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Peripatetic in Paris - a Beatchick's Travels
Hi all,
I intend to do a trip report but I haven't gotten around to doing it yet; I'll be going slowly and hope to have the first part up by the end of the weekend. But I do have a link for some photos of the 1st day on pbase.com: http://www.pbase.com/beatchick/paris_2006 Be patient, though, I need to work on some of the titles & put in some comments to clarify. I am also breaking down the photos by day since I took so many of them (1300-1400) and it'll be easier to go thru them. Also, you can read the trip day-by-day & compare against the photos. ciao, Beatchick |
Beatchick,
Can this really all be the 1st day??? Just captivating!! I have already looked twice and will go back to look again before day is over...beautiful shots..can't wait for more...thank you for sharing... |
Hi B,
Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your report. ((I)) |
Thank you Mary for the absolutely wonderful photos! You certainly covered alot on that first day.
I have a carry-on filled with books for my upcoming trip, from classics to travel guides, yet your trip report is my most anticipated read. I can't wait to finally be on the plane, seat belt fastened, and reading all about your adventures! |
Hi Beatchick --
What great pictures! I absolutely loved them and forwarded them on to two friends who are in my group of 7 going to Paris this summer -- They're my kind of pictures -- not alot of people, just the subject matter. However, you certainly did cover alot of ground on your first day! I'll wait for your trip report to follow your path. Please hurry!!! |
Merry Mary! You've outdone yourself!
I've really enjoyed your notes from paris and can't wait for the rest of your wonderful pictures! You've been practicing with that camera, girl! I want to hear all about the GTG too! |
Thanks for bringing a little Paris to my heart today. Great Photos, especially the night ones!
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These are great! Please post all, if you must :)
And, a special thank you, for the French Kiss locale, I love that movie, and have often wondered where the street corner where she threw the money at him was...neat..."face of an angel, but the mind..." |
Your keen eye for photograpy was unimpeded by your unfortunate bout of Iritis. I hope you're feeling better now - I've been down that 'piste' before and it isn't a pleasant one. Looking forward to more of your lovely photos. |
a great collection i forwarded to my brother and wife who will join us in paris next month for their first trip.. celebrating his 60th.
i am so excited. they love gettng all these bits i keep sending them... a personal travelogue. sounds like you had a great time. hope i can eventually make a gtg somewhere. tried to organize one in valencia.. but until we are closer to the cup.. not many seem to come here!!!! |
Boy, you sure catch the mood of Paris in the winter, these photos are wonderful.
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Wow, what a feast for the eyes, Beathchick! Thanks for that little gift!
Two weeks and I'm there! |
When were these taken? Didn't you just get back? The Christmas tree throws me for a loop?
Nice shots, and you're making me look forward to my trip. We'll be there next week, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the green grass. Any daffodils out yet to brighten up the day? |
Thanks, everybody - you all are so kind! :) I'm glad you like these photos.
Oui, oui, Traviata, this really was just the first day. One of my friends left a comment on the photos: As day one ends, I'm totally EXHAUSTED! Don't you get jetlag? Yes, I DO get jetlag - when I return home!! :P I'm just now getting over the jetlag. That 1st day I walked everywhere but I'll save all that for the trip report. Can't do it tonight (well, maybe later) as I've promised my son I'd hang out with him watching the old <b>Pink Panther</b> movie. Thank you, Ira, your kind words absolutely make my day. :D Hi, Dina! Yes, I walked & walked. It really does help to get over the jetlag & to get acclimated to the new city & time. Thanks, luvparee! On average I took slightly less than 100 photos per day. Some of them were just informational photos for myself, historical plaques & street signs to remind me of where I was so not all of them will end up on the website. And some of the photos are cropped to delete extraneous detail but some I kept the people in to add the feel of the city or moment. I think my fave photo was the one of Sacré Cœur viewed up rue Briquet (which was the street I generally took to get back to my hostel). Klondike, thank you. I'm glad you liked the night ones. I love them, too. :) Especially the Hôtel les Degrés de Nôtre Dame, which is my fave hotel in all of Paris (more on that later). And the Nôtre Dame ones, too. The ones from the side look all ghostly while the ones taken from the front exhibit Our Lady in all her glory. Michel_Paris: "But I'm delighted to find that the mind is a little devil" :) I LOVE that movie and I think it has some of the best non-touristy scenes of Paris. Mathieu, thank you - you are so kind & sweet!! :) I just returned from the retino-vitreo specialist a few minutes before I started posting here. I'm now off the atropine (thank GOD!). When my iris didn't respond to the cycolgyl they put me on atropine, which basically dilates & freezes your iris, which creates a halo effect when in the sunlight (imagine me walking in the shadows during the sunny days in Paris but taking photos of the pretty day). The digital camera helped with what I was seeing. I could take a photo & then look at it to see the scene better. Anyway, although the doc says I have "persistent inflammation" it is responding & getting better. Man, it is a slow process, isn't it? This is my 3rd & worst bout yet. Lincasanova, thank you. It does my heart good to know you've forwarded them on to someone else. I hope the rest of the photos are equally worthy of sharing. :) Thanks, SeaUrchin! OH, StCirq, after all the wonderful photos you've shared with me I'm glad I'm finally able to share some decent photos with you. Wish I could've met up with you this trip. Oui, julies, I just got back Sunday. These photos were taken Saturday, Feb 4th. I, too, was shocked that there was a Christmas tree still up but I was also very thankful as I've never been to Paris during the holidays; this gave me just a peek into what it must be like. :D Oui, oui, JOjo! I saved the notes for myself & will use them to flesh out a trip report. Hopefully, it won't be too repititious for you. You may recall that I had a problem with my film being scanned at CDG when I was leaving last trip so too many of my photos were just ruined. I bought myself a digital this time & am glad I did. With this iritis thingy (and your husband has suffered bouts of it, too, hasn't he?) it was good to be able to see the shot once it was taken. Then I could either keep it or delete it. Best pre-trip purchase I've ever made. |
Great photos beatchick. Can't wait to see the rest of them. Keep them coming.
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Oh, as for the daffodils, I don't remember seeing them but for the last day; just that lone rose in the garden of the Musée Rodin. I recall, though, that there were easter flowers all over Paris during my 1st trip there which was in March, especially in the Square Jean XIII behind Nôtre Dame.
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Thank you so much, isabel!
I'm getting ready to post my trip report. Those who know me understand I can be a bit verbose. I don't apologize for this style as that's just the way I write. Some enjoy the details, others find it to be too cumbersome to read. For the latter, go ahead and skip over this one; I won't be offended. ;) |
<b>Beatchick's Perigrinations & Perambulations</b>
Saturday – Feb 4th It was wonderful to get back to Paris, my favorite city on the planet, the one that feels like home. The Delta flight over was great since I had a window seat along with 2 other free ones where I could stretch out & sleep the entire flight which is probably why I didn’t experience much jetlag. I made a nice plane discovery: the baby changing table in the bathroom makes a great makeup counter! I took the RER-B from CDG to Gare du Nord. As always, I had problems getting out of the airport with the simple task of buying an RER ticket – 2 long lines at the ticket machines (then I didn’t work) so I ended up at the extremely long line at the desks where I bought a month-long carte orange pass that came in handy for RER, Métro & bus. From Gare du Nord I walked up rue de Dunkerque to the place I was staying, Le Village Youth Hostel (20 rue d’Orsel in the 18th just up a block & around the corner from Anvers Métro). As I walked up rue Briquet (a little shortcut to bypass all the foot traffic on rue de Steinkerque) the most perfectly framed beautiful view of Sacré Cœur unexpectedly presented itself! Le Village is a nice youth hostel where I took a dorm room for 20€ per night. I’d never stayed in a youth hostel before and thought it would be an interesting experience and a good way to save some money. The principal draw was the internet access – the 30-minute internet cards bought at the front desk were only 2.50€, which I didn’t think was a bad price considering the convenience of having it downstairs and 24 hour access. I had promised my son to take photos of McDo against landmarks, so when I noticed a McDo on the walk to Montmartre I took a photo for him. Although it wasn’t near any landmarks, I loved the juxtaposition of it against the French chain Hippopotamus and felt like they were dueling national chains. The winter soldes were still going on so I popped into the Tati across from the youth hostel and bought by daughter a pretty sweater with knitted rose on it for just 4€. Once I dropped off my bags at le Village, I headed out to the Musée Rodin via the Varenne Métro station where I saw copies of Rodin’s famous Balzac & le Penseur. Only in Paris would they have copies of artwork in the Métro station! I’d been to the Rodin museum before with its great Camille Claudel artwork and the fabulous Kiss work but hadn’t spent much time in the gardens, so I eschewed the collection indoors to see the collection outside: the Thinker, Balzac, the ballerina (doesn’t she look like Camille Claudel?), another statue that didn’t have a title attached to it but I recognized the pose from the Camille Claudel movie, the harrowing Ugolino & his children group, the gallery where you see the Victor Hugo pieces, the impressive Gates of Hell (which incorporates the Thinker , the Burghers of Calais and other famous pieces into it), then the cool Burghers of Calais. In the garden was a lone rose struggling against the winter – it deserved to have its photo taken. I remembered the story of Ugolino from Dante’s Inferno which is such a sad tale: Ugolino is charged with treason & sentenced to die by starvation along with his children. In this Rodin piece, one of his children is dead and he is crawling away while his other children cling to him. I recognized seen one of the Victor Hugo busts which I’d seen in the Musée Victor Hugo last trip. That photo from last trip was a bit fuzzy so it was nice to take photos of the ones in the gallery. The best thing about the Burghers of Calais is that no matter from which perspective you look at it, at least one of the heads/faces cannot be seen, so you really must go all around it to appreciate it. Lunch was at Le Jardin de Varenne, a café in the garden offering inexpensive lunches. In the photo is what’s called the 4 choix salade: couscous, salade Niçoise, carrot salad & pasta salad (with its mayonnaise it tastes nothing like what we call pasta salad in the states, unless you wish to compare it to macaroni salad). My friend, Sandye, wanted one of those Saveur pots from Yoplait so I ate the yogurt I kept the container for her. My friend, Susan, had given me money to buy her a Cafés Richard cup & saucer for her; tried to buy it but they said no in a tone that suggested I was crazy for wanting such a thing! “That’s not possible here!” Price for le Jardin is 1€ and the cost of the headset was 4€ and worth the cost. From the Rodin I walked to Chapelle Nôtre Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse at 140 rue du Bac. Irreverent Frommer’s listed this place under “Unusual Religious Experiences” and indeed it is. As an American, it is odd to see the preserved body of a nun under glass even if she was disinterred with a miraculously untouched body. Because mass was underway I couldn’t get too close to take a photo; I used the zoom lens and got an unsteady fuzzy photo. I have a bit of arthritis so my hands shake sometimes when taking photos, so the best ones were taken when the camera was steadied on something. My friend, Sandye, had given me a shopping list and had requested some Hédiard confiture so I popped into Bon Marché’s Le Grand Epicerie to see if I could locate it. They didn’t have the specific kind she’d requested (passionfruit something) but I did get a lovely shot of the Gâteau Rose that she likes so well. I call this trip the Interdit Tour since so many places/people wouldn’t allow photos. Apparently, Le Grand Epicerie doesn’t allow photos of its displays so I was lucky to get 2 shots before they started yelling at me. I walked over to La Cigale Récamier at 4, rue Récamier and made 7pm reservations. Then it was off to find some literary, artistic & music haunts: James McNeill Whistler – 110 rue du Bac, 7th Cole & Linda Porter – 13 rue Monsieur, 7th Henry Miller – 2 rue Auguste-Bartholdi, 15th Village Suisse, 15th – antiques area Henry Miller credited Richard Galen Osborn with saving him from starvation. They lived in the last apartment. If you’ve seen the movie Henry & June then you’ll recognize Kevin Spacey playing the Osborn character; if you’ve seen De-Lovely then you’ll recognize the rue Monsieur building as the Porter’s home in Paris. Sally (SFowler/shrimp56) had told me about the original La Cigale restaurant at 11 bis rue Chomel (where I’d had lunch with StCirq back in 2003) but the original is now closed. I wanted to see if the new place was as nice as the old and it was. The food was excellent: kir vin blanc (4.50€), Côtes d’agneau grille (18.10€), soufflé vanilla with a coulis de fruits rouge (8.40€), café (2.40€) and .5 liter of Evian (3.35€). After dinner, I took the Métro to Place Maubert so that I could see one of my favorite squares in Paris, Square Restif de la Bretonne, where my favorite hotel in Paris sits. If you look at the photo of La Maison on the square, this is one of the sites in the 1995 movie, Sabrina. If you look closely during the scene where Sabrina sits at the café with the photographer in the background you can see the hotel. Because Nôtre Dame is one of my favorite churches in Paris, I had to walk around it taking different night photos of it. Then more photos of places I’d been to previously, like Shakespeare & Co., Café le Petit Pont, and Café Leffe which used to be called Café de la Bûcherie, a favorite of mine and Elaine’s. When I got back home that night I was too keyed up about being back in Paris, so I walked around Montmartre (which I’d never done at night) taking photos. Place du Tertre was blessedly deserted but I was saddened to see that the signature blue façade of Patachou was completely gone replaced by the red of the new Galerie Montmartre. Because I’d done some movie sites research of French Kiss I was eager to see the corner of rue Paul Albert & rue Feutrier where Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline had their argument over her money. I knew it would be a switchback street but it took me forever to find the location. But this is it; if you look up at rue Paul Albert this was the street they walked down, then at the corner is where Kate threw the money at Luc, then down rue Feutrier is where she walks off and gets lost in Paris. http://www.villagehostel.fr/hotel2.htm http://www.musee-rodin.fr/ http://www.chapellenotredamedelameda...raculeuse.com/ http://www.lebonmarche.fr/ http://www.shakespeareco.org/ http://www.panamcafe.com/ http://www.cafeleffe-notredame.com/ http://tinyurl.com/lk6zv http://lesdegreshotel.monsite.wanadoo.fr/ http://www.monum.fr/prehome/prehome.dml http://www.montmartrenet.com/home_page.php http://www.parisdigest.com/monument/placedutertre.htm |
Oh my, I didn't quite get that those pictures were all taken the first day until I started reading. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it; it must be bed time somewhere on some continent.
Glad to hear you're on the mend. Hoping to read all about your trip. |
Beatchick,
It makes me feel better to know others watch the background as much as the foreground when watching movies shot in Paris...I thought I was the only one!! What a fun day...now I will look again at the photos and put it more in place...Thank you for sharing.. |
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