From Wales to Cornwall via Paris - a flying visit by train.
Jan 15th, 2011, 01:15 PM
#21
our last day dawned bright if not exactly sunny, so made ourselves a cup of tea, packed up, ate the last of the hotel's fruit, and after taking our last look at the view from our tiny balcony, went downstairs to pay and leave our luggage in the hotel's luggage room.
in 30 years, on and off, of visiting Paris, we had never been inside Ste. Chapelle, [in fact until a couple of years ago we had been entirely ignorant of its existence, although we'd walked past it enough times] so we were determined to make it our first stop, so long as the queue had not been too off-putting, which it wasn't, so in we went.
Strangely, as they both end up in the same place ie the building site that is the inner courtyard of the palais de justice, there are two queues - one for the Ste. Chapelle, and one for the Law Courts. I would quite like to have looked at the law courts as well [I last had a look inside about 25 years ago and don't remember much about them] but DH wasn't keen, so we limited ourselves to the chapel. finding the place to buy tickets wasn't easy but eventually someone pointed it out to us and after paying €8 each [€11 each if you want a combined ticket with the concierge] we were in.
the entrance on the ground floor is not much to be honest, and i was beginning to wonder what the fuss was all about, until we saw a tiny sign in the corner, indicating we should climb the stairs to the first floor. and then the glories of the chapel become apparent. Gorgeous stained windows supported on slender pillars, the sun steaming through on one side illuminating the whole room. With the help of our trusty 30 year old michelin guide to Paris we had a go at trying to interpret the panels but we didn't have a great deal of luck; a party of germans had the right idea as many of them had brought binoculars so i listened to them for a while until they got caught up in an argument about whether a particlar scene depicted on the rose window [the Apocalypse] was actually in the Bible or not.
By now we were feeling that a spot of breakfast was called for, so we looked our last on all things lovely and headed for a nearby cafe, where we had a very good breakfast for €8 each - orange juice, lovely buttery croissants, baguette with butter [but not jam until we asked for it] and cafe au lait. taking the time to consider our options, we decided that we could do with a walk after the excesses of the day before, so we crossed the river heading south, and then bore off to the west to walk through St. Germain and thence to Le Invalides, which I had never seen before. Taking our time, we wandered happily though the streets, starting off with some side streets that we didn't know at all, and then coming out onto the Boulevard st. Germain near les deux Magots, which I remembered us drinking at 25 years ago, though DH swore that he'd never heard of it! finally we found ourselves by the Assemblee Nationale and able to follow michelins' suggestion to approach les Invalides from the north, so as to get the full impact of the dome over Napoleon's tomb. then we wandered south up to the Musee Rodin [sadly DH couldn't be persuaded to go in, but we had the chance to look through the garden fences at some of the sculptures], had a drink in the cafe musee on the corner [the lunch looked good but it was a bit early for us]and started sadly to make our way back.
our feet took us along the [new to us] rue de babylon, which has a mixture of all sorts of shops and other establishments, including most unusually for Paris, a very nice public garden surrounded by high walls, a few food shops, some clothes shops with sales just starting, and finally "Le bon Marche", which was not as i had anticipated a french version of British Homes Stores, but a very up-market department store, after the style of Harvey Nicks. Worse still the sale was due to start the next day, so DD, who was house sitting for us, was destined not to benefit from a reduced Jean-Paul Gautier or Chanel outfit.
Perhaps surprisingly we were becoming a little peckish [what, eating again??] so we found a brasserie with a plat due jour that we both fancied, and went in. "desole, M'sieur'Dame, c'est fini". Rats - the rack of lamb was off. but it was 1.30, we were already sat down with drinks, and we didn't really want to move, so i had the house salad [about 6-7 different cold vegetables and salads plus a boiled egg and auvergne ham, all excellent] and DH had bavette aux eshallottes, with pommes sautes, and quite a lot of my salad, as it was huge. With beer for him and wine for me, and two coffees, this came to less than €40.
then began the long trek home - chatelet to Gare du Nord on the RER, eurostar to St. Pancras, Hammersmith and Cty line underground to Paddington, [yawn] Paddington to Bristol Parkway, B/P'way to cornwall. we left the hotel at 3pm, and arived home at 11pm - allowing for the one hour time difference, a journey of 9 hours, which is probably about 2 hours longer than the whole journey would have taken if we'd flown, supposing there was a flight at the equivalent time. of course for much of it we weren't doing a lot, and it was for the most part far less stressful and much more comfortable than air travel and although it had been DH's idea, in practice i was rather more taken with it than he was.
so there it is - our flying trip to Paris, by train. not necessarily to be repeated too often, but still a lot of fun.
in 30 years, on and off, of visiting Paris, we had never been inside Ste. Chapelle, [in fact until a couple of years ago we had been entirely ignorant of its existence, although we'd walked past it enough times] so we were determined to make it our first stop, so long as the queue had not been too off-putting, which it wasn't, so in we went.
Strangely, as they both end up in the same place ie the building site that is the inner courtyard of the palais de justice, there are two queues - one for the Ste. Chapelle, and one for the Law Courts. I would quite like to have looked at the law courts as well [I last had a look inside about 25 years ago and don't remember much about them] but DH wasn't keen, so we limited ourselves to the chapel. finding the place to buy tickets wasn't easy but eventually someone pointed it out to us and after paying €8 each [€11 each if you want a combined ticket with the concierge] we were in.
the entrance on the ground floor is not much to be honest, and i was beginning to wonder what the fuss was all about, until we saw a tiny sign in the corner, indicating we should climb the stairs to the first floor. and then the glories of the chapel become apparent. Gorgeous stained windows supported on slender pillars, the sun steaming through on one side illuminating the whole room. With the help of our trusty 30 year old michelin guide to Paris we had a go at trying to interpret the panels but we didn't have a great deal of luck; a party of germans had the right idea as many of them had brought binoculars so i listened to them for a while until they got caught up in an argument about whether a particlar scene depicted on the rose window [the Apocalypse] was actually in the Bible or not.
By now we were feeling that a spot of breakfast was called for, so we looked our last on all things lovely and headed for a nearby cafe, where we had a very good breakfast for €8 each - orange juice, lovely buttery croissants, baguette with butter [but not jam until we asked for it] and cafe au lait. taking the time to consider our options, we decided that we could do with a walk after the excesses of the day before, so we crossed the river heading south, and then bore off to the west to walk through St. Germain and thence to Le Invalides, which I had never seen before. Taking our time, we wandered happily though the streets, starting off with some side streets that we didn't know at all, and then coming out onto the Boulevard st. Germain near les deux Magots, which I remembered us drinking at 25 years ago, though DH swore that he'd never heard of it! finally we found ourselves by the Assemblee Nationale and able to follow michelins' suggestion to approach les Invalides from the north, so as to get the full impact of the dome over Napoleon's tomb. then we wandered south up to the Musee Rodin [sadly DH couldn't be persuaded to go in, but we had the chance to look through the garden fences at some of the sculptures], had a drink in the cafe musee on the corner [the lunch looked good but it was a bit early for us]and started sadly to make our way back.
our feet took us along the [new to us] rue de babylon, which has a mixture of all sorts of shops and other establishments, including most unusually for Paris, a very nice public garden surrounded by high walls, a few food shops, some clothes shops with sales just starting, and finally "Le bon Marche", which was not as i had anticipated a french version of British Homes Stores, but a very up-market department store, after the style of Harvey Nicks. Worse still the sale was due to start the next day, so DD, who was house sitting for us, was destined not to benefit from a reduced Jean-Paul Gautier or Chanel outfit.
Perhaps surprisingly we were becoming a little peckish [what, eating again??] so we found a brasserie with a plat due jour that we both fancied, and went in. "desole, M'sieur'Dame, c'est fini". Rats - the rack of lamb was off. but it was 1.30, we were already sat down with drinks, and we didn't really want to move, so i had the house salad [about 6-7 different cold vegetables and salads plus a boiled egg and auvergne ham, all excellent] and DH had bavette aux eshallottes, with pommes sautes, and quite a lot of my salad, as it was huge. With beer for him and wine for me, and two coffees, this came to less than €40.
then began the long trek home - chatelet to Gare du Nord on the RER, eurostar to St. Pancras, Hammersmith and Cty line underground to Paddington, [yawn] Paddington to Bristol Parkway, B/P'way to cornwall. we left the hotel at 3pm, and arived home at 11pm - allowing for the one hour time difference, a journey of 9 hours, which is probably about 2 hours longer than the whole journey would have taken if we'd flown, supposing there was a flight at the equivalent time. of course for much of it we weren't doing a lot, and it was for the most part far less stressful and much more comfortable than air travel and although it had been DH's idea, in practice i was rather more taken with it than he was.
so there it is - our flying trip to Paris, by train. not necessarily to be repeated too often, but still a lot of fun.
Jan 15th, 2011, 01:45 PM
#22
I once went to a concert at Ste. Chapelle in the evening, and the entry was through the courthouse. It struck me as a courthouse much like the ones to which I am accustomed, and just as badly maintained. I did not go into any of the courtrooms however, as it was night and they were closed.
Jan 16th, 2011, 03:47 AM
#23
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I'm so envious that you can get to Paris by train! We saw a similar Monet exhibit in Boston many years ago - rows of hayricks and cathedrals and bridges, very enlightening. We love the Marmottan too!
Have you been to Monet's house and garden in Giverney? It's well worth a visit, flying or otherwise. My daughter and I loved seeing the restored garden and Japanese bridge that appear in many of his paintings and we also loved Monet's collection of Japanese woodblock prints and his blue and yellow kitchen. Later, I learned that the Impressionists were strongly influenced by Japanese art and even did an art college project about this, as a part time student.
Have you been to Monet's house and garden in Giverney? It's well worth a visit, flying or otherwise. My daughter and I loved seeing the restored garden and Japanese bridge that appear in many of his paintings and we also loved Monet's collection of Japanese woodblock prints and his blue and yellow kitchen. Later, I learned that the Impressionists were strongly influenced by Japanese art and even did an art college project about this, as a part time student.
Jan 16th, 2011, 07:45 AM
#24
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annhig: Isn't Le Cinq just perfection? I also commented in my T/R about loving the little stool thay provide for your purse. The service their truly is perfection. After our Christmas Day 9 course lunch, we were so full we didn't even go out for diiner that night. The food was all works of art, served so thoughtfully. You have to go at least once!
Jan 16th, 2011, 12:24 PM
#25
Nikki - I did go into an actual court at the palais de justice once, when DH was working in Paris and I had a day off [probably a bank holiday at home] as i was just starting out as a lawyer and wanted to see how the French did it. although the procedure was a little different, the basics were the same - advocates trying to do their best for hopeless clients, with the same useless defences. the one that has stuck in my mind was the case of the thief whose mitigation [similar to the line I'd been fed more than once involving painting and decorating jobs with uncles starting on Monday] was that he had a family, housing and work waiting for him in Holland. After several minutes of this, the President of the Court had had enough - " and does he speak dutch?" the advocate retired in confusion and the thief got his 2 years.
What I hadn't realised til I started to read the michelin guide was the historcal background to the palais, but I'm sure it'll be there next time we go!
Moolyn - sadly we've never made it to Giverney. My family will only tolerate so many garden visits on any one trip and i think mine must have ben exceeded when we went to Normandy. Perhaps it's good thing that I haven't been yet as having now seen the exhibition, I may appreciate the garden more.
denise - it was pretty special. I read about your 9 course christmas lunch and I'm not surprised at all that you had no dinner - neither did we. we managed a short walk and that was about it. was the restaurant full? i suppose that there were only about 50% of the tables used on the day we were there, which rather surprised me. we did have a little chat with one of the waiters - the one we couldn't understand very well. it turned out that he was Venitian, which may have explained his accent. He said how priviledged he felt to be able to work in such a place, which was certainly reflected in the enthusiasm he brought to his job.
as you say, the service, as well as the food, is exceptional. I think that I've only ever been to two or three places before that came anywhere close. there's a programme on the BBC at the moment in which Michel Roux is trying to train some youngsters to a high enough standard to serve in a high class restaurant; from what I gather they, [and the people they serve] are in for a rough ride.
What I hadn't realised til I started to read the michelin guide was the historcal background to the palais, but I'm sure it'll be there next time we go!
Moolyn - sadly we've never made it to Giverney. My family will only tolerate so many garden visits on any one trip and i think mine must have ben exceeded when we went to Normandy. Perhaps it's good thing that I haven't been yet as having now seen the exhibition, I may appreciate the garden more.
denise - it was pretty special. I read about your 9 course christmas lunch and I'm not surprised at all that you had no dinner - neither did we. we managed a short walk and that was about it. was the restaurant full? i suppose that there were only about 50% of the tables used on the day we were there, which rather surprised me. we did have a little chat with one of the waiters - the one we couldn't understand very well. it turned out that he was Venitian, which may have explained his accent. He said how priviledged he felt to be able to work in such a place, which was certainly reflected in the enthusiasm he brought to his job.
as you say, the service, as well as the food, is exceptional. I think that I've only ever been to two or three places before that came anywhere close. there's a programme on the BBC at the moment in which Michel Roux is trying to train some youngsters to a high enough standard to serve in a high class restaurant; from what I gather they, [and the people they serve] are in for a rough ride.
Jan 16th, 2011, 04:38 PM
#28
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Little Miss Muffet is 38!! What she thought was so funny was that her purse came from Target. Once a year my adult daughters and I rent an apartment in Paris, occasionally adding girlfriends. This September there will be 7 of us.
Each trip we have one day that we dress up and have a very nice lunch and then continue on to a few hotel bars and a little more champagne so, basically, I cannot tell you when we went to Le Cinq....within the last 5 years is as close as I can get without pulling out my trip journals.
Each trip we have one day that we dress up and have a very nice lunch and then continue on to a few hotel bars and a little more champagne so, basically, I cannot tell you when we went to Le Cinq....within the last 5 years is as close as I can get without pulling out my trip journals.
Jan 17th, 2011, 02:44 AM
#29
LOL, Judy, i had an image of a little girl sitting on the tuffet!
there was a young girl there with her parents while we were there - she was having a lovely time. I suppose that she was about 10. I wasn't close enough to discover what nationality there were, but i suspected american - i don't know why - perhaps because lots of photos were being taken!
your annual GTGs sound like a lovely idea. I had gone equipped with my best handbag [a birthday present bought for me by DH on a visit to Toulouse] so it felt quite at home in those surroundings. perhaps more at home than its owner, though once we had had the champagne, we started to relax and enjoy the experience.
What other comparable restaurants have you been to?
there was a young girl there with her parents while we were there - she was having a lovely time. I suppose that she was about 10. I wasn't close enough to discover what nationality there were, but i suspected american - i don't know why - perhaps because lots of photos were being taken!
your annual GTGs sound like a lovely idea. I had gone equipped with my best handbag [a birthday present bought for me by DH on a visit to Toulouse] so it felt quite at home in those surroundings. perhaps more at home than its owner, though once we had had the champagne, we started to relax and enjoy the experience.
What other comparable restaurants have you been to?
Jan 17th, 2011, 03:27 AM
#30
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A delightful adventure Annhig! I was just wondering about
"we had a fruit bowl and bath robes, and best of all, a kettle, milk, and tea-bags. A first for a hotel in France - perhaps it's something to do with the name?"
Last August we booked into the Relaise Bosquet Hotel in rue Champ de Mars and were treated to bathrobes, slippers ( which we brought home) a lovely mini-fridge stocked with drinks, and also on top found a tray of tea and coffee making equipment together with biscuits and mini cakes.
"we had a fruit bowl and bath robes, and best of all, a kettle, milk, and tea-bags. A first for a hotel in France - perhaps it's something to do with the name?"
Last August we booked into the Relaise Bosquet Hotel in rue Champ de Mars and were treated to bathrobes, slippers ( which we brought home) a lovely mini-fridge stocked with drinks, and also on top found a tray of tea and coffee making equipment together with biscuits and mini cakes.
Jan 17th, 2011, 05:30 AM
#31
Hi tod,
glad that some hotels in France are beginning to follow this british habit. I'd only come across it in europe [apart from the UK] in this hotel, plus one in Vienna and, would you believe, another in Bratislava!
the hotel you stayed at is a bit more expensive than the Britannique, [i googled it] which is why we were so pleasantly surprised to find everything we did.
glad you enjoyed the TR - it's a lesson to me to get writing straight away as I've found that if I don't, the detail just disappears forever.
glad that some hotels in France are beginning to follow this british habit. I'd only come across it in europe [apart from the UK] in this hotel, plus one in Vienna and, would you believe, another in Bratislava!
the hotel you stayed at is a bit more expensive than the Britannique, [i googled it] which is why we were so pleasantly surprised to find everything we did.
glad you enjoyed the TR - it's a lesson to me to get writing straight away as I've found that if I don't, the detail just disappears forever.
Jan 17th, 2011, 05:41 AM
#32
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Annhig, we've been to Plaza Athenee, Taillevent and Le Grand Vefour. The last couple of years we've scaled back due to the ecomony though!
This year I'm excited to have 2 weeks. The first is with my husband and daughters, then he leaves and 4 friends join us for our "girls week".
This year I'm excited to have 2 weeks. The first is with my husband and daughters, then he leaves and 4 friends join us for our "girls week".
Jan 17th, 2011, 05:50 AM
#33
sadly Judy, I'm someway behind you.
having now sampled this level of cooking, I will be doing my best to repeat the experience; if that means scaling back on food for the rest of the trip, so be it.
have a great time on your trip this year! 2 week in Paris IS exciting!
having now sampled this level of cooking, I will be doing my best to repeat the experience; if that means scaling back on food for the rest of the trip, so be it.
have a great time on your trip this year! 2 week in Paris IS exciting!
Jan 21st, 2011, 05:46 PM
#34
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annhig...I think by the time we finished our exquisite lunch, Le Cinq was full, but it was Christmas Day, so I think most were like us...looking to do something special for the day...there was one man alone that was seated at the table next to us (kindred spirit who also photographed his food).
More people should try it out at lunch, the food and service is just as good and it is less pricey than at night!
In serious Paris withdrawal now...back 4 weeks on Tuesday...and am dying to go back
More people should try it out at lunch, the food and service is just as good and it is less pricey than at night!
In serious Paris withdrawal now...back 4 weeks on Tuesday...and am dying to go back
Jan 22nd, 2011, 10:53 AM
#35
hi denise,
there was a man seated alone near us but he was clearly a regular - he had a glass of champagne, two courses with one glass of wine, coffee, then with handshakes, departed. [nosy, moi?] he arrived after us and left before us - and no photos.
there is no way that we would be eating somewhere like that at night!
there was a man seated alone near us but he was clearly a regular - he had a glass of champagne, two courses with one glass of wine, coffee, then with handshakes, departed. [nosy, moi?] he arrived after us and left before us - and no photos.
there is no way that we would be eating somewhere like that at night!
