Paris Week 3 16-22 September

16 September  Not the Louvre, Tuileries, Orangerie, Marais, Gare de Lyon, Monoprix

When we saw the queue at the opening hour of The Louvre, we abandoned our plan to visit – after all, we had both been there before, albeit many years ago.   It is so hard to really enjoy viewing exhibits when crammed in with many others, and we decided it simply was not worth the effort, sadly.

The queue at opening of the Louvre 16 September 2013

 

Instead, we wandered over to the Tuileries Gardens, enjoying some rare quiet and space in this busy city.  Because of the overnight rain we could not sit on the chairs that are provided, but simply strolled through towards the Orangerie museum of impressionist art.

On the way to the Tuileries

Tuileries 16 September 2013

Displayed brilliantly in a circular room lit with natural light are Monet’s Nympheas, huge paintings of his water gardens.  Paintings by Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Rousseau, Matisse, Derain, Modigliani, Soutine, Utrillo and Laurencin are also located here, so it was truly a feast of impressionist and post- impressionist art (photos not allowed).

 

We headed to the Marais to the Musee Carnavalet – the museum of the history of Paris, only to find it shut (of course – it was Monday!), so we enjoyed a lunch around the corner, sitting at first in the sunshine outside, then moving under the awning as it started to drizzle a little, then inside as the drizzle became a downpour! For once the food was quite good.  Perhaps we just haven’t found the right place to eat yet, despite paying what seems like lot of money (around $75 per lunch on average).
From the Marais we proceeded to Gare Lyon to see where would be leaving from to catch our train to Avignon on the 27th, and set off for home via the local Monoprix for supplies. 

Tuesday 17 September Chartres
Because the best light streaming in though the famous stained glass windows at Chartres Cathedral is from the west, we decided to leave our trip to Chartres for the afternoon and spent a quiet morning at home before setting out on the 90 km train journey. 

This was the morning we discovered that the MacDonald’s next door to our apartment has very good coffee and croissants.  An excellent start to our morning, albeit necessitating a late start to the morning as they don’t open until 8:30 officially, but don’t really get underway until almost 9:00.

McDonald’s next door

 

Chartres did not disappoint, despite the cold and drizzly weather, and the cold, cold wind on the hill where the cathedral stands.  The sheer scale and complexity not only of the design, but of the interior decorations is breath taking, and even more amazing when one realizes that it was built in the 13th century.  Apparently the city of Chartres was bombed by the Americans in WWII, but the cathedral was spared due to the US army officer, who refused to obey the order to destroy it. It is well deserving of its UNESCO World heritage listing.

Chartres interior

Chartres exterior

On the way home we ran into rush hour on the Paris Metro – the photo does not do justice to the squeeze we endured!

Rush hour Paris 17 September 2013

 
Wednesday 18 September 2013 Samaritaine and Galleries Lafayette

We decided it was time to do some shopping, so we set out for the Samaritaine Department store, famous for the views from its restaurant, with the intention of combining lunch with a shopping expedition.  We were terribly disappointed to arrive and learn that Samaritaine, a huge department store that had occupied an entire city block, was no more.  The building stood boarded up, the street empty.  A sign advised that the building was to be redeveloped, apparently as offices and apartments.

We enjoyed a Vietnamese lunch on our way as we headed across town in the rain to Galeries Lafayette, another famous department store, but the crowds in the women’s store were unbearable, so we explored the homewares store and the menswear/gourmet foods store. The gourmet foods department lived up to its reputation – everything imaginable on display.  We bought some foie gras for our hosts, sold with kindly advice on to how to eat it, and with which bread.  We paused there for a glass of champagne and a chance to rest our now weary feet before we once again found ourselves in the midst of the Paris rush hour!

Thursday 19 September 2013 Musee Guimet

Our friend Frank, who is currently house-sitting for us in Fremantle, told us of a “lovely little museum of Asian arts”, which we decided to visit.  Lovely it certainly was, but not by any means small.  The collection at Musee Guimet is the most extensive and comprehensive collection of Asian art we have seen, outside of the US.   In a recurring pattern from our visits to museums here,, it seemed that a large chunk of the collection was off limits as they set up for a new exhibition of Cambodian stone sculpture, but there was still much of it so see, and a truly wonderful array of art from all over Asia, beautifully displayed.  We were most impressed.  Here are just a few examples.

 

Friday 20 September  Musee Carnavalet and lunch with the Keelys
Once again back in the Marais, we spent several hours exploring the Musee Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris.  Despite half of it being closed for renovations, there was a great deal of interesting visual material to explore.  There was considerable material on the French Revolution, but our favourite has to be the reconstruction of an art nouveau jewellery shop from the late 19th/early 20th century.

Art Nouveau

 

Of particular interest to us was a 1933 painting of the Canal St Denis near our apartment.  From the painting we can recognize some of the few remaining industrial buildings.  Where we stay is very close to the foreground of the painting, but it certainly does not look anything like this now, as you will see in a subsequent entry.

Painting of Canal St Denis in 1933

 

Round the corner from the Musee Carnavalet we met my cousin Karen Keely and her husband Michael, two of their sons and their partners at a little restaurant called Page 35.  We enjoyed a delicious and lively lunch and farewelled the Keelys, who were off the following day to their cottage in Normandy for a week or so.

Saturday 21 September 2013 Margaret, the Marais

We met my sister Margaret as she arrived on the Eurostar from London, and once she had checked in to her hotel near Gare du Nord, we set off to show her some of our favourite places. 

Gare du Nord (note gypsy women in foreground)

 

We wandered through the Marais back to Les Enfants Rouges market for another Moroccan meal, followed by an ice cream work of art and a spell in the Place des Vosges before we took Margaret back to her hotel as she was fading after a long plane ride and little sleep.

Sunday 22 September 2013 Sacre Coeur Hotel de Ville, Mariage Freres, flea markets, Seine cruise,  Left Bank

Sacre Couer on a Sunday – we arrived relatively early, around 10:30 am, but the crowds were building, and fast. 

Sacre Couer early on Sunday morning 22 September 2013 

We decided to risk the queue and went inside, realizing after one circuit of the cathedral that a service was about to begin.  We took a pew and experienced a number of beautiful prayers sung by a nun as an introduction, then the organ weighed in behind us, and the service began.  The church was packed, the service involved at least five priests and incense – the whole production, with a choir of nuns.  We left just before communion in order to give some more devout followers our seats, but it had been a unique experience (no photos allowed inside).

From there we proceeded to brunch at Mariage Freres, a famous Parisian tea house.  The brunch was exquisite, although possibly a little too self-conscious for our taste, but the tea was divine, and the food even better.

Along the way there and back we encountered a number of brocade markets, basically these are Sunday flea markets which spring up along the streets.  Margaret bought a little red riding hood coat for her granddaughter for just 8 euros from the mother of the child who had outgrown it – we know that Rosie in Australia will just love it!

Red Riding Hood coat 22 September 2013

 

To save our feet, we took a ride on the boat along the Seine, doing almost a complete circuit before disembarking on the Left Bank and wandering around, enjoying a glass of wine at a sidewalk café and a cheap Greek meal before heading back to leave Margaret at her hotel and then to the apartment after a full and fun day.

Paris Week 2: 9 -15 September 2013

Monday 9 September 2013, Pont de Levallois

This was a rather dull day - it dawned grey and threatening, and the weather got worse from there.  We ventured further afield – this time to north west Paris, where we emerged from the metro only to become completely soaked in a downpour.  We sought shelter in a restaurant, enjoyed a pleasant lunch and returned home, still wet, to dry off. 

Levallrois in the rain 9 September 2013

As the rain continued, we decided to call it a rest day and stayed home, venturing out only to do some grocery shopping at our local Monoprix supermarket.  

Tuesday 10 September 14, 2013 Parcours des Tribal Arts, St Germain des Pres

The rain persisted into the following day.  Terry and I set off to find St Germain des Pres, where a parcours of tribal arts was opening.  A parcours is a collection of galleries over several streets, all exhibiting according to a theme.  St Germain de Pre is the specialist area for antiques and art, and we were hoping to see some good examples of Melanesian artefacts, similar to our own collection.  We eventually found our way to the area where the parcours was taking place – marked by banners at the entrance to each participating gallery portraying an image taken from a Papuan agiba skull track, an image quintessentially Papua New Guinean and very familiar to us.

Terry at Parcours des Mondes, St Germain des Pres, Paris 10 September 2013

We saw some magnificent pieces of tribal art, mainly African, but also Melanesian and some Aboriginal pieces as well, all fetching extraordinary prices.  Fascinating to me were the galleries and their clientele – viewers mainly middle aged and obviously well-heeled, immaculately groomed, in obviously expensive clothes.  Most galleries followed the same formula - patrons were  greeted by an attractive young French woman at the gallery door and invited in to look around.  We did not attract a lot of attention in our jeans and raincoats, but we did meet a couple of dealers, one Australian who had spent a great deal of time in PNG. However, he was clearly most interested in selling rather than chatting, so we left him to schmooze and we returned to our apartment, footsore but happy to have renewed our acquaintance with such unique art forms, and to have seen some truly beautiful examples.

 

Very old, very powerful piece at Parcours in Paris 10 September 2013

Wednesday 11 September Musee de Quai Branly

Next day we continued the tribal arts theme and visited the Musee du Quai Branly, a stunning collection of tribal art from around the world.  The museum is located in a large jungle-like garden in the middle of Paris.  On the way we were walking from the Metro towards a man who suddenly stopped and picked up a gold ring, which he held out to me, insisting I take it.  He kissed my hand, which I found rather inappropriate and confusing, so  I refused to keep the ring, placing it on a nearby seat and walked away.  He suddenly became angry and abusive.  We walked away – a scam of some kind.  A few minutes later, a s we came around the corner towards the door of the museum, we were approached by a swarthy gypsyish woman, who suddenly stopped and picked up a gold ring from the ground and held it out – we walked on.  Another lesson of life in the big city that is Paris.

The Quai Branly museum is fairly new (opened 2006), set out by geographical area.  We saw an amazing collection of brilliant pieces, some very old, and some in styles we had never seen before. I n particular there were some examples of art work from the Solomon Islands that were collected very early – beautiful , very fine shell work and elegant wood carving, probably not produced since the early 20th century, sadly.

Huge PNG figure at Quai Branly 11 September 2013

From the Branly we walked over to the Eiffel Tower a short distance away. 

Eiffel Tower from Quai Branly 11 September 2013

The queue to take the lift to the top was too long, so we decided to view it from below only.

Eiffel Tower from below 11 September 2013

Thursday 12 September Pompidou Centre, Parcours

The Pompidou Centre turned out to be disappointing on several fronts.  The main exhibits were closed, the inside-out building does not work well in my opinion, because you have to go to the outside of the building to access the next level, exposing one to the wind and rain in some places, and perhaps it is just confusing when one is used to accessing buildings from the inside. 

Pompidou Centre 12 September 2013

 

Nonetheless, we saw some interesting examples of contemporary art – here are two favourite sculptures:

 

 

We enjoyed an expensive lunch at the top of the building, overlooking the rooftops of central Paris.  The view alone made the trip worthwhile.

 Paris rooftops viewed from Pompidou Centre 12 September 2013

We went next door to see the reconstruction of Brancusi's studio before returning to the Parcours to see some more galleries before the end of the show.

Brancusi's studio, Paris 12 September 2013

 

Friday 13 September      Canal St Martin from Bastille to Bassin La Villette

The rain continued.  Well, not so much rain as intermittent drizzle.  We took a canal ride from the Port de l’Arsenal under the Bastille and along the Canal St Martin , through a number of locks along the way to the former village of La Villette,  and the Bassin de la Villette, near the park opposite our apartment.   The canal shows glimpses of old Paris, with footbridges and a turning bridge to allow barges to pass through. 

Lock on St Martin Canal  from  our tour boat 13 September 2013

 

Footbridges over St Martin Canal, Paris 13 September 2013

 

We enjoyed the trip immensely, despite the drizzle.  Best of all, we could walk home in a few minutes, avoiding the crowded Metro.

Saturday 14 September 2013      Train to Amsterdam

Up early, we caught the Thalys high speed train to Amsterdam.  We arrived in just over three hours, to be met by grey skies and pouring rain!  Our friends Sam and Steph met us at our extraordinarily expensive hotel – rooms basic and small just the same. 

Terry near our hotel in Amsterdam 14 September 2013

We wandered around in the rain, saw the flower market on the way and met our friends later for an excellent Indonesian meal near the hotel.  Then, as the rain had finally stopped, we walked and walked around Amsterdam for a couple of hours as the town started to warm up for what seemed like one long street party – might have something to do with the liberal marijuana laws. 

Starter kit at the Amsterdam Flower Market 14 September 2013

 It was a cool and pleasant night – in our wandering about we briefly visited the red light district, which we found tawdry and sad, and returned to our hotel by taxi, glad to be away from there. 

Sunday 15 September 2013         Amsterdam and back to Paris

Sunday dawned sunny and bright.  We refused to spend over $22 (each) for breakfast at the hotel, and searched fruitlessly for a cheaper breakfast.  Nothing was open, the streets were deserted at 9:00 am, and the only people around were those cleaning up after the night before.  Cigarette butts and rubbish everywhere – the detritus of the party the night before. We had the dilemma of choosing between McDonalds or Starbucks for breakfast, and chose the one offering slightly better quality, to our chagrin.

A sunny morning – Amsterdam 15 September 2013

We made a quick trip to the Rijksmuseum, opposite our hotel (at least it was well located).  The museum is in a beautiful setting in an old palace, with a truly stunning collection of Dutch master painters, and worth the trip.  Then it was lunch with Sam and Steph at the station before they set off for the airport and their flight to Istanbul, and we to our train back to Paris and another week of looking around.

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 15 September 2013

 

 

 

 

Paris 2-8 September 2013

Monday 2 September Charles de Gaulle Airport to Porte de la Villette

We finally arrived in the afternoon of 2 September from Dubai after an uneventful but tedious 11 hour flight Perth-Dubai, overnight in Dubai and then six and a half hours to Paris.  We found our way to our hosts' apartment at Porte de la Villette and were welcomed by Nicole.  Gilles turned up shortly after on his motorbike and after seeing over the tiny apartment, Terry and I went for a short walk around the neighbourhood, bought our cheap local mobile phones to use, and some wine and olives in the small Jewish quarter and then spent a relaxed evening getting to know Gilles and Nicole. We sat outside as it was pleasantly warm with a slight breeze.

 The apartment

 

 

Living room

Our room is at the top of a steep stair and is a little wider than the bed - Terry has to crawl over me to get in and out of bed!  Nonetheless, the bed was most welcome and we slept well.

Stairs to the bedroom

The bed (and room)

 

Tuesday 3 September Porte de la Villette - Notre Dame and return

Next morning our hosts were preparing for their departure, so we left them to pack and walked around the Cite de Sciences et Industries, located immediately opposite the apartment complex, had a coffee nearby and returned to farewell Gilles and Nicole, who flew off to Detroit, where Gilles has a photography exhibition.

We set off to buy our Navigo monthly metro passes, which involved several attempts, eventually succeeding with a combination of automated and human interactions and mangled French.  After a quick lunch at a nearby café (not particularly interesting), we set off.  First stop was Notre Dame, my first view of this stunning building - 850 years old and still a marvel of architecture and a monument to the human imagination.

Notre Dame 

 

Notre Dame was very crowded, it was a hot afternoon, and we were fading, so after a couple of hours we returned to the apartment for a quiet dinner and a long, long sleep.

Wednesday 4  September Porte de la Villette - St Michel /Notre Dame - Musee D'Orsay and return

Today we decided to do a boat trip along the Seine to orient ourselves and cruise past a few monuments along the way.  These included the Botanic Gardens (Jardin des Plantes), the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Musee D'Orsay, St Germain des Pres and Notre Dame once again.

We could not resist getting off at Musee D'Orsay for several hours - wonderful Impressionist collection and too many fabulous sculptures to take in (not to mention the many, many flights of stairs - we certainly are beginning to feel the effects).  we ate a memorable lunch at the Musee D'Orsay restaurant - very elegant, and the food was classic French. We hobbled home and faded early again, a combination of jet lag and physical exertion.

 Ile St Louis

 

Pont Alexandre III, with the Eiffel Tower in the background

Thursday 5 September  Porte de la Villette - Anvers - Sacre Coeur - Montmartre - Pigalle and return

We set out fairly early for Sacre Coeur and Montmartre as we knew it was going to be a hot day.  We had seen Montmartre from the Musee D'Orsay the day before, on the highest point in Paris, looking stunning in its pure white against a clear azure sky.

 

Sacre Coeur from Musee D'Orsay on a hot and hazy day

 

As we emerged into the street from the Metro, there it was, right in front of us, looking even more magnificent. 

 Sacre Coeur

 

We explored the church, then wandered around Montmartre, stopping at the Musee de Montmartre, located in the house formerly occupied by Renoir, as well as Dufy and Utrillo. The garden was particularly lovely, located next to the last surviving vineyard in Paris - still producing wine,  In fact, they were setting out nets to protect the grapes in advance of the harvest in a few weeks

.

Terry in Montmartre Street 

 

We wandered back down the hill, found a street of fabric markets, and in looking for somewhere to have lunch, found ourselves in Pigalle, in a street that became more seedy as we progressed along it. 

 

It was very hot by then, and we were becoming footsore, so headed for the Metro and back to "our" neighbourhood for a bistro lunch, did some grocery shopping and limped home, very hot and sweaty.   We have learned two things about the French - they love stairs (impossible to avoid if you use the Metro) and air conditioning is apparently an unknown concept.  It was 34 degrees that day, and a hot night as well.   We ate a light salad with some excellent wine - a pinot noir from Alsace, and spent a hot night in our room above the living room (which doubles as  Gilles' studio).  

 



Friday 6 September Porte de la Villette - Place Monge - Rue Mouffetard Market - Latin Quarter (Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages, Sorbonne) and return 

 

We woke up to a change in the weather, with thunder and imminent rain as we set out on another relatively early start which saw us at the Rue Mouffetard street market just as the activity began and shops were opening.  This market runs up and down a small cobbled street with some buildings from the medieval period.

 

 Medieval building in Rue Mouffetard

 

 

 

Our favourite stall was this magnificent display of fish - the photo does not do justice to the artistry shown by the poissioniere.

 

Poissoniere in Marche Mouffetard 

 

 Terry at the top of Rue Mouffetard

 

I bought a couple of scarves in the small  market at Place Monge on our way to the train station to take us to the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages (la Musee de Moyen Ages).  It had begun to rain by this time, and it was clear that summer had come to an end. 

 

 Judith at market at Place Monge 

 

Unfortunately the main attraction at Le Musee de Moyen Ages, the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry,  was not on display as its room was being refurbished and the tapestry had been lent to a museum in Tokyo.  Nonetheless we were very impressed by the vast collection of mainly religious art of the period in the form of stone, wood and metal  sculpture, tapestries, paintings and metalwork from all over Europe, and the remnants of the Roman baths over which the original Cluny mansion had been built.

 

We ate an expensive lunch at Le Balzar brasserie, near the Sorbonne and headed home on the Metro.  As we were stepping on to our Metro train, a man who had been following us rather close made an attempt to pick Terry's pocket just as the doors were closing.  Fortunately Terry had a map in his pocket on top of his wallet, so the thief grabbed that instead of his real target and Terry was quick enough to grab the map from the man as the doors closed, leaving the pickpocket empty handed and Terry's map rather the worse for wear.   Needless to say, we have been very much aware of the potential and keep our bags close to our bodies and our money well hidden. 

 

Saturday 7 September 2013 Porte de la Villette - St Paul - Marais - Place des Vosges and return

 

The Marais is essential Paris - narrow, winding cobbled streets of elegant mansions , trendy boutiques and small galleries.  We spent quite a while wandering about, looking for the Enfants Rouges food market.  On our way we had coffee at a café near the site of the infamous Bastille (demolished in the French Revolution).  We eventually found the food market, which is the oldest covered market in Paris (dating from its establishment originally as an orphanage in 1628).  Here we ate Moroccan food for lunch and bought some olive oil and delicious olive tapenade. 

 

 Poissoniere at Enfants Rouges market 

 

Terry enjoying a Moroccan tagine

 



We were disappointed to find the Musee Picasso was closed for renovations, so we found a small park and rested while we waited for a tiny gallery of primitive art to open.  Then we wandered through the streets enjoying the ambiance and the artwork and fashion on display. 

 

 

 Small park in the Marais

 

We bought two beautiful ice creams and ate them while we sat for a while  in the Place des Vosges formal gardens where everyone was enjoying fine sunny day before heading home on the Metro, stopping at a local boulangerie to buy a loaf of the most delicious bread and some quiche for dinner .  We have vowed to return to the Marais, which is definitely a favourite,

Place des Vosges

 

 

Sunday 8 September 2013 Porte de la Villette and Joinville Open Air Market

 

Today was a quiet day.  We woke to the analysis of the rather depressing but not unexpected Australian election result.  It all seems and is rather far away. 

 

We decided to walk along the nearby canal to the closest market, which is truly an authentic local market serving a different clientele than those we have thus far visited. 

 

 

 Joinville Market

 

It was very multi cultural and the food very cheap, although not of the same quality as that we saw the previous day. 

Opposite the market we saw a sign signifying a dark period in French history, telling of 390 children from a nearby school who were sent to death camps in 1942 simply because they looked Jewish.  Those days are quite rightly not forgotten here in France,
 
We bought some fruit and vegetables and wandered back through a small Chinese dominated street and back on to Rue de Flandres, the main street that passes near our apartment block.  We stopped for coffee at a local café, and bought some pastries at a patisserie near the apartment before spending a quiet afternoon at home. 

Terry having coffee in a Porte de la Villette café

 

I conclude the week by promising to include news and photos that are not just pictures of markets or of Terry in various cafes - it is beginning to seem rather repetitive!  I can't say the same for writing about food - it is everywhere, and not only delicious - it is all so beautifully presented.

Jude