I wish I could say our drive to Paris was uneventful, but that’s not completely true. We actually got a few drops of rain! Us?? Imagine.......it’s just not right. We’ve become so accustomed to sunshine wherever we go...how do you drive on wet roads??? Thank god it was only a few drops, and was over quickly. We were out of the rain gear by noon.
Not only that, we got lost. We’re OK in cities, we use the GPS. On the Highways, its a bit of a memory game. How well did you study the map last night?? Well, my highway; the E40 I think, suddenly had a 90km speed limit, then 70....50... and traffic lights. Our Brussels by-pass became Brussels downtown. Having no map, we drove around a while looking for signs...nothing. We finally agreed to stop, and get out the GPS.
We took advantage of being lost, and had a wonderful meal, a great beer, and Barbie did some shopping. She’s a great shopper; shampoo and chocolates; and she’s happy. What a girl! Then on to the City of Light.
Coming into Paris, we stopped to plug our hotel address into the GPS. We were coming from CDG airport, and I knew Montmartre, our destination would be somewhere on our left. Next thing we knew we were in complete gridlock. 6 lanes wide, and no one moving.....except motorcycles. The leftmost lane of traffic squeeze left (well, most of them do), and the lane to the right squeeze right (well, most of them), and motorcycles scoot between. This was great; until the traffic started to move.....Picture this- The traffic was moving about 30kmph. I was weaving between the cars at about 60kmph, and inches would have been a luxury. I was almost swapping paint. I hear horns beeping behind me.......its motorcycles....I’m not going fast enough for them!! I dodge into the lane, and slow down with the cars to let the bikes go by. I’m not surprised at their bravery, they have much narrower bikes than I have. Then another gold wing goes by.....I pull in, thinking if he can fit, so can I. He’s a motorcycle taxi from the airport. He does this every day. He’s going over 100kmph, dodging, weaving, and blowing his horn. Its a game of intimidation that is more than my nerves can handle. I slow back down, and remember to pull in when I can to let the braver bikers go by. I ask Barbie how her nerves are doing, she said she was too afraid to look up, she’s watching the GPS and telling me where to go. Good thing, because I dared not take my eyes off traffic to read a road sign. In the tall buildings, the GPS got way behind, and we passed our turn. I saw a bunch of bikes parked on the sidewalk, and rode up the crosswalk to join them, and have a breather. When I got off the bike, I noticed that across the street was the Moulin Rouge!! At least we were in Montmartre! We took a break, spoke to some French tourists that stopped to ask about the bike; and jumped back on the bike and rode to our hotel about 4 blocks away. What an unbelievable adrenalin rush. I recommend it to anyone with a death wish!
Well versed by now with the proper European motorcycle etiquette, I rode up on to the sidewalk, then down beside the street for about half a block, and turned into the foyer of the Hotel. We parked there while we checked-in, and unloaded. I found a nearby underground to stash the bike for the duration of our time in Paris.
We tried to contact our friends, but no luck, so went out for a bite to eat, and a beer! Believe me, I needed one! We were wandering back into the hotel when we ran into Lana & Paul. That led straight to a hotel room party! And a good one. Lana’s Mom Norma, and Hubby JP were there, along with cousins Rick and Nora. Lana’s brother Russell was there for the day, and had to fly to London in the morning.
With the exception of Russell, they had been traveling France for the last 3 weeks. We had lots of stories to swap. We had seen Lana and Paul earlier that year in Edmonton, but had not seen the others in years. Lots of catching-up to do! I think we each showed up with a bottle of Grand Marnier in hand, so things really flowed well.
Being such a loyal and long time Grand Marnier drinker, Barbie actually tried to book a tour of the Grand Marnier factory, just an hour south of Paris, but they said no English tours for the next 3 months! What a drag.....they should owe us by now!
Next day we wandered Montmartre with Lana and Paul. Barbie & I had been to Paris the year before, so had seen most of the sights, but did not make it to Montmartre. If your mental picture of Paris is narrow streets with lots of shops and restaurants; with artists and music, and a sexy take on everything; you’re probably picturing Montmartre. Also there is the beautiful Sacre Coeur Basilica. Even for people like us who don’t do churches or castles (??), it was beautiful. The view from the top was well worth the steps.
That night after supper we went with Lana and Paul to a show at the Moulin Rouge. It was all good except when the glass swimming pool with a naked woman and about 10 big snakes swimming around in it showed up. Perhaps if it was 10 naked women and 1 snake I’d be temped enough to overcome my fear of snakes??? It was a good show, and really is a ‘must do’ in Paris.
We slept in late the next morning (10am ish), and spent most of that day trying to play on line with our few remaining brain cells. Everyone else went out to do their last minute shopping. I think they had more success than we did. That evening, we went to a restaurant that Norma & JP had found. We have pics of that event......good thing, I don’t think I could reconstruct the evening in my mind without them! On the way home, we did the other Montmartre thing to do.......go to a strip show. Maybe we expected too much, but I’ve seen classier shows at the Capital hotel in Whitehorse. I was time to go home to bed anyways!
In the morning, we all crowded around the bike, and said Auf Weidersehen. They were on their way to the airport, and on to Vancouver and Whitehorse; and we were on our way so see our friend Mike in Lahr!
 Barbie feeling victorious parked on the ... |
 Wandering beautiful Montmartre. |
29 Sep-02 Oct
