From the 14th Floor: August 2016

With heartfelt thanks to our travel agent, Sally Watkins in Austin ( http://www.sallywatkins.com ), and the folks at AMX Travel, we had a lovely trip to Paris, Luzern, and London in late May and early June.

We flew from Dulles to Charles de Gaulle on May 27-28. Since you're flying overnight, the best advice for fighting jet lag is just to keep on going until bedtime in Paris. We were having so much fun, it wasn't hard.

We stayed in the Montmartre district in Paris (the 18th arrondissement) just because we never had. It's the high mountain overlooking all of Paris and known for it's artist and bohemian character. Also, it's appears to be in transition from rather sleazy to yuppy outpost.

Our hotel.

After lunch at the Le Chat Noir cafe, next door to the hotel but not part of it, we spent the afternoon exploring the district. Here are some images of our walk.

Where we were headed. Never made it into the cathedral.

One of the many markets on the way to the top.

Nothing was flat on this walk.

Beautiful gardens everywhere.

One of the many views from the top.

We stumbled upon a museum on the history of Montmartre. One of our travel mantras is never pass up a history museum. This one was very interesting even if small. In the lovely garden behind the museum we saw a young boy's birthday party in progress. Even in France parents serve pizza to a bunch of young boys. The adults had (don't be surprised) wine.

Our hotel was just a block away from the Moulin Rouge, so of course we had to go. Had a great time - good food and a non-stop show that lasted 2 hours. It was vaudeville meets Las Vegas with lots of hunky male and topless female dancers. All gorgeous.

Only shot I got before the show and the waiter telling me "Pas de photos autorisees, Madame." Ops.

No problem getting an exterior shot.

Oh well, not everything can be French in France. This was across the street from the Moulin Rouge. No, we didn't try it.

For our 1st full day in Paris we took our trusted guide book by Rick Steve and followed his historic walking tour. Here are some of the things we saw.

The tour began at Notre Dame.

Pope John Paul

A bread festival was underway in front of the cathedral.

Our next stop was at the

Here are some of the wonderful artifacts on display.

This museum sits on the original 2000 year old site of Paris.

Next we went to the

This is a very moving memorial to all those who were taken out of Paris during the Nazi occupation.

This is the garden on top of the underground memorial.

Next we crossed the Seine over to the Left Bank using the helpful street signs.

This is the famous English book store where Hemingway and the other expat writers hung out.

The woman who opened this shop published Tropic of Cancer when Henry Miller couldn't find any English or American publishers who would print it.

Seemed fitting that we saw this couple in the park across the street from the book store. Tellement Francais.

Windows in Saint Chapelle

After seeing Saint Chapelle, we had dinner at Les Deux Palais.

We started our 3rd day by finding out the hard way that the Musee de D'Orsay was closed. At least the the walk along the way was interesting.

Apparently the well-dressed Frenchman will be wearing really bright colors this year. This was one of many colorful windows seen along our walk between the subway station and the museum.

Plan B was the Lourve - not a good idea. The rain drove hundreds into the museum. Lines were long, rooms were crowded, and after a few hours claustrophobia set in. On to a late lunch and the Pompadour Centre.

It was fun to see the restaurant in the Centre because it's an important scene in the Expat by Chris Pavrone, one of my favorite spy novelists. We didn't eat there - reservations required also most of the table were on the roof in the rain.

There is a terrific modern art museum inside the Pompadour Centre.

The sculpture garden seen from the roof of the Pompadour Centre

The rains continued and the flooding began. We managed to enjoy seeing many sites but from the inside of a Hop On - Hop Off bus.

Arc de Triomphe

The Carousel near the Lourve

Traffic circle at Arc de Triomphe. Amazing to watch how drivers and motorcyclists navigate what appears to be total chaos.

We treated ourselves to a lovely lunch in the cafe at the Grand Hotel.

We weren't ready to try the sweetbreads, but what we had was excellent.

The French love our Thomas Jefferson.

At 1 point this gentleman trying to get to 1 of the River Seine restaurants lost his footing and had to grab the planter box with the tree seen behind him in this photo. Later a water patrol boat came by to check on him. He was probably the owner or 1 of the employees trying to save the restaurant.

This shows the walkway that runs by the river was completely under water. The following day neighborhoods near the river were evacuated, including the Lourve and Musee d'Orsay.

We were scheduled to take the train the next day to Switzerland and went to bed with the knowledge that the rains were to continue and the rail workers union might go on strike.

Thanks to Sally Watkins ( http://www.sallywatkins.com ), our diligent travel agent, who sent us a steady stream of updates on the rail strike, and AMX, we were able to get out of Paris in spite of the floods and national rail strike. Knowing we have someone at our backs makes traveling on our own less stressful.

On the morning of our departure, the strike cancelled our train to Basel, Switzerland. We called the Travel Department at AMX and within 30 minutes they had us on a flight to Basel that morning. Whatever the cost - hoping for a refund from our travel insurance policy, it was worth getting out of Paris because the flooding was only going to get worse and the locals were threatening all sorts of strikes. After we left, they actually had to close the Lorvre and Musee D'orsay and many subway stations. Museum staff had to scramble to get the art off the lower floors - over 240,000 pieces in the Lorve alone.

We got to Basel, caught a train to Luzern and actually arrived 1 hour ahead of schedule. We might have left the flooding in Paris but the rains stayed with us. It was not ideal photo weather, being cloudy the entire time we were in Luzern and raining off and on the entire time.

We stayed in the historic district in Hotel des Alps. it was a comfortable small hotel with a terrific restaurant right on the river that flows from Lake Luzern. The staff was friendly, professional, and all spoke English and probably many other languages as well. The covered bridge in the photo is the historic Chapel Bridge, the oldest bridge of its kind in Switzerland.

Views from our hotel room.

I couldn't resist playing with the panorama function of my new camera.

We had dinner in a traditional Swiss restaurant where I ordered the fondu. Little did I know all I was going to get was melted cheese and bread - the traditional fondu. I was expecting a choice of all sorts of things I could dunk in the cheese. I was remembering the fondu "dinners" I hosted with my 3 fondu sets I got at my bridal shower way back in the days of my 1st marriage. Wonder what happened to those fondu sets? I digress.

After dinner we walked around and found lovely views everywhere.

Our first full day was spent going to the top of Mt. Pilatus, elevation 6,942 ft. Legend says the mountain was named after Pontius Pilot because the Devil dropped his spirit off there to suffer through eternity. Given the lovely views, not so sure about the suffering unless spirits can get really cold.

We could see the mountain from our hotel window.

We took a city bus to 1 of the suburbs, walked a mile or so up to the station to catch the cable car to the top.

When we got to the top, this was the "view".

Looking out the windows, all we could see were the reflections of our fellow tourists.

Had it not been so cloudy, here's what we would have seen.

There were 2 hotels on the top that shared a reception area. We decided to have lunch in the old hotel.

Guess who dined here.

Wonder if Queen Victoria had a beer.

Our lunch was interrupted by a shocking sight out the window.

It was cold, rainy and windy, yet here was someone paying for the thrill of risking life and limb. When he fell everyone in the restaurant screamed.

The following video is less than 3 minutes. See what happened. Sorry, but you must copy the link and go to You Tube. This video, even though short, is too big to post directly into this blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqI9DZJmZlM

Thank goodness there was some traditional entertainment in the lobby. We called them the Recola Guys but really they are playing Alphorns.

Here's the "new" hotel on the mountain. Yep, the snow was still that high.

Later in the afternoon the clouds lifted a little bit for a short time.

Our trip down the mountain was by cog train.

Next we took a tour boat the length of Lake Luzern to return to the city of Luzern.

Views along the way.

I had to cheat to capture the views from the mountain top. While staying nice and warm inside the hotel lobby, I copied this promotional video showing on the TV in the bar area. Again the video is too large to insert in this blog, so you'll have to go to You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vet_EpqOim0&feature=youtu.be

As we were walking back to our hotel, we saw this group coming across the street. It was a very strange sight of about 75 guys in tuxedos and 1 female in a formal. We asked several people who were also looking at this group to explain what was going on. No one knew. If you can explain this possible local custom, please let me know.

Our 2nd day included a tour on a trolley and a visit to a couple of museums.

The tour starts in front of the largest hotel in Luzern and the most expensive.

While waiting to start the tour, our guide played some traditional music.

Views along the tour:

The building with the red trim is a very famous example of historic Alps architecture.

While not at flood stage, the River Ruess was flowing swiftly.

During the tour we spotted some things we wanted to go back and explore. First up - the local history museum (anyone surprised?)

The museum is in an old church.

Proof that the Luzern area has been inhabited for thousand of years.

We were in front of the Franciscan church when the bells began to ring. The video doesn't do them justice - they were deafening. We learned you cannot assume the time when they ring. For hundreds of years this was the only church in town. When other churches began to be built with bell towers the Franciscans pitched a fit. They insisted that they be the only ones allowed to signal the hour. As a compromise they get to go first - 1 minute before the hour. Then all the other churches ring out the hour.

The rains returned so we sought shelter in a lovely restaurant.

Seem 12:30 pm is EARLY for lunch. Business had picked up by the time we left.

We enjoyed a romantic, cozy lunch. Who says you can't dine by candle light at noon?

Next door to the restaurant was this.

You gotta love a country with these kinds of shops everywhere.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the transportation museum and an art museum dedicated to a very famous local artist.

Being able to get around while living in the Alps is a big deal!

Part of this complex was the museum dedicated to Hans Erni who is know for his modernist work but also for his leadership in environmental issues. He died in 2015 at the age of 106.