La Dernière Exploration – Montmartre, Paris

The Last Exploration – Montmartre, Paris

Le Sacré-Coeur

Montmartre is one of my favorite parts of Paris, if it weren’t for the hills, it’d be perfect! Montmartre was the home of the artists – and on our sunny last day in Paris, it was a great place to explore. And do a Rick Steves walking tour …

Place du Tertre - where the artists paint ... and sell their wares.

An original windmill

A Vespa at Van Gogh's House

 

Les Deux Moulins - Amelie's Workplace

A Pastry Pit Stop

 

Le Moulin Rouge

Me, and another Art Nouveau Metro stop

The best baguettes in Paris ... at least in 2007

Cheese and Baguettes on a bench in the sunshine

Au revoir, Paris! A la Prochaine!

Goodbye Paris! See you next time!

La Vista da in Cima alla Città – Paris

The View from the Top of the City 

I don’t know that I’ve ever climbed the towers at Notre Dame – I’m not much of a tower climber. Climbing towers in cities always costs money. There are great views … but there are free views all over the city.

Turns out these views were pretty cool anyway…

The awesome gargoyles don’t hurt either. Check out the awesome personalities!

Oh yeah, we were there too.

Somebody’s hungry!

A view of Montmartre …

I think it turned out to be well worth all the steps … plus we got to see the mechanism inside the controls the bells when they play a song. Remember those jewelry boxes that have a cylinder with bumps which causes metallic tines to ring? It’s like that.

La Chambre de la Paix – Paris

The Peace Room

Versailles - at the gate

Newly armed with our museum pass – we took a day trip to Versailles, included in the pass.

Mirror Room - Birthplace of the Treaty of Versailles

View of the Gardens

Versailles was the ‘Camp David’ of French Royals. It was an escape from work and pressures – of course, as soon as the King moved out here, so did everyone who wanted a piece of his time.

Nice grounds, huh?

We toured the inside, wandered across the grounds, checked out the gardens, and then the other mini palaces …

Famous Fountain ...

Posing in a Secondary Palace

The Queen's Gardens

A Chapel of love ... or something ...

 

 

Un Retour à Ma Musée Preferée – Paris

A Return to My Favorite Museum

'The Bronze Age' by Auguste Rodin

When I was in Paris as a student, I loved the Rodin Museum. It’s housed in an old mansion with a beautiful sculpture garden. I bought an annual pass to this museum so that I could just come and visit it, and hang out in the gardens.

‘The Bronze Age’ is one of Rodin’s first major works, and it was highly controversial. Not because of the subject, but because it was so good that people thought it was a cast of a model instead of a work of art.

I can’t remember the name of this one – or find it quickly. It might be ‘the spirit of war’. I think it has to do with a sculpture that Rodin was working on for France – and it represented war or freedom. I believe the woman is supposed to be France, and she is giving a rallying cry over the bodies of wounded men. I love the emotion.

Me, and Rodin's The Kiss

The Kiss is one of Rodin’s most famous works – it comes from a study he was doing for The Gates of Hell (based on Dante’s Inferno). It represents Francesca e Paolo. Paolo was looking after his big brother’s wife … and they fell in love over poetry. They had an affair, and hence were headed for hell. In earlier studies, the sculpture shows a book laid aside as they embrace. Rodin was not actually very fond of this work – he found it too sentimental.

'The Age Of Maturity', by Camille Claudel

The Age of Maturity is another one of my favorites. It was actually done by Camille Claudel – a student and muse of Rodin’s with whom he had a long term affair. Camille made this sculpture after Rodin left her. It represents Camille on her knees, begging Rodin to stay. And an aging Rodin being led away by his wife.

Sculpture, and a view of the gardens

The Thinker, in the gardens.

The Thinker was another study Rodin did for the Gates of Hell. It represents Dante looking down over hell, as represented by Rodin.

The Burghers of Calais

I love the Burghers of Calais too – especially when it’s displayed as it is here, at eye level, so you can walk around the men and see the emotion that they feel. The Sculpture captures a moment in The Hundred Years’ War when England’s Edward III laid seige to Calais. Edward offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked, wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. Six men volunteered. Ultimately their lives were spared by the queen, who asked her husband to spare their lives and suggested that killing them would be a bad omen for their unborn child.

The Gates of Hell

The Gates of Hell was Rodin’s unfinished masterwork … it’s amazing to walk up to it and poke through all of the figures. It’s more interesting, of course, if you know their stories. But it’s amazing too to see how small the final figures are on the gates – given that he made such large studies for them.

C’è Piu da Vedere – Paris

There is More to See

L'Arc de Triomphe

One of the classics – at one end of the Champs Elyse’e is the Arc de Triomphe

with statues of victory ...

Complete with winding staircase ...

And awesome views ...

The Arc de Triumph sits in a traffic circle where 12 roads come together – there are neat views every way you turn. In the photo above you can see La Defense – the ‘new’ business district of Paris. Notice the arch in the middle ‘La Grande Arche de la Defense”

Us and the Eiffel Tower, viewed from the top of the Arch

Studying ... at the Pompidou (Ryan's on the right)

Our next big museum stop was the modern art museum – Le Centre George Pompidou. I was pretty exhausted at this point, and I don’t know much about modern art anyway. But we did agree on the beauty of one thing we saw at the Pompidou …

The Sunset

We managed to have perfect timing to view an amazing sunset from the escalators at the Pompidou. The photo above shows the buildings around the square in front of the Pompidou.

Churches and Sunset

Eiffel Tower silhouetted in the sunset - from the Pompidou

La France et La Guerre – Paris

France and War

Inside Les Invalides Museum

I know what you’re thinking … what does France have to say about war? Bear with me for a moment –  Les Invalides was a surprisingly interesting museum. We went for a quick tour and ended up entirely enthralled and engaged.

Les Invalides

Above is the Church of Les Invalides which holds Napolean’s ridiculously huge tomb.

Armor Room

The museum contains arms and armor from the Middle Ages to today. From the ornate to the purely functional.

Napolean's horse - stufffed. Odd, no?

3D attack models Mont-Saint-Michel was our favorite

French Marine Infantry Flag

Charles De Gaulle's Appeal to the French People

One of the most interesting parts was learning about Charles de Gaulle, who worked to rally the french people against the Vichy government that was surrendering to the Nazis.

Il Cibo da l’Energia per Continuare – Paris

Food Gives the Energy to Continue

Because there’s a lot more sights in Paris to cover …

Notre Dame, view from the garden

Also, some things I have to see repeatedly …

Notre Dame, my favorite angle. Check out those flying buttresses!

Hammurabi's Code at the Louvre

On this trip we hit up a bunch of museums. My favorite is usually the Musée D’Orsay – an amazing former train station with some of the world’s best works of Impressionist art. This time, it wasn’t my favorite. It was under construction and everything was moved around, not quite thematically or chronologically ordered … and really hot and crowded. Good thing it’s not the only museum in Paris …

I <3 Sculpture - at the Louvre

I spent most of my time at the Louvre in this sculpture gallery. Ryan and I had done the masterwork highlights tour on our last visit … so this time we just wandered by what appealed to us. And I love sculpture.

Ryan really liked this sculpture ... and I liked taking pictures of him.

Starbucks recharge break at the Louvre

With Monet's Nymphéas, at the Musee de l'Orangerie

The Musee de l’Orangerie is one of those places that can seem hard to justify in a packed tourist schedule in Paris, because it’s so one dimensional. This museum was specifically chosen and arranged by Monet for these works of art. It’s quite impressive – but I got in by skipping the line and not paying anything since I had the museum pass.

An added bonus at the Orangerie, 'Arbre Couché' by Soutine

Downstairs at the Orangerie there were several impressive rooms of paintings, but I was most fascinated by Soutine (famous for painting a side of beef).

We have to pose with the Eiffel Tower, right?

Of course, it's pretty picturesque on its own too ...

 

Si Mangia Bene a Parigi

You Eat Well in Paris

Not that you’re probably surprised, one eats pretty well in Paris … here are some of our highlights.

Ice Cream at Berthillon

Berthillon is a famous ice cream place just across the river from Notre Dame. Everyone told me it was really good, but living in Italy I wasn’t super excited to have ice cream in France. It turns out that I was wrong, and Berthillon is very worth a visit. I had peach & raspberry – and they were ridiculous. Ryan had Pistachio and Coffee (his usual) and seemed pretty happy too.

La Cure Gourmand cookie store

We mostly stopped at this store mostly because it was adorable … but the cookies were good too. :)

Our Daily Boulangerie/Patisserie

There was an excellent boulangerie/patisserie right around the corner from our hotel. Of course, there are lots of excellent boulangeries in Paris – this just happened to be ours. Every morning we stopped in for Pain au Chocolat (for Ryan), Croissant (for me), and whatever else looked good (to share). You can’t imagine how upsetting it was when our boulangerie was closed on Sunday. We stopped in 3 bakeries to look for pain au chocolat. The first one we tried wasn’t good … so we had to try again. That’s the only reasonable thing to do, right?

Beer and Kir before dinner one night

Ryan's Cheesy Hotdog at Place de la Concorde

Ryan had been talking about getting a cheesy hot dog for days …. he was pretty excited to finally get one. He loves street food.

Crepe: Beurre, Sucre et Canelle

I got hungry waiting in line to climb the Notre Dame towers (I know, you’re shocked), but fortunately there was a crepe stand right across the street. So I ran across and got my favorite classic street crepe: butter, sugar and cinnamon. (I was too hungry to stop and smile.)

My favorite crepe place: La Creperie de Josselin

La Creperie de Josselin isn’t exactly located in a tourist mecca … but for me it is completely worth the trip off the beaten path. I usually go around 3 in the afternoon, when I know I’ll be able to get in. But this time we went for dinner – complete with a long wait in a line outside. Part of what I love about this place is the way they say hello and goodbye to everyone as they enter and leave – they call out right from the kitchen. This restaurant is a Normand style creperie. Simple, buttery, delicious crepes with carafes of cider. My favorites are the ones with eggs, bacon, spinach and goat cheese.

Have I mentioned how much I like crepes?

It’s possible that every one of my favorite restaurants in Paris is a crepe restaurant. Possible. top left:  Le Sarrasin Et Le Froment, just down the street from Berthillon & Notre Dame, it’s a conveniently located, reasonably priced diner-style, friendly crepe place. top right: We went to Le Sarrasin et Le Froment twice … note the boule’e of cider. :) bottom left: Creperie de Josselin – with cider from carafes. sooo good. bottom right: apple cinnamon and ice cream crepe at a touristy (but reasonable) place near the Pompidou.

Dinner and dessert Soufflés at Le Soufflé

Le Soufflé is a restaurant that I had seen on a previous visit to Paris, but hadn’t gotten to visit. This time I planned ahead. We each ordered a dinner and a dessert soufflé – they were pretty awesome. top left: dessert soufflé with chocolate sauce. top right: Savory spinach soufflé. bottom left: savory souffle with a rich ham and mushroom cream sauce. bottom right: raspberry dessert soufflé

Tantissimo da Vedere a Parigi

So Much to See in Paris!

In March we took our second trip to Paris … Last time it was raining, and we did a bit of a low key tour. (I didn’t want to overwhelm Ryan with my overzealous love of all things Parisian.) For this second trip, we went with some friends who were looking forward to seeing some things, so we actually bought one of those tourist day passes that becomes worth the expense … provided you see lots of things. Also, once you’ve bought the pass, it turns out you have great motivation to run in and see all kinds of things – even if they’re only half-interesting. So we saw a ton of sights. Did you know Paris was really picturesque? Yeah … probably you did. Anyway … it took me forever to narrow down the pictures … and there’s still a lot of awesome ones, sooooo ….

La Conciergerie - former royal palace and prison

We were there too ...

La Sainte-Chappelle

Sainte-Chappelle is really amazing inside – I don’t know how it is that I never have been inside this church before. It’s amazing!!

Display throne for the Crown of Thorns

Sainte-Chappelle was built to house Louis IX‘s collection of precious relics of Christ, which included the Crown of Thorns.

Sainte-Chappelle from the outside - wedged between a bunch of other buildings.

Paris Metro - Art Nouveau by Hector Guimard

I may or may not have taken picture of every awesome metro stop we passed …

Crypte Archeologique under Notre Dame

Did you know there was an archeological museum under Notre Dame? I didn’t really either. It’s covered by the Paris tourist pass, so we checked it out. But it’s mostly Roman ruins so … we didn’t stay long.

Being silly in front of Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

Notre Dame is a ‘can’t miss’ sight for me … I have fond memories of attending a student mass sitting on the floor when I was in Paris in 2000.

Fun camera angles in Notre Dame

 

Perdant Notre Argent à Monaco

Losing our Money in Monaco

Monaco, view from above

Apparently Monaco was gorgeous … because I have 171 pictures from a day trip there.

Me, with palace in background

We started our visit at the top of town, where we made our way over to the palace square … but we didn’t go in.

Fancy a Yacht?

Monaco is a home and a haven for the very very rich. It has some ridiculous statistics for money versus citizens … it’s like a high end swiss bank account kind of place.

Cathedral at top of town

We checked out the cathedral at the top of town where Princess Grace was married, and then made our way back down through the adjacent garden.

The views were pretty gorgeous.

Monte Carlo Casino

Once we were back in town, we checked out the famous Monte Carlo Casino. We had to pay 10 Euro just to get inside … at which point we discovered that old casinos are not nearly as impressive as new casinos. But the Monte Carlo did demonstrate some old world opulence, and it’s well known for being what it is, so it was still fun to check it out.

Monte Carlo was crazy expensive … but at least the food was good. And I guess when you go to the place where the elite go hobnobbing … the high price tag is to be expected. :-p