4th Day in Paris…

I was comfortable at the hostel, but it was time to move on since I had reservations for a flat in Paris that looked really nice on AirBnB. This morning was a traveling day and after my shower, gathered all my stuff up, carefully searched around for anything I might have misplaced, dragged my luggage downstairs, had breakfast and coffee, then turned in my key at the front desk.

Oh, that reminds me, I’d paid for 3 nights at this hostel, and the 2nd night I went up to my room around 11PM and my key card had been shut down. No longer worked in the electronic lock. Damnit. So back down to the front desk to make them turn it back on. There’s almost always a several person line checking in or out, or asking questions, day or night but at least the desk is manned 24/7. The advantages of staying here outweigh the disadvantages though…at least at this hostel, but it’s only the 2nd one I’ve ever stayed at (first one was that one night in downtown Naples) so we’ll see how the others stack up. When I was planning this trip, I’d research hostels in every city I’d planned on staying in and most cities had 3 to 25 hostels, depending of size of the city. Then I’d read through the reviews and some hostels sounded horrible. None of them had only great reviews, there was always something that someone didn’t care for. But, you wade through the reviews and make your best guess on a place to stay. I figured if a place had a 75% or greater ‘Liked’ rating, I’d stay there, and not if it was lower. That seemed to work for me fairly well so far, but like I said, I’d only stayed at 2 hostels in Europe so far.

After checking out, I’m back onto the subway, and 20 minutes later at the Eiffel Tower, only this time, dragging my carry on bag with my computer bag attached and lying on top. Weather had started to turn from incredibly good, to not so good, and I was wearing my light jacket to accomodate.

So here I was on the dock, below the tower, queuing up for the riverboat ride. Looking up at the tower you can see it’s a bit cloudier then yesterday. I was like the 8th or 9th person aboard, found a nice seat up topside where I had a great view. Can’t remember what it cost. Maybe 14€? After everyone boards, off we go.  There are several styles of riverboats, including dinner cruise types. The one below is an inclement weather type. It’s a working river so there are plenty of work boats around.

We were getting a running commentary from the guides about the places we were seeing along the route of course. All in English, now that I think about it. Motored under this pretty neat bridge. It’s the Pont Alexandre III Bridge. The most ornate bridge in Paris. Links the Left Bank with the Right Bank. Built by Nicholas II.

Here you can see all those thousands of locks people put on the bridge railings. This is just one of many bridges where they’ve done that. It does keep a removal crew employed and busy pretty much of the year removing them.Notre Dame. Old gothic architecture. I gotta go visit this building. It’s a church, but it’s also famous. And old.That building might look modern, but actually it’s a hospital from the middle ages.Notice how the weather has deteriorated? Threatening rain now.Someone’s a ‘buble but’ according to that banner on the fence below. I think they meant bubble butt. There is some graffiti on the river walls, but not much. They don’t want the tourists to be unhappy so it’s kept fairly clean and clear of graffiti.There’s some tagging on the temporary buildings there in the below picture. That building in the background is an old hotel that has ONE HUGE GUEST ROOM. And charges €12,000 per night. Full wait staff. Guest has the top floor. Michael Jackson stayed here. Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, The Beatles, US president or two, etc.A recently completed restoration. It’s now a mall I think? It’s nice and clean, that’s for sure. I didn’t make it into this building while I was in Paris.Medieval bridge, has a history from during the revolution but I forget the tale. Someone famous got hanged here I think.OK, well, it’s started to rain on me. Time to head downstairs.Not quite as sightsee’ee as upstairs. After that nice water excursion, it’s back up to the Eiffel Tower, screw around underneath it for a while, trying to decide to go up again or not, decide not to, then drag my ass and luggage back to the subway, to head for the Porte d’Orleans subway station. Then take the Bus 125 to Barbes-Ory and hunt for my apartment. What happened was that as I got on the bus, I asked the driver to let me off at the Barbes-Ory bus stop please. I had a written note with the details if he didn’t speak English. Well, this guy like turned his nose up at the whole affair, and drove right past the stop without making a sound, or pointing, or stopping when he knew that was the stop I wanted. I figured, after a couple miles past where I thought it was suppose to be, that he’d not bothered to tell me so I asked one of the riders and sure enough, they pointed back the way we’d come. Damnit. So, hopped off, crossed the street, and waited at the bus stop for a return bus. Where I’d come from was an upscale part of town. Here? Not so much. After waiting 15 minutes, I just started hoofing it back the way we came. Eventually, I did catch a bus. It wasn’t raining, it was daylight, so not really a big deal. But it was my first experience with a surly and snooty Parisian. Anyway, this new driver was very nice. He read my directions, nodded understanding, stopped at the right stop, turned around and motioned that I was to get off there. Nice guy. Faith in Parisian’s restored.

So, I find the building, pick up the key from the concierge’, who was sort of ‘you are putting me out to do this tiny thing, handing you a fukin’ key, while I’m working at managing an apartment building’. Gah. But soon I was up in my room on the fourth floor. Here’s what it looked like. Not bad. Kind of pleasant. I was happy. My host was at work, called him and let him know I’d made it and to expect to see me when he got home.

Now here’s the size of dining table that apartment in Rome should have had in the kitchen.Nice place, great view, wifi worked fine. I’ll be here for a week.The owners live in Tunisia, but their brother rents the place for them while he lives here, and handles the guests like me. A little spendy, but much, much less expensive than a hotel. Half the cost of a cheap, shoddy hotel. And nicer. And, it’s in Paris! My host didn’t get home until 8:30 or so, so I had the place to myself. I’d run to the grocery store across the street so I had already cooked my dinner by the time he’d gotten home.

In Europe, they’re not into huge pots of weak coffee like in the US so coffee pots are rare in homes. But every home has a water boiling pot. So while at the store, I noticed and bought a box of powdered instant coffee sticks. Like they sell in Starbucks. Kind of handy. Small enough to put a bunch of them in my luggage so wherever I could find hot water, I could have an instant coffee.  Plus I’d be saving a bunch of money what with the cappuccinos and espressos being so expensive everywhere in Europe. Not the best tasting coffee so I did still buy espressos here and there while in Europe, but for drinking 10-12 times a day, the instants are not bad. And it happened the next day that I needed the coffee sticks, because I took the day off from being a tourist and spent the day researching online, watching French TV, and goofing off. Eventually took a walking trip around the neighborhood and got my bearings. The host had given me a map and directions on how to find things I was looking for so that helped. Day after tomorrow, I’ll be heading to the Louvre.