One Full Day in Paris

April 24, 2017
Today Taylor and I planned to walk through the Marais District in Paris, go to the Pompidou Centre to see modern art, and continue walking around Paris.

We started with the walking tour of the historic Marais.  We saw quaint buildings, the Jewish Quarter and the outside of the Pompidou.  We found the Pompidou as disgusting as Parisians do and decided to abandon the plan of going inside the building at all.  Instead we spent the day walking through the Marais, Monmartre and back to our  hotel.

The Pompidou is not under construction.  This is the way it looks.

I prefer the older buildings - especially if they have been creatively adapted with elephants.

The Jewish Quarter still has Jewish people which I find totally surprising after the events of World War II.  The original quarter has shrunk, of course, but you still see evidence of several shops and we  saw a number of Hassidic Jewish men on the street.

Jewish book store.

The old Jewish Synagogue, still in use today.

After the Marais and the Jewish Quarter Taylor and I decided to take the Metro to Montmartre. We took the subway yesterday so I already knew that it is has improved immensely since I last used it in 1971.  It is clean, and has no discernable odor - the qualities that I found disturbing in the past.  In addition, it has a very nifty system of helping you plan your trip. You simply put your finger on the electronic map at the stop you wish to go to, and instructions appear for you.  In our case, we took the Yellow 1 Line in the direction of Chateau de Vincennes.  We got off at the Nation stop and transferred to the Blue 2 Line in the direction of Porte Dauphine and got off at Anvers.  When we emerged we were in front of the Elysees Montmartre the famous CanCan theatre.  This automated itinerary finder is one idea that the Taipei MRT could add to make their system even more perfect than it already is.

We trooped through Montmartre with all the other tourists. We went in Sacre Coeur Basilica, a fairly modern structure finished in 1919, with hoards of rude and obnoxious visitors.  I was quite discouraged because so many people don't understand the meaning of the instructions:  "Silence" and "No photography."  It was a carnival.  On the other hand, when we crossed the street to visit the Church of St. Pierre-de-Montmartre, Paris' oldest church (1147), hardly anyone was there.  It was a much better experience and calmed me down.

We had lunch, and enjoyed wandering through the hives of streets that make up Montmartre, and seeing well known sights including the famous Moulin Rouge.

A highlight was finding our friend Liz Cronan's favorite croissant shop on the Rue des Abbesses, The Grenier.

Un croissant et un pain au chocolat

Next a visit to a local park.

At the park, we ate our goodies and figured out what to do next.

Thus, ends our one full day in Paris.  We still have tomorrow morning, and then we go off to Amsterdam.

French Country and French City

April 23, 2017
This is what we saw this morning when we woke up in Giverny.  Our garret windows looked down on a magical scene.  What is missing from the photo is the brisk air, the grassy smells and the sounds of the birds in the trees and the cows frolicking or snoozing in the grass hidden by the clouds.

Our last view of Giverny.

The train ride to Paris, and the taxi to our hotel were uneventful, but the contrast between the pastoral and the razzle dazzle of the city was remarkable.

Our hotel is the exact opposite of the small, unassuming hotel in Giverny.

Is the room ridiculous or sublime?  Or just plain comfortable?

Not only is the bathroom fancy, it comes with shampoo.  (I learned in Giverny, when it was too late, that I needed to go to the front desk and ask for shampoo. I used a bar of soap on my hair.

I admit it, I have been wowed by the elegant fixings of the hotel. Fortunately, I was able to pull myself away from the comfort of our room, the glamor of the elegant stairs, and the charm of the patio with the painted building next door.  Paris, beyond the hotel walls, has a lot to offer.

We walked through the historic areas of Paris dropping in to Notre Dame (it's huge), strolling by Shakespeare and Company, going through Sainte Chappelle and walked along the Seine on both the Right and Left Banks.  We saw a lot.

Here's a few snaps of what we saw in our half a day.

We came into this little Bistro when there were hardly any customers.  By the time we finished our dinner the place was packed.

We stumbled across this magnificent arch on the way back from dinner.  Paris is full of surprises like this.

All in all, our first half day in Paris has been magnificent.  We made the transition from the enchanting countryside of Giverny to the intensity of Paris and have enjoyed both.

Monet's Garden

I've been a huge fan of Claude Monet for years.  I admire both his painting and his gardening skill.  Today was the day that I got to visit his gardens.

My conclusion: the gardens are everything and more than I expected.  It was well worth the effort to come here.

Where's Waldo, oops, Jamar?

View from the studio

A corner in the studio.

A view from the bedroom.

Another bedroom view.

Talkin' Trash, Again

I don't really need to talk about trash again.  But here I am, talking trash.

This time in Taipei, we live in an entirely different situation from our apartment in Daxue Village where we had to take our trash out to the trucks at 8:20 pm. See  jamarp50.blogspot.com/2016/04/lets-talk-trash.html

 Our current apartment building is on a major street and our apartment is on the 8th floor of a 15 floor apartment building.  While we have to sort our trash, we have the luxury of taking it to the sorting areas in the building any time we feel like it.  We have both a door man and a trash man who make sure all the residents sort their trash properly.

Here's Taylor's and my routine:

We sort our trash into paper, plastic, glass, compost and the BLUE BAG nasty stuff.  I usually take the sorted recyclables down to the lobby when David, Chia and Soup go home for the evening.  It's easy to put the recyclables into their appropriate bins.

5 bins for recyclables.

 I take our compost to the basement level after dinner.

Compost bins.  I suspect the signs above say something like: plastic bags (above the red), raw vegetable matter, cooked food.  I'm tossing everything into the middle bin. I'm over being fastidious with the system.

Taylor rounds up our blue bags when Soup, Chia and David depart.  In case you forgot, the blue bags have the toilet trash, diapers and anything I'm too damn lazy to prepare for proper recycling.  This visit we're much more apt to put something in the blue bag that should be recycled since our land lady provides the the bags.  The blue bags go in the stair well on our floor, and that wonderful trash man collects them daily.  In our last apartment we hauled these bags to the truck.

This isn't far from our front door.

The man who manages the building trash is quite natty.  He wears a black leather jacket and spiffy sun glasses morning, noon and night.  He takes the recyclables from their bins and resorts them into manageable bags. This is the front courtyard of our building which is where the trash manager stages the trash in the late afternoon.  From here he takes it all to the trash trucks when they arrive around 5:20 pm.

The staging area.  Today is 3-D recyclables.

Our role in depositing our trash is very convenient. I've been feeling quite smug about the whole situation.  However, around 5:15 pm we hear the trash truck music.  I've pretty much ignored it, but since we've been here for a little more than 2 weeks I've finally become curious.  Tonight, when I heard the music I went outside to observe what I've been missing.

While I've been smug in my apartment, there's a whole host of people dealing with the trash from our building, and the surrounding apartment buildings, businesses and restaurants.  Individual families are also out there taking care of their trash.

These blue bags have been organized by apartment building trash managers and are awaiting the trash truck.  I see our trash man taking these orange carts in the elevator.  I have noticed that he washes them every night.

Here's the recycling truck.  Tonight they are collecting 3-D recyclables.  The bags on the side of the truck are for glass, plastic, and styrofoam.

 People like our trash man are bringing recyclables from entire buildings, and individual people are bringing their family recyclables. Notice that there is a huge white block of strofoam and a black suitcase waiting for the truck.

Here's the truck that collects the blue bags.

While individuals throw their blue bags into the truck, small motorcycle carts also arrive to toss in the bags from large apartments, or businesses.

Here's an woman putting her personal kitchen compost into the bins.  Restaurants also throw in huge amounts of kitchen waste.

So here I sit, thinking how easy it is to take my trash to designated areas in my building.  In the meantime there is a huge number of people managing the trash for people just like me. Since I personally deposited my trash at the trucks during our last visit, I'm happy to let other people do it for me now.

European Adventure 2017 - the beginning

This year we started our journey in Paris!!!  A very brief stop in Paris.  We were only in Paris long enough to catch the train to Vernon, 4 miles from  Giverny where Monet planted his garden.


In Vernon we found a taxi driver who took us to a bank, and on to Giverny.  We have garret room at Hotel la Mustardiere.  The reason we are in the garret is that we have our own bathroom.  The rooms on floor below us have to share.

Our room has the small windows at the very top. The room is tiny, but clean and the view is lovely.

We had lunch in the village. After a stroll and a nap we started our dinner at the hotel with kir.

Although Giverny bustled during the day, now that the tourists have gone home, we have the place to ourselves.  It is the perfect location to recover from a long journey.

Tomorrow will go see Monet's garden and home.