The French Ride

After a few days in Paris to shake off the jet lag, I'll rent a motorcycle for 15 days and ride through the Alps down to the Riviera and back. Read more

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Trip start
August 29, 2024
The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Harrisburg Airport
August 29, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 72 °F
Waiting for my first flight. I got to the airport at 4:30 am. I am little tired but I got about 7 hours of sleep last night. I slept from before 7:00 pm to about 1:30 am. That means I woke up around 9:30 a.m. in Paris time. Although I only slept about an hour on the red eye flight, shifting my sleep times for the last two nights before the trip really helped with the jet lag.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Long layover
August 29, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F
Ten and a half hours to wait for my flight to France. The United Airlines Club is nice. This is the first time I used one of my annual vouchers. The food is basic buffet but good quality. I ate two meals here. Some of the chairs are upholstered and have matching ottomans. They were claimed quickly by people trying to rest up before their red-eye flight. Eventually, the lounge got so crowded that they stopped allowing new pass holders in.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Taxi
Aug 30–Sep 5, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
Tired, but excited to be in Paris. I only slept about an hour on the red-eye flight. I was really tired and with two large suitcases and a carry on, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. I just didn't want to struggle with the train.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Hôtel des Arènes
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F
I finally made it to the hotel. It's nice and I spoke nothing but French with the guy at the front desk. That was nice of him because a lot of times they get frustrated with an American's bad French and switch to English. I asked him to recommend a boulangerie that makes their own croissants instead of defrosting and heating up frozen croissants. He also recommended a nice brasserie nearby, La Petite Périgourdine.

Looking at the pictures, you notice two things: the room & bed are small and there is no shower curtain. Rooms are smaller in the big city; cities are crowded. The French do not use shower curtains. They sit in the tub and use the shower wand. The short tub requires me to bend my knees so much that I prefer to stand. I was careful where I pointed the showerhead but still had a puddle on the floor.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Musée d'Orsay
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
Glad I bought the Museum pass at home. There's always a line at museums with people who don't plan ahead.

This museum wasn't here when I lived in France. I'm glad I got to see it today. Impressionist art is my favorite. It's laid out to show the history of impressionism from before it began to what it turned into afterwards, just before abstract art began.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Ginny's Gift
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
I wanted to buy my wife Ginny, a nice gift here in Paris. It had to be good because it's our 40th wedding anniversary coming up. Luckily on the first day I just happened to notice a store that had something that caught my eye. I hope she likes it.Read more
I love surprises, so I won’t look up the names of the shops in the picture. [G.]
9/4/24Reply
Bruce DimonI'm one step ahead of you. The store where I bought your gift is not in this picture. 😃
9/5/24Reply
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Les Deux Magots
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F
Les Deux Magots was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway (in The Sun Also Rises, Jake met Brett here) and Jean-Paul Sartre (he and Simone de Beauvoir met here). Jim Morrison is said to have written songs here.

The name: "Magot" literally means "stocky figurine from the Far East". The two magots standing by the cafe are two statues representing Chinese "mandarins", or "magicians" (or "alchemists"). The statues are the originals from before it was a cafe.Read more
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Café de Flore
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F
Pablo Picasso was a regular here at the time he painted Guernica.
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Boulevard St. Germain
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
The Boulevard St. Germain is a famous shopping street in Left Bank. One of the oldest churches in Paris, St. Germain of the Fields, is here.
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Le Procope Café
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
Le Procope, Paris’ first and most famous café (1686), was a café célèbre, drawing notables such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Balzac, Zola, Robespierre, Hugo, and Americans: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and now me. Admittedly, I did not go in because it was crowded and I was on my way to dinner.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Dinner at La Petite Périgourdine
August 30, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F
The concierge at the hotel recommended this brasserie. The name means the girl from Périgord, a region in southwest France.
I ordered:
- Burrata with nectarines and smoked duck breast and Pan-fried nectarines
- Confit de canard
- Pinot Noir from Bourgogne
- 3 cheese plate
- Café gourmand (espresso with pastries)
- Cointreau digestif (digestive aid)

Wow, what a change from my previous meal which was airplane food.

I could eat like a Frenchman forever.Read more
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Hôtel des Arènes
Aug 31–Sep 1, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F
It's the start of a beautiful day. Surprisingly, I don't feel the jet lag.
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Market
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F
Unlike American farmers markets, the markets in French streets are regular farmers at regular prices. The fruit and vegetables are fresh and beautiful. What you see this morning is what the restaurants will serve today.Read more
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Medieval Street
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
Here is a remnant of a medieval Street in the Left Bank. Notice the gutter in the middle of the lane. In medieval days, this was the sewer. The maids would open the windows, yell "garde de l'eau" (watch out for the water), and then dump the chamber pot into the street so that it runs down the drain to the end of the street and into the river.Read more
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Sainte Chapelle
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
This church was built just to house the crown of thorns from The Passion of Christ. People question whether the king of France bought the actual crown of thorns that Christ wore or if he was taken by a scam artist. He believed it because he spent half of the French treasury to get it. Security at the chapel is tight because the chapel is surrounded by the French Supreme Court. There are a thousand stories told in fifteen giant windows. Many consider this to be the finest stained glass there is. I agree.

The crown of thorns, now stored in the treasury of Notre Dame, was in an alcove above the altar. Only the Bishop of Paris and the king had the key to the staircase leading to it.Read more
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Place Dauphine
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F
I need to rest after all that walking. A café noisette is just the shot of caffeine that I need to continue. That is a shot of espresso with just a dollop of steamed milk. It changes the color to that of a hazelnut which is what noisette means. Espresso should always be served with a glass of water and a little cookie. Starbucks should take note. Place Dauphine resembles a village square in the heart of Old Town Paris.Read more
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Notre-Dame Virtual Reality
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F
I just did a virtual reality tour of the construction and restoration of Notre Dame cathedral. You wear a backpack containing a computer and a helmet over your head that projects the scene of medieval Paris. If you follow the line in the computer image, you won't run into the physical walls of the room. My fear of heights made me sweat as I appeared to be on a little platform raised up to the very top of the roof and then seemed to walk across the scaffold. I had to keep telling myself that this was just a video game and not real. It was really cool!

The picture shows a remnant of Notre-Dame's roof and spire ornament damaged by the fire.

The Statue of King Charlemagne guards the workshop of Notre Dame cathedral. He also hides the entrance to the public toilets behind him. The wall keeping the public out of the work site is lined with photos of the workers who are doing the restoration. There are murals all along the fencing explaining the fire and the restoration work. There's also a free museum underneath the plaza that shows more detail and artifacts. In a very strange way, the fire has made Notre Dame even more interesting.Read more
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City Hall
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ 🌩️ 75 °F
Block party at the town hall to celebrate the Paralympic games. The games started on the day that I arrived in Paris.
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The French Ride Bruce Dimon
Olympic Flame
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F
This is as close as you can get without a ticket. Nozzles squirt water mist that reflects the yellow light to make it seem like flame. The crowds around it were so large that they had to put up a fence and make people reserve free tickets online to get closer.Read more
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Pont des Arts
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ 🌩️ 79 °F
This pedestrian bridge over the river connects the Tuileries Garden with the Left Bank and the National Assembly.
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Dinner at La Jacobine
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F
The name means a woman who is a member of a democratic club established in Paris in 1789. The Jacobins were the most radical and ruthless of the political groups formed in the wake of the French Revolution, and in association with Robespierre they instituted the Terror of 1793–4. Sounds like somebody I want to cook my food.

I walked a lot today and forgot to eat lunch. I started with a bottle of Evian and an aperitif of Muscat, a strong, sweet wine with a flavor of raisins.

The entree was millefeuille de pâté, a stack of bread, pâté, and fig jam. A salad surrounded it. I love pâté and most meat products made with liver!

The plat was filet mignon of porc with a whole-grain mustard sauce. I love mustard and, if you like a Georgia BBQ with mustard sauce, you would love this dish as much as I did.

They were out of cream puffs so I ordered the cheese plate. It was goat cheese or blue cheese and a camenber. Delicious. I passed on the digestif because I was already a little tipsy from the 75 ml of wine. What an amazing meal!Read more
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Culture Crepes
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F
When I lived here, my favorite crepe was Grand Marnier. It's just sugar and sweet orange liquor. Back in the day we bought it from a lady who had a push cart. I had to have one in the Left Bank as I used to. This crate maker had a tiny little shop with about five seats in it and a big window. Mainly she sells to people through the window and we munch on the sidewalk.Read more
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Tourist Zone Boundary
August 31, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F
They tell you to eat and drink outside of the tourist areas. This is how you tell where to go. Look for this sign.
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St. Suplice
September 1, 2024 in France ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F
St. Suplice is the second largest church in Paris and has one of the finest organs in the world. They played the organ before Mass for about 15 minutes. Of course, they played it during mass. The cantor had a beautiful soprano voice. They rang the bells at the beginning of mass and of course, they used incense. It was a beautiful service.

The French Catholics have gone high-tech. On the collection. Basket is a little QR code so that you can scan it and tap to tithe. Of course I noticed several people who had trouble getting it to work The usher had to explain what they needed to do to make it go through. Not sure if this is more efficient...

Afterwards, there was an English language tour of the church. The most famous art in the church are the three large paintings by Delacroix, which were his last works before he died.

The priest who got the funding to build the church has a special tomb with a unique statue of an angel pushing back a skeletal death as he points the priest to the glories of heaven. His dream was to have a statue of the Virgin Mary made of solid silver. He self-funded this statue with every dinner invitation he got at a rich person's house. He would pocket the spoon and fork and collect them until he had enough silver for the statue. Unfortunately, the statue was stolen and melted down during the French revolution.

The revolution damaged the church quite a bit. And of course all of the great art and furnishings were looted.

One of these pictures shows the altar with the crucifix, the Statue of the Virgin mother, and a beautiful stained glass window of the risen Christ. It displays the three tenants of the Catholic faith: the immaculate conception, the passion, and the resurrection. The stained glass window is not original because was destroyed by a cannonball during the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war. Supposedly they were aiming for a radio telegraph tower

The church figures prominently in The DaVinci Code fiction.

After the tour, one of the organists started practicing. I sat and listened for a while, as did others. When a great organ blasts low notes, you can feel the vibration in the air.

I noticed a poster for Mass and Drinks. They invite young adults to go down to the crypt for drinks after the evening Mass. What a great idea that is. That's how you put people in the pews. Also it encourages Catholics to marry other Catholics and make new Catholics.Read more
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Subway Poster
September 1, 2024 in France ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F
BMW was heavily advertising their new scooters. These posters were all over the Metro system. The sign says "As your old man used to say, you're going to be 'hip.'" I wonder which demographic this ad is targeting. The word used for "hip" is from the hippie era. I asked two different native French speakers to translate this poster and neither of them knew what the word chébran meant. I finally found a translation program that said it was an old hippie word for hip or groovy.Read more
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