Last tango in Paris

Wednesday, July 16, 2024

Our concert in Madeleine church started late because Vladimir (our truck driver from Ukraine) was stuck in traffic. He arrived almost an hour after we did. I don’t know where the truck with big instruments was parked, but traffic was apparently at a standstill. Quite a few people showed up for a 10:30 concert that started at 11:10.

We were sitting in the church, hanging out, when suddenly musicians started coming up all three aisles – single file as they had each grabbed their instrument as it came off the truck and run. It felt like that thrilling moment when the cavalry arrives in a movie.

The church is big. It looks like the Parthenon on the outside, but bigger. A brass band makes a BIG sound inside. It is a good thing the program had been chosen for a church concert, because I think Sing, Sing, Sing would have overwhelmed everyone. I counted the ring after the cut-off of one piece and got to 9. Wheeee!

We had free time in the afternoon. We had a plan. We were wheels up on the bus at 12:30 back to the hotel to change out of concert black, then go to the restaurant with red awning for the best French (should go without saying) onion soup. From there, a 16-minute walk to meet our Louvre guide for our 2:30 two-hour tour, then a ten-minute walk to the bus for our 5pm ride to a boat.

What could go wrong?

Bwahahahahaha

We were wheels rolling (I am realizing wheels up is bad for a bus) at 12:30. The tour guide said we were going to drop some people at the Arc de Triumph on our way. I thought that was crappy because it is not between our hotel and the church. Whatever. We had time. We rolled along, and along, and along. We finally stopped and let people off at 1:20. Geez. What a waste of our time. They keep closing streets and bridges in preparation for the Olympics. I have no idea how anyone is going to get anywhere during the Olympics. Tour guide said now we will be back at the hotel at 1:40. Well, lunch is no longer happening, but maybe we can get a sandwich on the street as we walk. We have time to change and get there no problem. Tour guide says we are going to drop two persons at the Louvre. We look at each other. We don’t want to go to the Louvre until we change and drop off trumpets. Apparently the two people got off at a traffic signal or something, because I had no idea they left. It got to be 1:45 and Keith checked google maps and said we were still 22 minutes from the hotel. Our hotel is a 6-minute WALK from the Louvre. We seem to be getting farther away. We shout up to the front that we are starting to worry about getting to the Louvre at 2:30. It was a $90 ticket that we really don’t want to miss out on. Google says it is a 25-minute walk from where we are. Tour guide says we can’t get out without stopping at a bus stop. The bus is not moving. After 5 minutes, we escape the bus. I checked it out. We had been 1.2 miles from our hotel when we got on the bus – a 30-minute walk. We had been on the bus 85 minutes. We were hustling. Apparently the problem is that most of the bridges are closed to traffic, but pedestrians are okay. We crossed. We had to literally walk with traffic for the last 40 feet because the sidewalk was barricaded. The whole sidewalk on that side of the street was closed. Great. We headed away from the river…a block…two blocks…we turned right and hustled. It is our first hot day – which has been SUCH a blessing – but it could have waited one more day for the heat. We got to another barricade. We could go through a park or down into the metro. We chose the metro. Stacy, Jenny, and I are NOT fast. SOMEHOW, as we were walking down of flight a stairs Keith had figured out which line we needed to take. Dan got 6 tickets. We figured out which train to take. The TRAIN CAME and we got on. The next three stops were closed (of course) but our stop was the next one after that. Phew. Okay. We were so happy to be riding and not sweating. We did the usual turn 17 times, go up and down stairs, read signs, and finally find our way out of the subway.

Now, where were we? We had to meet at a kiosk. Mmm. Dan went all the way around the block looking around for the correct name, but lo and behold, we were standing directly in front of the kiosk – at the pretty, giant beady metro stop. We made it with 10 minutes to spare!!! (In case I forget to say, the busy people got off the bus at 3:01, a full 2 and 1/2 hours to go 1.2 miles. OUCH) Bruce and I had to use a bathroom, so I boldly (BOLDLY I SAY!) took a 5-euro bill from Keith and headed to a restaurant. I walked up to the hostess and asked if she could direct me to a bathroom. She said it would be 1 euro each, got me change, and we were in! Phew.

Our tour guide arrived at 2:29. Everyone else was there except one family of 7! She called, but got no answer. A few minutes later, two people arrived and said the rest were right behind them. We waited 15 minutes. They strolled up with no apologies. They were from New York. We immediately did not like them. The young woman with 4-inch slides didn’t look museum worthy and the Giverny bag hanging from the stroller with a 6-year-old in it didn’t improve my mood. But we were finally off. We had to wait in the group security line for almost 15 minutes, but the line for those with regular tickets was loooonger. We were instructed to use the bathroom if we needed to. Several people did and the stroller lady asked if she could go buy a bottle of water. We all waited for her to return – and when she did, she and the kid had ice cream. Mmmm. Did she think it was going to be okay to take ice cream into the Louvre? Because I am going to tell you, it did not seem likely to me. The tour guide told her she had to hide her ice cream, that is was not allowed. We went through ticketing, and they stopped her, because YOU CAN’T TAKE ICE CREAM INTO THE LOUVRE. She was really pissed.

We were sending messages to a variety of people to find out where the boat was docked, because we had heard several people were going to just meet everyone there. We figured at the rate the bus went, we could walk wherever it was faster. We finally got a location and a time – 6:30 for the boat trip. OKAY! Pressure was off. We had signed up for a two-hour tour, and the delays were making things not look good, but now we could relax. We had plenty of time to finish our two-hour tour and walk 1.2 miles to the boat. We picked the tour because it fit in our narrow window of availability (not even knowing how unavailable we would be) and because it hit the big things – Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, crown jewels, and the Mona Lisa. Our guide was good at showing/teaching us about things that led up to each of the big items. The New York family kept getting lost. She offered to them that they go at their own pace, just to let her know, several times. That was code for ‘you are being jerks. Go away’.

We saw a couple early works of Leonardo di Vinci – he did a lot of things, but there are only 15 known paintings by him. The Louvre has five. We got to the Mona Lisa room and it was crazy. Stacy said, “IT’S THE MONA LISA!” Stacy is freaking amazing.

We joined the throng and oozed forward. A few people smooshed ahead. What are you doing, people? Why do you get to smoosh? Do you not think we are all going to see the same thing? After two couple pushed past us, I decided I was saying no to the next person. The next person never came (but I was ready).

It wasn’t exactly anticlimactic, because it was exciting and the energy in the room was buzzy – but it was weird because you couldn’t really see her. We got right up to the front of the barricade, but still, we were 10 feet away and she isn’t exactly large (but not tiny like people say. She is painting-sized). I mean, you can’t see brush strokes, you can’t get up close and personal and gaze, because let’s face it, there are a lot of people behind you. It was weird, but it was fun, and I am so glad we did it.

Meanwhile, we got a message from the guy who organized the tour that said we had to be at the boat at 5:15. WTAH? We wrote back that we were in the Louvre and we thought 6 – 6:30 and never got a response. Augh. The others were very concerned about missing the boat – I wasn’t – but we turned in our listening devices and headed out.

Or tried to. It took 15 minutes just to get out of the museum. (Did I mention it is the largest museum in the world? For having such a large collection, there are very few things on the walls. We were in a tiny portion of the physical museum, but when we were in the Hermitage, another giant museum, there was stuff everywhere.) We got out into the sun and walked down-river. We had to change sides of the street and cross a bridge and things kept being gated off, but we made it!! It was 5:20. No one was there but us. The boat didn’t open until 6 and left the dock at 6:30. Didn’t matter, we made it.

I saw a manhole cover or something that I liked better than a lot of things I saw in the Louvre.

We passed actual Olympic stuff.

Keith and Jenny looked cute coming out by the boat – finally.

Sally and Becky sat across from us on the boat ride. They are terrific and I am so glad we got to be with them for our last dinner together.

It was very hot on the boat, so I went out on the bow for a breath of air and a splash of water.

Keith did the same and got a shot of the local statue of liberty.

The food was good, and we had sparkling wine. I bet it was champagne.

We saw an aquacar on someone’s boat. A boat on a boat!

We bussed back to the hotel and gave out lots of hugs. The bus is loading at 5:30am to get people to their flights tomorrow. Our flight is 12:45ish, so we are going to take the train instead. I feel like that is going to be an adventure of its own, but we get at least 3 extra hours of sleep, so we are going for it.