Wednesday, we had our last breakfast at Domaine de Ludeye, finished packing and enjoyed some time sitting outside in the morning sun. It was the only day there with clear blue skies, so they finally opened up the heated pool - just before we left.
Carole took us to the train station in Moulis-Listrac, the TER train was on time to Bordeaux giving us 18 minutes to transfer to the TGV non-stop train to Paris. We arrived in a different part of the Montparnasse station from where we departed, so it was only a very short two block walk to the hottel. We checked into Hotel Odessa Montparnesse - another older hotel with character. The elevator was made for lovers - we could barely fit ourselves and two suitcases into the elevator. There is a spiral staircase with 17 steps per floor and we are on the French sixth floor (American seventh floor).
After we got settled in our room, we walked down the six flights of stairs and went to the restaurant that is part of the hotel. We sat outside and enjoyed refreshing drinks.
The Hoegaarden beer came in a moderately sized glass.
Thursday, we went to Versaille. Because of traffic and construction, it took an hour to go 20 kms (12 miles). The tickets I bought included breakfast at the Ore Restaurant in the Versaille Palace and then the chance to skip the line (rather than wait in line with the thousands of people waiting to get in). While the castle is beautiful and ornate, as can be seen in these two photos in the Hall of Mirrors, the crowds were horrendous - tour groups ignored the rules, clogging up hallways, going the wrong direction, etc. And the audio tour devices were worthless, not working as advertised in the areas where they were supposed to play automatically on the ground floor and where you entered numbers for specific sections on the upper floors, because of the crowds you could not see the signs with the numbers and even if you did, it was hard to hear because of the loud crowds.
We did enjoy the gardens and huge grounds.
In most locations, they had great maps showing where you were.
Once away from the crowds, there were many beautiful, peaceful places to walk and enjoy.
In addition to the main castle, there are two smaller castles, the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon. You either had to walk or take a tram or rent a golf cart to get to them, so they were not anywhere as crowded as the main castle. They also had a nice little cafe, so we sat outside on a shaded patio and shared a delicious pastry and coffee.
The return to our hotel was just as bad as the morning trip, again taking more than an hour and dropping us off several blocks from the hotel - to properly visit the hotel, you need to go during the winter when the crowds of tourists are not there.
Montparnasse is a part of Paris that is filled with ethnic groups, each with accompanying ethnic hotels and ethnic restaurants. Diagonally across Rue Odessa form our hotel is the Celtic hotel - it appeared that they were sponsoring some Celtic entertainment and food. Since our hotel is on the corner and our room faces both sides, if we look left, we look down Rue Odessa and if we look right, we look down on to Boulevard Edgar Quinet. In the middle of the boulevard, the pedestrian space can be used for festivals and markets. We could hear both the live music and dancing from the Boulevard to the right (the first video below) as well as the marching band coming in from Rue Odessa on the left (the second video). All made for an entertaining evening back at the hotel.
Friday was mostly sunny and our plan was to leisurely walk and explore. Our first stop was to be the Champs Elysee. On the way there, we passed a Caroline Abram glasses shop - Patty got a pair of glasses from Caroline Abram when we were in Portland.
While we did not go into La Democratie, we both appreciated the name.
We saw several stores that had wood frame bicycles.
Patty gave the Eiffel Tower a lift just before we turned to go by the Elysee Palace where the French President resides - the security was amazing and it made it difficult for people to travel anywhere nearby in any direction.
We did enjoy passing by the historic buildings and some of the gardens.
We had a coffee break, then continued on - more wood frame bikes were seen.
We walked over to the Arc de Triomphe.
Then on to the Musee de L'Homme where we got paninis and ate lunch sitting in a shaded area of the park by the museum, all of which are in the Jardins du Trocadero. We then went across the river to the Eiffel Tower - this is where Patty noticed the big differences (all security related) from four years ago when she was in Paris with Helen and Bridgette. And the lines were long even on a Friday afternoon. We continued past the Eiffel Tower through the Champ du Mars and then on one side, found a cafe to stop for a cold, refreshing beer.
While I do not know for sure, I assume the green space in this park was being kept mown naturally by the sheep grazing there.
As we passed a school, we walked through an area where the kids were all in motion - bikes, rollerblades, scooters, etc - all with bright colored vests so they could be seen and with helmets and appropriate safety gear. They all appeared to be about 6 or 7 years old - very cute to watch.
And then it was back to the hotel, as we had walked about ten miles. While Patty rested and put her feet up, I emptied my back pack and went to the store for some cold beers - the local Monoprix has a small beer cave with ice cold cans of beer for 1.25 Euros, versus 6 - 12 Euros for a beer at any bar. When we were ready to eat, I went out again, this time for pre-made salad and pizza. And finally, one last trip to Monoprix for ice cream - they have several flavors of these small chocolate covered scoops of ice cream, twelve to a box, just the perfect dessert after a day of exploration.
