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Sunday, June 2 - train from Vendome to Paris, 4529 km
6am always comes too early, but our train is at 7 so there’s no time to putter around. We aren’t able to buy our tickets at the station as the ticket booth is closed until 9, so we board without them after seeing that our bikes are secured in the baggage car. “So this is it,” Mike muses as we take our seats. “Paris, here we come!” He sounds mildly enthused, which means he is quite excited.
I am both excited and worried. “Are you sure we have the done the right thing getting on without tickets?” I worry about such things.“The French have a system for everything,” he muses wisely, as though he knows what those systems are. “If they kick us off at least we’ve had a free ride.” Somehow that is not reassuring with our bikes in the baggage car.
It's raining now - spattering drops keep hitting the windows. The train is moving quite fast as the countryside whizzes by in all its greens and greys. The tracks are smooth, like the flat landscape. It has been showering off and on all day, a touch here and there with patches of blue sky in between. Travel arrangements with planes and trains give me butterflies, but now that I am seated I have no choice but to let it take me where it is going. I do my best to relax. Still I am worried about our accommodation in Paris. It is hard to find a cheap place any time of year.
The scenery morphs into a city landscape only about 20 km from the station in Paris. The conductor casually comes by near the end of the ride to sell us a ticket. At the station there is a bit of confusion. The tourist office is closed because it is Sunday and we fail to reach Pierre Lamy, a responder to our Gai Pied ad. We try several hotels near the city centre but they are full. Finally, the CISP (Centre International de Sejours Paris) near the Porte de Vicennes in the 19th arrondissement, 5 km from the core, offers a room for us, but only for three nights as it is booked for the coming weekend.
I am nervous about the infamous Paris traffic but this is Sunday and it turns out to be quite tame. The CISP looks comfortable but we cannot get into our room until 3:30, which gives us 
three hours to kill. We walk to the nearest subway station and buy a booklet of 10 fares, which we share. We ride to the Champs Elysees and get off at l’Arc de Triomphe. From there we walk the full length of the avenue to the obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, stopping along the way to pick up maps at the tourist information office.
Mike goes his own way in search of the main post office and I walk through the Tulleries on the way to the Louvre. The Tulleries is an extensive park with gardens and tree-lined gravel walkways near the Seine. There are dozens of marble statues to feast my eyes on, but the most memorable site is a young gay couple walking hand-in-hand. It made my heart 
sing. One of the two, I imagine the one who insisted on holding hands, is walking along, casually checking out the scenery. while the other is scowling, looking defensively around him for angry or hateful reactions. When his eyes meet mine and he sees me beaming with pride and admiration for the two of them, he is totally surprised. He obviously never expected my reaction. He straightens up, smiles proudly and clasps his lovers hand more tightly and they pass by me. That made my day.
The Louvre is half-price on Sundays so neither Mike or I wanted to miss the opportunity to see it today. It is huge, as anyone would know who has been there. The exterior is as interesting as the interior. But getting to the interior confounds me for several minutes as I walk around looking for the entrance. Finally, it dawns on me that the incongruent glass pyramid that sits in the courtyard is the entrance, not just an out-of-place exhibit of some kind. I walk around inside for two hours in the Denon wing, looking at masterpieces of dozens of European masters – Delacroix. El Greco, Caravaggio, Goya, da Vinci, Renoir – all hung seemingly randomly in the same rooms. The “Mona Lisa” is behind a thick, vandal proof frame with bullet-proof glass which unfortunately diminishes its visibility. There is such a crowd around it that I have to be very patient to see it.
I hurry back to the CISP to gather my bags and take them to my room, only to find that Mike has done this for me. We eat dinner in the basement cafeteria for a reasonable 52F. After dinner, we receive a call from Pierre Lamy but he cannot host us this week. He has two American visitors staying with him. He arranges to have us over for dinner on Tuesday night so we can meet.
Mike decides to stay in this evening but I want to go out. I choose to visit a gay bar Pierre has recommended. A young cutie gets onto the subway a stop after I get on. Our eyes meet three times and I am compelled to smile, a smile he is quick to return, although he remains guarded. When we both get off at the same stop I say hello. He lets down some of his guard when he hears my accent. He chats with me while he waits for his friend Serge. Serge arrives and they invite me to a bar called “Subway”, and later another called “Quest”, which Pierre had recommended.
I buy both of them a beer but we don’t another round. I suspect the cost might be a bit steep for them. Guillaume, the cutie, is a slender blond, 24, who works at Samaritiene Department Store. Serge, his friend, is 27, and just as shy as Guillaume. I am not much attracted to either of them but like the idea of keeping in contact with them while I am in Paris. Gilles suggests I check out a sauna and Serge says he would like to show me another bar with a backroom called “The Trap”. At first he wants to do it tonight but tomorrow is a workday so he changes his mind. I hang out with them until 12:15am, when I have to leave to catch the last train back to Porte de Vicennes to get back to the CISP before they lock the doors at 1:30.
PHOTO 1: Vendome Cathedral
PHOTO 2: l'Arc de Triomphe, Paris
PHOTO 3: Place de la Concorde
PHOTO 4: Obelisk at Place de la Concorde
PHOTO 5: a hunk who hangs out at the fountain
PHOTO 6: horses and hunks
PHOTO 7: les Tulleries
PHOTO 8: another fabulous building downtown
PHOTO 9: le Pyramid entrance to the Louvre
PHOTO 10: Winged Victory
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