Paris at last-after 18 years!

Paris at last-18 years later

 

I finally reconnected with my beloved Paris after having been away for 18 long years.  It has changed and so have I but I still felt at home.

In preparation for my trip, I spent weeks studying maps of neighborhoods, reviewing the metro map and bus routes, watching YouTube travel guides, and brushing up on my French by listening to French language CDs and online programs, and more.

I also created a long list of more than 30 activities-each 1-4 hours in duration-in which to engage.  Also, I had a schedule of walking tours.

I kept this list with me at all times and slowly crossed off items, one at a time.  There are always places I miss and I save them for the next trip.

As a result, I was well-equipped with a variety of ideas about how to spend my time.

What I was not prepared for was the 6 of 7 days of rain that I encountered, in this city known as an "open-air museum".  Although the rain required me to dig deeply into my contingency-plan-bag -of -tricks, I was nonetheless able to thrive; in fact, I came, I saw, and I conquered. 

Here are some of the highlights of my trip:

·         My hotel was in a lively and interesting area of town.  Specifically, I stayed in a small, boutique hotel located only 10 minutes from Le Marais and Place des Vosges, and only 5 minutes from the bustling Bastille area. My metro line was #8 and it was a quiet, one-line stop.  Nearby, there was a plethora of choices for dining, shopping, neighborhood grocers, cafes, and boulangeries/pastisseries (bakeries).  The staff at my hotel was helpful and friendly.

 

 

 

 

·         I took 4 excellent walking tours conducted by smart, passionate, witty guides from a company that offers 3-6 daily tours, rain or shine.  They feature more than 20-themed tours.  My small group tours cost 12 euros each.  Here are the brief tour descriptions, of tours I took, written by Paris-Walks.com:

THURSDAY 2:30pm The Marais Circuit 2 Stories of royalty, mistresses and intrigue in this beautiful historic neighborhood. On circuit 2 we explore the Northern side of the Marais. Elegant classical mansions with graceful courtyards and gardens, the old Jewish quarter with the picturesque rue des Rosiers, and the peaceful place des Vosges, the city’s oldest square. Meet at metro St Paul There is always an extra tour on Sunday.

The famous L'aA du Falafel

Saint Paul

 

FRIDAY 10.30am Hemingway's Paris Explore this charming district in the Latin Quarter with the old houses of the Mouffetard market street, an impressive fragment of the medieval city wall, and the lovely historic church of St Etienne-du-Mont. It is associated with many writers: Joyce, Orwell, Balzac, Hugo, and Verlaine and immortalized by Hemingway in A Moveable Feast. Meet at metro Cardinal Lemoine.

I took this tour IN THE RAIN!

 

 

SUNDAY 10.30am The Village of Montmartre On this picturesque walk you will discover old winding streets, the vineyard, artists' studios (Renoir, Lautrec, Van Gogh) quiet gardens, historic cabarets, the place-du-Tertre with its artists and the Sacré Coeur Basilica. Meet at metro Abbesses (use the station elevator, it is quite deep!) (All year)

 

 

 

 

 

MONDAY 10.30am Ile de la Cité and Notre Dame Read the stories in the medieval sculptures, and hear how the cathedral was built. We explore the history and architecture of the Island, the old streets, the flower market, quiet gardens, secret courtyards and the poignant memorial to the deported. Meet at metro Cité. 

BTW, Notre Dame turned 850 this year

 

 

 

Love Locks Bridge

 


Lovers write names on lock and throw away key into Seine

 


Kelly & Kim locked in love for 30 years!!

 

Place Saint Michel

 

 

Notre Dame Gargoyles

 

 

·        La Cuisine.  I dined on some of my favorites including: steak frites, crepes, sandwich grecs, salade nicoise, quiche Lorraine, escargots, and fresh baguettes and pain au chocolats--hot from the oven.

Dinner with Susanne and Steve Zimmerman

16Euro formule

Salade Nicoise

 

·        Strolled in some of my favorite neighborhoods and places such as Latin Quarter, Bastille area, Mouffetard, Marais, Gare St Lazarre/Haussman, and Montmartre, I did A LOT of walking, even when I used the metro for transportation.

•  Seeing young lovers everywhere

 

·        Visited the breathtaking and serene Jardin de Luxembourg.  It was as much of a feast for the eyes as I had remembered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·        Took great photos with (and of) Paris’ monuments, both daytime and nighttime.

 

·        Took the metro and bus (28 rides total) all over Paris.  Yes, the metro is the most convenient and inexpensive method of traveling around the city.  I also really felt “a part of” while joining the masses on the daily trudge.  It is not glamorous, but it is authentic.  I used my Metro App to guide me on how to connect.  A book of 10 metro tickets cost 13euros30.  The single ticket price is 1,70€.   (September 2013)

See excellent article on how to use the Paris Metro here:

http://parisbytrain.com/tag/paris-metro/

 

·         Enjoyed long, scenic city bus rides on routes that enabled me to see famous sites such as the Opera house and famous plazas such as the Place de la Republique, all above ground.  This is obviously a great alternative to taking the Metro because you are able to see all the sights along the way.  Also, whenever I took the bus, it was never crowded. I could easily get two or four seats to myself and I had ample room to take out my camera and snap sights along the way.  Bus line # 20 stopped right near my hotel, at my metro stop: Chemin Vert.  Of note, metro tickets are valid on city buses.

 

 

 

·         Having a meal from a pastry shop.  My favorite is to go window-shopping in a pastry shop and settle on a quiche Lorraine or quiche with 3 cheeses, freshly baked, hot from the oven.  These rich snacks cost under 3 euros.

Assorted quiches from my nearby boulangerie

 

Visited my favorite history museum of the city of Paris, Carnavalet.  This museum showcases art and artifacts of Paris with an emphasis on the Revolution and new republic periods.  What I like most is the variety of artifacts from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries including metal shop signs, guillotine miniatures, personal items (hair combs, cutlery, pistols, hair of famous Parisians), and portraiture. 

 

·         Nightly strolls through vibrant areas.  Tops were lively quartiers of St Michel area, Champs-Elysées, Bastille area, and Le Marais. 

Here are some observations I made from the perspective of a former resident who had been away for decades:

Smoking is prohibited indoors.  The passage of anti-smoking laws in France really surprised and impressed me! I never thought I would see the day…… I noticed a difference this makes; I was free to sit indoors everywhere without being assaulted by others’ invasive, bad habits.

I was surprised to see electronic – cigarette storefronts.

Everyone is disengaging from the world around them because they are buried in activity with their smart phones – – just like everywhere else. This was especially noticeable on the metro where heads were looking down as people tapped away on their devices, oblivious to the world around them.

People spoke to me in French first in restaurants and cafés and other business establishments, and on the streets.

People often approached me and asked me for directions in French. I was flattered that a) I looked as though I knew what I was doing and b) that people presumed I was French.

I was surprised by how many French people speak English now.

Starbucks is everywhere in the tourist areas. They carry American-style desserts such as cakes, pastries and cookies and doughnuts etc.

People appear to look sad in the metro.

Blacks are still not integrated into society.  When I saw Black people, they were in clusters of two or three or four. There was an occasional Black person with a group of Whites, typically young women.

There are still musicians inside the Metro cars performing and asking for money after.  That has not changed.

Black is definitely a popular clothing color. I also remarked at the number of men wearing brightly colored pants such as red or orange or pink.

 

 I am still savoring the memories of having finally reconnected with my beloved Paris!!!!!

See my arrival Day Video here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esNhZsPBWpc&feature=c4-overview&list=UUxSSpGWbBgeFOH44NKlgS7A

 

Croatia Joins the EU

Croatia Joins the EU 
From ethnic slaughter to stability in two decades: Former war zone Croatia joins EU

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

 

 

 

 

Only 18 years after a peace deal ended violence that left the former Yugoslavia bloodsoaked and gave birth to the term "ethnic cleansing," Croatia is to join the European Union at midnight on Sunday.

It is a major milestone for Balkan countries trying to close the door on decades of Communist rule and the horrors of civil wars that tore apart communities along ethnic and religious lines.

But while European leaders trumpet the latest expansion of the economic bloc, celebrations may be muted in austerity-weary Croatia.

With its thousands of miles of glistening Adriatic coastline, modern highways and sidewalk cafes, Croatia looks as prosperous as its new cousins in western Europe.

That masks an economy crippled by soaring national debt, an unemployment rate of 18.1 percent and an economy heavily dependent upon tourism.

“I fear that we will become another Greece, another Cyprus,” said Vesna Mitrovic, who runs a vacation apartment near Dubrovnik – the historic city that became trapped in a six-month siege in 1991 and is now home to the Museum of Croatia’s War of Independence.

“I signed the petition against EU membership," she said. "I think we will become a small fish in a big pond.”

However Igor Nicolic, 84, of Sibenik, a town north of Split, said he was pleased to see his country join the EU.

 “I have seen World War II, the Iron Curtain and the breakup of Yugoslavia,” he said. “We always thought of ourselves as part of central Europe, so it is really good that we can now join the union. I think it will help with the corruption here and in the long run it will benefit all of us economically.”

He appears to be in the minority. In a poll this month by Ipsos Puls, only 7 percent of Croatians said they would be watching a fireworks display marking Monday’s occasion, Reuters reported. Forty-two percent said such a ceremony was unnecessary.

Croatia is not the first country to join the EU from behind the “Iron Curtain,” the Cold War divide that separated the West from the Communist countries of the Soviet Bloc. Poland and Hungary, for example, joined in 2004.

Nor is Croatia the first part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to join: Slovenia, whose 1991 struggle for independence lasted a few weeks and claimed only 70 lives, was admitted in 2004.

However, Croatia is the first EU member among the protagonists in the post-1991 Balkan civil wars that also included Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro. By the time fighting ended in Kosovo in 1999, 140,000 lives were lost and more than a million people were displaced. 

Serbia could join the EU next year, it was announced Tuesday, with Montenegro next in line - once monitoring teams approve efforts to eradicate corruption and weak public governance. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have yet to be formally adopted as candidates.

As well as passing economic tests to join the EU, these western Balkan countries were required to comply with efforts by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to bring war criminals on all sides to justice.

Croatia’s first post-independence ruler, autocratic nationalist President Franjo Tudjman, was facing investigation over his possible role in war crimes when he died in 1999. In 2005, Croatia took a significant step, handing over suspected war criminal Ante Gotovina – although he was cleared at the The Hague seven years later.

Fisherman Danilo Latin fears Croatia's accession to the European Union on July 1, and strict new laws and regulations that come with it, may drive the last nail into his industry's coffin.

“Croatia’s membership is part of the political agenda to normalize the Balkan countries,” said Professor Iain Begg, research fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Richard Kauzlarich called Croatia’s entrance into the EU a “positive step” for both the country and the region as a whole.  

“I can remember the bad old days,” he said. “Croatia experienced a great deal of loss during the war, but the West, the U.S., the EU supported Croatia’s evolution and did everything we could to encourage the kind of leadership that would be necessary to undertake the EU process.”

Now a fellow at the Brookings public policy organization, Kauzlarich said that the country had resolved a lot of issues in order to join.

“I think if there is … a negative element out there it is that Croatia still has a significant corruption problem and they’re not going to be able to drop that because they’ve achieved this very important objective,” he added.

Croatia’s size means its accession will make more of a difference at home than across the rest of the EU. It is slightly smaller than West Virginia, and its 4.4 million citizens will represent less than one percent of the EU total.

Membership means it will qualify for Europe’s generous regional assistance programs – equivalent to federal aid in the United States – in which public money is spent on infrastructure projects that reduce the inequalities compared to wealthier members.

In March, the European Investment Bank approved a $150 million loan for the expansion of the Zagreb Airport, a key link with the rest of Europe. Cultural funds will also help protect Croatia’s heritage in places like Dubrovnik. 

Not all EU citizens are happy. Germany’s Bild magazine labelled Croatia "the new graveyard for our taxpayers' money,” a reference to the Berlin-led economic bailouts necessary to prevent the total collapse of other southern European nations including Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Instead of riding high on Monday’s accession, Croatia’s Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic was forced to address those concerns, saying his country “is not a rose garden but it is not a Greece, either.”

“My message to German taxpayers: We will cost you nothing," Milanovic said.

However, there are fears of a brain drain because EU membership also means fewer barriers to cross-border migration. A Facebook group, "Young people, let's leave Croatia" has attracted almost 60,000 likes.

"I'm happy we'll be able to seek jobs abroad and make more money," Zagreb computer science student Marko Jakic told Reuters. "But I'm also sad we can't do that in Croatia because our economy is bad and there are no jobs, even for us."

NBC News' Henry Austin and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/28/19187211-from-ethnic-slaughter-to-stability-in-two-decades-former-war-zone-croatia-joins-eu