Road Scholar: the Best of London and Paris

 I love to travel but, as many of you know, my husband is no longer able to join me.  Based on the success of my trip to San Diego in June (ALA conference) when he had a 24/7 caregiver, I signed up for the Best of London and Paris with Road Scholar. They offered single travelers the double rate with the understanding that if there was another single we would be roommates.  We again engaged a 24/7 caregiver.

This was my 49th trip with Road Scholar. That includes a number of one-day trips that they offered for a while.  See the tab at the top of the page for the list. 

Thursday, September 19:    I got to O'Hare in plenty of time.  The ORD-BOS flight was delayed two hours because the incoming aircraft had mechanical trouble. It could not be cleared to fly until it was fixed.  That flight touched down in Boston at the same time as the flight to London took off.  

The three other BOS-LHR (Heathrow) flights that night were full.   The Delta Sky Miles Club was on the mezzanine above the gate area.  I am not a member but since I was flying Delta I went in.  The agent rebooked me for 9:05 on Friday.  Delta paid for a hotel room and a Lyft to get there.  I chose a Sheraton Four Points in Wakefield.  Fortunately I was able to reclaim my big suitcase.  

Once at the hotel I called the Road Scholar travel assist company (apparently they handle such things for many tour operators) to inform them.   Liz,  who'd been following my tale on Facebook, called me.  She lives in suburban Boston and we made plans for Friday afternoon.  Before that, on Friday morning, I went ahead and texted the Road Scholar group leader, John, in London.  He promptly called me (it was about 3 p.m. GMT). He said he'd arrange for transport to the hotel and that he'd meet me there.   

What a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. Liz picked me up  at the hotel and took me to their house and served lunch. I met husband David and daughter Rachel (and Truffle the dog). It was a most-appreciated encounter of the Magpie kind. (Liz’s mom was our dear Celia.) AND she drove me to Logan!

The Magpies made Rachel's quilt with fabric from Celia's stash.

My name was flagged in the Virgin system because they couldn’t accommodate me on any of their three flights the previous night. The supervisor caught me as I entered the jetway and apologized—and changed my center (four seat row) to a window (two-seat row and no seat mate so I could stretch out.  

 Lesson learned:  I let Road Scholar book the flights and accepted that itinerary.  I should have insisted on nonstop ORD-LHR and aisle or window seats. 

Saturday:    

LONDON!!  

All went well. I got to the hotel shortly before 11. Group leader John left the others with the tour guide to meet me. Once I’d checked in and cleaned up a bit he and I took the tube to the pub where the group met for lunch (bangers, mash, and peas—forgot to take a photo). There are 15 in the group. My roommate is Marian from Detroit. After lunch was a free afternoon. Most of us chose a walking tour led by Mike,  the tour guide. Lots of snippets of information.

Our group at the Albert. The pub is the only building on that street that survived the Blitz.

Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and the guards.

 

Saturday evening was free time.   I took the subway (John told me exactly what lines to take and the transfer point) to St. Martin's Theatre to see The Mousetrap.  It  is the world’s longest running stage production. I went to performance 29,771.  

We got Oyster cards loaded with enough to pay our fares for all subway rides.  So convenient!  Like the Washington, DC, Metro you need to use the card to exit as well as enter.  Why are they called that? I looked it up-- many guesses, nothing definitive.

Sunday morning:  Kensington Palace. We had tea in the Orangery (a fancy greenhouse) and listened to a presentation by Ken Wharfe, bodyguard to Princess Diana. We got tickets to the palace and explored it at our own pace.

Kensington Palace has been a royal residence in London since the 17th century.  Queen Victoria was born at Kensington.  Currently it is the home of the Prince and Princess of Wales. 

  

I thought of Lucy Worsley's Royal Palace Secrets series when I posed on the staircase to the King's chambers.  

Court dress.  Hard to get through doorways, hard to sit down, but just getting to court was the point.      The dress Queen Victoria wore to her first meeting with the Privy Council. It was originally black.   Vest and stockings worn by William III.  Knight of the Garter cloak and accessories. 

Sunday afternoon: free time. After the Kensington Palace tour Mike, our guide, said he would conduct a walking tour for anyone interested. It turned out that I was the only one, so he took me as far as the V & A (which everyone else saw the previous morning).   The museum is huge with all sorts of collections.   I have the book about their quilt collections though none were on display.   

Left; the Cast Courts features plaster-cast models of famous sculptures.  Lower center:  there was a gallery devoted to ceramics and pottery from around the world but case after case of British pieces.   

Left: in a gallery about furniture technology  (gild, bend, pad/upholster, veneer, etc.) there were three Frank Lloyd Wright pieces. The upper right is from the Johnson Wax HQ in Racine -- just a few miles from home. 

I had lunch in the garden court of the V&A—chatted with a couple from Boston. The original one, not ours. I said I’m from Chicago. The man said. “That’s the Bears and the Cubs.” I said we also have the White Sox but they are such an embarrassment this year.

 

After the V&A I walked up Brompton Road to Harrod's.  I went in but really didn’t feel like exploring (I was tired of being on my feet). It is a huge, glamorous department store and I didn’t need to buy anything. 

 

Dinner was on our own.   Marian and I joined Art and Mary Lou.  We four crossed the Tower Bridge and had dinner at a Thai restaurant.  Great meal, lively conversation. We were comfortable talking politics (always a risk when you’ve only just met.)  

There was just enough rain that we broke out our umbrellas but it didn't last.  (I wore my made-for-the-trip batik jacket several times.)   

Monday morning:  group tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Its predecessor on the site was a Norman cathedral that needed refurbishing. Sir Christopher Wren got the contract. He erected wooden scaffolding around the old church. That essentially encased it in bonfire fuel and when the Great Fire started just blocks away the church was completely consumed. He then designed this building.  

Among the many memorials at St. Paul's:   Randolph Caldecott was an artist and illustrator. The Caldecott Medal for the best picture book of the year is named for him. (Interestingly, he died and is buried in St. Augustine, Florida.)  

The American Memorial Chapel behind the High Altar honors the American soldiers stationed in Britain who gave their lives in the war.  The stained glass panels have emblems of the then-48 states and territories.  Illinois is the third down.  The names of the soldiers are in the memorial book (searchable here).

On to the National Gallery.  It is huge, it's free, it's mobbed. Only European paintings, no sculpture or other media or other countries.  

The galleries themselves are lavish.  

 

 Vermeer, Leonardo, Rembrandt. 

 

 Impressionists.

Monday afternoon, free time:  the Tower of London with my roommate Marian. I didn’t realize it is so big—a fort is a complex, after all. We saw the Crown Jewels, the tower where the princes were confined (and from which they disappeared), and the ravens.  

We got the acousti-guide (you can see it around our necks) but didn't use them -- we didn't have enough time to listen to the very thorough explanations, and the posted signage was good. 

A friend who saw this photo said they talked with this same beefeater (yeoman warder) when they visited the Tower earlier this summer.

Upper left:  this building houses the Crown Jewels. No photography allowed. Take my word for it, they are beyond exquisite!  The collection comprises not only crowns and tiaras but also ceremonial maces, heraldic trumpets, and golden dishes (including a punch bowl that holds 150 bottles of wine).  You can see them here 

Center: a huge collection of armor for people and horses.

Lower left: where the princes were confined (also Sir Walter Raleigh).   Lower center:  arrow slit.  Lower right:  some of the yeoman warders live in on-site apartments.

The ravens are definitely accustomed to humans.  I got that close to this pair.  

The group had dinner together for the final evening in London.   We were up EARLY Tuesday to go to St. Pancras Station to get the 9:31 Eurostar train to Paris.  That involves going through British customs and then French customs.   We bought lunches at the station to eat on the train.

The  ride was just 2 hours.  Since Paris is an hour ahead so we arrived at 12:30.   

PARIS!!  Our guide Tristan met us at the Gard du Nord.  The touring began with a walk to the Ile de la Cite.

The Hotel de Ville de Paris (Paris city hall), still adorned with Olympic banners.  

 

Monday afternoon:      Notre Dame is set to reopen at the end of the year.  The construction process is an exhibition in itself.  (35 euros to take that tour, which we did not.)

The cathedral was constructed between 1163 and 1260 with subsequent modifications.

 During that time the Palais de la Cite was the royal residence.  Portions of the complex date back to the 6th century.  

After the Louvre became the royal residence it became the Palais de Justice--a federal courhouse--which it remains to today  

King Louis IX commissioned Saint Chapelle to house his collection of crucifixion relics (he paid the emperor of Constantinople the equivalent of half the kingdom's annual budget -- out of pietybut more likely to demonstrate his power). 

It was cloudy that afternoon. Imagine how all this stained glass looks in full sunlight! 

   

Riverside view of the Palais de la Cite showing three early towers. 

 

We walked back to our hotel where our bags had been delivered.  Les Jardins du Marais, on Rue Amelot, is a collection of buildings around a courtyard.  It turned out that there were single rooms available so Marian and I each had our own.   Photo: hotel courtyard.

There were three Road Scholar groups and two other tour groups coming and going while we were there. 

Rainy day Tuesday. We learned how to use the Metro. Unlike the convenient Oyster card for the London tube, the metro uses one-ride tickets.

The Musee d'Orsay was originally the Gare D’Orsay, a railway station. Renovations were completed in 1986. Now it houses French art from 1848-1914. It has the world's largest collection of Impressionists.

We could have spent a day or more—we had a whirlwind tour. You will recognize many of the paintings and certainly the style of familiar artists.

  More Renoir. 

Three Van Goghs and a Gaugin. 

After lunch (braised duck, roast potatoes, and chocolate mousse):  to the Rodin Museum by way of the Hotel des Invalides.  

Louis XIV had it built in 1670 as a hospital for wounded soldiers.  It is now a museum complex for French military history and a shrine for French military leaders.  

The group went to the Rodin.  Marian and I thought we'd have time for both that and the Eiffel Tower but we did not.  The tower has timed entry and we bought our tickets for 3:30.  So we left the group and, thank you Google Maps, we made it well in time.  (Mind you, it was drizzling all the while.)     Tickets to the top were sold out so we got "second floor with lift," meaning an elevator.  Good thing because there are a lot of steps to the second floor.

The Eiffel Tower is BIG and they do crowd control really well.  Still, it was really crowded.  (What must it be like in July?) 

The view from the top level of the second floor.   We could see Olympic venues that are now being dismantled. 

We used Google Maps to tell us what we were seeing from the Eiffel Tower deck. The American Library in Paris was just blocks away so we went there! 

It has been in continuous operation since 1920 as a privately-funded membership library. They get no funding from either the U.S. or French governments.   I learned about it at an ALA conference (2019??) when Janet Skeslien Charles talked about her then-forthcoming (since published) novel The Paris Librarian. The collections and services are like a public library with American books. It is free to visit but membership is required to check out materials.   We were cordially welcomed. I poked around while Marian looked at the new books. 

An American librarian at the American Library in Paris.

We navigated the Metro successfully (including a transfer from one line to another) and had dinner at a restaurant around the corner from our hotel.  There are cafes and restaurants everywhere.  

Thursday morning:  an open-air market on the Blvd Beaumarchais two blocks from the hotel.   The produce, meat, and fish were glorious!   I realize I didn't take photos of the many vendors selling sweaters, scarves, hats, etc., and souvenirs.  

Center: horsemeat.  Lower right: the red berries are currants. I had never seen fresh currants before.

Thursday afternoon:  the Louvre.  It is the largest museum in the world.  The building is a mix of the very, very old (12th century fort), royal residence (14th-16th centuries), and now very modern (I. M. Pei, 1988).  When Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence the Louvre became a place to house the art collected by the kings.  It opened as a public museum in 1793.    It has 600,000+ objects and 8.9 million visitors annually.

Left:  palace opulence.  Top and bottom right: medieval roots. (The heart is a mason's mark.) Center:  I. M. Pei's pyramid. 

So much to see!  So many people!   

We saw the big draws and a lot more. 

 Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa,  Nike (Winged Victory of Samothrace), the Code of Hammurabi (first written laws, 1755 BC -- cuneiform on basalt).

I had no idea I'd see a second set of crown jewels on this trip. 

 

 Friday morning:   we took the Metro to Montmartre with guide Tristan.  There was a lot of walking, mostly uphill.   Montmartre was once a neighborhood of artists because it was then outside the city limits and cheap.  No longer!   The Sacre Coeur basilica was mobbed. We did not go inside. 

Top:  Moulin Rouge, an urban garden (note rhubarb at lower right).  Bottom:  St. Denis holding his head (one of the martyrs of Montmartre), looking down hill.  

 

"Love locks" on the fences on the terraces going down from Sacre Coeur.  There have been numerous attempts to remove them but they're still there! (And sidewalk vendors are happy to sell locks if you want to add yours.)

After Sacre Coeur we had a free afternoon.   Marian and I walked down the hill to Blvd Rochechouart and had lunch at a little Indian restaurant.  We took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe.  

Right center:  220 steps to the top (and 220 back down) -- worth it because there are interesting exhibits on the upper level.

Upper left and upper right: honoring the unknown soldier.  Center: looking up from the plaza. There's a camera in the very center so when you're at the top you can look down at the eternal flame.

We walked down the Champs d'Elysees a while before boarding the Metro back to the hotel.  

Friday evening:   our final dinner.   The group was the mix of interesting and interested folks that contribute to enjoyable Road Scholar trips. 

Photo taken at the Thomas Jefferson statue near the Musee D'Orsay.   California, Nevada, upstate New York, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland.   

Saturday:  HOME!    My flight left CDG (Charles de Gaulle airport) at 1 p.m. and arrived in Chicago at 3 p.m. -- eight hours.   The driver pulled into our driveway at 5:30.  Stevens was glad to see me.  The caregiver said things had gone well.  I managed to stay up until 9 p.m. (=4 a.m. Paris time) and conked out.  

I exercised restraint in souvenir/gift purchases.

My refrigerator magnet collection has grown.

Now -- where will I go next?