Trip Report – My First Trip to Paris...I Can't Wait to Go Back!
May 11th, 2007, 05:25 AM
#41
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Hey, timetraveler, if you've already had some French in school, you'll probably blow through the Learn in Your Car beginner CDs pretty quick. The CDs were my first real attempt at learning French, so I went a little slower. Also, I only bought the beginner ones, but now I wish I'd bought the whole set. It was only about a few bucks more. I actually just found the second set on Amazon for only $15. I went ahead and bought it since I know we'll be going back!
May 11th, 2007, 06:45 AM
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Always a joy to read a "first time" report -- the awe inspiring sentiments come through loud and clear...and bring back such sweet feelings, that more jaded travelers' reports just can't evoke - no matter how good the information that is shared.
Do tell more.
Do tell more.
May 11th, 2007, 07:48 AM
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<I love history, art, gardens, and people-watching! Can you think of a better place to enjoy all those things than Paris? Oh, and FOOD! In fact, I'm the cook in our house >
DaveBrad...do you have any single brothers?
DaveBrad...do you have any single brothers?
May 11th, 2007, 10:17 AM
#44
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I love your report and enthusiasm. I think it is of great help for future first timers to hear the details of your experience.
You've even managed to make CDG sound cool rather than the hell I remember it to be. Thanks!
You've even managed to make CDG sound cool rather than the hell I remember it to be. Thanks!
May 13th, 2007, 07:07 PM
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DAY 2 – Tuesday, April 10, 2007
(Sorry this took so long…I was busy making sure my wife enjoyed her Mother’s Day!)
Try setting the alarm clock next time, dummy! Yeah, we got a late start, but hey, we were on vacation! ;-) Of course, we soon discovered that staying up all day your first day and getting out into the daylight doesn’t COMPLETELY reset your body clock. DC is six hours ahead of Paris and I figure the walk and stuff on Monday helped us sync up about four of ‘em. We tried to start the day by 9:00 each morning, but we couldn’t seem to get out of the room much before 11:00. By Friday, we just gave up and embraced our jet lag! Oh, well…
Anyway, this day we didn’t make it out until almost noon, so by the time we reached the Tuilleries (we figured we’d cut through there and give the gardens a chance to redeem themselves for the previous day’s dust!), it was lunchtime. Our Parisian friends were everywhere, sitting and enjoying their lunch in the sunshine…around the fountain, on the benches, and (oops!) on the grass! That’s a no-no! I took a great picture of folks sitting on a little concrete ledge in the grassy area chatting and eating. Not two minutes later, a nice young fellow with a band around his arm that read, “Securité” came along and politely chased them back behind the little chains! Ah, c’est la vie! Of course, I can really feel for them…the flowers were in bloom and all the good “off limit” spots were by the flower beds. In fact, les fleurs proved too tempting for a young American girl that we saw get chased when she crossed the line to get a close-up of the tulips and the hyacinths!
We made our way toward the Louvre, stopping to admire the Arc de Triomphe’s smaller cousin, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The horses on top are very striking. Interesting that the original horses were taken by Napoleon from Venice, but were returned after WWII. Now across to the Louvre courtyard for our first good look. It’s beautiful and I’m sorry, I think the pyramid works! We cut through one of the “breezeways” in the wing closest to the Seine and turn down the Quai de Louvre toward the Ile de la Cité. One of the things that impresses me most about the Louvre (aside from the fact that it’s massive!) is the amazing detail that went into its construction. I mean, every square foot of the outside of the building is either covered with statues (all around the interior of the courtyard) or some other form of decoration. On the Quai de Louvre, we passed what I would guess was a “back door” to one of the museum’s wings and even THAT was beautifully trimmed with gold, red, and blue paint and little carvings and things! My wife chided me when I stopped to take a picture of it, but I told her, “Have you ever seen a back door that pretty? Of course I’m taking a picture!”
We also enjoyed the bouquinistes selling their wares along the Seine. I saw some very cool antiques and posters I’d like to have brought home (we’d have needed a steamer trunk, of course), and it was fun to see the racks of comic books in French! Oh, and I had read that you could buy risqué postcards from these folks, but some of these things were positively RACY! Not that I’m complaining, mind you…my only complaint was that Lisa wouldn’t let me buy any! ;-)
Across to the Ile de la Cité for a visit to the turrets of the Conciergerie to see where Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, et. al., waited to meet the guillotine. The medieval architecture is amazing! Remember the old Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn? It reminded me of the big hall where they had the climactic fight scene! One detail in the guard room I thought was really cool…one of the columns in the room has a mark on it about four feet off the floor showing the level to which the Seine rose during a flood in the early 1900s. A young mother was there with her two children explaining this fact to them and they seemed completely shocked that the river could have reached that high! It was cute. Then, we went to the prison part and saw the recreation of Marie’s cell. Okay, I mean no disrespect by this, but am I the only person who thinks the mannequins are pretty cheesy? Show the room, fine, but do we need the dummies in the uniforms standing over poor Marie? And, yes, we do stuff like that here in the states and you know what, it’s cheesy here, too. We enjoyed the rest of the building, especially the chapel and the stories of Robespierre and the last banquet of les Girondins.
From here we went next door to Sainte Chapelle. There was a lot of scaffolding up so we didn’t get to see everything, but my wife, who had visited here about 10 years ago, said that many of the wall coverings and windows in the lower chapel had really deteriorated, so I guess it needs a good facelift. I’m tempted to go into lengthy descriptions of how beautiful Ste. Chapelle is, but you just have to see it. You enter the lower chapel where the servants worshipped and see the midnight blue ceiling decorated with thousands of gold stars and think, “Wow.” But, then you go up to the main chapel and see those amazing walls of stained glass and think, “WOW!” I took a dozen pictures, but none of them captures what it’s like to stand there and be surrounded by the colored light and the statues and the art and the history. And, again, the recurring theme of “detail,” from beautifully painted individual columns to little stone angels by the door to intricate patterns carved into the stone walls outside. Ste. Chapelle defines “breathtaking.”
After eavesdropping on a British tour group, we stroll through the Square du Vert Gallant at the “prow” of the island, looking back upriver toward the Louvre. This is a pretty little park and would have been a great place to relax, but we’re running behind schedule so we decide to head over to the Left Bank and the Cluny museum, via the Place St. Michél. They do like the Archangel Michael in Paris! I’m pretty sure we saw him slaying that serpent in at least six different places! We turn up one of our first real, narrow Parisian streets and see the dome of the Sorbonne above the buildings! Cool! We’re starved, so we stop for a crepe at one of the stands. I opt for the sugar and butter version and I’m not disappointed…it’s delicious. WARNING! When you get to the bottom of these things, they tend to get drippy…I wound up with sugar butter drizzled all over my shirt and pants! Fortunately, it sort of crystallized instead of soaking in so my wife was able to scrape most of it off. Of course, I felt like a little kid standing on the street and having his mommy clean him up! That’s okay, though…we’re going to the cool Cluny museum, so that’ll cheer me up.
We walk around the Cluny and see the ruins of the old Roman baths from the street. I’ve been looking forward to this and I am really jacked about seeing something that was built nearly 2,000 years ago! We walk up to the entrance and attempt to open the door. Uh oh…it’s locked. It seems when I checked the listing for the Cluny in “Paris Made Easy,” I missed where it said, “CLOSED TUESDAY!” SIGH…
Skunked by the Cluny and covered in crepe drippings…this day is NOT going as I had planned. But, my wife comes to the rescue when she says, “Okay, okay…where are we?” “The Left Bank,” I tell her, with just a hint of frustration in my voice, “not far from the Sorbonne.” “Well, the Luxembourg Gardens are right near here somewhere…let’s go see that!” She’s a genius, my wife…a few blocks later we’re just across the street from the Jardin du Luxembourg, something I’ve really been looking forward to. But wait…we’re standing right in front of a little “sweet” shop, so we decide to go in and check it out. It smells wonderful and the treats look amazing, especially the bins filled with assorted miniature Easter chocolates. I want to ask for a small assortment, but I’m not exactly sure how to do it and I’m not very confident with my French just yet. So I try, “Parlez vous Anglais?” In response, I got my only, “Non,” of the entire trip. Okay…it’s not my day. But, from somewhere I get a little spark of courage and I decide to forge ahead. I stammer, “Oh…uh, well…je voudrais…uh…un petit, uh…” while waving my hand over the bins of chocolate. This was when I confirmed what many Fodorites had said before the trip…that the Parisians really do appreciate it if you at least try to speak the language. As soon as I gave it a try, I caught her smiling a little and she finished my sentence with, “Un petit sac?” “Oui, oui! Un petit sac!” For some reason, I couldn’t come up with asking for a little bag, but the nice lady came through for me and, of course, she already had some little bags with assorted chocolates behind the counter! She was happy, I was happy, and our day had turned around!
So, into the Jardin du Luxembourg. We entered near the Fontaine de Medici, which is quite beautiful in its shaded grove. It’s about 5:00 in the evening and we learn that Parisians don’t go home and plop down in front of the television after work…they head for the nearest park (these folks are lucky to live near the Luxembourg). They relax around the fountains in lawn chairs provided by the city (in DC, these would be long gone!) or on park benches. They read the newspaper, chat with friends, or watch their kids sail boats across the huge fountain they call the “boat lake.” Enjoying the real world at the end of the day instead of disappearing into the TV and avoiding it…what an extraordinary concept! I like it! We’ll be doing more of it from now on! By the way, watching the children track their rented boats across the boat lake, capture them with their long sticks (batons), and then push them back across was very entertaining! One little boy nearly climbed over my wife to get to his bateau, much to his mother’s chagrin! We assured her it was “pas de probléme.”
We move on toward another part of the park with more statues and hyacinths and flowering trees. One statue in particular catches my eye…the Statue of Liberty! Well, a miniature version that was a gift from the sculptor. I guess every American feels a little tinge of pride when they see this, but just to the right of the statue is a plaque that makes me feel some even stronger emotions. On the ground in front of a very young oak tree, it says, in English, that this tree was planted in early 2002 by a society of Americans living in Paris in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. It was very poignant and very much appreciated.
Serendipity leads us to our next destination as we wander toward the nearest gate leading out of the gardens and Lisa asks, “What’s that tower over there?” It’s the church of St. Sulpice and, having read “The DaVinci Code” and seen the movie, this was definitely on our must-see list. We are not disappointed! First, it’s amazing just to be in a church this old and know that people still come here to attend mass every day. Add to that the spectacular architecture, the diversity of the many chapels surrounding the main worship space, and the beautiful works of art, and this becomes a truly awesome experience. The Delacroix chapel alone (there’s St. Michael pummeling that serpent again!) is worth the visit, and the marble holy water fonts by Pigalle that look like huge seashells are wonderful, but then we see the “Rose Line” and things get interesting. We follow it (just like in the movie!) over to the obelisk with its inscriptions and markings and it does make you wonder why this is in a church. Then, you read the descriptions and find out that it’s actually a meridian line used to track the sun’s progress. It was commissioned by the pastor back in the early 1700s so they could pinpoint the exact date of Easter (which is actually determined by the Jewish calendar). In fact, they’ve gone to the trouble of posting signs in English, French, and German that basically say Dan Brown is full of it! Pretty funny.
As we continue around behind the altar, though, we come to one of the highlights of our entire trip…the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin. It’s hushed back here and the candles and the people praying and the design and the art all draws you in toward the focal point of the chapel, a statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus and surrounded by billowing “clouds” sculpted from plaster of Paris. The statue itself is beautiful, but it’s bathed in this amazing golden light that really makes it seem…well, heavenly! I read later in the guidebook we bought that there had been a solid silver statue in the chapel, but it “disappeared” during the revolution. Apparently, the pastor at the time had collected silverware from all of his parishioners to be melted down for the statue, so the parishioners called it “Our Lady of the Old Tableware!” This made me laugh out loud! The current statue, also by Pigalle, is marble. Anyway, it was a very peaceful place for us to sit awhile and collect our thoughts, until we both started to think about how hungry we were!
It was about 7:00 when we left the church, so we were pretty famished. This time my planning paid off, as I had remembered to put the Mapquest maps I’d printed out in my backpack. One of them showed the location of the Brasserie Lipp, which I had read about (Hemingway wrote most of “A Farewell to Arms” here) and really wanted to try. Lo and behold, it was just a short walk. Would we get a table at 7:00 pm? How about one right at the front window! Lisa enjoys a nice cold chicken and salad plate while I order a large Biere Lipp (I love a good microbrew!) and feast on the Choucroute Lipp, which is basically sauerkraut that’s been cooking for hours, with sausages and a huge hamhock that was cooked in the sauerkraut! The ham is the best I’ve ever tasted and with a little of the tangy mustard, I’m in hog heaven (literally)! We have profiteroles for dessert, which are also a house specialty here. Puff pastry filled with vanilla ice cream and swimming in molten chocolate sauce. My wife quickly changes her mind about not wanting dessert! It was a very special Paris experience.
We waddle out the door and look around, taking in the scenery. The Café Flore and Les Deux Magots just across the street and St. Germain just a block up from there. Again, wow. We head back to the right bank via the Pont des Arts, listening to the street musicians and taking in the groups of young people gathering to enjoy their wine and picnic dinners. It looks like fun and I’d very much like to join them on our next trip. But now, it’s time to hit the rack and rest up for tomorrow, because we’ve got some catching up to do.
Tomorrow…Day 3: Guerilla Tourism, or How Many Museums Can You Actually See in One Day?!
(Sorry this took so long…I was busy making sure my wife enjoyed her Mother’s Day!)
Try setting the alarm clock next time, dummy! Yeah, we got a late start, but hey, we were on vacation! ;-) Of course, we soon discovered that staying up all day your first day and getting out into the daylight doesn’t COMPLETELY reset your body clock. DC is six hours ahead of Paris and I figure the walk and stuff on Monday helped us sync up about four of ‘em. We tried to start the day by 9:00 each morning, but we couldn’t seem to get out of the room much before 11:00. By Friday, we just gave up and embraced our jet lag! Oh, well…
Anyway, this day we didn’t make it out until almost noon, so by the time we reached the Tuilleries (we figured we’d cut through there and give the gardens a chance to redeem themselves for the previous day’s dust!), it was lunchtime. Our Parisian friends were everywhere, sitting and enjoying their lunch in the sunshine…around the fountain, on the benches, and (oops!) on the grass! That’s a no-no! I took a great picture of folks sitting on a little concrete ledge in the grassy area chatting and eating. Not two minutes later, a nice young fellow with a band around his arm that read, “Securité” came along and politely chased them back behind the little chains! Ah, c’est la vie! Of course, I can really feel for them…the flowers were in bloom and all the good “off limit” spots were by the flower beds. In fact, les fleurs proved too tempting for a young American girl that we saw get chased when she crossed the line to get a close-up of the tulips and the hyacinths!
We made our way toward the Louvre, stopping to admire the Arc de Triomphe’s smaller cousin, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The horses on top are very striking. Interesting that the original horses were taken by Napoleon from Venice, but were returned after WWII. Now across to the Louvre courtyard for our first good look. It’s beautiful and I’m sorry, I think the pyramid works! We cut through one of the “breezeways” in the wing closest to the Seine and turn down the Quai de Louvre toward the Ile de la Cité. One of the things that impresses me most about the Louvre (aside from the fact that it’s massive!) is the amazing detail that went into its construction. I mean, every square foot of the outside of the building is either covered with statues (all around the interior of the courtyard) or some other form of decoration. On the Quai de Louvre, we passed what I would guess was a “back door” to one of the museum’s wings and even THAT was beautifully trimmed with gold, red, and blue paint and little carvings and things! My wife chided me when I stopped to take a picture of it, but I told her, “Have you ever seen a back door that pretty? Of course I’m taking a picture!”
We also enjoyed the bouquinistes selling their wares along the Seine. I saw some very cool antiques and posters I’d like to have brought home (we’d have needed a steamer trunk, of course), and it was fun to see the racks of comic books in French! Oh, and I had read that you could buy risqué postcards from these folks, but some of these things were positively RACY! Not that I’m complaining, mind you…my only complaint was that Lisa wouldn’t let me buy any! ;-)
Across to the Ile de la Cité for a visit to the turrets of the Conciergerie to see where Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, et. al., waited to meet the guillotine. The medieval architecture is amazing! Remember the old Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn? It reminded me of the big hall where they had the climactic fight scene! One detail in the guard room I thought was really cool…one of the columns in the room has a mark on it about four feet off the floor showing the level to which the Seine rose during a flood in the early 1900s. A young mother was there with her two children explaining this fact to them and they seemed completely shocked that the river could have reached that high! It was cute. Then, we went to the prison part and saw the recreation of Marie’s cell. Okay, I mean no disrespect by this, but am I the only person who thinks the mannequins are pretty cheesy? Show the room, fine, but do we need the dummies in the uniforms standing over poor Marie? And, yes, we do stuff like that here in the states and you know what, it’s cheesy here, too. We enjoyed the rest of the building, especially the chapel and the stories of Robespierre and the last banquet of les Girondins.
From here we went next door to Sainte Chapelle. There was a lot of scaffolding up so we didn’t get to see everything, but my wife, who had visited here about 10 years ago, said that many of the wall coverings and windows in the lower chapel had really deteriorated, so I guess it needs a good facelift. I’m tempted to go into lengthy descriptions of how beautiful Ste. Chapelle is, but you just have to see it. You enter the lower chapel where the servants worshipped and see the midnight blue ceiling decorated with thousands of gold stars and think, “Wow.” But, then you go up to the main chapel and see those amazing walls of stained glass and think, “WOW!” I took a dozen pictures, but none of them captures what it’s like to stand there and be surrounded by the colored light and the statues and the art and the history. And, again, the recurring theme of “detail,” from beautifully painted individual columns to little stone angels by the door to intricate patterns carved into the stone walls outside. Ste. Chapelle defines “breathtaking.”
After eavesdropping on a British tour group, we stroll through the Square du Vert Gallant at the “prow” of the island, looking back upriver toward the Louvre. This is a pretty little park and would have been a great place to relax, but we’re running behind schedule so we decide to head over to the Left Bank and the Cluny museum, via the Place St. Michél. They do like the Archangel Michael in Paris! I’m pretty sure we saw him slaying that serpent in at least six different places! We turn up one of our first real, narrow Parisian streets and see the dome of the Sorbonne above the buildings! Cool! We’re starved, so we stop for a crepe at one of the stands. I opt for the sugar and butter version and I’m not disappointed…it’s delicious. WARNING! When you get to the bottom of these things, they tend to get drippy…I wound up with sugar butter drizzled all over my shirt and pants! Fortunately, it sort of crystallized instead of soaking in so my wife was able to scrape most of it off. Of course, I felt like a little kid standing on the street and having his mommy clean him up! That’s okay, though…we’re going to the cool Cluny museum, so that’ll cheer me up.
We walk around the Cluny and see the ruins of the old Roman baths from the street. I’ve been looking forward to this and I am really jacked about seeing something that was built nearly 2,000 years ago! We walk up to the entrance and attempt to open the door. Uh oh…it’s locked. It seems when I checked the listing for the Cluny in “Paris Made Easy,” I missed where it said, “CLOSED TUESDAY!” SIGH…
Skunked by the Cluny and covered in crepe drippings…this day is NOT going as I had planned. But, my wife comes to the rescue when she says, “Okay, okay…where are we?” “The Left Bank,” I tell her, with just a hint of frustration in my voice, “not far from the Sorbonne.” “Well, the Luxembourg Gardens are right near here somewhere…let’s go see that!” She’s a genius, my wife…a few blocks later we’re just across the street from the Jardin du Luxembourg, something I’ve really been looking forward to. But wait…we’re standing right in front of a little “sweet” shop, so we decide to go in and check it out. It smells wonderful and the treats look amazing, especially the bins filled with assorted miniature Easter chocolates. I want to ask for a small assortment, but I’m not exactly sure how to do it and I’m not very confident with my French just yet. So I try, “Parlez vous Anglais?” In response, I got my only, “Non,” of the entire trip. Okay…it’s not my day. But, from somewhere I get a little spark of courage and I decide to forge ahead. I stammer, “Oh…uh, well…je voudrais…uh…un petit, uh…” while waving my hand over the bins of chocolate. This was when I confirmed what many Fodorites had said before the trip…that the Parisians really do appreciate it if you at least try to speak the language. As soon as I gave it a try, I caught her smiling a little and she finished my sentence with, “Un petit sac?” “Oui, oui! Un petit sac!” For some reason, I couldn’t come up with asking for a little bag, but the nice lady came through for me and, of course, she already had some little bags with assorted chocolates behind the counter! She was happy, I was happy, and our day had turned around!
So, into the Jardin du Luxembourg. We entered near the Fontaine de Medici, which is quite beautiful in its shaded grove. It’s about 5:00 in the evening and we learn that Parisians don’t go home and plop down in front of the television after work…they head for the nearest park (these folks are lucky to live near the Luxembourg). They relax around the fountains in lawn chairs provided by the city (in DC, these would be long gone!) or on park benches. They read the newspaper, chat with friends, or watch their kids sail boats across the huge fountain they call the “boat lake.” Enjoying the real world at the end of the day instead of disappearing into the TV and avoiding it…what an extraordinary concept! I like it! We’ll be doing more of it from now on! By the way, watching the children track their rented boats across the boat lake, capture them with their long sticks (batons), and then push them back across was very entertaining! One little boy nearly climbed over my wife to get to his bateau, much to his mother’s chagrin! We assured her it was “pas de probléme.”
We move on toward another part of the park with more statues and hyacinths and flowering trees. One statue in particular catches my eye…the Statue of Liberty! Well, a miniature version that was a gift from the sculptor. I guess every American feels a little tinge of pride when they see this, but just to the right of the statue is a plaque that makes me feel some even stronger emotions. On the ground in front of a very young oak tree, it says, in English, that this tree was planted in early 2002 by a society of Americans living in Paris in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. It was very poignant and very much appreciated.
Serendipity leads us to our next destination as we wander toward the nearest gate leading out of the gardens and Lisa asks, “What’s that tower over there?” It’s the church of St. Sulpice and, having read “The DaVinci Code” and seen the movie, this was definitely on our must-see list. We are not disappointed! First, it’s amazing just to be in a church this old and know that people still come here to attend mass every day. Add to that the spectacular architecture, the diversity of the many chapels surrounding the main worship space, and the beautiful works of art, and this becomes a truly awesome experience. The Delacroix chapel alone (there’s St. Michael pummeling that serpent again!) is worth the visit, and the marble holy water fonts by Pigalle that look like huge seashells are wonderful, but then we see the “Rose Line” and things get interesting. We follow it (just like in the movie!) over to the obelisk with its inscriptions and markings and it does make you wonder why this is in a church. Then, you read the descriptions and find out that it’s actually a meridian line used to track the sun’s progress. It was commissioned by the pastor back in the early 1700s so they could pinpoint the exact date of Easter (which is actually determined by the Jewish calendar). In fact, they’ve gone to the trouble of posting signs in English, French, and German that basically say Dan Brown is full of it! Pretty funny.
As we continue around behind the altar, though, we come to one of the highlights of our entire trip…the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin. It’s hushed back here and the candles and the people praying and the design and the art all draws you in toward the focal point of the chapel, a statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus and surrounded by billowing “clouds” sculpted from plaster of Paris. The statue itself is beautiful, but it’s bathed in this amazing golden light that really makes it seem…well, heavenly! I read later in the guidebook we bought that there had been a solid silver statue in the chapel, but it “disappeared” during the revolution. Apparently, the pastor at the time had collected silverware from all of his parishioners to be melted down for the statue, so the parishioners called it “Our Lady of the Old Tableware!” This made me laugh out loud! The current statue, also by Pigalle, is marble. Anyway, it was a very peaceful place for us to sit awhile and collect our thoughts, until we both started to think about how hungry we were!
It was about 7:00 when we left the church, so we were pretty famished. This time my planning paid off, as I had remembered to put the Mapquest maps I’d printed out in my backpack. One of them showed the location of the Brasserie Lipp, which I had read about (Hemingway wrote most of “A Farewell to Arms” here) and really wanted to try. Lo and behold, it was just a short walk. Would we get a table at 7:00 pm? How about one right at the front window! Lisa enjoys a nice cold chicken and salad plate while I order a large Biere Lipp (I love a good microbrew!) and feast on the Choucroute Lipp, which is basically sauerkraut that’s been cooking for hours, with sausages and a huge hamhock that was cooked in the sauerkraut! The ham is the best I’ve ever tasted and with a little of the tangy mustard, I’m in hog heaven (literally)! We have profiteroles for dessert, which are also a house specialty here. Puff pastry filled with vanilla ice cream and swimming in molten chocolate sauce. My wife quickly changes her mind about not wanting dessert! It was a very special Paris experience.
We waddle out the door and look around, taking in the scenery. The Café Flore and Les Deux Magots just across the street and St. Germain just a block up from there. Again, wow. We head back to the right bank via the Pont des Arts, listening to the street musicians and taking in the groups of young people gathering to enjoy their wine and picnic dinners. It looks like fun and I’d very much like to join them on our next trip. But now, it’s time to hit the rack and rest up for tomorrow, because we’ve got some catching up to do.
Tomorrow…Day 3: Guerilla Tourism, or How Many Museums Can You Actually See in One Day?!
May 13th, 2007, 08:34 PM
#50
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Dave, your report has been so wonderful & charming that I've had to stop reading and turn away. WAH!!! It makes me want to go back even MORE!
I want to be covered in crepe drippings, darn it!!
I want to be covered in crepe drippings, darn it!!
May 14th, 2007, 12:08 AM
#52
First time Paris trip reports are splendid, and this one is no exception. So nice to see people discovering things instead of writing about "going back to my favorite café near bla bla..."
May 14th, 2007, 06:46 AM
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Loving every word!! This is one I'm printing out and taking with me my next trip to Paris (which hopefully will be within 12 months or less!!). Again, your enthusiasm is so fun and I, too, would love to be at O'Hare right now ready to get on a plane to my favorite place on the planet!!
I am so enjoying!!
joy/luvparee
Keeping them coming!
I am so enjoying!!
joy/luvparee
Keeping them coming!
May 14th, 2007, 11:06 AM
#54
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DAY 3 – Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Okay, this is going to be a marathon day, so we try to get up and out early…but, you know how that turned out! Hey, at least we got out the door by 10:45 today! We stop to get water at a souvenir shop on Rue de Rivoli before heading over to the Eiffel Tower and, since there’s a taxi stand right in front of the shop, we decide to grab a cab over to the Trocadero. We cross the street and get our first close look at the tower, and it’s a beauty! For such a massive structure, it seems so graceful to me…the angles balanced by the gentle curve of the four “feet” supporting it. Not to mention the fact that the trees around it are just beginning to sprout their spring leaves and blossoms, so it’s framed by some of nature’s best art as we admire it. I got some good photos here.
As we notice the crowds, a little of the magic starts to wear off. Okay, it’s definitely spring break week…the lines for the elevators are STAGGERING! It turns out Rick Steves is right when he suggests that, if you want to go to the top during the day, you’d better get in line like an hour before it opens! Who has time to blow at least half a day waiting in lines like this?! I’m guessing people who get more vacation days than I do! It’s at this point that I ask myself if I REALLY need to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower today. I don’t think so. I’m enjoying it from right here and we’re going to walk up to the Palais Chaillot and get the great view of it from up there, so that’s good for now. We decide we’ll come back again one night this week, watch the lightshow, and see if we can get up to the top before it closes.
It’s a healthy climb up past the Trocadero fountains to the Palais Chaillot and those rows of gold statues on either side of the central plaza. I had seen these in so many tour books and it was really cool to be standing here now. They’re striking…the seem so delicate, and this provides another great photo op. We’re enjoying this, but I’m still a little annoyed about not getting up to the tower. Again, my wife comes through. She reminds me that I wanted to see the Musee de Marine (included on Museum Pass) which is here in the Palais, so off we go. I had read on Fodors that this one’s an unexpected treat, and again they were right. Some very cool displays of ship models (which I loved!), the decoration from Louis XIV’s galleon, Napoleon’s imperial barge, and a really fun exhibit of toy boats which filled the whole lower floor! As we make our way out to the gift shop, one more exhibit catches my eye. I love lighthouses, and there’s an old Fresnel lighthouse lens on display! Of course…Mr. Fresnel, whose lens design revolutionized lighthouse construction, was a Frenchman! It’s goofy, I know, but I thought this was cool! And, the gift shop was really nice, too. Lisa buys a silly little plastic windup swimmer bathtub toy that absolutely makes her day!
We’re only a couple of Metro stops from the Marmottan Monet museum, and I love impressionist art, so we decide to go for it. The Trocadero station is a good place to buy our carnets…nice and big with a couple of cashier windows. I was kind of expecting a “book” of some kind, but basically the guy just hands me 20 tickets, which is fine. They’re smaller than I expected, too…like what you’d use for a carnival ride! Anyway, we secure our bags, purses, wallets, etc. (thanks to all the horror stories I’d read, I was on high pickpocket alert!) and head through the turnstile, which works almost exactly like ours here in DC (except these also have big swinging doors that remind me of an old West saloon!). Our first couple of rides, we don’t have to flip the door handles to get on and off the trains since someone is always getting on and off with us, but it seems pretty straightforward…I just don’t want to forget and accidentally walk into the doors trying to get off. Now, that would be embarrassing! Also, this first ride up to La Muette is when we got serenaded by the accordionist, and it was very special.
The Marmottan is in a lovely mansion a couple of blocks from the La Muette station. It’s not included on the museum pass, but for 8 Euros each, it’s a bargain. I have to check my small backpack and my camera, which makes me a little uncomfortable (not that these folks aren’t trustworthy), so I’m glad I bought a little combo lock for my backpack. Of course, there was no problem, but you never know. Anyway, this is the part I’ve been waiting for! Before taking the stairs down to the main gallery, we stop to read a bit about Monet’s life and look at his palette, which is on display next to a couple of his earlier works. For someone who loves Monet’s work as much as I do, this is pretty exciting! It’s like seeing Babe Ruth’s bat or Wayne Gretzky’s hockey stick (of course, all I can come up with are sports analogies, but you know what I mean)! Then, down to the gallery. First, some very humorous caricatures that Monet did when he was just starting out. Then, paintings of a fairly young Claude and his wife by Renoir. Then, a tremendous collection including “Impression: Sunrise,” which some cite as the very first real impressionist work. I am loving this! You know, you can admire prints of great art all day long, but there is nothing like actually seeing the swirls and “blobs” of paint on the canvas. The texture brings them to life, and Monet’s paintings always seem to have some much depth and “motion”…it’s like you can actually see the lily pond shimmering in the sun. We stop at the gift shop where Lisa picks up a cute children’s book for her niece about a family of frogs that live in Monet’s lily pond and think Monet is really painting them! I get some postcards so I’ll remember what prints I want to order from art.com! If you love Monet, put this one on your list for sure. And, don’t be discouraged by some of the guide books that list this as “off the beaten path.” It’s a very quick ride from Eiffel Tower and worth the ticket!
From here we head back to the Metro and catch the train to the Ecole Militaire station since we want to see the Invalides. We walk past the schools of Artillery and Cavalry which are decorated with sculptured reliefs of big, screaming faces! We need some fuel, so we stop into a little sandwich shop and get our first jambon et fromage. As I said before, when they get done toasting these babies in the sandwich press, they’re food for the gods (and goddesses, of course)! And, I’m serious…Coke Zero here just tastes like Diet Coke, but there it tastes like real Coke! Can we please get their taste guys to talk to our taste guys?! We sit in the little park just outside the entrance to the Eglise du Dome and enjoy our lunch and another perfect day. Then, we head inside.
It’s a little more “conventional” inside than, say, the Conciergerie, but still very striking. The inside of the dome features a beautiful painting and the tombs of military leaders are very interesting, especially Marshall Foch’s with the statues of WWI-era French soldiers bearing his casket on their shoulders. But, of course we’re here to see the big guy (well, actually the little guy, I guess)! We look down from the balcony of the rotunda and there’s Napoleon’s massive sarcophagus. I’d like a closer look and I think Lisa’s eyes are starting to glaze over just a bit, so we walk over toward the altar, which soars toward the ceiling and is decorated with lots of gold. The entrance to Napoleon’s crypt is in the back of the altar, guarded by two massive statues with an inscription over it that basically reads, “All I want is for my remains to rest by the banks of the Seine, near my people who loved me.” I had to smile at that one…nothing like having a healthy self-image! Down below, it’s a Napoleon love-fest! Huge angel statues ring the sarcophagus and the walls of the corridor are lined with marble reliefs describing Napoleon’s contributions to France and depicting him as, among other things, a Roman emperor and an Egyptian pharaoh! I must admit, it’s all pretty impressive, but now we’re ready for some more art so we head out past the courtyard of the Musee Armee, stopping just before we exit the main gate to look at some 17th century ceremonial cannons that were fired by the “invalid” soldiers who lived at the hospital any time the king or queen past nearby. Okay, I stopped to look at them…Lisa had had enough military stuff and she was waiting for me out on the street!
Next stop is the Rodin Museum, again covered by the Museum Pass. I was looking forward to this and, as it turned out, this is one that I’ll want to visit every time we return to Paris. First, I love the sprawling grounds and the gardens and the fountains. I also think it’s cool that they have a row of statues off to one side of the garden just for aspiring artists to come and paint or sketch! Of course, Rodin’s art is why we’re here, and his works are more amazing than I could have imagined. And, I love the way they’re displayed! The Thinker in his own little square surrounded by well-manicured trees and shrubs. The Gates of Hell against a plain, white wall as if it might actually BE the entrance to eternal damnation! The statue of Balzac situated so you can get a great picture of him with the dome of the Invalides in the background. But, my favorite is the Burghers of Calais. The Thinker is inspiring and The Gates of Hell is a little disturbing, but this piece is really moving. I have never seen true, raw emotion captured so thoroughly before in any work of art. The faces, the gestures and the poses really make you feel the despair that these men must have felt as they walked to certain death. Of course, I love that the story winds up having a happy ending as England’s Queen Philippa asks King Edward to pardon such brave men, and he does. But, you wouldn’t know a happy ending is coming by looking at this amazing piece. Inside the museum building itself are more surprises, as I guess I didn’t realize that Rodin was also an accomplished painter. And, here is The Kiss, which is really beautiful and erotic, in a soft, romantic sort of way. We also loved The Hand of God, The Age of Bronze, and Fugit Amor. And, the room devoted to Camille Claudel was wonderful, too.
When we’ve finally had our fill of Rodin, it’s time to for another dose of Monet at the Orangerie! We decide to walk there via Rue de Borgogne, and I am so glad we did! I don’t remember reading about this market street, but it’s peaceful and cheerful all at the same time! And, the shops look wonderful. I wish we could stop at them all and assemble our own little picnic, but we only linger long enough to pick up our next candidate for “Best Éclair in Paris” at the patisserie. You can bet, though, that Rue de Borgogne is on my list of places that we need to come back to and stay longer at next time we’re here. And, since we’ll be coming back to the Rodin again, that works out well!
Lisa has really been looking forward to the Orangerie and so have I (of course!). The exterior of the building is simple and classic and the long renovations have really paid off. Inside, we again flash our Museum Passes and proceed to Monet’s lilies. Much like Ste. Chapelle, I could write lengthy descriptions here, but you just have to go see it for yourself. A couple of things that struck me, besides the absolutely incredible beauty of Monet’s work on not just one 25-foot-long by 6-foot-high canvas, but EIGHT of them! First, the lighting in these rooms is absolutely perfect…it truly seems to make the ponds shimmer and the lilies sway in the water. I also love that you can take pictures here! You can’t use a flash, of course, but you don’t need it! Another thing is the atmosphere…the rooms feel “relaxed” somehow, and you can tell that the other people here feel it, too. You’re filled with reverence for the art, but it also just makes you happy. One of the funniest things we saw was a family who I think was from Montreal (at least that’s what the patch on the young father’s backpack said) admiring the paintings. The dad was taking pictures of his daughters in front of one of the canvases and, after getting the cursory shot of the two of them standing side-by-side, the older girl moved aside and the younger one (maybe she was eight or nine) leaned to one side and mimed like she was swimming in the pond! The dad could barely take the picture because he was shaking with laughter, as were the rest of us in the room who saw this! I think Claude would have enjoyed that little scene, too, and it would have made him happy to know that a new generation was learning you don’t have to be rich or stuffy to admire great art…it can be fun, too!
Well, it’s almost 7:00 pm now…should we get something to eat? Actually, Lisa’s just dying for her Starbucks peppermint soy hot chocolate (yeah, I know…Starbucks in Paris?) and before the trip she had already scoped one out that’s supposed to be in the Carrousel mall under the Louvre, so we head over there, collecting some more Tuillieries Dust along the way! Hey, the Louvre’s open late tonight! One more museum? Can we do it? Only if we can find Starbucks! It’s not in the mall…oh, well, let’s just go on into the Louvre. After flashing the Museum Pass again, we head through the security screening and THERE IT IS! No, not the Mona Lisa…THE STARBUCKS! I thought Lisa would cry! Sadly, they didn’t have peppermint, but she was fine with just her soy hot chocolate. She’s not lactose intolerant, by the way…she just likes it better with the soy milk! An iced grande Americano for me and NOW we’ve got the energy to at least hit “the big ones” in the Louvre.
First, I wanted to see the archaeological exhibit of the old foundation of the fortifications on which the Louvre was built, but we can’t use our passes for that because it’s not a “permanent” exhibit. I had to laugh about this. I mean, what could be more permanent than walls that were built 900 YEARS AGO?! Oh, well…I’m too tired to argue, plus my French would never hold up! So, we head to the Denon Wing, first taking in some Roman sculpture and some of the beautiful architecture of the building itself. Then, up the long staircase with Winged Victory at the top. You can take the elevator directly to that floor, but I recommend the escalators to the floor below so you can do this walk…it’s really beautiful. Winged Victory is intriguing, but I’m more interested in seeing the Venus De Milo, so we head over there. She is quite beautiful…too bad about the arms, though. ;-) I did think it was funny that, just in case you weren’t sure, they’ve placed a large, pull up vinyl sign behind the statue that says, “Le Venus De Milo.” OH, so THAT’S what it is! Okay, please keep in mind we’re fast approaching goofy tired at this point, so things that might not have ordinarily been amusing seemed to tickle us. Okay, well, bye, Venus…we have to go see Mona now.
On the way to the hall where the Mona Lisa is located, we stop into the Apollo Room, which must have been one of the salons in the old Louvre Palace. It was beautifully restored to look like it must have in the 17th century and it was filled with wonderful paintings and exhibits of jewelry, ceramics, and other items, as well as some of the crowns and jewels worn by past monarchs! Definitely worth the detour. Then down the grand hall and into the salon where we find the Mona Lisa. I’m glad we came in the evening…this room is fairly full, but I’ll bet it’s really packed during the day. We’re able to move up to the rope very quickly to get a better look at Mona. I’ve heard some people say this is a bit anti-climactic, but I don’t think so. Yes, it’s smaller than you might expect, but you can see that this really is a special piece of art and it’s just amazing to be standing this close to it! Plus, in person I think she’s quite beautiful! We admire her for a few minutes, then turn to leave and are taken aback by the massive painting of The Wedding Feast at Cana…now, THIS is impressive! A few more minutes of admiring and we’re off. We explore a little more on our way out, stopping in a salon where there are a lot of religious works, especially highlighting Mary and Jesus. Many of them look like tiles or parts of walls that have come from old churches and they’re very beautiful.
Okay, now we’re done, cooked, wiped out...soreness spreading to every extremity! But, we’re also starved. We circle the Marché St. Honoré, but every place looks pretty full, so we stop at the modest little Café Coupe D’Or about two blocks from our hotel. It’s nothing fancy, but it does have a table available outside and they sell beer by the LITRE! That’s all I need to know, really. We enjoy some nice, simple salads (mine includes some delicious steamed crawfish), split a croque monsieur and some frites, and get our picture taken by our very entertaining waiter whose English is excellent (which is a good thing because I’m so tired right now I can’t remember any French except mercí and bonsoirs).
Before I close out Day 3, one more observation…I noticed today that my wife, who is in fact adorable, got checked out SEVERAL times by both younger AND older men! This didn’t bother me, mind you…I just thought it was interesting that they made no attempt whatsoever to hide it! I guess Frenchmen just aren’t ashamed to admire a beautiful woman, and why should they be, really? Of course, Lisa didn’t notice any of this and, being the modest person that she is, accused me of being insane! I assured her that the smiles she got from the men of Paris today were genuine!
What a day! We covered a lot of ground and I’m pretty proud of us because I think we managed to really enjoy it all! And, tomorrow we’ve got a day planned that moves at a much slower pace, so that’ll give us a chance to recover.
Tomorrow: Day 4
Lafayette, We Are Here…Where the Heck Are You?!
Okay, this is going to be a marathon day, so we try to get up and out early…but, you know how that turned out! Hey, at least we got out the door by 10:45 today! We stop to get water at a souvenir shop on Rue de Rivoli before heading over to the Eiffel Tower and, since there’s a taxi stand right in front of the shop, we decide to grab a cab over to the Trocadero. We cross the street and get our first close look at the tower, and it’s a beauty! For such a massive structure, it seems so graceful to me…the angles balanced by the gentle curve of the four “feet” supporting it. Not to mention the fact that the trees around it are just beginning to sprout their spring leaves and blossoms, so it’s framed by some of nature’s best art as we admire it. I got some good photos here.
As we notice the crowds, a little of the magic starts to wear off. Okay, it’s definitely spring break week…the lines for the elevators are STAGGERING! It turns out Rick Steves is right when he suggests that, if you want to go to the top during the day, you’d better get in line like an hour before it opens! Who has time to blow at least half a day waiting in lines like this?! I’m guessing people who get more vacation days than I do! It’s at this point that I ask myself if I REALLY need to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower today. I don’t think so. I’m enjoying it from right here and we’re going to walk up to the Palais Chaillot and get the great view of it from up there, so that’s good for now. We decide we’ll come back again one night this week, watch the lightshow, and see if we can get up to the top before it closes.
It’s a healthy climb up past the Trocadero fountains to the Palais Chaillot and those rows of gold statues on either side of the central plaza. I had seen these in so many tour books and it was really cool to be standing here now. They’re striking…the seem so delicate, and this provides another great photo op. We’re enjoying this, but I’m still a little annoyed about not getting up to the tower. Again, my wife comes through. She reminds me that I wanted to see the Musee de Marine (included on Museum Pass) which is here in the Palais, so off we go. I had read on Fodors that this one’s an unexpected treat, and again they were right. Some very cool displays of ship models (which I loved!), the decoration from Louis XIV’s galleon, Napoleon’s imperial barge, and a really fun exhibit of toy boats which filled the whole lower floor! As we make our way out to the gift shop, one more exhibit catches my eye. I love lighthouses, and there’s an old Fresnel lighthouse lens on display! Of course…Mr. Fresnel, whose lens design revolutionized lighthouse construction, was a Frenchman! It’s goofy, I know, but I thought this was cool! And, the gift shop was really nice, too. Lisa buys a silly little plastic windup swimmer bathtub toy that absolutely makes her day!
We’re only a couple of Metro stops from the Marmottan Monet museum, and I love impressionist art, so we decide to go for it. The Trocadero station is a good place to buy our carnets…nice and big with a couple of cashier windows. I was kind of expecting a “book” of some kind, but basically the guy just hands me 20 tickets, which is fine. They’re smaller than I expected, too…like what you’d use for a carnival ride! Anyway, we secure our bags, purses, wallets, etc. (thanks to all the horror stories I’d read, I was on high pickpocket alert!) and head through the turnstile, which works almost exactly like ours here in DC (except these also have big swinging doors that remind me of an old West saloon!). Our first couple of rides, we don’t have to flip the door handles to get on and off the trains since someone is always getting on and off with us, but it seems pretty straightforward…I just don’t want to forget and accidentally walk into the doors trying to get off. Now, that would be embarrassing! Also, this first ride up to La Muette is when we got serenaded by the accordionist, and it was very special.
The Marmottan is in a lovely mansion a couple of blocks from the La Muette station. It’s not included on the museum pass, but for 8 Euros each, it’s a bargain. I have to check my small backpack and my camera, which makes me a little uncomfortable (not that these folks aren’t trustworthy), so I’m glad I bought a little combo lock for my backpack. Of course, there was no problem, but you never know. Anyway, this is the part I’ve been waiting for! Before taking the stairs down to the main gallery, we stop to read a bit about Monet’s life and look at his palette, which is on display next to a couple of his earlier works. For someone who loves Monet’s work as much as I do, this is pretty exciting! It’s like seeing Babe Ruth’s bat or Wayne Gretzky’s hockey stick (of course, all I can come up with are sports analogies, but you know what I mean)! Then, down to the gallery. First, some very humorous caricatures that Monet did when he was just starting out. Then, paintings of a fairly young Claude and his wife by Renoir. Then, a tremendous collection including “Impression: Sunrise,” which some cite as the very first real impressionist work. I am loving this! You know, you can admire prints of great art all day long, but there is nothing like actually seeing the swirls and “blobs” of paint on the canvas. The texture brings them to life, and Monet’s paintings always seem to have some much depth and “motion”…it’s like you can actually see the lily pond shimmering in the sun. We stop at the gift shop where Lisa picks up a cute children’s book for her niece about a family of frogs that live in Monet’s lily pond and think Monet is really painting them! I get some postcards so I’ll remember what prints I want to order from art.com! If you love Monet, put this one on your list for sure. And, don’t be discouraged by some of the guide books that list this as “off the beaten path.” It’s a very quick ride from Eiffel Tower and worth the ticket!
From here we head back to the Metro and catch the train to the Ecole Militaire station since we want to see the Invalides. We walk past the schools of Artillery and Cavalry which are decorated with sculptured reliefs of big, screaming faces! We need some fuel, so we stop into a little sandwich shop and get our first jambon et fromage. As I said before, when they get done toasting these babies in the sandwich press, they’re food for the gods (and goddesses, of course)! And, I’m serious…Coke Zero here just tastes like Diet Coke, but there it tastes like real Coke! Can we please get their taste guys to talk to our taste guys?! We sit in the little park just outside the entrance to the Eglise du Dome and enjoy our lunch and another perfect day. Then, we head inside.
It’s a little more “conventional” inside than, say, the Conciergerie, but still very striking. The inside of the dome features a beautiful painting and the tombs of military leaders are very interesting, especially Marshall Foch’s with the statues of WWI-era French soldiers bearing his casket on their shoulders. But, of course we’re here to see the big guy (well, actually the little guy, I guess)! We look down from the balcony of the rotunda and there’s Napoleon’s massive sarcophagus. I’d like a closer look and I think Lisa’s eyes are starting to glaze over just a bit, so we walk over toward the altar, which soars toward the ceiling and is decorated with lots of gold. The entrance to Napoleon’s crypt is in the back of the altar, guarded by two massive statues with an inscription over it that basically reads, “All I want is for my remains to rest by the banks of the Seine, near my people who loved me.” I had to smile at that one…nothing like having a healthy self-image! Down below, it’s a Napoleon love-fest! Huge angel statues ring the sarcophagus and the walls of the corridor are lined with marble reliefs describing Napoleon’s contributions to France and depicting him as, among other things, a Roman emperor and an Egyptian pharaoh! I must admit, it’s all pretty impressive, but now we’re ready for some more art so we head out past the courtyard of the Musee Armee, stopping just before we exit the main gate to look at some 17th century ceremonial cannons that were fired by the “invalid” soldiers who lived at the hospital any time the king or queen past nearby. Okay, I stopped to look at them…Lisa had had enough military stuff and she was waiting for me out on the street!
Next stop is the Rodin Museum, again covered by the Museum Pass. I was looking forward to this and, as it turned out, this is one that I’ll want to visit every time we return to Paris. First, I love the sprawling grounds and the gardens and the fountains. I also think it’s cool that they have a row of statues off to one side of the garden just for aspiring artists to come and paint or sketch! Of course, Rodin’s art is why we’re here, and his works are more amazing than I could have imagined. And, I love the way they’re displayed! The Thinker in his own little square surrounded by well-manicured trees and shrubs. The Gates of Hell against a plain, white wall as if it might actually BE the entrance to eternal damnation! The statue of Balzac situated so you can get a great picture of him with the dome of the Invalides in the background. But, my favorite is the Burghers of Calais. The Thinker is inspiring and The Gates of Hell is a little disturbing, but this piece is really moving. I have never seen true, raw emotion captured so thoroughly before in any work of art. The faces, the gestures and the poses really make you feel the despair that these men must have felt as they walked to certain death. Of course, I love that the story winds up having a happy ending as England’s Queen Philippa asks King Edward to pardon such brave men, and he does. But, you wouldn’t know a happy ending is coming by looking at this amazing piece. Inside the museum building itself are more surprises, as I guess I didn’t realize that Rodin was also an accomplished painter. And, here is The Kiss, which is really beautiful and erotic, in a soft, romantic sort of way. We also loved The Hand of God, The Age of Bronze, and Fugit Amor. And, the room devoted to Camille Claudel was wonderful, too.
When we’ve finally had our fill of Rodin, it’s time to for another dose of Monet at the Orangerie! We decide to walk there via Rue de Borgogne, and I am so glad we did! I don’t remember reading about this market street, but it’s peaceful and cheerful all at the same time! And, the shops look wonderful. I wish we could stop at them all and assemble our own little picnic, but we only linger long enough to pick up our next candidate for “Best Éclair in Paris” at the patisserie. You can bet, though, that Rue de Borgogne is on my list of places that we need to come back to and stay longer at next time we’re here. And, since we’ll be coming back to the Rodin again, that works out well!
Lisa has really been looking forward to the Orangerie and so have I (of course!). The exterior of the building is simple and classic and the long renovations have really paid off. Inside, we again flash our Museum Passes and proceed to Monet’s lilies. Much like Ste. Chapelle, I could write lengthy descriptions here, but you just have to go see it for yourself. A couple of things that struck me, besides the absolutely incredible beauty of Monet’s work on not just one 25-foot-long by 6-foot-high canvas, but EIGHT of them! First, the lighting in these rooms is absolutely perfect…it truly seems to make the ponds shimmer and the lilies sway in the water. I also love that you can take pictures here! You can’t use a flash, of course, but you don’t need it! Another thing is the atmosphere…the rooms feel “relaxed” somehow, and you can tell that the other people here feel it, too. You’re filled with reverence for the art, but it also just makes you happy. One of the funniest things we saw was a family who I think was from Montreal (at least that’s what the patch on the young father’s backpack said) admiring the paintings. The dad was taking pictures of his daughters in front of one of the canvases and, after getting the cursory shot of the two of them standing side-by-side, the older girl moved aside and the younger one (maybe she was eight or nine) leaned to one side and mimed like she was swimming in the pond! The dad could barely take the picture because he was shaking with laughter, as were the rest of us in the room who saw this! I think Claude would have enjoyed that little scene, too, and it would have made him happy to know that a new generation was learning you don’t have to be rich or stuffy to admire great art…it can be fun, too!
Well, it’s almost 7:00 pm now…should we get something to eat? Actually, Lisa’s just dying for her Starbucks peppermint soy hot chocolate (yeah, I know…Starbucks in Paris?) and before the trip she had already scoped one out that’s supposed to be in the Carrousel mall under the Louvre, so we head over there, collecting some more Tuillieries Dust along the way! Hey, the Louvre’s open late tonight! One more museum? Can we do it? Only if we can find Starbucks! It’s not in the mall…oh, well, let’s just go on into the Louvre. After flashing the Museum Pass again, we head through the security screening and THERE IT IS! No, not the Mona Lisa…THE STARBUCKS! I thought Lisa would cry! Sadly, they didn’t have peppermint, but she was fine with just her soy hot chocolate. She’s not lactose intolerant, by the way…she just likes it better with the soy milk! An iced grande Americano for me and NOW we’ve got the energy to at least hit “the big ones” in the Louvre.
First, I wanted to see the archaeological exhibit of the old foundation of the fortifications on which the Louvre was built, but we can’t use our passes for that because it’s not a “permanent” exhibit. I had to laugh about this. I mean, what could be more permanent than walls that were built 900 YEARS AGO?! Oh, well…I’m too tired to argue, plus my French would never hold up! So, we head to the Denon Wing, first taking in some Roman sculpture and some of the beautiful architecture of the building itself. Then, up the long staircase with Winged Victory at the top. You can take the elevator directly to that floor, but I recommend the escalators to the floor below so you can do this walk…it’s really beautiful. Winged Victory is intriguing, but I’m more interested in seeing the Venus De Milo, so we head over there. She is quite beautiful…too bad about the arms, though. ;-) I did think it was funny that, just in case you weren’t sure, they’ve placed a large, pull up vinyl sign behind the statue that says, “Le Venus De Milo.” OH, so THAT’S what it is! Okay, please keep in mind we’re fast approaching goofy tired at this point, so things that might not have ordinarily been amusing seemed to tickle us. Okay, well, bye, Venus…we have to go see Mona now.
On the way to the hall where the Mona Lisa is located, we stop into the Apollo Room, which must have been one of the salons in the old Louvre Palace. It was beautifully restored to look like it must have in the 17th century and it was filled with wonderful paintings and exhibits of jewelry, ceramics, and other items, as well as some of the crowns and jewels worn by past monarchs! Definitely worth the detour. Then down the grand hall and into the salon where we find the Mona Lisa. I’m glad we came in the evening…this room is fairly full, but I’ll bet it’s really packed during the day. We’re able to move up to the rope very quickly to get a better look at Mona. I’ve heard some people say this is a bit anti-climactic, but I don’t think so. Yes, it’s smaller than you might expect, but you can see that this really is a special piece of art and it’s just amazing to be standing this close to it! Plus, in person I think she’s quite beautiful! We admire her for a few minutes, then turn to leave and are taken aback by the massive painting of The Wedding Feast at Cana…now, THIS is impressive! A few more minutes of admiring and we’re off. We explore a little more on our way out, stopping in a salon where there are a lot of religious works, especially highlighting Mary and Jesus. Many of them look like tiles or parts of walls that have come from old churches and they’re very beautiful.
Okay, now we’re done, cooked, wiped out...soreness spreading to every extremity! But, we’re also starved. We circle the Marché St. Honoré, but every place looks pretty full, so we stop at the modest little Café Coupe D’Or about two blocks from our hotel. It’s nothing fancy, but it does have a table available outside and they sell beer by the LITRE! That’s all I need to know, really. We enjoy some nice, simple salads (mine includes some delicious steamed crawfish), split a croque monsieur and some frites, and get our picture taken by our very entertaining waiter whose English is excellent (which is a good thing because I’m so tired right now I can’t remember any French except mercí and bonsoirs).
Before I close out Day 3, one more observation…I noticed today that my wife, who is in fact adorable, got checked out SEVERAL times by both younger AND older men! This didn’t bother me, mind you…I just thought it was interesting that they made no attempt whatsoever to hide it! I guess Frenchmen just aren’t ashamed to admire a beautiful woman, and why should they be, really? Of course, Lisa didn’t notice any of this and, being the modest person that she is, accused me of being insane! I assured her that the smiles she got from the men of Paris today were genuine!
What a day! We covered a lot of ground and I’m pretty proud of us because I think we managed to really enjoy it all! And, tomorrow we’ve got a day planned that moves at a much slower pace, so that’ll give us a chance to recover.
Tomorrow: Day 4
Lafayette, We Are Here…Where the Heck Are You?!
May 14th, 2007, 12:27 PM
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I love your report. So? Are you and Lisa letting the oh-so-casual, "when we go back to Paris, lets make sure we...".
ah Dave, that was the beginning of the end for me...still we do this. "When we go back to Paris..."
ah Dave, that was the beginning of the end for me...still we do this. "When we go back to Paris..."
May 15th, 2007, 05:34 AM
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I've started putting some of my photos on flickr...please try this link and see if it works http://www.flickr.com/photos/7875920@N05/
