Paris: Still to Do List?
 

Give me a lazy sunday morning and my mind always seems to wander back to Paris.

I expect many of you have a few things (both large and small) you always wanted to do or see in Paris and never quite got around to it for one reason or another.

My coffee is almost ready so here's just a few of mine:

take a fat bike tour

visit basilica saint denis

take a peak at the courtyard of the ecole nationale superieure des beaux-arts

visit the chapel of our lady of the miraculous medal - 140 rue du bac

good morning degas

Basilica St Denis is still on my list too.

Also on my list (there are more, but the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet):
Viaduct des Arts
Lunch or dinner at Bofinger
the flea market at Cligancourt

maybe this December I'll knock one off

I have always wanted to get rid of the Eiffel tower - horrid eyesore - but haven't gotten around to it.

I would also like to get rid of the London Eye for the same reason.

oh yes, please elaborate on the ecole nationale superieure etc

Hi Elaine

A link for the fine arts school is found below. I saw a great picture once of the building and outer courtyard and always thought it was worth a quick look, perhaps while doing an area walk. Being allowed inside might also be a plus. I have a thing for poking around old buildings!

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/ENSBA/History.html

Fine Arts School location and hours:

http://www.ensba.fr/informations/inf...onsEnglish.htm

rollerblading down the champs ellysee....i think they do it organised late on the weekend?

My 22 y.o. daughter just returned from Paris and rollerblading on Friday night was one of her favorite things she did while there. Wall to wall people!

Explore the Parc de Buttes Chaumont...
View from Inst. de Monde Arabe...
See the Marché de Saxe-Breteuil...
Bike rentals in the Bois de Vincennes...

cruise up Canal St Martin
Les Egouts (sewers)
Catacombes
climb tower of Notre Dame
climb Arch de Triomphe...but not on same day as above :)
deserts from Pierre Herme
macaroon from Ladure
Butte Chaumonts
check out BHV
bike tour
Pere Lachaise cemetary
go from cafe to cafe looking for the perfect cafe creme and croqu monsieur
lunch at Cafe Marly

My Paris "Dance Card" still has quite a few attractions yet to be crossed off.

I have a problem, however, my favorite dance partners keep cutting in and excluding the others. I seem drawn back to the Musee d'Orsay while other places stay in line.

Last visit, Fontainebleau also lured me back for a second visit. That took most of the day because we went strolling around the woods. Interesting place.

If I go back again, I am sure the d'Orsay will kidnap me again, as will the Rodin sculptures.

I want to go back to the works he did in marble. There is a bust of Clemanceau in the case that is perfect.
Rodin made the old warrior look like a Mongolian war lord. Clemanceau hated the thing, but Rodin defended it by saying his works captured the inner man. Well, having had a major professor while in grad school who wrote a minute by minute history of the treaty of Versailles, I feel like Clemanceau was in the classroom too. I also think Rodin was right. He did capture the inner man. A sculpture with a top knot like and a moustache like Ghengis Kahn or similar figure just about catches the full story.

Okay, now you guys are starting to wake up - looks like my own list will grow after seeing these ideas.

Here's another one:

Maison Europeenne de la Photographie.

A magnificent mansion built in 1706 in the heart of the Marais area, the Hôtel Henault de Cantobre was transformed into a vast exhibition space dedicated to contemporary photography. It contains 12,000 works that reflect photography's historical evolution from the 1960's to the present day.

Admission: adults 5E; free admission Wednesday from 5pm-8pm.

Paris St Germain soccer game
French Open match
Bastille Day celebrations at Champ de Mars
Beaujolais nouveau celebrations
see an opera
see something at Garnier
xmas shopping on Grands Boulevards

Travelnut, can you provide more info on Marché de Saxe-Breteuil?

Hi, degas --

For info on the Saxe market and others, try parismarkets.net. Good info and lots of wonderful pix.

We plan to check it out when we're there at the end of the year, as it is not far from our rental on Motte-Picquet.

Bob Brown and I are on the same wavelength. I did manage to get a few more under the belt this summer like Giverny and the Musee Marmottan, which go hand in hand, don't they? Weird thing about the Marmottan, no cameras allowed! Very unusual for Paris.

I went on my own this time to the Musee d'Orsay on Bastille Day, and being alone is great because you can stand and stare at a painting forever without having the person your with glare at you to move on. I was really appalled, though, over the museum's complete lack of respect for Caillebotte. His self portrait was about to fall out of its frame. Shame on them. If it wasn't for him, half the paintings in that part of the gallery wouldn't be there today.

Surfergirl, my favorite by him is Rooftops under Snow.

Degas, I read about the Saxe-Breteuil market on other threads...ie:

Author: Travelnut
Date: 09/01/2004, 05:18 pm
Message: Someone mentioned on another post that this was the best of the markets:
<b>http://www.parismarkets.net/Saxe-Breteuil.html</b>
- open from 7am to 2:30 pm every Thursday and Saturday morning
- metro to Ecole Militaire or La Motte Piquet; the Ecole Militaire is the beautiful building at the opposite end of the Champ de Mars from the Eiffel Tower. Walk directly behind the Ecole Militiare and you will see the tree-lined Ave. de Saxe in front of you. Walk a block further to find the stalls lining the street.
I'd like to see it myself one day.

Author: jody
Date: 08/23/2004, 04:13 pm
Message: My favorite is the Saxe-Breteuil market on Place de Breteuil, near the Eiffel Tower. it is only on Thursdays and Saturdays, Saturdays being better. Unlike some of the other &quot;markets&quot;, where the vendors are really just outside stands in front of permanent shops, this is a true market, where the purveyors come in from all over. The seafood vendors from Normandy are worth the trip alone..and the cheese sellers who will only have the cheeses of their particular region. Beautiful produce and charcuterie too

Thanks Travelnut.

Sometimes I think it would be better to move to Paris and &quot;just get it all out of our system&quot;, but then all our wonderful dreams would be gone!

Degas, Do you really think so? I think you could spend a life time in Paris (and Rome, and London, and Florence, and ......) and never run out of things on your list. And if you did, you could just start all over again.

Musee Marmottan is privately owned. That might explain the policy.

I still need to pay my respects to
the Musee Nissim de Comondo.

Also Hotel de Soubise is a sleeper in my opinion. It is a little visited jewel of a few rooms done beautifully.

I wonder if the Orangerie will ever reopen to the public?? Or will they dig forever to find that old wall, brick by brick??

surfgirl. how nice to meet another Caillebotte fan. Most onlt know his &quot;Rainy day in Paris.&quot; I love the woodworkers on the floor, the way the light shines on their backs as seen through the balcony. Years ago I splurged to buy the book: Caillebotte his garden in Yerres.

if anyone is there this fall, I read that the jeu de paume is now dedicated to photography. &quot;L'Ombre du Temps,&quot; from 19th century to present. Works by Bresson, Wa;ler, Man Ray and so much more to type.

Bumping this up because I am taking notes. What are the rules about taking or shipping larger items back to the USA?

Oh, Lord, Degas, you sure do know how to hit my hot button! Several you've mentioned I've got on my list. I think I've mentioned in the past that anything that didn't make it in the last trip goes onto the next itinerary. People have asked me why I keep going back (my goodness, it's only been <font color="blue"><b>THREE</b></font> times) and I tell them that when I've seen everything I'll move on to some other place (but in actuality, if I could move there I'd be there now!).

Here's the ultra-mega long list:
<u>Le Dokhan Champagne Bar, Hotel Trocadero</u> in the 16th (rec. by the peripatetic wondrous Ger so it MUST be a good place)
<u>Bateaux Mouche</u>
<u>Mus&eacute;e d'Orsay</u> English language Impressionist tour
<u>Tour Montparnasse</u> (have a drink at the bar on top ~ get a view of the Eiffel Tower, instead of the other way around) ;)
<u>Statue of Liberty/All&eacute;e des Cygnes</u> (to remind myself that the French &amp; Americans have much in common and a long-standing relationship)
<u>Maison de Balzac</u> (rec. by TammyLouky)
<u>Bois de Bologne/Jardin de Bagatelle</u>
<u>Chocolatiers : Puyricard, Michel Chaudun, Maison du Chocolat (rec. by my dear friend Mimi), La Charlotte en l'&Icirc;le Chocolatier (rec. by my dear friend Scarlett), Debauve &amp; Galais</u>
<u>Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Medaille Miraculeuse -140, r. du Bac</u>
<u>Eiffel Tower ~ watch the sunset</u>
<u>Cour de Rohan, a little hidden courtyard in the 6th</u>(Degas was it you who mentioned that part of <i>Gigi</i> was filmed here?)
<u>Picnic on the Pont des Arts</u>
<u>Cross all the bridges</u>
<u>Walk along the Seine</u>
<u>Tea &amp; Tattered Pages</u>
<u>Marie Papier</u>
<u>Various places where James Joyces, Ana&iuml;s Nin, Henry &amp; June Miller, the Hemingways &amp; the F. Scotts lived, played, ate &amp; drank</u>
<u>Mus&eacute;e National Eugene Delacroix</u>
<u>Ecole National des Beaux-Arts</u>
<u>Jardin du Luxembourg</u> (can you believe I've <i>still</i> never strolled thru this garden?)
<u>Parc Monceau, Parc Montsouris, Jardin Alpin/Jardin des Plantes</u>
<u>Inside soooo many churches: St. Sulpice, St. Merri, St. Eustache, St. Gervais-St.-Protais, St-Severin, St-Etienne-du-Mont</u>
<u>Drinks @ l'Hotel</u>
<u>Mus&eacute;e de l'Orangerie</u> STILL !
<u>Shop @ Fauchon, Hediard, food hall in the Bon March&eacute;
<u>Arc de Triomphe &amp; its museum (another &quot;can you believe I haven't...&quot;)
<u>Passages</u>
<u>Viaduc des Arts/Promenade Plant&eacute;e</u>
<u>Galeries Lafayette, Au Printemps, BHV</u>
<u>Place du Tertre - watch the sunrise</u>
<u>various March&eacute;s</u>
<u>Cimetieres Montmartre, Montparnasse &amp; St-Vincent</u>
<u>Au March&eacute; de la Butte</u> (fruit/veg stand in <i>Am&eacute;lie</i>)
<u>4 Graces Fountain</u> (on rue d'Orchampt in Montmartre)
<u>Mus&eacute;e de Montmartre</u>
<u>Espace Dal&iacute;</u>
<u>Renoir's home</u> (6 rue de l?Abreuvoir, Montmartre)
<u>Basilique St.-Denis</u>
<u>Chamber music @ Ste-Chapelle, Notre Dame, and St-Julien-le-Pauvre</u>
<u>Samaritaine Terrasse</u>
<u>Mus&eacute;e Notre Dame</u>
<u>Conciergerie</u>
<u>Bebop Jazz @ Le Franc Pinot, Jazz @ Caveaus de la Huchette &amp; des Oubliettes</u>
<u>Le Grain de Sable - buy a hat</u> (79 rue St-Louis-en-l&Icirc;e)
<u>Village St-Paul in the Marais</u>
<u>Butte aux Cailles</u>
<u>Paristory</u>
<u>Ionesco's <i>Cantatrice Chauvre</i> @ Th&eacute;atre de la Huchette</u>

With a list THIS long it makes you wonder what HAVE I done??? ;) And lots not even TALK about the restaurants, bistros, brasseries, caf&eacute;s, &amp; tea salons that I want to still check out ~ the historic as well as the new trendy places.




<i><b><font color="navy">Laugh for the day :
My son just told me that I'm in SMALL TROUBLE when I get home!!</font></b></i></u></u>

Surfergirl, you are SO right about Caillebotte! I was telling someone last week how influential Caillebotte was in getting the Impressionist movement kickstarted, especially when he came to Chicago.

I LOVE the huge Caillebotte painting at the Chicago Art Institute, something about &quot;Rainy Day Paris&quot;. My very last day in Paris last trip reminded me so of that painting when I was walking back to my hotel in the Marais from Notre Dame and it started raining (after being blessed with sun all week long).

I'm so glad to see someone else appreciate him.



Wow, Degas, after seeing all these great replies looks like there are a few more to add to the list. 'Tis never ending.

&quot;I wonder if the Orangerie will ever reopen to the public?? Or will they dig forever to find that old wall, brick by brick??&quot;
LOL ~ Bob Brown, my sentiments exactly!

Oooh, and I forgot the Mus&eacute;e Jacquemart-Andr&eacute;, another setting for <i><b><font color="pink">Gigi</font></b></i>.

On my list for next month in Paris..

Butte Chaumont

Jardin Atlantique and the Musee Jean Moulin- Memorial du Marechal LeClerc

and an interesting church built in 1900 , the interior is iron girders and imitates the working environment of many of the congregants of that time of the Industrial Revolution..Notre-dame du Travail

19 more days till we leave!!!

Wow - more great inputs

Grasshopper - You are right, if we lived there we would just keep finding more and more amazing things to do.

Sigh - Paris. Just returned from my 8th trip and I still have things to see and do:

Viaduc des Arts
Canal St Martin
Pere Lachaise Cemetary
Sunset from the Eiffel Tower
Sunset from Sacre Couer
Bois de Boulougne
Parc Andre Citreon (sp)
Fountainbleu
The Passages
Really , really shop Bon Marche, Printemps, and Galleries Lafayette(that means find something else for DH to do)

I guess I'll have to go back :)

I'm a Caillebotte fan too, and I've never understood why he's relatively unknown. Monet must have had better marketing. My one and only trip to Chicago was several years ago just to see the major C. exhibit at the Art Institute. Painting falling out of the frame at the Orsay? Maybe he's the Rodney Dangerfield of Impressionists.

After 3 times, er.. um... the Tour Eiffel...

Don't feel embarassed , SuzieC! I think it was our 8th trip before we ever went up the Tour Eiffel!

Saw this post this morning and was thinking that after 5 trips, I still haven't visited the Eiffel tower. No 1 for my approaching trip (next week) is Musee Jacquemart-Andre. The Eiffel tower may have to wait a few more years.

I've only been up in the ET once, and that was for a dinner so didn't go to the top. But, it's not on my to-do list.

I meant to add in my last posting, another one that is on my list
The Montmartre vineyard

My list for next year -
Climbing the Arch du Triomphe
Picnicking in the Luxembourg Gardens
People watching at Place des Vosges
Kissing my hubbie on Pont Alexander (oh done that before, ah well nothing wrong with seconds)
Dancing and listening to jazz at Caveau de la Huchette
Drinking at that Champagne Bar (now that Beatchick has kindly shared the info!)
Dinner at Au Bon Acceuil
Sampling tidbits at Mouffetard Market

SuzieC, that was so funny! But if it's not important to you!! I've been up 4 times now and it's an ok experience. I only want to go up ONCE more to see the sunset and then I think I'm done with the ET forever. ;) And although it's cool to say you've been to the top, once you're there you can't really see anything. And it is a hassle to stand in line which is why I wanted to make SURE I was one of the 1st in line my last trip.

Elaine, I'm not sure you can even go inside the vineyards except for when they have their wine f&ecirc;te in October??? At least I think so. The Rodney Dangerfield of Impressionists - LOL!!

That's right, Toni! It'll be your 1st SECOND kiss on the Pont!! ;) Or your 2nd FIRST.

mhulot, will you do tea at the Jacquemart-Andr&eacute;?

Wow, I'm glad to hear there are other Caillebotte fans! I tend to go from one museum to another looking for his stuff (one is, in fact, in the Marmottan in Paris). Yes, the &quot;marketer&quot; was, in fact, Caillebotte, since he bought a load of Monet's stuff, and of course Renoir. If you check the little plaques next to each painting at the Musee D'Orsay, you'll see the really great pieces there were donated by Caillebotte, through his executor, Renoir (yes, Renoir was the executor of his Last Will!).

Degas, I love Rooftops (Snow) too, but for a different reason -- I saw just that scene outside my bedroom window when I lived in Grenoble.

And speaking of Rainy Day, Paris, that was another first for us this trip: we were carrying our umbrellas, heading away from Gare St. Lazare and Place Clichy and ran smack dab into the intersection he painted in that picture. Needless to say, our umbrellas came out (even though it wasn't raining at the time) and we took pictures of us strolling in the same pose. Okay, call me silly.

The Floor Strippers, which took my breath away so many years ago, I discovered has a variation, unfortunately privately owned, which is equally magnificent. I was fortunate enough to see it, as well as the great body of his works at the L.A. County Art Museum at an exhibit about a decade ago.

Well, maybe all of us fans should write a complaining letter to the Musee D'Orsay!

You're right, Surfergirl, had it not been for the marketing skills of Caillebotte we might not HAVE a Mus&eacute;e d'Orsay to go to. So they definitely owe him better framings.

&quot;you'll see the really great pieces there were donated by Caillebotte, through his executor, Renoir (yes, Renoir was the executor of his Last Will!).&quot;
WOW! That is so cool. I was there one time at the Chicago Art Institute. In fact, I went there the October before my first trip to Paris. It was very first time to Chicago &amp; I drove there ALONE. I drove 5 hours from Cincinnati and went directly to the Art Institute. Stayed there from opening to closing, had lunch in the little garden/courtyard, smoked a cigarette out back with the ma&icirc;tre d' while listening to jazz waft over from this little park. I was just lucky enough to be there during the Jazzfest and had no idea ahead of time that'd it'd be happenin'. I remember jonesing on the fact that I was &quot;listening to bop at the Loop&quot; just as Jack describes in <u>On the Road</u>.

I think it was that experience that made me realize that if I could drive by myself 5 hours there &amp; 5 hours back just to spend time in an art museum then there was no reason why I couldn't take myself to Europe.

But I remember coming upon the MASSIVE Caillebotte painting and just being blown away. And the Renoirs!! Especially the one of the 2 sisters with the deep cobalt blues of the dress and vibrant reds of the roses - these colors just don't translate themselves to color prints of Renoirs work. You have to see them in person.

But anyway, I was too busy rushing around the museum trying to see everything that I didn't get to pay that much attention to the little plaques. Next time, next time...

&quot;Needless to say, our umbrellas came out (even though it wasn't raining at the time) and we took pictures of us strolling in the same pose. Okay, call me silly.&quot;
That is JUST the kind of goofy thing I'd do!!