Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Paris: Still to Do List?

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

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

Laugh for the day :
My son just told me that I'm in SMALL TROUBLE when I get home!!

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 "Rainy Day Paris". 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.

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

Oooh, and I forgot the Musée Jacquemart-André, another setting for Gigi.

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 fête 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-André?

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 "marketer" 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 Musée d'Orsay to go to. So they definitely owe him better framings.

"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!)."
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 & 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 maître 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 "listening to bop at the Loop" just as Jack describes in On the Road.

I think it was that experience that made me realize that if I could drive by myself 5 hours there & 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...

"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."
That is JUST the kind of goofy thing I'd do!!