Ness_07

Hello all,

It has been far too long since I posted the first instalment of my trip report (London and Salisbury) but I'm ready to add the next component - two days in Paris. We also returned to Paris at the end of our four week sojourn, but this report represents our first taste of the place. Half of our four weeks was with a Kumuka tour and the other half we travelled independently. The reports are quite detailed, so I will endeavour to post them in morsel sized chunks.
Ness

Ness_07

Day Four – London to Paris

We had a few problems this morning finding the designated tour hotel. It was at Kings Cross, so we basically had to go across town and then made a wrong turn coming out of the underground station. This would have been fine except for the fact that we were lugging around our packs so walking for extended periods wasn't the most enjoyable thing to be doing. Unfortunately we were later told that we could have just met the group at Waterloo and saved ourselves the trouble...

In any case, all the tour participants were eyeing each other around the room and we were absorbing what we could about these people who would be sharing the bulk of our time for the next 10 days. We were transferred to London Waterloo by bus where we had quite a wait until we were able to check in. We were immediately frustrated by the constraints that being in a group placed on us, and to us, the whole logistical side of things seemed to take so much longer. But we gritted our teeth, reassured by the fact that in about 3 hours we would be in France and the visions of the sleep in and leisurely breakfast that might have been had dissipated.

The Eurostar trip takes about two and a half hours with approximately 20 minutes of that journey time spent under the English Channel.
To be honest we were looking forward to arriving in Paris, then going off to explore as I had a folder full of trip info urging me to get out and see what I could on our first free afternoon. However, we didn't get much time for sightseeing that first afternoon. We adjusted our itinerary to suit and just made the most of it. By the time we left our tour hotel (The Mercure Bercy) - way out in the sticks it was going on 3pm. The Metro was a necessity from the 12th arrondissement, so we quickly became accustomed to buying carnets and jumping on and off the metro system. Most of the group headed off on a visit to the Eiffel Tower, but I was glad we went off to explore on our own, I wanted instant immersion in the culture and that's what we got.

We rode the Metro to Chatelet and had our first experience of being hopelessly lost in the huge underground Les Halles shopping centre. Once out, we discovered it had started to rain lightly so our first real views of Paris were a little gloomy. Paris is full of low rise apartment blocks, all featuring tiny wrought iron balconies - many adorned with balcony gardens and shutters which gives that Parisian feel.
We walked toward the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris) because I was keen to start our exploration of Paris with the place where it all began - the birthplace of the City, Ile de Cite. The rain convinced us to abandon the walking tour I had planned and instead we checked out Place du Parvis and the Palais du Justice first. When we found the Conciergerie, we went in to buy our two-day museum passes - an investment that would serve us extremely well at 30 euros each.

As we were next door to it, we went to the Sainte Chappelle first. The security queue was long but not horrendous and we moved quickly once through the bag check. The Sainte Chappelle was amazing - I enjoyed both the lower and the upper sections: the lower has low ceilings, is darker in decoration and features ceilings adorned with stars. It is the perfect counterbalance to what you find upstairs when the full impact of the stained glass greets you. As it was an overcast day the impact was lessened but the place is spectacular nonetheless. The soaring pillars support a roof that appears to be floating because of the vast windows that make up the chapel's walls. It was full and noisy which meant it was a little harder to sit and take it all in, but we knew we would get our second chance, as when we left we purchased tickets to a Les Solistes Francais classical concert at Sainte Chappelle for our return to Paris in a few weeks.

Ness_07

We moved then toward Notre Dame, the biggest drawcard on the Ile where it sits with a magnificent presence - the facade having been recently cleaned and restored. Notre Dame is one of the strangest looking churches I've seen - I feel that the Romanesque facade and the gothic interior fight each other, but the flying buttresses and rose windows are splendid. Inside the church is gloomy and dark, and very gothic in style. I recalled Notre Dame de Paris by Hugo as I wandered through but again it was hard to evoke the feeling of the place as described in the Hugo novel because of the crowds.

Notre Dame was where we had our first encounter with gypsies - they work the front of the cathedral expertly, moving from group to group with tattered pieces of paper asking "do you speak English". I would have thought they'd cotton on to the fact that most tourists and well prepared for this scam before they come to Paris. It was interesting to watch how they seemed to melt away into the crowd and pop up in front of you (often the same one twice, or three times). However, we did see a few people handing over coins.

We missed the opportunity to climb the tower by minutes and likewise, the crypt was closed for the day so we contented ourselves with walking across to the Latin Quartier and exploring the streets along the left bank as we made our way slowly toward the designated group restaurant for the evening meal. Full of snaking alleyways and people, this is a vibrant area that has a good vibe about it. I found a bijoux store selling by the weight so picked up a pair of earrings before we took the metro to the restaurant.

We were the first to arrive so looked at the handwritten "group menu" with trepidation. We ordered a couple of aperitifs - Kir Royals - and highly recommended despite the price (8 euros a pop) while the others started to trickle in. I guess because we chose to do our own thing we had begun to alienate ourselves from the group so we found ourselves sitting at the end on our own and chatting amongst ourselves. The meal itself was woeful. A pate thing that looked and smelt like dog food and a steak cooked to within an inch of its life and almost impossible to cut. The plate was filled with chunky potato wedges - simply awful and the last thing you'd expect in Paris. There was no salad option at all. Thank goodness for dessert because the pear tarte was cooked well but this too was just plonked on the plate and served without ice cream of creme fraiche. I guess they don't have to try too hard with tour groups who are locked in, in advance.


We did the included group activity - a river cruise on the River Seine and it was actually quite good to see the city from this perspective. It was nice to get up close and personal with the Eiffel Tower as well and to see it illuminated.

The only problem with this was the commentary - small snippets repeated in about four languages constantly. From here we took the bus back to the hotel after dinner because by this stage we were very tired, and knew that day two would be incredibly busy.

Ness_07

Day Five – Paris

This morning, we had breakfast in the hotel (the Mercure Bercy) and that was fine - a typical breakfast buffet. We were out the door fairly early and straight onto the Metro to start our full free day in Paris. We knew in advance what we wanted to see, and despite the ambitious itinerary, were confident we could see plenty. My mindset from the beginning of the trip has been "take every opportunity, and even when your feet are killing and you are so tired, you might not get back here again so just go for it." Today would be the first true test of this.

The rest of the group started the day with a bus tour of the sights of Paris. In my opinion this seemed like such a huge waste of time - why see Paris through the windows of a bus when you could be out there, immersed in Paris and seeing the sights up close and personal? In any case, it seemed pointless so we set out on our own, and it turned out to be an amazing day, filled with highlight after highlight.

Our first destination was the Tuileries garden. There was some light, misty rain about when we arrived but this only served to enhance the experience for us, as we were able to stroll through the manicured gardens without a lot of crowds around. It is a pretty oasis in the 1st arrondissement, with its neat ponds, gorgeous stretches of lawn, statues and flowerbeds. We walked the length of the garden, from the Louvre end up to the Orangerie, which we had intended to be our first sightseeing stop for the day. The Orangerie was high on my to-do list as it houses Monet's famous waterlilies, and I was very interested in seeing them, as the building had been refurbished especially to house them, with the massive canvases displayed in two oval shaped rooms. However, the museum did not open until 12:30 for non-tour groups, so that put a spanner in the works.

Instead, we crossed the Seine, and walked down the Quai toward the Musee d'Orsay. This wasn't on my original list of things to do for the day, but we were getting used to going with the flow when the itinerary encountered little hitches. We were quite close to it, so it seemed like a great option. The museum pass we had bought the day earlier would serve us well here, as we were able to enter through the reserved tour groups entrance, bypassing the longer general entry line, as well as the ticket counter queues.

The former Gare d'Orsay building, is a stunning space for an art gallery. The cavernous central section of the museum is incredible, and the enormous gilded railway clock face watches over all the action below, with sculpture through the middle on the first floor which makes for a fantastic scene from on high. Many smaller rooms branched off this central area, and house a rich assortment of art from the mid 1850s to the early 20th century. There are some excellent impressionist and post-impressionist works here. Of major interest to us was the upper floor, which is devoted to some of the best known works by artists such as Monet (Poppies), Manet (Dejeuner sur l'Herbe), Degas (L'Absinthe) and pieces by Renoir, Van Gogh and Cezanne. I was especially taken with the Manets - loved the collection. On our way out we stopped to check out the Rodin sculptures, which were along one of the upper level sides. We would later see the Rodin Museum as well - I was beginning to be fascinated by the sculpture I was seeing, maybe gearing up for Michelangelos I would see in Italy.

Ness_07

As we were now on the left bank of the Seine, we headed next for the Musee de Moyen Age, or the Cluny Museum. This museum houses a collection of medieval art and objects, and adjacent are 3rd century roman ruins of an old bathhouse (viewable from the street). The museum itself is the old Hotel de Cluny, a 16th century mansion built by abbots of the Cluny Monastery.

The highlight here was without a doubt, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. This was an exhibit I had been very eager to see. I had read Tracey Chevalier's novel on the subject prior to the trip that helped pique my interest. The tapestries are displayed in a specially darkened chamber. They depict the five senses, and were probably made in Brussels in the 15th century. The star of the collection is the sixth tapestry, entitled "A mon seul desire" the meaning of which is unknown. I really enjoyed this museum. The mansion was a great space for medieval exhibits, with its old creaking floorboards, and timber ceiling beams adding to the atmosphere.

After leaving here, it was lunchtime and as we were in the Latin Quarter there were plenty of options. We ended up going into Paul and bought two baguettes with jambon and fromage and two citron tartes. We took this with us back over to the Ile de Cite and sat in the square outside Notre Dame to eat. The baguettes were fabulous - massive (we almost had trouble finishing them). While we ate we watched the gypsies doing their thing.

As we were right opposite it, we decided to visit the Crypte Archaeologique, which was also included on our museum pass. It was interesting, but as with any sort of ruins, you need to use a lot of imagination to bring it to life. The street that used to exist before the square was built was visible, and you could see the house basements, cellars and road fairly clearly. The remains of the original cathedral are also here. In some sections, the actual floor paving was visible where there once were shopfronts and houses. The most interesting aspect though was the remains of a furnace that would have distributed heat throughout the building - an early form of central heating.

As we headed back toward the right bank, we passed the Conciergerie, and again decided we should pop in, seeing as it was free for us as museum pass holders. The Conciergerie is the oldest prison in Paris. The great hall was huge, and although not decorated it was impressive and beautiful. Items of note here were the recreation of cells as they would have looked during the French Revolution, when various high profile prisoners were held here. Marie Antoinette's cell is recreated and we also visited the courtyard where the prisoners used to bathe and wash their clothes.

By this stage, I was in the mood for some chocolate, and having heard the rave reviews we set out in search of Angelina's. We had to walk quite a long way to reach it, as it is located at the Tuileries end of Rue de Rivoli. On the way I stopped at a street vendor and bought a Paris print and a miniature Notre Dame. You gain an appreciation for just how massive the Louvre Palace is when you have to walk the length of it! Angelina's was much bigger than I'd expected, and absolutely packed. Obviously everyone has heard about the brilliant hot chocolat africaine. But the walk, the crowd and the wait were all worth it. The hot chocolate is seriously like pure molten chocolate, and it is served in a jug, along with a container of whipped cream for diluting purposes. Rod ordered an iced coffee and a chocolate eclair, and we shared a large bottle of Perrier. It was fantastic to have that break off our feet and recharge a bit. So we lingered for quite a while in Angelina's. At the front of the cafe is a little shopfront, where handmade chocolates and other gorgeous sweets such as macarons are sold. I couldn't resist picking up three macarons in different flavours to try later. Angelina’s was quite expensive, at 21 euros but I didn’t care!

Ness_07

We deliberated about what we would do next, trying to take into our account our location, the fact that we could still make use of the museum pass and also the fact that the afternoon was getting on and we had to be back at Concorde to catch the bus back to the hotel at 5pm. So we thought we'd take the metro from Concorde up to the Arc de Triomphe, and take in our first aerial view of Paris. Because we'd missed out on climbing the Notre Dame towers on two occasions we felt this would top the day off nicely. Unfortunately we queued unnecessarily, thinking the line was a security checkpoint, but once at the top discovered we could have bypassed it completely with the passes. Nevertheless, we were up the Arc's 300 steps quickly and enjoying the panoramas. I'm sure climbing the Eiffel Tower would be great as well, but from here you can get the Eiffel Tower in your panoramic photos and the sight of the boulevardes rolling out in all direction from Etoile were really pretty. From up here it was easy to appreciate Haussmann's town planning. We also got a good look at the business district of La Defense.

As we gazed down the length of the Champs Elysees, we were struck by the notion of walking back down it to Concorde. We knew time would be tight and our feet were already very sore, but we reckoned that we definitely wouldn't be back in this part of Paris, so it would be a worthwhile experience to walk down the Champs.

We made a few stops along the way, mainly to stock up on food items in preparation for the long drive to Switzerland the next day. We bought some baguettes, drinks and fruit and made a point of stopping at Berthillon for a taste of their famous ice cream. As we walked we saw a huge bingle on the Champs involving a sports car and a truck - only a matter of time until we saw something like this, given my observations of Parisian driving.
I think on the whole the Champs is pretty overrated, but if you were in Paris with money to spend and wanted to go shopping it would be a good place to head to. It was packed with tourists and littered with big name stores, cafes and restaurants. I looked for, but couldn't find Lauderee the famous macaron store and that was my biggest disappointment.

We made the tour bus with minutes to spare, and it was actually great to get a lift back to the hotel, because we were seriously exhausted. We had a bit of a rest there before we got ready to head out for our much-anticipated outing to the Montparnasse district to see a gig by Tomasz, a French singer-songwriter. I had found this gig on the web before we left and it was great to be going to an out of the way venue, to be the only tourists in the place and to see some local entertainment. We left the hotel at 8pm and took the metro to Chatelet where we changed lines for our destination. The stop brought us right out on rue Vaugirard which was where the venue, Cafe 117 was located. Unfortunately we went left instead of right, but eventually worked out our error and we soon at the Cafe. The neighbourhood was very quiet, with locals going about their business, and young Parisians heading out into town.

Cafe 117 was a small hole-in-the-wall place, serving dinner as well as hosting the Tomasz gig. This was definitely our most challenging experience so far - the staff spoke minimal English and we spoke only basic French! We were extremely lucky to get the last table in the place, as it was packed. With a lot of charades, pointing and "oui" and 'non" we managed to place a dinner order. The staff were wonderfully patient and welcoming especially as we were clearly not locals and out of our comfort zone. We started with some kir royals (which by that stage I was taking a definite liking to) and then moved on to some glasses of red.

The waiter was very helpful in suggesting a wine for us and we went with a red called Garnay - very light and a good accompaniment to our meals. We started with a tomato and fresh herb tart - superb and bursting with flavour. With no pastry, it was perfect, light and a great entree. For main I ordered the rump steak with frites and a huge helping of dressed lettuce and Rod ordered the quiche lorraine special. Finally, fabulous food in Paris! We enjoyed the meal immensely, and once the kir royals had been polished off felt very at ease. At around 9:15pm Tomasz started playing - directly in front of us at the back of the restaurant. We had a great vantage point and it was a wonderful, intimate gig. He sang mostly originals in French but also played a few English songs and some covers such as 4 Non Blondes "What's Up" and Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah". Tomasz played acoustically with just his voice and his guitar filling the tiny cafe, but about a third of the way into the performance, he was joined by two violinists. A great night out in Paris!

We took the metro back to our hotel, but before plunging into the metro system, we took a few minutes to enjoy the views of the illuminated Eiffel Tower, flickering between the Parisian apartment blocks in the quiet Montparnasse neighbourhood.

cheribob

Beautiful report. I am enjoying it immensely.

Mamaw

More Please! Am I'm so glad you finally got a good meal.

Ness_07

Thanks very much for the kind comments!

That concluded our initial two days in Paris, but I might fast forward to days 21-23 of our trip, also in Paris and add them to this thread.

Ness_07

Day Twenty-Two - Paris

We felt very skanky on the TGV train into Paris. We'd just come off the overnight train, really needed showers, probably smelt bad and looked really dishevelled. By comparison, neatly attired French families boarded the train with us and I think a few people were displeased that Rod chose to put our backpacks in the overhead luggage rack rather than at the end of the carriage where there was more room. But he refused to move them and I think we were both just too exhausted to be bothered worrying about it.

For the two hour trip from Strasbourg into Gare d'Est I read, dozed, and listened to music. From the station, we took the metro to our hotel, in the Latin Quarter. This was somewhat difficult as some guy got angry about our backpacks taking up so much room and it was very squashy on the train. But we persevered and got there. We got off at St Michel, but later realised there was a closer metro stop - at Maubert-Mutualite. We walked past the Cluny Museum and the Sorbonne to the hotel - the St Jacques - the same hotel as seen in the film Charade starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. It was a great help having already been in Paris before and so much easier to gain our bearings.

We had taken one of the cheaper rooms in the attic level, which meant there was no lift to the 6th floor, and we had to walk the last flight of stairs - but this didn't worry us. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived but we were allowed to leave our bags there. The room was small but pleasant and the window opened onto a little balcony from which we got a great view of the surrounding streetscape on rue des Ecoles.

We had originally planned to go to the Louvre on our first day back in Paris or break the visit up over two days by again purchasing the two-day Museum Pass. But with the Louvre closed on Tuesdays we opted to try for the night session later in the week. The weather was dreary again (every day we had in Paris was like this!) so it would have been perfect for looking at art all day but undeterred, we instead decided to go to Montmartre. We took the metro to Abesses, the entrance of which is crowned by one of the original art deco metro canopies and from there it was an upward climb through the streets, and up many stairs to the "Butte Montmartre" where Sacre Coeur stands. From the base of the church there is a wonderful view over Paris as Montmartre is the highest point in the city. Inside, the church is lovely, not overly adorned and quite simplistic. It is one of those rare churches that is actually more beautiful on the outside, than on the inside. It has a white 'pimply' textured facade, is topped with onion domes and it sits on the hill like white icing on a cake. Picture pretty.

We took the steps down, pausing at intervals to turn and take in the different vantage points. At the bottom was one of those Parisian carousels that pop up everywhere and all the usual tourist trade guys selling their sunglasses and bags and the guys asking you to place your finger into a loop of string - and once you have, they work quickly to fashion a bracelet which they then ask you to buy. I always find it interesting watching these guys at work and watching the reactions of the tourists. I've found the most successful tactic to just look through them and ignore them, and a shake of the head usually suffices. I was never bothered once on the whole trip by gypsies or street traders.

They are everywhere in Paris - at the Louvre, they sell you water, at the eiffel tower they sell you bottles of champagne and flashing eiffel tower keyrings, and at Notre Dame gypsies ask you to translate words on a piece of paper while they pick your pockets. The beggars are different here too. They are silent, some kneeling, some holding up signs, some prostrate for hours on end with little paper cups at the end of their outstretched arms. It is sad seeing this, and the general state of the homeless everywhere you go, but it felt poignant in Paris, where you are surrounded by beauty and culture and refinement everywhere you go.

After avoiding the cardboard bandits we went into Haagen Dazs for some ice cream before walking back to Abesses. Because of the rain there was not so much atmosphere around Montmartre, but all the same, I was glad to have made the trip up to see Sacre Coeur.

More soon...

Ness_07

We decided to stop off at Gare du Nord on the way back, to purchase our Eurostar tickets back to London. At the hefty price of 463 euros it put a hole in the remaining budget but it felt good to know we were all sorted. Going back to London early on that last Paris morning will give us a whole extra day for art in London and for that too I was glad.

We toyed with the idea of seeing Pere Lachaise Cemetary but ultimately decided to hold that over until the next day. Instead, we returned to the hotel and had a rest until it was time for our evening concert at the Sainte Chappelle.

We had already pre-purchased our tickets so lined up dutifully with others going to the concert outside the Conciergerie. We had ducked across the road for a coffee beforehand to kill some time and at 6:30 we were admitted to the Sainte Chappelle, and there was definitely something very special about coming into this amazing place at twilight, when there were no tourists around - it felt like we had our own private audience with it. We sat in the second row and took some great photos of the stained glass and the blazing candelabras. The concert was by the Solistes Francais, a group of young solo musicians that work together on different musical projects. Tonight, we were treated to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. There were four violinists, a double bassist, a cellist and a pianola player. It was riveting stuff, just awesome and amazing the sounds they can get out of their instruments.

Afterwards we went for a looooong walk along the right bank of the Seine to the base of the Eiffel Tower. I don't know why people say Paris is a walkable city. I find it tiresome - mostly because of the long, straight boulevardes everywhere. You feel like you've been walking for ages but don't look to be much further along. By comparison, in Rome with its twisting and turning streets, you are constantly seeing new things around every corner and it seems more enjoyable to walk in that kind of environment.

It was nice to be at the base of the tower and to see the lights come on. There were still huge queues at each of the pillars at that hour to climb the tower, but many people had settled onto the grass of the Champs du Mars with picnic to watch the tower light up. Our feet hurt so we were glad to do this too. We were asked four or five times by kids selling bottle of champagne which got annoying and we were tempted with all sorts of other tacky rubbish. It is hard to be left alone in a tourist city like Paris.

The most amusing thing was seeing this homeless guy patrolling the area - jumping up, roaring abuse in French and shaking his fist every time he saw one of these hawkers move in for the sale. He was like a self proclaimed keeper of the park - chasing them out and providing wonderful entertainment. I was definitely with him and sympathising with his cause - I can't stand those guys either!

It was getting late so we went back to St Michel for dinner. It was not really that good - I think there are a lot of mediocre brasseries and bistros and unless you do your research you don't always have a good experience. Earlier in the day we'd dined at the Creperie de Cluny and the service and food were both good there, even though it was obviously catering to the tourist crowd. So really, we just lucked out on dinner.

Ness_07

Not sure if there is much interest in my long winded reporting - but I'll persevere! Just the one more day to go

Ness_07

Day Twenty-Three - Paris

Today was one of our busiest of the entire trip and we managed to get an extraordinary amount of sightseeing done. After breakfast in the basement breakfast room of Hotel St Jacques all very nice and civilised, with menu options and an automatic piano pumping out the tunes, we walked over to Ile de la Cite and waited for the Conciergerie to open so we could again buy the two-day Paris Museums Pass which has turned out to be exceptional value for us because of the volume of stuff we have seen. Being able to skip the cash desk queues in most places made it definitely worth our while, and we saved a few euros along the way.

Once our passes were safely in hand, we jumped on the metro and headed out to Pere Lachaise Cimitiere. It was a bit awkward to get to via the metro and we had to change a few times but we didn't have to walk far once we reached our destination stop. When we emerged from the metro, we picked up a map of the cemetary from a newspaper vendor and were on our way.

There are many notable people buried here and it is a beautiful and serene place to walk around, following the map that was very detailed and useful for finding the tombs we were looking for. The cobblestone paths in the old section twist around leafy trees, the roots of which have sadly destroyed many tombs. The French, seemed to like making a statement with their tombs in the older sections so there are many little enclosed "houses" - single roomed structures, very ornate with lockable doors and bearing the family name. They were interesting, with their stained glass window, craftsmanship and stateliness. I love the description of the place in the Rough Guide to Paris that reads "It's rather like a miniature town, with its grid-like layout, cast-iron signposts and neat cobbled lanes - a veritable 'city of the dead'. It's one of the most atmospheric cemetaries that you're ever likely to visit - an eerily beautiful haven, with terraced slopes and some 6000 magnificent old trees that spread their branches over the moss-grown tombs as though shading them from the outside world."

Most people come to Pere Lachaise to visit the grave of Jim Morrison, and in the guide we read that security had had to be installed around the gravesite to keep people from interfering with the tomb. However when we visited there were merely temporary fences around it, and no security guards in sight. There was however, a snowy white cat that stood silent guard, slinking off between the tombs when a large school group descended. It is a nondescript tomb, but is covered in flowers, poems, letters and trinkets and a couple of hand rolled cigarettes.

From here we made our way toward the tomb of Chopin - very simple but laden with flowers and Polish flags left by Polish pilgrims; Edith Piaf, in the newer section of the cemetary with a polished black tomb, covered in mementoes from fans and Oscar Wilde - an impressive monument featuring a sculpture of a Pharaonic winged messenger. The Wilde tomb was my favourite - it is covered in lipstick kisses left by visitors and on the back there is an inscription of a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Others we saw included Sarah Bernhardt, Balzac and Eugene Delacroix.

I'm glad we made the effort to get to Pere Lachaise, it was an interesting place and it was nice to be somewhere quiet, away from the tourist hordes.

From here, we caught the metro back into Beaubourg and headed toward the Georges Pompidou Centre, the famous "inside out" building that now houses Paris' modern art collection - the Musee National d'Art Moderne. It is a fascinating building - seeing the infrastructure - pipes, escalator tubes etc, all brightly colour coded and wrapped right around the exterior. As we went up on the escalator there were wonderful views of Paris.

Our pass allowed us to go straight in to the gallery that is spread over two levels. The first level contained very modern art, much of it experimental and not really my cup of tea. Personally, I think modern art is 80% w*&kery and 20% thought provoking, but plenty would disagree with me!

Among the works that caught my eye were an exhibit on inflatable furniture, a photo exhibit called "100 boots" and then some more traditional works by the likes of Matisse, Picasso and Branque. There were also a few Rothkos, some Dalis and a Jackson Pollock piece. Rod was quite into the Dali works, but I'm not really a fan of the surrealist thing. Were we glad we went? Yes and no. Seeing the building was a highlight and I'm a big Matisse fan and like a lot of Picasso's stuff so for those reasons it was worthwhile.

Once we'd seen both levels we went back out to the little square around Beaubourg which is largely a big sloping concrete court yard surrounded by eateries, shops and portrait spruikers.

We chose probably the most expensive cafe of the lot - Cafe Beaubourg but really, it was the prime people watching position so that didn't concern me. I really liked the place - it looked arty with it's retro white, red and black chairs all positioned facing outward.

The food was also great and deserving of the hefty price tag. We both decided to go for some "comfort food" so ordered cheeseburgers with hash browns. It was very good. Rod was almost tempted by this enormous profiterole (it is actually called the Enorme Profiterole on the menu), stuffed with ice cream and drowning in chocolate sauce. We were too full though and couldn't face it but vowed to come back to fulfil our profiterole destiny.

It was interesting watching the portrait guys trying to turn a buck, and they actually got quite aggressive with many of the tourists and they were very competitive with each other, creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for people if they really did want their portrait drawn.

Ness_07

From the Pompidou we walked one block to see the Fontaine des Innocents. It is Renaissance in style and features water that cascades down stepped sides in perfect symmetry. It's cleverly designed but wasn't really that exciting, so we soon moved on towards the Hotel de Ville - or City Hall.

I enjoyed the walk in that direction, through the Marais where there are a lot of interesting shops everywhere you turn. Too bad this wasn't a shopping expedition!

The Hotel de Ville is an important building in French history, given the role it played during the French Revolution - when a huge guillotine was set up in the square in front of it. We then wandered a little aimlessly, trying to figure out what else we could see in the quarter. We made the detour to Place des Vosges, which is often described as the most beautiful square in Paris. It is bordered by stone mansions, and the formal garden in the middle is lovely. It is quite an exclusive address too with the likes of Victor Hugo living at number 6.

We were very close to it, so we popped into the Musee Carnavalet, which was a beautiful Parisian museum in a mansion with gorgeous gardens, but all exhibits were labelled in French, and even though I could read much of it, the time involved in translating and working out the meaning placed it in the too hard basket. So we departed. This was a shame as the descriptions of the museum were great and I was interesting in learning more about Parisian history. Even if there had been an English audio guide, that would have been great. But it wasn't to be.

We took the metro back to Concorde, so we could finally visit the Orangerie, the gallery that had eluded us last time because of its opening hours. Again, it felt wonderful walking past the long queue with the museums pass and gaining almost immediate entry. The Orangerie is at the western top of the Tuileries Gardens and has been divided into two sections - the upper level reserved for the display of eight of Monet's Waterlilies in light drenched oval rooms, where they are viewed at their very best. This is how Monet himself had wanted them seen, in a continuous format and bathed in light. The massive canvases stretch around the walls of these rooms and are truly remarkable.

Downstairs, a glorious collection of Impressionist art hangs, and it was here that we lingered the longest, savouring the commentary on the audio guide. The collection belongs to a Parisian art collector, and there were some amazing works here. There were a lot of Renoirs, Cezannes, Matisses and some Picassos as well as many works by French artists many of whom I wasn't previously familiar.

But my favourites were definitely the Matisses. I particularly love the works he created during his Nice years - they are soft and sensual and show the Riviera environment to great effect - and the subject matter is really interesting.

We were ready to refuel again after the Orangerie, where we had spent more time than we'd intended. I picked up a guide from the gift shop as well so I could remember some of the works I had seen.

We were nearby so thought we should return to Angelina's for more of the hot chocolate africaine! Rod was not as big a fan of this place as I was, but he humoured me! I enjoyed sitting there for 40 minutes, writing in my journal and resting a bit, but I didn't enjoy seeing a mouse pop out from the skirting board and run across my bag! Oh well, it created a bit of excitement.

kerouac

Interesting report, but this is certainly not true:

<<Most people come to Pere Lachaise to visit the grave of Jim Morrison>>

"Most people" these days do not even know who Jim Morrison was.

And apparently most people do not know that the cemetery attendants will give you a completely free map of the famous tombs for the asking. (Also at Montparnasse and Montmartre cemeteries.) Naturally, the newsstands outside the cemetery would never tell you this.

Ness_07

Perhaps I should have added "in my opinion". When we were at Pere Lachaise, the grave of Jim Morrison far and away had the most visitors, including a big school group at one point. So this was just my perception of it on the day really.
More coming...

Ness_07

And so we weighed up our evening options. The Louvre had its evening opening and given that it was our last night in Paris it seemed like the only logical decision. We hoped that the evening opening would mean that there were fewer crowds, and we were right about that! We walked down to the Louvre entrance, making a stop at McDonald's because we just HAD to go in and ask for a "Royale with Cheese" a la Pulp Fiction. It was disgusting but fun all the same. Interestingly, we seemed the only NON-French in the place...

At the Louvre, we again we able to bypass queues (which by this hour weren't all that long) and descended into the complex via I.M Pei's glass Pyramide. It really is a spectacular visual juxtaposition, plonked smack in the middle of the glorious Louvre Palace.

Downstairs, the entrances are further divided into the three main wings of the Museum - the Richelieu, Denon and Sully wings. We decided to start in the Sully wing, as Rod was particularly keen to view the Egyptian Antiquities collection. This is a massive collection, and I think we saw as many Egyptian artefacts that we'd probably ever seen or are likely to see in one go, with some of the highlights a little blue hippopotamus that dated back to 2033BC, many ancient sarcophagi, and the Seated Scribe - an amazing statue with eyes inlaid with quartz. The attention to detail and the way it has been preserved is mind blowing. It is also incredibly old - dating back to 2600BC. We then toured the Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, which was equally interesting, especially the painted urns and the Greek statuary - most notably, the Venus de Milo.

Next we viewed the collection of French large format paintings. I really enjoyed this section, and loved the stories that these massive canvases were telling. It was so quiet here, and I comfortably stood before each painting without feeling the need to hurry or move on before I was ready to. Among the pieces I remember were the School of Fontainebleu - "Gabrielle d'Estrees and One of her Sisters" with its bizarre subject matter; Nicolas Poussin's "The Rape of the Sabine Women"; the works of Jean-Honore Fragonard; and I LOVED the Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson piece "The Burial of Atala" - really moving! The Delacroix works were also fascinating - and there were plenty of them in the Louvre as you'd expect. So in all I surprisingly enjoyed the French painting section, as it helped me overcome my Italian art bias (coming from a week and a half in Italy it was easy to be enamoured of all I'd seen).

Italian painting was the next section and this was exciting as we knew Leonardo Da Vinci's La Joconde - and the works of Ghirlandio, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Veronese et al would be here. The highlights for me were definitely the massive "Wedding Feast at Cana" by Veronese and Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and "Saint John the Baptist". The Mona Lisa is small, and enclosed in protective glass. I was so thankful for the night opening as I could get right to the front and centre and look at it for as long as I liked. Rod was even able to take a photo of me in front of it, demonstrating the lack of crowds around it at that time of night. So it was definitely a memorable moment.

We moved on to sculpture at that point, as I was determined to see Michelangelo's Slaves before closing time.

Being in Italy, especially Florence had given me a new appreciation for sculpture, so this section was great to wander around. Some of the highlights for me were Thierry's "Leda and the Swan"; Canova's "Eros and Psyche" and the incredible Slaves.

Toucan2

Indeed, there's plenty of interest in your reporting! Don't consider it long-winded at all (you should see the ridiculously long report I just posted!) I'm enjoying your report very much.

LCBoniti

I also am enjoying your trip report. Have you already posted the tour portion? I didn't find it.

You certainly are able to include a lot in each day and you did some very unique things. Thanks so much for sharing.

Ness_07

Thanks very much for the comments!

I did post a few months back about the London and Salisbury parts of our trip but I can't find them anywhere on the board!

I also intend to post about the Italian parts of our trip - Italy was far and away my favourite place.

I thought it might be easier to section it off into cities, because of the length and detail involved.

One more Paris part coming now...