La Mer, le Canal & les Pyrénées

[Jacques Vert]

Thanks to @JohnM (and +1's camera work), here's a video of one of the opening bridges in action.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Have you seen Under Paris (2024) 5.2 | Action, Drama, Horror

Great movie!

OK I've watched it; I can't say I enjoyed it. But yes, it was partly filmed in the canal Saint-Martin.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Musée d'Orsay

The Musée d'Orsay is contained within a former railway station that was finished in time for the Paris Exhibtion of 1900 but by 1939 it's short platforms were considered unsuitable for the longer trains that had become the standard. The former platform area give the exhibition space on the lower level its long and somewhat narrow shape:




I love impressionist paintings and I found a few that caught my eye...

 

[Jacques Vert]

The Catacombs

There are a lot of churches in Paris and there was a time when every one of them had their own graveyard. In the eighteenth century these graveyards were linked to public health issues, plus the city was running out of space for more graves and the Catholic Church forbade cremation. The decision was made to move all the bones to disused former quaries outside of the then city. It is generally believed that there are the remains of over six million Parisians housed in the Catacombs.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Nantes

So time to leave Paris. We had decided that we would like a car to get around once we left Paris (who needs a car in Paris?). But we didn’t want to pick up the car in Paris: been there, done that. Back in 2010 we hired a car from La Gare du Nord and drove out of Paris on a Friday afternoon, never again.

This time, we decided to lease a car through Car-2-Europe (formerly Citroën Eurodrive) and pick it up in Nantes; more on that latter. We booked the TGV from la Gare Montparnasse to Gare Centrale de Nantes. First we had to get to Montparnasse and we were on the opposite side of Paris; we also didn’t fancy dragging our bags up and down stairs at various metro stations, and changing trains numerous times. So we checked out the price for an Uber and also a similar ride service “Bolt”. Bolt has mixed reviews but were considerably cheaper due to a new-customer discount so we booked with them.

All went well and we arrived at Montparnasse nice and early. Only downside was that, despite being out the front of our accommodation early, we were charged EUR 0.10 waiting time because our driver was 12 seconds late in acknowledging the pick-up. (I was going to challenge this on principle but trying to do so on their French website has so far proven quite difficult.)

Two hours on the TGV and we arrived in Nantes. We stayed at the Mercure Nantes Centre Gare which as the name suggests is next door to the station. I forgot to take photos of the room but it is a typical Mercure although our room was quite small (more the size of an Ibis).

Some photos of Nantes which is a very nice small city.

 

[FlyingFiona]

Back in 2010 we hired a car from La Gare du Nord and drove out of Paris on a Friday afternoon, never again.

what a baptism of fire into driving in France!

 

[ellen10]

I love travelling on the TGV and we always take a TGV train and pick up our car in a town other than Paris.
Are you going further north into Brittany? Lots of wonderful places and villages to see there.

I am enjoying following along.

 

[Jacques Vert]

what a baptism of fire into driving in France!

Indeed, it was also the start of their holiday season. +1 was driving and I was navigating as we didn't have a GPS back then. By the time we got to the toll booths at the start of the motorway, +1 had a migraine, handed the driving duties over to me and had a well earned sleep.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I love travelling on the TGV and we always take a TGV train and pick up our car in a town other than Paris.

I also love the TGV. I did see a note pop-up on the screen that we had been travelling at 233kmph and perfectly smooth. My previous train trip was on the XPT from SYD to CFS after attending the interview for my visa: enough said!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Are you going further north into Brittany? Lots of wonderful places and villages to see there.

I am enjoying following along.

Patience; all will be revealed in the fullness of time but first...

 

[Jacques Vert]

La Cigale

Our night in Nantes also happened to be our 44th wedding anniversary so I booked somewhere nice for dinner: La Cigale

According to Wikipedia:

The restaurant was designed by the architect and ceramicist Émile Libaudière in the exaggerated Art nouveau style of the era.[2] On 1 April 1895, the brasserie was opened for business by its first owner, Mrs. Calado.

In 1964, the brasserie was turned into a fast-food restaurant, but the decor remained unchanged due to the protections afforded by its status as a historical monument. During the 1970s, the restaurant was neglected and eventually abandoned. However, a new owner restored it back to its original brasserie form in 1982.

 

[VPS]

La Cigale

Our night in Nantes also happened to be our 44th wedding anniversary so I booked somewhere nice for dinner: La Cigale

According to Wikipedia:

The restaurant was designed by the architect and ceramicist Émile Libaudière in the exaggerated Art nouveau style of the era.[2] On 1 April 1895, the brasserie was opened for business by its first owner, Mrs. Calado.

In 1964, the brasserie was turned into a fast-food restaurant, but the decor remained unchanged due to the protections afforded by its status as a historical monument. During the 1970s, the restaurant was neglected and eventually abandoned. However, a new owner restored it back to its original brasserie form in 1982.

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Wow those tiles. Looks superb

 

[Jacques Vert]

+1 had the Langoustine...




And this was my main course:



And for dessert two classics; crème brûlée and profiteroles:

 

[BriarFlyer]

Happy anniversary to you both. That restaurant, and its food, looks magnifique!

 

[jastel]

Took me 3 visits to Paris to finally see the Catacombs, was always shut for some reason or other.

 

[ellen10]

Happy Anniversary! I love the restaurant decor and the food looks delicious.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Happy Anniversary! I love the restaurant decor and the food looks delicious

Happy anniversary to you both. That restaurant, and its food, looks magnifique!

Thanks for the well wishes.

And yes, La Cigale is truly beautiful and the food was as good as it looks.

 

[Flyfrequently]

+1 had the Langoustine...

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And this was my main course:

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And for dessert two classics; crème brûlée and profiteroles:

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A lovely anniversary dinner, congratulations to you both @Jacques Vert

 

[Jacques Vert]

La Voiture

Next morning we needed to go to Nantes airport to pick up our car. There is a shuttle bus that leaves from just near the Mercure at a cost of EUR10 per person. There is also the option of a bus/tram combination. However, as there are two of us, we still had one "new-customer discount" with Bolt that we could take advantage of. This worked out to about EUR14 and was much more convenient although the pick-up point for Bolt/Uber is further away from the hotel as vehicular access is restricted in front of the railway station.

As mentioned in post #45, we had organised to lease a car through Car-2-Europe. We had booked a car for 2023 but as noted above, we had to cancel/postpone our trip until this year due to medical issues. When booking, you pay a $500 deposit and prior to Covid, the deposit was non-refundable. Fortunately for us, Citroën changed the deposit to fully refundable if you cancel by a certain date, so we got our deposit back in full. In addition, they offered us a repeat customer discount when booking for this year.

I booked a C3 as I like small cars: especially for the narrow streets in medieval villages and for parking. For some reason which escapes me, Citroën contacted us a couple of months out and advised they couldn’t supply the C3 and offered a free upgrade to a C3Aircross which I accepted…



These cars are supplied tax exempt to non-EU tourists as a Govt incentive to the French car industry. The cost gets cheaper the longer you lease it; ours works out to $31.90 per day for 160 days for a brand new vehicle with full insurance and zero excess. It has a 1.2 litre turbocharged engine with a 6 speed manual gearbox; it has surprising acceleration for such a small engine.

As the tax hasn’t been paid, our car has a red number plate (the only one I have seen since arriving in France) so it is easy to spot in a car park!



It is also interesting that the number plate has the month and year of the lease expiry on it (12/24) so that the Authorities will know if I don’t hand it back on time.



Any downsides?

So far we haven’t actually driven it everyday so maybe the $31.90 per day is a little misleading; however, the convenience of having it there whenever we decide to go somewhere is worth it to us;

The lease doesn’t include new tyres if I wear these ones out, so I won’t be doing any burnouts;

Servicing is at my expense. I’ve looked everywhere to find out what the service intervals are and there is nothing in the service/instruction books. However, the car does have a program that will display the distance to the next service on the instrument panel. As best I can tell, the first service is due at 20,000km or 12 months, so hopefully that won’t be a problem.

So far, we are happy with the deal.

 

[ellen10]

We had friends who did this way back in 2008. Seemed like a great deal and I think they could also drive it to neighbouring countries. Not sure of the rules now.
We looked at using this service for our first extended trip to France (post kids). But we only needed it for 1 month so not really worth it.

But I agree it is a good deal for long term car hire.