The Olympic Cauldron

 Many people visit Paris in August, but mostly they run into other tourists. This year, there seem to be fewer tourists throughout the city and more centered around the Olympic Games. It's nice to hear French voices as we visit Paris, rather than lots of American accents.

As we walked from Gare de Lyon toward our hotel in the Latin Quarter, we sat down at a restaurant near Rue Mouffetarde and had a charcuterie plate. More than half of the tables were empty on a sunny Sunday afternoon. 

The only time we found crowds was when we ventured to Les Jardin des Tuileries, the gardens just past the Louvre. The reason I wanted to come to Paris, was to see the Olympic cauldron, that hot air balloon that lifts into the sky at sunset. I wasn't alone. Many people gathered to see that rising up. 

As we waited for the sun to set

The risen cauldron with the Eiffel Tower in t he distance

We waited by a fenced off area to see it rise. Earl, being taller, took a video of it. 

As we traversed the city at night, it reminded me of our first visits to Paris when we would see the Eiffel Tower around odd buildings. It seemed to appear everywhere. The same was true of the Olympic cauldron.

As we left, we turned and saw it above the trees. 

Us and everyone else in Paris

We walked down a road to retrieve the sweater I had left at dinner, then crossed the Pont Neuf and once again, we saw the Olympic cauldron shimmering above the renaissance palaces along the Seine. 

The castles look like they're made from Legos

According to an NPR article, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo is considering making  it a full-time monument in Paris. The article is a bit confusing because it says 10,000 people get free tickets to watch the cauldron rise each night, but there were no tickets involved. People just pushed their way up to the fences and waited for sunset so they could see the cauldron rise. 

I wanted a picture of the balloon through the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, but there were too many people around in the evening.

You can see all the people trying to get pictures

I vowed to return on a run early in the morning and catch the Hot Air Balloon without the crowds. 

I did. 

Part of one lone bicyclist interrupted my picture on Monday morning.

I also got a peek of the sun rising behind Notre Dame (still under reconstruction) 

Another bicyclist, they were everywhere

And a shot of the sun rising nearly at the top of the Louvre pyramid. If I had changed directions a bit, I might have got it perfectly, but being on a run, I didn't have too long to slow down, plus I couldn't really see the picture with the sun blaring in my eyes. 

Here comes the sun

This short Paris jaunt was well worth the trip. 

A Last Minute Dash to Paris

Nothing says it’s time to blog again like a last-minute trip to Paris. 

We planned to avoid Paris like the plaque this year with the Olympics taking place. Until a blogging friend arrived in a Paris and said she was surprised by the “emptiness.” 

Suddenly, my heart beat a little faster! 

I had watched the opening ceremonies and parcoured along with the Phantom who jumped from rooftop to rooftop. When the flame lit the cauldron and the “hot air balloon” rose above Les Tuileries, I longed to see it. 

Earl had appointments scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, but it didn’t take much persuading to get him to reschedule. 

We purchased train tickets from Perpignan in the south of France to Paris. And after a gathering with friends Saturday night, we drove to Perpignan as the sun rose pink over the foothills of the Pyrenees. 

Earl and I had bought our tickets individually, with our senior advantage card for people 60 and over. His seat was in coach 3 and mine was in coach 13. We wandered through the train station looking for someone who could help us arrange seats together but the office was closed early on a Sunday morning. 

We settled for coffee and a croissant, plus a chocolatine for me, which apparently they call pain au chocolat in Perpignan, like the rest of France. 

As we took the escalator up to Voie E to board our train, a conductor stood waiting to see our tickets. I described our dilemma about the seats. 

She asked “do you want to be with me?” Pointing to the coach that Earl was seated in. 

“Bien sur!” I said. And she checked the schedule before telling us which seats were available for us to sit together. 

The TGV is fairly empty now, but we have several stops before Paris. 

As we roll along toward Paris, I looked out the window and to my delight, saw the Mediterranean! 

Next as we passed some salt flats, I saw flamingos feeding peacefully. This already feels like a magical trip.