Day 7: Paris to Mulhouse

Saturday, June 15

After a hearty breakfast of baguettes with marmalade and hot chocolate, we checked out of AIJ Paris and stored our bags in their luggage room, also known as their musty, stone-walled cellar with wet floors and gargantuan stash of toilet paper.

We made for Gare de Lyon, the train station we were going to leave out of later in the day, to make reservations for our train. We knew we should have done that as soon as we got to Paris, but when we first rolled in much of the station seemed closed, and we had simply not had time to get to a station during the day. The previous day was, without a doubt, the busiest of the trip so far. Besides, given that we'd paid not only for reservations on our previous train, but an exorbitant international shipping fee to get them sent to our house prior to the vacation, and that train ended up being mostly empty, we didn't think it would be a big deal.

But of course it was. The train we wanted to take was completely sold out. It was not supposed to cost us any money with our Eurail passes, other than possibly a modest reservation fee, but the way things turned out, we had to shell out another 80 Euros to get on a much earlier train in second class. It was the only remaining option to get to Mulhouse Ville that day, which was where our hotel reservations were for the night. But the most unfortunate part of the deal was that, between traveling across the city and making sure we'd have time to return to the hostel to pick up our luggage, this left us a scant hour to explore the Louvre. It had been our plan to get there early in the day and let our time in it expand like a goldfish to fit what was available; it ended up being a very small goldfish.

So we booked it for the Mona Lisa, because like hell if i was leaving Paris without seeing that bitch. After locating her on a map, we moved through the museum at as fast a walk as we could without attracting attention, seeing one idiot sit on a stone sculpture and earn the ire of security. It was amusing to us, not so much to him.

There were also signs posted at every doorway along the route pointing the way to da Vinci's masterpiece; i was a little surprised by this, since i'd think that the Louvre would want to encourage people to explore the museum fully, rather than simply charging in at the one item they're best known for. When we reached our goal, there was a mass of people crowded in front of her, holding up their cell phones, cameras, and – god damn it all – tablets, taking pictures.

Why do people do this? It's really irritating to me. What do you think you're going to accomplish by taking a picture of the Mona Lisa with your mobile device? She's been photographed so many times over the years by professionals with actual photography equipment, your captured image is going to be worse. There is absolutely no way that you will equal the commercially-available alternatives. If you want to take a picture of yourself in front of the Mona Lisa, then sure, i understand that. We each did that ourselves. But that is not what the majority of people in that room were doing. Come on. Google. You can download it for free.

Amanda was interested in seeing the Louvre's collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, so we made that our next destination. Back to speed walking we went, and i was just running and gunning with my camera, frantically taking in images of the museum and its contents as they came past me. We accidentally found a small stone head from Rapa Nui, Easter Island, so of course we needed pictures next to that. The collection it was included in also contained a crazy mask which may as well have been a Batman villain; we thought it may have contained real teeth, though from what animal, we were unsure. The description offered no assistance other than to say it was from Hawaii.

Also we happened across a sculpture containing a real human skull. And we got totally lost in the Louvre.

But eventually we did find what we were looking for, and it paid off in sarcophagi, and an actual complete mummy. Figures of cats, giant stone humans, a couple of sphinxes. Plenty of stone tablets engraved with hieroglyphics whose stories we could only speculate as to; the inscriptions below were all written in French. We spent the rest of our time in the Louvre with the Egyptian displays, though we were able to enjoy a small amount of modern art on the way back out.

The lower floor of the Louvre conveniently leads directly into the subway. This is the way we came in, and the way we exited, so we didn't even see daylight again until we were almost back to the hostel. We left ourselves plenty of time to get our bags and walk back to the train station, not wanting a repeat of what happened between London and Paris. We got onto our train with no trouble, and were on our way to Mulhouse, or Mulhouse Ville. The city seems to be referred to alternately as either of those.

We were seated across a table from two grumpy older ladies the whole trip. They spoke only in French.

Mulhouse was much bigger than we'd expected. I think i thought it would be a small town with a train station and a hotel; not sure where i got that impression, but i wasn't expecting such a large city. Even though it was clearly sizable, Mulhouse had a really laid back, comfortable atmosphere. At least in the area we were in, mostly between the train station and Hotel de Bale, it felt like a small town that just got bigger and didn't change, other than bringing its buildings closer to the sky.

We checked into Hotel de Bale, where we were initially mistaken for Germans, and got ourselves cleaned up a bit. Remember, we hadn't showered in more days than we'd have preferred, and going out like a pair of Pigpens from Peanuts didn't seem like the best of options. We finally had a fully functional shower which didn't piss us off, although the toilet sounded like an old carbureted engine sputtering to life. I guess it got the job done, though, so if it sounds like an unkempt '47 Ford pickup truck, that's its own business.

For a Saturday night, in fact not even night, it was something like 7:00 when we left the hotel, the city was dead. Most of the shops were closed already, sadly including the record shop (i was hoping to possibly pick up some Jeunesse Apatride while in France; they're technically Canadian, but their songs are in French so maybe they've crossed the ocean), but we found an open shopping mall to walk through. It was unexciting, but there was a sandwich shop open just outside of it where we stopped for dinner. While eating, seated outside, we heard a table near ours start hooting and hollering like rednecks, and turned to see what the hoopla was. A woman dressed as a bumblebee walked up to their table carrying an Easter basket and presented them with gifts. They exchanged pleasantries in French, and then she carried on. No idea what happened there.

After eating, we continued to explore the city, coming to a large church set in the middle of a neighborhood full of skinny three-story buildings that were all squished together, so that they shared walls. Many had shops on their first floors and appeared residential above. We got some nice pictures of the outside of the church, then continued on our way.

There was a park just past the hotel, so we took a stroll through it. It seems we just missed some kind of festival, they were packing up their tents and moving the band equipment/DJ gear down from the stage in the amphitheater. Too bad, if we hadn't needed personal hygiene so badly, we may have been able to attend a little bit of it. We did see one older man sitting at a picnic table plucking at an acoustic guitar, at least.

So, we returned to the hotel and sat in the commissary for over an hour, internetting. We'd not been online in almost two days and usually my mom thinks that means i'm dead.

After that we went to bed. Amanda passed out, but i thought i'd check out some French television. I caught a little bit of Doctor Who in French before i found a sci-fi movie from the 40s in English with French subtitles, but it was just ending. Not sure what it is, but the odds are good i have it on DVD at home in one of those movie packs that i collect. Then i found some cartoons. Don't know what they were saying, but the action was very Looney Tunes-ish.

It was then that i realized that i probably should have included a sign off that we wouldn't be online again for a few days, since our next accommodation is a sleeper train, but the WiFi signal was very weak in our room on the fourth floor, and i couldn't get any of our devices to reconnect.

Guess i'll just have to try not to die.