Paris
Day 1 - Art. Art. Art. More art.
I decided to venture out on my own in the morning and do a little exploring via the Metro. Had a bit of a ridiculous time with the automated ticket station and ended up using a teller. I decided to start with something quintessentially Paris–the Eiffel Tower. I wasn’t there long, as D and I planned to return and go up it. I got off my requiste snapshots, and it was in fact an impressively large iron structure, but other than that, not nearly as cool as some of the more ornate structures like the Louvre. I figured I’d wander along the Seine until I tired. Though I was stopped by a caricaturist, who wanted to draw me (hoping I’d buy it of course), and because I don’t have the heart to blow people off, I stood there. Thankfully, I did have the resolve not to buy it, mostly because my giant caricature head curiously ended up atop a bikini-clad body. Allrighty..I walked about half way back to the hotel before the wind and general feet-tiredness convinced me to take the Metro the rest of the way. I managed to find some take-away food to bring back for T.
We set our sights on tackling the Louvre, and, thankfully, T’s presence allowed us to jump the lengthy queue, as per usual, as well as gain us free entry. We picked up a map (a vital tool in a museum that size) and set off. The Louvre is far and away my favourite museum we’ve been to thus far, and there’ve been some good ones. The setting was fantastic–gorgeous galleries with lofty, ornately decorated ceilings. housing equally pretty paintings. I became quite enamoured with ceilings, constantly astounded by each new one we stumbled upon. We covered French sculptures, Oriental Antiquities, large-format French paintings, as well as Italian paintings, including, of course, the Mona Lisa. It’s actually not very big, with all the fuss you’d think it’d be the size of a wall. It’s all encased in glass which makes picture-taking challenging. Apparently, some crazy person tried to throw a rock at it, hence the glass. Who throws a rock at a painting? I speculated perhaps a disgruntled artist–but then what artist isn’t slightly? Hunger and general tiredness compelled us to find food, grabbing some sandwiches at the museum cafe. We were satisfied with our completion of more or less one floor.
Day 2 - Notre Damn
My morning task was food, particularly a boulangerie for some croissants and pain au chocolat. I didn’t find the ones on Google, but I found cafe/deli type places, so I got my fill of genuine French croissants, in all its flaky fabulousness. As the weather had turned favourable, we decided to change our original plans and head for the Ile de la Cite. It was quite a pleasant walk along the Seine, almost balmy. We crossed at Pont Neuf and managed to find Sainte Chapelle with a disturbingly long line. Thankfully, a staff member found us and ushered us to a side entrance. It will be a real challenge to go back to standing in line when T goes home, and to start paying to get into places. Ready to embark on our first cathedral experience, we found out that the lift only operated on weekdays, which is a little odd, but we were fine to come back on Monday. The loewr level was pretty in and of itself, and the main floor was supposed to be even better. We headed down to Notre Dame, which had the usual hordes congregated in front. Bit of a challenge to pop the large-ish step to get in, but thankfully some American students behind us were helpful. The Cathedral was trully impressive–stainglass and soaring ceilings. Found a stuate for vierge des etudiants, which I think means “virgin of students”, so I lit a candle for David’s success as well as my own.
I originally wanted to climb to the top, but the line was so long, I didn’t want to make T wait an hour and a half. There was an amusing fellow with a gargoyle mask entertaining the crowd in line by freaking out random, unsuspecting passerbyers. We stopped for some (pricey) lunch next to the Cathedral before taking a wander through the Ancien Cloitre Quartier. Picked myself up a couple of scarves (very Paris chic) before we headed back across a bridge. We stumbled upon a fabulously ornate building, which I discovered was the Hotel de la Ville. There were tennis matches televised on giant screens going on in front of it. Craziness! Our walk back along the Seine was fruitful, picking up some souvenir magnets (as has apparently become our signature souvenir) and coasters. After depositing T at the hotel, I went in search of laundromats and food, and I ended up going back to the same sandwich place I found the first night. The lady recognized me and thankfully spoke English. Funnily enough, she asked where I was from, and, having replied “Canada”, she asked, “And you don’t speak French?”. I rather sheepishly replied, “Un petit peu, and not very well”. High school French has done little for me, sadly.
Day 3 - Oh Phantom
T and I decided to re-visit the Louvre to tackle some of the other galleries we’d missed. We decided to try their audioguide–a new-fangled, touch screen system. We headed for Italian sculptures, and, lo and behold, one of my favourite pieces of art was there as we stepped off the elevator: Cupid and Psyche. It really is a profoundly stunning sculpture. The romantic in me always swoons at the sight of it. From there, we wandered through the Flemish, Dutch and German paintings wing, though I must say that I preferred French and Italian. The Northern European stuff, for the most part, all seemed to look a little dour. As I seemed to have developed a twinge in my knee, we opted to do a little sketching in the French sculptures gallery. Now, I’ve never deluded myself by thinking I was any kind of artist, at least in with paper and pencil, but I tried my hand at apparently the most challenging sculpture in the gallery–a dynamic pose of Perseus rescuing Andromeda. I decided that the next sculpture I sketched would be a little less dramatic, so I chose a pose of a woman fixing her sandal.
I’d wanted to catch a tour of the Opera Garnier, so I left T to her sketching and headed for the opera. To my dismay, there was a matinee show and thus no tour scheduled. I took some shots of the lobby, a gorgeous sight in and of itself. It instantly transported me to scenes from Phantom the Opera. I grabbed some, rather pricey, lucnh at a nearby brasserie and meandered my way back. Finally found a self-service laundromat which was a nice score, as my supply of clean clothes was getting thing. I stumbled across a street festival on one of the side streets; it looked to be a children’s festival, so I took a wander through. Lots of kids dressed up as various things–princesses, pirates, the works. It’s always neat to stumble across tese random slices of life, things one probably couldn’t plan for or organize. I met T at the front of the Louvre (as I technically couldn’t get in for free).
The sun had finally found us, so we got to experience our first blue skies in Paris. It actually became swelteringly warm and muggy, but we capitalized on the sun and took a walk through the Jardin des Tuileries next to the Louvre–lots of manicured greenery and Roman sculptures. We took an upper pathway to look down on the Place de la Concorde, which also afforded a nice view of the Eiffel Tower. Before calling it a night, we did laundry and ate a tasty dinner at a nearby restaurant, watching thin Parisians and their curiously plump dogs.
Day 4 - Me and the Gargoyles
We awoke bright and early, and set off for Sainte Chapelle. It was an absolutely stunning day, not a cloud in sight. I finally got to put aside the two pairs of pants I’d been wearing for the last week or so and put on an honest to goodness dress. It was a very pleasant walk along the Seine to Ile de la Cite, as the temperature was cool enough to make it bearable. We arrived at the island, stopping briefly to grab some croissants, and were soon ushered through the Justice Ministry to access the main level of the cathedral. Sainte Chapelle is stunning–almost all sides have stain glass, just a gorgeous array of colours. There are chairs lining the sides of the hall, and for good reason. You really just need to sit and stare. After we’d oggled long enough, we headed down to Notre Dame, so I could climb up and be with the gargoyles. Left T to her sketching and waited a seemingly interminable length of time in the line to go up (they can only let up 25 people every 10 minutes). Now, 400 steps doesn’t necessarily seem like a lot, but 400 narrow, winding steps does make for a more interesting climb. Our first stop was the Chimera gallery, a narrow length across the front of the Cathedral, 46 metres above the ground. It afforded a truly spectacular view of Paris. I could see the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, and all the way to the Grande Arche de la Defense. We then climbed and even tinier staircase up the south tower to the very top of Notre Dame. I could see why Quasimodo was so enamoured with his bell tower–what a view. A nearly perfect day for it too, aside from a little haziness. After a perhaps even more precarious climb down, I met up with T for some lunch–crepes of course.
Hot, sweaty and needing to get ready to pick up David, we made our way back to the hotel. Downright balmy! One sweltering hike later, we started packing up our things. I took the Metro to my new hotel, Hotel du Nord, a charming little place that would suit us just fine. They had free bikes to use, which we may or may not attempt. Metroed up to Gare de l’Est to meet David, though naturally, his train was listed as being 20 minutes late. Thankfully, his late train was punctual for its newly posted time, and we happily found each other. After dropping off his baggage at our hotel, we picked up T and went for dinner. D called up his friend Dillon from Portland, who was living in Paris, and we met him for coffee and drinks. He took us on a meandering walk through the livelier parts of the Latin Quartier and to a lit-up Notre Dame. We followed some narrow side streets to an excellent gelato shop. After much conversation, we parted ways, picked up my luggage and made our way to our hotel, thankfully catching the last Metro train.
Day 5 - Degas, Monet, Manet..Oh My!
We awoke and picked up our daily breakfast fare before heading over to pick up T. From there, we meandered through the Louvre gardens to the last museum on the list: Musee d’Orsay. It’s a very pretty building–a converted train station, and also a different style from the Louvre. Musee d’Orsay was very modern, almost an Art Deco feel, while the Louvre had a very classic, ornate sense. The art was amazing, with a lot of well-known artists and works–Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec. Quite an impressive collection. It happened to be free the day we went, so it was particularly packed. An annoyingly inconvenient incident involving an abandoned (i.e. forgotten) purse forced our evacuation of the wing as they “investigated”. I’m all for prudence, but a lime green handbag next to a chair is 99% likely to be just plain old forgetfulness.
After we’d had our fill (or my legs had), we headed off in search of food. As we were on the Left Bank, we decided to stay on that side of the river. Found a creperie in St-Germain, and sat on the edge of a fountain on a busy street corner near Notre Dame. From there, laziness overtook us, and we trekked back to the Louvre grounds in search of a place to lie down. D found a shaded patch of grass and promptly fell asleep. T and I discussed her travel arrangements and potential future trips to be had (we’re thinking the rest of England and Edinburgh). After D had slept enough, we went back to T’s hotel to escape the heat and let T pack before dinner. T specifically requested creme brulee, so the chosen restaurant needed to fulfill that criterion. We ended up going to a place across from the Louvre–touristy and overpriced ($8 for a beer!), but they had a decent menu and creme brulee. D and i returned to our hotel before venturing out to find a pub in our area. We managed to find a nice place just down the street from our hotel that reminded us of Scottie’s Bunker–had a very neighbourhood feel, where the young bartender ran the place, and familiar customers served themselves. D sampled an interesting beer that involved liqueur at the bottom.
Day 6 - Ah, Amelie
An early start for us as we had to be at T’s hotel by 7:30. The taxi arrived on schedule, so D and T headed for the airport, while I stayed behind to do laundry. After much falling asleep in the laundromat and 2 loads of clothes, I headed back to the hotel to wait for D. After he returned fro the airport, we set off for Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. Montmartre was fairly tourist-laden, with the appropriate number of folks peddling their wares. Sacre Coeur was very pretty, affording a panoramic, if not a little hazy, view of Paris. From there, we wandered through the area on top of the hill surrounding the church. We had to visit Dali Espace, which was only mildly disappointing because it was there I realized that the majority of the pieces I saw in London were prints of originals found at that museum in Paris. From there we picked up lunch from a boulangerie, a much cheaper option than the tourist-geared (and thus suitably expensive) restaurants in the area, and sat on the steps of Sacre Coeur.
After lunch, we metroed down to the Opera Garnier to see the parts I’d missed. The Opera was a truly impressive building, so incredibly ornate and grandiose. We decided we had to see a show there the next time we were in Paris. The auditorium had been closed for rehearsals, but by sheer luck, we passed by one box that was open for tourists, and got our chance to marvel at the grandeur of it. One really did have Phantom of the Opera flashbacks seeing it in all its red-velveted, gold-gilded glory. In need of a caffeine boost, we sat on a terrace facing the Opera house to have a cafe and a chocolat viennois, and indulge in a little people-watching. I wanted to do a little shopping (when in Paris), and had a look around Galeries Lafayette–a fancy mall behind the Opera house, complete with giant stain glass dome. I tried on a few things, but most of it was outrageously overpriced, or just plain outrageous. The rooftop view of Paris was a nice touch though. As my blister had burgeoned to the point of causing an actual limp, we headed back to the hotel for a bit. We met up with Dillon and walked a fair distance to have some Indian food at a restaurant he recommended. After a delicious meal (cheese naan is a brilliant creation!), we headed down the street for a drink at a bar called Wide Open Spaces, before bidding farewell to Dillon and heading back for the night.
Day 7 - A Royally Gigantic Palace
The day was allotted for a bombardment of French grandeur at the palace of Versailles. The weather looked a little iffy, but we set out and caught the train for Versailles. When we arrived, the front of the palace had a bit of scaffolding for restoration work as well as a rather lengthy line. To keep himself distracted from the masses of irritating children and tourists, D entertained me with the latest technological and political developments in the news. Unfortunately, as we waited in the line outside, the clouds opened their faucets. Once we got inside, we started our tour around the palace. It was incredibly ornate–and vast–and you had to marvel at the amount of pomp and ceremony that surrounded royalty at that time. There were getting up and going to bed ceremonies for the king! After we’d had a tour of the main floor, we discovered some of the wings were closed due to a strike–of the Versailles workers I suppose. So we decided to grab a snack and caffeinate and head back into town. To our pleasant surprise, when we came out, the skies had cleared to brilliant sunshine. We excitedly embarked on an exploration of the gardens, which were absolutely huge! The Grand Canal that ran down the centre was 3.5 kilometres long! After some wandering, we came across a bike rental stand and concluded that it would be a good (and more efficient) way to see a good chunk of the gardens. A pretty bike ride led us to the Petit Trianon, part of Marie-Antoinette’s estate. From there, we walked to her hamlet–a quaint little town she had built which D and I became quite enamoured with. We biked over to the Grand Trianon, which was being set up for a wedding, but afforded a fabulous view of the Grand Canal. We returned our bikes, and the clouds decided to pour down on us once we were on foot. Mercifully, it let up shortly thereafter. We took the train back to the area of St-Germain in Paris to find some food. Gyros and pitas are the cheap, fast food of choice, so we grabbed a pita and a sandwich before heading back to the hotel.
Day 8 - A Slice of Paris, and well, a Baguette
For our last day in Paris (sort of), we headed out to the Basilique de Saint-Denis. A very impressive structure housing some very royal dead folk, including Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, the parents of Charlemagne (whose father is amusingly named Pepin the Short). The crypt was very cool, if not a trifle morbid, and parts of it had been there since before the 13th century. From there, we headed down to the St-Germain area to do a little shopping. We determined hat we couldn’t really get clothes of similar quality and for a price that matched back home, and that in order to get good quality clothes, you’d have to pay quite a bit more. We did find a Taschen store–a publishing house that makes very cool books, so D picked up a little book with photos by Doisneau. After we bought beer and cheese from a fromagerie, we headed to the hotel to pack. We were planning to go up the Eiffel Tower, but we ended up just having our cheese and baguette next to the Seine facing the Eiffel, waiting until it was lit up before we headed back.
Day 9 - Our (Real) Last Day
We awoke and searched out our breakfast and D’s daily espresso before heading back to the Jardin du Luxembourg, passing a surprsing number of baby stores (must’ve been 6 or 7 on one block). We took a relaxing stroll through the gardens and grabbed a couple chairs to sit and people-watch. The Paris heat was particularly oppressive–hot and muggy. We wandered down to Boulevard St-Germain to find a chocolaterie, Patrick Roger, we’d passed the night before..it had the Meilleur Ouvrier de France designation (which apparently is a really, really challenging exam to determine the best tradespeople in France). We picked up some delectable truffles and a bar of chocolate from Columbia to take back with us. We originally went in search of gifts for D’s mom and others, but unfortunately the chocolate would only last a couple weeks, thus we’d have to eat it ourselves. Ah well.
From there, we metroed down to the Champs Elysees to see the Arc de Triomphe, which was suitably impressive. A lot larger than I’d expected..with some great carvings. We took a walk down the Champs Elysees, popping into several car stores (more like advertising new concept cars and race cars) for Puegueot, Toyota and Renault to satisfy D’s car enthusiasm. We went by the Grand Palais before crossing the bridge and viewing the impressive Invalides. Thirsty and in need of caffeination, we went in search of a cafe. D had wanted to bring some liquor back to Canada, so we also went looking for a supermarket. Most of the ones we tried at first were too small, and didn’t seem to carry the types he wanted. We finally found a market that had Calvados (an apple-based whisky-like liquor made in Normandy). I grabbed a couple half bottles of wine (a Bordeaux and a Rose), to have some “French wine” in the house. No idea if they’re any good, but they certainly were cheap. We headed back to the neighbourhood by our hotel to have some dinner. D had a craving for oysters, and there was a seafood restaurant one the corner of our street. He indulged in oysters, fish and creme brulee, while had fish and a ice cream cocktail. As we were both still sick, I was concerned that we’d have sinus pressure problems on the plane ride home (following from the last time I flew sick). We’d stopped by a pharmacy to pick up some drowsy decongestant, and also determined we’d stay up all night to make ourselves suitably tired to try and sleep through most of the flight. Our staying up activities primarily consisted of re-watching episodes of Top Gear and my uploading photos. It did, however, work, as I managed to stay up until about 7am, grabbing a half hour of sleep before waking up to get ready for our journey home.