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Published: June 10th 2019
We departed Munich yesterday morning on a Lufthansa flight to Paris, and our arrival turned out to be memorable, in more ways than one. On the bright side, this marks the 10th visit to the City of Light since 2001, when it first captured our fancy.
People sometimes ask us what is so special about Paris that makes us want to return, time and time again? Is it the centuries of history, art, culture or the French
joie de vivre? Or perhaps it's the baguettes, crème brûlée--and the rest of the fabulous French cuisine--that appeal to us? While all of this is certainly true, to some degree, the answer is more elusive. The spell that Paris has cast upon us over the years may best be explained by the French phrase,
Je ne sais quoi (literally "I know not what", i.e., a quality that cannot be described or named easily).
On the other hand, our arrival was not as triumphant as we would have liked. Although we met our driver and friend, Serge Molho, at the airport without difficulty, our problems--massive traffic gridlock--began as we approached the outer limits of Paris, and became increasingly worse the closer we got
Crème brûlée
Fontaine de Marsto our destination near the Eiffel Tower on the Left Bank. We had to cross one of the bridges over the Seine, the river which divides the north side (Right Bank) from the south side (Left Bank) of Paris, but for reasons that were not immediately clear to Serge, the police had certain bridges and streets blocked to traffic.
Traffic was virtually at a standstill, even after he made several U-turns to escape and try an alternate route. At one point, when we were stopped in traffic near some policemen, Serge determined that the cause of the gridlock was due to police efforts to thwart groups of protesters who had planned to disrupt certain areas of Paris today.
As a bit of background, the so-called "Yellow Vests" movement (French: Mouvement des gilets jaunes) is a populist, grassroots, revolutionary political movement for economic justice that began in France in October 2018. After an online petition posted in May had attracted nearly a million signatures, mass demonstrations began in November of that year. The movement is motivated by rising fuel prices, a high cost of living, and its contention that a disproportionate burden of the government's tax reforms were falling
on the working and middle classes, especially in rural and non-urban areas.
The protesters have called for lower fuel taxes, a reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth, a minimum-wage increase, the implementation of Citizens' initiative referendums, as well as the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.
Yellow high-visibility vests, which French law required all drivers to have in their vehicles and to wear during emergencies, were chosen as "a unifying thread and call to arms" because of their convenience, visibility, and association with working-class industries. The protests have involved demonstrations and the blocking of roads and fuel depots throughout France, some of which have developed into major riots, and Paris has endured something like 30 straight weekends of disruptions on account of the group's activities.
Serge saved the day when he masterfully cajoled some police officers into allowing him to make a U-turn to escape the jam we were in, using the excuse that we would miss our flight unless we got a move on it! They were quite sympathetic, and allowed us to escape, whereupon Serge was soon able to find a bridge that was not blocked. We finally arrived at our rental apartment over an
First glimpse of the Iron Lady
From the car, while driving through the Place du Trocadero. hour past the time the agent expected us, but Serge had called her with updates on our predicament, and she greeted us as we pulled up outside the entrance.
The long traffic delays were not a total waste, however, as we had the opportunity to chat with Serge, whom we first met in 2014; and then again in 2017, when we visited Paris with our granddaughter, Ashley, who celebrated her 19th birthday at that time.
Serge operates a chauffeur service, now employing two other drivers, which caters to travelers (mostly Americans) who want to take day trips to places like Normandy, or Monet's garden at Giverny. He also services many business clients from around the world who travel to Paris for special events and conferences, and we discussed the possibility of doing a day trip or two during our stay. We just seemed to hit it off with him from our first encounter--his personality is so upbeat and congenial--and have maintained contact with him over the last few years.
We are staying in the same tiny (250 sq.ft.) apartment (on rue Augereau in the 7th arrondissement) that we rented back in 2017. It is much smaller than
Fontaine de Mars
Rue Saint-Dominique any of the other apartments in which we've stayed during this trip, but its fabulous location compensates for the lack of space.
After stashing our luggage, we walked to the nearby Rue Cler (our favorite pedestrian street), for a bite to eat at the Café du Marché--which is now under different ownership (Dee picked-up on this by the different menu selections and some other remodeling inside). The weather here in Paris is much cooler than we experienced in Munich, with highs in the mid-60s and some intermittent showers forecast for the next few days.
Today we tried to have lunch at the Café Constant across the street from us, where we had such fabulous food on our last visit, but it was totally filled with diners, inside and out. So we walked a little further along rue Saint-Dominique until reaching the La Fontaine de Mars, a bistro taking its name from the adjacent fountain, where we enjoyed a delicious (but pricey) lunch with so-so service. After a dessert of crème brûlée (what else?), we walked to a Tabac store for some bus/metro tickets, then back to the apartment for nap time, as both of us were still feeling
the effects of yesterday's transfer from Munich.
But it feels great to be back in Paris...yet again!
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Cindy
non-member comment
Barbie Kitchen
Glad to see you made it to Paris. Dee creates fabulous meals... even in a Barbie kitchen I'm sure. Enjoy!