May 7, 2017

Our last day in Paris!  We had hoped the weather would cooperate and be warm and sunny!  However, just like every day here but one, it was quite cool and sprinkling for a good part of the day!  Never daunted, we simply changed our plans a bit!  We scratched our picnic and long walk in the Bois de Bologne and did other great things!

After breakfast at the Trocadero (we've visited EVERY cafe there), we headed out for a walk anyway!  We strolled to the Arc de Triomphe in our layers of clothing (me with my umbrella) and discovered that Paris was pretty quiet!  Are they all voting or are they at church?  In any case there weren't many people around. Even the Place de l'Etoile was at a slow pace!  At the Arc, we walked around until we found Avenue Foch. 

Avenue Foch is the widest boulevard in Paris;  it is prestigious and very expensive. The Avenue itself is lined with a 50 foot wide park on both sides and the park is full of flowering chestnut trees (unfortunately not in full bloom yet!). Beyond each park is a side street with access to the elegant apartment buildings and mansions. We walked up and down both sides. Many we were able to see but the rest were hidden by with a 10 foot black wrought iron fence!  We did see the second floors and up of #19-21 which were owned at one time by the Rothchilds, #88 which was owned by Aristotle Onassis and # 88 which was taken over by the Germans during World War II and used as the Gestapo Headquarters. Pretty impressive!  

By now we were back at the Arc and decided to head down the Champs-Elysees for a coffee to warm up!  Traffic was picking up by this time but it was still occasionally showering!  We passed the most profitable McDonald's in France....there are 1000 McDonalds in France. It has become typically Parisian to dine "chez MacDo!"  Across the street is a Toyota dealer where we saw the prototype of a wooden car in the showroom.  We DID stop for a coffee and then decided to Uber to the Bon Marche department store , where we could go inside for a while and also thought we might find at the Bon Marche Grand Epicerie a Breton pastry Peter's been wanting to buy. We have it at the Pepis every year! No pastry but we did each have a delicious sandwich. This place would give Eataly a run for its money. The rest of the store is quite elegant and rather expensive in spite of its name....."bon marche" means inexpensive in French!  

We then Ubered to the Marais district for a Discover Walk. Audrey, a Parisienne who grew in Martinique but has lived in Paris for 17 years, was our tour guide. Audrey is in theater as an actor/director and is quite lively and has a good command of the English language. At one point in our walk we saw two nude statues of females reclining and Audrey said we could touch the "boobs!"  Peter asked how to say "boobs" in French and, after thinking for a minute Audrey replied, "seins" which means "bosom!" She couldn't believe she was talking about this with a stranger!   Guess there's no slang word!  We saw private historical homes and heard some interesting stories of gentlemen and their mistresses and wives and their lovers. At the Place des Vosges, we saw elegant English gardens, but with the weather there were no sun-bathing bikini-clad women to ogle!  Around the Place are elegant Old World townhouses, one of which was owned by Victor Hugo. The walk finished with a stroll through the very alive and active Jewish area of the Marais. The cost, again, for this walk was "tip only!" 

Still trying to hunt down the pastry ( called kouign amann, pronounced koon ya men) we Ubered to the Metro stop Odeon and found, thanks to Audrey, the Maison Georges Larnicol where we purchased four of these light, flaky, layered delights!  We were right there so we took the Metro back to Trocadero and headed up Rue Kleber to a pizza place Peter had seen. For dinner he had a pizza margarita which was quite good and I had a salad of tomatoes, grilled eggplant, burrata cheese and olives. Perfect AND delicious. Back at our apartment,  we started to prepare for our departure, ate our pastries and we were in bed at 10!!

Stats:  during our 6 day stay in Paris we rode the bus, took the Metro, Ubered and used our legs to see Paris. We walked a little more than 40 miles!

A bientot, Paris!!!

May 6, 2017

We had a lazy morning today!  Slept late, took a walk around the neighborhood in another direction. It's raining AGAIN and supposed to continue all day. So, we strolled back to the Trocadero and tried our third cafe for coffee and breakfast. As in all of the cafes in the Trocadero, delicious fresh squeezed orange juice is served with a breakfast. My croissant was delicious as was Peter's ham and eggs. We spent a lot of time deciding what to do today in the rain.....probably not a lot of walking!!!  

Since we're going to the Marais district for dinner and a concert, we decided to hop on the Metro (one stop to change lines) and go to the Opera Garnier which we had seen from the terrace at Printemps department store. After touring the opera house, we'll get back on the Metro and head (with one change) to the St Paul stop in the Marais. After long showers and rest time, off we went, about 2, still in the rain, to the Metro station at Trocadero. 

The Opera Garnier is fabulous!  It is considered one of the world's most beautiful theatres!  The facade is classically inspired and is a celebration of Opera with bronze busts of famous composers. The Grand Staircase is just that...GRAND!  Columns, statues, chandeliers and different colors of marble, the place for the elite of Paris to be seen!  From a box seat we looked down on the the 2000 red velvet seats and then up at Marc Chagall's colorful ceiling dancing around the 8 ton chandelier. Opulence galore surrounded by reception rooms with 24 carat gold  statues, archives, infinity mirrors and more WOW!!

Back on the Metro, we traveled to the Marais district, spent a few minutes in a former convent now a Unified Protestant Church speaking with a church member. Then proceeded to the Place Ste. Catherine where we dined sumptuously on a traditional French dinner from onion soup to creme brûlée afterwards attended a concert given by the Alegria String Sextet that played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and then featured a soprano singing sacred music including the Ave Maria that Bea sang at our wedding and Panis Angelicus, my mother's favorite. Fabulous acoustics!  All  of this is part of a birthday present to Connie from her "kids!"  At the restaurant, the clientele were ALL native Parisiens, a lot of them young people. A conversation with those at the next table revealed they were unsure about voting tomorrow!  The concert took place in a 17th century church, Eglise St. Paul-St. Louis, where we saw enormous clam shells that were fonts for holy water given to the church by Victor Hugo on the occasion of his daughter's wedding. We sat in the front row!  

Once again we Ubered home, marveled at the Eiffel Tower all lit up, arrived home and crashed!

May 5, 2017

After breakfast at Carette, our new favorite breakfast cafe at the Trocadero, we headed to the Metro to travel to the Notre Dame Cathedral for a Discover Walk, a tour given in English by a native French person, the cost of which is a tip, usually 10-20 euros. Found our way to the Charlemagne statue and waited for the guide. BTW the lines of tourists going into the Cathedral were quite long!  Our guide Simon arrived promptly at 11 for the walk. Simon is in his 20s, a native Parisienne who spent an exchange year at NYU and is very fluent in English....AND is charming!  

He led our walk of 9 people through the Latin Quarter and engaged us with history and story. We saw the oldest living thing in Paris, an acacia tree planted in 1602. At the bookstore Shakespeare and Co. Simon told us that any aspiring writer could live upstairs by promising to read a book a day and help in the store a few hours a day!  Along a very old, narrow street, we saw houses with "belly walls,"  houses built in the Middle Ages with first floor walls that protruded so that they wouldn't sink straight down into the mud!  He showed us where university professors in the Middle Ages would give lectures to students out of their windows while the students sat on bales of hay on the dirt street! We saw a very narrow medieval street slanted to the middle from each side to create a gutter for garbage, trash and sewerage thrown from windows. 

We walked by the College of Paris which does not give degrees but the best professors (think Jean Paul Sartre) give lectures for free to stimulate intellectualism!  Across the street, is a statue of Montaigne, who started the concept of the essay and we touched his toe as do most students before exams!  Then we strolled along side students in the  streets outside of the Sorbonne where we stopped for a group picture. Our walk ended at the Pantheon on the highest hill of the Latin Quarter originally built by Louis XV in his own honor but converted from a church to a mausoleum honoring the "Champions of French liberty!"  Voltaire and Rousseau who HATED each other are side by side!!  Our tour was over and we all clapped for Simon. 

After a cappuccino, we headed back to Notre Dame, walked through the cathedral, sat for some reflection and prayer, and then headed for a walk through Ile St. Louis, one of the ritziest areas in Paris. Along the way we saw a poster for a concert tomorrow night of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at a local church. Using GPS, we found the church and bought tickets and scoped out the Place du Marche St. Catherine for a restaurant for dinner before the concert. 

Our last stop before heading back to our apartment,  was to the Institut du Monde Arabe, suggested last night by Jeff. There is a lovely rooftop with views of the Seine and Notre Dame across the river. Also a very interesting exhibit of the history of Islam in Africa. Lots of African Islamic artifacts, photos and writings in Arabic, some very creatively done. By this time we were "done in!"  So we found our Metro station, reversed our route and arrived back at Trocadero at 6:30 with 16,000 steps each!

Back in the apartment by 7, we literally collapsed. Another day of 17,000 steps!  We've walked 28 miles in 4 days!  Our dinner was another indoor picnic!  The weather today was the best all week!  No rain!  It may have even climbed into the low 69s at one point!

Two more tidbits from Simon: If you want to eat at a place frequented  by locals, there are three things to look for. The menu should be only in French, no English and it should be short, indicating all items served will be fresh!  Lastly,  look at the sidewalk outside the restaurant; If there are lots of cigarette butts there, the locals like the restaurant. Also, there are two different types of baguettes: one is crispy or "bien cuite;" the other is fluffy and lighter, bien blanche". The French argue over the merits of each kind!  Peter loves both!

May 4, 2017

This was a day of walking, mostly!  After a substantial breakfast at another cafe on the Place, we headed toward the Arc de Triomphe to begin today's journey. Today we used our maps to get around and had a fairly easy time finding our destinations. At the Place de l'Etoile we ogled the confusion, , the crowds and the ever frenetic traffic!  Fortunately there's an underground passage to get to the Arc!  We easily found Avenue Friedland which turned into Avenue Haussmann and from there strolled to #158 the Jacquemart-Andre Museum. I read about this Museum mansion in PARIS in LOVE, a memoir by Eloisa James, a professeur of English at Fordham, who lived on sabbatical. for a year in Paris with her husband and children. This museum was her favorite!  

This was actually the lavish home of a wealthy, art-loving 19th century couple, Edouard Andre and Nelie Jacquemart. They spent their lives and their fortune (he was from a family of successful Protestant bankers, she was a daughter-after portrait painter) designing, building and decorating this mansion. During their travels, they bought paintings by Rembrandt, Botticelli, Uccello, Fragonard, Van Dyck and others. Other beautiful purchases included tapestries, exotic curios and ceiling paintings. 

They entertained up to 1,000 people at a time in the Antechamber with chandeliers, red velvet walls and gilded trim. The Grand Salon was the central focus for their parties. The Music Room contains balconies above the room where the band played. Beyond is the Winter Room with skylights and exotic plants and then the Smoking Room. Up either of two marble, curving stairways are the art galleries and Nelie's studio.  Downstairs are the couple's Private Apartments, separate bedrooms with a room in between for breakfast!  WOW!

Next stop was the department store Printemps where we were treated to a view of the city from the ninth floor terrace. There is a stunning overlook of the old Opera district and an unobstructed view of Montmartre. A good place to "chill" for a bit! 

 Our next stop was unexpected....on our way to the Orangerie Museum, we found ourselves at the Place de la Madeleine, where the Madeleine church dominates the center with its 52 65-foot Corinthian columns. Then we were on to the Place de la Concorde, the Oblisk and the Orangerie at the end of the Tuileries Garden. 

At the Orangerie we were mesmerized by the complete series of Monet's Water Liles paintings displayed in oval rooms with a tall skylight overhead drenching the Water Lilies in natural light. These 8 mammoth canvases are 6 feet tall each featuring  different parts of the pond at Giverny, at different angles, and times of day. It took Monet 12 years while suffering from cataracts to complete the series between the ages of 73 and 85. The rest of the museum included paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso,  Matisse, Derain, Modigliani and Utrillo. Peter really appreciated all of the chairs and benches in the museum!

We Ubered back to the apartment, got ready to go out and then took the Metro to the Gare de l'Est and walked to meet a friend, Jeff Sautin, brother-in- law of John Giorgio. He and his wife, Sarah, Mary's sister, have an apartment in Paris. Unfortunately,  Sarah was in the south of France so we were not able to see her. After wine and appetizers, we walked to Brasserie Flo, a favorite of Jeff's, for dinner and more conversation. Excellent dinner AND conversation. We Ubered home and fell into bed at 11!!

Today we walked 8 plus miles for the second day in a row!

May 3, 2017

We did sleep in a bit today and got up at 9 feeling pretty rested. We're telling ourselves we've already adjusted to the time change!  However, outside it was cool and rainy!  But, off we went anyway with our umbrella and dressed in layers!  Our first stop was at a cafe in the Place Trocadero for breakfast. We had cafe Crete, I had a croissant and Peter had ham and eggs. We were hungry and it was yummy and expensive (31.80E). Oh, well it IS Paris!  Our next stop was at a street vendor to get Peter a scarf!  ALL of the men AND women are wearing them today!  

So we were fairly warm and dry as we headed for the Army Museum, a good place for a rainy day!  And it WAS spectacular!!  First we gaped at the tomb of Napoleon under the dome of Invalides Church!  It is magnificent, 15 feet high, a glorious red porphyry (an igneous rock) coffin holding 5 other coffins and ( one ebony, 2 others of lead, another of mahogany and the last of tinplate before the emperor himself!  It is surrounded in various alcoves by tombs of members of his family and of some war heroes. 

We then proceeded to the World War I exhibit which tells the chronological story of the causes, battles and outcome of the war and how it "sowed the seeds" for World War II. Lots of films, uniforms, canons. Nearly 10,000,000 people were killed in just 4 years. In addition the war ultimately seemed senseless; it started with little provocation, ranged on with few decisive battles, and ended with nothing resolved, a situation that provoked World War II.  World War II was the most destructive of earth's struggles.  In this exhibit,  the war unfolds in photos, displays and newsreels, with special emphasis on the French contribution. You may not have realized that it was Charles DeGaulle who won the war for us. 

Except for the heavy French emphasis, it was fascinating. 

After lunch in the museum cafe, we headed to the Rodin museum where we strolled the gardens, saw the original Thinker and Gates of Hell. What a beautiful complex. Too bad it was raining!  Strolled to rue Cler where we took in a neighborhood shopping area. Bought provisions for dinner and stopped at a cafe for another cafe creme. By the time we got back to our small apartment it was 6:30 after walking almost 9 miles. Dinner was picnic-style and delicious. As Peter says, there's says, "Nothing compares to a French baguette!" Bed time rolled around pretty quickly!

The rest of our first day went by quite quickly I'm proud to say!  We did NOT succumb to having missed almost a whole nighttime of sleep!! We got our"trip gear" on and left our apartment to canvass the neighborhood and discover what makes this arrondissement tick!  Ended up walking quite a lot!  

Our walking itinerary included the neighborhood and some of its shops, a visit with a delightful statue of Ben Franklin, a stroll through the Trocadero Gardens, across the boulevard and around the Eiffel Tower, the discovery of a small, hidden and gated garden next to the Tower, a tour around the Place Trocadero and down some of its side streets, a stop at a grocer for supplies and a "sit down" at an outside table at a cafe for a glass of wine!  Then back to the apartment where we met our charming French landlady who showed us how to work the heat and the tv and also declined to take our 200E security deposit--"why wait until Monday to refund?"  Of course, she said this in French!  MOST of which I understood!!

Dinner was "at home!"  Baguette sandwiches with tomatoes, cheese and tabouli salad. Delish!! And we were "totally done in!"  We were in bed and asleep by 9!

What a birthday present!

We have arrived!!  Landed at CDG about 8AM Paris time (2AM EDT!) and then spent THREE HOURS in line with hundreds of other foreign nationals visiting Paris....all this just to show our passports and get them stamped!  THEN we went to baggage claim where we quickly found our checked baggage!  There was "beaucoup" grumbling and some who insisted this was "normale!" Or is it the upcoming election!

We found our Direct bus easily by 11:30 and arrived in downtown Paris at the "Place Trocadero" by 1 PM Paris time. Although we had eaten an okay dinner and a less than okay breakfast (at 1:30 AM!),

by this time Peter was famished!  So we stopped at a cafe on the Place, sat in the sun, watched some tres chic French women and the Eiffel Tower across the river and had a Croque Monsieur, a Croque Madame and a cafe creme before walking to our rental. And here we sit at 3:30 PM Paris time (9:30 AM EDT) in our apartment waiting to meet our landlady and "get moving!"  More later!