln't remember what had happened and has little French language ability.). The report was in French but was in quite straight-forward language so I could follow it.  I did catch a spelling error in the report which brought forth great guffaws from policeman number two.

They then printed off about six copies of the statement all but our copy requiring Harley's signature.

By this time Harley realized that his worst problem was not the head wound but a badly bruised right shoulder which he diagnosed as some of the muscle tendons having been pulled loose based on an accident he had had about forty years earlier.  This made signing statements a painful process.  As a final horror they asked that we see a doctor to get some sort of certificate for the police records!  We said we would the next day.  Enough already.

It was now 9:30 and we were tired and hungry.  So we started to walk back to the hotel, stopping in a small restaurant for some food.  Harley had onion soup and tea while I had more substantial food and drink.  Good food takes precedence over all, especially in Lyon which is supposed to have the best food in France.

Back at the hotel we got ready for bed.  Harley's shoulder problem necessitated a good deal of help since he couldn't and still today (Sunday) can't lift his right arm from the shoulder.

Side note:  policeman number two used to be a chef and suggested a very good restaurant for us to try-lemonade from the lemons.

Lyon - Wednesday, March 27, 2013

We arrived at our hotel about 3:00PM local time and immediately took a nap.  Not supposed to do that since it is recommended that you start to live on local time right away, but tired is tired.  When we awoke, we looked on the Internet for good restaurants and discovered there was a good one just around the corner. Now that is luck!  It was pretty early for dinner in France but we again were lucky since it is a brasserie which has pretty flexible dining times.  Brasserie Georg was founded in1886.  It is very large with an elegant interior, brews it's own beer and specializes in fish.  What more can you ask!  And the beer was excellent as was the Choucroute Pechure made with assorted fish.  Harley had the daily special which provided a huge slab of meat - good but not as good as the choucroute.  And as has been true at every restaurant so far, the bread is first rate such that we have been stashing some in my handbag to serve as the next day's breakfast.  We have continued this minor theft since we have not yet gotten up early enough for breakfast so the bread holds us over until lunch.  I am writing this on Saturday and will note,  so that I don't have to describe every meal, that we have eaten at Brasserie Georg twice more and H arley had the Choucroute Pecheur the second visit and it was as good as the first time.

We went to sleep early Wednesday evening and managed about ten hours of rest but still felt the jet lag Thursday morning.

Near our hotel is a major junction for trams and subways.  Crossing that you reach a pleasant park, Parc Carnot and on the other side of that is a semi-pedestrian street, rue Victor Hugo lined with shops of all sorts and at the end of that street you come to Place Bellecour.  Here we decided we were tired and ready for lunch so we turned around and unimaginatively made ou way back to Brasserie Georg.

After lunch it was nap time again.  After a couple of hours of sleep we thought it would be interesting to visit a new neighborhood west of the Soane River.  So at abou five thirty we again left the hotel starting out on the same route as earlier but turning left at the end of Parc Carnot.

France. - 2013 - Tuesday/Wednesday

Today is Saturday, March 30. We left Baltimore last Tuesday en route to Lyon, France. We drove to Ruth and Hugh's house to leave our car and be picked up by a van for the trip to Dulles. Joining us on the van was another couple who was picked later. We got to talking and became instant friends. They were both Harley's age and would be on the same plane to Paris as we. They were continuing to Italy for a birding tour.  Their names are Herb And Rene Jasper.  We hope to be in touch again.

The flight to Paris was long and largely sleepless.  We flew Air France and were disappointed by the food which used to be quite good.  I guess it it now a profit center and unless you order a paid for meal don't expect much.  But we got to Paris in good shape and our luggage was waiting for us.

CDGis such a huge airport that we felt like we were walking for miles to get to baggage claim and ths signage was very poor so we ended up in the wrong baggage area necessitating another long trek.  By this time we were hungry and had a light lunch at a better-than-average fast food spot.  We also learned that a small coffee in France means an expresso, not a small container of coffee a la McDonalds.  

We found the CDG train station and figured out the access to tracks so we successfully boarded our train to Lyon in the correct car, climbing to the upper level where our reserved seats were located.  The trains here are excellent with comfortable seats.  They have modern trackage and make good speed so we were in Lyon in just two hours.  We weren't sure how to get to our hotel so we went to th information booth.  It turned out that there was a train from our arrival station at Parc Dieu to another station, Perrache, which by sheer dumb luck was directly across from our hotel.  So far so good.

We got to the Hotel Normandie which is a small 2 star hotel that I reserved sight-unseen on Priceline.  At first I was concerned about my choice because it is a rather shabby neighborhood and th hotel looked small and old.  But it turns out to be clean and comfortable with very pleasant and helpful desk people.  They can't have been nicer and have given us much good advice with great patience.

So much for our arrival.  I will post this and continue the story of our travels later.