A Parisien Saturday!

A cold and spitty snow pellets one, but a good one, started last night upon our arrival, the driver even found us at the Gare du Nord and we schlepped bags forever to where he was parked, after arrival at the hotel where the staff greeted us literally with open arms off to an Italian place down the street for vino and some quick pasta, then to bed. Mom slept great, I tossed and turned for a bit in the narrow version of a twin bed (guess 25 years of sleeping in a Queen side bed has spoiled me), only tried to fall out three times!

Up in the morning to some sunshine and clouds, then to the American Catholic Church for 11AM Saturday Mass where one of the congregants was so proud to tell us that the presider was from Pennsylvania!

Did some shopping for Cokes and snacks and things down the street, back to the room, made a phone call or two and found Mom's beloved perfume, walked over there and got a lifetime supply, stopped at a most lovely chocolate shop for little 'surprises' for several at home, back to the hotel, then we started to get ideas for what to do on Sunday and Monday now that most of the 'shopping concerns' were accounted for.

Found when Sunday Mass in Rhiems at the Cathedral is, 11AM and tried to work with my older train sked to see when we could get out there and back, and by now the room Internet connection is getting all wonky, then wondered how far we could go to see mountains and snow on Monday before our return home on Tuesday. Call my buddy the Concierge at the hotel, he gives me a phone number for the SNCF (Societe National Chemin de Fer, French National Railway) and guess what, all the phone menus are in French! (Wanna feel like a duck out of water, try that!) Blow that idea off, figure we'll ask where to go between Geneva and Grenoble, both on the TGV mainline, they say Geneva, so we decide we'll do a round trip on Monday to Geneva, now to get booked for Rhiems and Geneva, figure the easiest way is just to go to Gare d'Est, so Taxi here we come!

Off to the Gare d'Est in the middle of the Saturday evening traffic, I'll say the drivers here are skilled at shoehorning cars into spots I'd never try! We get there, and there are two SNCF ticket offices, we try one and guess what, that's the closed one on Saturday! Trip on over to the other one, get in the line, find out that our preferred trip to Geneva is sold out but we can go and come back later, so that's fine, and we can get to Rheims and back, so we get the tickets and come back to the hotel, for cocktails and some snacks we bought earlier in the day!

Now we just have to make a departure from Paris Est station at 0857 to Rheims arriving 0942 and then a cab to the Cathedral for 11AM Mass and extended photo sessions, looks like the weather should be OK but I'll check in the morning again, I'd love to have some sun for the Cathedral windows and not have carry an umbrella! We'll grab some food in Rheims since we don't leave until 1619 and our previous experience of finding a cab was silly, went to a big hotel and had them call us one (works every time!) .

No pictures today, but there will be some tomorrow!

And one happy Mom splitting an entrecote at the Hippo with a huge pile of fries and great bearnaise sauce for lunch!