"Les Petit Bateaux" Rick Steves, Paris in Seven Days, travelogue by Robin Weiss

Les Petit Bateaux   Sold

Before I move on from the Paris part of our Europe trip to the Provence segment with Workshops in France and the Daniel Gerhartz workshop, I want to again, relate how well organized and thoughtful an approach to touring Paris that our wonderful Rick Steves guides represented in the seven days we were in that magical city.

Rick Steves Paris guide, Veronique Savoye

We are lucky to have the Rick Steves travel tour head quarters very near us in Edmonds WA.  Ann went over for consultations with some of the expert travel professionals on their staff before we left and they were able to help plan out our whole trip with route directions, train tickets and helpful tips on local accommodations, restaurants and museums.

This took a lot of the anxiety out traveling for me!  We had a folder with hard copy of all the places we would stay and their contact information. I downloaded the trainline app with all of our tickets and train info which was really nice! Sometimes conductors would check for tickets and sometimes not...It was nice to have it handy with the swipe of a finger.



Our guide in Paris was Veronique Savoye.  She has a fun blog with travel tips and info called, French Girl in Seattle. Click on the highlighted text for a link to the site. You will tell from her blog how sweet and fun a guide she is.
One of the cool things provided on the tour was a "Whisper" system for communication. Each tour member received a transmitter with earbuds. This enabled the guide to speak to the whole group in a normal voice in very noisy conditions, like the metro tunnels!, and we could all hear with no trouble. even if you trailed behind.. It was great!  Along with Vero on this tour we had an Italian guide named Alfio. He usually took up the rear guard and kept the morale up with his kind nature and informative comments.


Some packing tips;  You don't have to buy fancy vacuum packing bags! Those can be expensive and probably won't come in the size you want. Triple Zip Lock bags are all you need. They make up to 3 gallon Zip Lock bags! Plenty big enough for packing clothes for travel. Just put one knee on them when closing the zip lock and Voilla! you have a vacuum locked bag..You can use these to pack your paint tubes as well for the check on bag. Make sure you add a sheet for TSA, labeling them "vegetable based artists colors"  Or copy and paste the image on the right into a word document then cut it out and add to your paint zip lock.

One of the places we visited with the tour was the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.  As many now know this historic church caught fire and burned on April 15, 2019. The church was undergoing renovation when a structure fire broke out and burned much of the wood framing in the ceilings and the spires.
It was tragic to see the damage. We were not allowed to even get close to it but I was able to do this sketch from the Ill Saint-Louis, the little island across from the Ill de la Cite where Notre Dame is located.  The metal scaffolding that was in place during the fire actually melted in places and it will be many years before this historic and cultural land mark is restored again. Hopefully the Parisians will insist on an accurate restoration to the original design.......We will see!  =)  I hope you enjoy your next Rick Steves tour as much as we did!!   Have fun out there!!