Paris - Monday, April 1, 2013

I am going to jump ahead in time in an effort to catch up.  I'll go back and fill in the blanks later.

Today was the day for our move from Lyon to Paris.  Lyon is jinxed for me.  I didn't realize that France turned ahead the clocks this past weekend so our plans for getting to the train station were not timely. When our wake up call came, I thought the hotel had made an error since my clock said 5:45 AM.  So we didn't get up but waited for our alarm clock to ring an hour later.  After about 30 minutes my subconscious said " maybe the time changed in France this past weekend."  Just in case my subconcious was correct we jumped out of bed, dressed as quickly as possible, finished packing and hurried to the hotel lobby.  And guess what, my subconscious was correct.  So we were running well behind schedule.

We dragged our bags to the train station which was quite close.  Harley cannot yet use his right arm easily so when packing Sunday night I eliminated his backpack and rearranged the things in our two suitcases so his was as light as possible.  The train schedule showed the next train to the main statio from Perrache was due to leave in 30 minutes (at 8:28AM) so we decided to grab a coffee and quiche for breakfast while we waited.  That done, we climbed on the train for the 15 minute ride to Part Dieu where we were to board the train to Paris.

The train didn't leave on time so we began to panic.  It finally took off about ten minutes late but with plenty of time to catch the Paris train.

French mainline trains are excellent.  So much better than trains in the US.  Seats are comfortable, each seat has a table which can be lowered from the seat in front, and with all seats reserved they seem to rely on the honor system since we were never asked to show a ticket.  And they are very fast.

We arrived in Paris at Gare de Lyon at about 11:00AM.  Our first job was to find metro line 14 to Gare St. Lazarre and then to add a one month pass for metros and buses to the cards we had acquired a couple of years earlier.  Successful,after waiting in a long line, we got the required metro.  Four stops later we left the metro to figure out how to get to our rental apartment.  Gare St Lazarre is a very large station and when we got to the street we weren't sure how to locate the requisite bus.

It had been suggested we take a taxi to our apartment but I don' believe in taxis so I convinced Harley we should just walk to the place.  And so off we went.  It was only abou ten blocks some of it uphill so I managed to wear Harley out.  But we made it and as we approacheD the building, there was Stephanie, our landlady, waitin for us.

The apartment is in an old building with a front door, a small lobby and another door before you enter the building.  Each door requires its own code be entered on a keypad to unlock the door.

In at last we came upon the tiniest elevator I've ever seen.  It fit our two suitcases and Harley and that was it.  Stephanie and I walked the two flights to the apartment to rejoin Harley.

The apartment is bright and beautifully furnished with lots of nice art.  It has a large living room, separate dining room, two small but comfortable bedrooms, a large bath with a washing machine and a small full kitchen with all the dishes and cookware you would need.  There is also a small powder room near the kitchen.

By now it was after one in the afternoon and we were tired but hungry.  So following Stephanie's suggestion we walked up rue Lepic to a small restaurant, le Zebre, for lunch which was very good.  We had beer and wine, spinach salads, codfish for HAP and lamb curry for me.  And of course, good bread and expresso.

On the way Back to the apartment, we picked upa few groceries for breakfast ( coffee, oatmeal, milk)  so that when we got back we promptly fell asleep.  We awoke about five to unpack, get organized for
th next day, read and write emails before going back to sleep.