Des Champs-E’lysees at Night

Versailles

The last day of our trip to Paris we decided to take the metro to a station that met up with an above ground train that took us to the Palace of Versailles.

Louis the XIV used to live in the Louvre but one day he turned to his wife and said “Honey, this Louvre place is too small! We have to get out of the city, go to the country to a bigger place.” Hence, the largest palace and gardens in Europe was built.

And, we thought the Louvre was big.

Once off the train, you can see the palace in the distance. It’s one of those tricky things – it’s so big it actually looks closer. Upon walking about a half a mile on cobblestones you finally reach the front entrance.


(See! It looks like you're never gonna get there!)

Once again we breezed inside with our museum passes and got an audio tour. This tour was actually great! The procession actually led you in some sort of order so you wouldn’t get lost. However, the only portion of the museum that the tour included was the central palace. I could see if one wandered off into one of the wings they would be lost for days finding them later huddled up behind a statue somewhere eating leftover crackers for sustenance.
Each room had a purpose and meaning along with the artwork that adorned the walls and ceilings. The most impressive was the Opera that Louis the XVI had built in 1770 and the Hall of Mirrors which is 233 feet in length. I could go on and on with the many political powers of France who lived there, the paintings, halls and antiques, etc. but honestly it’s too much. Entire books are written on this place and it does have quite a bit of scandal behind the history of it. If you want an interesting historical read then check it out.

After the palace tour we walked the gardens.



I say this lightly because like the palace it’s enormous as well. After walking down 104 steps you come to the central grand canal that practically ends on the horizon it’s so long.



The gardens go off in all directions for miles and miles. And, also like the palace, one could get lost in a shrubbery garden or orchard for days and not be found.

We did ambitiously walk to the Grand Trianon about a mile or so through the cherry orchard.



Louis XIV built this small (I say this lightly, too) palace of stone and pink marble in 1687 to escape the rigors of court life, and to enjoy the company of his mistress, Madame de Maintenon. Uh-huh, that’s what kings did back then instead of checking into a Hamilton Inn. They just built another palace in one of the orchards.

By the time we hobbled back down the half mile of cobble stones (how do women walk on these things in heels?!) to the train station it had felt like we had walked about 10 miles and saw a lot.

Again, later we watched the Versailles video and exclaimed “Where was that?”

Like the Louvre do not expect to do this place in a day. It is an incredible thing to see and I highly recommend it but if you can take more time do the palace one day and the gardens in another (and take crackers in case you get lost!).

But, like everything in Paris one could take a lifetime and never see and feel all the amazing things in this city. It was a wonderful experience, and very inspiring!
I know Paris hasn’t seen the last of me!

This concludes the Paris trip. Next up: Zermatt
I will finish with pictures of our walk down Des Champs-E’lysees the last night.

Notre Dame and Picasso Museum

The next day we set out for Notre Dame which is located on the Ile de la Cite’ which is an island on the Seine. We took the metro to the station of Cite’ which let us off near the entrance. 430 feet in length and 228 feet high it loomed over this part of the city.

Once through the main entrance the view takes in the high vaulted central nave, and rose windows high above all around the interior. Another breathtaking sight. We got an audio tour however it was hard to discern which portion of the cathedral they were talking about. There were several little alcoves off the main section, several pieces of art, gold crowns, statues, etc. It was the catholic version of the Louvre. What impressed me the most was the sheer architectural vastness of it.

Afterwards, we wandered the Le Marais neighborhood looking for the Picasso Museum. The cobbled streets narrowed, the buildings got closer and this seemed a more intimate neighborhood than the ones we had explored in the past.

(Looking up the street near the Picasso Museum)

As it turns out this neighborhood is an ethnic mix of Jews, former Algerian settlers, Asians and others. Once we found the Picasso Museum the building was in a renovation stage and honestly, the least impressive of any of the buildings we had seen or been into.

Once inside it was stifling – funny how the most memorial thing about this famous museum is the outside disarray and how hot it was inside. We thought it probably had to do with all the (much) older people inside (yeah, it looked like the ladies group of the neighborhood met there for afternoon gallery visits before they took their tea). Also, unlike the other museums, the art itself was non-inspiring to me. I know, I know. Picasso’s art cannot be compared to anyone else’s and should stand alone. Ok, so it does.To me it stood alone as what one would paint if they were heavily tripping on acid.

Once outside and able to breathe, we went to a nearby café’ for coffee.

(The cafe' is the little green corner of the building)

This little old guy jumped up the moment we came in and took our order which we grunted and pointed at since he only spoke French. He hurriedly got our coffees and sat back down. Looking around on the walls he had several pictures of the artist Picasso and even one of Salvador Dali’. Hmm, maybe Dali’ got his inspiration from Picasso? Having been to a Dali’ exhibit in London – which, I might add is not for the lighthearted – I could almost see the contrast.

(Can you tell the difference between a Picasso and a Dali'?)

Afterwards we wandered into the Les Halles district and found Saint Eustache which aside from Notre Dame is known as one of the most beautiful churches in Paris. Its interior plan was actually modeled on Notre Dame, with five nave and side and radial chapels. It took 105 years to complete this church. Upon further reading this church supports one of the largest soup kitchens in Paris feeding almost 300 people per day.

(Saint Eustache and kids playing on a sculpture just outside)

Now that’s what I’m talking about – not only a beautiful place to worship but they help feed the people instead of constantly asking for tithe or handouts. I was just as inspired by this church as I was Notre Dame. Unlike its predecessor it was very old and crumbling and needed renovation badly. Inside there were rickety chairs that people sat on to see and hear the service and you feared they would collapse landing you in a heap on the floor. Yes, it’s best to stand when going to a service in this church.

Next up: Versailles

Dessert and D'Orsay Museum

Despite the early bus incident we decided that the metro was our best bet for getting around the city. We would take the metro and then walk several blocks of a neighborhood to get to know it. One day we walked along the south bank of the Seine past several monumental buildings.

That’s the thing with Paris – there are so many beautiful buildings that if you stopped every time you saw something to look it up in the Paris book you’d never get anywhere.

So, we just walked along and took in the sights. Our destination was the Mus’ee d’Orsay.
Originally, a train station it underwent renovation in the 1970’s to become a museum.

This is a museum known for it’s collection of French Impressionists. Now we’re talking my language! And, it only had four floors – hah! We can get through this without getting lost! We cut our teeth on the Louvre!

And, it was so. The collection of Monet’s, Van Gogh’s and Degas were inspiring. These were paintings I actually recognized. When I went into a room and saw one of my favorite Van Gogh’s my heart soared.

Yes, this was art I could sink my teeth into!

After we saw everything we decided to have lunch. It was amazing. Here is a picture of our dessert!



We found that it was almost impossible to get a bad meal in Paris. The night after staggering out of Olivier’s, we walked around the corner and by chance ended up in a restaurant that served wonderful food native to the area. I totally winged it off the menu – couldn’t read a thing except I knew what steak tar-tar looked like and stayed away from. Both our meals ended up delicious and despite the wait staff not knowing a lick of English we had a wonderful experience.
Towards the end of our meal there was a woman and a little girl who sat down who spoke English who were obviously Americans.

Americans in Paris will always speak to each other because no one else will ;-)

When they realized that my sister and I were speaking English, too, the woman stopped us on the way out to chat. Her and her husband had moved to Paris from California and had lived there a year now. She spoke of it being hard to make friends – that they’d made almost none since moving there. They also lived near Olivier’s place and we recommended that she go to his wine tasting.

Later, after reading “Almost French” which is about an Australian woman who moves to Paris to be with her French boyfriend I could understand why this woman was having such a difficult time making new friends. From what I gather, Parisians tolerate tourists but if you move there you will always be an outsider because you were not born there. This is even true for the French who grow up outside of Paris – they, in fact, are even treated like outsiders.

Wilde once said “When they die, all good Americans go to Paris. Some of us have always tried to get there early and beat the crowds.”

It is true – Paris is a paradise that is closed to outsiders. It is a wonderful place to visit but very difficult to live.

Next up: Nortre Dame, St. Eustache and the Picasso Museum

Tour Bus Hell

(You know it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't rant about something every once in awhile....)

The next day we again went to the open air bus tours office and waited outside for it to open. (Once my sister gets an idea into her head it’s hard to let go) And, again, no one showed. We had mentioned to the person at the front desk of the hotel that we would like to get on a bus tour and we always got pointed down the street to the closed kiosk. (and, looked at like we were idiots “Can’t you see that kiosk right there? Are you blind, American?”) We explained that it was closed and then was told we could pick up a bus tour at the Louvre. Hmm, we were at the Louvre yesterday and we didn’t see no stinking bus office. In fact, every time we tried to get on a tour bus and pay we got grumbled at in French and told to go to THE KISOSK THAT WAS CLOSED! Then, we were told that we could get on a tour at the Opera. Well, that was one stop up on the metro so let’s give it a try. We took the metro got off and yes, there was the wonderful Grand Opera but no bus tour anything.

(Do you see a tour bus in this picture?! Nooooo!)

I was starting to get impatient with this search for a bus. How did one EVER get on these things was mystifying. We wandered into this beautiful building that turned out to be a bank.

Once back at Madaleine we saw an open air bus parked at the curb on the other side of the street. We thought that maybe this was the actual place to get on the bus instead of the kiosk. We saw a vague sign that said relocation and such. We go to the bus – no driver.

Did anyone who works for this company actually work?

We waited around for a half an hour (yes, my sister REALLY wanted to get on the bus) and finally the bus driver crossed the street and we ran over to the bus. Only again to be shooed away in French and he actually POINTED to the CLOSED KIOSK!

I was actually really over it by this time. I wanted to break the language barrier with a little universal sign language of my own.

So, I have no advice if you want to get on these bus tours. I don’t know how one does it. The rest of our stay we saw them tooling around town with people on them. One would go by and my sister would exclaim “There’s one!” and I would flip it off.

L' Open Tour, Fuuuuuuuuck you!

The Louvre and Eiffel Tower

(Inside the glass pyramide of the Louvre)

The next day we thought we would take in the Louvre Museum. In between breakfast and the museum we also thought we might get on one of those tour busses that take you all over the city and that advertise points of interest you can hop on and off the bus.
There was a tour bus kiosk right up the street by Madeleine that we went and stood by waiting for it to open. (We also did this the day before and it didn’t open when it said it was supposed to – 10:00 a.m. but to a Parisian maybe this meant 10:30 – 11:00 but they never showed) Again, we waited around by the kiosk and watched (in horror) a guy park his car by ramming into the car behind him until it moved back 3 feet and ramming into the car in front of him moving it up 3 feet until he could park his car. Now I know why the cars aren’t so nice here. Again, kiosk tour worker never showed and we took off for the Louvre.

Advice: Do not think that you can see everything in this Museum in one day! Also, just know that you will get lost even if you plan out your route.

Once at the Louvre we went into the Pyramid Entrance of the museum – which is the main entrance since it was built in 1989 by I M Pei. Once inside you see that the museum is divided into three wings (and, each wing has 3 floors if that tells you anything): The Sully, Richelieu and Denon Wings.

We decided to follow the crowd to the Denon Wing to see the Mona Lisa. Not a bad procession and the museum didn’t seem too crowded. We had a Paris Museum pass that allowed us to get into all the museums in Paris and it proved quite useful in skipping all the lines to get into these places.

The procession led us to through the grand gallery which had paintings the size of my house! It was breathtaking how large they were. There were hundreds of French oil paintings dated as far back as the 16th century. This gallery went on for miles it seemed.

We then came out into an open space that had the famous “Winged Victory of Samothrace”. It was enormous, of course.
(I always wondered about this - did the person who made this famous sculpture decide to just knock off work before making the head?)

By the time we reached the Mona Lisa we had seen so many beautiful and inspiring paintings and sculpture she seemed less inspiring to me. We were actually able to get closer than I imagined but still I just didn’t see what the fuss was about. I think my sister was inspired by her but I wasn’t.

After that, we got lost and in a big way. We ended up in the Sully Wing wandering around through Oriental, Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiques and sculpture. It was all very surreal.

(Ok, can we say "BC" here -the egyptian sculpture, not my sister)

Eventually, and I don’t know how – we ended up in the Richelieu Wing and by that time I was wanting to get out. And, the only way out of that museum is the same way in – through the glass pyramid. Where was that glass pyramid? We wandered by windows looking out onto Court Napoleon.

(Looking out on the plaza wanting out!)

I longingly wanted to be out there. I was tempted at one point to grab a bust, throw it through a window and escape.

Finally, we found the glass atrium and sat down for lunch in the little café’. We recharged our batteries but I wasn’t having any more that day. Just the small (or large to us) amount that we saw was very overwhelming.

(Later we bought a video of both the Louvre and Versailles and when we watched it we realized there were things that we missed and things that we unknowingly stumbled over that we saw – this was true at both places.)

That night we took a river boat tour on the Seine and had dinner on the second tier of the Eiffel Tower. Seeing the city lit up at night on both the boat and at and on the Eiffel was amazing. Here are some pics of this:

(Taken from the second tier of the Eiffel Tower)

Next up: Tour bus hell and the D'Orsay Museum