Paris, the city of "Where are we?"

Ah Paris.  First, I have to say that everyone warned us about driving in Paris.  They did not warn us about driving near Paris.  We were supposed to go to Chartres to see the beautiful blue stained glass in their famed cathedral.  In my husband's carefully timed plan, it should have worked.  We needed to have the rental car at Orly by 7 pm.  We left Vimy at 1 pm.  The drive to Paris should have taken 2 hrs, to Chartres a further 1 hr, at the cathedral for an hour, back to Orly in an hour and hand the car in with an hour to spare.  Easy peasy right?  Not so fast buddy.

The drive to Paris slowed to stop and go just as we hit Charles de Gaulle Airport.  OK.  An hour later we knew that Chartres was a pipe dream.  I was really upset, but tried really hard not to be.  What is, is.  I really wanted to see the sun pouring through the glass.  Chartres has a relic, is steeped in history, and is supposed to be breathtakingly beautiful.  Next time.

The other crazy thing about the traffic was the scooters and motorcycles screaming up between the stopped lanes of cars.  Not slowly either.  One inattentive driver and pow!  Finally we wondered how close to our hotel we were.  GPS said about 10 minutes, so we decided to get rid of the bags and hubby suggested us too.  Wow!  I have one thing to say.  DO NOT drive in Paris if you can at all avoid it.  My husband tells a horror story about a roundabout and the GPS saying go straight through, but how to tell when you are opposite to where you started while dodging traffic mayhem in a monster roundabout.  Needless to say he found both airport and hotel via transit.

So on to Paris.

 Cafes everywhere.  Paris has a feeling of relaxation.  Sure there is hustle and bustle, but there is the feeling that taking a moment is O.K. too.  Everyone we met was polite and helpful, despite our french being limited.  Also nice that unlike in Montreal where the slightest waiver brings on perfect English, here they let you struggle if you want.  We saw all the typical tourist sights, like the Arc de Triomphe and the Tour Eiffel. I highly recommend seeing it at night.  While you're waiting in line, watch the police harass the illegal souvenir sellers.

We did a little shopping at the Galleries Lafayette.  Didn't buy much, but the glass dome and the way the store is built around it is worth a visit all by itself.  But if you do get there, the real treat is the roof top patio.  There is a place to eat, but the observation area is free and the vantage point not too bad.  The eatery one floor down looks onto the back of the opera house.

Old and new juxtaposed by happenstance.

We did some churches too.  Of all the churches we visited in Europe, my husband says Saint Chapelle is his favourite.  This was the one that blew him away.  Restored to its Medieval appearance, it is a stunner.  The glass, and there is oh so much of it, seems to stand there on its own.  The tracery of support beams hardly intrude into the wall of glass.  On my weepy scale this one sure was up there.

As to the "Where are we?" of the title.  Well we wander, a lot.  We head out in a general direction confident that we can find our way.  In many places, especially in the US and Canada with cities built on grids, this is not overly difficult even without a map.  Paris is a whole different critter.  First, "Where are the street signs?"  This took us a bit to figure out.  They are on the buildings on the corners.  Bring binoculars, they are small.  Second, in Paris all the buildings are about the same height and so finding tall landmarks by which to steer doesn't work.  Third, the buildings are all similar looking and hard to distinguish, so getting lost in the maze of streets is easy.  Use a good map.  Fortunately, the one our fantastic hotel Classics Hotel Bastille gave us was perfect, complete with Metro map and stops marked.  I highly recommend both the hotel and the Metro.