Around The World – Paris, France
My goal for this leg of the trip is to visit one of the most famous cities in the world, eat cheese and drink wine, sit in cafes wearing a beret, wallow in the ennui of modern life, be generally rude to everyone and personify every French cliche I can think of.
In the morning I headed to the Strasbourg train station, but I was really early. Luckily with my Eurail ticket, I can go in the first class lounge, so went in, dropped my bags and went back out to get breakfast and train snacks. Came back to find their advertised free Wifi doesn’t work. Ugh. Read my book in the comfort of a very soft chair, a luxury in a train station.
I climbed aboard my train and went to my assigned seat on the top deck. It’s very nice and modern, a table right in front of me for the laptop, power plug and motorized recline adjustment on the seat! No wifi, but several people’s phones were set in ad hoc mode, I’m sure without their understanding. I didn’t bother hacking in to piggyback on their connectivity. We pulled out right on time, super smooth ride. The first leg is 20 minutes to a nearby town then the 2 hour high speed run due west to Paris. There’s a light dusting of snow in the fields and we’re just slowly cruising along about 60 mph according to the digital display at the end of the coach. We’re going to have to step on it to get 200 miles to Paris in an hour and a half. Now that’s more like it, peaking at 320kph / 200mph, bam! The curves are banked with the correct camber, smooth as silk, quiet, zoom! When another train passes us at 400mph converging speed, there’s an increase in air pressure in your ears and in the blink of an eye it’s gone. For my electric-vehicle-brother-geeks this is technically an all-electric TGV POS (Paris-Eastern France-Southern Germany) train, running on 9.6 MW of power, supplied by overhead catenary lines. I’m sure there’s a flux capacitor hidden somewhere.
Getting off the train with a big EV grin, I catch the #65 bus but of course going the wrong way, so off I jump, find the other way, a quick connection and a short walk to my Airbnb flat. It’s tucked behind a very quiet city street. Patricia is an international finance person, she went to school and lived in San Francisco for 10 years. Lately she’s writing books for children that take them on an adventure to find treasure, but along the way they learn about politics and French government structure.
I unpacked my stuff and then went for a walk around the neighbourhood. It’s cold and raining so not so pleasant. I now realize restaurants don’t open until about 7 pm so I scoped out a crepe place. While I waited I walked up and down the streets, into a small grocery where I bought real Boursin cheese and some crackers. At 7 PM I walked back and had a spinach and emmental dinner crepe and a chocolate and berry crepe for dessert. I then walked around a bit more but gave up on the cold and rain. I came back to the flat and had a great long talk with Patricia about our travels. We ate half of my Boursin and drank a lot of wine.
The next morning I took the subway to the Notre Dame cathedral (this is the big one). I walked around a bit and then caught an open-top tour bus. We went around the city and saw most of the big stuff like the Eiffel Tower, drove up the Champs-Ãlysées and around the Arc de Triomphe, and the Place de la Concorde where Louis and Marie lost their heads, also sadly Antoine Lavoisier who is considered the Father of Modern Chemistry, having discovered Hydrogen and Oxygen and helped construct the Metric system.
I got back off at Notre Dame and had lunch at the nearby Quasimodo restaurant, I just couldn’t resist. I have to say, it looked to me like any normal day in a big city with the streets full of cars and buses and pedestrians everywhere, certainly doesn’t seem to be any fear of going outside. I did see many, many police and military patrols, with really big nasty looking guns. I also saw a few military jets flying low over the city.
After hitting the touristy places, I decided I would find the Tesla showroom. The one closest to the city is in the north, so I did a series of subway and outer-region train rides and a long walk to get there. Turns out it’s a service center only now, they moved the showroom two weeks ago to the other location that’s about 30km away to the west. I checked the Tesla web site and it’s open to 7pm so I figured I would try to find it. I took another series of trains and subways to get as far as I could to St. Germain, home of the famous PSG football team. From there it’s a 20 minute bus ride and the man at the information desk said to take bus 21. I walked outside but couldn’t see a sign for 21 so I asked a girl and she said she was taking it too, so I waited with her for about 30 minutes, no bus and it was getting late and dark. I checked my phone and after much searching found the R4 bus goes on the route I need so I checked with her again and she confirmed 21, although I now realize she seemed really stoned. I saw many R4 buses come and go, then 45 minutes later the 21 bus comes. I get on and ask for a ticket to Chambourcy and the driver said this bus doesn’t go there! Fuck! I got off the bus and figured I would take an Uber. I made a request, a car was 4 minutes away and he accepted. I watched him sit there for 10 minutes and not move, so I cancelled it and walked over to a taxi stand. I’m done waiting, this will take me right to the door. 15 euros later, I’m at the store, with about 15 minutes to go before closing time, whew! I took some pictures and had a chat with one guy and I explained my story. I asked someone how to get back to St. Germain train station and she said the R4 bus, the terminus was directly behind the Tesla building and it leaves in 5 minutes. Fuck, I could have just gotten on an R4 and come right to the store. So much for asking the locals for proper guidance. I got on the bus but the driver said, I think, that the cash machine is broken so I got a free ride right back to the station. From there it was a straight shot back into the city, one transfer and then walk for a block back to the flat.
Patricia and I had the rest of the Boursin and some more wine. There was a TV show on, with politicians taking questions from people about security measures being taken in the city, and fighting terrorism in France in general.
I booked an Airbnb in the small town of Le Mans, about an hour by TGV west of Paris, and home to the famous race track. I’ll stay there for a couple of nights on my way to the west coast, go to the car museum and see what else is there.
Tomorrow, off to Le Mans and the roar of petrol-gulping, toxic-fume-belching racing cars.
