After the big lunch, we got the metro to the Opera Garnier to take a look. Then we decided to see what might be available to get tickets for and ended up with two orchestra tickets for Sunday to see the ballet Eugene Oneguine. We then took a quick stroll through the Galeries Lafayette, which was full of Asian tourists. Things, of course, were very expensive too. We decided to go to the discount area in Montmartre, and found success digging in the discount bins of a chain called Sympa.
The 2nd day of our trip was May 1, a French public holiday. We got up somewhat late, and took the Babobus to the Eiffel Tower, site of large lunch #2, at Jules Verne. We hadn't anticipated the size of lunch #1 the previous day at Guy Savoy, but we hadn't eaten dinner the night before, nor breakfast, so were reasonably hungry.
It being a holiday weekend, the crowd at the Eiffel Tower was Huge! Long, long lines snaked everywhere. Jules Verne has its own elevator to the 2nd level, and there was even a line for that (of course, much shorter, and fortunately, we were at the head, just before it got longer). Jules Verne is a 1* michelin, and let's put it this way: the view is very nice! The combination of decent, but really, not that great food, especially for the money, and eating with a view was worthwhile, but needs only to be done once, considering the view itself can be much cheaper. The one interesting note to the meal was the cheese course ... there were particular accompaniments to each cheese, and the tastes married well. These accompaniments were quite unusual, not the nuts/fruit of normal.
We had to make a quick dash after lunch to Garde du Nord, to catch the Thalys fast train to Brussels (onwards to Gent, where we were meeting an old friend). I had purchased tickets online, with the option to pick them up from an automated machine using my credit card. Made two mistakes here: (1) plan for surprises! The trip from lunch to the station was cutting it really close. We arrived at Gare du Nord not knowing its layout, which cost us some minutes, but we did get to a ticket machine with a few minutes to spare. However: (2) automated machines that take credit cards, in France (and possibly all over Western Europe) only take credit card with chips in them, i.e. not US credit cards. So thus, we were not able to pick up the tickets from the automated machine, and to top it off, by the time we lined up at the SNCF ticket counter and got to the live person, the train had left, and the pre-booked tickets were only 50% refundable after departure time. So we had to book full-fare, which turned out, net of the credit, to be the price I paid for the discounted ticket. In other words, ended up paying the equivalent of 4 discounted tickets!
Well, anyway, the train ride an hr later was uneventful, and we arrived in Brussels and bought a local ticket for the train to Gent. Arriving in Gent, we didn't know how to get to the hotel, so took a taxi. The Gent Marriot is very nice. It fronts one of the canals, with a preserved facade, but completely modern inside. We wandered around the city after dusk, and ate some comfort food at the local Chinese place (in business 35 years!). The next morning, met Stefan and walked around town a bit, had a nice lunch of traditional Belgian dishes, did the Gravenstein castle, had a waffle, and then it was back to the station.
There, we had fiasco #2. Mistake in hindsight: should have got the return ticket in Paris when we got the outbound ticket. Reason being is that while in Paris, they looked up our ticket using the credit card number, in Gent, they had no such capability. When pre-booking online, they give you a reservation number. This is what Gent wanted, but I didn't have it on me. What we needed was internet access because it was in my email. We managed to find a Sony Style store close to the station, in which they generously allowed us to use their laptop. But, the keyboard was azerty, not querty, and my password is a positional key password based on qwerty, so it threw me off. We managed to get a webpage up with an illustration of a querty keyboard, but in not being able to actually type it positionally, I forgot a crucial character in my password, and was thus not able to log on, despite many attempts. Then the store closed, so we had to give up, and anyway, it was getting close to departure time. So we ended up having to pay for a full-fare return ticket without a credit for the unused one, since they couldn't look it up! This was a very expensive trip to Gent!
Well, anyway, we got back to Paris uneventfully, and walked back home from the Cite station. Dinner at a Korean place right across from Notre Dame in the 5th. It was Saturday night, and lots of people were out. Our apartment was at the Notre Dame end of Ile St. Louis. The island has a lower walkway section around much of the island. This is where a lot of Parisians hang out. We passed a birthday gathering, complete with lighted cake, and a short distance away, there was an impromptu (and perhaps regular) outdoor mini-club with a dj, at the point of the island, with a small crowd dancing and enjoying the music. This must be one of those in-the-know Paris venues...
The 2nd day of our trip was May 1, a French public holiday. We got up somewhat late, and took the Babobus to the Eiffel Tower, site of large lunch #2, at Jules Verne. We hadn't anticipated the size of lunch #1 the previous day at Guy Savoy, but we hadn't eaten dinner the night before, nor breakfast, so were reasonably hungry.
It being a holiday weekend, the crowd at the Eiffel Tower was Huge! Long, long lines snaked everywhere. Jules Verne has its own elevator to the 2nd level, and there was even a line for that (of course, much shorter, and fortunately, we were at the head, just before it got longer). Jules Verne is a 1* michelin, and let's put it this way: the view is very nice! The combination of decent, but really, not that great food, especially for the money, and eating with a view was worthwhile, but needs only to be done once, considering the view itself can be much cheaper. The one interesting note to the meal was the cheese course ... there were particular accompaniments to each cheese, and the tastes married well. These accompaniments were quite unusual, not the nuts/fruit of normal.
We had to make a quick dash after lunch to Garde du Nord, to catch the Thalys fast train to Brussels (onwards to Gent, where we were meeting an old friend). I had purchased tickets online, with the option to pick them up from an automated machine using my credit card. Made two mistakes here: (1) plan for surprises! The trip from lunch to the station was cutting it really close. We arrived at Gare du Nord not knowing its layout, which cost us some minutes, but we did get to a ticket machine with a few minutes to spare. However: (2) automated machines that take credit cards, in France (and possibly all over Western Europe) only take credit card with chips in them, i.e. not US credit cards. So thus, we were not able to pick up the tickets from the automated machine, and to top it off, by the time we lined up at the SNCF ticket counter and got to the live person, the train had left, and the pre-booked tickets were only 50% refundable after departure time. So we had to book full-fare, which turned out, net of the credit, to be the price I paid for the discounted ticket. In other words, ended up paying the equivalent of 4 discounted tickets!
Well, anyway, the train ride an hr later was uneventful, and we arrived in Brussels and bought a local ticket for the train to Gent. Arriving in Gent, we didn't know how to get to the hotel, so took a taxi. The Gent Marriot is very nice. It fronts one of the canals, with a preserved facade, but completely modern inside. We wandered around the city after dusk, and ate some comfort food at the local Chinese place (in business 35 years!). The next morning, met Stefan and walked around town a bit, had a nice lunch of traditional Belgian dishes, did the Gravenstein castle, had a waffle, and then it was back to the station.
There, we had fiasco #2. Mistake in hindsight: should have got the return ticket in Paris when we got the outbound ticket. Reason being is that while in Paris, they looked up our ticket using the credit card number, in Gent, they had no such capability. When pre-booking online, they give you a reservation number. This is what Gent wanted, but I didn't have it on me. What we needed was internet access because it was in my email. We managed to find a Sony Style store close to the station, in which they generously allowed us to use their laptop. But, the keyboard was azerty, not querty, and my password is a positional key password based on qwerty, so it threw me off. We managed to get a webpage up with an illustration of a querty keyboard, but in not being able to actually type it positionally, I forgot a crucial character in my password, and was thus not able to log on, despite many attempts. Then the store closed, so we had to give up, and anyway, it was getting close to departure time. So we ended up having to pay for a full-fare return ticket without a credit for the unused one, since they couldn't look it up! This was a very expensive trip to Gent!
Well, anyway, we got back to Paris uneventfully, and walked back home from the Cite station. Dinner at a Korean place right across from Notre Dame in the 5th. It was Saturday night, and lots of people were out. Our apartment was at the Notre Dame end of Ile St. Louis. The island has a lower walkway section around much of the island. This is where a lot of Parisians hang out. We passed a birthday gathering, complete with lighted cake, and a short distance away, there was an impromptu (and perhaps regular) outdoor mini-club with a dj, at the point of the island, with a small crowd dancing and enjoying the music. This must be one of those in-the-know Paris venues...
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