Paris to Epernay

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Today is Thursday, although I must confess I need to ask what day it is to remember. We walked across the street from our hotel this morning to Pomme De Pain for cafe and croissants. Back to the hotel to pack. I didn't sleep well last night as I kept wondering how we were going to move our heavy suitcases from Paris to Epernay and back again via the train. Eventually I had my epiphany and realized we should take a taxi from the Renaissance Arc De Triomphe to the Renaissance Vendome and store our luggage there. Then we could pack one bag to take with us via the Metro and the train to Epernay. So that is what we did. We left 3 bags at the Vendome. Before leavin Paris I wanted to visit Le Maris so we took the Metro to Le Marais where again we were not given very good instructions to find the synagogue and the Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme. We got off the Metro at Rivoli (and we should have exited later at St. Paul). We had to walk and walk and walk trying to find the right streets and we were getting so frustrated and tired. We were also dragging our suitcase as from here we were off to Epernay. We weren't successful in finding the synagogue so we made our way to the Hotel de Ville and the Centre Pompidou Beaubourg. Eventually we happened upon Rue de Temple which luckily brought us to the Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme housed in the Hotel de St-Aignan, a restored 17th century mansion. This museum had a self guided tour and we each had our own audioguide. We saw beautiful old artifacts including tomb stones, tallit and torah's dating back to the 12th century and it made me feel good to at least understand the history and difficulties experienced by the French and European Jews including the Emancipation after the French revolution. After the museum we walked back towards the Pompidou center and found a cute little fondue restaurant, Heureux Comme Alexandre where Michael and I shared a cheese fondue, Fondue Savoyarde and a salad of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. We were pacing ourselves to catch the 4:35 pm train to Epernay so we walked around Le Marais, explored the Pompidou center, the modern art museum and walked to Les Halles, the big shopping mall with a Metro station, Chatelet-Les Halles underground. From here we took the Metro the Gare De L'Est to find our train to Epernay (Bar Le Duc). We had cafe at the Augogrille Gare Paris Est and had no trouble boarding the train at gate 29. A little over an hour and a quarter later we arrived in Epernay. We asked a cab driver to show us where Eurocar was and we walked just a few blocks to the store. We got there about 5:45 and the woman was getting ready to close. Our reservation was for much earlier in the day (and we would have arrived earlier had we not got lost in Le Marais). We rented a Renault Clio, again 4 door but this time we only had 1 suitcase so we had no trunk issues. Our B & B, L'Interface Chambres d'hotes was at 27 rue Gambetta. It's just at the edge of town, very close to the car rental and train station. We drove down Gambetta looking and before we knew it we passed it. So we had to go up to the circle, go around and come back again. The garage was so tight that I didn't think we would fit this tiny car inside but Michael did and as soon as we got out of the car, Madame Rathy asked us to back out so she could move her car. So, Michael backed out (I don't know how) as Didier showed me our bedroom/bath. I knew it was on the 2nd floor but didn't realize that meant 2 stories up from the first floor so we were really on the 3rd floor. We had to take a narrow wooden spiral staircase up. Didier showed me the light switches and the room, including the extra towels and blankets. It had skylights with shades which he showed me how to control. We went back downstairs to meet Michael, who had circled yet one more time before parking. Almost immediately after going inside (first we had to meet their cat) the doorbell rang and a German couple was inquiring about a room for the night. Didier gave them a tour as we carried our bags upstairs. Epernay is a small town and there was nothing open for us to do. Just as we started our walk to explore around 7 pm, the German couple was bringing their suitcases in. We first went to the restaurant Didier recommended, across the street from our B & B and learned we needed to make a reservation for dinner. The earliest time available was 9 pm which we took. We continued walking until we found Pharmacie St. Vincent open. The pharmacies in France sell cosmetics and perfume in addition to medicines. This pharmacie had Caudalie products and I compared their prices to what I had printed out from the states and finally found something that cost less in France than in the US! I bought a few products and we continued walking. We found an open market which we decided to explore at the Place de Arcades. We found some cookies and crackers from the region and bought some bier for Matthew as well as Creme de Cassis. By this time we were getting closer to our reservation so we walked back to L'Interface, put our purchases in our room and headed out to La Cave a Champagne. We had a bottle of Vollereaux champagne (what else do you drink in Champagne?) Michael had fois gras and turbot with creme brulee for dessert. I had salmon lasagne and fromage for my dessert. Sante (cheers) to another wonderful decadent day in France!

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