Montmartre, Pere Lachaise and the Eiffel Tower

All of us slept in on Monday morning because, for once, we didn’t have a timed reservation. Kathy and I ate in our room (coffee, tea, bread, cheese, salami, orange juice, butter, and jam), while Hosanna and Matt went down to the little bakery next door and enjoyed their coffee and pastries al fresco.

Around 10:00 AM we caught the subway to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur Cathedral. From the Anvers Metro stop we rode the funicular up to the cathedral. Most of Paris decided to join us. However, walking around the side of the church we left most of them behind.

From the cathedral we followed the Rick Steves’ Montmartre walk (from his guidebook), heading down to Pigalle and the Moulin Rouge. 

Down the hill we found one of the last two windmills remaining in Montmartre; once there were thirty. This particular windmill was made famous in Auguste Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Galette. As in the painting, there is still a restaurant next to the mill.

A little further down the hill Hosanna and Matt took a look at Le Bateau-Lavoir, which was Picasso’s first studio which he shared with Georges Braque and Juan Gris as they invented the modern art style called cubism. While they were exploring, I sat on a bench in the leafy square, resting.

Our next stop was Vincent van Gogh’s house which he shared with his brother Theo in 1886-1888. All that is really left is the plaque on the wall and I didn’t take a picture of that. I’m also really sorry that I missed the Cafe des Deux Moulins which was featured in the movie Amelie (which Kathy and I watched on the plane). At the bottom of the hill we stopped and took a picture of the Moulin Rouge. The posters on the wall in front were very “Las Vegas” like. Hosanna was expecting it to be more like the movie with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

It was now lunch time and we were hungry, but we didn’t want to eat in Pigalle. So we took the Metro to the Pere Lachaise cemetery where Matt found us a pizza restaurant.

As we were leaving the restaurant we noticed this stunning Art Nouveau staircase and lamp.

Although I had a Rick Steve’s guide to the cemetery we entered on the south side and it was hard to find all the tombs on the tour. I had also forgotten that the cemetery wasn’t flat and so I got quickly exhausted and turned over my guiding responsibilities to Matt and Google maps.

We found Chopin and a few others. Then, we followed a few tourists to Jim Morrison’s grave, and called it an afternoon. When we got back to our rooms, Kathy and I went back to Shawarma Lovers for a take home dinner and a few hours of napping.

Matt and Hosanna wanted to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night, so I got back up and we joined them at the Trocadero at 9:30. According to the Web site, the Tower was supposed to light up every hour on the hour, after sunset. Tonight, sunset was at 9:45. 

We ended up waiting until 10:30; Matt and Hosanna stayed until about a quarter to 11:00. The Tower lit up, and it was impressive with the moon right beside it, but while we were there it never sparkled. In 2007, Kathy and I saw it lit up and sparkling, but that was in October when it got dark much earlier.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in again, and have another unplanned day.

Pentecost at Notre Dame & Giverney

Today is Pentecost Sunday and Kathy and I got to attend two church services. When I was online, looking for tickets to see Notre Dame, (which you don’t actually need, it turns out), I saw this on their Web site.

Fifty days after Easter and ten days after the Ascension, Christians celebrate Pentecost. This feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus, giving them the strength and courage to proclaim the Gospel. This outpouring of the Spirit fulfills the promise made by Jesus before His Ascension. It gives the apostles the strength to emerge from their isolation and fear, to announce the Good News to all nations.

Following this was a list of services. Kathy and I went over about 8:30 in the morning and got into the line for worshipers. There was really no waiting at all. The service was entirely in French. Some of it I could understand, like when the congregants responded Grâce à Dieu (thanks be to God), after the reading of scripture. I would have liked to understand the homily; I wonder why they don’t have the equivalent of Calvary Chapel’s translation app. I tried using Google Translate, but that didn’t really work at all.

Since we were there for a service, and not just to tour the church, we really couldn’t get up and start snapping pictures. I can tell you, though, if you’ve been inside Notre Dame before, it looks so much brighter than it did before; you have to see it to believe it. Once the service was over, a nice couple in front of the church took our picture.

When Kathy and I first visited Paris in 2007, we went out for coffee with the Pastor of Calvary Chapel Paris, Mike Dente, and his wife Becky. Now, eighteen years later, they are still faithfully shepherding the flock God has given them.

Google Maps gave us the directions and the Metro lines to take, and we got to CC Paris a little before the service started at 11:00 AM. We met Mike and Becky there along with two of their (almost adult) children. Durning the service, both of us could sing along with the songs. Since they showed both the French and English lyrics, I just sang the English ones. Becky translated the sermon in real time, so we both understood a lot more than we had in the morning. 

We wanted to go out to lunch after church, but both Mike and Becky had an important congregational meeting. So, after saying goodby, Kathy’s and I took the subway to visit the Paris department store, Lafayette Galeries. Kathy still had some fond memories of buying some perfume she liked back in 2007. Unfortunately, for our purposes, the store is considerably higher end than it seemed when we visited before.

In the past, we ate lunch at the cafe on the top of Lafayette Galeries. Today we went across the street to their food court of different kinds of “pop up” restaurants. Kathy got some Pad Thai and I had some Peking Duck. (I wonder why they don’t now calling Beijing Duck?) It was OK, but I wouldn’t go back.

Instead of tagging along with use, Matt and Hosanna went by themselves to visit Giverny, the home and studio of Claude Monet in the later part of his life. This is where he painted The Water Lilies, and you can still visit the pond and see the water lilies in the flesh, so to speak. 

To get to Giverny, you have to travel to Vernon in Normandy from the St. Lazare train station. Unfortunately, they got to the train station just a little too late for the morning train, and thus had to take a later one, which didn’t leave them much time at the house and gardens. Then, when they were leaving, there was a little drama with the bus back to the Vernon train station. Fortunately, they caught the (almost full train) in the nick of time, and got back to Paris about 8:00 PM. 

Tomorrow and Tuesday are “free days” (meaning we don’t have any timed entry tickets until our Opera Tour on Tuesday evening). We plan on visiting Montmartre, Luxembourg Gardens, the Eiffel Tower, the Left Bank and the Opera. We’ll see how that goes. 

Orangerie, Orsay & Strike Three at the Catacombs

At 9:00 PM last night I took an Amazon sleep-aid pill and chewed on a ZzzQuil sleep gummy; they put me out in less than a half-hour. At 1:00 AM, I was wide awake again, sitting up and reading on my phone. After about an hour, Kathy turned over and prayed for me, and I fell back to sleep until 7:30. There are two lessons I take away from this. 

1. Prayer is more powerful than pills. 
2. I’m starting to sound like an old man complaining about his gout and lumbago. When did that happen?

While Kathy got ready to go, I went downstairs to get some bread for breakfast, only to find the bakery closed. I forgot it was Saturday, when everything opens a little later. A little Googling found another one only a block away. When I got back we had coffee (decaf for me), orange juice, bread, cheese, butter, jam and salami for breakfast. By 8:30 AM, we were all on the subway headed for the Orangerie Museum.

The Orangerie was specifically designed to display the monumental water-lily paintings by Claude Monet. The paintings are displayed in two large oval rooms, one huge panel on each side of the room, with benches in the center to allow you to sit and contemplate the paintings. 

Talking is not permitted, and the docents spend a lot of their time shushing the offenders. While we were sitting observing this, Hosanna whispered to me, “Everyone thinks that no talking means just talking quieter.” Everyone includes Hosanna apparently.

Monet’s Water Lilies takes up the whole first floor of the museum. The other floors contain the collection of the art dealer Paul Guilaume, including paintings by Derain, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Rousseau and Soutine. In addition, traveling exhibits with some connection to Monet and his vision are shown. The temporary exhibition we saw was called Out of Focus. Here is Kathy with one of the pieces. 

After three hours, we left the Orangerie, sat down for a rest, crossed the Seine, and got in the line for the Orsay museum. No reservations were required for the Orsay, and the line moved pretty quickly. 

The Orsay is inside an old converted train station which is very impressive.

Before exploring the exhibits, we headed for the iconic restaurant to get some lunch. Even though it was before noon, the restaurant was almost filled. After we were seated, a long line started forming. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at Degas, Van Gogh, and a wonderful exhibition of Art Nouveau in the stairwells. Hosanna couldn’t stop taking pictures. This is Degas’ Little Fourteen-year-old Dancer, created in the 1880s. The model was a student at the Paris Opera Ballet dance school named Marie van Goethem. When we later went on an Opera tour, the guide expanded on her story.

As I mentioned, Hosanna photographed everything, but Kathy and I were partial to the Van Goghs.

One last thing we did was to pose for a picture in front of the iconic clock that appears on the front of Rick Steves’ Paris guide book. Surprisingly, taking a picture here was one of the only places we had to wait in line.

We got back to our hotel around 5:00 PM. We had made reservations for Matt and Hosanna to see the Catacombs at 6:00 PM, but earlier in the day we got an email saying that all visits were cancelled because of a “social action” (or strike). This was pretty disappointing because you had to buy tickets online, the tickets are only released one week before your visit, and the tickets sell out by the end of the day. That meant that we couldn’t make another reservation for the time they were visiting. 

Kathy and I went shopping, and out to Shawarma Lovers by ourselves, where we had the delicious chicken shawarma pita and talked with the owner, who emigrated from Syria in 2014. Then we went back to the apartment, closed the amazing blackout shutters and went to sleep.  In the meantime, the kids went to L’Amazonial for dinner and then out on the town to sample the nightlife of Paris.

In a Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike

Last night I took a half tablet of the Amazon sleep aid medicine to combat my off-kilter jet lag. It is supposed to have the same sleep ingredient that is used in NyQuil. I also stayed awake until 9:00 PM. Unfortunately, it did not do the trick. At 1:00 AM my body decided it needed to be awake, so I read for a while (on my phone, so I wouldn’t wake Kathy), and then got up and worked on the blog until sunrise, when I went for a walk over by Notre Dame, picked up a baguette and a loaf of seedy bread for breakfast, came home, ate and showered, and was out the door by 8:30 AM to catch the RER C train for Versailles.

Our reservation was for 10:00 AM and we made it in plenty of time, with no train strike to be found. The line was relatively short and moved fast. 

The inside of the King’s apartments are opulent, extravagant, and, to my eyes, not especially tasteful. Built before air-conditioning, and not apparently retrofitted in the centuries following, the endless succession of rooms reminds me of the early Colossal Cave computer game. “You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.” 

The mass of bodies creates its own weather system. Outside it was cool and brisk; inside, it was a sauna. We saw one woman step over the guide-rails and start wrestling with one of the French doors, trying to get some of the outside air in.

Both Kathy and I remarked on the fact that there don’t seem to be any hallways. To get to room #10, you have to pass through rooms 1 to 9. Perhaps there are hallways, shut away from all the prying tourist eyes.

The one thing I really was impressed by were the murals on several of the ceilings. How would you like to wake up to that every morning?

With the Paris Museum Pass, there are a number of attractions that you must reserve a time slot for. I made reservations for all of them. In the afternoon, we had reservations for the Gran Trianon, the Petite Trianon, and the Queen’s hamlet. These were remote, smaller palaces where Louis and Marie Antionette would repair to when the goings on in the main palace got out of hand.

After touring the main apartments, we all had a little sympathy for Louis. We were drained, and so we decided to skip the afternoon adventure, (with its one-hour, round-trip hike), and stop on the way back to Paris, for some lunch. 

The Metro dropped us off two long blocks from the Eiffel Tower on Rue Cler, the market street made famous by travel guru Rick Steves. We ate at a very cute small brasserie called the Petite Cler.

Fame has brought change to the area, over the years, but it still retains much of its charm. I expected to see the street flooded with tourists carrying Rick’s blue and gold guide book. But, in fact, at lunch we still predominately heard the other diners speaking French. My brother Gary reminded me that I have to take pictures of the food. Kathy had a nice shrimp salad.

Matt and Hosanna both went for the butcher’s cut steak with baked potatoes…

…while I had Chicken Milanese with spaghetti. Everything was very good, and I’d recommend it if you’re in the area. 

After lunch, Kathy went to the fromagerie (cheese shop) next door and bought some cheese to take with us back to the apartment. Then, we headed to the gelato shop for dessert.

Fed, refreshed and ready for adventure once again, we headed over to the park space that faces the Eiffel Tower, called the Champs de Mars, intending to walk along it to the base of the Tower. It was not to be. Most of the park was undergoing renovation, and so we had to walk around it. That was a little disappointing.

When we got to the base of the Tower, we found another change. The last time Kathy and I were here (amazingly, ten years ago), everyone could walk up to the base of the tower. Now, only ticket holders can get close to it. We didn’t have tickets but Hosanna got a picture through the plexiglass, and seemed happy.

Speaking of things that have changed: on the way to the Eiffel Tower, we passed the hotel where Kathy and I stayed for several days in 2007, eighteen years ago. They changed the awning out front, and replaced the planters when the plants outgrew them. What’s strange is I remember that trip like it was yesterday. Actually, I take that back; I remember it better than yesterday, unfortunately.

When we got back to our neighborhood we spent an hour or so resting, and then went to an early dinner at Shawarma Lovers, a Syrian fast-food restaurant about three blocks from our apartment. Matt had a chicken shawarma wrap, Kathy and Hosanna shared a falafel plate and I had a kafta pita wrap. On the way home, Kathy and I went shopping, while the kids left to explore the neighborhood.