Quick trip to Paris- part 5

Sunday morning bike ride and such.

Like every Sunday morning for a while now I published my Sunday morning thoughts, but only after a brisk walk around the neighborhood. The colors over the Hôtel des Invalides were gorgeous. I went back to my hotel, grabbing a croissant on the way and wrote and published my thoughts. Then it was adventure time. I really just wanted to walk around for a bit until it was time to go to the train station.

I remembered that I hadn’t tried out their electric bikes yet. Since I have the Lime App on my phone (other companies are available too), I quickly checked where the nearest bike was parked. I was almost on top of it. I unlocked it and rode it up the Champs Elysée and back down for a bit. What an adventure that was! When I walked that same stretch a couple of days earlier, I had thought to myself how cool riding a bike up or down that road would be and there I was.

Only problem was to find a place to park it at the end. The app told me that I was not allowed to park where I wanted and then it was not entirely within the lines of the bike parking area. It was really being difficult. It was not centimeters or inches. It was millimeters.

I had left my bag at the hotel. I went to pick it up and started heading for Gare de Lyon. I got there super early, and my train was nowhere near announced. I had some lunch, then got some snacks and went to hang out in the first class lounge. The only reason I knew about this was that I follow the man in seat 61. He has amazing train travel information.

I checked his info on Switzerland and he’s totally legit. That’s the one where I could tell if somebody knows what they are talking about. On Saturday night when I was all exhausted, I was trying to figure out what to do at Gare de Lyon and even just if there was anything to do. I tend to be kind of a nervous traveler when I don’t know how things work and I get places super early. Anyway thanks to 61 I knew about getting snacks etc. at the supermarket right across the street and also about that lounge.

It’s such a nice and quiet place to hang out. The Train Bleu restaurant sounded interesting but also pretty crowded – I needed quiet. As I said I got there super early and had to wait for about two hours for my train to even be announced. What that means is that they will tell you first which hall your train leaves from (1 or 2) and then about 15-20 minutes before departure they tell you which track it will leave from and boarding starts. So, you’re meant to be in your departure hall about 20 minutes before departure. When I got to the lounge, they hadn’t even announced the hall yet.

But anyway …

Let’s not dwell on that. I had the loveliest time in the lounge with my white chocolate. There are free hot drink and water. I think a white chocolate is just sweetened milk, but I could be wrong. It didn’t taste like chocolate.

I walked towards hall 2 about 30 minutes before my train’s departure time and I bought the latest Astérix BD (=bande dessinée which is comic in French). I grew up reading these in German. Later I read one in Latin and other languages too. There is a lot of Latin you can use to show off in all of them. What makes it a bit more complicated is that the characters’ names (except for Astérix and Obélix) are different in every language. This is because the names actually mean something. What I like best about them is that they teach you a lot of history in a fun way. I’m not sure if there’s anyone in Europe who hasn’t at least heard of them.

I bought another book in French about a family who goes on a road trip to Sweden. Perfect! It was then just about time to go into my departure hall and see my track announced. I passed the gate, got on the train and found my seat. Super easy.

There would have been a person sitting next to me, but when she saw me, she decided to sit elsewhere … Not really! But the train was empty, and it made no sense for us to sit next to each other in the only two seats that were taken. What a quiet and relaxing train ride that was. And what a lovely end to a great adventure.

Thank you for following along.

Some thoughts and tips

I had read that crossing the road in Paris can be scary. And that drivers sometimes seem a bit impatient. I don’t blame them. Or the pedestrians for that matter. You see a green light. You start walking. It turns red after a few steps. What do you do? This happens a lot. In Switzerland it starts blinking so you know you have to hurry or there’s a yellow light. This took some getting used to.

And the signs they put up at pedestrian crossings – do they know not everybody speaks French? Here’s a selection of them. Piétons – that’s you. Attention – you understand that. Top left says that the bus is running in the other direction, i.e. not the one you’d expect. Top right tells you to cross the road in two goes. And the bottom ones says that the lights are staggered. Not sure why that’s important if you only walk on green, but I guess that’s why it’s there …

Bag tip: Don’t walk around with a backpack, especially if you want to go into a museum. Some don’t allow backpacks at all. Some will ask you to carry them on your front. And it’s just not something you see a lot of people doing. Next time I go to Paris I will try to do it backpack free. I only used mine on the train there and back – I didn’t walk around with it after.

I already mentioned timeslot tickets. Get them! It will make your life so much easier. Even if you want to do something spontaneously. Check online if there are timeslot tickets available and book them right out front. I even booked some while I was in line.

The order of priority is: timeslot, ticket for a specific day and then people without tickets. Depending on how busy it is you could wait for a while if you don’t buy your ticket in advance.

Buses and metro

Google maps seems to be really reliable in terms of connections. For the metro you need to know which line and which direction. Trains will stop at all stops so you can count the number of stops if you like. They are usually announced as well and there are maps – just like in any metro I’ve been on.

Sometimes you need to connect to a different line. Make sure you follow the signs and don’t exit the station. Nothing bad happens if you do, you’ll just have to pay again. Please note that at some metro stations (mostly, but not exclusively, the ones where you can change onto many different lines) you walk a long way to get to your next train. If possible, change where there is only one other line – there’s cases where that’s a good idea.

On buses you can’t count the number of stops for a couple of reasons. First, they don’t stop at every stop. It’s a stop on demand system. Secondly, sometimes it looks like a stop but it’s just traffic or a different kind of delay. That’s why it is smart to know what the two stations before yours are called so you can pay closer attention to the bus passing stops. They will be announced and most of the time there are screens to help you.

Buses as well as metro cars have priority seats. If you are of a certain age or clearly need to sit people will give up their seats for you. If they don’t notice you, it’s not rude to ask them to stand up. And, on the metro there are seats by the doors that say on them that you can’t sit there when it gets crowded. First time on the metro the two people sitting there got up completely in synch and the seats folded back giving everybody more space. I liked that.

In terms of tickets what I did was to get a Navigo card. It’s like a credit card and you can put a certain number of trips on them. I tried a single ticket first but that only caused me problems. This one seemed to work perfectly. And when you’re out of rides you just put more on it. Simple system really. One ride is EUR 2.15 at the moment. You have to get your ticket before you board the metro or even get to access the platform. Not sure about buses. I just tapped my card, and it deducted a ride.

Sometimes buses make more sense because they drop you off closer to where you want to go. Other times the metro is more convenient – especially for longer distances – as they are not affected by traffic. I also noticed that the number of stations that have escalators and/or elevators is surprisingly low. Please check ahead of time if you have trouble with too many steps.

I think that’s it for the moment. Let me know if you have any specific questions.