Traveling from Uzes to Paris
Friday 15th September
Today was a day of travel and settling into our new home in the Marais district in the 4th arrondissement, on the Right Bank of Paris. We caught a local bus from Uzes to Avignon. All local buses in the area have a fare of 1 euro 50, regardless of how far one travels. The journey involves pick ups and drop offs in some small villages along the way and it is simply breathtaking watching these large 50-seat buses squeezing down very narrow laneways where they come within inches of the ancient stone village walls and buildings. We arrived safely into Avignon and transferred to our TGV train for a 2 hour 30 minute journey to Paris. Once there we caught a taxi to our accommodation for the next week. That journey was even more hair raising. The traffic! They’re a big buses, trucks, taxis, bicycles, scooters, electric bikes and scooters, smart cars, regular cars and the pedestrians! The lanes don’t seem to mean much to anyone and it’s virtually a free for all.
After settling in we ventured out for lunch and a walk where we crossed the Seine River over to the island ile Saint-Louis. It’s a small, narrow island that lies just one bridge away from our accommodation. Mind you the bridge is more than 600 years old.
At the top end of the island lies another, ile de la Cite (Island of the City). This is the home of the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was time to partake in a fashionable pastime, a double espresso (or at least I did), the girls preferred the other favored summer pastime of gelatos. From here we were able to view the monumental restoration of Notre Dame taking place. The devastating fire was in April 2019. I think the scaffolding will be there for another 5 years at least. I just hope the completion date won’t be competing with La Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona that’s still in construction phase after 95 years.
