Day 33: Mug Shots from Paris

No, those are not mug shots.  We have not been arrested (yet).  Those are the photos that adorn the monthly transportation pass we purchased for our stay in Paris.

The pass, called a Navigo card, to which you must attach photo of yourself, costs 5 euro, and gives one access to all public transportation in Paris.   You can purchase a pass for a month or for a week.   You can either bring a 1”x1” photo with you, or have your picture taken at a “passport” photo booth in the metro station.  I didn’t read far enough ahead to know to bring photos from home, so we all hopped in the passport photo booth when we arrived at our first station in Paris.  The machine gives you the option of taking “fun” or “official” photos (as in photos for ID cards).  When you choose the “official” route, it gives you strict instructions not to smile.  We later realized that that the Navigo card doesn’t require a face sans smile, but at the time, we didn’t want to risk it. After all, the photo machines charge 5 euros ($7) for east set of photos, and I wasn’t about to smile only to learn later that I needed a meaner looking mug shot like the DMV now requires.

Most of us look like convicts, except for the always-photogenic Emma, who has never looked bad in a photo in her life.  Sam without smile looks that much more like the sullen Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame.  Daphne doesn’t look all that bad either, come to think of it. However, Jeffrey, Lisa, Abby, and I look criminals.

I’m not 100% sure that I’ll be ahead on paying for a monthly transportation pass for everyone versus buying individual tickets along the way, but the convenience of not having to carry around tiny, little metro tickets, constantly buying packs of ten, and trying to figure which ones we’ve used and haven’t used, made the monthly pass an absolute no-brainer.  It’s so nice to be able to hop on any bus or metro without worrying whether we have enough money or tickets to get back. It also makes it easy to send the kids of on their explorations, knowing that they too will always have a means to get back home.

Arrival in Paris

After a quick puddle jump from Bristol to Paris, we landed at Charles De Gaulle at about 6:30 p.m, and we took Paris' RER train from their to the city.  Paris’s public transportation system is as good as anywhere in the world.  We opted for that over taxis, which—with ten people—might have taken two or three taxis.  It was far simpler to hop on the RER Train which leaves right from the arrival departures to the heart of Paris, where we were just one metro stop-over from our place for 24 days.  With ten bags, we all loaded onto a relatively empty train (its origin is the airport), which after one or two stops became jammed with people.  Thankfully, when we have to get off the train at Gare du Nord—a major Paris hub—half the train emptied at the same time, making it fairly easy to get ten bags and people off the train. 

Form Gare du Nord, we took one metro, which should have taken us literally to our front door.  Our metro stop is 50 feet from our front door—at least it is supposed to be (which would have made zipping around paris a breeze).  Unfortunately, our metro stop and the three prior to it were closed from July 1 through August 30 for renovations. Ugh!  Terrible luck indeed.  In its place, the city of Paris offers a free bus ride from the Bastille metro station (three stops up from what would have been our station).  While the bus is a reasonable alternative it’s one more stop-over anytime we want to go anywhere, and with toddler and stroller in hand, that’s one less stop-over we needed.  I know, cry me a river, you’re thinking.  We’re in Paris. How bad can our lot be?  

Our apartment sits in the 13^th district, about a 10 minute walk to the Seine and the lovely garden called Jardin des Plantes.  The neighborhood fills safe and clean, and all essentials are within a stone’s throw:  a supermarket and bakery are virtually underneath us. A laundromat is within a three minute walk.   The street is lined with all kinds of different restaurants, from French café’s to Thai, to Indian, to Vietnamese, to McDonald’s.  That apartment is far enough out of the center to be very reasonably priced, but close enough to still be in a lovely, authentically Parisian neighborhood.  Anything in Paris is a 15-20 minutes—at most one metro stop-over.  Across the street is a hospital so the ambulances can sometimes be heard, but other than that our accommodation is much quieter than was our paper- our easyHotel in London.

The view from our fourth floor bedroom.

The building that houses our apartment.  Look closely and you'll see our open bedroom window on the 4th floor (and don't forget that in Europe the ground floor is "0").

 The home sits in a typical Hausmann style building—the kind of architecture for which Paris is known and that gives it so much charm.  Before I rented the place last November, I had a friend of mine, who was living in Paris at the time, go check out the neighborhood and tour the apartment for me.  He came back with solid reviews, calling the place “perfectly French” with, complete with a creaky, old wooden floor, trim all over the walls, and antique furniture to boot.  The place also sports an antique piano, which, though very much out of tune, has been fun for the kids to pick at.

Soon after we arrived, we ran to the grocer downstairs form our flat, bought enough for a late dinner and breakfast, and Lisa whipped up something tasty.  We went to be, anxious to tour one of Europe’s grandest cities.

Our Plan for Paris

We planned Paris to be the “chill-out” portion of our vacation.  For the previous month, we had been hopping around Europe like typical Americans—6 days here, 3 days there, 4 days days here—but in Paris, we wanted to settle in (and where I could get a little work done), and where we could savor this marvelous city at a slower pace. That said, we had planned the first seven days of our stay in Paris as “tourist Paris,” as we would be with my parents and Coleman during that time.  First on our list were all of the things every tourist must see in Paris:  the Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, etc. Tomorrow I'll give you the grand tour as well.