Paris, Sept. 12-14

It was and hour and a half train ride from Maastricht to Liege where we caught the high-speed Thalys for the two hours to Paris. After muscling our bags onto and off of the metro we walked a short distance to the Hotel de Nations Saint Germain. The very friendly and helpful staffed checked us in and sent us up the elevator to our sixth floor room overlooking the Rue Monge, with a view of the towers of Notre Dame and The church of Sacrè Coeur in the distance. (Nice hotel. Recommended!)

Of course we were going to have a mini heat wave for our time here so it was off to a museum. They have air conditioning. This time it was the Musèe d’Orsay with it’s impressive collection of impressionist painting and sculpture and an equally impressive clock.

The building was originally constructed as a train station for the Universal Exhibition of 1900 and is a work of art in it’s right.

Wednesday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed for the airport on the always packed RER, the suburban railroad. There was barely enough room for us and our suitcases in the car. When we arrived at the airport a nice (!) soldier with a large gun was preventing anyone from heading up the escalator to the terminal.  Seems there was an unattended suitcase left there and things are, shall we say, just a little jumpy in Paris. After about 20 minutes we were told that shortly there would be a loud whistle and we should cover our ears. Bang! went the device and Cathy Jo said some poor person’s underwear was all over the ceiling.

Without further incident Air France carefully deposited us in Los Angeles right on time and we were back in our Ventura home about 8 pm. Time to get back to work (and start planning for next year!)