Sat 26.Jul.2025
Paris, FR
London, UK
Paris again?
Mais oui!!
In fact, our old friend Jardin de Luxembourg
- home to senators, pigeons, and a boatload of Parisians.
Lodging:
a hotel, or a private apartment? Hotels are easy to check in and out.
An apartment is usually nicer digs, and always has a refrigerator for my insulin.
OTOH it can be an adventure to get the key!
For this Paris
apartment, I received an email,
that said "welome" and gave me a phone # for contact. When I arrived at the apt building,
that phone number just went to a message machine (in French).
Over coffee at a nearby cafe, I reviewed that email carefully,
and saw a link labelled "last minute check-in". The resulting web page read like a treasure
map. First you must go to 82 Rue de xxxx and give the code nnnn to get the key.
"82 Rue de xxxx" proved to be a hole-in-the-wall Indian grocery store!
I was reassured when the clerk saw my confusion, and asked
if I was here for a key. Looking at the web instructions again I saw a faint arrow on the
photo of the front door, so I clicked it. "Use the blue badge to open the front door,
and the inner door. The apartment is directly in front of you after the inner door. Use
the key to open the apartment. A photo illustrated holding the blue RFID badge up to a
sensor near the door.
Miraculously, it all worked on the first try!
Going back out was simpler. Here is the
entry hall, heading for the street.
My neighborhood
Ave Rene Coty features a tree-lined promenade up the center, with occasional benches,
and even this foosball table.
A corner park near my local laundromat. Unlike some I've talked about, this laundromat
was very generic, but
modern enough to use credit cards for payment.
As a non-smoker, it feels right to me to associate tobacco with the catacombs.
If you need to walk more than 5 minutes for a simpatico cafe, you are in the wrong
part of Paris!
London
Paris this isn't!
Even for a beginner like me, London is a great city to explore!
It probably helped that warm sunny weather finally caught up with me at about the time I
arrived here.
The Tower Bridge, as seen from London Bridge.
The previous London Bridge was dismantled carefully, and re-assembled in
Arizona, where it is a tourist attaction to this day. There is a story that the
developer who bought it thought that "London Bridge" was the Tower Bridge, but as
long as he could honestly advertise "London Bridge", he didn't complain!
The "topless bus" on Westminster Bridge.
Two of London's districts are actually named "City": City of Westminster
and City of London (!). City of London is the financial district, featuring
skyscrapers like the top-heavy "Walkie Talkie" and the curvaceous "Gherkin".
Across the river, big signs call you to visit "Shakespeare's Globe Theater"!
Really?! Well, the fine print admits that this a reconstruction, based partly on
conjucture. Here it is though. Makes a nice enough picture.
There is London Bridge, and the oddly attrative skyscraper called "The Shard",
adjacent to a major Underground and commuter rail station.