Last Day in Paris

We had a marvelous day today, spent mostly at a huge new Monet exhibit at the Grande Palais.  The exhibit contains more than 200 of Monet's paintings reassembled from all over the world (including a few we have seen at the Chicago Art Institute).  It was so amazing to see some of his series of paintings all together so that you can see how the light changed over the day and the seasons and how he painted it.  Of course, one of his most famous paintings, "Impressions," which ultimately gave the painting movement the name "Impressionism" was not there because of a feud between the curators of this exhibit and Impressions' permanent home, also here in Paris.  Ah well.   A gorgeous exhibit (sorry, no pictures allowed) and we were really tired afterward. 

So went off to a good (late) lunch, including a wonderful profiterole.  We are adjusting to the Paris fashion of 2-hour lunches. 

We walked around a little near the Grand Palais.  Here are a few gold plated pictures, especially of the Pont Alexandre III, one of the most beautiful of the many bridges in Paris.  The dome in the background is over the Hotel des Invalides, which holds a military museum and Napolon's tombe.  Actually, there are about seven caskets inside, each one smaller than the other.  No fear that he'll get out.

Then we walked around our new neighborhood, near Gare St. Lazare.  We went to the top of Galeries Lafayette (one of the great department stores in the world) to see the panormic view. 

Now we're getting ready to fly to Istanbul tomorrow morning.  We leave our hotel at 6:30 a.m.  We're looking foward to seeing the Marys, Betty, Mary Kay and Claire, Bev and Mary when we get there.  Safe travels to us all!

Paris, Again (Wednesday)--The prodigal notebook

Here we are, safely back in Paris.  It almost seems like coming home, except that we can also foresee coming home to Madison.  But first, on to Turkey and Greece. 

When we left Paris 9 days ago, we were warned to make a hotel reservation before we left because there is a big international auto show that opens tomorrow in Paris.  And, indeed, the hotels we checked were either full or near full, but fortunately we landed here at Hotel Britannia, which has wi-fi.

No pictures from today (but keep checking earlier posts--we'll keep adding some) but here is a wonderful story.  When we took the train to Giverny (where we visited Monet's house and saw the waterlily pond), on the way back, Melissa left her little notebook on a bench at the Vernon Gare (train station).  We assumed it was lost, which was sort of a problem because it was the only place in which we had written the phone number of our friend, Jacqueline, with whom we planned to stay in Rennes.  Fortunately, we were able to retrieve her phone number from the apartment telephone we had used to call her.  And then, just before we left the apartment permanently, Jacqueline called us, saying she had been called by the train company at Vernon to ask if she knew whose notebook it might be, since her telephone number was in it.  She was told that the name Olivia was repeated often, and at first she said that she didn't know anyone named Olivia.  BUT THEN, she realized that it must be Melissa's notebook with telephone numbers related to our cruise with Olivia..  So she called the train company back and told them she knew the owner of the notebook.  They said they could not send the notebook to her, but they would send it to the lost and found at Gare St. Lazarre in Paris.  Amazing!  In turns out that the Hotel Britannia is near the Gare St. Lazarre, so after we got here, we strolled over to the lost and found, asked for Melissa's notebook, AND ,,, they handed it to her.  Incredible!  Ten days later!

We are looking forward to seeing our Madison friends, our Maine friends and our Illinois friends when we get to Turkey. 

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves!

Driving to Evreux (Tuesday)

We're back on line!  Good to be here, after some very frustrating attempts to get on line.  We stayed in some hotels with secure wi-fi (pronounced wee-fee over here), but the WEP security code was too many digits for this computer and we could not get on-line.  We've been having a very good time and will try to fill you in (on the earlier placeholder posts) at little later. 

Not too much happened today, since we were mostly traveling.  However, we did manage to make a great find--an actual chocolate factory!

  It also has a museum on the history of chocolate and tours of making chocolate.  We discovered that we don't really care about the history or the process--just the eating:

This is REALLY goood chocolate!

We found the facteory as we were leaving the city of Bayeux, which we really liked.  Tonight we're staying in Evreux, a city newly-built after being almost destroyed during WW II.  We're about 120 kilometres from Paris. 

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we go back to Paris.  We'll try to upload some more of our pictures while we're there. 

Hope you are all doing well and having as much fun as we are!

Omaha Beach and Bayeux Tapestry (Monday)

Stayed in an adequate zero-star hotel in Saint-Lo last night, but it was pretty cramped.  Also, no difference in price for 1 or 2 people seems to  mean, in part, that you only get one towel. 

As we left, we went to look at a church in Saint-Lo that is famous for its outdoor pulpit.  What interested us more was the way the Allied bombing of Saint-Lo was memorialized at the church.  Saint-Lo was an important component of the Nazi high command's effort to thwart the landings in Normandy (including Oraha and Utah beaches).  Much of the town was destroyed  by the Allied bombing after the Normandy landings.  Driving in this part of France, you see many fewer really old buildings because they were destroyed in the war; instead there is a lot of early post-war construction, and increasingly, more modern construction.  Anyway, here's the church, with the destruction to the arches still visible.   The dark wall in the rear is the modern replacement for the front wall.  The arch on th right side looks similar to this one. 

Then we drove to Omaha Beach.  When you approach Utah Beach, there is signage from 30 kilometers away, leading you to the Beach.  This  is not true of Omaha Beach, and there is very little signage, although we're sure they expect drivers so approach from the major north-south artery, and we were driving east from Saint-Lo.  It was a little hard to find. 

Omaha Beach is a long beach, which now has a road running much of the length of it.  Here is the Memorial to all those who fought and died, and a view of the Beach itself. 

The structures you see in the second picture are modern, not left from WWII.  You can see in this picture how broad the beach is before you come to the cliffs.   

This is a Memorial to the engineers who were killed during the building of the infrastructure that permitted the Allies to land.  The construction started here 3 hours after D-Day commenced. 

The American Cemetery overlooks Omaha beach.  This is a view of the Beach from the Cemetery:

You can just make out the cliffs in the distance that were in a previous picture.  In one of his books, Stephen Ambrose tells the story of the charge up this gulley. 

Here are some pictures taken at the cemetery. 

The American Cemetery is a beautiful resting place, but it is also such a monument to the horrors of war.  The average age of the Americans buried here is 21.  The displays within the Museum made us both weep for the awfulness of it all. And wonder again why we seem to need to do this to each other still today.  

So we were glad to see a little life on our way to Bayeux:

 

Since we're no longer writing this in the order in which we experienced, we can step back and forth in time a little.  The day after we were here, while we were at the chocolate factory, we met a Korean vet, and asked him if he had been here.  He said he had, and also at Utah Beach, where he had walked away from the beach into the fields, where there are still many German pillboxes.  He also said he had been at the Cemetery while the newly appointed American head of NATO (a relatively young man) was visiting.  We think he mentioned a second man who has or will receive the Medal of Honor from President Obama (or maybe it was the NATO commander himself who gets the Medal--we are unclear).   In any case, during the flag ceremony, they spied this Korean vet (by his hat, as we did), and asked him to come assist during the lowering of the flag.  He was very moved by his experience. 

And now onto Bayeux.  The town of Bayeux is famous for its tapestry, almost 70 meters long, which tells the story of how William the Bastard came to invade England to take possession of his kingdom from the usurper, King Harold.  William won, and he is now known as William the Conquerer.  It's a fascinating piece of embroidery, wool on linen.  It is now believed that it was probably commissioned by William's uncle, who was the Bishop of Bayeux, and was done about 1100 A.D.  Here is a picture of one scene (there are about 60) of a replica:

This scene is of Harold, who is not king at the time, and is on a mission from King Edward of England to Edward's son, William the Bastard, and is captured by the Duke of Guy, William's enemy.  You can see we spent the day immersed in war.  There are only 3 women in the tapestry, although women made it. 

The town of Bayeux is a delightful little town, and we enjoyed walking around.  For the first time we were in the company of lots of Americans.  In the little restaurant we went to, about 8 tables large, 6 of them were filled with Americans.  There wasn't so much French at dinner!   Here's some of the town. 

Au revoir!

Utah Beach (Sunday)

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Mont San Michel (Saturday)

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Driving to Rennes (Friday)

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Chenonceaux (Thursday)

Coming soon: pictures of Chenonceaux

Chartres (Wednesday)

Coming soon to a theater near you:  some pictures of Chartres.

A Stroll Around Paris (Tuesday)

Coming soon to this fine site:  some pictures of some things in Paris. 

Monet day (Monday)

Today we took the train from Gare Saint Lazare  to Vernon, and thence a bus to Giverny, Monet's home for the last part of his life.  This Paris railroad station (Gare Saint Lazare) was frequently painted by Monet.  You will probably recognize it from this picture.

Or perhaps not.  :-)



The train is very pleasant, silent, clean, with comfortable seats even in second class (where we were).  We received a reduction of about 1/3 the price because of our advanced ages.  The ticket seller asked us how old we are, and was very kind to us in a variety of ways.  That taught us that perhaps we should ask about reductions in the future. 

But you will reognize the pond with waterlillys which was the subject of so much of Monet's later paintings.  Here are a few different views:



These photos are all taken around noon, so the light is not at all the same as for the Monet pictures in yesterday's blog.  This is a very peaceful and beautiful setting, and it is easy to imagine Monet inspired to paint here.  He worked on many different canvases all set up at once, and would move from one to the next as the light changed and the day passed.  His house is also open, although that was less interesting to us (you can see his collection of Japanese prints).  The atelier (studio) is now used as the gift shop, although you can still imagine how he would have used all the wonderful light that floods into the room.  Here's a bust of Monet, on the walk from the bus stop to Giverny itself.

This was a very pleasureable side trip from Paris.  Really a highlight so far.  Then we got back on the bus, and then the train, and came back to Gare Saint Lazare. 

Once back in Paris, we went looking on the right bank for a little store that sells santons, little figurines made in the sourth of France that show traditional people, and some of which can be used for traditional nativity scenes.  The first time Missy ever went to France, she was given a little santon by some French people, and she's wanted another ever since (many people collect entire sets, but we're content with one more). There are two of these stores in Paris.  Here is the shopkeeper of the one we found, in her very idiosyncratic shop:

And this is a santon:

This woman is selling vegetables.  The shopkeeper was thrilled that we came all the way from the US to find her shop and exclaim over the santons. 

From here we went to dinner, which we shall not bore you with except to say that Ingrid had her first truly bad meal in Paris.  (Missy's was very good, however.)  To console Ingrid, we stopped in our neighborhood on the way home to have a little chocolate.  What else!

Here it is, and it was delicious.  It is an Alexandra.

We want to correct an error we made a few days back.  We have now several sources to correct our statement about the numbers of Jews deported from Paris during WWII.  This is from an essay by Ronald Koven, originally printed in The New Yorker in 1998, and reprinted in Paris: An Inspired Anthology and Travel Resource, ed. Barrie Kerper:

"There were 300,000 Jews in France before the war," (of whom 76,000 were deported and most of those were killed) and, "the 225,000 who survived did not do so by accident.  Many non-Jews, including some of the police involved in the roundups, took risks to help them. . . Today's French Jewish community is more than twice as large as it was before the war."

We sorry for the earlier error. 

Also, today is actually our last day in Paris.  (We are a day behind in the blog, so it may seem to you that we are a bit premature. We hope to fill in the missing day at some point.)  Tomorrow we leave for Chartres and we don't know what kind of access to the internet we will have.  We may not be able to blog so regularly. 

Thinking of all of you.  We miss you!

Putting on the Ritz (Sunday)

Today we took the metro to Place Concorde mainly to see the Monet paintings at Musee de l'orangerie because we are going to Giverny tomorrow where Monet lived and worked for the last part of his life, and painted the pictures that are displayed at the Musee.  Here's one of your faithful reporters on the metro:

To get to the Musee, we walked through the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine was once centrally located.  (Nice thing to put in a square that is named for harmony!) In its place now is an Egyptian obelisk, the obelisk of Luxor. It was brought to Paris in the 1830's.  But in 1998 the gold leaf cap was added, replacing the original, which was stolen 2500 years ago. 



Here's you other intrepid reporter taking a picture of it:

 



















The Musee itself was originally built to house these huge Monet paintings, which he gifted to France.  They consist of 8 enormous curved panels, which portray the water lillys at Giverny in all types of light.  Here are two photos to give you a sense of them:

The first is a sort of panaromic view of morning on the pond at Giverny.  The second is just a slice of the picture depicting sunset on the pond at Giverny. 

After leaving the museum, we strolled through the Tuileries (gardens of the Louvre) on the way to the main entrance of the Louvre.  Here are I.M. Pei's pyramids, the newest addition to the Louvre, originally a royal palace.  There are actually 3 pyramids, 1 small one on either side of the large one.

Then we walked along the Rue St Honore past the Palais Royal, toward the boulevard that leads to the Opera.  On the way there, we found these young string players, who are very good, and have recorded a number of CDs.  Behind them is one of the gaudily designed Metro stops:

This is in the Square Colette, which is near where the Comedie Francaise  (classic French theater)is located.  Perhaps you have read some of Colette's stories.

We have been fascinated by what seems to us to be an increased interest in focusing on the horrors of WWII, and the Vichy Government's role in it.  There have long been plaques in Paris, such as the one below just off the Avenue de l'Opera, remembering those who were killed during the war years on corners and streets in the city.  But we are seeing on ths trip an insistance toward recognizing the collaboration of some French people with the Nazis (remember the school we saw a couple of days ago where the collaboration was mentioned).

Somewhere in here, we went to lunch, but the only thing left to show you are some empty shells:

Then we went to the Place Vendome.  On the way there, we were caught in a Brazilian protest (or perhaps celebration; we never did figure it out).  In any case, there was a huge drummer band, and the people following--tourists, native French--were dancing along.  The streets were completely clogged, and this was a particularly busy Sunday in Paris because it was Journees de les Patrimoine,which means that lots of official buildings that are normally closed were open to the public.  We did not succeed in getting any tickets because they were sold out quite a while ago, so LOTS of people were in Paris.  Anyway, here are the Brazillians dancing in the streets:





Then we ducked around the corner to corner to the Place Vendome.  You may recognize this as the home of the Ritz Hotel where Princess Diane was staying with Dody before they left and were killed in an auto accident.  However, you probably did not know that this store, named after Ingrid's brother and cousin, is also in the same Place. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what they are selling, but I can tell you it is expensive! 

Then we ended up at a famous Cafe near the Opera.  Here's the Opera House, and next the famous Cafe:

The cafe is just to the left in the picture above, and here is Cafe de la Paix in full:

 Entertainers like Maurice Chevalier and Josephine Baker (the great American dancer)  used to hang out there.  Inside, while we were sitting outside, high tea was being served, and you could hear all manner of British English being spoken.  But here's the good thing about Cafe de la Paix.  It takes two picutres to show you the hot chocolate. 

YUM!

Lazy Day in Paris

We decided we needed something of a down day today, so we made two neighborhood excursions.  On the first one we took a list of potential restaurants we had gleaned from various sources to see if we could find a neighborhood restaurant that was not so relentlessly meat-focused.  We first found one with some very nice seafood options, that as a restaurant, would not be open until 7:00 this evening.  The French, of course, like to dine between 8:00 and 10:30 p.m., but that is a little late for us.  We were willing to tough it out, though, for the sake of gustation.  As we walked back to our apartment we spied a restaurant we had spotted earlier, but which we though would be closed for our entire stay for remodelling.  But it was open!  In we went.  And today's Prix Fixe was a vegetarian pasta and vegetables with a light rocquefort cream sauce.  First course, very nice gaspacho (perhaps not so French) and a tarte avec coca to finish up.  At last, a neighborhood joint that has heard of a vegetable!  No pictures of food here, but here's one of the diners dining.

See, Missy is not here by herself after all!

On the second stroll we went west from the apartment, instead of east.  Here's one of an American striding down the street:

You can tell that's an American tourist partly from the camera in Ingrid's left hand (which you can't see very well), but also because her pant legs are flapping in the breeze.  Very gauche here. 

This is the end of Rue de Levis (our street).  We are just about to cross into the next street, Rue de Tocqueville.  By the way, do not dine at the restaurant shown here.  We did, our first night.  The food was average, expensive and the waiter tried (successfully) to cheat us.  Oh well. 

Almost as soon as you get onto Rue de Tocqueville, the neighborhood gets a little more upscale.  We've decided that our several blocks of Rue de Levis are perhaps working-class residences, with more up-scale apartments in close proximity on several sides.  



Here's a building Missy admired:



And here's the menu from a restaurant in this upscale neighborhood that we both admired.  Fortunately, it is closed Saturday and Sunday. 

It says on the last line:    (homard) roasted blue lobster for only 110 Euros.  That's about $145.00.  Oh well. 

Here's another homard as we were coming home.  The men working there had a lot of fun discussing whether we were permitted to take a picture with or without paying for it.  They finally decided that if we took a picture only ouside the shop, it would be free.  (Ingrid couldn't follow all this ribaldry since it was in French.  Fortnately, Missy was there.)  So, this is a partial view on the outside of the shop.  See the blue lobster in the lower right corner?  Not in a tank!

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves, as we are!  We miss you. 

Beautiful Day in Paris

We know we promised you the Louvre today, but it was such a gorgeous day that we couldn't bring ourselves to go inside.  Instead, we strolled around various parts of town.  We started near the Gare Saint Lazare (a train station) where we went to check out a few things, including buying tickets to go see Givency (Monet's house and gardens) and tickets to see a new Monet show that opens just in time for us to see it when we return to Paris after heading north.  While out strolling we ran across our favorite restaurant: 

Just kidding.  That's a MacDonald's, in case you can't make out the fine print on the awning. 

Then we headed out to Ile Saint Louis, in search of our favorite Epicerie Moutarde (a store that sells nothing but mustard), which we first visited 8 years ago.  Note: we are getting around the city by using the Metro, and if we're lucky, we're avoiding the times of day when we're packed into the cars like sardines.  We don't always succeed. 

On the way to the mustard place, we passed:

Notre Dame Cathedral.  We didn't go inside (HUGE lines to just get in the door, and we've been inside before), but here a few pictures.  When we were last here, there was still a lot of scaffolding up for the cleaning, but it looks very fine now.  From the front:

And from the side.  Missy likes these gargoyles. 

And from the back.  Ingrid likes the flying buttresses.

Then we went to the Memorial to Honor the Deported, which honors the 700,000 persons deported from Paris by the Nazis and Vichy collaborators.  About half were Jews, and the other half were resistance fighters, homosexuals, Gypsies, those with handicaps.  Only 3 percent survived.    (We wonder how much US news is covering the current effort by the French to expel Romas --formerly known as Gypsies--who are alleged to be living in illegal camps here in France.  Being in an illegal camp is the basis for deportation, since many Romas have immigration rights because of the admission of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union.  It gets quite a bit of coverage here.)  Here is the entrance to the Memorial:

As we menioned a few days ago, we have also seen some plaques honoring children sent away from their schools by the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators.  Here is one on a school that, at the time, was a boys' school.  (It is now integrated by gender.)

This school is on the Ile Saint Louis, one of the islands on which Paris was founded.  It is now very touristy, and we were surrounded by many Americans and British tourists.  However, we were the only ones looking for the Epicerie Moutarde.  After failing to find it and talking with several other shop owners, we learned that it no longer exists!  Horrors! 

We had to console ourselves with further strolling and eating.  We had a very nice lunch overlooking the Seine, again in a restaurant with a menu that explains the selections in French and English.  We are trying to understand why the restaurants in our home neighborhood (17th arrondissement) are so focused on serving meat, and we find wonderful vegetarian options in places frequented by tourists.  (We are not asserting there is a causal relationship, merely an observation.)

And finally, here's a happy tourist standing before the Seine.

















Thanks to everyone one who has commented on the blog.  We enjoy getting notes from you all, either through the blog or via e-mail.

Moules at last!

We are finally getting our sea legs back, so a few observations before we bring on the pictures.  We are very glad to be staying in this little apartment; it gives us more freedom and probably more room than if we were at a hotel.  Particularly when Ingrid was eating carefully to calm her "traveler's stomach," we were happy to be able to make our own food.  But there are a few potential drawbacks to this particular location.  Rue de Levis is quite commercial on the ground level, with shops and restaurants in this block.  That makes it full of life, and also noise.  We are on the first floor (second floor to you Americans) so we hear a lot of it, and it sometimes disturbs our sleep.  Parisian women (and sometimes men) are wearing high, but fairly heavy, heels this year, and they sound like horse hooves clopping down the street.  In addition, the garbage is apparnetly picked up EVERY day, about 4:00 lin the morning, and this is not a quiet operation.  Finally, we are amazed to see French drivers able to pull in and out of parking places that are only about 8 inches longer than the car.  We would say this is not possible, but they manage; however, it sounds to us like an auto stuck in the snow and ice, tires spinning.  And it takes a while.  Quite interesting to observe.  We should also add that when the Parisian authorities want to to tow a car, they cannot approach it like Mike's does in Madison, with a big flat-bed truck.  Instead, they cradle the car in two large straps and lift it straight up and onto the back of the truck.  Oh yes, this street is also notable for its lack of trees which is not true in other neighborhoods.   Nevertheless, we are very glad we found this apartment. And despite our complaints about people noise, it's not as bad as the traffic noise if we were on a bigger street.

Sorry, no pictures of the cars being lifted straight up, but here is the view out our living room window.  (If we had leaned out a little further, you could have seen the cross-the-street chocolatier.)

So, today (Thursday) we wandered over to Montmartre, went up the funnicular to Sacre Couer and strolled around like the happy tourists we are.  Here is Sacre Couer:

  It was built atop a "butte" (named Montmartre) and offers spectacular views of the city.  Since 1885, someone has been praying continuously in the building.  It is considered something of a miracle that it was not bombed by the Nazis (although there was bombing very close by).  Here are a few of the city views from its steps:

Also on Montmartre, St. Denis was said to have been beheaded by the Romans, whence he picked up his head and walked to the suburbs (now called St. Denis).  The site of the reported beheading became a largely Jewish school during WWII, and many of the children were sent away to die in Nazi camps.  It is still a school, with a prominent plaque talking about the children dying due to the Nazis and the Vichy government. 

After so much history and sainthood, we repaired to a nearby restaurant.  The whole area is very touristy, much more than when Missy first visited Paris 44 years ago.  Even though the menu described the food in French and English (a very bad sign), the food was quite good, as you can see:

(These are moules--mussels.  Missy didn't think it was worth taking a picture of my vegetable soup, although it was very good as well.)







As we walked down the butte, we came upon the Cimetiere du Montmartre, where many famouse people are buried, including Heinrich Heine, Hector Berlioz, Francois Truffaut, Edgar Degas, Jacques Offenbach, among others.  We didn't find all these tombs, but we did find an empty one for Emil Zola, who was buried there for five years before being moving to the Pantheon.  It is a special honor to be enshrined there.

Farther down the hill we came upon the man walking through the wall:

This sculpture is based on a short story, "Le Passe-muraille" (The Walker through Walls) by Marcel Ayme.  The plaza here was named for him. 

Then we wandered home (actually, got on the Metro, although it wasn't very far to come--we were tired), picked up a few things for dinner, including a stop at a local patisserie, which had these (and lots more):

The yellow cable visible in the picture is the internet cable that is bringing all this to you.  Did we forget to mention that the apartment comes equipped with DSL?  Sure makes this easy, but once we leave Paris we will not likely be so talkative. 

Tomorrow we are going to the Louvre.  Hope everyone at home is doing well.  We think of you often.