Today started at 7 but I guess I should have started at 6:30 with the shower and all because I was heading over to Provins from Gare de L’Est via SNCF train. The process involved me first forgetting the rail pass and having to go back to the hotel room to get it, then getting it authorized so I could use it. This particular trip didn’t require advanced reservation for seats but I am sure the trip to Amiens on Tuesday will. There was a small catch in that you need a slip ticket to get through the gates to get to the local line trains. Fortunately I found a booth where a man looked at my pass and gave me a couple entry tickets for that purpose. Either way I ended up leaving on the 8:42 train instead of the 7:45 train with my mistakes. In the long haul I don’t think it mattered much though.
The ride took 1:20 or so and the unfortunate thing for the morning was the fact they had opted to turn the heat on in the train even though I think it was already reasonably over 50F out. Still the ride was relatively painless otherwise. When I got off the train I took some guesses on pathing and initially chose incorrectly from where the walled city was as well as Cesar’s Tower. This however did afford me a couple nice distance pictures. I didn’t have a map and the train station was a small one that didn’t have any amenities so I basically winged the whole day. By chance I found a long walking path that eventually led me to part of the garrison walls that was still standing. I followed this up a very steep and long climb and eventually there was a section where the wall was restored and you could go on it and such. I did this for a while and then found there was also a garrison wall spectacle which turned out to be a show that they run about falconry from one corner of the wall. I am sure the speech was all very tacky as some of the costumes and voices were but I really couldn’t pick up more than a word here or a word there. In any event I think the show lasted about 45 minutes or so and they had all manner of birds and even a couple dogs and horses to go along. Absolutely nothing was in English at all, which wasn’t surprising but they did bring the birds right up close to people. I suspect the only reason they ran this show at that time was because there were 3 classes of school kids who were probably on class trips to Provins from elsewhere. I was entertained by it and sort of had fun trying to take pictures of the birds in flight.
After the show ended I made my way towards the medieval city and got lunch at a small café/brasserie where I had Steack Haché and Pomme Frites (hamburger and fries where the hamburger was not on a bun) and they even gave it to me rare. I almost forgot to take a picture of the food but I did catch myself after one bite so I guess it will just show that they really cooked it to rare. As with other servers so far in France I’ve had a challenge communicating since my French is really poor and they don’t appear to speak a lot of English. I had to say rouge to get across the concept of rare but it appeared to work.
After lunch I found Cesar’s Tower which is a strange thing because it is an octagonal tower set on a square base with a round wall about it. In any event the visit wasn’t expensive and I got to go all the way in to the top of the bell tower (where when it was 1pm it even struck while I was up there). One thing for any of you wannabe castles freaks that I may or may not have mentioned before but definitely should have by now. Get used to the idea of long narrow spiral staircases with relatively unsafe steps. This tower while very small in comparison to most castles was by no means any exception to the rule and indeed I am sure there were times I felt I was going to fall down the unevenly spaced steps with rounded and broken edges. Nonetheless it was very worth the climb.
From the Tower I walked just a short distance and visited the old church nearby. It is Catholic in denomination and was built over 10 centuries ago it said. It appeared very old but was in reasonably good shape if lesser ornamented than a lot of older churches. I did manage to find an English language brochure to take back. As a rule I do not take pictures of the insides of churches even if I think the church may allow it. I saw a lot of no doing this signs but I really didn’t see something for a camera. Either way I chose to not take pictures inside.
From there I chose to just wander around the area a bit. I discovered that all of the shops and a lot of the restaurants were closed today, probably because it was Monday. It meant no souvenirs and I opted not to stick around town for dinner because the choices would be limited I guessed. After wandering for a bit I made my way successfully back to the train station without having to consult the GPS and still having no map. I am sort of proud of that fact. I had to wait a few minutes before boarding the train back but not terribly. I used the time to post from my phone about the lack of internet anyway.
The train ride back was exactly the same duration as the train ride to was with all the same stops. I got back just before 5:00pm and opted to get to the room and take off my shoes and relax a bit before heading out to find dinner.
I would have to say I really liked Provins a lot. I only wish I chose a day when more of the town was open. The streets however were lesser crowded even with the various school trips about and the weather today was absolutely perfect all the way through with only the occasional clouds that party cloudy (as per the three forecasts I had so far) should actually be. The temps were nice and really a lot of sun. Still people around here are bringing their winter jackets everywhere. If I didn’t stand out as not European enough the fact I don’t have a jacket with me probably shows it completely.
After a very brief respite I headed out to find dinner but was confronted by the fact that no matter how many places I passed that were open the only thing I saw people inside doing was drinking alcohol or drinking coffees. There was literally no one eating. It was already past 6pm and I wandered for over 45 minutes before I decided to stop at one place that a lot of people were drinking to see if anyone ordered some food while I had a glass of red wine, which wasn’t bad at all. But no one there ever did order food. I thought it strange because of the very huge menu board in front of the place that a lot of people stopped and looked at. After drinking the glass of wine I gave up on that and moved on again. I did another twisty turny circuit and came up with the realization that the only places I saw people eating were the McDonald’s, KFC and a Pizza Hut. In retrospect I wish I chose the Pizza Hut but by the time I realized this I was pretty far away from it and didn’t feel like walking all the way back. I was actually very close to the hotel when I decided to bite the bullet and just eat at McDonalds. I don’t know if it is a rule in Paris that no one eats on Monday night, but I swear people were eating on Saturday and Sunday. I suppose they may be waiting until later but I didn’t have the energy to stay out there to find out. The burger was very McDonalds with too much ketchup and mustard but the bacon on it was tasty. I didn’t bother to take a picture of it. For some reason it was called the Royal Bacon (I would have thought that name would be used by Burger King which I am pretty sure I have seen around here). In any event it wasn’t satisfying except that it filled my stomach. I obviously didn’t hang around long from there and just headed back up to the room to finish this up and transfer my pictures to the laptop.
No comments:
Post a Comment