Traveling with Ray Owens

A little contest:  How many sayings can you think of that have the meaning of these: “You have to roll with the punches.”; “If at first you don’t succeed keep on sucking until you do suck seed.”; “When life gives you lemons make Lemonade.”; “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Today did not go as planned but it turned out to be a pretty wonderful day.

The plan #1 was to go to the Orsay Museum at 9:30. The way it worked out was that we arrived at about 9:05 and got in the line that was for people with purchased tickets.  There were only about 6 people in front of us.   9:30 came and left and they had not opened the entrance.  They soon announce that the opening would be delayed. Around 10:30 they opened the doors.  Rick Steves audio tour advised us to look at a few great works of art and then make our way by escalator to the fifth floor and work our way down.  I found the escalator and it was not running and was roped off.  Rats I will have to climb the stairs.   But the stairs were also blocked.  That was when I asked one of the staff how to get upstairs.  He announced that all the upper floors were not opened today.  I went to the information desk and asked the nice lady “what gives?”  She said that due to the labor strike today the upper floors were not opened.  I soon got a text from the Orsay Museum saying that yes, the upper floors were closed and that a refund would be given to all ticket holders.

So after everyone got their fill of the first floor paintings and statues (I did get to see the painting of the maternal parent by some guy named Whistler.  Which was cool.

We gathered outside the Orsay at about 11:45, way before we were scheduled to leave. Plan #2 was to go to La Fontaine de Mars a French restaurant for lunch at 2:00 (yes a late lunch, but it was the first seating of the day and yes I know that all the restaurants in Paris are French restaurants including McDonalds.). We arrived at about 1:30 and were told that they could seat us early.   The meal as very good.  One of us order escargot.  It was not yours truly.   There was a special of veal stew and braised beef with French Fries – correction they were just fries. It was an almost 2-hour lunch.   Quite relaxing.  

At some point around this time Plan #3, a visit to the top of the Eiffel tower at 5:00, was crushed when I got another text and was told that the Eiffel tower was closed all day due to the same labor strike.  Pivot.  

We walked to the Eiffel tower and got to see it from the bottom but not the top.   What to do with this time block.  We had planned on taking a seine river cruise if time allowed.  Time was available in our topsy-turvy day.  So, we booked a one-hour tour and had a relaxing time cruising up and back down the river (it may have been down and then back up, I am unsure).

While relaxing on the boat we had time to talk about another option to replace the canceled Eiffel towner tour.  It turns out that the Eiffel tower has a five-minute twinkling light show every hour on the hour starting about an hour after sunset.  Tonight the sunset was 7:57. The first twinkles would start at 9:00.  We had about 3 hours to kill after this.   Having had a late lunch no one was particularly hungry.  But we thought we might be persuaded to have some desert.  We shopped a few cafes and picked one.  Very nice wait staff and good food.  The selected foods for dinner included a chicken green salad, chocolate lava cake with ice cream, a small cheese plate, and a large meat and cheese plate, and an order of crepes with strawberry jam. Three guess who had the salad and who ordered a second desert.

The internet suggested that one of the best places to view the twinkling lights on the Eiffel tower was the Pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge.  We made our way from the dinner restaurant to the bridge about 8:30. There was not a huge crowd at the middle of the bridge that juts out and where the monument to La France Renaissante was located. Also located there was a photographer that set up a place to get lovely pictures of people in love during the twinkling. 

The twinkling lights were not a disappointment.  It was brief but ooh so lovely.   The boats going up the river kept us entertained as we waited for the light show to start.  

For a day that was filled with plans gone awry, this day was fabulous.