August 22 -- Paris, briefly, then on to Bayonne

.

So, you'll recall, I had about three hours of sleep on the plane. My daughter had asked me if I needed her to come fetch me at the airport (she was coming in to Paris that morning from Dijon).

I told her that, were I not jet-lagged, I was sure I could get myself to where we needed to be for the next leg of our journey, and that I was game to try doing it even in an impaired state.............

The subway proper does not go as far out as the airport. I began with the light rail.

I had my eyes peeled for monuments. I knew I was coming in from the northeast, and I knew Sacre Coeur was in the northeast...............

Hah!





And again, cropped. They kindly put this enormous and very white church on top of one of the highest hills (if not the highest?), so it's easy to spot from a distance (even at night, when it is lit up like a beacon). Yep, we are really in Paris!!!





Paris is a big city, and big European cities tend to have multiple train stations. I needed to get from CDG (Charles de Gaulle airport) to Gare ("gare" = train station) Montparnasse. The subway system that supports Paris is large and complex. My daughter told me that it would be good for me to switch from the light rail to the subway at one of the smaller and less-complicated subway stops. Wise advice. I switched from the light rail to the metro at Denfert-Rochereau rather than Chatelet (which is HUGE), and rode a couple of stops to Montparnasse.

We were to meet at the carousel near the Tour Montparnasse (Montparnasse Tower, the only skyscraper in downtown Paris). The subway stations have maps to tell you which exits are where. I looked for a sortie (exit) that said Tour Montparnasse, and exited the subway station. I was pleased to find this round mirror right outside -- how else was I getting a pic of a 56-story building, and with me in it, too, no less.....



The stairs in the right/middle area of the circle let up to the little plaza where the carousel was. The area was edged with raised gardens, and my daughter was sitting on one of the garden walls, having arrived there shortly before I did......

The guardians of travelers must have been looking out for me -- that all went as smoothly as it possibly could have.

We had a few hours before we needed to board our train for Bayonne, so we went into Gare Montparnasse and checked our luggage. That cost us 9 euro (running about $1.28 to the euro), which seemed extortionate, but hey, we were on vacation, and I wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower, and didn't want to be hauling all that stuff.........

This is part of the train station. We were headed to Bayonne that afternoon, we were scheduled for La Rochelle and Bordeaux later, and we went through (but did not stop in) Poitiers, Pau, and Niort...........

You can also see the top of the carousel, bottom right.....





Montparnasse isn't very far from the Eiffel Tower.

We walked a ways, and ... !!!





Here is Les Invalides, which is the gold dome you can see to the left/bottom of the Eiffel Tower if you look at the webcam ("Paris Weather?") linked from the sidebar on the right of this blog. The gold is real gold, and it is very shiny, so is something else that is rather visible, even from a distance.





In various places in cities there are potable water sources. This would be one of those sources. A small stream ("trickle" is too small, but not by much) of water flowed down from the middle. You reached in with your water bottle or other container, between the maidens (whoever they may be), and filled it up as you chose.





The woman in the tan dress (lower right) stopped and told us that was the best water in Paris. We thanked her, but really couldn't tell the difference. Not between that and the Pittsburgh water I still had in my other bottle, not between that and the water my daughter had in her bottle (not sure where that was from)..... I guess our palates aren't well-developed enough to be able to appreciate the best when we find it..............

j



Street signs in Paris are on the buildings. We took pics of this pair because one of my daughter's best friend's last name is Barthelemy.





Getting closer.....





And closer.....

We have reached the Champs de Mars. The dark skyscraper in the image at Wikipedia, top, almost center, is Tour Montparnasse.....

This pic was taken from one of the most distant of the green-grass rectangles in the middle of the Wikipedia pic.





Ok.

Time to move on, if we are to get back and comfortably catch our train.

We went by the Boston University offices of the summer program that my daughter took part in in 2008 (with these hydrangeas out front).





We saw Les Invalides from another angle.





We looked back at the Eiffel Tower.





We looked at pastries..........

We bought bread and cheese.





We located and boarded our train. When you purchase a Eurail pass, you buy so many days worth of travel. You travel as much as you want on one of your travel days. My daughter's trip to Paris from Dijon, and then our trip from Paris to Bayonne, all counted as one travel day for her.

Lots of graffiti. Seemed jarring, next to the elegant old buildings.....







The trains have "tray tables" jusr like airplanes (and, I bet, had them first).





Poilane is a really REALLY good bakery, and this bread was very good indeed.

The cheese was more pedestrian. It got stronger over the next couple of days (we had no refrigeration).....





This is a sweet/spicy bread/cake sort of thing from one of my daughter's previous stops. Very nice.





The last place I'd been on a train before this trip was Alaska.

Alaska is really very different from anywhere else I've ever been. WAY less "hand of man" on everything...............

France, in contrast, looked very familiar. Corn. Fields of grain that had been harvested. Trees I knew (sycamores, poplars, maples).

I think there are more windmills in France, but we are (I hope) catching up.

The buildings, though..... Those were very different from what you'd see, driving through Michigan or Indiana, or anywhere else in the USA............





This, for example, could easily be central Ohio, which is very flat.





Lots of orchards in Michigan.





Corn field ... nothing strange to the American eye there, right?





But take a closer look -- these are the buildings in the one above.





And these are the other buildings........... Definitely not in Kansas any more, Toto, my friend.............





The ride from Paris to Bayonne was about five hours. I believe we got in after 8:00 pm. Our hotel was very close to the station.

And this was the view out our windows........................





Wow.





We were tired; it had been a long day; we did not cross that bridge that day.

Here is my daughter's post about Aug. 22.


In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

.