The Rest of Paris in a Nutshell

The main activity of our fifth day was a visit to the Musée D’Orsay.  The building was formerly a train station. They were having a special exhibit of works by John Singer Sargent. One of his most famous works is Portrait of Madame X, seen here.

What I like most about seeing actual paintings rather than photographs of them is the ability to appreciate the brush work and paint application up close. The Femme au fichu vert by Camille Pissarro was one of my favorites from this perspective. You could see the how the paint was applied in gobs.

We spent the rest of the day roaming around. Dennis wanted to see the Pont Alexandre III, an ornate bridge crossing the Seine, so we headed that way. It is recognizable by its gilt statues as seen in the photos. We then wandered down the Champs-Elysées, which was closed to car traffic for a Christmas tree lighting, as far as the Arc de Triomphe.  We saved our visit to the inside of the Arc for another day as the weather was not great.

The next day we visited the Louvre. The Goya painting below was one of my favorites. The Mona Lisa is a bit underwhelming, especially since you can’t get close to it. The barrier keeps the crowd back about 15 to 20 feet. I’m not sure why people feel the need to take a picture of it. I have noticed in recent years that many people at museums simply walk around the entire time with their phones out taking pictures of nearly every work of art. Walk up to a painting, take a picture, walk to the next one, take a picture … Are they making a book? Will they ever look at all those photos?

Of course, Dennis had to have Escargot at dinner that night.

The next day we visited the Palais Garnier, an opera house built in the late 1800s at the behest of Napolean III. The interior is described as being “characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness”; see the photo of Dennis walking through the grand foyer. The ceiling area around the chandelier in the auditorium was repainted in 1964 by Marc Chagall.

We headed back down the Champs-Elysées, this time with the intention to visit the Arc de Triomphe. The traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe has 12 streets feeding into it!  Fortunately, there is an underground tunnel to access the center of the circle where the Arc is. We climbed the many stairs to the top and were rewarded with great views on a much better day than when we were there previously.  In one of the photos you can see the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre on the hill which we had visited a few days earlier.

On our last full day, we headed to Notre Dame Cathedral and nearby Sainte Chapelle (known for its beautiful stained glass windows). No sightings of the hunchback while at Notre Dame.

View of the outside of Notre Dame

Inside the Cathedral

Inside Sainte Chapelle

One item of interest is the statue of St. Denis outside Notre Dame. It depicts the saint holding his head as he wanders to find an appropriate spot to be final resting place.

The next day we started our trip home, heading to Barcelona to spend the night. The train trip was beset by delays and we ended up getting into the station more than four hours late. We ate dinner and then flopped into the bed. The second leg to Alicante went off without a hitch and we were soon back in our apartment.

We think we may visit Paris again in the future, as there is so much to see and do, but that will have to wait until after several other trips that are being considered.

Salud.

Visa Renewal (Bureaucracy Redux)

We may have mentioned previously in this blog that our initial visas were issued for one year. At the end of that year you need to renew your visa or leave the country. The renewal is for two years and the process can be initiated up to 60 days before or 90 days after your visa expires. Our initial visa began on January 16, 2025, so we could begin the renewal in mid-November.  If we were not approved we would need to be out of the Spain (and any other Schengen country) by April 16^th.

We were visiting Valencia in mid-November, but upon returning we started collecting documents and contacted an immigration lawyer to help us with the application.

One of the documents that we needed was an updated marriage certificate from the State of New Hampshire.  We decided to have Maureen’s sister send the application, a copy of Maureen’s ID, and a check to the vital records department to expedite the process.  The document needed to be mailed to Gilford, NH (our US address on our driver’s licenses) and then Dennis’ brother Steve would send it to us via overseas mail. He was also going to be mailing us a dividend check we had received and the original title for our car (we are considering selling it).

The marriage certificate was received in a timely manner and everything seemed to be on track.  We felt we had plenty of time.

We checked the mail daily for the envelope to no avail. In the past it had taken from 2 to 4 weeks to receive a letter from the US, but before we knew it we were into February. We began to fear the envelope had been lost.  We checked at the post office to see if it was being held there for some reason, but they could not find it. We finally gave up and re-ordered the marriage certificate, but this time we planned to have Steve send it to us priority mail expedited with tracking.

The re-ordered marriage certificate was received in Gilford on March 12^th. Our window was closing rapidly. We had Steve scan a copy of the document and email it to us so we could forward it to our lawyer.

Then came another curve ball. The immigration office was tightening their requirements for proving that you have the financial means to support yourself while in Spain. For the original visa it was enough to show that we had investments in the US and Social Security income. Now they wanted “certification” from the bank of the money.

Getting that certification and translating it to Spanish proved unworkable (our US bank told us we would need to personally appear in the branch office to prove identity for them to issue such a document) so our only option was to transfer the required amount of money to our Spanish bank.

Cue the frantic call to our financial advisor to have her transfer the necessary funds to our US bank account (have we mentioned that she is a superstar?). Once the money was in the US bank we began transferring money to Spain.

To transfer money to Spain we use a service called WISE which is very reasonable and usually fast. They do have limits on how much money you can send at one time so we had to do two transactions and, of course, there was a few days between for the funds to clear (in today’s day and age of technology, that does not really make sense to us, but it is what it is).

We met with the lawyer on March 17 and went over our application with her. She related that we were down to the wire and needed to get the money confirmation by the end of that week.  Fortunately, the money was in our Spanish bank on the 19^th and we were able to send her the confirmation from the bank.

Now all we could do was wait and hope. We began mapping out scenarios of where we would go if we did not get the renewal.  One option was the “Schengen shuffle” where you go in and out of the Schengen (most of Europe) area so that you never violate the “90 days in any 180 days rule”. Great Brittain and Ireland were top contenders since they are not in the Schengen area. Certainly workable, but not preferable.

We were doing chores in downtown Alicante when we got a message from our lawyer saying that our visa renewals had been approved! A huge weight had been lifted and a visit to our favorite tapas bar was warranted for celebration.

The next step was to apply for the renewal of our national ID cards. This had been difficult the first time (because we initially relied on an immigration lawyer to make our appointments). We learned from our experience and after several days of Maureen obsessively checking for appointments to be made available, we were finally able to get them. Another victory!

So, by the end of May we should have our new cards in hand and not have to worry about dealing with the Spanish bureaucracy for another couple of years.

And now the kicker. Remember that first envelope that Steve sent to us? It finally arrived (3 months after being mailed)! Apparently, it had been “missent to Bermuda”. A fitting end to this tale we think.

Salud.

 

 

Paris – Day 4 - Montmarte and Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise

On the morning of day 4 we headed via metro to the Montmarte area of Paris. As we exited the metro station we and the other riders were assailed by aggressive sellers of contraband cigarettes. We were still inside a gated area and the sellers were reaching between the bars calling out and hawking their wares. Not sure why this is a thing?!   Montmarte is a large hill in the northern part of Paris and affords beautiful views of the city. One thing this area is known for is the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.  From the lower street in front of the Basiica you can walk up 222 steps or take a funicular. Dennis, being a fan of funiculars, took that route. Maureen took the stairs where she encountered another common Parisian scam.

This from Fodor’s Travel:

Authorities have acknowledged a huge increase in a scam carried out by Romanian gypsies in Paris, this one based on requests for money for so-called deaf/mute girls.

The scam is straightforward. A young girl approaches the mark (usually a tourist) with a piece of paper and a pen, pretending to be deaf. The paper names a couple of charities, both real and fake, and bears the signatures of a few previous marks. The current mark is asked for money, and if he's naïve enough, he gives it. In some cases, the paper and request for money serve as a distraction for stealing a wallet or purse.

None of the girls is actually deaf. They are all Romanian gypsies. They are under 18, making it difficult to prosecute them. Their leader is nowhere to be found, so he cannot be arrested and prosecuted, even though the penalties for compelling children to beg are very severe (one sentence a few years ago was a 30-year prison term).

She did not fall for it. The Basilica itself is quite dramatic and a climb up to the dome yielded the best views over the city.  We had worked up quite an appetite after all that climbing.  We found a lovely little restaurant, Le Poulbot, in the area around the Basilica where Dennis reports that he had the best duck confit that he has ever tasted.

Inside the basilica. A mass was being held.

View from the dome looking toward the Eiffel Tower.

The next item on our agenda for that day was a trip through the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, final resting place of several notable people. The weather was starting to turn on us but we were not deterred; we had rain jackets and umbrellas. What better conditions for visiting a cemetery. 

We had downloaded a Rick Steves guide which faithfully directed us through the visit. The persons whose graves we saw included: Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Colette, and Frederic Chopin. There are also a few dedicated moments including for: foreign soldiers who died for France during WWII; victims of concentration and extermination camps; victims of Air France Flight 447; Rwanda genocide.  Rain came down pretty heavily during part of our cemetery tour; seemed appropriate to the setting.

Oscar Wilde's tomb. Guess they had a problem with vandals.

A memorial to the holocaust.

Gertrud Stein's gravesite.

Edith Plaf's burial site.

Frederick Chopin's grave. He was not buried here initially, but somehow the owners of the cemetery got permission to move the remains so that the cemetery would become more well known. Guess it worked.

The Haussmann tomb. Georges Eugene Haussmann led the effort to modernize the city's street layout in the 1850's under Napoleon III. 

And last, but not least, here lies Jim Morrison.

So this happened…

 As part of living here in Spain we have established relationships with new doctors.

Dennis saw his GP last June and after going through his family history, she ordered blood tests. Due to his family history, she ordered a test for lipoprotein a, a genetic marker for people who have a predisposition for heart disease.

The test showed a very high level of lipoprotein a and a mildly elevated LDL (bad cholesterol). Based on this, she recommended that he see a cardiologist.

A consultation was scheduled and after the preliminary questions about family history and a review of the blood tests he did an ultrasound scan of the heart and neck. He didn’t find anything concerning but wanted to follow up with a stress test and a 24-hour heart rhythm and blood pressure monitoring.

Towards the end of the stress test some irregularity of the heart rhythm was noted and the cardiologist arranged for a contrast CT angiogram of the coronary arteries.

The CT scan was scheduled in Torrevieja (about 35 miles but an hour’s bus ride south of Alicante) and was completed in late January. The results indicated that there was a narrowing of some of the arteries with the worst being the left anterior descending artery with a 70-99% blockage. Other narrowings were lesser and not of as much concern.

The heart rhythm/blood pressure monitoring showed nothing unusual.

Based on this the cardiologist referred Dennis for a coronary artery catheterization with likely angioplasty and stenting (again in Torrevieja).

Now comes the fun part. As Dennis’ condition was considered hereditary (remember the lipoprotein a test?) insurance would not cover the procedure. So, we had to pay out of pocket.

Upon learning this, we decided we would charge the bulk of it on credit cards and pay the remainder out of the money we have on hand here in Spain. [In a completely separate issue (when it rains it pours) we had been blocked by our US bank from making money transfers unless we physically came into an office in the US and verified our identity (impossible!). As a result we had recently opened a new online checking account with a different bank but it was not yet fully funded]. We contacted the credit card companies to make sure there would not be any problems with the charges and were assured that they should go through. Then we would simply pay them off from the “blocked” account (only money transfers are blocked, not payments).

As the procedure was scheduled for 7:30 am on a Tuesday (which we found out on the previous Friday), we travelled down to Torrevieja on Monday and went to the hospital to pay for the procedure.

Yes, that’s right, they have you pay prior to the procedure. And they give you a fixed sum somehow without really knowing if there will be any additional expenses.

Our first partial payment was from our bank here in Spain and that went through smoothly. Then we tried the credit card.

Denied.

We tried a different credit card.

Denied.

We tried using our US bank debit card and that worked, but due to daily limits, we could pay only another small portion.

We called one of the credit card companies (Capital One), to see what was going on. They told us that there had not been any charge denied and did not see any activity from the hospital. They insisted that the problem was on the hospital’s end.

We called the other credit card company (CitiBank), and their bot told us the same; no charges denied.

Back to the cashier. They tried the cards again. Denied. Not the kind of stress that Dennis needed at this point. We finally ended up signing an agreement to pay within the next 15 days, but they seemed anxious about that and wanted us to pay as soon as possible.

After leaving the hospital for the night we checked into our hotel and contacted our financial advisor to explain the situation. She is an absolute superstar and had the necessary funds in our new US checking account the next day.

Tuesday morning, we arrived for check-in. Again, they seemed very concerned about us paying as soon as possible. We were taken to a room for Dennis to change into a hospital gown and he was then brought down to the operating room.

The procedure went very well, and the doctor was excellent (and spoke English). After inserting the catheter and injecting the dye he looked at the heart from multiple angles and determined that the blockage was 95% (!). He recommended inserting a stent and Dennis readily agreed.

The before and after images showed much better blood flow after the stent.

Off to the ICU where Dennis was hooked up to monitors and an IV. He had to fast prior to the procedure and was starving but they had to wait a while before he could get food. So, he spent a boring day and night in bed.

The next day they said they could move Dennis to a regular room where he would need to spend one more night. Another boring day, but at least he wasn’t hooked up to the monitor or the IV. And he could walk about in the room.

The next day, after receiving prescriptions for the new meds he needs to take, he was sprung. We took a taxi to the bus station and then boarded the bus back to Alicante.

Even though there was a light rain, Dennis wanted to walk from the bus station to the tram station (about 15 minutes) after being cooped up for two days. So that we did!

Being home felt so good. Hope we don’t have to endure something like that again for a long while. Dennis was simply advised to take it easy for a couple of weeks, and then go about his normal routine with no restrictions.

That said, Dennis showed no symptoms of the heart condition. While we were in Paris in November, we were quite active and climbed the stairs up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and the bell tower of the Montmartre cathedral. Just goes to show you never know.

Salud.

Paris - Day 3 - Versailles

Statue of Louis XIV in front of the Palace

Long day ahead of us today. Making the trip to Versailles and had pre-booked entry tickets for 9:30 am.

We got up early and headed out to the train station for the 30 minute trip to the city of Versailles. Once we arrived we stopped at a patisserie for pastry and coffee. 

Once fortified with coffee we got our bearings and headed toward the huge estate of Versailles.

The golden gate in front of the Palace

Inside the main courtyard.

Versailles, for those who may not know, was the Royal Palace which had grown out from the site of a relatively modest hunting lodge. Louis XIII started the transformation in 1631 and the Palace grew progressively through the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI.

The Palace was largely spared during the French Revolution and upon the accession of Louis-Philippe to the throne the Palace was transformed into a museum in 1833.

The estate covers more than 800 hectares (about 1,975 acres. For comparison, Central Park in New York City is  834 acres) and attracts an astounding 10 to 15 million visitors each year.

The chapel.

One of the galleries.

Painting depicting the surrender after the Battle of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War with the Continental Army and George Washington aided by the Marquis de Lafayette and French army troops.

Another of the galleries.

Touring the building and estate was an incredible experience. The grandeur and beauty of the building and grounds was quite impressive. We spent the better part of the day there, trying to see as much as we could.

A view of the grounds at the rear of the Palace.

Who dat?

In addition to Versailles, we also visited The Grand Trianon, The Petit Trianon (though nothing petite about it) and the Queen’s Hamlet. The Petit Trianon was a gift from Louis XIV to Marie Antoinette. These palaces were built as refuges from the courtly etiquette of the main palace (i.e. someplace they could let their hair down so to speak).

The grounds around the Trianons also held some interesting things such as...

The Temple of Love

A grotto.

This really gnarly Catalpa tree from the U.S.

And this equally gnarly Juniper tree.  Both survived a torrential storm in 1999.

After a full day, we made our way back to Paris for dinner and a well-deserved night of rest.

Salud

Paris - Day Two - Musée de Arts e Métiers

Our first full day in Paris and after a filling breakfast in a café across the street from our hotel, we headed over to the Musée de Arts et Métiers (the Museum of Arts and Crafts).

Ah yes, a museum dedicated to science and engineering nerds.

Outside the museum is a statue of Zénobe Gramme, the father of the dynamo. A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current.  Dynamos were the first practical electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundation upon which many other later electric-power conversion devices were based.

Inside the museum were model displays of various types of technology and engineering. For example…

Spiral staircases:

A device to raise an obelisk:

An excavating machine:

Bridges:

Lady Liberty’s head being constructed:

A flying machine:

And, of course, a dynamo:

Among its collection is an original version of the Foucault pendulum. Due to the height of the pendulum, it wasn’t possible to take a good picture of it.

After leaving the museum, we walked around a bit, ending up at the Louvre Museum. We had entry tickets for later in the trip but took the opportunity to see the museum lit up at dusk.

Eventually we sought out a restaurant for dinner and then turned in for the night. Long day tomorrow as we were making the trip to Versailles.

Bonsoir.