Saturday, April 27th 2019

I headed out to walk on the Coulee Vert this morning. I had planned to go to Reims to see the champagne houses, but when I woke up at 7:00am it was pouring rain and the forecast was for off an on rain all day. So, rather than walk around a new place in the pouring rain, in between showers I headed to the Coulee Verte, a planed over pass that was an old train line and is now a linear park. Makes a nice walk and combines well with the wonderful Marche d’Aligre, one of the better open markets in Paris. I sat down next to a Dutch woman, and she and her husband live in Amsterdam and keep a place in Paris. They go back and forth a few times a month, 3hr. Train ride. After hanging out with them for awhile, they showed me a really cool wine bar, The Red Baron, which looks very local. Then headed to Invalides where there was an electric car racing event going on sponsored by Jaguar. They had set up a track surrounding the Esplanade des Invalides and the cars were racing around it. Very different noises, mainly squeaking brakes and tires. Unfortunately it started pouring just as the first cars came around. I bugged out and headed over to Trocadero to get some Eiffel Tower pictures and then headed back to the apartment.

Now it’s Sunday morning 4/28, and as I left for coffee my key wouldn’t work to double lock the door, nor will it open. Probably going to be an interesting day! UPDATE: After discussion with the landlord in Greece, help from Antonio, the Neapolitan neighbor, a locksmith is on the way. This is one of those super duper barricade locks, but since I just pulled the door closed at least all of the bars and sub deadbolts are in the open position and only a small tab is keeping the door closed. I tried to get around but couldn’t. Update: My idea to use a card to get around the latch worked with the Locksmith using a big sheet of X-ray film to get the door open. Now he’s going to fix the lock which is broken internally, landlord is arguing about the price…