With an early morning start we drove back to Toulouse, tried to put gasoline in the car (we had done it successfully a few days ago), but gave up and returned the car (without incident) and decided we’d just pay Hertz whatever they charged us.
We took the TGV (Tres Grand Vitesse), which translates to very fast speed, which, indeed, it was, from Toulouse to Paris. From the train station we took a taxi to our hotel, Les Jardins du Marais, which is in the 11th arrondissement on the Right Bank. Although the hotel was nice and we had a nice room, we are “Left Bank people” or just across the Seine on the Right Bank. Marais is a very interesting area, but not our preference.
Long on my “to do” list was a visit to the Rodin Museum, so off we Ubered. The sculptures are quite extraordinary, and the gardens are lovely. Of course, one has to take a picture of the famous “The Thinker.”
Following our museum visit we walked (Steve’s choice!) to Le Bourbon, where Steve was hoping to actually get a good Old Fashioned cocktail. He assumed that with that name his odds were good, but, alas, not to happen. Apparently the House of Bourbon is directly connected to the naming of bourbon whiskey but it is only a historical tie. The area in Kentucky (in 1785 Kentucky was part of Virginia), and the area was named Bourbon County to honor the French House of Bourbon for their crucial military and financial support during the American Revolutionary War. Local farmers and distillers shipped their corn whiskey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans labeling their barrels with their point of origin, Bourbon County. Over time, buyers began asking for the whiskey from Bourbon County, which shortened to simply “Bourbon.”
Yes, there was demonstrating while we were in Paris. However, all we saw was a large group marching during the day, and it was all young people. We were staying in the Bastille area, which is heavily populated by the young. At night, the Place de la Bastille was swarming with people and surrounded by the police. All that contributed to making driving around in Paris (for our Uber and taxi drivers, not us!) difficult and time consuming.
We ended our Paris visit with meeting our Parisian friend Dominique (we met Dominique when we both lived in Dallas and were active in the Dallas Art Museum) for dinner at a restaurant called Brasserie Thoumieux located in the 7th arrondissement, which meant crossing the Seine River and circumventing the crowds, but it was worth it to catch up with Dominique and the food! I had what I think may have been the best salad I have ever had, and Steve raved about his salmon. Dominique, being a real French person, had the escargot. We asked Dominique about the demonstrations and rioting. She bluntly said that France is in trouble and that it has been 40 years in the making.
