We have tickets on the TGV bullet train to Paris around noon. But to catch that train, we first have a 2-hour drive to Marseille and need to drop off our car at the Gare de Marseille train station. The ride is uneventful although the traffic is pretty heavy. The highway ends practically at the train station. This would have been great if we had been able to figure out where the rental car drop-off was. Unfortunately, we didn’t. We went into the parking garage but ended up in the parking part of the garage, so we went back out. When we went back out, we were forced off in a direction away from the train station. And because of the one-way streets, we had a really difficult time getting back in the right direction. Driving down the crowded one-way streets, I was getting serious PTSD from my drive around Nice and Monaco. When we went into the parking garage, we had an hour before our train was due to depart. When we finally got back to the train station and found our way to the rental car return, we had 15 minutes. It took 10 of those minutes to get to the train station and find the right platform. Our seats were close to the front of the train so by the time we got to the right car, found places for our bags and got to our seats, soaking in sweat, we had 2 minutes. After that, the trip was really pleasant. The TGV is supposed to reach a top speed of 200 mph just like the Shinkansen in Japan although it seemed like we were going faster in Japan.
Right on time, our train pulls into the Gare de Lyon. If you think of Paris as a clock face with the Louvre at the center, the Gare de Lyon is at the 4-o’clock location just to the north of the river Seine. Our Airbnb is in an area called Montparnasse and is at the 6 o’clock location about halfway between the Seine and the ring highway that circles Paris. While we probably could have taken the Metro, as the Paris subway system is known, we were at this point clueless about the subway and opted to go stand in the very long line for taxis. For a while, the line moved pretty quickly, but then it came to a complete stop. No taxis were arriving. After a while, the people who managed the taxi line walked along the line and said that since the roads were completely clogged up due to the Olympics (probably the torch relay), no taxis were able to get to our location. They told us that we should go back into the train station, go downstairs and exit at the Bercy Arena where we will see Team Handball in a few days. The taxi stand on that side of the building was still open. Okay, off we go. We find that “still open” was a little optimistic. There are plenty of taxis, but they are having a lot of trouble getting out of the taxi stand. We keep walking until we find an available taxi and then wait for about 15 minutes before we are on our way. The 15-minute trip takes about 30 minutes due to the road closures, but we finally arrive at the Airbnb. Unlike the other two Airbnbs, there is no handoff here. We have a code to open a lockbox that is located on a bicycle rack on a traffic island across from the Airbnb. Beth opens the lockbox and gets our keys. However, we aren’t quite sure how to get in. Fortunately, there is a security guard, who looks like he might be from somewhere in West Africa. He looks at our keys and says that he will show us where to go. He shows us a place under the intercom at the door that we tap with the key to unlock a door to the courtyard between two 10 story apartment buildings. Here is a view from the courtyard:
“Our” apartment is on the 7th floor of the building
on the right. (In US terms, that is the 8th floor, as what we call the 1st floor is "0" in France.) He takes us up in a very small elevator. Other than the emergency
staircase, there are only two doors on our floor. He unlocks the door and lets
us in. We give him a "merci beaucoup" and he smiles as he leaves.
The apartment is sort of T-shaped. Directly in front
of the front door is a small kitchen (refrigerator, dishwasher, sink) and then
a dining table. To the right is the living room and at the far end of the top
of the T is the bedroom with a curtain to separate it from the living room. To
the left of the front door is a toilet. To the left of that is the
bathtub/shower and washing machine and another sink. Beyond the bathtub/shower
is an area with a sofa bed which is where Sean will sleep. There is not a lot of
privacy, but we will do our best. We think that the owner of this space might
be an architect because of the many books on design, art and architecture around the apartment.
During our travels, we’ve been monitoring Sean’s flight since he is supposed to arrive at Charles De Gaul airport northeast of Paris in the early evening. We get a text message telling us that he’d landed and was taking RER B (Réseau Express Régional) from the airport. The RER is a kind of light rail/train/subway hybrid, but this one looks a lot like the Metro subway trains. It takes him about 45 minutes on the train and a 15-minute walk to get to the Airbnb. He texts when he is 5 minutes out and Beth goes down to let him in. Sean announces that he is wasted and is going to have sleep for dinner. Beth and I go down to a pizzaria that is about 50 ft from our front door. I try some of my poor French, but the waiter speaks English, so I don’t have to work too hard. I have a salad (which is literally a bowl of lettuce) and we split a vegetarian pizza. And since we are in France, we each have a glass of wine.
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