Triumph!- July 2, 2007
This morning I went for a run (yay - luggage means I have running shoes again!). I tried to run by the Siene River, but this section of town (the suburbs) it doesn't have foot paths everywhere. I did OK, but tomorrow I may either do a short run in the park (I think it might be like 8 minutes around, so I could probably do about 4 or 5 before getting really bored). The news here is that without Rico (he is at work today) I found my way back to the apartment!
I had a small work project to do, but to accomplish that I had to travel across Paris to a tech section and find a computer store. My computer charger was not in my luggage. :( A computer battery is an odd souvenir, but I am happy because I can download my pictures and read my email. :) The news here is that I only made one little mistake -- exiting the metro instead of changing trains -- to get to the store. Then I actually found my way home AGAIN! Dang, am I good!
But that is getting ahead of myself. So last night Rico and I surfed dell.fr (the French version of the Dell computer web site) and found out what a computer charger was in French. I carefully copied down the entire description because I had no idea which words were the important ones. Then Rico showed me what Metro station to get off and where to switch trains. Today I got off the metro at the stop Rico told me about. I could see a row of computer stores just off to the left. So I went in the first one and tried reading my list. The lady (who I swear was speaking an Asian language) had no idea what I said, so I showed her my paper. This caused a conference with another person behind the desk. Then she handed the paper back and started talking to the man next to me. After being ignored for a couple minutes I figured that meant she didn’t have what I wanted. So I left. Went to the store next door. Same scenario. So after they ignored me at this store, I stepped out on the street and sorta looked around to decide on a different course of action, or if maybe I didn’t really need to use my computer anymore until mid-July when I was back State-side. A man who’d been in the store came out and said to me in English, “Do you know SUE-cf? They will have what you want.”
I am wondering how you spell “SUE-cf” (as I heard it) and if you trust some random guy who says, “take a left at the second street and there it is.” How does he know what I want when so far no one has understood the words I copied off the web? Heck, I don’t even know what I want in French.
At any rate, I say “merci” and decide that as long as I am wondering around I can wander 2 more blocks. It turns out that he doesn’t count every street as a street. Only streets with stoplights count as streets. So, 5 blocks (if you count all the paved areas with painted lanes where cars can drive) later I see a sign in circus letters saying “Surcouf”. Ah.
It’s like a 2-story Best Buy with more stuff. Apparently Dell is not a brand used much in France. So I have to wait in a special line for the portable computer peripherals guy (I forgot the French words for that - my ability to understand French is back but the ability to speak it still escapes me). I show him my paper and he answers me in English that he has my part. I almost cry. Literally. I had no idea I was so invested in this process. He tells me something else that I don’t understand. When I cock my head to the side like a dog and knit my eyebrows, the guy in line behind me says “he says you can use it in the UK as well”. Well, bonus! I will have to go to the UK next time. Should I be happy to not be pegged as an American tourist or irritated to be thought British?That night I listen to Rico tell the story to his friends over dinner. He says he told me how to get to Chinatown (the Asian language is now making more sense) and that was all. He seemed amazed that I made it there, found a store with my battery and made it back. In fact, when he called me to see if I was lost (I set up my cell phone to work in France for such emergencies), I was already back at his house working. He seemed so surprised! Ha! His friends gave him a hard time for being so vague with me - like they thought he was being mean!
“Every Day” does not include Tuesdays - July 3, 2007
Today was a lazy day -- I slept in until 11am. Yay! Then I cleaned the kitchen from last night's dinner and showered. Then I was off for my first complete day of being a tourist!
I went to the L'Opera Garnier -- where the story of the Phantom of the Opera takes place. It was VERY, VERY cool. I would love to go to an opera there someday. You can totally see the grand staircase from the book and the thousands of "candle" lights (electric now), the mirrors on all the walls, and all the places to slip into to hide... I didn't get to see the actual theater since it was closed for a rehersal today. But I actually decided that was best -- then I can wait for that until I can see the play too.
After that I wandered over to the Musee de L'Orangerie -- supposedly a lot of impressionist works in there. I went there via the Louvre gardens. I really like the glass pyramid things and that courtyard in front of the Louvre. I knew the Lourvre was closed on Tuesdays, so I was just planning to see the outside. I didn't realize that the Orangerie was also closed on Tuesdays. The sign outside said "open every day until 7pm and Wednesdays to 9pm" -- if my French is holding up. The French woman behind me in line was irritated as well to find out that "every day" does not include Tuesdays. At least it wasn't just me.
So from there I went to the Musee D'Orsay on the other side of the Siene -- which also has a lot of impressionist paintings. It is actually open on Tuesdays. Apparently the rest of Paris knew that as well. I got there at about 3pm. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the crowd in the museum square was actually a line to get into the roped off lines which, in turn, lead you into the museum so you can get in line to pay. Dang! I waited in that line for 1 hour to get to the door of the museum -- and the right to get into the line where you can purchase tickets. It rained -- at one point it POURED -- so I bought an umbrella from a street vendor for 5 Euro -- like $7.50. It was worth it. And now I can add to my collection of umbrellas purchased from street vendors -- I have one from New York City (Times Square -- when I went for an evening on my Mahwah, New Jersey trip a few years ago for work), and one from Rome (when JJ and I were wondering around over Thanksgiving in 2005). I finished my book club novel while I was waiting in line -- some of it takes place in Paris, so that was cool. When I was next in line to actually buy a ticket, the ladies in front of me took sooooooo long that the entire line next to me emptied out and filled again. The couple behind me was American too, so I could understand their conversation. I seriously thought the guy was going to go take matters into his own hands -- he was getting so frustrated. Like it was worth a scene to see a bunch of old paintings by guys that didn't color within the lines! At any rate, we did finally get into the museum. I saw some really famous stuff -- Van Gogh's Starry Night, a couple of Monet's Water Lilies, the Renoir of the party picture, etc. The building is a converted train museum. I love the building...
After that, I braved the museum bookstore for some postcards (yikes -- can you say 100 smelly people in a place that holds 40 by American standards).
The off for a walk along the Siene...I ended up by Notre Dame -- so I went in for a quick look around. There was a service in progress, but still a lot of tourists wandering around. I tried to be discreet (no flash, quiet, etc.) but I think it would be annoying to be at a service and have people walking around and talking. (Although those big halls eat up the noise except for the speaker and the choir).
I got back to the apartment to Rico playing the guitar! Very nice. Dinner was the gnocci from the market... JJ, I would say it's more flour, less potato, than the ones in Italy.
Tomorrow -- the Louvre!!! Not sure what else. Then Thursday through Saturday I can finally use my French from high school -- Rico and I are going to visit the Mediterranean coast of France with his days off! Je vais a la plage!!!
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