Boating in Burgundy: Day 10 - Pontailler to Paris

Before we went to bed we packed everything up. We had to wake up very early because a taxi was taking us to Auxonne and then we had a train to Dijon and then another train to Paris. The cab came on time and flew down the narrow, winding country roads at about 70 mph! As expected, the train came exactly on time. There was only a one hour layover between trains or we would have had time to explore Dijon. On the train to Dijon, we could see a rainbow through the window! The trains are very fast, quiet and comfortable. Each seat has a small table that comes down (like on a plane), an individual light and a small garbage can. And no one checked our tickets!

At the Dijon train station

Paris train station

When we arrived at Dijon, we found a cafe in the station that had free wifi, so I had a cafe au lait and a pastry with my computer. David went out to buy us something to take for lunch on the train, but the sandwiches there were unidentifiable, so he found a Subway and got us food there. We got the train to Paris (this time they did check tickets) and two people were in our seats. We took two other seats then the people who had those seats came so we got our original seats. I slept all the way to Paris but David stayed awake and took pictures. We arrived in Paris, got directions to our rental apartment and found our way here 15 minutes later than we'd said but Luis, the landlord, wasn't here. We waited for a while and tried calling the number he gave us but I'm having trouble dialing French numbers on my phone. I finally walked into a few stores till I found a girl willing to call Luis for me on her phone. He arrived shortly after and took us to the apartment. We dropped our things and left for more sightseeing.

We started with the Jardin des Tuilerie, famous gardens which were lovely, and then went to the nearby Musee de L'Orangerie. At the Museum, we saw paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, and of course the massive Monet waterlily paintings. Some of these were over 20 feet wide and spectacular! Then we walked by the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais although we didn't have enough time to go in. We took the train to a place called La Defense which is nicknamed Le Petit Manhattan - all modern skyscrapers. They have this giant arch called La Grande Arche which lines up perfectly with the Arc de Triomphe far in the distance. It seems you used to be able to go to the top of the Arche but no more, so we were a bit disappointed. Then we headed back to our new neighborhood and wandered around the streets going to stores and just looking.