By Susanne Mikler
Our final day of the trip is spent in Paris. First we get breakfast in the hotel (which by the way is gorgeous!) if we can make it there …. What a line up!
The hotel is very modern (fits in well with an area of Paris that is totally different from the rest) and the technology employed in every department is very interesting. For example, at the elevator bank you tap your room key in the panel and it tells you what elevator (A through H) to get on. There are no floor buttons on the elevator so you get to stop only at your room. Sorry kids!! There’s a robot in the restaurant to collect dirty dishes. Lights in your room come on once you insert your room key into the light slot. When you leave and take your key all lights turn off. There are no dials in the shower; it’s a push button select for either the rainfall ceiling head or the wand. There is an iPad in the room which controls everything and provides hotel info as well as tourist info, menus and translation.
We are on the 20th floor and can see the Sacre Coeur from our window (when the fog lifts)
Rudy gets a quick bite and in no time we are back on the bus for a panoramic city tour with a guide. Our guide, Magnus, is from Sweden. His English is good, but I find it a bit odd that a foreigner is the guide. Once he gets going it’s interesting information because he includes tidbits like how to order a coffee. That may sound simple enough but what you think you order and what you get are often very different. He also reviewed how not to annoy the service staff in coffee shops: order and change your mind, order takeout but eat in, don’t say “bonjour”, invite your friends to use the toilets (which are pay facilities unless you’re in a restaurant) .. I think he was speaking from experience.
Paris is an amazing city and we certainly only scratched the surface. Rudy’s not an art guy, so we skipped the Louvre again. But here’s what our tour covered:
The bus returns us to the hotel and we do a quick stop to gather ourselves. I’ve booked us on a private walking tour of the St Germaine and Latin Quarter areas for the afternoon. There’s a company which connects local guides with tourists. They have the ability to customize itineraries and group sizes.
I’ve booked us with Welly. A young (33) hipster who lives in Paris. In fact, he tells us that he completed high school near our hotel. His English is impeccable since he did a year of school in the USA. We was studying accounting when he realized it was not for him and he took up touring people 4 years ago.
We have arranged to meet him at our hotel and we head off promptly and make our way to the subway. He shows us how to purchase tickets and navigate the system. We are only going three stops, but it’s fascinating to see how the system works. Especially since we are only familiar with the Toronto system which is, in comparison, a very small operation.
Once off the subway we head into the fresh air of St Germaine. It’s the area where artists and writers used to congregate and hole up at the plentiful cafes. On line they are memorialized as artsy hangouts from yesteryear, but Welly let’s us know they are now mostly tourist traps.
And with that we end our tour … so long Paris. Until we meet again 🇫🇷💗
