Farnsniente

Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris, here we come!

—

in
📍 Paris, France

Photos

Trip index

Summary

Off to Paris! We opted for the Autoroute this time (with its frequent rest stops) as my “Napoleon’s Revenge” had returned. Scott did a masterful job of getting us to our hotel in the 5th arrondissement where we parked long enough to check into our hotel before heading off to Hertz at Montparnasse to get rid of the car. In our tiny room we enjoyed a glass of wine on our balcony then headed to the Champs-Élysées and RH (rebranded Restoration Hardware) for dinner. We were seated in the rooftop portion of the restaurant with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Details

Today’s another one of our many “relocation days”. We’re driving from here in Amboise up to Paris. We have one last breakfast and poor Karen realizes the issues with her digestion are back. Not good when you’re sitting in the car for many hours. 

We have one last breakfast at our hotel, bathe, pack, and check out. 

The drive to Paris is mostly on the Autoroute, which means mostly uneventful and mindless. I listen to a book as I drive. Once we get closer to Paris we both focus solely on driving. It’s a scary activity on the best of days. 

Once off the Autoroute we get gas and continue on. The route to our hotel is only a couple of kilometers, but given that this is Paris driving, with lots of stoplights, it takes a half hour. Luckily as we get closer to our hotel there’s the perfect parking spot at the end of the block. 

We check in, in French, and the young Eastern European desk manager offered to go through all the details of our room and hotel, “really fast” in French. We all agreed English would be best. Up in our room, with our luggage, we find the room is very nice, but also very small. The “maybe not a queen” bed takes up most of the floor space. We do have a delightful balcony, also small. It has a table and two chairs. 

Back in the car, one last time, we drive to Hertz. We don’t go to the actual Hertz office, but rather I say “hm, I think I remember where the Hertz return is… it’s somewhere around here”. I think maybe if we just keep driving I can find it. Nope!  We drive back to the Hertz office. Karen gets directions while I double park. 

Car returned, we walk back to our hotel. Karen showers while I open one of our chilled bottles of Sancerre and test out the balcony. Both are delightful. We’re here for four nights, which we think we’ll enjoy it. 

At 6:45 we head out towards dinner. We’re eating at a “Rooms To Go” furniture showroom… wait, no… but it’s something like that. Oh yeah, it’s the Restoration Hardware, er, RH, on the Champs Élysées for dinner. They have the main RH dining room and where we’ll be: “RH Petite”. 

The entrance is off the Champs Élysées, tall, big gate made of black and gold. There’s an intimidating  guard. We check in and confirm that we have a reservation. We get handed off from person to person, taking stairs, elevators, hallways. You can not take an elevator without someone operating it for you and verifying who you are, why you’re here. 

Along the way we do see furniture showrooms. The huge scale of each layout seems aimed at the size of Trump’s new White House Ballroom. A decoration on a big coffee table is a life size statue of a naked man on his knees, curled up in a ball, holding his head in his hands. I can imagine some bitter rich lady shopping here thinking, “that’s how I want my damn husband to feel when he sees the bill!”

The view from the rooftop seating area is great: the Eiffel Tower, the top of the Grand Palais, the Champs Élysées. You get a rare glimpse into the “back yards” of the Champs Élysées addresses. How the other 0.01% live. 

Not surprisingly it’s not cheap. I’m used to delicious 6€ glasses of wine in France. These are 4x that price, understandably. Thankfully the service is warm and attentive without being snooty, the food is delicious. It’s an experience I’m glad I’ve now had (once).

We walk/metro home. The cool of the evening is bordering on cold. The front of the recently redone Notre Dame looks resplendent. You couldn’t tell it’d been smoldering just a few years ago. There still is a crane there, in the back. It’s a big job, for sure. 

In our room, we try to figure out how the two of us will fit for the night in such a ‘efficiently compact’ space. Time will tell. 

Photos

We wake up one last time, this trip, in Amboise and it’s gorgeous out. It’s in the upper 30s/lower 40s, but it’s sunny and nothing but blue skies. A nice change. Maybe we can take that with us to Paris?
We pack up and head out to our car. In the lovely weather the river looks calm and peaceful.
Our hotel for the next four days. Our room is on the fifth floor (by the European way of counting). You can see our balcony with a miniature table way up there, just around from the corner to the right.
A closer view of our balcony and table. No worries about someone stealing the table, I think it’s wedged in there good (wink). It’ll do. The view is pretty nice and relaxing.
We return our Hertz car and park it where they indicate. I can barely get out of the driver-side door. Hopefully they can get back in, but not my problem.
On our walk back to the hotel we see people out busking, playing music for money. I was seriously impressed by this guy’s commitment to his instrument.
A peek at the view out (one of our two) windows. You can just see the famous Paris “Observatoire” behind that building on the right.
On our walk to dinner we passed “this church”, Notre Dame. It’s looking very well for everything it went through. There’s still a crane, maybe for some last minute touches. Out front, in their city ‘event space’ they have a bread-fest extravaganza thing coming up. We’ll have to check it out. On the low fence keeping people off the grass tourists have (of course) added ten zillion padlocks locking in their true love to whomever (or maybe to the city of Paris).
Off to a furniture store/restaurant on the Champs Élysées, RH (Restoration Hardware). Fancy schmancy entrance (and everything that comes after).
Headed in (after they ensure we do have a reservation). We walk up many different gold stairways and ride up a big gold elevator. Tres chichi.
We did get to see some furniture on display. I was amused by this life sized statue of a man curled on the coffee table wondering what he’d done, OKing his wife’s furniture shopping trip.
Part of our extended walk to our table included going through this dining room. It’s only 7:30 and that’s way too early to eat in Paris.
Here we are up on the roof at our table, we get an eyeful of the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Both our starters and main dishes (shown here) were awesome.
The two of us at dinner, with the Grand Palais and a French flag in the back. To the left are the building tops along the nearby Champs Élysées.
All done, we head back out. This is their courtyard. Later in the year I expect this to be pack-jammed with people having cocktails.
Our route home takes us past this modest building, the Hotel de Ville (town hall) for the city of Paris.
One last glimpse of Notre Dame before we walk back to our hotel.