Thursday, May 8
I promised to post some pics of our Paris apartment....it is truly TINY. But very functional and well decorated.
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| The living area |
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| Living area and hall to bed/bath/kitchen |
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| Bedroom - small bed, very uncomfortable... |
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| Kitchen...yes, that's the whole kitchen, except there is a refrigerator on the wall next to me as I am taking this pic. |
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| Bath - decent size considering the rest of the place |
We
walked around the local area a bit. Found the tourist office and bought a “Paris Pass” – gets us
into 60 museums/monuments over 4 days and also 5 days of transportation on the
Metro, RER, and buses.
We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, which is a good trek from our apartment near the Louvre. We had a
so-so lunch that took at least 2 hours -- very close to the Eiffel
Tower, then walked back. Both of
us have been to the top of the tower before, and the weather was not good, so
we bagged that excursion. We got
in a good 20K steps today!
We
saw some great sights on the way there and on the way back, photos are
below.
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| Arne outside the Louvre |
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| Me outside the Louvre |
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| One of the wings of the Louvre. I was particularly impressed by all that statues adorning the building. Also, if you have never seen it, it's difficult to describe just how large it is. We are going to the Louvre later this week and I know I will post more photos - stand by! |
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| At the Louvre |
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| On the wall of the Musee du Quai Branly |
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| Musee du Quai Branly |
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| The Eiffel Tower |
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| The Grande Palais |
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| The Eiffel Tower from the Seine |
Friday, May 9
Went
to the Musée du Louvre today. We
have both been to Paris before, but Arne had never been inside the Louvre. It’s enormous...approximately 30,000
objects on display!
We
got there about 9:30AM. We had
downloaded an audio guide to our iPhones which did a nice job of getting us to
the “masterpieces” in the Sully and Denon wings of the museum. At 11:30 we took a water break, and then
went through the Richelieu wing, where we saw the apartments of Napoleon III,
as well as several artifacts from the July Monarchy and the Renaissance. We were impressed with the amount of
ornamentation and artistry put on all things back then. The rooms themselves;
frescos painted on walls and ceilings, larger than life paper mache 3D
“statues” on the walls, etc. Also the tapestries, the furniture, and
the china (hand painted) and serving sets.
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| One of the rooms in the Louvre |
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| Looking out the window to the plaza |
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| One of the frescos and ornamentation in the Louvre. |
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| Crown of King Louis XV |
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| The only shot I could get of the Mona Lisa. I couldn't believe the crowds around this small painting. I had to hold my camera above my head to get this. |
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| In Napolean's apartments |
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| A crystal dressing table in the Louvre - sorry, I didn't get the details on this one. It was pretty impressive though! |
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| I loved the details on this table, but the pic doesn't do it justice. |
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| A medieval knight's helmut |
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| Carving of a young fisherman (child). |
By
2pm we were beat, so we headed out and found a nice restaurant, not too far
from the apartment. Had a decent
lunch, done around 4pm – went to the store for “essentials” and headed home. Taking it easy tonight. Tomorrow the
plan is to take the train to Versailles – weather permitting.
Saturday, May 10
Weather was not permitting,
unfortunately rain. We decided to
see sights closer to the apartment.
We first headed to Sainte-Chapelle. It’s a fairly small chapel inside the
Palais de la Cite – which was the royal palace from the 10th to the
14th centuries and now functions as the Palace of Justice.
The chapel was built by Louis IX to
house relics of the Passion of Christ, most notably the Crown of Thorns, which
the King purchased in 1239, turning Paris into a “new Jerusalem” for the
rest of the medieval world. The
cost paid for the Crown of Thorns greatly exceeded the cost of building the
chapel itself!
The chapel has two sanctuaries, one
on top of the other. The lower
chapel walls are decorated with frescos and 12 medallions featuring the
apostles. The upper chapel walls
are made up of 15 stained glass windows containing 1113 scenes depicting the
story of mankind from Genesis to Christ’s resurrection. Fourteen of the windows depict stories
from the Bible organized by book (i.e., Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, etc). These are read “left to right, from the
bottom up”. The 15th is
the history of the relics of the Passion and is to be read
“boustrophedonically” (ie – opposite directions, from the bottom up). The window depictions are very detailed
paintings on top of the stained glass. It’s really stunning!
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| The stained glass panels in the Sainte-Chapelle were breathtaking |
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| One of the hundreds of Bible depictions |
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| Another of the Bible depictions |
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| In the lower chapel |
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| Restoration of the stained glass that is going on. |
Quite extensive restoration work has
been done on the windows (2 of them were currently covered up and in the
process of being renovated). We
watched a short video that showed the process of taking the windows apart and
putting them back together – very interesting. We were impressed by the amount of detail and time involved
to either glue the broken glass back together, or choose equivalent glass, and
also repaint the images as they originally were.
We then went to Cathedrale Notre Dame
de Paris. There was a long line,
and it was a little confusing since it started next to a temporary tent holding
a bakery show/competition in the square outside the cathedral.
Since the line looked long, we
decided to visit the Archaeological Crypt housed under the Notre Dame square
first. It is a museum that
displays archaeological remains discovered during excavations from Roman times
to the 20th century - of the Ile de la Cite (the historical heart of
Paris – the island). Interestingly
for Arne, Dassault Systemes (his main supplier while working on 787 systems at
Boeing) has partnered with a professor and used their 3DLive platform to
develop a 3D interactive model of what Paris looked like when it was the Roman
town of Lutetia. Great use of the
technology!
After the Crypt, we decided that
while the line looked long, we were already there so we decided to wait and tour
the Cathedral. Surprisingly, it only
took about 20 minutes to enter the cathedral. It’s impressive from the outside, but even more so from the
inside.
It is thought that the first stone
was laid in 1163 and it underwent many transformations over the years with
dedication in May 1864, but restoration work has continued. In the 1960’s the windows were returned
to stain glass (the original 13th century glass had been replaced in
the mid 1700’s). In the 1990’s the
“great organ", which had been modified many times throughout the centuries, was
refurbished.
The inside was a zoo. Tourists everywhere, and services and
confessions going on at the same time. We decided not to stand in line or pay to tour the “treasors”
room, and spent about 30 minutes inside Notre Dame itself.
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| In Notre Dame Cathedral |
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| In Notre Dame |
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| The back side of the front altar |
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| The central section |
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| The organ |
After touring the inside, we went
around the corner and waited in line for a tour of the Towers. About 45 minutes later, we climbed
approximately 14 meters up a circular staircase in the North tower to the
starting point. From there, we
continued up the North tower to the Chimura gallery which is 46 meters above
the ground, but not the top of the tower. We then moved across the front of the towers to the South
tower and climbed up another set of circular stairs to the top. From there, you have a great view of the
entire city of Paris; notably to the west the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe, and
to the north -- Montmarte and the Sacre-Coeur. We didn’t count them, but according to the tour brochure,
there are “400 steps, no lifts, no toilet facilities”. By the time we got back down, our legs
could feel it.
Views from above:
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| From the top of the Notre Dame Tower |
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| Looking back at Sainte-Chapelle and the Louvre |
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| Looking the other way - down the Seine at the Cathedral spire |
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| Notre Dame |
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| This gives a little better view of the architecture |
We found a Mexican restaurant that
served “tapas” and stopped for a light lunch (and, of course, a margarita). On the way back to the apartment, we
spotted a Thai restaurant, so around 8pm we walked back there for dinner. Thai food typically works well for
“gluten intolerance” and we like the flavors. The food was very good, and very reasonably priced compared
to Paris/France standards (would not be reasonably priced at home).
Sunday, May 11
Another on-again off-again rainy
day in Paris. Made breakfast in
the apartment this morning, and then headed to Musée D’Orsay.
We stopped for about 5 minutes under
the trees by the river with umbrellas and waited for a squall to pass.
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| "Waitin' out the rain..." |
Spent about 3 hours in the Musée D'Orsay, primarily focusing on paintings. Started with the beginning of the Realism movement (Courbet,
Millet, Daumier) and early works of Manet, Degas, and Monet. Then moved into works by the
Impressionists (Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, Sisley, Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Van
Gogh, and others). No pictures allowed.
From there went to Musée de L’Orangerie to continue the focus on impressionist and
post-impressionist paintings. This
museum hosts the collection of Paul Guillaume who was an art dealer and
collector in the early 1900’s. Other
artists included: Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso.
After looking at all this art - My
favorite artists are Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and Matisse. Arne likes Matisse and Monet. We actually have a print of a Monet in
our house!
We had now reached our “museum
saturation point” and headed for lunch. Found La Rotonde de Tuileries and had a nice lunch. On the way back to the apartment, we made
the requisite stop at a bakery for Arne’s “baguette”. We had been to this boulangerie before
and they have gluten-free stuff, so I got a piece of chocolate cake/bread!
Monday, May 12
Our plan to go to Versailles today
had to be ditched….turns out, it’s closed on Mondays. It was just as well, since the weather was dicey again. Instead, we hopped on the Metro and
went to Montmartre – Sacré-Cœur .
When we finished our tour of Sacré-Cœur ,
we walked toward Moulin Rouge – but got to a certain place (Pigale) and decided
we didn’t want to go down that street (not a great neighborhood). We hopped on the metro and rode over to
the Arc de Triomphe.
The construction
of the Arc de Triomphe was ordered in 1806 by Napoleon, the French
Emperor. Napoleon wanted to honor
the Grande Armee, the name of the French army at that time. Unfortunately, construction of the Arc
was not completed until 1836, long after Napolean’s death in 1821. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from
World War I rests beneath the Arc. Many famous victory marches have led past the Arc de Triomphe
including the Germans in 1871, the French in 1918, the Germans again in 1940
and the French and the Allies in 1944 and 1945.
