April 23, 2023
Prep day in Paris
Today's plan: put bikes together in the morning and ride around Paris. Get iconic image with bikes in front of Eiffel tower.
Reality: The only space in the hotel to put the bikes together was the breakfast room which was not available until after noon. So, we walked down the street to the aquarium to kill some time, but it was full. Not wanting to wait 20 minutes, we instead went to an Apple Store in the center of Paris to get a very expensive European plug for my MacBook charger. While I paid ten times what I think the plug should cost, it came in a kit that also includes plugs for countries I will never visit and multiple plugs for both America and Europe that I will never need, unless I somehow manage to loose the plug portion of the charger without loosing the charger itself.
None the less, being American, the trip to the Apple store was a fun adventure and the Apple Store clerk complimented me on my French when I corrected his "credit card" by saying "cart de credit".
After the Apple Store Doug pointed out that the famous shopping mall "Printemps" was just across the street. I had always wanted to see the famous Coupole du Printemps since our first and only previous trip to Paris many years ago when my whole family got to see it decorated for Christmas, while my Mom and I got stuck on a broken train, trying to get back to the airport in a quest for her missing luggage. Turns out Printemps is huge and covers many blocks. It is not easy finding the la Coupole if you don't that it is called "La Coupole" and you walk past the very first entrance that happens to say "Coupole" above the door, but instead wonder through block after block of stores. Not knowing what we were looking for, we finally got smart and pulled up a picture and started asking clerks "où est" and point. "La Coupole" they said, and pointed us back in the direction from which we had come. But I saw it, snapped a picture, an we returned to the hotel by 1:30pm.
It took less than an hour to assemble my bike which was minimally disassembled and packed in a large bike box, free from REI. Doug and Donna had bought fancy bike luggage that was half the size of my box. The downside being that they had to reduce their bikes to a pile of parts and put half those parts such as the fenders and racks, into a separate suite case. As a result it took them three hours to get their bikes together while I watched the approaching rain showers on my AccuWeather phone app getting closer and closer. We finally took a short test ride at 5pm, and returned just before the rain started. This was an excellent beginning as I expect to never get rained on in the next three weeks.
After the kidney stone situation on Wednesday, my biggest concern yesterday and today was not getting stuck out of reach of a bathroom when I urgently needed one. while I have been largely pain free, this is interrupted by sharp pains when my body decides I should make a potty stop. One strategy has been to not drink much, which I'm pretty sure is the opposite of what the doctor wanted me to be doing. This however, is counteracted by the fact that I left the hospital 5 pounds heavier than I entered it despite not being allowed to eat a thing, meaning they had pumped me full of 5 pounds of fluid. To make matters worse, the doctor ordered me to take a pill every morning named "flo max" which is the exact opposite of what I hoped I would be doing for the next couple of days. None the less, after two days things are largely back to normal, and tomorrow is pull the string day, hurray.
Tomorrow we take the train to Saint Malo and Tuesday we start cycling.
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Today's ride: 3 miles (5 km)
Total: 3 miles (5 km)
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how much does it cost at the apple store?
11 months ago
11 months ago