10 Miles of Paris Vagabondings

October 17th, 2023

Gorgeous Sunshiny Day ☀️

After an excellent first night of sleep in the city of Versailles, Duncan and I woke up around 9 am in our little AirBnb studio apartment, grateful for the chance to sleep in as much as we needed to this morning. Planning for jet lag recovery time and knowing we’d want to explore our surroundings, Duncan had taken off a few days from work this week. I was so excited to show him Paris.

Last night’s baguette hadn’t yet turned into a giant crouton overnight (as baguettes are usually wont to do) because we’d bought it fresh out of the oven from the boulangerie right before dinner yesterday evening. So we accompanied our breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese with slices of delicious baguette toast. Alongside breakfast, I tested out the small automatic French espresso machine on the kitchen counter. This wasn’t a high dollar coffee machine, and these weren’t high dollar coffee pods. But, friends, this coffee, combined with the heavy cream I’d found at the grocery store, was delicious.

There’s a French verb expression “se régaler” that, in its simplest form, means to like or enjoy something you’re tasting. In its Frenchest form, though, it means to relish delightedly in the experience of eating or drinking something delicious. In this case, I can definitely say, “je me suis régalée” (I thoroughly enjoyed) my coffee this morning.

While eating, we made a loose plan for the day: walk 5 minutes to the train station in Versailles, hop on the RER C to head into Paris, trot over to Notre Dame de Paris, get a croissant somewhere, vagabonder (wander and roam) for a bit, and then be back on the train home before rush hour traffic would start. Pretty easygoing itinerary.

I’m a firm believer that there are many different ways to enjoy traveling—it all comes down to personal preference. Duncan and I have found that we like to optimize for the least stress and the most margin time possible when we travel. This means we usually choose a single destination to visit each day, simply to give us a trajectory. We then allow ourselves to meander towards our destination, stopping along the way whenever we happen upon delightful discoveries. This has worked great for us.

Train Station in Versailles 🚆

Around 11 am, we hopped on the RER C train towards Paris. It was about a 40 minute ride. Midway through the train ride, my bladder suddenly remembered the 40 ounces of water I’d gulped down this morning after feeling dehydrated from our travel day. I’d assumed that we’d be able to easily find bathrooms at the train station in Paris. Alas, I’d forgotten: public bathrooms in Paris can be very hard to find, even in places like transit stations. In the States, you can usually pop into any old Walmart or McDonald’s and use their bathrooms when needed. (It’s usually good manners to buy at least something small from an establishment for the convenience of having an easy access bathroom to use, but in most places in the States, no one is really enforcing this rule.) In Paris, however, where between 30 and 40 million people visit each year, most businesses understandably have very strict expectations for bathroom usage so that restocking toilet paper and paying the water bill don’t end up putting them out of business. Most public bathrooms you come across in France will cost 1-2 euros to use. I’d usually be happy to pay this small fee, but since we’d just arrived in France, we didn’t have any coins on hand.

Just as I was starting to feel pretty desperate, we finally located some free public toilets next to Notre Dame de Paris. They took the form of 2 futuristic-looking bathroom pods a short distance from each other. I know this might initially sound silly, but I’m going to take a minute to explain how these bathroom pods work, in case you ever happen upon them in Paris. You can thank me later.

Step 1: Hit the “door open” button, the door will slide open, and you can enter.

Step 2: While you’re in the bathroom, a narrated voice will tell you in French only to select the kind of flush you’ll need (light or full water), by pushing the appropriate button next to the toilet. The buttons feature pretty self-explanatory pictures.

Step 3: Wash your hands in the tiny sink, then push the “door open” button to exit.

Now, here’s where things can get a little confusing: the toilet doesn’t actually flush until you’ve stepped out of the little building and then allowed the door to automatically shut again behind you. At this point, the doors will lock, and the unit will do a full reset: flushing the toilet, dousing the toilet bowl with cleaner, and then rinsing and blow-drying the floor. Thirty seconds later, the light on the door will indicate that the unit has unlocked and is ready for the next person to enter.

It might just be me, but this didn’t feel immediately intuitive… If there hadn’t been people in line in front of me who figured out that they needed to let the door close behind them after they’d used the restroom, I’d have likely stepped right into the unit while the door was still open. And I’d have gotten a good dousing. Glad that didn’t happen. And now you will know what to do too. You’re welcome. (p.s. Not all the public bathrooms in France are this tricky—just this particular kind of pod bathroom.)

After this eventful restroom pitstop, I swore to myself that I’d just drink little sips of my water throughout the day so I wouldn’t get caught off guard again.

It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny fall day in Paris. The green leaves were just starting to show golden edges. I almost didn’t recognize the city because there were so many fewer tourists present than I’ve been used to seeing in spring or summer. Everyone, locals included, just seemed so much more relaxed than usual. As Paris usually competes with London to be the 2nd or 3rd most visited city in the world each year (after Bangkok who’s solidly in 1st place), tourism is hugely important to Paris’s economy. This being said, I can imagine life is much less cumbersome for locals during tourism’s off-seasons.

We walked by the Hôtel de Ville, where the only “tourists” in sight were tiny French children on a school tour. Probably 7 or 8 year olds. I enjoyed catching bits and pieces of the teachers’ explanations. I guess this would be the same as a school trip to Washington, D.C. for American kids.

At a local bookstore close by, we found some French books on van builds! How fun!!

After quite a bit of walking, Duncan and I sat down in the sunshine at the Tour Saint-Jacques to enjoy the granola bars and apples we’d brought with us. We then continued our walk past the Louvre and into the beautiful, expansive Tuileries gardens next door.

Specifically don’t feed the… goats? 🐐

Once in a while, as we made our way through the grid of Parisian streets, we’d catch glimpses of the Eiffel Tower, and I’d be reminded that we were on the other side of the world. But already, my mind was starting to feel more and more at home in France.

Late in the afternoon, we stopped at a supermarket to pick up some protein yogurts and a tuna sandwich to share. We hadn’t brought any utensils, so the cashier gave me a wooden set for 50 cents. Our whole time in France, I don’t think I saw a single plastic utensil. If utensils were disposable, they were wooden. I thought this was interesting—not just the fancy, eco-friendly juice bar type places were doing it—everyone was!

Late in the afternoon, we stopped at a stationary store called Le Carré d’Encre (The Ink Square). Predictably, as I crossed the threshold into the store and found myself surrounded by beautiful paper, colorful pens, stacks of journals, and cute stickers, I swooned a little.

As a side note—what is it about stationary that seems to ignite the imagination so much? Maybe it’s the potential for creativity that resides in the blank pages? Each blank page being a wide open space to be filled with beautiful memories, fun brainstorm ideas, and little sketches? I don’t know for sure. But I could easily have spent hours and hours here.

One nice thing about traveling longer-term and about living in a van is that space is limited. This makes large impulse purchases much less likely, because we know we won’t have room to store the items. On this day, I wanted to pick up a small notebook that I could carry with me to bullet journal little memories from each day as well as vocabulary expressions I encountered. I found a sweet little notebook by the brand l’Atelier du Papier, and I also picked up a simple Pilot fountain pen for a few euros.

Successful Pitstop at Le Carré d’Encre

Duncan loves croissants, so we figured it was time for him to get his first French croissant. We walked to the Galeries Lafayette, where we found the artisan boulangerie Chez Meunier. The display cases glowed golden with buttery pastries boasting shiny chocolate designs. I got a hazelnut chocolate croissant, and Duncan got a classic butter croissant.

Croissant Treats with My Love 🥐

We walked all the way up to the terrace on the top floor of the Galeries Lafayette. This might be one of my most favorite views of Paris. The magnificent cloud-filled sky in the background this evening was so beautiful.

Since we wanted to get home before dark, we went ahead and hopped on the train back home to Versailles.

After walking over 23,000 steps (10-ish miles) throughout the day, we were delighted to cozy back into our AirBnb, make a simple dinner, and put our feet up. Tonight’s menu was a butter lettuce salad with cheese and cherry tomatoes, rice, and some veggie protein meatballs. We were planning to fully take advantage of the easy access to fresh baguettes, croissants, and other treats that would be available to us during our 8 weeks in Europe. Alongside this plan, we were also going to try eating as close as possible to our normal, pretty nutritionally balanced diets all the rest of the time, so as to keep our bodies happy and healthy throughout our travels.

First day of exploring in the books! On the docket for tomorrow: visiting the palace and gardens of Versailles!!