Day 2 - Lump of Le Poop

A lump of poop is what I was for a better part of the day today. I was still feeling the effects not sleeping on the plane Friday night. I got up at 9:45 A.M., went downstairs and had the hotel's continental breakfast. When I returned to the room, I made my first entry here in the Paris blog. I then lied down in bed and slept for a few more hours. I finally was up for good at 4 P.M. I hope I don't have trouble sleeping tonight.

I sat on Google maps plotting a route to a home of a guy referred to me by a fellow cyclist, Walid. Andrew is an english-speaking cyclist who can fill me in on the local cycling scene. I had his number but something was wrong as I was not able to get the number to dial successfully. So, I decided to ride to this guy's house and pay him a visit.

The first part of my ride was right down the Champs-Elysees. The street is very much a premiere area of Paris. There's lots of people walking up and down the wide sidewalks with plenty of cafes, restaurants, and shops. A girlfriend could easily be dropped off there by herself while you go riding for a few hours and she would be in shopping heaven. She wouldn't know what to do with herself there with all the options. Just make sure it's her credit card she's using and not yours. Paris is expensive.

The Champs-Elysees is also very bumpy with the cobblestones. As a tourist, I didn't mind but I would not want to ride it on a regular basis. It must be a little harrowing for the pros when they do their several laps there at the end of the Tour de France.

From there, it was off to La Defense, the modern downtown part of Paris. There's a number of fairly large buildings there with a few very high examples of 70s architecture or Brutalism as some call it. The building shaped as upside-down U is pretty neat as well.

Getting to these building is another matter. It seems like all the thoroughfares were either tunnels or elevated roadways. It was very complicated getting through there. They don't have traditional street signs like we do in the U.S. I couldn't find the streets on my planned route so I asked a cyclist on the street for some help. It turns out that he is a local police officer. Benoit was more than happy to help. He said that his dream was to go to the U.S. and drive a Cadillac. I told him that he welcome if he ever came to Chicago. Another nice Parisian. There are plenty of them.

It was still a little difficult to follow my route due to the signage but the bus stops had maps and were extremely helpful. I almost crashed on a sidewalk that had a few steps on it. I was looking forward when I felt a sudden drop. Fortunately, it was only a few steps and I didn't go down. It would have been my first crash on Paris. I arrived at Andrew's house but only his son was home. I left a message with him and I was off back to my hotel.

Retracing the route was going perfectly fine until I got La Defense again. I did muddle my way through and made it back to the Champs-Elysees where I caught a number of green lights and I tore through traffic at a pretty good pace. It was a bit bone-jarring and a little scary with the scooters cutting through the traffic but I was fine and it reminded me of my summers as a messenger (without the cobbles of course).

I made a required stop on the Rue de Rivoli by the Place de la Concorde at the Haagen-Dazs store to get my three scoops of macadamia brittle which is not offered in the U.S. Yummy!

I rode away with my ice cream when I hear, "Hey Ric!". It was Dale walking around. It's pretty incredible to run into him considering the number of streets and stuff going on. We decided to have dinner right there and then at a brasserie called Le Royal Opera. We started with the duck foie gras and toast. It was very good. For my main course, it was lamb chops and julienne green beans. Another delicious meal.

Back at the hotel, Andrew called. We chatted for a bit and set a time and place for lunch near the Bois de Boulogne, a wooded area west of Paris. I hope to obtain more local cycling info from him at that time. Until tomorrow.

Bonsoir.