Paris in the Springtime. … in April. … after the election. …after the Covid lockdowns. …. ….during Spring school vacation. It’s a good time to be in Paris!
Several months ago, Rick and I made a plan to spend a few weeks in Paris this spring, with a different focus this time. We’ve seen the major sights here, more than once, so on this trip we’ll be looking for different attractions. We’ve rented an apartment in the 12th Arrondissement for 2 weeks; and prior to that, in the 9th, a hotel in one of Paris’ unique passages, for 2 nights.
Prior to the trip, we made sure our paperwork was in order - passports valid for at least 6 months beyond our return date, Covid vaccination cards, Passenger Locator Forms, and we even had a Covid test a few days before departure, though it wasn’t required. I loaded all of the documents into the Delta FlyReady app. As with my travel experience in November on British Airways, no one needed or wanted to look at the app on my phone. At check-in, the Delta agent just wanted to see our passports, and paper copies of the other required documents. Kind of discouraging to go to the trouble of loading all of this into the app for naught.
We departed Seattle on a Delta flight at 12:45 p.m. It flew directly to Paris, landing at 7:30 a.m. the next day. The flight was over 9 hours long, and we’d splurged on Business Class seats, which convert to totally flat beds, so we were hoping to get some sleep on the plane. That didn’t happen. It was partially because we weren’t flying during what would have been our normal sleeping hours.
We got through Charles de Gaulle airport without any trouble. The only document we needed to present at this end was our passport. Our airline was responsible for checking the other requirements prior to letting us board the plane.
First order of business was to get some euros. The only working ATM we found was attached to the Money Exchange office, so that might be why the exchange rate wasn’t very good. Though the current rate was a little under $1.054 dollars to 1 euro, I was charged about $1.225 for each euro. Hopefully, the banks in town will give us a better rate.
It looked like a combination of the RER train, and 2 Metro lines would get us to our hotel, Hotel Chopin, in the 9th Arrondissement. Luckily, an agent was at the bank of ticket machines to help us buy the appropriate tickets. Masks are required on public transportation, and most riders complied with this. Next time I think we’ll take a cab into town. It might have cost us 30 or 40 euros more, but would have saved us lots of walking with our luggage.
Our plan was to drop our luggage off at Hotel Chopin, and check out the neighborhood until we could check into our room. It was only 10:30, and check-in wouldn’t be until 2, at least. But our room was ready, and the desk clerk let us check in early. So nice!
I chose this hotel because it’s located in one of the covered passages of Paris. There are several of these remaining in the city, mostly in the older areas. They were built between 1799 and the mid-1800s, and provided a nice, dry shopping experience rain or shine. This was especially nice when women were wearing long skirts.
In 2018, when we stayed in Paris, we were near 2 of the passages. See my previous post the-montorgueil-neighborhood.html
Once we discovered the covered passages, I found lots of info about them. On this visit, we were lucky to have 3 right around us. Our hotel was located in Passage Jouffroy, which housed several antique stores, a few restaurants, a great miniature store, and some gift and souvenir shops.
The third passage near us was Passage Verdeau, also containing a mixture of shops and a few restaurants.
We had a nice buffet breakfast each morning at our hotel, and spent several hours meandering through the passages and around our neighborhood, during our 2-day stay here.
On our first full day in town, we decided to walk over to the Picasso museum, not far from our hotel. It’s a great little museum, filled with paintings and sculptures from his private collection. There was a good film describing his life, and his relationships with women, both his wives and mistresses. He fathered 4 children, by 3 different women, and was a doting parent, at least while the children were young.
The picture below demonstrates how Picasso saw art in everything.
An old bicycle seat and handlebars! I think we’ll try this at home.
The other thing that amused us was a school group, or maybe a preschool group, of children taking a tour of the museum. We happened upon the group as they were sitting quietly in front of one of Picasso’s paintings, while a docent explained to them the subject and technique. I captured their photo heading down the stairs. I think these young students will have a real advantage with the school placement exam question, Can you name one famous cubist painter?
JThere were plenty of restaurant choices in our area, although we didn’t find anything worth blogging about.
One exception, not necessarily regarding the food, was our dinner at Le Bouillon Chartier. We were shown to a little table behind the waiters’ station, and when I questioned the table, our waiter said, You can sit here, or over there, where you’ll have 2 strangers sitting with you. We decided on the table behind the wait-station. We noticed some other less-than-satisfied customers being seated with strangers. Our table was separated from a table of 4 by a plexiglass divider, probably added during Covid. If not for the divider, we would have gotten chummy with the foursome next to us. The restaurant has been in business for well over 100 years, so I guess it doesn’t affect their reviews.
Rick sitting behind the wait-station. If not for a plexiglass divider,
the girl in the gold sweater would be his new best friend.
We had enjoyed our time in the 9th, and would go back! Our room at Hotel Chopin was very small, but the hotel was charming, and nicely maintained. Next time, we’ll request a bigger room.
Stay tuned - next we’re in the 12th, and far from the tourist crowds.
