France Day 12: It's Getting Hot in Here!

We started our day walking to a café in Strasbourg, where we had croissants shaped like pretzels (seemed appropriate since we were near the German border in France!).  Then we had a 5-hour road trip to Paris. 

I will do a separate post after we return home about how AMAZING the French highways and rest stops are. 5 hours sounds tedious, but when the speed limit is equal to 87mph and every rest stop is an a amazing adventure – it’s not that bad!

As we neared Paris, the freeway signs read, “Fortes chaleurs! Hydratez-vous!” (Hot weather! Hydrate!)  I looked at the car thermometer and it read 41.5 degrees, which Siri informed me is equal to 106 degrees Farenheit! Wait, WHAT?! That can’t be right. I turned on the radio and thought I heard them say (my French is good, but not perfect) that "this is a record-breaking heat wave, and that it hasn’t been this hot since 2003 since all those people died.” That couldn’t be right…I needed English. So I Googled “Paris heat wave” on my phone. Turns out it actually hasn’t been this hot in Paris on any day in July since 1947. NINETEEN FORTY-SEVEN. And it chose to be that hot again on the 3 days that we are here. Fantastic.

We found the parking garage I had pre-reserved and dragged our luggage 3 blocks to the hotel. Did I mention it was 106-degrees? Fortunately, when we arrived, I realized I am mildly obsessed with Hotel Thoumieux. I will do a separate post on it too, because it deserves stand-alone attention. It is PERFECT. I can open our window, lean out, look left, and see the Eiffel Tower!

We started wandering, and went right to the Seine. We decided to hope on one of the Bateaux Mouches that tour the river, thinking that at least a moving boat would create some breeze, and we wouldn’t have to walk. These boats are usually packed. Today – not so much.

We saw the Eiffel Tower, Musee d’Orsay, Louvre, tons of gorgeous bridges, the Grand Palais, tons of people “beaching” along the Seine, and the fancy prison where Marie Antoinette was held before losing her head (below).

We put a “love lock” on the famous love locks bridge (Pont Des Arts) 2 years ago, so we’ve been following the story of how the city removed the locks because the weight was starting to make the bridge collapse. We saw how it is now boarded up, so people can no longer put on locks. 

But the funny and unexpected part of the cruise was that there are now locks EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING else! LOL! Almost every other bridge now has them. You can’t keep the people down, France! If they want to express love by writing their names on a lock, placing it on something, and throwing the key into the river – damn it – they are going to do it! Here are 2 different bridges, now both completely covered with locks!...

We left the boat and walked to the Pont D’Alma tunnel where Princess Diana died. It is coincidentally the same spot where there is an exact replica of the Statue of Liberty’s flame. We had no idea, but today was Diana’s birthday! So a small memorial had popped up. (Also note the love locks! Haha!)

We ate dinner at the restaurant where President Obama and Michelle ate when they visited Paris (yes, that is how I picked places!). It was 9pm and still 96 degrees. We ate outside on the sidewalk and drank roughly 200 gallons of water.

Then we walked over to the Parc du Champs de Mars, under the Eiffel Tower. We sat on the grass, took tons of pictures, and waited for the light show on the tower at 11pm. Spectacular! M looked at me and said, “this is my favorite thing EVER.”

Sweaty and tired, we walked back hand in hand, talking about some day moving to Paris for a summer because we love it so much.

Tomorrow: The great Catacombs debate of 2015

France Day 11: What stinks?!

We woke up in Colmar and grabbed bagels for a change, since we were near Germany. Then we spent the entire day driving the Route des Vins in Alsace, between Colmar and Strasbourg. It’s only about 80km, but we took our time, stopping in all the little villages along the way. The drive is lined with hills and green vineyards and is GORGEOUS!

First stop was Eguisheim, which we decided at the end of the day was our favorite. Most of the homes here were built in the 1500s, are candy-colored, and adorned with flowers. It was positively amazing.  I told M to close her eyes and imagine living here 500 years ago. She said, “great, I would have to run across town to see if my friend wanted to hang out, and would probably break my ankle on the cobblestones, then die because of primitive medical care.” Geez! Thank goodness she lives in the time of iPhones!

The best part about Eguisheim was the storks! The stork is the symbol of the Alsace region, and lots of stork products are sold in every gift shop. But we didn’t ever expect to see live storks! We saw a ton of them! They nest on top of the church! We watched them take off, circle and land. It was very cool. Here are 3 real storks with the present they brought me last time a stork visited me:

We drove through Turckheim, Kintzheim, and Ribeauville – not a lot to see. They area all very picturesque, but also all start to look the same after a while.

We stopped for lunch in Riquewihr, France’s “most visited town.” This town is unique because the hill with all the grape vines comes right up to the edge of town. So as you walk through town, you can see the vineyard looming overhead. It is a very cool effect.

I felt bad about skipping out on German food in Colmar, so I told M we were going to have an authentic, local lunch. We sat at a restaurant and I ordered quiche. M ordered meatballs with mustard sauce and spaetzle (which were very good). When it showed up, my quiche smelled SOOOO bad. It was as if someone had taken really stinky feet, threw up on them, and then walked into an outhouse. It was AWFUL. I tried to take a bite, and gagged. I couldn’t even get one bite down. I told M, “I don’t want to insult the locals, who must think this quiche is perfectly normal and delicious. So we need a plan to get rid of it.”  I waited until nobody was looking, put the entire slice onto a napkin, wrapped it up, and slid it into my purse.

I thought this was a genius plan, until it was time to pay. I unzipped my purse and a wall of odor nearly knocked me off my chair. I looked at M with the most disgusted look on my face and we both burst out laughing. I was half laughing-half crying through the entire credit card transaction with the server. He had no idea why, but must have thought we were nuts.

Now our only mission was to get that rotten quiche out of my purse. We found a trash can on the town square and I retrieved the napkin bundle and tossed it. Out of curiosity, I smelled my hand. Huge mistake. I almost vomited. My hands reeked with evidence! About that time, M realized her phone was in my purse. She made me get it out, so that she didn’t get smelly hands, and sniffed it. She was furious, but also trying not to pass out – because it shared the same horrible odor.

We wiped everything off when we got back to the car, and now, hours later, I think the smell is finally out of my purse, but I refuse to actually check.

By the way, I grabbed a German pretzel as a replacement lunch. It was delicious.

We stopped for ice cream in Obernai, the largest town on the Route de Vins, did some souvenir shopping, then headed to our hotel in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg also has a canal area, similar to Colmar and Alsace, but on a much larger scale. 

We wandered around that for a while, then walked to the Strasbourg Cathedral, built in the 1200s-1300s. It was closed, but was beautiful to look at from the outside.

By now, we were exhausted (mostly from laughing), so we grabbed a quick bite next to the canal, and headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow: Paris!!