It is hard to believe that our time in Paris is coming to an end. We’ll be home six weeks from today. And we only have three more days in the City of Light.
It’s been very relaxing hanging in one spot for the last month. We haven’t felt rushed to do something every day. We haven’t felt frantic at not seeing something because we always knew there was another day to see it. And now that the time is winding down, I am feeling like we didn’t take advantage of our time here nearly as well as we could have. However, I refuse to regret our time and choose to be grateful for our extended stay and quality family moments in the beautiful and culturally diverse city.
Highlights
Up until now, I had been writing daily accounts of our adventures. But a lot of our time was spent as we would at home … just living and that isn’t very exciting. So I will share the highlights of the last couple of weeks.
The Louvre
According to EVERYONE a must see and something that can’t be done in just one day. We purchased our tickets online to avoid the lines and headed down to see for ourselves, the world’s largest museum. For those of you keeping track, it is located in Paris’ 1st arrondissement on the Right Bank of The Seine. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace which was originally built as a fortress in the late 12th, early 13th centuries and was extended many times to arrive at its current state. Louis XIV used the Palace of Versailles as his principal residence which left the Louvre primarily as a display case for the royal collection.
It was easy to get to the Louvre via the metro and we were directed, as we already had tickets, to the main plaza … the iconic one with the big glass pyramid (more on that later), where we waited in line to get in. It wasn’t a terribly long wait and we were quickly inside. What I am finding with most of these attractions is that security is somewhat lax …mostly there for show. We go through metal detectors and send our bags through x-ray machines but they are mostly about pushing people through.
Surprisingly, the museum was much fuller than expected. There were multiple tours happening, though the Louvre itself doesn’t have an option for a guided tour (that I could find). Rick Steves has an audio tour for The Louvre which we used and was insightful. The typical areas … the statue of Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa were packed but not so much that I couldn’t get close enough to either for a decent photo.
My one complaint about a lot of these museums, even using the audio tour to navigate, is they are hard to navigate. Or maybe its just me and my terrible sense of direction. Whatever the reason, I tend to get terribly lost and turned around. I fear that we didn’t see The Louvre to its full potential because we kept making our way back to the same areas … we were definitely walking around in circles, which was frustrating.
We had agreed on a meeting time and found Reece who had more success than Keith and me in navigating the space. She took us to a couple of new areas that we didn’t find during our own exploration and by then we had had enough of museums for the day. We walked through the courtyard and gardens and luckily the rain held off.
Montmartre
On this day the weather was warm and sunny. Reece and I were fighting a stomach bug so the plan was to stay close to home. We explored our Montmartre neighborhood in the 18th arrondissement using Rick Steves’ Paris guidebook that Keith found in our apartment that had a walking tour excerpt for the Montmartre section of Paris.
Montmartre is a large hill in the 18th arrondissement where the Basilica Sacre-Coeur was erected about 100 years ago. It is known for its artistic history and as the nightclub district. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries it was a gathering place for artists such as Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Degas and Van Gogh.
Our walk took us to the Basilica du Sacre Coeur, which we have visited numerous times in our month living just down the street. As it was Sunday, the Place du Tertre was packed with tourists and artists … some of those whom are the direct descendants of the great artists of a 100 years ago. We passed by the Dali museum and La Maison Rose … made famous by Picasso, among others. We meandered by the Clos Montmartre Vinyard … the last remaining vineyard within the Paris city limits and which is off limits to tourists except during harvest season. It was a lovely day to be out and enjoying the city and the sun.
Musee Marmottan Monet
A decent day, which just means no rain, had us trekking to the Musee Marmottan Monet in the 16th arrondissement. It holds the largest collection of Monet pieces at over 300 and also includes works by Berthe Morisot, Degas, Pissaro and Renoir. The building itself was originally a hunting lodge that was purchased by the Marmottan family in 1882 and was eventually bequeathed to the Academie des Beaux-Arts and was eventually opened as a museum in 1932. In 1966, Michel Monet, the 2nd son of Claude Monet left his collection of his father’s works to the museum.
One of these works, Impression, Sunrise was the piece responsible for the name given to this style of painting, Impressionism.
On a side note, that painting along with 8 others, was stolen in October 1985 when five armed and masked men stormed the museum brandishing pistols. The paintings were eventually recovered from a small villa in Corsica in 1990.
Versailles
Versailles, among other major attractions, is a must see and requires a day trip, via train, to visit. We purchased our tickets in advance … you know, to avoid the hoardes of tourists and the line and we arrived on a lovely sunny day less than an hour later. Unfortunatley, we were unable to avoid the lines … it snaked around the courtyard like a lazy serpent. Purchasing tickets in advance had no positive benefit. There were clearly two entrances but probably due to the time of year, with less tourists, only one entry was being utilized. There was no fast tracking to avoid the people that didn’t prepare … the upside was that it was a lovely sunny, warm day and so standing in line wasn’t too much of a hardship.
My favorite part about any tourist attractions is the human story behind it so while I can appreciate museums showing famous pieces of art, I did like Versailles a great deal simply because it was about real people and the way they lived … it has a human factor that I find interesting.
The Versailles’ gardens are extensive and amazing and the only regret we have is that we didn’t have more time or think to overnight in the city of Versailles so that we could explore the town and the palace at greater length.
Berthillon
In my reading, I came across what was professed to be the best ice cream in Paris. It became known as such in 1969 when a French restaurant guide mentioned it, declaring it “the most astonishing ice cream shop …” So, Reece and I decided we needed to find it. Berthillon is a French manufacturer of luxury ice cream and sorbet. And it turns out that the store front isn’t even open in the summer and focuses only on supplying local restaurants and eateries. The storefront is located near Notre Dame in the 4th arrondissement. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely walk.
And then we treated ourselves to a scoop each. It was delicious but I would need to conduct additional research in order to determine if it really is the best ice cream in all of Paris. It certainly was the smallest helping for my 3 euros.
Philharmonie de Paris
One of the things we have looked forward to is enjoying the culture of Paris, particularly the musical concerts, being that we have a budding professional musician in our midst. During our time we attending a string quintet concert, an organ concert and during our last two weeks we attended the Philharmonie de Paris performance of Canyons. The venue is quite amazing and although large, felt intimate at the same time. However, the music was not to any of our tastes, though you wouldn’t get Keith to admit that since he selected it. His main reason for selecting this particular concert was to attend one at this particular venue. But Reece and I are classical music traditionalists and this concert was anything but … lots of dissonant chords mimicking nature sounds. It was a tough one to swallow but the venue was pretty spectacular.
Chartres
We took a 2nd day trip, this time to Chartres, a small hamlet about 60 miles outside of Paris famous for its cathedral, Cathedrele Notre Dame de Chartres. It is considered one of the finest and best preserved cathedrals in France and Europe. It was built in 1205 and completed 66 years later and has the unique feature of two stylistically different steeples.
Arc de Triomphe
We had wanted to visit the Arc de Triomphe, one of Paris’ most famous monuments and stands at the west end of the Champ-Elysees – in the middle of the huge traffic circle that feeds the 12 streets that fan out from its center. It was commissioned in 1806 by Napolean, but would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Phillipe which was from 1833-1836. It is the home of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and there are 284 steps to the roof. And of course, we climbed it. It has nothing on the Eiffel Tower on steps (the Eiffel Tower has 1665 steps to its 2nd deck) but it has a spectacular view.
And then we were off to our last dinner in Paris … Reece bravely trying the escargots … something she had wanted to try while we were in Paris. And then we walked to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. We even got lucky and were treated to a twinkly light show as we walked to the metro from the restaurant.
Tomorrow we are heading back to the United Kingdom to tour the countryside for the next five weeks before heading home. That should give us plenty of time to see most of the country and I expect I will be an expert at driving on the opposite side of both the car AND the road, not to mention the expertise I will gain at navigating roundabouts, of which I have heard there are many. Wish me luck.
Cheers!
Teresa