(One final note from this trip, drafted back in June but finally posted in October – hey, a retiree’s schedule gets pretty hectic when she returns home!)
Flexibility, that’s the key! And hoooo boy, did I need some today! Just the highlights:
• My intention was to hit the Louvre in the morning and then regroup to pick up at least some of Saturday’s scuttled museum visits (a stomach bug that day kept me home) after lunch.
• I'm feeling OK in the morning (!) and have a nice easy ride on bus 95 from my corner right up to the Pyramid entrance to the Louvre.
• But eeek! Lots of early birds at the Louvre. Huge line. Will I get in? The guard sees my cane and motions me to the “already have tix – no waiting” line. Merci, monsieur!
• I take the groovy circular elevator (just for handicapped folks and people with strollers) down to the central ticketing hall and my stomach starts rumbling again. Dang it! I think I remember there being a restroom near the museum shops, which would be closer than the one at the entrance to one of the wings. But bad memory. Phooey.
• OK, I think, so maybe there’s one out in the Carrousel du Louvre (the big underground shopping mall). I wander in there and discover that I’ve just left the Louvre’s secured area & will have to join a queue to enter again. And I still can’t find the W.C. Rats.
• But aha, I spy a Mariage Frères tea shop…certainly they have a restroom, I think…and I could use a cup of tea to settle my stomach!
• Nope, they don’t have a restroom, but they tell me where it is. I gulp down a nice little pot of fine tea (a travesty to gulp!), they give me a token for the restroom (otherwise 2€), and I head WAY down the hallway. Aahhh, finally, and in just the nick of time, if ya know what I mean!
• So I think maybe there’s still time to see at least one of the three special exhibits on my list before I have to split for my lunch reservation. I head back towards the entrance. Even more tour groups and individuals have arrived while I was searching for the W.C. and have formed an e-e-e-e-normous line. What to do?
• Well, while I’m pondering that dilemma an alarm sounds and the fire doors start slowly closing. I’m on the shopping side of the doors. Oh, well, might as well take a look in a shop or two for a little retail therapy! Success – I find a couple of little things for myself and some fun gifts! Things are looking up a tish.
• By the time the handsome pompiers (bonus!) reopen the fire doors (luckily, it was a false alarm), the lines are even longer. At this point there is a very low probability of actually seeing an exhibit before I have to leave, so I decide to head out and rehydrate.
• After having some mineral water across the street at Café RUC (say it out loud - it sounds like I felt!), I "Uber" over to Restaurant Benoit for my eagerly-anticipated lunch reservation. (Benoit is the only bistro to hold a Michelin star.)
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| Restaurant Benoit is a lovely place for a business lunch! |
• Lunch is tasty but not great, but then maybe my dicey digestive system is affecting my tastebuds. By the time I’m done eating, my stomach is really cramping and rumbling again. The restrooms are up a lovely but winding (and slightly treacherous for me) staircase. Nevertheless, nature calls and I trudge up there.
• The W.C. doors are subtly labeled and I end up entering the men’s room. Oops! Oh, well, no turning around at this point! And they did have a “cabinet” for the toilet! Aaahhh…just in the nick of time. And I don’t think anyone noticed me!
• Back to my table to pay the bill. I get the feeling that I’m looking even more pale than I usually do. I’m offered a freshly-baked Madeline and some chocolates and small financiers, but I dare not. They look deeeelicious. Dang it.
• I want to walk a bit in the fresh air so I head down towards the Seine. But rumble rumble, I realize that I need to head back to the apartment – happily Uber’s service is great! (They always arrive within 5 minutes of the request.)
• Home, sweet home! But no more adventures for me today - that's all I can handle!
So, not much was “accomplished” today, no prior missed adventures were restored. But the good news is that this is the first time I’ve been this sick in scores of trips to Paris. So I’m thankful for general good health, for options, for guardian angels, for amusing things that seem to happen all around me, for a sense of humor, for safety, and for services and technologies that can make undesirable circumstances tolerable for the single traveler.
Tomorrow morning I pack up early and head back to Minneapolis! And, of course, start planning the next adventure.
À bientôt!
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