Last Full Day in Paris

This obelisk is 3,300 years old. It came from Luxor and is the centerpiece of place de la Concorde. It marks the spot where Louis XVI was beheaded. It was carted from Egypt in the 1830's.

This McDonalds on the Champs-Elysees is supposed to be very popular with the French and a huge money maker. We weren't tempted to eat there, though.
Here is a stirring relief, La Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe. Lady liberty is leading soldiers as she rallies them to fight oppression.

This is the tomb of the unknown soldier from WWI.


The Arc has lists of all the victories since the French revolution. It would have been moving in a different way if they also listed defeats.

The Resistance workers are honored.

We hit the streets for one last time here in Paris. We decided to walk over to the Arc de Triomphe and then down the Champs-Elysees. It was a pleasant enough walk and didn't take us too long. The Arc is impressive. I imagined what it would have been like during WWII with Nazi swastikas hanging from it. I expected to see more designer shops and perfumeries as we walked down the Champs-Elysees. We ended up finding a treasure, though, the Petit Palais. It is a museum with some Art Nouveau furniture and rooms plus lesser known paintings by Pissaro and Monet. It was a pleasant place to wander around. The building itself is beautiful. Tonight we are going out for dinner one last time before heading to Budapest.

Walking Tours

Rossini's grave.
Chopin's grave.
Jim Morrison's grave.
Edith Piaf's grave.

WWII moved many people.
Another monument for Holocaust victimes.
A monument/grave for Holocaust victims.
A weird painting from the Carnavalet--people pulling the devil.
Just change this scrawny cat to grey and you'd have Tally.
Below is the Bastille monument and the Opera House.

In the past, Larry and I have had times of discontent during vacations--what to do. Each of us will ask the other what he/she wants to do that day, then get a little frustrated when we hear, "I don't know. What do you want to do?" This trip we've got scripts to fall back on if we don't have original ideas on what to do. We just look at Rick Steve's guide books and follow his recommendations for exploring neighborhoods. He has guided walks as well as ideas for what to look at in the major museums. It's perfect for when you don't want to have to plan too much, but don't want to be on a big guided tour with hoards of other people. Of course, this strategy only works when you don't feel self-conscious about walking around with a guide book and map. It didn't bother us, especially since this is the height of tourist season and many Parisians are gone on vacations themselves.

Today we started with the Marais walking tour. We got there on Metro, which was easy. We looked at what was left of the Bastille, which is only a tall monument in a traffic circle. A new opera house is in the background. We found Victor Hugo's house, the lovely square, Place des Vosges, then found the Carnavalet Museum, which specializes in Parisian history. We were not really planning on going to any more museums today, but discovered that Rick recommended this place and there was no admission charge. We went for it. The building is a converted mansion that is lovely to look at and the exhibits were interesting. We continued on in the Jewish Quarter (the Marais). We needed lunch and fell back on our strategy to just do what Rick suggests--in this case a falafel sandwich. It was vegetarian and great!

We had enough time for a second walking tour. We chose the Pere Lachaise Cemetery Tour, which we accessed by the #69 bus instead of Metro for a change. Rick had a handy diagram in his book. We followed it through the impressive cemetery, passed tombs of Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Frederic Chopin, and G. Rossini. Although it was interesting to see the graves of those famous people--and others, it was moving to see the graves and memorials to WWII victims including concentration camps and resistance workers. We were tired after this tour, so went on home via the #69 bus, which took us right to the Eiffel Tower. We decided upon a light dinner of fruit and green salad, which we bought at our supermarket.

Last Day of Museums

Montparnasse

(I'm not really touching this work of art.)

City Hall at the center of Paris

The Sorbonne

Today was the last day we could use our museum passes. We no longer will have to rush around trying to figure out what museums to squeeze in. We agreed that what we saw today was well worth it. We headed over to the Cluny Museum, or National Museum of the Middle Ages, in a 15th century mansion built on top of Roman baths. It has great atmosphere. It had a fun exhibit on swords, including a clip from Mony Python's Holy Grail.

After the Cluny we walked passed the Sorbonne, then by the center of Paris--the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). Finally, we made it to Notre Dame. We joined the crowds and went inside to view the gorgeous Rose Windows and Gothic architecture.

Larry hit the wall and needed lunch fast, so he had a sandwich at Starbucks before our next stop at the Pompidou Center. The National Museum of Modern Art is there and it is most worthwhile. We felt right at home with the modern art. The crowds were not bad either. Here are a few photos:

We ended our day of museums at the Jewish History Museum, which also was worth seeing. I have further respect for Napoleon. He insisted on assimilation of Jews as equals in French society. There is another museum that is devoted entirely to the deportation of Jews and Holocaust. Larry doesn't want to go to that.

We had dinner at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant just around the corner from the Jewish Museum, Le Potager du Marais. It was pretty good. The soup we had for a first course was nice, the vegetable gratin with hazelnuts I had for a second course had good textures but would have benefited from a heavier hand with seasonings. The chocolate mousse dessert was good. We walked home, which took us about 1-1/2 hours.

Observations on Paris

Paris, of course, is a beautiful city that has a romantic atmosphere. I don't need to talk about that in this blog. Here are some impressions for visitors. The natives, on the whole, have been friendly and welcoming. We have encountered few cranky people--a couple of workers at the museums who oddly enough acted like we should have understood directions in French. That was the very location that you would expect bilingualism.

It is expensive here! Our apartment is a good value, so I'm not complaining about that. However, food in grocery stores and in restaurants is pricey. There is a supermarket near us, which is large by French standards. Food costs at least 20% more there than at home at our QFC. Restaurants are at least 20% higher also, that is after converting Euros into dollars. Service is included, so maybe it's not quite so bad. Maybe people make a little more considering the exchange rate. For whatever reason, we are eating modestly. The Lebanese restaurant down the road appears better priced than others we have noticed. There are more specialty shops than in Seattle. There are bakeries and fruit and vegetable stands on every block. There are butcher shops also, but not quite as many. There are convenience stores, of course, as well as larger supermarkets, but nothing as large as we have in Seattle. That makes sense because of the urban setting here.

Our clothes dryer in the apartment just went out, unfortunately. It started making a loud sound that was not right--after several load of clothes without a problem. All the appliances in our apartment are newer and feature energy saving technology. At any rate, our manager came over to size up the problem and decided that he needed to order a new dryer. I was a little surprised that he didn't call a repairman. However, it wasn't my business. (By the way, he, of course, did not think it was our fault that the thing broke.) It just made me think of the life span of newer, computerized appliances compared with older ones. It doesn't seem right that they only last 5 years or so without problems, but that sure seems to be what happens here in Europe as well as in the US.

Another observation. It appears that Parisians are happy with smaller size TV screens. In looking out our window over at many apartments across the street, I see smaller screens. In the US we may have gotten a little crazy about size.

A Visitor plus a 1000 stairs

I forget who painted this in the Middle Ages. The faces are all stylized and look similar.
This painting is in the same room as the Mona Lisa. No one seems to stop by to admire her, even though she is pretty and is exposing her breasts. She needs a better publicist!
See--I finally made it close enough to the Mona Lisa to have my photo taken with her.
At last I was close enough to take this!
Rembrandt's self-portrait as an old man.
Rembrandt as a young man.
Here is the largest pyramid at the Louvre.
Paula, petting the lion.

At the Eiffel Tower. We walked up 720 steps to get there.
It's tall. Not the place to go if you don't like heights.


Rodin's garden: the Burghers of Calais.
This is another of Rodin's works, the gates of hell. The Thinker is at the top looking down.

Larry's nephew David visited us for a few hours. He was on his way to Marseille for a math conference and had a stopover here enroute. He took a shower here, then we went off for lunch in the neighborhood. We tried the Lebanese restaurant a few blocks away. It was good. We were happy that David could order in French. We then rushed off to St. Sulpice, the location of David's favorite macaroon shop. We had to try some, too. Then, before we knew it, David had to rush off to meet his train. It was fun having a visitor from home. The macaroon shop has a website: www.pierreherme.com.

After parting with David, we decided to explore the neighborhood we were in. We were right in front of St. Sulpice Church. I had forgotten that it was featured in the Da Vinci Code. The church disclaims some of the mysticism about the astrological clock. It made me want to watch the movie again, though, just to see how the sights were used. We also walked on to the Luxembourg Garden, which was lovely. It is used by the locals for family outings. It has an old palace on it that now houses the Senate. We then walked over to the Delacroix Museum, which was a nice old house of Eugene Delacroix, the painter. It was worth seeing, but doesn't have a big wow effect.

We decided to walk back to our apartment. The Louvre was on the way and our museum passes were burning holes in our pockets, so we went back. This time I wanted to see the Mona Lisa when it wasn't so crowded, Rembrandt, and some other Dutch painters. We found them all this time. The crowds really are less late in the afternoon. We concluded our outing by walking along the Seine. We returned home exhausted, but feeling virtuous enough to eat some treats for desert.

I forgot to say that we began our day by going up the stairs to the Eiffel Tower's second level, 720 steps. The top level is not accessible to the public by stairs or I may have tried it. We enjoyed the views and were pleased that the trek up the stairs did not wind us. I figured it would be fine because of all the stairs we go up and down at our townhouse. I also didn't mention that the Louvre has plenty of stairs also. We went up and down at least 200 stairs there.

Paris Continued

We continued working our way through our must list: the Musee d'Orsay, the Rodin Museum, and Napolean's Tomb. I love the d'Orsay. We got there right when it opened and went straight to the Impressionists. It was not crowded and the paintings were easy to look at and admire. Renoir's work was my favorite. Before I think I liked Monet better. It's hard to choose. The building itself is lovely--a converted train station in the Art Noveau style. It had just the right amount of art to look at in less than 2 hours, unlike the Louvre. There is so much to see at the Louvre that even under less crowded conditions, it would be hard to leave after several hours thinking you had seen all of the important pieces.

After the d'Orsay, we headed over to the rue Cler to have lunch. Rick Steves has made this street famous for food and he recommends several places in his book. Unfortunately, the restaurant we chose to sit at had either poor service, or we sat in just the right no-man's land for waiters not to see us. We left without ordering. We decided to look for another place on the way to the Rodin Museum and were rewarded with a cafe across the street from it with excellent service and good food. We both had salads. I was amused to see that Heinz ketchup was served with one of the popular meat dishes that locals were ordering. It reminded me of my father asking for ketchup when we took him out to nice restaurants.

We liked the Rodin Museum, which is in an old villa. It has just works by Rodin in an attractive setting, both indoors and out. However, for some reason, I like the Rodin sculpture garden at Stanford a little better. Both are worth seeing.

Napolean's Tomb is close to the Rodin Museum, so it is a good place to go next. It is a bit gaudy, but still impressive. We went back to our apartment afterward and Googled Napolean to read up on all of his accomplishments. I found out why people here liked him so much in spite of his emperor thing and disaster in Russia. He did a lot to improve the justice system and to reform aristocracy. I do recommend his tomb--it's hard to miss in the skyline. Just look for the gold dome.

Moss Lady in Europe

This is a shop front near our apartment. I am wearing the "vest-s-cape" I made at the ASG convention in Los Angeles.




Larry and I are in Paris now. The trip is supposed to be a celebration in honor of his 60th birthday. I hatched the idea rather suddenly when I got an email advertising lower cost to Paris. I checked the dates and thought--why not? Larry didn't need too much persuading to agree to the plan. We agreed that it would be good to have a balance between a familiar place and something new. We decided to spend a week in Paris (the familiar favorite) and try 5 days in Budapest and 5 days in Prague (new places). I am going to include some mundane details of our trip in this blog so that I can remember how we got here, what the apartment and neighborhood were like, and places to return to or to avoid. If anyone else is reading this, I apologize in advance if it is a little boring.

First, the how. We flew Delta to Atlanta, then its flight partner Air France to Paris. The first leg left Seattle at a convenient early afternoon time. We were able to take the light rail to the airport with no problems. The flight was on time and actually reached Atlanta a little early. We had only 1 hour between flights to make the connection, which seemed a little risky. It all worked out fine. I liked flying Air France. The plane was packed, but still confortable. We flew on an Airbus that must have been pretty new. Each seat had its own entertainment console. They passed out eye masks, ear plugs, and had complementary pillows and blankets for those people who wanted to try sleeping during the overnight flight. I reclined and got comfortable but couldn't sleep. Instead, I watched a couple of movies, including Midnight in Paris. That was the perfect film to watch on the way. It got me psyched up for walking in the rain here. Air France also provided me with a vegan dinner with champagne and breakfast, all at no additional charge. In these days of fees for everything, I felt like the flight was a value. The flight arrived early, too. We managed to exchange money and find the correct RER B train to town to get to our apartment. The manager was waiting for us. I was psychically prepared for little things to go wrong on the trip over and was relieved that things actually went so smoothly. If you'd like to see where we are staying, just check out the website www.yellowflat.com. The owner's photos are better than what I could do!

On our first day here, with jet lag hovering over us, we decided to just follow advice from Rick Steves--buy a 4 day museum pass and first see the musts. In our case the top of the musts was the Louvre. We headed off with guidebook in hand and our pockets filled with just a few euros so that if we would run into pick-pockets we wouldn't lose very much. We made it to the Louvre and bought a 4 day museum pass at the Tabac shop. They required cash, which we didn't have quite enough of, so got some more at a nearby cash machine. The Louvre requires everyone entering to be scanned, which makes sense. You just can't get in quite as easily that way. There was no advantage to holding the pass in terms of speed of entry at the Louvre. Since there are so many choices of wonderful things to see at the Louvre, we decided just to follow suggestions from Rick Steves' book. We set out to find Venus de Milo and ran into a few glitches, not to mention thousands of people. The place was packed! We temporarily scrapped the plan to see Venus d M, and instead followed the signs for the Mona Lisa. That we did find, but couldn't get very close to it due to the hoards of people. We decided to find Venus, then leave. Actually we did see many nice paintings en route, but just quick views. It was too crowded to be comfortable. Two hours at the Louvre isn't enough to see much, but it was still worth doing. Perhaps we'll return near closing time when it's not supposed to be so crowded.

Although the Louvre had its ups and downs, we did manage to see two other nearby museums that were definitely worth a trip, even if they hadn't been on our passes. We went to the Decorative Arts museum and found a fashion designer featured: Hussein Chalayan. For more information his name or try connecting http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/fashion/hussein-chalayan-on-exhibit-in-paris.html. He had some pretty wearable clothes, but mostly far-out creations including a dress with straps held up by balloons. The museum also had a special exhibit of some gorgeous vintage autos that we passed in a distance.

Our last museum stop was the Musée de l'Orangerie, which is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. It has the Water Lilies paintings, which were featured in Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris that we just saw on the flight over. That was a fun context for us. We saw some other lovely Impressionist paintings and decided that we were glad we left the Louvre. Here are some photos taken on the way back to our apartment.