June 1, 1998 - Monday

---

We started off leaving Saturday at about 15h00 on the Thalys train from Köln Hbf to Paris Gare du Nord.  I'd like to say the train ride was uneventful, but it wasn't.  First off, a drunk entered our car and was sitting a few rows down from us.  I don't know what the drunk did but the Belgium conductors came to examine him and asked for his identity card, which the drunk could not produce.  Though the drunk apparently could produce a valid ticket.  When we stopped in Bruxelles-Midi (center of Brussels) the Belgium conductors escorted the drunk off the train to the waiting policemen on the platform.  The police promptly handcuffed the drunk and led him off.  Shite way to start a long, weekend vacation.  Unfortunately I didn't think of taking a photo until after the drunk was led away.

Although, all strange events were not over just yet!

We were seated (assigned seating only on this train) next to an African who was drinking rum, straight out of the bottle.  Well, as you can guess, the African became drunk and belligerent.  He was insulting the Germans passing on their way to the restaurant car, yelling insults at them and saying how he hated white people.  Unfortunately, our French conductor (who got on when we left Belgium) didn't stop to help out, even though the African had dropped his bottle of rum in the aisle way (which the conductor, when he passed more than once, simply kicked aside with his foot).  Sandra and I tried to be diplomatic with the drunk African and keep him calm.  Seeing as we were stuck in assigned seating next to this guy there was little else we could do.  Thalys conductors really ought to look out more for their passengers.  Especially when you're paying 178FrF for the seat.

It was only a quarter moon that day.  So I don't understand what the deal was.

  After we safely got into Paris and off the train, we checked into the Hotel Lyon Mulhouse (+33.1.47.00.91.50) near Place Bastille on 8 bd Beaumarchais.  The hotel is actually quite nice with prices being real reasonable, even with breakfast in the room.    And not too badly situated from Chatelet which is less than a 20 minute walk.  Not bad for one of those nights where you just can not get a taxi home!  On Sundays the nearby island in the street around the corner has a huge marketplace set up.

We headed out of the hotel and dropped by Cafe Oz in Chatelet.  Wasn't quite the same in there without the wipes.  Then from Cafe Oz we hit the Frog and Rosbif.  The prices there were high and the beer of poor quality.  And the atmosphere is rather a bit crummy.  Shoddy wood tables and benches.  Felt more like a poor university student bar, but the prices sure didn't match!

We left the Frog and Rosbif and headed back to the hotel.  But on the way Sandra noticed the small Guinness pub next door to Cafe Oz.  We popped into there.  She had a Newcastle brown, I had a glass of blanche.

We left the small pub and walked to the taxi rank in Chatelet.  Yep, no taxis and one real long line of people waiting for a taxi to arrive.  So what else is new in Paris?  We walked back to the hotel and, even taking the long way around. it was only 20 minutes.

In the morning we had breakfast in the room and headed out to do some Museums.  We headed out to the Picasso Museum.  Although my Lonely Planet guidebook said they had other artists, we saw only Picasso there.  You really have to like Picasso to appreciate this place.  I'm not a big fan of his.

From there we walked over to Angelina's for our hot chocolates.  Their specialty.  It was delicious.  A meal in itself.  After a quick run into the toilets to wash up we were out on the streets again.  We stopped into the WH Smith bookstore (a bookstore with English language books) and did some shopping.

Then we ended up at Place Concorde where it looks like a big fete is going to happen for World Cup '98.  The obelisk in the center of the place is being surrounded what looks like will be a huge soccer ball.  This, of course, is looking rather phallic at the moment.

We were hoping to see the final wrappings around the metal structure but it didn't happen before we left Paris.

We walked through Place Concorde and hit Musee d'Orsay.  I've never been there before but heard lots about it.  While there was a long line to enter the museum, it only took about 10 minutes to actually get through the front door.  This is because of the security set up to examine bags and metal detectors to walk through.  Don't worry if you see a long line to get in.  It moves quickly.

The museum is quite nice.  There is quite a variety of art to look at.  Everything from architecture, furniture to sculptures and paintings.  Many Monets who I liked quite a bit.

Up on the balcony, near the restaurant in the museum, you can see some rather large sculptures gracing the walls.  It is amazing to think how they must have placed those statues there.

We walked for a long time in the museum.  After the museum we had to sit down and take a break before moving on back to the hotel.

We hopped onto the metro and went back to the hotel to freshen up.  We left around 19h00 to hit Cafe Oz on St. Denis during their 25F cocktail happy hour.  Spent some time there then went back to Bastille.  We went to Route 66 which was an absolute disaster.  The air conditioning has finally been fixed in the place, but the service was awful.  They even forgot to bring our food!  Then they tried to deliver it when we decided to leave!  What jerks.  Won't be going there again in a long time.

We ended up in Cafe Iguana next.  They had some neat cocktails with those little florescent necklaces.  We ended up having 3 of those and Sandra had a few necklaces.  After finishing up there we headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and took our bags to Gare du Nord to put them in a locker.  If you ever go to Gare du Nord to put your bags in a locker, make sure to give yourself some time to get in and out.  The security (metal detector, xray machine) process takes a while due to the incompetent staff.  Lockers here are not only limited but also quite small.  Many people were turned away and told to go to Gare de l'Est instead.  Lockers start at 15F up to 30F depending on the size.

We headed off to Pere LaChaise cemetery!  I hadn't been there in a while.  On the way over, Sandra discovered the interactive metro map in the station.  She had to play with that for a bit.  It basically has little buttons that light up the different stations on the map.  It helps to get an idea to where the different stations are.  Although many of the light bulbs were not working so it isn't all that useful.

We got to Pere LaChaise and stopped in the flower shop to pick up a map of the cemetery for 10F.  Although I noticed on entering the cemetery that there are new maps posted within the entrances.  They are of good quality now, not like the run down, faded out ones that were there before.

Our first visit was to Eugene Delacroix.

Then Oscar Wilde.

Raymond Roussel.

The wall where 147 communists were executed and buried in a mass grave back in the 1870s.

Edith Piaf.

Modigliani

Pissaro.

We did see Chopin and Jim Morrison.  I didn't take photos of those as you can find photos of them on my picture page.

We then went for a walk down memory lane for me.  We got off the metro right in-between where my apartments were in Paris.  We stopped and got a crepe.  Egg and cheese for myself, cheese only for Sandra.  We walked down ave Suffren and I showed her where I used to live.  

Then we walked to Champs de Mars and hung out in the grass for a while, relaxing.  We got some water out of a spigot and walked over to Trocadero.  You can see here they are setting up something also for World Cup '98.  And because of that all the fountains were turned off.

As of Monday, there were 579 days to the year 2000.

We had a quick, cold drink at one of the cafes near the Trocadero and headed back to Gare du Nord to catch the Thalys train home.  The ride home was uneventful, thankfully!  We were exhausted.  We got back to Köln Hbf around 22h00 in the evening.  Not bad for a quick trip to Paris!

Copyright @ 1998,  Alexandre POLOZOFF All Rights Reserved.