First few days

Had a wonderful flight from Calgary to Amsterdam with KLM, which is an airline that still provides good service! Thanks to the wonderful herbal supplement "No Jet Lag", we functioned quite well on our first day.
Of course needed a cup of green tea for Robin and a latte for Claire to get us going once we landed in Schipol airport in Amsterdam. We sat with a couple from Amsterdam while having our tea, and found out about local events and the economy in Holland. Of course their economy is suffering as is the remainder of most of Europe, but not as badly. The young gentleman indicated that some unrest in regards to the large number of immigrants in Holland, as they are taking jobs from the locals, or sometimes just living off government welfare. He indicated that some firms are also eliminating jobs or transferring the jobs to say Poland where rents and labour are cheaper.
Having said this, people in Amsterdam were getting ready to party as Tuesday was the crowning of their new King, Wilhem-Alexander who was crowned after the abdication of Queen Beatrix. She will now be known as Princess Beatrix.....kinda sucks losing a title and being demoted!
After a 3 hour layover at Schipol, we boarded the Thalys high speed train and travelled for 3 hours to Paris. Nice luscious countryside with fruit trees and flowers all in bloom. Arrived at Gare du Nord and the onto our hotel. Quickly freshened up, then hit the walks of Paris. Walked down to the Seine, over Pont des Arts and back through side streets to our hotel, walked about 9 kilometres.
The Pont des Arts bridge railings are filled with thousands of "love locks". This a the phenomena of couples buying a lock, inscribing it with their names and a message, then throwing the key into the river, which signifies their everlasting love, as no one can then remove the lock. Kind of makes you wonder what happens in cases of acrimonious split ups? Does one go in the middle of the night and cut off the lock, or use white out/paint and put the name of your new conquest on the lock?

Stopped for tea at a restaurant along Saint Germaine des Pres.....gotta love Europe.....5 Euro for a cup of tea, which seems to be the standard price, yikes! Out for an early dinner by French standards, about 7:30 p.m. On Tuesday night out at 8:30 p.m., a little more civilized. After looking at our bill our second night in Paris, understand the total cost of eating/drinking out. Total tax on our bill was 26.60%, which is included in the price of the food and the service tip is on top of this!
Tuesday saw us walking about a total of 16 kms. Left the hotel and walked about 6 km. to the Musee d'Orsay. We had bought tickets prior to coming to Paris, but still had to wait about 15 minutes to get in. This was nothing like the line for those without pre-purchase; they must have waited for at least an hour to get in.
Claire's family will remember the beggars on the streets of Paris from a few years ago; always a young Gypsy woman with little children. Guess times have changed.....now seeing single men with puppies. Does this mean that the general public has more empathy towards dogs than children? And one asks why I have a hard time sleeping at night with all these questions!
Today, Robin rented a Velib bike. Very easy to rent with the exception that you can't seem to rent two at a time from the same credit card. None the less, just an experience. Will try again in Nice, as they have a similar bike rental system.

Some of our observations to date. A lof people still smoke here in Europe. We were wondering, if there is a higher percentage of pulmonary disease and lung cancer in France as compared to Canada? See, another question to keep me up nights?

Also, they don't seem to adhere to rules here; maybe we are wrong, maybe they are just suggestions. At the Musee d'Orsay today, couldn't help but notice the big signs that indicate no backpacks and no cameras. As good little adherent Canadians, we checked in our backpack and put our camera away in the galleries. We did take pictures with the I phone(does that count?) of the wonderful clock in this refurbished train station now museum, as well through some of the windows.....o.k....maybe not adhering strictly to the rules, but a lot better than most people. They were taking picures in all the galleries and the guards didn't say anything till some crazy person used their flash and gave everyone away! My nieces and nephews will get a kick out of this....maybe I just should have said "shame on you" !. Sorry everybody, a family joke.
The Musee d'Orsay continues to be one of our favourite museums as we both love impressionist art. So much to see here it is overwhelming. We were here over 20 years ago and it was nice to return.

Today we enjoyed crepes for lunch after the museum, then crossed over the Seine with a walk through the Tullieries Gardens, then onto the Champs Élysées where we stopped for a late afternoon aperitif. The weather here in Paris has been cool. The locals say that normally would be 20 C and we had 14-17 C these past two days, with a few showers on our second day. Trees and flowers are in bloom.


Trying to sort out the link to pictures, please be patient.

Posted with BlogsyFirst few dys in Paris