It was December, 2023, around 5 p.m. It was snowing hard. The bus stop is 150 meters from the front door and uphill. I knew that if I fought hard, and brought some snacks, I could make it.
After I made it to the bus, I settled into my seat for the long journey to the Montroc train station. It takes at least 2 minutes, possibly 3 minutes when it is snowing. While the journey seemed to take forever, I made it to the Montroc train station just in time to wait 30 minutes for my train. I like to be on time.
The train journey from Montroc to Martigny, Switzerland, was absolutely beautiful with the falling snow. A few of the little villages along the way had Christmas lights set up right next to the train tracks.
The train from Martigny to the Geneva airport was on time and uneventful, just as one expects from Swiss trains. I got off in Geneva and began the 10 minute walk to the Ibis Budget Geneva Palexpo, which is next to the airport.
Before I move on, I would like to point out to our American readers that I just made a 3 hour journey entirely on public transport. If you come to visit us, you can make the same journey. It only requires 2 train changes, both of which are quite simple.
The Palexpo is what people in American would call a convention center. It hosts all sorts of events, from concerts, to business conventions. As I was walking to the hotel, one of the advertisements for an upcoming event at the Palexpo caught my eye. Les Miserables was coming to Geneva in October of 2024. I was very excited because I knew that M would like to see the play, as would I. My big challenge then was to remember the fact that Les Mis was coming to Geneva, and to check for tickets.
I was hungry for dinner, so needless to say, Les Mis was forgotten before I even checked in to my room 5 minutes later. If you want me to remember something, it’s probably best to put it on top of a pizza.
Fast-forward about 10 months and M and I were talking to our neighbor Rachel. Something in the conversation triggered my memory that Les Mis was coming to Geneva. Rachel said that she would like to see it as well, and that she would do some investigating.
A few weeks later, M and I were again talking to Rachel and she had found out all sorts of information. At some point during our conversation, it came to me that Rachel was talking about a different performance of Les Mis than the one in Geneva. We all finally realized that Rachel had not understood that I was talking about a performance in Geneva, and she had instead found a performance of Les Mis in Paris. This was great news because the setting of the play is Paris, and it was originally performed in Paris. M and I got very excited due to the fact that we had not been to Paris in over 20 years, and we like a good “city” trip every now and again.
M was not satisfied with a trip to Paris just to see Les Mis, although it turns out that would have been a great trip in and of itself. Also performing in Paris at the time was the Ukrainian National Ballet, performing the Ice Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen. Sometimes that show is known as the Snow Queen, as well as being somewhat loosely the basis for the movie Frozen. We had never seen a ballet before, and had also never seen Les Mis performed in it’s original language of French. M and I were very excited to say the least.
January finally came around, and M and I were once again able to take public transport all the way to Paris. Driving to Paris would only get us there about an hour faster than the train, but that 1 hour advantage brings with it 2 huge disadvantages. 1. You have to drive in Paris, which might be the same as trying to drive in a Wal-Mart parking lot at 50 m.p.h., on Christmas Eve, with round-abouts thrown in for good measure. In other words, not remotely worth the stress. 2. You have to find a place to park your car, and then pay for that parking. Those two things not only bring more stress to the trip, they will also cost you at least that hour you gained by driving.
M found a hotel that was a short walk to most things we wanted to see in Paris. If whatever we wanted to see was further than 1 mile, we could easily take the metro, which is the Paris subway system. Tickets for each ride are around 2 euro and are easily bought and paid for through an app on your phone.
After arriving, M and I quickly got ourselves ready to meet Rachel and her family and head to the Theatre du Chatelet to see Les Miserables. (n.b. there should be some accents over the first “e” and “a” in Theatre and over the “a” in Chatelet as well, but I don’t know how to do that on my computer). Fortunately, even though the show was sung in French, there was also a screen above the stage showing all the lines of every song in both French and English. As all my readers will know, I am a tough, manly, sort of guy and of course did not shed a single tear the entire performance.
Everyone enjoyed the play. Seeing Les Mis in a 160 year old theater, in French, and in Paris was a truly special event for M and I.
One of the things on our list for the next day was to go to a gluten free bakery. Paris has at least 2 of these if not more. This was really a special treat for me since I do not normally get to go to the boulangerie and buy anything for myself. While everyone else raves about the almond croissants from L’Alpin, I have to pretend like I don’t even care, which is mostly true. M and I both got sandwiches for our lunch later, while I got a pain au chocolat and another pastry, all of which were really good.
We tried to go to the newly re-opened Notre Dame, but we had not bought tickets and the line to get in was about half of a mile long. We satisfied ourselves by looking at the outside of the church, which looked like it has for the last few hundred years, only cleaner.
The next day we got up and went for a run to Montmarte, which is yet another famous cathedral in Paris. In reality, you can’t walk 5 steps in Paris and not see some sort of famous piece of history, but what makes Montmarte a little different is that it is at the highest point of the city and offers fantastic views.
M and I like museums and art and had heard there were some decent museums in Paris. We chose one called the Louvre, mainly because it was basically across the street from our hotel. The Louvre could really use some better marketing because as I understand it, hardly anyone has heard of the place. M decided to get us tickets beforehand, just to provide what I am sure is much needed support for the arts in Paris, but you can actually get in for free as well.
Even though the Louvre is contained in such a small area and one could easily see the whole thing in only a couple of weeks, we decided to make our way to the Italian/French/English/Dutch section. We discovered that was the section that contains a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, called “Mona Lisa.” Some of you may have heard of this particular painting.
We were able to see many spectacular pieces of art from a lot of different artists, but it turns out that walking around in a museum with thousands of our closest friends is like Kryptonite for us mountain runners. We were exhausted after 2 hours and couldn’t wait to get back to our hotel and take a nap.
On our last night in Paris, it was time to upgrade our cultural repertoire by seeing a ballet. Neither M or I had ever seen a ballet before, and being able to see one in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees was an opportunity not to be missed.
As per usual with shows like the ballet and the performance of Les Mis, we were not allowed to take photos during the performance. I can report that the dancers were all very talented and athletic, and the music was fantastic.
M and I had a fantastic time in Paris, and look forward to going back and exploring more of all it has to offer.
Go out and be consistent.
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