Going To Versailles

The train ride only took 30 minutes from our hotel and we were really looking forward to seeing King Louis XIV’s  summer home.  

Some Interesting Facts About Versailles (that I’m not absolutely certain are 100% accurate)

The Palace of Versailles is located16 miles SW. The palace was a day’s coach ride from the {capital;} Louis XIV moved from Paris for safety reasons. While living in the Louvre as a young boy, an uprising frightened him as an attempt was made to storm the palace.  

The Palace and gardens are located on 19,252 acres which is larger than the entire island of Manhattan. 

Based on existing records, the cost of building the palace was over $2 billion dollars in today’s money.

King Louis XIV was an adherent of the divine-right theory of kingship.  He believed he was not subject to any earthly authority,  and since his authority to rule came directly from God.   

Back to our trip to Versailles.  I knew we were in trouble as we approached then entrance gate.

The line to get in zig-zagged the length of a football field and back several times and it wasn’t moving very quickly.    Dan scouted to see how long it was going to take while I held our place in line.    After 30 minutes or so of not much movement of the line, we decided that Versailles would have to wait for our next trip to Paris.  

Luckily, we didn’t book a tour and had free passes with our museum pass, so it only cost the train fare of 13 Euro to for the two of us to get there and back. 

Oh, that’s what it is supposed to look like from the outside (thanks to Wikipedia for the photo). 

 That’s Louis on the horse.  Looks like rain may be in store for us.

Lunch at French fast food is even good.  The bread here is just amazing.

We came back to the hotel to see if we could find a tour boat cruise along the Seine.   Looked even more like rain,

 but we went anyway. 

Lots of beautiful sights along the way.  I think Paris is the most beautiful city that I’ve ever visited-just amazing.

The Eiffel Tower from the tour boat.

 Serious rain was coming down, so they enclosed it with the covering.

We were getting soaked after the boat tour, so headed  back to the hotel room to do some blogging and look for a place to have dinner.

Hotel room blogging

 Dinner at Le Pain Quotidienne  again

I forgot we were taking photos of the food and I took a bite before Dan reminded me.   This was a goat cheese, pear, and honey tartine with a tossed salad and some red wine.   Did I mention how good the wine is here?   Amazing.  No preservatives like American wines and never any after effects if you drink a little too much.

Dan had a ham and cheese tartine with a special mustard sauce.

We forgot to take the photo of the dessert until it was almost gone.  It was an almond paste cake with dried fruit and nuts that were glazed with some kind of something really good.
Wow!  I love this place.  Paris, I mean.

Finally a sunny day here in Paris, at least for the morning.  We took the metro to the Montemartre arrondisement so we could see the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, located at the summit of a hill which is the highest point in the city of Paris.   There are lots of steps to make it to the top.  I’m proud to say we didn’t take the funicular, which is a tram for people unable or unwilling to climb. 

 

We had lunch at Petit Chatelet, which is near Notre Dame.  I really liked our appetizer, which was goat cheese and pesto in a pastry dough. 

My entree was sea bass and scallops with vegetables and some kind of sauce.  I really liked it.

Dan had duck breast and a potato vegetable cake.  He said it was OK, not great.

After lunch, we walked past Notre Dame again,  but still huge crowds.    We toured a dozen cathedrals in Germany where it wasn’t very crowded and you could take as many photos as you wanted in the interior.  If you want to see cathedrals, I highly recommend Germany.

Outside of Notre Dame

A nearby garden

This photo clearly needs to be straightened.  I think this is the Palais du Justice also really near Notre Dame.

Next, we visited Sainte Chapelle which is a royal medieval gothic chapel, located near the Palais du Justice, on the Ile de la Cite in the heart of Paris.
Begun some time after 1239, Sainte Chapelle was completed on the 26th of April 1248^;[. Its constuction was commissioned by King Louis IX to house his collection of passion relics (such as bones and body parts of saints), including Christ’s crown of thorns (right) – one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom.

I first became interested in cathedrals after reading Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth.  One of my favorite books of all time.

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They did allow some photos of the interior of Sainte Chapelle.  The stained glass windows were really impressive.   The rose window is 9 meters across.

The Musee d’Orsay-WOW!  It is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, an impressive railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gaugan and Van Gogh.

I’ve seen many of the above mentioned artists’ works at various museums, but never knew about the work of the artists mentioned below.  These are some of our favorite paintings we saw today and glad we learned about some different artists.

Gustave Moreau-Hesiode et la Muse 1891

Maurice Denis-Landscape With Green Trees

Edward Burne-Jones Princess Sarbra

Paul Serusier The Washer Women
 

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes–The Pigeon

Pierre Bonnard Femmes au Jardin

Rippl-Ronai-A Park at Night

Another one by Paul Serusier-Averse  (The Downpour)

Speaking of which, when we left the museum as it was closing, it was raining.  We made our way through a neighborhood looking for a Metro stop to take us back to the hotel.  On the way, we found another bakery.  I think bakeries are my favorite thing about Paris.  

We bought food to take home for dinner-a ham and cheese sandwich on magnificent baguette, a strawberry tart, a raspberry pastry, and four caramel macaroons.  Macaroons in Paris are nothing like the ones in America.  They are a soft cookie with a filling and come in many different flavors.  They are unbelievably delicious.   Even better than the pastries. 

The Shoe Adventure

The shoes that Susan brought for the trip turned out to be a nightmare.  She was in pain after walking about an hour, not just her feet but all the way up to her hips.  So the first order of business was to get her a better pair of walking shoes.  We had tried a couple of stores the afternoon before, but didn’t find anything.  So she found a shoe store that was close to the hotel and we went there this morning.  She found a pair of shoes she liked, but had noticed a Nike store on the way, so we decided to go back and check that out before making a decision.  But when we got there the store was closed, so we went back and bought the ones at the first store.  Then walking from there to the Metro stop, we passed back by the store and now it was open.  Oh well.  The new shoes work great and she’s back to being the Energizer Bunny.

The Louvre

Arriving at 11:03 AM, we were three minutes late for the tour and we weren’t allowed to participate.  Bummer.   They said we could come back at 2, but we decided to explore on our own for a while.    

The first exhibit we saw was Italian sculptures from different eras.  We didn’t get an audio guide, so we were on our own to figure out what the works were as all the signs and explanations were in French. 

 Entrance to the Louvre

 Italian Sculpture Exhibit

 What are these guys doing?

Really?

 

This is definitely not the kind of angel that was in my Catholic School religion book.

 The crowds were immense. 

 Tibre Sculpture

More crowds at the Byzantine painting exhibit.

Yikes! Hard to see anything but crowds of people.

School children learning about a painting

Did we pick the wrong day or is it always like this?

Didn’t see many paintings but of the ones I did see, this was my favorite.

This one had a very unusual looking baby Jesus.    He looked like an old man.

I did like the ceilings everywhere we went in the Louvre.  We didn’t stay that long because the crowds were overwhelming.   We might go back another day, but it was time for lunch.

The lunch was OK, but there was a guy next to us smoking, and then a guy showed up playing a French Horn, and not in a good way.  Oh well, it was nice to sit and eat.

After lunch, Susan wanted to find the street we had passed by on the Red Bus the day before, but we didn’t know where it was.  We walked and walked and walked, saw a lot of interesting buildings (including the Opera House) but never found the street we were looking for, and then looked up and we were back where we had started at the Louvre!

We kept walking and ended up at the Musee D’Orsay and  decided to go in there for a while.  We just toured the top floor, and decided to call it a day and come back for more another day.

So back to the hotel for a much needed rest and then out to dinner.  We went to a place near the hotel (Cafe des Musees) that was listed on Paris by Mouth, but we weren’t impressed.  I had a steak that was pretty tough.  But we started with mushrooms stuffed with snails, which were good.

Susan’s first time trying snails.  They didn’t taste any different from the mushrooms in which they were stuffed.   The sauce can make shoe leather taste good.

But hey, you can’t beat caramel sauce!

On the way back to the hotel, we saw this cat on a motorcycle but he wasn’t wearing a helmet, so he’s not a good kitty!   

Aww-yes he is. 

More adventure tomorrow!

Rodin Museum and Breast of Paris

Neither of us woke up until 9 AM this morning, so I think we are officially on Paris time.   After a breakfast of more pastries and espresso, Dan and I planned a day of museums.   I think we walked more today than yesterday even though the Metro gets us fairly close to where we want to be.

The weather felt warmer than yesterday, but maybe we’re just getting more used to the cooler temperatures and overcast sky.  We loved the garden of the Rodin museum with its many famous sculptures, notably The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell. 

There’s an interesting story that goes with The Burghers of Calais .  These six men surrendered themselves to be executed in order to save the lives of all of the people in their city.  Rodin did a good job making these guys look pretty miserable. 

While admiring the sculptures in the garden, rain started to pour down enough that we decided it was time to go to the indoor exhibits. 

Really impressive works awaited us inside. 

                                         Ha!  Dan.

                             I wear the hat everywhere-hides the hair and protects from the elements. 

   
                                   Seriously unhappy woman.   I look just like my mother in this photo.

                                        Piano hands?       

 

  
                     The Gates of Hell.  I think I may have been there.

La Patisserie des Reves

 Taking the advice of our shared table acquaintances, we visited La Patisserie des Reves with
the intention of getting The brest of Paris.   The beautiful pastries inside this small shop were displayed under glass as works of art, which indeed they are.

 The Brest of Paris  a ring of choux pastry loaded with praline cream named after a French bicycle race.

Not as pretty as in the store, but it traveled for a few hours in a box before we got to eat it.

 Our lunch was at a communal dining, organic food restaurant called Le Pain Quotiden, The Daily Bread.  

                                         Dan’s lunch-meat plate-duck pate, ham, sausage

    Susan’s lunch-vegetable plate   lentils, beets, hummus, roasted peppers, goat cheese, arugula, and a glass of rose.

Next we went to the Hotel Invalides (where Napoleon is buried), you can see the gold dome in the background which is over Napoleon’s Tomb.

While we were at the Hotel Invalides and the Museee de l’Armee, they were having a ceremony giving out medals.  By this point I was tired and my feet were really hurting.  We headed back to the hotel for a break.    I am getting different shoes tomorrow.

Window shopping on the way back to the hotel

Dinner at Breizh Cafe

 These were Buckwheat gallotes with various fillings.  Interesting.

Today was our first real day in Paris, having arrived yesterday late afternoon.  The hotel room in Le Marais is acceptable, except the bathroom smell is offensive. 

We woke up early and headed for a bakery around the corner from our hotel. We ordered and shared three pastries and since we were so hungry, nearly finished them all-a sugar brioche, a chocolate almond pastry, and a pan au raisan.  They were all good, but we liked the raisan one best.  The little cups of espresso tasted good with our treats and we were ready for our day.

The weather was cold today and waking up to 48 degrees and overcast in mid-May is definitely different from what we’re used to.  We bundled in jackets and scarves with hopes that it would warm as the day progressed.  

Navigating the Metro can be an adventure, but Dan was able to guide us to a stop that led us to one of the biggest tourist attractions in Paris.  The Eiffel Tower wasn’t high on my list, but decided I couldn’t go to Paris without seeing it.  By the time we got to the park where the Eiffel Tower is located, the sun had come out and it had warmed some, but was still brisk.   We opted out of taking the elevators to the top, but enjoyed viewing it from afar as well as underneath. 

 By mid-morning, we had walked for quite a while so we stopped at a cafe for coffee and a snack.  Then we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. 

My feet were starting to hurt.  The girl at Onlineshoes.com said these shoes were supposed to be comfortable.  HA!  Keen wedge boots-my feet were really hurting.  

By the time we had made it to the Arc de Triomphe, I had to stop.  Blisters were beginning to appear on the balls of my feet.   As we were resting on a park bench in front of the Arc de Triomphe, I spotted a tour bus and hoped Dan would agree that our walking tour would end for today.   While we were waiting for the bus, we spotted a Pharmacie and decided to go in and see if they had any shoe inserts.  And sure enough we found some Dr. Scholls gel inserts that seemed to help.

The tour bus passed by some beautiful areas that I hope we’ll explore tomorrow. 

When the bus got to the Cathedral de Notre Dame, we got and and went inside.  The stained glass was incredible, but since they didn’t allow flash photography we didn’t get many pictures. 

By the time we got out, the wind was blowing and we were freezing and jet lag was finally setting in, so we came back to the hotel for a nap before dinner at Frenchies Bar A Vin.  I found this place reviewed in both NY Times and “Paris By Mouth”.  They don’t take reservations and they open at 7 PM.   We got there shortly after 7 and there were no tables available.     We stood at the bar-and I mean stood-no chairs or stools-until a table became available.    The place seats maybe 40 people when it is completely full -wall-to-wall.    
This is a “New French” kind of place and very popular.  Luckily, a table did become available within the first 15 minutes and we were seated next to a young couple from Philadelphia.   I wish I had taken photos of our food.  We had barbeque pulled pork-surprisingly good-even Dan liked it.  And a cheese plate with wine pairings.  Wow!  The wines were really good.  Then had dessert-a strawberry tart with .glace au fromage blanc.  Oooo-so good.

The couple from Philadelphia said we have to go to this one patisserie that has a famous pastry that is called Paris Brest.   The place is called The Patisserie des Reves-The Bakery of Dreams.   So that is on the list for tomorrow along with looking for some comfortable shoes.