After losing a day to Wizz, our next more started with croissants for breakfast followed by the Musee d’Orsay. The d’Orsay is in a remodeled train station that is just as impressive as the art it houses. There is a large collection of impressionist paintings here. It was a little surreal to walk around every corner and see a painting that you’ve seen prints of in people’s houses, calendars, and textbooks. We saw Van Gough, Monet, Manet (though I’m not a huge fan of his), Rodin, Degas, and Renoir. I was feeling very cultured by the time we left.
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| d'Orsay |
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| Seine |
We grabbed some lunch, headed across the Seine and over to Musee De l’Organerie to see Monet’s Water Lilies. They are displayed in 2 large rooms. One represents early day and afternoon and the other room showcases the evening paintings. They are extremely large and amazing to look at. The Orangerie also has a large lower gallery with paintings by Picasso and the like and they had a 19th century Spanish paintings exhibition there as well.
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| Monet- Water Lilies |
We hopped on the subway from the l’Orangerie to the Arc de Triomph. First, we had to find the correct tunnel to take under the crazy Place Charles de Gaulle roundabout. This roundabout is ridiculous. Twelve streets feed into it and so many accidents happen there each year that insurance companies and police alike have a 50/50 rule on every accident. In other words, if you get in a wreck here, the fault is always split right down the middle. You do not want to walk across this road. Once successfully navigating the tunnel, we climbed the 284 stairs up to the top. The view was excellent. From the Arc, you can get the Eiffel Tower in your pictures, which is what everyone associates with Paris anyway. Once back downstairs, we saw a car cut off a motorcycle and cause him to wreck. It was a little scary. Luckily, he was alright and this wreck is what prompted our investigation into Parisian traffic laws. We then went about imitating the carved figures on the outside of the Arc, using a poster tube for a sword, of course. We meandered down the Champs-Elysées, taking in the shops we can’t afford as we headed back to our hotel to change for dinner at…
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| Stairs in the Arc |
The Eiffel Tower. We took the very large, two storied elevator up to deck one of the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t really pay attention, because things like this terrify me, but I hear the view was nice. We ate at the restaurant on Platform One, which is still plenty high. The food was decent, but the service was bad. Of course, when in France, I think it is obligatory to have a rude French waiter at least once. Once dinner was over, the tower was closing, so we didn’t get to walk all the way around, but we still got to see the view from a few angles. On the way back down, I actually managed to look out the elevator windows a little bit. It wasn’t too bad; however, I was more than ready to be on solid ground again. Once down, it was only 7 minutes to midnight, so we stayed to watch the LED light show. It basically looks like the tower is covered in glitter. However, I can see why the French hated it when it was first unveiled. It is sort of gaudy and maybe a little tacky, considering the historical nature of the Eiffel Tower.
The next day we were heading to St. Chappelle, a church with a sanctuary made almost entirely of stained glass. When we left the subway, we turned the wrong way, but ended up eating at a really nice little café for breakfast. We then got ourselves going in the right direction stopped briefely at Shakespeare and Company, a recreation of the book store frequented by Hemingway and Joyce in the 1920’s. Basically, Mecca for English teachers, and I was traveling with an English teacher. We got to St. Chappelle and added ourselves to the extremely long line to go through security. Due to the way it was built, the entrance to St. Chappelle and the supreme court is the same, so you have to go through the usual metal detector-bag X-ray set up, which makes it take awhile. It is worth it when you see this church. It was finished in 1248 and has one of the largest collections of 13th century stained glass in the world. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France and connected directly to one of his palaces, so he could basically get to church without going outside. Although it has not been a church since the French Revolution, it has been fully restored and is considered a French monument and many concerts are held there every year.
From St. Chappelle, we got some sandwiches and ate in the park behind Notre Dame. My sandwich’s bread was delicious. We then checked out some fun stores on the Île Saint-Louis where we got delicious ice cream. On from there towards the Louvre. We decided to walk because it was such a nice day and we wanted to see more of the city.
When we got to the Louvre, my first thought was, “they need some landscaping.” My second thought was, “Wow. It’s big.” You hear the Louvre is big. It is the largest museum in the world. But you don’t fully realize just how big until you are there. It is also busy. Luckily, we bought a museum pass for our trip, so we could skip the marathon line at the pyramid entrance. Even if you don’t visit every museum on the pass, it is worth it to skip that line. We got inside and decided to do the famous pieces. First stop: Venus de Milo. It is a very beautiful statue. I even managed to fight my way through the Asian tour group to get a good picture of her. I also fought through the GIANT crowd to see the Mona Lisa.
We saw so many famous paintings and sculptures, it was amazing. We also took a quick turn by Gabrielle d’Estrees and Her Sister, or, as we liked to call it, the nipple painting. Apparently, the woman (Gabrielle) was Henry IV of France’s mistress. The odd nipple pinch is meant to convey the she is pregnant. However, it is mostly just awkward. We also saw the remains of a medieval fortress, that the Louvre was built on top of, in the basement and Napoleon III’s apartments.
After the Louvre, we grabbed some coffee/hot chocolate in a café we passed before going to Cremerie Restaurant Polidor. This is a local restaurant recommended by Rick Steves’ guide book. They seat you at community tables and we started out by two French women that sort of laughed as my friend put the water into the wine glass, but we ended the night by a German couple that was in Paris for their 35th wedding anniversary. The women “would recommend it (marriage) if you get the chance.” They were really nice. Also nice, was the food. I had curried pork and for dessert, chocolate pie.
The next day we got up early to go to Notre Dame. It was All Saints Day and we arrived just in time for Mass. However, I was excited by this because we got to hear the organ play and the boy soprano who was the cantor (I think that is the term for the song leader) was really good. However, one of the men in charge yelled at me for taking photos during the mass (which I wasn’t) so I was a little annoyed by that. I mean, I’d been sitting there respectfully for the entire service. Anyway, Notre Dame is impressively large and also pretty simple, as far as cathedrals go. I actually really enjoyed looking around. We were planning to see the Catacombs after the cathedral and I was so excited. This was the one thing I wanted to do in Paris and… it was closed. Sad. I was really disappointed. Oh well, we grabbed some breakfast and then went back to the hotel to pack up and head for the bus to the airport. Luckily, our plane left on time and now I am back in Sofia and preparing for the hell that is the end of the 1st quarter.
