June 3'rd - Pictures from my walk last night in Paris

I did make it too Lithuania and am staying in a lovely hotel in the centre of the city. I didn't post any pictures from my first day in Paris which I'll make up for in this post. But a very short write up since I have someone waiting for me downstairs but I wanted to at least post some pictures. I worked on these on my flight to Lithuania so they may not be the best.

Life is good .... enjoy

Auto Guru in Europe

June 2'nd - Mystery Solved

The mystery is solved. Today is Ascension Day in France and a National holiday. I did go out for a long walk this afternoon into the evening although just about everything in Paris is closed for the holiday so I didn't get much exploring of the neighbourhood done. Walked 19,332 steps, 5.75 miles or 9.32 kilometres. My goal is a minimum of 10,000 steps a day and I'm going to try to average 20K steps a day or about a 10K walk every day. A lot of walking but this is what you do when in Europe. The apartment is just over 700 steps from the Tour Eiffel so quite close.


Tons of people out enjoying the weather .... 20 degrees and a lovely breeze.


Under the category of "its a small world" I was walking along the Seine and ran into Peter Murphy who used to interview me all the time for CTV news. He retired four years ago and is in Paris with his wife and a small group doing the tourist thing. It is nice to see a familiar face.


I did take about 200 pictures on my walk but I'm only going to post one tonight since I have to get up at 4:30 am to run out to the airport to catch a flight to Prague and then onto Vilnius Lithuania for one of the pieces of business I have to conduct on this trip. Will post more tomorrow if everything works out ok.


Life is good .... enjoy


Auto Guru in Europe

Arrival Day June 2'nd

Just a short note to let everyone know that I arrived safely in Paris this morning after an uneventful flight ... the best kind. I think it is some kind of holiday in Paris today since the city is very quite and the place where I pick up my key to the apartment was closed and sent me to a little hotel across the street instead.


I got the key ok and found the apartment without any problem. My apartment is small but very nice. I haven't ventured out yet so have not explored the neighbourhood at all. Seems typical Parisian though.


You may find this hard to believe but I packed too much stuff!!! I did unpack absolutely everything and I'll be here until June 23'rd so it will give me time to sort through everything and be a little better prepared for my move to the next apartment on rue Vaugirard. I need to take lessons from Vida on how to pack ... she is an absolute pro.


I brought a bunch of stuff over for my two visits including a few copies of my book for the bank group in Vilnius Lithuania. And a bunch of Canadiana stuff for the kids and other people I'll see on this trip. I'm sure as the two months progress I'll whittle down the cache to be more manageable. 


Also I brought piles of clothes on this trips that I intend to leave behind. Linda Rovere taught me this trick. Rather than throw out those tattered jeans etc ... keep them for one last wear when you travel and then just ditch them before coming home. Saves a lot of space for the return trip.


The toughest part of getting here was the weight of all my camera equipment. I brought two cameras, a number of lens, accessories, chargers, my computer etc. Even though it is a knapsack style camera bag it was one of the heavier bags and was so jam packed that I couldn't use it as a knapsack instead having to carry it. Typical of Charles de Gaulle they parked the plane out in no mans land and put us on a bus to the terminal. No big deal but on arrival at the terminal there are multiple flights of stairs to negotiate AND I have a terrible time walking up stairs normally let alone with a heavy carry on to pull up the stairs and this camera bag that weighs a ton. Somehow I managed and all the working out over the last 5 months paid off big time. BTW my final weight loss was exactly 40 pounds ... add in the 10 I lost last year and  kept off ( I lost a lot more but put a lot of it back on in the fall ) and I'm down exactly 50 pounds from my peak weight. The challenge will be keeping it off on this trip. If I can come home and NOT put on any weight I'll be thrilled. It certainly will be hard to lose weight.


I think as the weeks go by I'll pack up a lot of this camera equipment into my checked luggage which will lighten the load considerably. I'm always terrified of my cameras and lens growing legs so I always carry them onto the plane with me rather than trust the baggage handlers at each end of the flight. My sister Bonnie had a very good camera stolen from her luggage on her way to Las Vegas from Detroit so it does happen. But I only need to carry on the critical stuff. A lot of things like the chargers etc can go into my checked luggage.


I'm not going to post any pictures with this blog but I plan on going out for a walk after a short snooze and may post some pictures tonight before going to bed.


The ride in from the airport passed right by the Tour Eiffel and my apartment is walking distance from there so I might go out and take some simple pictures to post tonight. I've also got a lot of shopping to do and may take some photo's while out picking up stuff. We'll see. I suspect that today will be very light on photography.


Please leave comments as you visit this Blog over the coming two months. It is always nice to hear from everyone back home. I'll be alone for the first 23 days so it could get a little lonely. I also encourage you to let your own network of friends know about this blog. I plan on posting lots of people pictures everyday once everyone arrives and it will be a neat way for your close friends and others to monitor your travels while in Paris. Did you hear that Bonnie?


For those coming over to visit during the last 5 weeks of this trip a quick heads up. The taxi ride in from the airport took about 20 minutes although that was mid day and there was very little traffic because of the holiday here in France. Could be longer if you come in earlier. It cost me 70 euros with tip which isn't too bad. I think the RER is about 20 Euro (after investigating I discovered it was 8.7 Euro) so if you don't mind hauling luggage around on the train you could save a little money although if there are two or three sharing a cab it is a lot easier to just take a cab and the cost difference will be minimal. My recommendation!!! ... take a taxi and don't sweat the 70 Euro.


There are always people at the airport asking if you need a cab when you exit the luggage area. DO NOT take them up on this offer since you never know who you are dealing with .. sometimes it is just someone with a car trying to make a fast buck. I didn't know better and did this on my first trip to Mexico way back in the early 1980's and the cab let me off at my hotel and took off with my luggage ... never to be seen again. It is dangerous so don't do it. Like all airports, CDG has a spot to line up for an authorized taxi and these are much safer. Even with this I always get my luggage out BEFORE paying for the taxi. Lesson learned.


Life if good ... enjoy


AUTO GURU IN EUROPE 2011

D - Day minus 1 - May 31'st

It is hard to believe but tomorrow I leave for Paris for two months. Even harder to believe is that I haven't even started packing yet AND I have a half day of work to get done tomorrow AND I have some running around to do as well. My drop dead time to head out to the airport is 6:30 pm for a 8:35 flight. I have my boarding pass and am flying business class so there shouldn't be any problem catching the flight.

I arrive on Thursday morning and move into my first apartment on rue Bartholet. It is a tiny one bedroom since that's all I need to begin with at least. I'll be there until June 23'rd when I move into our big apartment on rue Vaugirard.  I stay there until July 29'th. All told we have 14 guests coming over for various parts of this trip starting on June 23'rd. Bonnie and Tom Vrabel, Christopher Dunphy and his buddy Karl, Denis, Janice and Ashlee DesRosiers, Savannah Barrow and her friend Peter, Lucy, Christine, Simon and Julia and then finally Vida Petrasiunas. Laura still hasn't made up her mind but she also told me that she doesn't have a passport so it doesn't look good for her.

I leave for four days in Vilnius Lithuania on Friday morning ... returning on Monday late. This is the one business issue that I have to deal with. Lucy has a cousin whose husband works at a bank and they wanted someone to come over and talk to them about leasing. I've done dozens of studies on leasing and actually quite enjoyed putting together my collective knowledge into a presentation for them. Should be fun, I've never been to Lithuania and I'll get to meet some relatives that I've never met before and one that I met ages ago.

I spend the week in Paris and on Friday take the train to Stuttgart where I catch up with Marcus from Mercedes Benz who has promised me a Swabian tour. So much for the diet. I intended to come home on the Monday but somehow booked my trip back for Tuesday instead so I might just stay an extra day and see some more sites... What the heck.

I then get back to Paris on June 14'th and I'm there until July 29'th. And no I'm not getting excited yet .. too much to get done to get excited.

I'll try to post everyday but if miss a few days please forgive me. I posted everyday on my 2008 trip and some days it was a royal pain. We'll see.

I obviously haven't any new pictures yet so I posted some of my favourites from my trip in 2008. Most are from Paris but others are from other venues.

Enjoy.

Dennis

April 3

I changed the name of my blog from http://www.autoguruineurope.blogspot.com/ to http://www.autoguruineurope2011.blogspot.com/. I also discovered that when you do this the old address is deleted ( not surprising I guess ) so if you were to go to my old address you will simply find a message that the Blog has been removed. Don't panic though just go to the new address and it should be there with bells and whistles.


I re-read the one I did with my 2008 trip and really enjoyed the read. Blogs not only help keep friends and family up to speed with what your are doing but also acts as a journal of your trip and a handy reference point for remembering the things that you do. This trip I think I'm going to be much more diligent recording details of the places we go and the things we do. There were restaurants last trip for instance that I would like to go back to but can't remember their name or address etc. Or what I ate. In most cases I have pictures and that helps but it would also be nice to have a more permanent record of what we did or where we went.


If anyone has any favourite restaurants in Paris that you recommend please take the time to send me information on them ... send them to my e-mail address though ... dennis@desrosiers.ca. I've got one week in Paris then about two weeks travelling with arrival on June 23'rd and will be in Paris until July 29'th. The apartment we have for the longer part of this trip has six bedrooms and we have a number of people coming to visit over the almost six weeks we will be in Paris. Indeed I still have one bedroom fully open if anyone is interested??


My itinerary is shaping up nicely.


Depart Toronto on Wednesday June 1'st with arrival in Paris on Thursday June 2'nd. I have a small one bedroom apartment until the following Sunday although I'm leaving on Friday morning for Vilnius Lithuania mostly for pleasure although I have a half day of business on the Monday. On Monday afternoon I get back to Paris and I stay in Paris until the following Sunday. Now you may ask why I would take an apartment for 12 days when I am going to be away for the first three of them? To store my luggage and things that's all. Because I'm gone for two months I actually have to bring a fair amount of luggage with me and I don't want to lug it around Europe on these side trips. It was actually cheaper to rent an apartment for an extra three days than to pay for storage.


On the Sunday the 12'th I head to Stuttgart for three days of touring. I become quite good friends with the President of Mercedes Benz Canada over the last number of years and when he found out  I was going to Europe this summer the insisted that I come to Stuttgart for what he called a Swabian tour of South Western Germany. I gladly obliged and am really looking forward to it.


Ken and Renata catch up with me or I catch up with them on Wednesday June 15'th and we drive down to Switzerland for two days. On Saturday June 18'th we drive to the Loire Valley to visit castles for a couple days. The group that is coming from Canada to stay in Paris for a few weeks want to see castles in the Loire Valley so this is partly a scouting trip to figure out how to maximize the second the trip to the Loire Valley. We then head to the West Coast of France to see first and foremost Mont St. Michel. Google it and you will recognize it immediately. They say it is one of the most visited places in all of France so it may be over run with tourists but it is on my bucket list so we have to go.


My sister in law in London, Ontario and her two children ( Simon and Julia ) are coming for the last two weeks of the Paris leg of this trip and Simon wants to visit the beaches of Normandy. So I'm also going to scout out Normandy with Reg and Ken for day while in the West. Ken is interested in this as well so I won't be encumbering them.


I'm not sure how long we will be on the West coast but we get the apartment in Paris on the 23'rd so at some point we will drive over to Paris and get settled into our apartment.


And then I just plan on being Parisian for six weeks.


Will post a few times again before I leave.

Check out pictures from my previous trip while you are at this Blog and don't forget to regularily check my Blog while I'm away.