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paris for art and literature enthusiast
Back again for more advice....I have 12 glorious days in Paris. So far - in no apparent order (that will come) - I would like to go to the predictable museums - Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and perhaps Rodin. I would also like to do a tour of the Opera House, walk around and do a self tour of the literary haunts. I am sure there are lots of ideas out there. I would love to hear them all.
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Do not forget Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) and Musée de l'Orangerie.
The following is an excerpt from my trip report from my last stay in Paris, From there I started my self-guided literary tour. Oddly enough my first stop was an art atelier where Picasso painted Guernica (7, rue de Grands Augustins), the grotesque rendering of the bombing of that town during the Spanish Civil War. An apocryphal tale surrounds that painting. A German soldier walked into the studio and asked Picasso if he did that. Supposedly Picasso responded, “No you did.” Next was a restaurant now called Azabu (3 rue Daphne) where George Sand, Flaubert, and Turgenev gathered for dinner and cigars. Unfortunately whenever I now think of Flaubert, I think of the brilliant book by Julian Barnes Flaubert’s Parrot. Part of the work is about obsessions, one of which was finding the stuffed parrot that Flaubert once kept on his desk. This worries me. My tour is about the facades of buildings, many of which have been razed, rather than the interiors where they wrote, eat, drank, and worse. What is my obsession? The next site was something from Baudelaire. I have never read Baudelaire, why would I want to see his building? And with my sense of direction it is taking me twenty minutes to find a building next to one another. So I detoured to the Seine to change the itinerary. Besides I am reading Pere Goriot by Balzac which is a true insight in 1830’s Paris. It speaks of a middle class boarding house and other social conventions. Almost immediately I pass the Hotel de Voltaire where Baudelaire lived, as did one of my favorite wits, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wagner who played Mendelssohn with gloves on so his fingers would not touch the music of a Jew. I cross the Seine into the Tuileries and I was told that I must purchase tickets for L’Orangerie at the FNAC on the Champs. I pass the Place de Concorde where there is a statue of Louise Colet with whom Flaubert had a tumultuous relationship. Walking the Champs, I decided not go to the parade on Bastille Day. There were metal barriers yards away from the center of the street. I would have to get there by 8 AM for a parade that did not start until after 10 and the Metro along the boulevards was closed that day for security reasons. As you walk through Paris, you hear many languages but on the Champs I heard the distinct Valley Girl dialect. That sing song yeah that is now being used at Gitmo instead of water boarding. But I wonder if there is Loire Valley accent that drives the French insane? When I finally arrive at FNAC, I am told there are no available tickets until after I leave Paris. A conspiracy. That evening I return to the Marais for the world’s best falafel and lemonade. This part of Paris is dominated by Sephardim, which are Jews more or less from Spain and the Mediterranean. Ashkenazi Jews are from Eastern Europe, knishes, bagels-Sephardim falafel, schwarma. Since I do not eat falafel often, it was the best I ever had and only waited 10 minutes. The pita was filled falafel and cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, and other veggies. (No onions.) The lemonade was fine, I am not prepared at this time to say world’s best. On the way back to the hotel I pass rue de Buci where Verlaine once lived and Place des Vosges where at various times Victor Hugo and Georges Simenon resided. (Did you know that Simenon wrote by lining up hundreds of pencils and as one became blunt he would throw it aside and pick up another one until he completed the work which he tried to do in one sitting without sleep.) |
12 days is wonderful! I agree with Adu, I loved the Pompidou and the l'Orangerie. There are so many museums in Paris, a good place to review the possibilities is the museum pass website:
http://en.parismuseumpass.com/ A museum pass might be a good idea, it can save you money and also you can avoid the ticket lines. If you're interested in the Garnier Opera house you might want to think about seeing a performance. There's a wide variety of ticket prices including cheap ones. Usually it's ballets at the Garnier but they do operas there occasionally as well as music concerts. http://www.operadeparis.fr/en/index.php |
When are you going? Several things to include on your itinerary are Ste. Chapelle, the Cluny Museum and Luxenbourg Gardens. By all means, don't miss the Orangerie. Depending on when yo are there, the rose gardens at the Rodin will be worth a trip.
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The Marmottan and the Carnavalet also. I'd be puzzled by "perhaps the Rodin"--wouldn't miss it.
Get the Michelin Green Guide to Paris to plan your museum going to the Louvre--perhaps visit a wing, but make sure that wing is open on the day you go--have a backup plan for a different one just in case. |
Making note of all your suggestions!
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if your french is up to it, what about the comedie francaise? we saw le malade imaginaire there and though we didn't get every word, we enjoyed it very much.
it's on til the end of april. |
The Musée Jacquemart-André - go for Sunday brunch, then wander around for an hour or so.
Visit the book market at the Parc Georges Brassens. |
I'm so glad to find this thread, but I'm new so it may not be the right place for my question. I like the recommendation to get a museum pass. But I read somewhere that someone tried to go to L'Orangerie, only to be told there were no reservations until after they left Paris. I went on the L'Orangerie site and see no way to make a reservation. Do you think this will be a problem there, or at other museums with a pass?
Thank you. |
Sorry, Aduchamp1, I see now it was you that happened to. Any other insight about it?
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No. I am not very good at the mechanics of traveling but there are many knowledgable people that inhabit these boards.
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Was it for a group reservation? Or did that happen a long time ago?
As far as I know, the Orangerie doesn't take reservations, except for groups. They may have done so before the present building's renovations were complete, but that was quite a few years ago. There's nothing on the website indicating they take reservations, and when I went approx. 4 years ago, I just used my museum pass with no problem (and I never saw any signs regarding reservations). Hopefully someone who knows for sure or has been there recently will comment. |
I agree, do not miss Orangerie. My wife & I recently spent two months in Paris and went 3 times.
http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/ If a day trip is a possibility, consider Monet's Givenchy. http://en.parisvision.com/6,36-visit...versailles.htm Enjoy Paris! |
I don't see anything in Aduchamps' post that indicates he had a museum pass, but maybe I'm skimming too fast.
You need a pass or a ticket. He went to buy a ticket. From FNAC, not from the museum. Why he did that, I'm not sure - you can buy tickets right at the museum. FNAC, being a private enterprise (a large store), has only a certain number of tickets on any given day. The day he went, they were apparently out of tickets for the days he had left in Paris. Looks like he gave up rather than just go to the Orangerie. You do not need a reservation. In fact, you can't get one unless you're with a group. Your pass will work fine, if you have one. No, museums in Paris don't go turning away visitors unless they DO require reservations and the visitors don't have them. |
Reassuring. Thanks everyone.
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The Cluny is an amazing museum and a short walk from Notre Dame.
In the same area is Shakespeare and Company. While this is not Sylvia Beach's original bookstore, the link is there. A really great place that is often overlooked (and not open very often) is the antique maritime gallery located past the entry to the Comedie Francais next to the Louvre. On the Museum Pass, it is a good deal for many reasons. As I've stated in other comments, it allows you unlimited access to any of its sites so, as an example, you don't have to try to see everything in the Louvre or d'Orsay all at once. You can easily pop in for an hour, leave and come back. It does allow you to just bypass the ticket lines in a lot of locations. However, to be clear, this works in some places, like the Louvre, but you can actually end up taking longer somewhere like d'Orsay. Always look at the line length. |
You have so many great suggestions thus far, but I couldn't resist adding my 2 cents to this party given Paris is my favorite city!
1.Museum Pass is 100% worth it...I bought mine during the start of my trip at the Arc and would never go without again 2. Louvre is wonderful..and I focused my time there on my first trip..however the 2nd trip I spend time at Orsay, which I favor over the Louvre. They say the Louvre can take 2 weeks to see it all, so keep that in mind. 3. Versailles is such a easy trip and for me worth it, 40 minutes I think by train. We went out early morning, rented bicycles, brought a picnic and absolutely had the best day of the whole trip..we closed it off with the champagne fireworks tourist trap, but still enjoyed every moment...I say a MUST... 4. I agree with the earlier poster re: Opera House...I did the tour but would have must preferred a performance as the tour doesn't give you much behind the scenes...only historical facts which you can find anywhere. Hope my ramblings help- |
Go to a performance at the Palais Garnier if you can. As others have noted, it's a beautiful experience. As a literature lover, I felt very privileged to see Roland Petit's Proust, ou, Les intermittences du coeur there a couple of years ago. I think that might have been one of the very best days of my life!
Victor Hugo's house is a small, interesting and manageable museum. And again, I agree with others posts: Cluny and Carnavalet are both terrific. I am returning to Paris in May and will be keeping an eye on this thread for ideas--thanks for starting it. |
I don't see anything in Aduchamps' post that indicates he had a museum pass, but maybe I'm skimming too fast
I did not. |
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