By the numbers
21513 steps
15.79 kms
1 train
Bag apparently weighs just over 19kgs
Of all things to see when I looked out the window of the
hotel was clear skies and that did mean I was leaving for Paris of all things
today. I wasn’t too worried, I just hoped that the weather would hold up when I
visited Paris and I hoped there would be no huge problems, not that I thought
there would be. I was able to have breakfast with my card still having
problems. I have a feeling that it might be the French system unless ‘travel’
cards do not like sitting in wallets.
I made it to the train with heaps of time before it set off
a couple of minutes late, although it had been waiting at the station when I
got there and I was able to board it. Even though it was a little bit late, the
train seemed to make it into Paris on time and that was when I had a new
problem as I needed to find the hostel without getting confused or waylaid. It
wasn’t actually too bad trying to find the hostel as it was reasonably easy to
find from the station. Once you have an active map going on. The hostel were
able to check me in, but I would have no access until after 2pm as I was there
around 10am that morning. I had stopped for a coffee and to figure out where
exactly, I wanted to go. I had thought about Rin tintin, but that was a little
distance away. I needed something that would boost my confidence on the trains.
My phone helped in telling me where I should go as I wanted
to see the remains of Napoleon and told me which train. I was able to do that
without a problem until I realised, I had jumped onto the wrong train. Several
stops later, I found I couldn’t find the track, I was after. Deciding to try up
some stair, I found the correct direction, I was wanting. It wasn’t hard, just
time consuming and I think they had upgraded the whole system since I was last
in Paris nearly 10 years ago. It looked
that way to me, but I was happy to get to where I wanted and that was near to
Les Invalides, which is a section for the military invalids, which apparently
some still live on site. There are three museums there and I think I ended up
in all of them for a short time. They were all in French, so I couldn’t exactly
read everything to know what was going on, especially when I found the
information about the resistance. Very few things there were in English, but
bits and pieces like about the Railway resistance. I did ask a man near the
gift shop about the location of the toilet and he was confused at first and
then pointed to a sign. I had him laughing when I did a face palm. Hope that
lightened his day a touch.
The remains of Napoleon was interesting as there was marble,
statues and paintings everywhere. The area cathedral like building had several
other people’s remains like Ferdinand Foch who was a French general during WW1
and he had a grave there in one corner. It was interesting wandering around as
it seemed they spared no expense and the French did seem to respect someone who
sent them to war against just about everyone else. I have no idea what other
countries would think about the memory of Napoleon. The other part where I
seemed to be followed by kids was the armoury that included suits of armour and
weaponry over time like canons and cross bows all in the French collection. I
was looking at the paintings on the wall as I went around as they were
beautiful.
After the museums, I took a walk to the Musee D’Orsay, which
wasn’t very far away and I could walk there with no problems even with
distractions. I got there without going over to the Grand Palace that was
across the bridge. I did cross the bridge, but the traffic had gotten heavy so
I decided not to go any further. Once I got to D’Orsay, I found there was a bit
of a line up even though I had an access card to get me inside. The building
itself was once a railway station that they had turned into an art gallery that
included artworks by Monet and even statues. Once I was able to enter, I had a
wander around the different exhibits even though I had no idea who half the
expressionists were. I ended up on the top floor taking in the view and the
clouds that were building for what looked to be some rain. I did look at many
of the paintings even though half of them I did not recognise.
I did leave just as it started to rain and I wanted to see
the Notre Dame before getting the train back to the hostel. The cathedral did
look worse for wear, but it was blocked off from people getting too close. I
don’t know if the workers around the building were working in relation to the
restoration or making sure things were being removed. Many people were hanging
around taking photos, so I wasn’t the only one doing that. I thought it was way
past time to get back and caught a train to the Gare Du Nord station that would
be the same one that I would be getting to the airport. At least I knew where
it was even though I was doing this during rush hour and I bet people could
tell I wasn’t local at all. The main station was crazy and I was there trying
to make sense of it. Once I got out again, I knew all was good.
I was sorting out my cards and seeing how much I had left in
Euro and found my main card that I had been using had been blocked. I didn’t
know how to unblock it and ended up ringing the number so that I could sort it
out. Turns out it was one of the Maccas transactions I had made and the card
had been having problems since I arrived in France. I only knew I had troubles
with it as I had checked my emails and the Edinburgh hostel said my card had
been declined. I did get it unblocked and the lady on the phone was nice about
it. If they couldn’t verify my Identity then I would lose all access to my
cards. Though I am glad to have that sorted out.
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