Monday on Ile de la Cite

Today started with late coffee, but we gained an hour because the Europeans started daylight savings time this weekend. Surprise!

The plan was to go to the Ile de la Cite, the island we visited to see Notre Dame, and finish the Rick Steves Historic Paris walking tour that we had started last week. We walked on rue Montmontre to the Les Halles metro station and took the train to the Cite stop. What a wonderful surprise when we came up out of the metro. The metro sign was one of the old ones, the art deco ones, and not many of these still exist. (I'll take a picture of the new ones at a later date so that ou can see the difference.)

We went directly to St. Chapelle, but the sign said that they were going to close between 1 and 2:15 PM. We decided to go to the little cafe across the street, Cafe Deux Palais. We sat outside to take in the street scene. We were not disappointed! This is hard to see in the picture, but the group gathering on the right side of the photo were protesting, and lined up on the left side of the photo in dark blue were the police. The building that is to the left outside of the picture was the "Palace of Justice". So they group was protesting in front of this major government building. There were photographers, so I will try to find something on line or in a newspaper tomorrow about the demonstration. It was peaceful, with a couple of slogan T Shirts, face masks that cover the mouth, and handcuffs. Quite entertaining. When we asked the waiter what was going on, he just shrugged and said (in English) "Oh, eet eez just zee French, madame. Eet eez alwayz zum zing."

After lunch, we saw that the line was HUGE for the church, so we went to the Conciergerie. I didn't take any photos (sorry) because I have so many of them from the last trip and wanted to save photo space on my camera for the church.

By the time we finished with the first tour, the line was still long but it was now or never. So, we got in line and waited our turn. This is what the street looked like as we waited.

After inching along for about 20 minutes, we rounded the corner to see that we had to go through a security check. Because the grounds are shared with the court building, different security is in effect. No big deal, just like the airline check-in except we were allowed to keep our shoes on. Then it was free-wheeling touring once we were inside the grounds.

This is the wooden spire of the church. They are working on the exterior of the building with a little facelift. A sign was posted about the ongoing restorations and they are very proud of the project.

This is a photo of the front of the church.

You enter through the bottom floor, where the peasants would have entered. They worshipped below in the smaller, lower area.

There was a winding stair case that took us to the upper floor. The first thing that catches your eye is the high ceilings. The painting style draws your eyes up to see the drama.

The room is surrounded by fabulous stained glass windows. One side is a little dark because a building is right next to it, but the other side allows the light to shine in. Beautiful. There are seats all around so that you can sit and look at the stained glass.

The magnificent part is the front by the alter. This is what it looked like today. There is a restoration project going on for the next few years.

Luckily, they have a beautiful photo on an easel at the front of the room that shows you what the completed alter section looks like. Wow. This is worth visiting again when it is completely restored.

We left the church and walked south on Boulevard du Palais to the Pont Saint-Michel (bridge). Crossing the traffic to get on to the bridge was insane. A bus, double long, was trying to make a right hand turn on to the bridge and traffic would not yield. The driver kept inching forward and suddenly he won and could complete the turn. We zipped across the street while the pedestrian light was green and safely made it to the other side. The bridge was crowded with a student group gathering, and as we made our way past them, the view was astounding.

Looking west from the bridge, I just had to stop and take a photo of the Seine and the Pont Neuf (bridge. "Neuf" means "new" and this is the oldest bridge. Go figure.)

We stopped at some of the local shops (I HAD to have two more scarves!) and decided to take the Saint-Michel Metro as our return route. Since it was rush hour, we decided to give traffic another hour to calm and had cappuccinos at the cafe La Fountaine Saint-Michel. We passed the time people watching and decided that this area, Rive Gauche/Left Bank, was an active part of the city with a wide collection of people. Tourists, students and locals all hurried past on their way home, or out. (Joan, I didn't see any new fashion trends. It looks like fishnet stockings are the statement for this Fall.)

Sunday in the St. Germain area

I took the smaller camera with me today so that I could take photos for the blog. Here is a thumbnail sketch of the day's adventures in the Left Bank area.

This is the fountain in front of St. Sulpice church. This church is neo classical modeled on St Paul's in London. There are three Delacroix murals inside the church. Sunday mass was being held when we walked in, so we sat down and enjoyed.
The church is known for their awesome organ. The organist played during the service, and also after the service had ended. For you "DaVinci Code" fans, this is the church that played an important role in the book, although there is a sign saying that the story was fiction.

We left St. Sulpice and walked across the plaza for lunch. There is a cute little place, Cafe de la Mairie. We had omelettes and caffe creme (like a latte). The seating inside was nice, and you can see that they had an extensive outside seating area also.

Just a short walk down rue St. Sulpice, and a left on rue de Seine, we found Gerard Mulot's pastery shop. I wrote a seperate blog entry on this fabulous place because it was so awesome.

I had a chocolate macaroon (for Coco!) and it was sooo good. It is not coconut, like the macaroons in the USA. This is two cake like halves with filling in the middle. I nearly forgot to take a photo once I took a bite!

We walked west on rue St. Germain-des-Pres until we came to...(guess) St. Germain-des-Pres. The red coloring in the front of the church is an ivy covering. Big applause for the Fall colors!

St. Germain-des-Pres is the oldest church in Paris, from the 11th century. The restored interior is painted in the medieval manner. The church is in the Romanesque style with round, not pointed, arches over the nave. (Description Credit: Rick Steves Paris)
Per Rick Steves, "the square outside is one of Paris' great gather spots on warm evenings". Well, it was a fun gathering spot on a sunny midday Sunday. A "jazz originale" band was playing on the corner. Hot stuff!

We returned to rue St. Germain-des-Pres and walked past the Odeon theatres to Boulevard de Saint Michel (We call it "Boule Miche", because we think that we are locals now!!) On the corner we found the Cluny Museum with medieval exhibits. The heads from the 24 guys in front of Notre Dame are in here (a little beat up, but who would look good after being buried for 200 years?). The Roman baths were closed. I was more fascinated with the door and matching flower.

The day was delightful. We walked north on Boule Miche until we came to the Metro, then jumped on a train to Les Halles and the neighberhood. We had dinner at Cafe de Etienne Marcel next door to the apartment and had yummy french fries (the fries looked so good that we just ordered whatever came with the fries...heee heee), a cup of Mariage Frere "Marco Polo" tea for my sister Ginan, and finished with a cappucino. Oh, and a little wine because, after all, it is Paris.

Paris - Delightful Sunday Street Market

We enjoyed the morning coffee and then went towards the Metro. What a surprise to discover a street market was opened on a normally busy street. Food smells were wonderful. This man is pulling cooked chickens off of a sword.
There were flower stalls along the street.

Butcher stands had an assortment of meats.

I got falafel and some other ravioli thing. Heated, bagged, and ready to eat as you walk. It didn't last very long.

The fruit stands had a quite a variety of great looking fruits.
It looks like everyone in the neighborhood turns out for these Sunday morning street markets.

Paris - Gerard Mulot - Death by Pasteries

I'm normally very chatty, but I was stunned by this shop and could only mumble to myself that I have never seen anything so amazing. See your yourself. Let me know what you think.

Group sized pastries in the front window.

Individual pastries inside the shop.

Chocolate candy.

A tower of Macaroons!

Strawberry and fig deserts

One final look at the front window goodies. So beautiful.

How to zip through Versailles in 11 hours

Phew, what a day. This was to be one of the easier days because we were going to see only one thing. It was a day of learning and discovery. It was exhausting and totally delightful. The photos are on the big camera, so I will add some of my favorites later.

We decided to leave on the early train. Alarm clocks went off by 7AM, and we were out the door and on the way to the Les Halles Metro center. A quick stop at the little shop to purchase some chocolate breakfast treats, and then to the Metro. No espresso this morning.

The first order of business was to purchase a round trip ticket from here to Versailles. We had Museum Passes, so all that we needed was the transportation part. We walked up to the ticket window and in Frenglish (french and english) explained that we wanted roundtrip tickets. The clerk spoke rapidly in French only (she didn't appear to be as fluent in Frenglish as we were) and pointed at the two machines set off to the side. In English she said "just pick Versailles, round trip." That sure sounded easy enough.

We stood in line to use one of the machines. The screen gave three selections and we touched the screen several times, each time harder, to get our selection to register. Then we saw that there was a rolling pin thingy at the bottom. We rolled it and noticed that the selection changed. A click on the button to the right registered the selection. A long list of options appeared, all in French. At the bottom of the screen was a language selector, so we selected English and everything became a little easier to read. We selected "round trip outside of Paris" (we swear that we did!) and then the V to get the list of V places that you could select. Roll, roll, roll down to Versailles. Cool. Then the payment options came up: coins or card. Selected card, thinking that it was a credit card. Having learned at the train station that you had to leave the card in the reader, in it went and we waited. "Can't read". Pull the card out and put it in the other direction...and wait. "can't read". Hmmmm. Put it back in the first way and slid it out, slowly. "can't read". Well, d**n it, put in coins, then! So we pull out coins and as we are trying to determine if we have enough in 2e, 1e, .50, .20, .10, .02, and .01, the screen says "time has expired" and it quits. RATS!!! People behind us switch their wait from one leg to another, but no one says anything. We get out of line, smile, and open the machine up for those in line to use. After two people get their tickets, we have our coins pulled and ready to purchase the tickets. We stop midway through our purchase to help the young couple at the next machine, since they were rookies. I only got as far as showing them how to select "English", and then said "ok, you can take it from here." They looked grateful.

We boarded the Metro train first, and then did a quick change through the corridors and found our train, headed in the right direction. We were off and running on RER C line, headed for the Chateau.

Continued....

How to do laundry in Paris

I determined that my sore knees and calves needed a rest and declared today a stay-in day. Also, I've been on the road for about five days and it was time to do laundry. Meet my fancy apartment sized combo washer and dryer. It's a front loading model, with a gazillion buttons and settings on the front. It is in the bathroom between the sink/toilette area and a slatted wooden rack to hold your stuff. The apartment is randomly stocked with products, likely left over from prior tenants. You use what you need, buy some more things and leave it for the next person (which is why we had wine the first night!). I digress. THANK GOODNESS for graphic artists who draw pictures on boxes because all of the fancy words printed on the box would not get me past utter confusion on which of the products under the sink where for the clothes or the toilet.

After bypassing the containers that had toilets on them, I found a box that looked promising. It had a cloth and bubbles on the front, and the instructions on the back showed clothes swirling around in a machine similar to what was here. Since there was nothing else like this, I used these little towelettes for the soap and tossed one in with my dainties, slacks and a few tops. I glanced at the instructions and starting pushing buttons (techies don't like written instructions). I selected some settings in the middle for the material settings and temperature (all in Celcius. I figured top was high/hot and bottom was low/cold, so middle would work just fine.). One button flashed at me, and giving credit to the engineers who design these machines, I pressed it. It started beeping and another button was flashing so I pushed it. 1.30 showed on the little display, so I thought "Hmm. An hour and a half. That is not bad." The machines started a slow run of water and then would spin. I looked up at the instructions again to confirm that I had done it all correctly, and realized that I hadn't selected any dryer settings. I tried to stop the machine, but it was well on its way so I backed off. While I was looking at the instructions, I noticed that there was also information about how to turn on the radiators. Ohhhhh, now I get it. The thermometer is in there, but each radiator had its own on/off knob. I ran around the apartment turning on all of the heaters and could feel the warmth radiating off of them immediately. (Is that why they are called "radiators"?) I felt that I had evened the score: Machine 1 Human 1.

After 90 minutes of whirling and spinning, the thing beeped proudly to let me know that it was done. I took out the damp clothes and draped them around the room on the newly discovered radiators to dry. I also noticed that my pearly white dainties were a calming shade of cream. Nice touch.

Feeling very confident, I started load #2. I put in the clothes, the pseudo maybe laundry detergent, and pushed all of the buttons including the dryer one. 3.13 popped up on the window. 3 HOURS TO DO A LOAD OF LAUNDRY???!!!!! This is now all starting to fit together: tiny closets, tiny stores with tiny containers of laundry soap and tiny washer/dryers. You cannot have a lot of clothes and wear them all, with the intent to wash them all on Saturday. This won't fly here.

So, after five hours, the laundry had dried on the radiator and in the dryer. I gathered the clothes and organized it all. Everything was folded and hung in the closet, ready for more outside adventures (enough inside for one day).

I settled in to tackle more technology: the phone. I guess that all things considered, it should be used the same as a phone in the US. Except that I wanted to CALL the US. I had been able to connect to the Internet (another LONG story since I initially thought that it was wireless and after a few hours of trying to get it to work, discovered that it had a cable connection. Plugged it in to my little laptop and it worked right away. DUH.) I had to Google how to make a phone call from France to the US. Found complete instructions (00 1 area code then local number...how easy is that?) and dialed my Mom. She answered and we chatted. Pretty cool.

Looking back on the day, I realized that I hadn't showered yet, didn't make it to the market, and hadn't written catch up on the blogs. But it was a great day of adventure, all confined in 600 square feet. And all while looking out the window at a Paris street. This is just what I wanted to do! I'm very happy.

Louvre and Orangerie - Paris

It's Fall in Paris and the leaves are turning yellows and reds. Every day seems to get more colorful. This photo was taken in the Tulleries while walking from the Louvre to Orangerie.
The day was rainy as we walked on rue Montmontre to the Boulangerie to have the morning pan au chocolat, stopped at the Tabac Cafe (a little place) for an espresso, and then on to rue de Louvre. It wasn't a hard rain, but a gentle downpour that was enough to warrant an umbrella. Our umbrellas were bright and colorful: one blue with white flowers and the other black with bold red, orange and yellow women's shoes. We entered the Louvre from rue de Rivoli on the northeast end of the building. This took us into a courtyard, Cour Carree. I had to walk carefully across the cobblestones and kept my eye out for an easier path. We rounded the corner and the glass pyramid was in front of us. A small devise was working its way up and down the glass to clean (clever...always wondered who cleaned the glass). I directed the walk to the pedestrian passage way on the north side of the building to the entrance for the Museum Pass holders. The guards told us to use the main entrance to the pyramid and just go right in. We returned to the pyramid, looked at the long line, then went to the open entrance and showed our passes. Straight through, past the long line, and down the escalators. The main lobby was filled with people waiting in line for tickets, but we zipped right past them and up another escalator to the Denon Wing. It was easy to find my favorite sites: Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Liberty leading the people (a woman my own heart). We stopped for a lunch break at Cafe Mollien and enjoyed salade du frommage and wine (because it's Paris!). We left the Louvre and crossed under Arc du Carrousel. I stopped to talk photos: eastward towards the Louvre and westward across the Tuilleries towards Place de al Concorde. (Photos are in another format and I'll add them when I return.)
The Tuilleries were glistening after the rain. The open air cafes, nestled in the trees, were empty as we strolled by, and warmed only by the glow from the kitchen. I heard them yell out to me as I walked by "Stop and have a cafe creme!!" But, I had to keep moving towards the Orangerie Museum.
We walked up the ramp to the museum. As we reached the top sidewalk, the Place de la Concorde with all of hustle and bustle activity drew our attention. Cars, busses, motorcycles, bicycles, all whirled around the monument obviously heading somewhere very important. The Tour d'Eiffel appeared in the background with the top section hidden by the fog. Statues and lampposts glistened with the wetness from the rain. (Yes, there is a great photograph...on the "big camera" so stop back later.)
Musee de l'Orangerie houses eight very large Monet paintings from the time spent at Giverny. I took a lot of close up photo to use as screen savers on the computer. I had seen these the first time I visited, before I went to Giverny. Now the photos came to life as I imagined being at the house and the pond, with the long branches of the trees hanging down into the water, and the reflections from the surrounding plantings mingled in with the flowers on the pond.
I had intended to take the Metro, or at least a bus, back to the apartment. But the traffic was going the wrong way! and so were the busses. We ended up walking through the shops on Rivoli, enjoying all of the sights and the sounds, and made our way back to rue de Louvre and the neighborhood. I was exhausted and went straight up to the apartment. Dinner was a yummy selection of cheese, baguettes, grapes, and wine...of course.

Isle de la Cite & Rive Gauche

Today's journey took the route through Isle de la Cite and into Rive Gauche, the Latin Quarter.

The morning walk went south on rue Montmartre. Stopped for a breakfast of pan au chocolate (chocolate croissant) and quiche lorraine from the local boulangerie. Carrying the treasures, the next stop was a nearby Tabac cafe for an espresso standing at the bar. The cost of the espresso (at the bar) was 1.1 euro and the breakfast treats could be eaten at the same time. Left the shop, walked south again on rue Montmartre until it ended at St. Eustache church and consulted the map for the best route to Notre Dame. "Friendly Frenchman #1" stopped by to help with the directions and quickly pointed out the quickest route. He sent me east on rue Rambuteau, past the Pompidou museum, then south on rue Beaubourg. This route went past the incredible Hotel de Ville, with a glimpse of Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville.

[photo Hotel de Ville]

Crossed the Pont d'Arcole (pont is bridge) and walked a little further to Notre Dame. I moved up to Point Zero and started the Rick Steves audio tour for the walk. Enjoyed viewing the front of the building and was approached by "Paris Scam #2": woman walks up to you and asks "Do you speak English?" Said "no" (in English) and went back to my touristy action. Entered the church (free admission) with a moderate crowd. The flow was to the right because there was a service being held. So COOL! The organ music filled the air, and the priests were giving the service in French. I walked around, lit a candle for the family, enjoyed the service from several different bench seats, and left the building. The tour continues around the outside of the building and on to Ile St Louis.

It was now time for lunch, so crossed the Pont St. Louis and started to sit at a table outside of La Brasserie de L'Ile Saint Louis. The waiter asked "Boire ou Manger?" (to drink or eat) and when the response was "Manger", he directed to a table set for a meal in the back row. The plat de jour was wonderful roast beef with pureed potatoes, plus a glass of red wine. Total cost was 21.6 e (I'm going to use e for euro until I can figure out how to use the symbol on the keyboard). No hurry during the meal. In fact, the waiter walked outside of the patio and a little behind the building to have a cigarette. Paid the bill and walked across rue St. Louis-en-L'Ile for some of the world famous glace (ice cream) at Berthillon's. I had vanilla cone, yummy! It wasn't as white as US Vanilla ice cream, was in a waffle cone (small) and was worth every bit of the 3e.

(TO BE CONTINUED

Paris Apartment - 2e Arrondisement

The flight from Dallas to Paris was uneventful. I slept comfortably, off and on, and the arrival was smooth. Customs was uneventful, showed the passport, got a stamp (yea!) and set off to find the tourist booth for the Museum Passes. As I walked, I passed the starting point for the return trip, all well marked. Good!

Made it to the train and metro area, and had a little confusion. There were a lot of signs, but in French! Where are the subtitles? Found the machine to dispense the ticket and used a credit card. I learned that I put it in and took it out too fast. It needs to go in, wait until it is read, and then take it out. Got the ticket, found the platform heading in the right direction, and left Charles de Gaulle airport for the Chatelet/Les Halles stop. Coming to surface again (Boy did they ever dig deep for the trains!) it was easy to get oriented and head off in the direction of the apartment.

The apartment is located at the intersection of Rue Montmartre and Rue Etienne-Marcel.

Andre Rieu 30th Anniversary Tour 2009

This was a surprising and delightful experience: Andre and his fantastic Johann Strauss Orkestra. He has been touring for over 30 years and presents a delightful concert. The seats were on the floor at jobing.com and allowed us to participate in the entry of the orchestra members, a bull, balloons, and a surprise waltz in the aisles. Delightful! One leaves with the heart beating in 3/4 time.

http://www.andrerieu.com/