While Lori was off cooking - I did my final day in Paris. I really do love Paris and am very sad to be leaving such a beautiful and great city. Those who say Parisians are rude are just flat wrong. Sure, there are rude people in Paris (the waitress at the Bar Pit Brasserie on the Rue Cler) but ther are rude people in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Miami, New York. I have encountered less rude people here in the 11 days I have been here than I encountered in San Francisco in one weekend last October. So . . . the myth fails. I love Paris and cannot wait to return (hear that, Doug!) and I will.
I started my last day with a train ride over to the 16th A to do the Art Nouveau walk. I walked for several hours and passed some wonderful examples of Art Nouveau. The 16th A is a quiet and upscale neighborhood. There were not a lot of people out - it was early Saturday morning and there were almost no tourists out. I did meet some wonderful ladies from Palo Alto, CA who were doing the same walk. It was a very clean neighborhood - very few land mines.
At 11:30, it was time to quit the walk and begin looking for the Metro to get me to Musee Marmottan Monet. It is the best private collection of Monet's work. I walked and walked and walked and then finally realized I was lost. So I walked and got myself back on track and finally found the museum. It is in an old restored mansion.
The tickets were half-price because the upper floor of the museum was closed which was disappointing because it contained some Renoir and Degas I would have enjoyed seeing. The basement has a nice collection of Monet. I still think the best collection is at L'Orangerie near the Louvre but this was still nice. The problem was they would not let anyone take photos but they did not have a good selection of postcards. Oh well . . .
I had to be back at 2:00 for my final french lesson. I did find the Metro but then got on the train heading the wrong direction. Then I decided not to do the Metro but the RER (less transfering) but I ended up on the wrong track. I finally found my way around and got home with time to spare.
During my lesson, Lori came back from her cooking school (with dinner!). We had an wonderful meal after my lesson. She made a stuffed chicken leg with lentils. I can now say I have eaten at the Cordon Bleu (or at least had a meal cooked at the CB). It was wonderful. We had to go out after for dessert - I had been thinking about a crepe with chocolate or Nutella all day. We did clean up our little apartment. It was small and only took about 30 minutes to clean. To get our deposit back, we had to have it in good shape since the rental manager was coming at 9:00 in the morning to inspect and give us our deposit back. We packed up our bags. My suitcase now weighed more than Lori's and I had my little stuffed down duffel full. Hmm - shopping in Paris. I did hear some music on our street so I had to go and investigate. It turned out it was an umpah band dueling a bunch of guys playing french horns. Go figure.
The tickets were half-price because the upper floor of the museum was closed which was disappointing because it contained some Renoir and Degas I would have enjoyed seeing. The basement has a nice collection of Monet. I still think the best collection is at L'Orangerie near the Louvre but this was still nice. The problem was they would not let anyone take photos but they did not have a good selection of postcards. Oh well . . .
I had to be back at 2:00 for my final french lesson. I did find the Metro but then got on the train heading the wrong direction. Then I decided not to do the Metro but the RER (less transfering) but I ended up on the wrong track. I finally found my way around and got home with time to spare.
During my lesson, Lori came back from her cooking school (with dinner!). We had an wonderful meal after my lesson. She made a stuffed chicken leg with lentils. I can now say I have eaten at the Cordon Bleu (or at least had a meal cooked at the CB). It was wonderful. We had to go out after for dessert - I had been thinking about a crepe with chocolate or Nutella all day. We did clean up our little apartment. It was small and only took about 30 minutes to clean. To get our deposit back, we had to have it in good shape since the rental manager was coming at 9:00 in the morning to inspect and give us our deposit back. We packed up our bags. My suitcase now weighed more than Lori's and I had my little stuffed down duffel full. Hmm - shopping in Paris. I did hear some music on our street so I had to go and investigate. It turned out it was an umpah band dueling a bunch of guys playing french horns. Go figure.
We went in sat in a cafe for a couple of hours, eating and talking about our trip. We both agreed how much fun we had and how sad we were to leave Paris. It was so nice to be in a cafe and be able to talk without some surly waiter rushing us off. It was a nice warm night. We also drank some coffee to get ready for Nuit Blanch so we could stay awake.
After dinner, we did the Metro to downtown. It was really packed with all kinds of people - worse than Paris rush hour! We were heading to Nuit Blanche which happens once a year where all the museums and many of the shops are open for 24 hours. They light a bunch of candles and get the City of Light really lit up. There are also a number of activities going on throughout the city. The other thing that was occurring was Paris was celebrating the opening of a new Metro line (the purple line) and there was going to be various activities along that line.
Our first stop was the Madeleine which is a Greek style church. It was open and since it was such a cool church, I thought Lori might enjoy it. There was a line outside and it was all lite up on the outside. There were flowers decorating the front steps. Inside was very different. It was pitch black and New Age music was playing. There were people on ladders with blue lasers pointing all around. It was very cool but unfortunately, you could not see the church since it was pitch black.
After dinner, we did the Metro to downtown. It was really packed with all kinds of people - worse than Paris rush hour! We were heading to Nuit Blanche which happens once a year where all the museums and many of the shops are open for 24 hours. They light a bunch of candles and get the City of Light really lit up. There are also a number of activities going on throughout the city. The other thing that was occurring was Paris was celebrating the opening of a new Metro line (the purple line) and there was going to be various activities along that line.
Our first stop was the Madeleine which is a Greek style church. It was open and since it was such a cool church, I thought Lori might enjoy it. There was a line outside and it was all lite up on the outside. There were flowers decorating the front steps. Inside was very different. It was pitch black and New Age music was playing. There were people on ladders with blue lasers pointing all around. It was very cool but unfortunately, you could not see the church since it was pitch black.
Our next stop we walked down to the Opera hoping it was open but it was not. We got on the Metro and then decided to head towards the Gare Lazare. We got to the train station (it was on the purple line) and walked around but there was nothing going on. I did get to see the restaurant in the train station - Le Bleu Train which is very famous. Unfortunately, there is a dress code so I could not even get in the door (believe me, I tried). The waiter had absolutely no sense of humor. I did get a few pictures. The restaurant is reminisent of the heyday of train travel - very formal and ornate.
We did walk around the station. The TGV trains were parked. All that was going was that all the drunks were hanging around asking for money. This train station is not the major international station - it services mainly southern France.
We went outside to find the Metro and we heard all this cheering from a local bar. It looked packed and we kept hearing lots of yelling. Something big was going on. We figured it had something to do with the World Rugby Cup which was going on right now. I'll bet it was something to do with the French team.
We took the Metro back to the center of town. As we were leaving the Metro, there were hundreds of people going the opposite direction. Alot were cheering and yelling (but since it was mostly in French - it was hard to understand). We got up on the street and it was wild! Everyone was yelling, shooting and running around. We figured that France won. People was honking and screaming out their cars.
We did walk around the station. The TGV trains were parked. All that was going was that all the drunks were hanging around asking for money. This train station is not the major international station - it services mainly southern France.
We went outside to find the Metro and we heard all this cheering from a local bar. It looked packed and we kept hearing lots of yelling. Something big was going on. We figured it had something to do with the World Rugby Cup which was going on right now. I'll bet it was something to do with the French team.
We took the Metro back to the center of town. As we were leaving the Metro, there were hundreds of people going the opposite direction. Alot were cheering and yelling (but since it was mostly in French - it was hard to understand). We got up on the street and it was wild! Everyone was yelling, shooting and running around. We figured that France won. People was honking and screaming out their cars.
We walked over to the Louvre because we wanted to check out the Tulleries. We had seen the preparation for the event - it looked like it was going to be amazing. They had put out these large balls with what looked like was going to be filled with candles of some kind.
It truly was amazing! The balls were filled with candles and were in the middle of the path. There were candles in pots lining the walkways. There were people with fire in the middle and fire in the fountains. There was a large ball hanging from a crane which was filled with candles. We walked thru tons of people looking at all the lights. We lost each other 1 time but were able to connect back up a few minutes later.
We walked to the ferris wheel which is just outside the Tulleries. I could not get over the number of people. I wanted to see the lights on the Champs Elysees. The people were still celebrating (what we found out later was France who was the underdog beat New Zealand and is going to the next level). There was one point where there was almost a mob situation. I was just watching and Lori grabbed my arm and using good common sense indicated it was time to leave. We just walked around watching all the crazies.
We were tired so we went back to the apartment. We had an early day tomorrow and we were going to be headed to the Loire.
1 comment:
Hey Eleanor,
I am so glad you love Paris. It is a great city. Full of life, contradictions and fun. It is alive. The French have maintained and kept their culture inspite of "Western" influences.
So when are you going to immigrate? Only kidding.
Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Love,
Papa San JC
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