Part 5. The final installment.
Sunday.
DW and I both woke early to work out. Before you start thinking that we were so virtuous, just bear in mind all the pastries, and noodles, and naan, and beer…not working out was just not an option.
The fitness center at PHP was solid. No pictures (sorry) but I can remember that there were about two treadmills, two ellipticals, and one or two bikes. They had a universal-type cable machine that was pretty good for both push (chest/shoulders/triceps) and pull (back/biceps). There was a small rack of dumbbells that went up to about 20kg IIRC. They had ample mini bottles of Evian and green apples for the taking. Plenty of towels around.
After a quick workout and shower, I headed to Beth El for shacharis. I was pleased that Yehoshua had provided this guidance. (I understand that he actually ended up at the shul across from Beth El, and as you'll see, maybe that's where I should have gone, too.) I looked online the night before and found out that shacharis would be at either 8 or 8:30 or maybe both? I had yahrtzeit for my father, so I wasn't going to take any chances and made sure I got there by 7:55. Wouldn't you know it, though, that I walk in and they are already past borchu! They must have started at 7:45?
I know that Yehoshua said he davened across the street, but at this point, I didn't want to walk out and go searching, and there really wasn't anybody I could ask -- they were all davening! So, I wrapped and raced and caught up by the time they were finishing the repetition.
I'm not accustomed to davening sefard, so it was a little confusing as to the order of the conclusion of the service. I also didn't know that I was supposed to go stand at the bimah when I said Kaddish, but I figured that out. And then, after alenu, there was some kind of discussion -- in a mix of French and Hebrew, both of which I can understand when spoken slowly and clearly but not so much when it is fast and mixed together -- about a blessing for a fast. I know that some people have a minhag of fasting on the day they observe a parent’s yahrtzeit, but I don't do that, and that is not what they were talking about. Instead, apparently there is a minhag (Halacha?) to fast the day before every Rosh Chodesh. And there is some blessing that is recited for those who are undertaking it. And then I think they recited a Mishna. Followed by a Kaddish. Who knew?! (As an aside, are there any ashkenaz Shuls or communities in Paris? What do expats do when they move to Paris? Become sfard?)
A word about security and Shuls. Others have previously described the security at Chabad champs Elysees. At Beth El, as well as in front of the shul I went to for mincha/maariv in the 19eme, and outside Shuls in the Marais, there were armed military, usually two or three soldiers. With their automatic rifles in hand. I could see how this could make some people uncomfortable, and it could also make others feel secure. For me, it was sort of neutral.
After davening I walked back to PH, where DW and I enjoyed our breakfast. Then, we were off to do some sightseeing. DW had never been to top of l’Arc de Triomphe, so that was our first destination. The weather was overcast but the panoramic views from the top are nonetheless spectacular. We particularly enjoyed watching the traffic merge in and out of Place l’Etoile. We were struck by the observation that cars entering the rotary have the right-of-way. Gotta be a lot of fender benders there!
While enjoying the views, the weather took a turn and it started to rain. It was really just a drizzle, off and on, and it wasn’t too cold out (maybe the 40s), so we decided to take the Metro to Rive Gauche and do some exploring. We followed Rick Steves’ guide book and enjoyed weaving our way in and out of this “artist and writer” colony. After about two hours, we were getting hungry, so we took the Metro over to the Marais for some falafel.
We had heard much raving about L’as du Falafel, and apparently so did the rest of the world, because there was a pretty long line. But it moved fast – they have a guy taking orders and asking you to pay while you wait in line, and he gives you a paper receipt. Seems to move things along pretty well. We took our falafels back to the PH to eat there, as it was raining out, and the waiting time to sit down in the restaurant was longer than take-away. Note that there are several falafel stands/restaurants in Le Marais, all in close proximity to each other. I’m not sure that any of them, other than L’as du Falafel, have hashgacha. Moreover, if you’re going all the way to Paris, I think you want L’as du Falafel.
The falafel did not disappoint. It was delicious. Generous portions. The falafel balls are bigger than those to which I’m accustomed, but they had great flavor. Others have said this is the best falafel in the world. I’m not sure I’ll go that far, having enjoyed some pretty darn good falafel in Israel (at places that I unfortunately can’t remember the name) but it’s among the best. DW in particular enjoyed the grilled eggplant that was included.
After enjoying our falafel lunch, we made some phone calls to check on family back home, and soon enough, it was getting to be time for mincha. I didn’t really want to go back to Beth El, because it wasn’t clear what time mincha was called for. I had asked some of the guys before I left, and they said 4:50. And then I asked, so, since it’s a fast day, do you read Torah? And they said yes, if there are 10 men who are fasting, and in that case, they would start at 4:30. By this time, there were only a handful of guys left in the shul, so it wasn’t at all clear if they would have 10 men fasting and be reading Torah (and now, in retrospect, I wonder if they would read Torah anyway, since it’s not a community-wide fast day like 10 Tevet but more of a “discretionary” fast accepted by individuals.). But I didn’t want to go at 4:30 and have to sit around and wait, and I definitely didn’t want to go at 4:50 and be late again. So, I got to thinking, maybe we’ll go explore another Jewish area, the 19eme arrondisement.
We jumped on the Metro and zipped to the 19eme. I had no idea where to daven, but I figured we would see some frum guys and just ask them. Sure enough, as soon as we saw daylight out of the Metro, we happen upon a couple of teenage yeshiva bochurs, who didn’t mind my broken French and gave us directions to a kosher restaurant, and from there, we got directions to a couple of shul possibilities. Without too much difficulty , we found our way to a shul, and there were a couple of older guys studying on their own, and we were about 15 minutes early for mincha, but that was fine. We davened mincha and ma’ariv (nusach sefard again), and then we wandered around the 19eme.
I was looking for Damyel at 149 Villa Manin, 75019 Paris, France, but we couldn’t find it. Google map led us to what looked like a residential street. But no big deal, as we had already bought some macarons at Korcarz for just this possibility. I wanted to check out Hyper Cacher, mostly as a way of showing solidarity. Turns out, the first Hyper Cacher, which I think is where the bombing occurred, is closed for renovation.
As far as I could tell, they had been open for several months after the bombing, but only recently closed for renovation. The sign directed us to another branch, so we walked over there.
Here is the front of the branch that’s currently open.
Nothing special inside – I mean, it’s just a kosher market, a little dingy, but a great selection of cheese! We picked up some Camembert, a half-bottle of champagne, and decided we would eat a light dinner back in the room. So away we went, by Metro.
Here’s our dinner. Nothing fancy, but we really enjoyed.
We were pretty tired out after another day with a lot of walking, so we hit the hay.
Monday, return to Boston.
Monday morning, we awoke around 7, worked out in the fitness center again, and I davened in the room (even though it was Rosh Chodesh). We ate our last room service breakfast (same exact thing as the two previous days!), checked out, walked to l’Opera where we caught the Roissy Bus (easy walk, maybe 10 minutes, and easy to find the bus, not crowded). It was about 55 minutes drive to CDG. After passing immigration and an easy-check-in at CDG, we made our way back to the Admiral Club, where we ate some more, watched some planes, and got ready for our flight back home.
(More A380 envy, I guess. )
The return flight was pretty uneventful. We didn’t sleep at all. Almost completely full flight. They served a meat lunch and then a pareve snack. We were hungry, and the food tasted pretty good. I found the portion sizes to be on the small side. (Why they get the meals from the Netherlands is unclear to me...wouldn't there be a place in Paris to get them from?)
After arriving in Montreal, we got a little confused as to which line we needed to be in to transit to the US. In retrospect, I should have asked for directions sooner than I did, because we wasted time in the line that would have taken us into Canada, whereas all we needed to do was to go to the US immigration line in a separate wing of the arrival terminal. So we didn’t have much time to hang in the airport (not that I had any lounge available to visit anyway), and we boarded our little commuter jet back to Boston.
After the less-than-one-hour trip, we touched down at Logan. I swapped out the France sim card from my phone and, upon inserting my usual Verizon sim card, the phone not unexpectedly starts beeping crazily with accumulated text messages. My DW smiles and says, “Must be Dan’s Deals.” As I acknowledge her, the couple sitting in front of us overhears and his DW says to him, “Hey honey, they have Dan’s Deals, too.” So of course we start talking the language. The guy says he’s into real estate, and he also says he’s not on the Forum. But they were flying on the same AC glitch that we were on, though they had gone all the way to Turkey and had been gone for more than a week. He told me that he had done the Etihad glitch to AUH and JNB; I’m still sad that I didn’t jump on that one. And he mentioned that he and his DW (or whatever she was to him) were soon going for two weeks to Jamaica on some EHD or SF glitch – I recall vaguely seeing that one but can’t remember the details. And then we exchanged some talk about Target Red Card (a’h) and off we went our separate ways.
Best thing that DW and I took away from this trip – aside from having a wonderful time together just the two of us – is that we could really take off for a long weekend and go almost anywhere. Of course we would prefer longer trips, but a three-day trip to Paris did not feel too short, and we would do it again in a heartbeat.
Thanks to everyone who advised and helped make this trip special. À bientôt.
