Okay, we've been home now for almost two weeks and I haven't finished the blog of the trip. I apologize that you have been deprived of the last two days of our trip. For those that don't know John got sick on the last day of the vacation (good timing) and I got sick on the plane ride home. We apparantely picked up a version of the flu that our bodies aren't used to - so it hit us pretty hard. It was a good thing that we had four extra days after the trip to recoup before having to get back to work, otherwise I don't think we would have made it.
So here is a Reader's Digest version of our last day...sorry that it isn't as detailed as I'd like.
Tuesday September 16, 2008
John woke up feeling a little green. I didn't want to rush him because he'd been so great about the trip and letting me pull, push, tug, shake, squeeze, and jog him all over the city so far. I think he has enjoyed it very much - as for me I've loved so much of everything we've seen that I think I'll burst sometimes.
When we got going we made our way to the metro to head over to the opposite side of the town to make our way to the Marmottan Claude Monet museum. It took two metro trains and a little bit of negotiating the crowded trains and stations, but we made it out of the underground within about thirty minutes. We've been so impressed with the mass public transit, we've talked about wether or not we'll remember how to drive.
As we were taking a leisure walk to the museum John started getting a little pale and shaky. We found a bench alongside a park to sit and rest on for a little bit to let him get settled. I know he was probably feeling worse than he was letting on and he probably wanted to go back to the hotel really bad but didn't want to let on how miserable he was because I'd been looking forward to the Marmottan all week, especially since we had skipped the Orangerie earlier. We sat and fed the pigeons at the park and rested a bit. The weather was agreeing with us since it was a little sunny but still cool. After a while we got up and started making our way to the museum again. We passed a couple of international embassies. We passed Gambia and we believe Afghanastan, they didn't really have a lot of signage out in front of their buildings except for some flags and small plaques by the fences. It was a little bizzare, I expected to see a little more - something. When we had passed the Chinese embassy the other day it was cordoned off and had French police guarding the front gate, so these were a little less conspicuous.
We found the museum and went inside - my one piece of advice to anyone visiting it is, "Watch your step," the doorway is short and there is a portion on the bottom that sticks up and will trip you if you're not careful. Once inside you HAVE TO check all bags, cell phones, and cameras. They don't allow any pictures AT ALL. I was a bit disappointed about this not only because I wouldn't be able to get photos of the artwork, but the building it is in is beautiful too, even the courtyard - and wasn't able to capture any of it. But other than that the museum visit was fantastic!!
There is a lot more in the museum that just the Monet paintings. There was a room full of illuminated manuscripts. They were so beautiful! I could have stayed in that room for hours. Down one hallway were paintings by some of Monet's contemporaries and students. Renoir, Pizzaro, and a small Manet were included. The basement houses some of his most famous works. I don't remember all of the ones that were there; they have about thirty to forty of his works there including some of his characatures, but a good amount of the important ones are there. A Japanese Bridge, lots of Waterlillies, the famous Rowboat, one of his Cathederals, and lots of impressionist murals. I found my new favorite The Roses, I was moved to tears by it. While we were there I kept moving back and forth looking at the artwork and how it shifts from angle and space - it was magical. I started weeping from all the beauty that was in that room and was emotional because I felt so privledged to be able to see it in person. The German tour group that was there probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't care. I was so impressed with everything there.
By the time I was ready to move back upstairs John wasn't looking too good, and I was starting to worry more about him and his comfort level - so I ditched the rest of the day's plans and asked him if he wanted to go back to the hotel - I know that he wanted to stay out and do things for my sake - but he truly wanted to go back and rest which I insisted on anyway. I was really starting to worry on wether or not he was going to be okay on the metro ride back, but we really weren't going to have too much choice either way - so we started the walk back to the metro and made our way back to the hotel.
When we got out of the metro station I told him to go on ahead to the hotel and that I was going to go to the Supermarche to get him some food that would be easy on his stomach. We were close enough to the hotel that I wasn't too worried about getting lost, so we split up so he wouldn't have to suffer through the shopping.
I had a hard time finding all the things I wanted to get him to help him feel better. The staff at the hotel were wonderful when I explained that I couldn't find soup for him they said that if I picked some up at the market that I could heat it up there in their kitchen. They even got me hot water for tea for him. I don't know what I would have done without their help. So I went up to check on John but he wasn't ready to eat yet, so I went out and did a little shopping to try to find some last minute gifts.
It was a interesting experience to walk around the foreign city on my own. I stayed within about a four block radius of the hotel. (The blocks there are totally different from the city blocks at home) I found a few things to take back home including the wine that Mom had asked me to try to bring back. I had found an adorable toy store that I wanted to buy a lot of things from - but thought better of it. I had even found another bead shop just about a block from our hotel, but kept myself in check. After about an hour of walking and shopping I stopped back into the supermarche and picked up some tea and soup for John. I made another quick stop at Miss Manon; the boulangerie we'd eaten at a lot the last week, and picked up croissants for John. I got back to the hotel just in time as John was starting to worry about me - perfect timing.
He felt a little guilty that he had gotten sick but I told him not to worry about that and to just get better - I was feeling guilty that he might be uncomfortable on the plane. We ate dinner and then got ready for bed. I had started packing earlier in the day to make our morning easier, so I stayed up a little longer to get more done, but eventually got tired enough to go to bed myself.
The Next Day - Wednesday - September 17, 2008
Not too much to talk about for our trip out back home. John truly was sick, and I felt so sorry for him. Then to make matters worse, I got sick on the plane. I could only imagine how miserable John was. The flight was eleven hours long. I managed to watch three movies: Amelie, Maid of Honor, and The Bucket List. By the end of the third movie I was so done. I spent the past nine or so hours either laughing or crying or doubled over with stomach cramps...not a way to travel - I don't suggest it. The only Pollyanna thought I can put on it was that I was glad we got sick at the end of the trip and not at the beginning, but then again our excitement and adrenaline was so high that the first part of the trip I think we were too up to get sick, who knows.
We got into LAX around 8pm - We had to go through immigration, get our luggage; for a while it seemed like we weren't going to get our luggage - that's what took the longest to get through the ordeal, then we had to go through customs, we were surprised at how easily customs was. Luckily Nick and Jen had just walked up to the terminal when we stepped outside. The trip was fabulous but it was so good to be home.
There you have it folks! Eleven days of our first international vacation. I call it a success - even with getting sick. All I can wonder now is...when are we going back???
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Almost Over
Monday - September 15, 2008
Today we slept in and lagged about for quite a bit. While John slept in a little longer I updated our journal - I had gotten a little behind and luckily had kept notes on all of our day's events. When we were a little more awake we called for our breakfast to be brought up and took our time getting ready for our day. We didn't really have a lot planned but we wanted to try to get a little sight-seeing in. Our museum passes ran out the day before so we needed to make sure of what our activities would be from here out so our expenses don't get too out of hand. I'd managed to pick up a few souveniers and gifts - but I still have a little bit of shopping to do.
We started out our day by going to the cyber cafe for one last time - we used up all of the remaining time we had and updated as many photos as we could - it looked like we loaded some twice - but I can't tell for sure - we'll have to check on it when we're home when we can leisurely go through them.
We stopped by the Supermarche to get some things to make a picnic lunch and we went by the Boulangerie de Magique again for pastries and to take pictures.
We got on the metro and made our way to Montmartre, this time the trains were very busy but we didn't have any difficulties other than my worriedness about missing our stop or the people being around me so close. I had thought by this portion of the trip that I'd have gotten over the nervousness - but not so much.
We got to the Abbesses station and were very happy to see that there was an elevator to take us up most of the way to the top. My heels and ankles still haven't recovered from all the steps at the Arc. When we got out of the station I had intended for us to find the "I Love You" wall - and luckily we were able to see it from the Metro station. Its a huge tiled mural that has "I Love You' written in almost every language - even the hand symbol for sign language! Of course I had to get pictures.
From there we walked through the streets and took the Funicular up the hill to avoid the steps to Sacre Coeur. I was glad that it was available to use to save my sore body. It doesn't take you all the way up to the top, but it gets you up there pretty far. When we stepped out the Sacre Coeur is to the left of you and its pretty impressive as you walk over to it - it just looms over you.
We sat on a bench not too far from the steps and we had lunch. I found out that John had snuck away while I was busy at the St.-Paul place and he picked up a beef sanwich, and surprised me with macaroons!! While we ate pigeons kept coming closed to us but we ignored them until we were done. Since we had some baguette with us we decided to try feeding the birds. Strangely enough the pigeons were pretty docile, completely different from the ones in Place St.-Paul, it turned out to be the little brown wrens that were the most aggressive birds there. They swarmed around in a huge flock quickly out-numbering the pigeons. The wrens are so much smaller that they were able to move faster too. It was amazing - I'd throw a piece of bread out and the wrens didn't wait for it to hit the ground - they flew up and caught it midair!! I'd never seen anything like it before. They were like fat, but ever so graceful hummingbirds.
After a few minutes we walked up the rest of the steps to the Sacre Coeur to see the sights of the city. We were amazed at how many landmarks we were able to see clearly. Sacre Coeur is one of the tallest places to view Paris - the Eiffel Tower is of course the highest. It was really nice to get a glance of the cityscape from another vantage point.
While we were viewing the city a small commotion was going on at the landing below us. There was a peddler that had scooped up his blanket of wares and had run off - then we noticed two other men picking up other blankets of stuff and loading them into nearby bags - we thought maybe they weren't supposed to be there and they knew the police were coming until we realized that the last two men were the police. We figured that the first man must not have had a license or something so he ran off leaving a good portion of his stock behind him. It was a little bizarre to see - but everyone just continued on like nothing was happening.
We made our way back to the Abbesses metro station walking down the steps this time so we could get photos of the murals on the wall. We were very happy to have taken the elevator up once we realized how far down the platform was. After we got back to the Marais we returned to the Tumbleweed store to talk more with the owner - we found out that her name is Lynn and she's been living in Paris for 30 years! She originally came from Pennsylvania. Her first trip to Paris was when she was 16, she decided to make the leap a few years after that. It was really nice talking to her, she was very patient and wonderful to us. I had her sign the journal from our first visit.
We stopped by our hotel room to switch out items in our pack and pick up the laundry bag - we hadn't planned our laundry trip well the other day so we needed to do one more load - but it gave us some nice down time and I worked on the journal while we waited.
We had dinner at a Korean Barbeque cafe at the Place St. Catherine close to the hotel and had beef and chicken meals. They were pretty good - it was a fun experience. We weren't really ready for bed yet so we walked around the Marais a little bit - we picked up ice cream novelties at a cafe off Rue Rivoli then walked up and down the little streets. The ice cream there is really different than it is at home, you can tell that there is more egg custard in it.
While we walked around the neigborhood we saw a group of four police persons that were strolling along and ticketing illegally parked scooters and motorcycles, they even found a car that was parked in a handicapped spot without handicapped signage - they all looked like they had hit the lottery - they didn't even notice the motorcycle on the sidewalk just a few feet away!
We strolled along until we felt ready for bed so we returned to the hotel. John watched a little TV while I wrote in the journal more. We've had fun watching French television trying to decifer what's happening because there isn't any subtitiles - I think we made the shows more interesting than they really were. I have to say that watching MTV's Sweet Sixteen (called My Incredible Voyage in France) is more pathetic than at home, the teenagers behavior is more pronounced when all you can focus on is the body langauage because you don't understand all of the overdubbed voices.
We are having a difficult time believing the trip is almost over - have we really been here for eight days???
-Karen
Today we slept in and lagged about for quite a bit. While John slept in a little longer I updated our journal - I had gotten a little behind and luckily had kept notes on all of our day's events. When we were a little more awake we called for our breakfast to be brought up and took our time getting ready for our day. We didn't really have a lot planned but we wanted to try to get a little sight-seeing in. Our museum passes ran out the day before so we needed to make sure of what our activities would be from here out so our expenses don't get too out of hand. I'd managed to pick up a few souveniers and gifts - but I still have a little bit of shopping to do.
We started out our day by going to the cyber cafe for one last time - we used up all of the remaining time we had and updated as many photos as we could - it looked like we loaded some twice - but I can't tell for sure - we'll have to check on it when we're home when we can leisurely go through them.
We stopped by the Supermarche to get some things to make a picnic lunch and we went by the Boulangerie de Magique again for pastries and to take pictures.
We got on the metro and made our way to Montmartre, this time the trains were very busy but we didn't have any difficulties other than my worriedness about missing our stop or the people being around me so close. I had thought by this portion of the trip that I'd have gotten over the nervousness - but not so much.
We got to the Abbesses station and were very happy to see that there was an elevator to take us up most of the way to the top. My heels and ankles still haven't recovered from all the steps at the Arc. When we got out of the station I had intended for us to find the "I Love You" wall - and luckily we were able to see it from the Metro station. Its a huge tiled mural that has "I Love You' written in almost every language - even the hand symbol for sign language! Of course I had to get pictures.
From there we walked through the streets and took the Funicular up the hill to avoid the steps to Sacre Coeur. I was glad that it was available to use to save my sore body. It doesn't take you all the way up to the top, but it gets you up there pretty far. When we stepped out the Sacre Coeur is to the left of you and its pretty impressive as you walk over to it - it just looms over you.
We sat on a bench not too far from the steps and we had lunch. I found out that John had snuck away while I was busy at the St.-Paul place and he picked up a beef sanwich, and surprised me with macaroons!! While we ate pigeons kept coming closed to us but we ignored them until we were done. Since we had some baguette with us we decided to try feeding the birds. Strangely enough the pigeons were pretty docile, completely different from the ones in Place St.-Paul, it turned out to be the little brown wrens that were the most aggressive birds there. They swarmed around in a huge flock quickly out-numbering the pigeons. The wrens are so much smaller that they were able to move faster too. It was amazing - I'd throw a piece of bread out and the wrens didn't wait for it to hit the ground - they flew up and caught it midair!! I'd never seen anything like it before. They were like fat, but ever so graceful hummingbirds.
After a few minutes we walked up the rest of the steps to the Sacre Coeur to see the sights of the city. We were amazed at how many landmarks we were able to see clearly. Sacre Coeur is one of the tallest places to view Paris - the Eiffel Tower is of course the highest. It was really nice to get a glance of the cityscape from another vantage point.
While we were viewing the city a small commotion was going on at the landing below us. There was a peddler that had scooped up his blanket of wares and had run off - then we noticed two other men picking up other blankets of stuff and loading them into nearby bags - we thought maybe they weren't supposed to be there and they knew the police were coming until we realized that the last two men were the police. We figured that the first man must not have had a license or something so he ran off leaving a good portion of his stock behind him. It was a little bizarre to see - but everyone just continued on like nothing was happening.
We made our way back to the Abbesses metro station walking down the steps this time so we could get photos of the murals on the wall. We were very happy to have taken the elevator up once we realized how far down the platform was. After we got back to the Marais we returned to the Tumbleweed store to talk more with the owner - we found out that her name is Lynn and she's been living in Paris for 30 years! She originally came from Pennsylvania. Her first trip to Paris was when she was 16, she decided to make the leap a few years after that. It was really nice talking to her, she was very patient and wonderful to us. I had her sign the journal from our first visit.
We stopped by our hotel room to switch out items in our pack and pick up the laundry bag - we hadn't planned our laundry trip well the other day so we needed to do one more load - but it gave us some nice down time and I worked on the journal while we waited.
We had dinner at a Korean Barbeque cafe at the Place St. Catherine close to the hotel and had beef and chicken meals. They were pretty good - it was a fun experience. We weren't really ready for bed yet so we walked around the Marais a little bit - we picked up ice cream novelties at a cafe off Rue Rivoli then walked up and down the little streets. The ice cream there is really different than it is at home, you can tell that there is more egg custard in it.
While we walked around the neigborhood we saw a group of four police persons that were strolling along and ticketing illegally parked scooters and motorcycles, they even found a car that was parked in a handicapped spot without handicapped signage - they all looked like they had hit the lottery - they didn't even notice the motorcycle on the sidewalk just a few feet away!
We strolled along until we felt ready for bed so we returned to the hotel. John watched a little TV while I wrote in the journal more. We've had fun watching French television trying to decifer what's happening because there isn't any subtitiles - I think we made the shows more interesting than they really were. I have to say that watching MTV's Sweet Sixteen (called My Incredible Voyage in France) is more pathetic than at home, the teenagers behavior is more pronounced when all you can focus on is the body langauage because you don't understand all of the overdubbed voices.
We are having a difficult time believing the trip is almost over - have we really been here for eight days???
-Karen
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tourist Day
Sunday - September 14, 2008
We slept in until 9am - a little later than we wanted to - but we guessed we really needed it. We picked up quick pastries for breakfast again then made our way over to the cyber cafe to try to get our updates done but it didn't open at the time the woman said it would - even after waiting for fifteen minutes. Had we not already paid for time that we hadn't used yet we'd have looked for another web cafe. We've learned our lesson - for our next trip we're going to bring a laptop with us. It will make picutre uploards and blog updates so much easier. There are a few nice squares and parks in the city that have wi-fi access for free - so we're definately taking advantage of them next time around - and we're going to let everyone we know to do the same!
We got over our displeasure and headed for our day's activities - so off to the Metro we went!
This day was set aside to be our biggest tourist day. We planned to see the big guys, plus do a little geocaching at a cememtary.
We got off the Metro at Grand Palais and took picutres of it and the Petit Palais. From there we walked to Pont Alexandres III for more photos. We stood there at teh bridge for a while why we decided on the route to our next destination. We walked along the Seine on the upper loft along Quai D'Orsay until we reached Pont de L'Alma and crossed over the river.
We'd made it to the landmark of The Liberty Flame. Its a scale replica of the Statue of Liberty's torch and was built to commemorate the Resistance Fighters of the 1940's, but most recently has become a memorial to Princess Diana since the entry to the underground passageway that her accident occured at was right below the statue. It is also a stop for a photo/virual cache for Geocaching - so we compounded our visit. We took the picuture to use for the cache's log, then I left a message on the monument. I put a small note on a piece of paper and using my scrapbooking adhesive I taped it to the base of the flame. The note said, "Diana, Thank you for your beauty and your grace. The angels are lucky to have you. Love, John, Karen & Edana" We spent a reverent moment at the location before moving to our next spot.
We walked up Avenue George V up to the Champs Eylsees and then turned left. There at the next intersection was the Arc de Triomphe. We kept our pace and made our way to the Arc's underground entrance. We took pictures outside and around all the sides of the Arc before climbling the steps to the top - it was as arduous as the ascent to the top of Notre Dame, but again was worth the trip.
We could see out down the different streets and recognize different landmarks throughout the city. It was fascinating to see - I was a little unsteady from the climb up the steps so I had to sit down for a bit before we could consider moving. We enjoyed the visual diaramas inside that explained and highlighted various information about the monument, from its construction to its iconography, including its history and historic moments.
From the Arc we took a metro to the Trocadero station and made our way to the Chaillot and the esplanade of the Trocadero. We got to see the Eiffel Tower up close and personal. We took a few pictures but then we decided to go to the nearby cemetary first so we could get our geocaching done before it closed for the day. We followed the GPSr to the geocache location within the cemetary (once we found the entrance to the cemetary) and we sent Scout on his way. We dropped off a couple other travel bugs and picked up a couple more to take back home with us. We spents a little more time within the cemetary looking at the beautiful gravesites. The most famous person we recognized was Eugene Manet, impressionist painter. We would have liked to stay a little longer, but Gustave's masterpiece called to us - so off to the Eiffel Tower we went.
As we crossed the plaza we noticed two large groups of commotion. I looked at John when I head a familiar tune being played and I asked, "Is that the MacGyver theme I'm hearing?" he just grinned and said yeah...we quickly made our way over to the larger group of people to see teenagers performing - the MacGyver theme was over by the time we had arrived - but we watched through the crowd for a little bit. The other group was a mass of Asain poeple that were standing in formation in a specific pose - I thought that they were practicing meditation but John said that it was a protest against Bejing, he said that he had seen signs and saw people handing out literature while we were passing.
There was some sort of transportation fair going on at the lower level of the Trocadero so there was a bit of activity. We could see hordes of people below the Eiffel Tower - so I wasn't sure what to expect - but I did prepare myself for the crowd. We stopped at the Trocadero fountain to rest before making our way to the tower. I dipped my feet in the COLD water. It was a very refreshing and invigorating dip. The fountains weren't on so a lot of people were taking advantage of the opportunity to cool off. A group of teenagers were practically swimming in it, they were drenched! My tired feet enjoyed the relaxing chill - but it was time to move on.
We got in line to buy our tickets after stopping at a vendor cart for a sandwich, crepe, and a slush. We affirmed our earlier suspicion and have firmly decided that we are not crepe people. The sandwich and the slush was pretty good though. While in line for our tickets we talked to the woman and her young daughter that were in line behind us. We found out that they were from Los Angeles and in Paris for a couple of days before continuing on to Cannes.
We weren't in line too long until we got our tickets and then moved our way to the elevators/inclinators. I didn't know that when you get on the elevator you go directly to the highest floor you bought a ticket for first. I thought we would be able to gradually make our way up at our leisure, but no. I generally wouldn't have cared, except that I was hoping to get to the post office on the first floor before it closed at 7pm to send off some post cards with the official Eiffel Tower cancellation stamp, and it was already a little after six.
We took the elevator to the second floor - then had to follow a separate queue to the top - and it seemed like the line to get to the top was just as long as the one to get into the tower itself. So I made up my mind to get over it - I didn't want to spoil the experience by rushing through it. I was really nervous about going up to the top and had said out loud to John, "This is the highest I've ever been up." and a woman who had overheard me said, "Uh uh, you've been in a plane." I felt a little stupid as I realized she was right - but John said that he understood that I meant its the highest I'd ever been in a standing structure.
Once we got out of the elevator I thought, okay - we're here - but we still had one flight of steps to reach the upped platform, it wasn't a very big flight - but it was another set of stairs for my tired legs and feet! The upper deck was packed! There were so many people and it was windy - but the view!!! It was phenomenal!! I was a little scared the whole time I was up there - but I was so glad I did it. There was a champagne bar selling small flutes of champagne for 10Euro for anyone who wanted to toast at the top - we didn't, but we thought it was funny that it was there.
By the time we were ready to go downstairs it was almost 7pm, so we rushed as quickly as we could to see if we could make it to the post office - we got there with five minutes to spare - just enough to send off a small amount of cards home, and I was glad to be able to send the ones that I could. We walked around for a little longer then we were ready to head down - our feet were so tired and we still needed to get back to the hotel. We heard someone tell another person that the wait to get from the second floor to the top platform was an hour because the top was at full capacity right then - John and I looked at each other and we smiled that we didn't get caught in with the other people still waiting.
We made our way down to the ground and sat under the tower for a little while and people watched. There was still a long line of people waiting to buy tickets and go up the tower, we again were very happy that we got in and out when we did. After sitting for a few minutes I caught a whiff of something that smelled really delicious - pomme frittes, french fries!!!
I went over and got us some and we nibbled as we sat there people watching and enjoying the scene that lay before us. We eventually gathered up our energy and headed back to the Marais.
The RER and the Metro ride back to our stop at St. Paul wasn't too bad - I think it was late enough in the day so it wasn't too busy. We stopped again at the cyber cafe and were able to get some pictures done -but we still had quite a few to get through. John picked up fallafels again for dinner but it caused a bit of a sensation with the cafe owner - so some of it spilled on me and everywhere else. John had pretty much had it with the woman by this time - but again, since we had time already paid for he kept his patience - we weren't there too long before it was time to close and by then we were ready to get back to the hotel and go to bed.
-Karen
We slept in until 9am - a little later than we wanted to - but we guessed we really needed it. We picked up quick pastries for breakfast again then made our way over to the cyber cafe to try to get our updates done but it didn't open at the time the woman said it would - even after waiting for fifteen minutes. Had we not already paid for time that we hadn't used yet we'd have looked for another web cafe. We've learned our lesson - for our next trip we're going to bring a laptop with us. It will make picutre uploards and blog updates so much easier. There are a few nice squares and parks in the city that have wi-fi access for free - so we're definately taking advantage of them next time around - and we're going to let everyone we know to do the same!
We got over our displeasure and headed for our day's activities - so off to the Metro we went!
This day was set aside to be our biggest tourist day. We planned to see the big guys, plus do a little geocaching at a cememtary.
We got off the Metro at Grand Palais and took picutres of it and the Petit Palais. From there we walked to Pont Alexandres III for more photos. We stood there at teh bridge for a while why we decided on the route to our next destination. We walked along the Seine on the upper loft along Quai D'Orsay until we reached Pont de L'Alma and crossed over the river.
We'd made it to the landmark of The Liberty Flame. Its a scale replica of the Statue of Liberty's torch and was built to commemorate the Resistance Fighters of the 1940's, but most recently has become a memorial to Princess Diana since the entry to the underground passageway that her accident occured at was right below the statue. It is also a stop for a photo/virual cache for Geocaching - so we compounded our visit. We took the picuture to use for the cache's log, then I left a message on the monument. I put a small note on a piece of paper and using my scrapbooking adhesive I taped it to the base of the flame. The note said, "Diana, Thank you for your beauty and your grace. The angels are lucky to have you. Love, John, Karen & Edana" We spent a reverent moment at the location before moving to our next spot.
We walked up Avenue George V up to the Champs Eylsees and then turned left. There at the next intersection was the Arc de Triomphe. We kept our pace and made our way to the Arc's underground entrance. We took pictures outside and around all the sides of the Arc before climbling the steps to the top - it was as arduous as the ascent to the top of Notre Dame, but again was worth the trip.
We could see out down the different streets and recognize different landmarks throughout the city. It was fascinating to see - I was a little unsteady from the climb up the steps so I had to sit down for a bit before we could consider moving. We enjoyed the visual diaramas inside that explained and highlighted various information about the monument, from its construction to its iconography, including its history and historic moments.
From the Arc we took a metro to the Trocadero station and made our way to the Chaillot and the esplanade of the Trocadero. We got to see the Eiffel Tower up close and personal. We took a few pictures but then we decided to go to the nearby cemetary first so we could get our geocaching done before it closed for the day. We followed the GPSr to the geocache location within the cemetary (once we found the entrance to the cemetary) and we sent Scout on his way. We dropped off a couple other travel bugs and picked up a couple more to take back home with us. We spents a little more time within the cemetary looking at the beautiful gravesites. The most famous person we recognized was Eugene Manet, impressionist painter. We would have liked to stay a little longer, but Gustave's masterpiece called to us - so off to the Eiffel Tower we went.
As we crossed the plaza we noticed two large groups of commotion. I looked at John when I head a familiar tune being played and I asked, "Is that the MacGyver theme I'm hearing?" he just grinned and said yeah...we quickly made our way over to the larger group of people to see teenagers performing - the MacGyver theme was over by the time we had arrived - but we watched through the crowd for a little bit. The other group was a mass of Asain poeple that were standing in formation in a specific pose - I thought that they were practicing meditation but John said that it was a protest against Bejing, he said that he had seen signs and saw people handing out literature while we were passing.
There was some sort of transportation fair going on at the lower level of the Trocadero so there was a bit of activity. We could see hordes of people below the Eiffel Tower - so I wasn't sure what to expect - but I did prepare myself for the crowd. We stopped at the Trocadero fountain to rest before making our way to the tower. I dipped my feet in the COLD water. It was a very refreshing and invigorating dip. The fountains weren't on so a lot of people were taking advantage of the opportunity to cool off. A group of teenagers were practically swimming in it, they were drenched! My tired feet enjoyed the relaxing chill - but it was time to move on.
We got in line to buy our tickets after stopping at a vendor cart for a sandwich, crepe, and a slush. We affirmed our earlier suspicion and have firmly decided that we are not crepe people. The sandwich and the slush was pretty good though. While in line for our tickets we talked to the woman and her young daughter that were in line behind us. We found out that they were from Los Angeles and in Paris for a couple of days before continuing on to Cannes.
We weren't in line too long until we got our tickets and then moved our way to the elevators/inclinators. I didn't know that when you get on the elevator you go directly to the highest floor you bought a ticket for first. I thought we would be able to gradually make our way up at our leisure, but no. I generally wouldn't have cared, except that I was hoping to get to the post office on the first floor before it closed at 7pm to send off some post cards with the official Eiffel Tower cancellation stamp, and it was already a little after six.
We took the elevator to the second floor - then had to follow a separate queue to the top - and it seemed like the line to get to the top was just as long as the one to get into the tower itself. So I made up my mind to get over it - I didn't want to spoil the experience by rushing through it. I was really nervous about going up to the top and had said out loud to John, "This is the highest I've ever been up." and a woman who had overheard me said, "Uh uh, you've been in a plane." I felt a little stupid as I realized she was right - but John said that he understood that I meant its the highest I'd ever been in a standing structure.
Once we got out of the elevator I thought, okay - we're here - but we still had one flight of steps to reach the upped platform, it wasn't a very big flight - but it was another set of stairs for my tired legs and feet! The upper deck was packed! There were so many people and it was windy - but the view!!! It was phenomenal!! I was a little scared the whole time I was up there - but I was so glad I did it. There was a champagne bar selling small flutes of champagne for 10Euro for anyone who wanted to toast at the top - we didn't, but we thought it was funny that it was there.
By the time we were ready to go downstairs it was almost 7pm, so we rushed as quickly as we could to see if we could make it to the post office - we got there with five minutes to spare - just enough to send off a small amount of cards home, and I was glad to be able to send the ones that I could. We walked around for a little longer then we were ready to head down - our feet were so tired and we still needed to get back to the hotel. We heard someone tell another person that the wait to get from the second floor to the top platform was an hour because the top was at full capacity right then - John and I looked at each other and we smiled that we didn't get caught in with the other people still waiting.
We made our way down to the ground and sat under the tower for a little while and people watched. There was still a long line of people waiting to buy tickets and go up the tower, we again were very happy that we got in and out when we did. After sitting for a few minutes I caught a whiff of something that smelled really delicious - pomme frittes, french fries!!!
I went over and got us some and we nibbled as we sat there people watching and enjoying the scene that lay before us. We eventually gathered up our energy and headed back to the Marais.
The RER and the Metro ride back to our stop at St. Paul wasn't too bad - I think it was late enough in the day so it wasn't too busy. We stopped again at the cyber cafe and were able to get some pictures done -but we still had quite a few to get through. John picked up fallafels again for dinner but it caused a bit of a sensation with the cafe owner - so some of it spilled on me and everywhere else. John had pretty much had it with the woman by this time - but again, since we had time already paid for he kept his patience - we weren't there too long before it was time to close and by then we were ready to get back to the hotel and go to bed.
-Karen
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Versailles
Saturday - September 13, 2008
We set out early for the metro because we had planned for today to be our day for Versailles! Our usual (if we can call it that) boulangerie, Miss Manon, was not open yet so we found a new one along rue Rivoli - La Boulangerie Magique - a cute little place decorated with fairies and gnomes. We picked out some pasteries and got on our way.
We made the switch from metro to RER with no difficulties and were surprised to see guards at the stations that were closed on account of the Pope's visit. While on the RER an accordian player came on board and started playing music VERY fast - I could only recognize the Tango, but nothing else. The RER ended at the line of Versailles Rive Gauche and everybody got off the train. The walk to the palace was very short - and as we turned the corner we were in awe of its enormity.
We originally had planned to tour the palace last - but we were caught up in the moment and went inside right away. The one good thing about going on today was not only avoiding the traffice because of the Pope's visit - but the fountains were running - sort of, but I'll get back to those in a moment. The palace was stunning - inside and out. The architecture and designs of each room along with the furniture was amazing to see. There was a display of artwork for a modern artist in each of the rooms that got chuckles from John and I but a lot of censure and complaints from the other patrons. Jeff Koons had several pieces out of different mediums on display - some blended in, like a vase of large flowers in the Queen's chamebers, and others screamed loudly as they stuck out - like that of a statue of Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles. Our favorites were his giant sculptures that looked like huge balloon animals.
My favorite rooms were of the Queen's office that had special laquered pannelling. The same panelling was also in the King's private library. The colors and the detail were stunning. Of course the Hall of Mirrors made my heart flutter - no picture that I've seen truly captures its beauty.
The paintings of the royal family members throughout the generations were just as touching. I especailly liked the room that featured all of the sisters of one of the Kings. It was amazing and fascinating to hear of teh very small private lives these people had had.
After the palace it was time to view the Gardens. During the summer the palace holds a special Musical Fountain production, the fountains run at specific times while loud classical music is piped in throughout the gardens. We had supper at one of the restaurants on the grounds while we waited for the fountains to start. I had a linguine dish with tomato sauce and basil - John had a dish of small fried fish. I think that was the most adventurous item yet. Our meals were very good and satisfied our tummies.
When the fountains turned on it was spectacular. The whole time we were in the gardens the sky seemed painted. At first I grumbled about having to pay extra for the experience but afterward I was glad I let John talk me into doing it. My only regret was that we did not get to see Marie Antoinette's Hamlet - it is definately on our "TO DO" list for the next time we come to Paris! {The Neptune Fountain was closed so we missed it too}
Versailles was very, very busy, while we were touring the palace there was one man who kept bumping into me or cutting me off from whatever I was looking at - and if it wasn't him bumping me directly he was bumping into me with his extra large backpack that he was wearing. No apologies, not even one iota of realization that he'd rudly cut me off or rammed into me. John said I'd finally found my arch-enemy.
The train back into town was alittle exciting since we weren't sure if we were on the correct one or not - John was more confident about the trip back than I was. But we made it to our destination safely and got off to visit the Latin Quarter again - this time we got to Shakespeare & Co., the bookstore that specializes in books printed in English. I picked up my copy of Pride and Prejudice, John picked up a copy of The Princess Bride, and I picked up two British Version Harry Potter books for Edana.
We went to Mich Sandwich for sandwiches again and then started back towards our hotel. We tried once again to stop at the cyber cafe along the way so we could uploard all of our photos - but we were thwarted by the owner telling us that she was closing earlier than the posted time. I was able to jump in quick enough to send a quick email home but that was about it.
We went back to the hotel and laid down on the bed, we started to drift off not too long after that - we didn't realize how tired we really were.
-Karen
We set out early for the metro because we had planned for today to be our day for Versailles! Our usual (if we can call it that) boulangerie, Miss Manon, was not open yet so we found a new one along rue Rivoli - La Boulangerie Magique - a cute little place decorated with fairies and gnomes. We picked out some pasteries and got on our way.
We made the switch from metro to RER with no difficulties and were surprised to see guards at the stations that were closed on account of the Pope's visit. While on the RER an accordian player came on board and started playing music VERY fast - I could only recognize the Tango, but nothing else. The RER ended at the line of Versailles Rive Gauche and everybody got off the train. The walk to the palace was very short - and as we turned the corner we were in awe of its enormity.
We originally had planned to tour the palace last - but we were caught up in the moment and went inside right away. The one good thing about going on today was not only avoiding the traffice because of the Pope's visit - but the fountains were running - sort of, but I'll get back to those in a moment. The palace was stunning - inside and out. The architecture and designs of each room along with the furniture was amazing to see. There was a display of artwork for a modern artist in each of the rooms that got chuckles from John and I but a lot of censure and complaints from the other patrons. Jeff Koons had several pieces out of different mediums on display - some blended in, like a vase of large flowers in the Queen's chamebers, and others screamed loudly as they stuck out - like that of a statue of Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles. Our favorites were his giant sculptures that looked like huge balloon animals.
My favorite rooms were of the Queen's office that had special laquered pannelling. The same panelling was also in the King's private library. The colors and the detail were stunning. Of course the Hall of Mirrors made my heart flutter - no picture that I've seen truly captures its beauty.
The paintings of the royal family members throughout the generations were just as touching. I especailly liked the room that featured all of the sisters of one of the Kings. It was amazing and fascinating to hear of teh very small private lives these people had had.
After the palace it was time to view the Gardens. During the summer the palace holds a special Musical Fountain production, the fountains run at specific times while loud classical music is piped in throughout the gardens. We had supper at one of the restaurants on the grounds while we waited for the fountains to start. I had a linguine dish with tomato sauce and basil - John had a dish of small fried fish. I think that was the most adventurous item yet. Our meals were very good and satisfied our tummies.
When the fountains turned on it was spectacular. The whole time we were in the gardens the sky seemed painted. At first I grumbled about having to pay extra for the experience but afterward I was glad I let John talk me into doing it. My only regret was that we did not get to see Marie Antoinette's Hamlet - it is definately on our "TO DO" list for the next time we come to Paris! {The Neptune Fountain was closed so we missed it too}
Versailles was very, very busy, while we were touring the palace there was one man who kept bumping into me or cutting me off from whatever I was looking at - and if it wasn't him bumping me directly he was bumping into me with his extra large backpack that he was wearing. No apologies, not even one iota of realization that he'd rudly cut me off or rammed into me. John said I'd finally found my arch-enemy.
The train back into town was alittle exciting since we weren't sure if we were on the correct one or not - John was more confident about the trip back than I was. But we made it to our destination safely and got off to visit the Latin Quarter again - this time we got to Shakespeare & Co., the bookstore that specializes in books printed in English. I picked up my copy of Pride and Prejudice, John picked up a copy of The Princess Bride, and I picked up two British Version Harry Potter books for Edana.
We went to Mich Sandwich for sandwiches again and then started back towards our hotel. We tried once again to stop at the cyber cafe along the way so we could uploard all of our photos - but we were thwarted by the owner telling us that she was closing earlier than the posted time. I was able to jump in quick enough to send a quick email home but that was about it.
We went back to the hotel and laid down on the bed, we started to drift off not too long after that - we didn't realize how tired we really were.
-Karen
Friday, September 12, 2008
A Little Less Planned Itinerary - A Lot More Action
Friday - September 12, 2008
Okay...so by this part of the vacation we have either already gotten to see some of the photo locations earlier than planned, or we have made adjustments for weather, opening hours, and Papal visit - so our idea for the day was to take it easy and just enjoy the day and not try to recreate the Oswald's European Vacation. [sorry - couldn't help the geeky movie reference]
We started the day with breakfast at Miss Manon again - quiche, brioche with coffee demi for me and for John, chocolate chaud. We sat for a little bit to soak in the sounds of people talking in foreign languages {we heard a lot of other accents other than French} along with the traffic and other sounds. I told John that every once in a while I loose perspective of where we're at exactly and just relax that we're on vacation - and then we'll hear the police sirens, which are so different from home, and it will remind me that not only are we on vacation - but we're in PARIS - so now whenever we hear a siren John leans over to me and says, "Honey, - we're in Paris!" which always gets a big smile from me.
We walked down the street to Hotel de Sully to take pictures - it was a lovely spot that shows its age. We took some photos and moved on.
One of the places that I had hoped to see, but wasn't sure if we would be able to was a little shop called Tumbleweed. I had seen it on the internet - its a little shop that specializes in mystery boxes, puzzles, and other unique toys along with handmade baby shoes and other accouterments. I was surprised to see how close the shop was to our hotel - I thought it was down the road a ways - when in fact it was only about five shops down. I was so very happy to make the visit there and meet the owner. We talked with her for a bit and she was glad to hear our story of making the trip to the city.
We walked back to Musee Carnavalet to take more pictures and we were rewarded with entrance into the courtyard of Square George Cain that rests alongside of it. Its a beautiful garden that John and I both enjoyed very much.
We then walked to try to find the memorial garden for Princess Diana, but were unsuccessful. We didn't see any signage (like the one I'd seen online) at all and the square by the are that I though it would be was having part of it renovated - so we weren't sure if we'd found it or not. So we continued on, although I was a tad disappointed.
To continue our disappointment we walked to Hotel Rohan to get some photos, but weren't able to get into the courtyard. The outside is somewhat interesting but I had hoped too see what was supposed to have been a stunning statue inside.
To further add insult to our injury - we had already heard back at Tumbleweed that the Picasso museum had just closed the day before for renovations through to October. That was to have been our next stop...we walked by to see if we could at least get pictures of the outside of the mansion that holds the artwork - but alas the gate was tall and had no openings to see inside. As we walked away and looked back it seemed that most of the building was enshrouded in the gauze wrapping that we'd seen on other buildings that are in the process of being restored. Although we were a bit saddened by not getting to go into the museum it is going on our "To Do" list for the next visit!
Although the three strikes gave us a little bit of pain, we did not let it destroy our spirit for the rest of the day's events! We made our way to the Pompidou Center and picked up a sandwich from a nearby vendor and ate it with our packed snacks. We sat on the concrete slope facing the building and listened to people who were performing. There was an Asian gentleman playing a Japanese violin and a woman not too far away from him that was playing a digeridoo. The sounds blended at times to sound like they were meant to be played together - and at other times clashed in an unusual way.
On our way to the famous Stravinsky fountain I stopped to use one of the public toilets that are automated. It wasn't exactly a stellar experience - but it was an experience none the less.
We hung out at the Stravinsky for just a moment - then we moved on.
We made our way through the labyrinth of streets to find La Defenseur du Temps, the Defender of Time, a metal sculptured clock that I had read about. It wasn't as beautiful as I expected it to be but it was fascinating to see the artwork. We weren't there at a time for it to perform so we stayed for only a moment.
We walked to Musee des Arts et Metiers, a museum dedicated to science and the progression of technology in everything from construction, audio, video, computers, textiles, printing, and so much more. It was very fascinating. We stayed until it closed and we didn't make it into the beautiful church building next door that held even more sights, we've decided we'd come back to it too next time.
We traveled on foot to the Portes St-Denis and St.-Martin, the two doors/arches that were original entry ways into the city a long time ago. They were imposing but yet beautiful to see. The area of St.-Martin was not as nice at St.-Denis though so we didn't linger too long there.
We took a metro back to the hotel and picked up our laundry, then we made our way to the laundromat. There was a definite learning curve on how to use the machines, but with a little help from a friendly Parisian we got it figured out. While I stayed to do the laundry John went to the cyber cafe to upload the videos and send emails home. When I joined him at the cafe I realized that I'd lost my coin purse somewhere between the laundry and the cyber cafe. I was pretty upset about it - it only had a little over 1,30 Euro in it so I didn't loose out on a lot of money - I was more emotional about losing my little backpack coin purse that I'd had for a long while. I'm sure that my fatigue helped to make me more upset - I finally rationalized that it was okay - it had been our only bad experience so far in the trip, so I couldn't complain. John put a more positive perspective on it that maybe someone who is stranded in the city was able to use it to call home for help, so that was the thought I kept in my head as I tried to overcome my ugly feeling about the situation.
We gathered up our things when the cyber cafe closed and we walked back to our hotel room for some very enjoyed sleep. It was a long busy day for not really having any set plans.
-Karen
Okay...so by this part of the vacation we have either already gotten to see some of the photo locations earlier than planned, or we have made adjustments for weather, opening hours, and Papal visit - so our idea for the day was to take it easy and just enjoy the day and not try to recreate the Oswald's European Vacation. [sorry - couldn't help the geeky movie reference]
We started the day with breakfast at Miss Manon again - quiche, brioche with coffee demi for me and for John, chocolate chaud. We sat for a little bit to soak in the sounds of people talking in foreign languages {we heard a lot of other accents other than French} along with the traffic and other sounds. I told John that every once in a while I loose perspective of where we're at exactly and just relax that we're on vacation - and then we'll hear the police sirens, which are so different from home, and it will remind me that not only are we on vacation - but we're in PARIS - so now whenever we hear a siren John leans over to me and says, "Honey, - we're in Paris!" which always gets a big smile from me.
We walked down the street to Hotel de Sully to take pictures - it was a lovely spot that shows its age. We took some photos and moved on.
One of the places that I had hoped to see, but wasn't sure if we would be able to was a little shop called Tumbleweed. I had seen it on the internet - its a little shop that specializes in mystery boxes, puzzles, and other unique toys along with handmade baby shoes and other accouterments. I was surprised to see how close the shop was to our hotel - I thought it was down the road a ways - when in fact it was only about five shops down. I was so very happy to make the visit there and meet the owner. We talked with her for a bit and she was glad to hear our story of making the trip to the city.
We walked back to Musee Carnavalet to take more pictures and we were rewarded with entrance into the courtyard of Square George Cain that rests alongside of it. Its a beautiful garden that John and I both enjoyed very much.
We then walked to try to find the memorial garden for Princess Diana, but were unsuccessful. We didn't see any signage (like the one I'd seen online) at all and the square by the are that I though it would be was having part of it renovated - so we weren't sure if we'd found it or not. So we continued on, although I was a tad disappointed.
To continue our disappointment we walked to Hotel Rohan to get some photos, but weren't able to get into the courtyard. The outside is somewhat interesting but I had hoped too see what was supposed to have been a stunning statue inside.
To further add insult to our injury - we had already heard back at Tumbleweed that the Picasso museum had just closed the day before for renovations through to October. That was to have been our next stop...we walked by to see if we could at least get pictures of the outside of the mansion that holds the artwork - but alas the gate was tall and had no openings to see inside. As we walked away and looked back it seemed that most of the building was enshrouded in the gauze wrapping that we'd seen on other buildings that are in the process of being restored. Although we were a bit saddened by not getting to go into the museum it is going on our "To Do" list for the next visit!
Although the three strikes gave us a little bit of pain, we did not let it destroy our spirit for the rest of the day's events! We made our way to the Pompidou Center and picked up a sandwich from a nearby vendor and ate it with our packed snacks. We sat on the concrete slope facing the building and listened to people who were performing. There was an Asian gentleman playing a Japanese violin and a woman not too far away from him that was playing a digeridoo. The sounds blended at times to sound like they were meant to be played together - and at other times clashed in an unusual way.
On our way to the famous Stravinsky fountain I stopped to use one of the public toilets that are automated. It wasn't exactly a stellar experience - but it was an experience none the less.
We hung out at the Stravinsky for just a moment - then we moved on.
We made our way through the labyrinth of streets to find La Defenseur du Temps, the Defender of Time, a metal sculptured clock that I had read about. It wasn't as beautiful as I expected it to be but it was fascinating to see the artwork. We weren't there at a time for it to perform so we stayed for only a moment.
We walked to Musee des Arts et Metiers, a museum dedicated to science and the progression of technology in everything from construction, audio, video, computers, textiles, printing, and so much more. It was very fascinating. We stayed until it closed and we didn't make it into the beautiful church building next door that held even more sights, we've decided we'd come back to it too next time.
We traveled on foot to the Portes St-Denis and St.-Martin, the two doors/arches that were original entry ways into the city a long time ago. They were imposing but yet beautiful to see. The area of St.-Martin was not as nice at St.-Denis though so we didn't linger too long there.
We took a metro back to the hotel and picked up our laundry, then we made our way to the laundromat. There was a definite learning curve on how to use the machines, but with a little help from a friendly Parisian we got it figured out. While I stayed to do the laundry John went to the cyber cafe to upload the videos and send emails home. When I joined him at the cafe I realized that I'd lost my coin purse somewhere between the laundry and the cyber cafe. I was pretty upset about it - it only had a little over 1,30 Euro in it so I didn't loose out on a lot of money - I was more emotional about losing my little backpack coin purse that I'd had for a long while. I'm sure that my fatigue helped to make me more upset - I finally rationalized that it was okay - it had been our only bad experience so far in the trip, so I couldn't complain. John put a more positive perspective on it that maybe someone who is stranded in the city was able to use it to call home for help, so that was the thought I kept in my head as I tried to overcome my ugly feeling about the situation.
We gathered up our things when the cyber cafe closed and we walked back to our hotel room for some very enjoyed sleep. It was a long busy day for not really having any set plans.
-Karen
Thursday, September 11, 2008
6 Weird Experiences Throughout the Day
Thursday was not only a long sight filled day - we also had some weird experiences that I've chosen to put in a separate post, they are in order:
1 - The electricity in our hotel went out momentarily - this made us believe that our fuse was burned out on our power converter - which we found out wasn't really the case, just our phone charger died - I guess that's better
2 - While walking to the metro on our way to the Louvre we were swarmed by the pigeons in the square we were walking through -actually each person in the square was getting swarmed individually. We thought it was strange - then a woman came by and dropped a whole bag of bird seed on the ground as she was walking along and we figured that she probably comes by everyday and feeds them - the silly birds just don't know who it is that brings the food.
3 - While resting in the Magdeline and listening to the choir there was some strange vibe going on with some of the other people in the church. As we were leaving we saw two men with their hands clasped tightly around the wrists of another man - shortly after that we saw him again and this time he was handcuffed - then John noticed a woman in handcuffs being led away. We realized that they were being arrested for shoplifting - one of the undercover police was going through her purse and was pulling out scarves and a crystal figurine. (There are a lot of designer stores close to the Magdeline).
4 - The metro we took back to the Marais lurched strongly to the right - we were startled - everyone else seemed calm like it happens all the time. Silly us.
5 - We saw a guy getting knocked down and tackled by the metro security as we were getting off the metro - we didn't stick around to find out why.
6 - When back at the Magdeline I had said to John, "Tut, tut, it looks like rain." because the cloulds were getting pretty dark. And we definately got caught in it, and absolute deluge came down on us.
Just some interesting highlights of our day that made for fun stuff to talk about when we get back home ;)
-Karen
1 - The electricity in our hotel went out momentarily - this made us believe that our fuse was burned out on our power converter - which we found out wasn't really the case, just our phone charger died - I guess that's better
2 - While walking to the metro on our way to the Louvre we were swarmed by the pigeons in the square we were walking through -actually each person in the square was getting swarmed individually. We thought it was strange - then a woman came by and dropped a whole bag of bird seed on the ground as she was walking along and we figured that she probably comes by everyday and feeds them - the silly birds just don't know who it is that brings the food.
3 - While resting in the Magdeline and listening to the choir there was some strange vibe going on with some of the other people in the church. As we were leaving we saw two men with their hands clasped tightly around the wrists of another man - shortly after that we saw him again and this time he was handcuffed - then John noticed a woman in handcuffs being led away. We realized that they were being arrested for shoplifting - one of the undercover police was going through her purse and was pulling out scarves and a crystal figurine. (There are a lot of designer stores close to the Magdeline).
4 - The metro we took back to the Marais lurched strongly to the right - we were startled - everyone else seemed calm like it happens all the time. Silly us.
5 - We saw a guy getting knocked down and tackled by the metro security as we were getting off the metro - we didn't stick around to find out why.
6 - When back at the Magdeline I had said to John, "Tut, tut, it looks like rain." because the cloulds were getting pretty dark. And we definately got caught in it, and absolute deluge came down on us.
Just some interesting highlights of our day that made for fun stuff to talk about when we get back home ;)
-Karen
Mad Dash to Mona
Thursday - September 11, 2008
This was another busy day!
We woke up and freshened up then headed out for breakfast at the cafe Miss Manon where yesterday's yummy quiche and sandwich came from. We took our time enjoying quiche and people watching - it was a lot of fun, but we could only linger for a little while - we were on our way to the Louvre. We learned from the visit to the Orsay to go first thing in the morning - so we amended our earlier plan to from getting there at 1pm to instead start our day inside the museum - so off we went!
We got off the metro at Palais Royale and went in through the not so secret "secret underground enterance" - but it was a lot shorter of a line, so there were no difficulties getting in - so the tip paid off. We decided to go to see the Mona Lisa first so we wouldn't risk missing it - so we followed the signs pointing the way. After a few flights of stairs and twisting through a couple of rooms and halls we could hear the burble of voices echoing through a room - so I figured we were getting closer. I passed a woman who said in English, "There's going to be a lot of religious paintings in here." as we entered the Italian Painting hall and I thought: Italian - Renaissance - it made me chuckle as if to say, "Ya think?"
Sure enough the rumble of voices and the rhythm of foot steps were all from the crowd of people gathered around the famous portrait. I knew it wasn't going to be very big - in fact, I expected it to be smaller than it was. It was blocked off by about fifteen feet so you couldn't really get close enough to see the detail and the texture of the painting, which for me is part of the great thing about seeing art in person - so we took a few photos, tried our best to "see" it, then made our way through the throng of people trying to get to the edge of the barricade themselves.
We felt a deflated sense of loss once we turned away from Mona thinking we'd made that quick run and we were met with disappointment and felt so guilty to feel so bland about the reknown work of art. Then we looked across the room to The Feast of Cana, and were rewarded with the awe we were looking for. The painting is HUGE, and gorgeous!! The details are fabulous and the emmensity is astounding. It helped ease the sense of apathy about Mona.
We spent six and a half hours strolling through the Louvre. We took extra care to make sure we saw the things we wanted to see: French Paintings, Italian Paintings, Egyptian treasures, French and some Italian sculpture, along with parts of the Mesopotamian display. We missed about 35 - 40% of the artwork and all of the Medieval portions - maybe more. We zoomed through some parts but lingered on the items we wanted to see. At one painting that we both found interesting John and I sat and sketched our interpretation of it, Hamlet and Horatio at the Graveyard, we had fun sitting and relaxing and drawing. It was a much needed break.
We started to get weary and very hungry so we left the museum and had some of the snacks that we had packed, we sat in the concourse and nibbled while we people watched. It was a nice break again from all the walking we had been doing. We headed out of the museum this time through the large glass pyramid and made our way through the Tuileries. We stopped at the Carrousel de Louvre for pictures with the first Arc.
We walked through the Tuileries to the Place de la Concorde and took pictures of the Oblisque and the fountain. It was nice to see the fountain that was the inspiration for the large fountain in front of Paris, Las Vegas. From the Concorde it wasn't far to the Magdeline so we strolled up the street to the church. When went inside the choir was rehearsing so we got to hear a tiny bit of angelic voices that filled the nave and echoed though the building - it was very beautiful and we felt blessed to be there at that time.
When we left the church and took the metro back to the Bastille station finally getting a chance to get photos of the Colannadde du Juillet and the statue of Beaumarchais that we bypassed on our way to our hotel on the very first day. We also stopped at Lenotre for some pasteries. We bought schoss au fruit, a custard dessert with fruit on top: blueberries, strawberries, and currants. We also bought a tart du framboise: a flaky tart crust with fresh raspberries and a layer of apricot jam. We took our treats and snacked on them at Place des Vosges and got our picture taking in with our people watching.
We decided to think about a real meal so we headed towards the stores and cafes to decide on dinner but I quickly popped into the Monoprix to look for a fuse for our power converter (we thought it had blown), on the way out I noticed the people were coming in were wet. It had started raining while we were inside - and it was coming down pretty hard. We got really wet in no time at all. We quickly go something to eat from a shop and made our way to our hotel. The idea of going back out into the rain wasn't too pleasant so we headed back to the hotel and stayed in for the night. We'd done so much walking already that we were ready to get into our pj's and get some rest!
-Karen
This was another busy day!
We woke up and freshened up then headed out for breakfast at the cafe Miss Manon where yesterday's yummy quiche and sandwich came from. We took our time enjoying quiche and people watching - it was a lot of fun, but we could only linger for a little while - we were on our way to the Louvre. We learned from the visit to the Orsay to go first thing in the morning - so we amended our earlier plan to from getting there at 1pm to instead start our day inside the museum - so off we went!
We got off the metro at Palais Royale and went in through the not so secret "secret underground enterance" - but it was a lot shorter of a line, so there were no difficulties getting in - so the tip paid off. We decided to go to see the Mona Lisa first so we wouldn't risk missing it - so we followed the signs pointing the way. After a few flights of stairs and twisting through a couple of rooms and halls we could hear the burble of voices echoing through a room - so I figured we were getting closer. I passed a woman who said in English, "There's going to be a lot of religious paintings in here." as we entered the Italian Painting hall and I thought: Italian - Renaissance - it made me chuckle as if to say, "Ya think?"
Sure enough the rumble of voices and the rhythm of foot steps were all from the crowd of people gathered around the famous portrait. I knew it wasn't going to be very big - in fact, I expected it to be smaller than it was. It was blocked off by about fifteen feet so you couldn't really get close enough to see the detail and the texture of the painting, which for me is part of the great thing about seeing art in person - so we took a few photos, tried our best to "see" it, then made our way through the throng of people trying to get to the edge of the barricade themselves.
We felt a deflated sense of loss once we turned away from Mona thinking we'd made that quick run and we were met with disappointment and felt so guilty to feel so bland about the reknown work of art. Then we looked across the room to The Feast of Cana, and were rewarded with the awe we were looking for. The painting is HUGE, and gorgeous!! The details are fabulous and the emmensity is astounding. It helped ease the sense of apathy about Mona.
We spent six and a half hours strolling through the Louvre. We took extra care to make sure we saw the things we wanted to see: French Paintings, Italian Paintings, Egyptian treasures, French and some Italian sculpture, along with parts of the Mesopotamian display. We missed about 35 - 40% of the artwork and all of the Medieval portions - maybe more. We zoomed through some parts but lingered on the items we wanted to see. At one painting that we both found interesting John and I sat and sketched our interpretation of it, Hamlet and Horatio at the Graveyard, we had fun sitting and relaxing and drawing. It was a much needed break.
We started to get weary and very hungry so we left the museum and had some of the snacks that we had packed, we sat in the concourse and nibbled while we people watched. It was a nice break again from all the walking we had been doing. We headed out of the museum this time through the large glass pyramid and made our way through the Tuileries. We stopped at the Carrousel de Louvre for pictures with the first Arc.
We walked through the Tuileries to the Place de la Concorde and took pictures of the Oblisque and the fountain. It was nice to see the fountain that was the inspiration for the large fountain in front of Paris, Las Vegas. From the Concorde it wasn't far to the Magdeline so we strolled up the street to the church. When went inside the choir was rehearsing so we got to hear a tiny bit of angelic voices that filled the nave and echoed though the building - it was very beautiful and we felt blessed to be there at that time.
When we left the church and took the metro back to the Bastille station finally getting a chance to get photos of the Colannadde du Juillet and the statue of Beaumarchais that we bypassed on our way to our hotel on the very first day. We also stopped at Lenotre for some pasteries. We bought schoss au fruit, a custard dessert with fruit on top: blueberries, strawberries, and currants. We also bought a tart du framboise: a flaky tart crust with fresh raspberries and a layer of apricot jam. We took our treats and snacked on them at Place des Vosges and got our picture taking in with our people watching.
We decided to think about a real meal so we headed towards the stores and cafes to decide on dinner but I quickly popped into the Monoprix to look for a fuse for our power converter (we thought it had blown), on the way out I noticed the people were coming in were wet. It had started raining while we were inside - and it was coming down pretty hard. We got really wet in no time at all. We quickly go something to eat from a shop and made our way to our hotel. The idea of going back out into the rain wasn't too pleasant so we headed back to the hotel and stayed in for the night. We'd done so much walking already that we were ready to get into our pj's and get some rest!
-Karen
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Highs and Lows
Wednesday - September 10,2008
John and I purposely slept in this morning. We have been going so fast every step of the way so far that we're feeling it very severly now, although we are really high in sprit - our bodies are doing some protesting. So we chose to slow down a bit and take it easy for the day.
I stepped out early in the morning to a boulangerie that we found down the street, Miss Manon, and got a quiche and a breakfast sandwich/turnover type thing then brought them back to the hotel. We had the breakfast tray sent up and ate in the room. After showering and prepping our feet we set out around 10:30am.
We walked through to our destination of St.-Eustache hoping to see some things along the way and we were rewarded with sights of Musee Carnavalet, Hotel Soubise, and Nicholas Flamel's house. We took photos of all the stops and then continued on. We peeked a little at the Pompidou Center once again but didn't linger - we didn't want to loose momentum. We discovered the wholesale district of the city - which was interesting but we didn't pay too much attention to any of the stores because they catered to "professionals" or bulk purchasers only.
Just when we thought we still had longer to go we saw parts of the church peeking out, spurring us on. When we got to its location I felt weird emotions that I couldn't explain. The area around the church, Les Halles, was a mixture of beauty and grotesqueness. There were pretty flowers and lush greenery - but the dome of the mall was dark and unkept. The mixture between reverence and bustling busy activity felt incongruent. The church's exterior was beautiful in its gothic design but felt spoiled by the building that is abruptly next to it.
When we went inside the church I couldn't help but feel this incredible sadness. The church has been the first one we've seen that hasn't been able to disguise its age. The rest have all been able to draw attention away from it rough spots, but this one screams out loudly that its in bad shape. Strangely enough you'd think that it would give it some charm - but it didn't.
It felt cold and unloved inside - there wasn't a lot of people visiting in fact, we almost had the place to ourselves. The stained glass windows still shined beautifully when the sun shone through as if to give the building a voice to say, "I"m just as good as the other guys and gals!" By the time we had toured around through its naves and side altars I had a better respect for the building that was still holding fast even though its interior was considerably delapidated in the cosmetic sense - but like the others, remains intact. As much as I would have like to linger to deepen my appreciation we needed to get going. We got on the nearby metro and made our way to the Musee D'Orsay.
We got into the museum a little later than we should have because by the time we'd gotten part-way through the announcement came that they'd be closing in thirty minutes. I was regretting that I didn't listen to John's suggestion that we go to the museum first. I realized that there was nothing to regret about our timing though because we go to see some beautiful art in the time we were there. I really did enjoy the museum.
We made our way across the Seine to the Tuileries over a metal constructed pedestrian bridge that was pretty fascinating. I was in awe and nervous the entire time we were on it - but obviously more nervous because we didn't take a picture of it!
While we were walking through the Tuileries and the Louvre gardens John and I were talking about my journalling and how I keep finding myself saying that things are beautiful over and over again - and that I've had trouble finding ways to describe what I'm seeing. John - being the very delightful funny many that he is exclaimed, "To the Thesaurus!" as any self-respecting Batman satirist would project. I laughed so hard and loud it echoed through the park.
We exited from the Tuileries on to Rue Rivoli - which our challenged selves at first thought was the Champs Elysees {we could see the Arc de Triomphe from the park and it looked like it lined up...} silly us! While we were looking on the map and trying to find where we were John was trying to figure out what the cross street was that we were by, then I heard him say, "Rue Jambon?" When I asked him if I had heard him right he said yeah, he thought that's what the street sign said (it was acutally Rue Cambon) and I said, "What the heck, Paris can have a a street named Ham if it wants to!" We laughed like silly and everyone around us thought we were crazy!
We walked upwards our newly named Ham street and made our way to Place Vendome passing up designer store after another and even the Ritz hotel and not enjoying the ambience at all. It felt so hurried and snobby, and petulant like a spoiled heiress. It was like South Coast Plaza on steroids - only mildly tolerating its Sears wing (in this case the Sears wing would be the out of place duty free shop at the end of the street). We found Place Vendome and took some photos - realxing for only a tiny bit before moving on to L'Opera down the way.
We turned the corner to the right and I prepared John for the dazzlement that was about to happen. L'Opera Garnier is not only beautiful, its exsquisite - its stunning - its breathtaking - it so nice we that got to see it up close and personal! John was so in awe of the outside and I told him that the inside is even more intense. We sat on the steps outside to rest for a little while and enjoy the scenery.
After relaxing for a few minutes we headed down the street to Gallaries Lafayette - the six floor-two building department store - but we arrived with only two minutes from closing so we only had a few minutes to take a quick picture.
By the time we realized that we were really hadn't eaten any food during the day and we were hungry. Most of the day and we were hungry. Most of the places close to the store were closing so we grabbed a quick sandwich to hold John over and we then headed to the Metro. We got off at the stop close to the supermarche and ran inside for things for a dinner. As we were leaving the store we noticed that it had started to rain really hard - so it made it impossible for us to get to the cyber cafe to upload any pictures or send off any news home. So we took our groceries back to the hotel and had a picnic in the room.
All in all the day was very full and we saw so much and experienced very extreme levels of emotion that we were very tired - but it was a good sort of tired. We relaxed and unwound from the day and feel into a deep relaxing sleep.
-Karen
John and I purposely slept in this morning. We have been going so fast every step of the way so far that we're feeling it very severly now, although we are really high in sprit - our bodies are doing some protesting. So we chose to slow down a bit and take it easy for the day.
I stepped out early in the morning to a boulangerie that we found down the street, Miss Manon, and got a quiche and a breakfast sandwich/turnover type thing then brought them back to the hotel. We had the breakfast tray sent up and ate in the room. After showering and prepping our feet we set out around 10:30am.
We walked through to our destination of St.-Eustache hoping to see some things along the way and we were rewarded with sights of Musee Carnavalet, Hotel Soubise, and Nicholas Flamel's house. We took photos of all the stops and then continued on. We peeked a little at the Pompidou Center once again but didn't linger - we didn't want to loose momentum. We discovered the wholesale district of the city - which was interesting but we didn't pay too much attention to any of the stores because they catered to "professionals" or bulk purchasers only.
Just when we thought we still had longer to go we saw parts of the church peeking out, spurring us on. When we got to its location I felt weird emotions that I couldn't explain. The area around the church, Les Halles, was a mixture of beauty and grotesqueness. There were pretty flowers and lush greenery - but the dome of the mall was dark and unkept. The mixture between reverence and bustling busy activity felt incongruent. The church's exterior was beautiful in its gothic design but felt spoiled by the building that is abruptly next to it.
When we went inside the church I couldn't help but feel this incredible sadness. The church has been the first one we've seen that hasn't been able to disguise its age. The rest have all been able to draw attention away from it rough spots, but this one screams out loudly that its in bad shape. Strangely enough you'd think that it would give it some charm - but it didn't.
It felt cold and unloved inside - there wasn't a lot of people visiting in fact, we almost had the place to ourselves. The stained glass windows still shined beautifully when the sun shone through as if to give the building a voice to say, "I"m just as good as the other guys and gals!" By the time we had toured around through its naves and side altars I had a better respect for the building that was still holding fast even though its interior was considerably delapidated in the cosmetic sense - but like the others, remains intact. As much as I would have like to linger to deepen my appreciation we needed to get going. We got on the nearby metro and made our way to the Musee D'Orsay.
We got into the museum a little later than we should have because by the time we'd gotten part-way through the announcement came that they'd be closing in thirty minutes. I was regretting that I didn't listen to John's suggestion that we go to the museum first. I realized that there was nothing to regret about our timing though because we go to see some beautiful art in the time we were there. I really did enjoy the museum.
We made our way across the Seine to the Tuileries over a metal constructed pedestrian bridge that was pretty fascinating. I was in awe and nervous the entire time we were on it - but obviously more nervous because we didn't take a picture of it!
While we were walking through the Tuileries and the Louvre gardens John and I were talking about my journalling and how I keep finding myself saying that things are beautiful over and over again - and that I've had trouble finding ways to describe what I'm seeing. John - being the very delightful funny many that he is exclaimed, "To the Thesaurus!" as any self-respecting Batman satirist would project. I laughed so hard and loud it echoed through the park.
We exited from the Tuileries on to Rue Rivoli - which our challenged selves at first thought was the Champs Elysees {we could see the Arc de Triomphe from the park and it looked like it lined up...} silly us! While we were looking on the map and trying to find where we were John was trying to figure out what the cross street was that we were by, then I heard him say, "Rue Jambon?" When I asked him if I had heard him right he said yeah, he thought that's what the street sign said (it was acutally Rue Cambon) and I said, "What the heck, Paris can have a a street named Ham if it wants to!" We laughed like silly and everyone around us thought we were crazy!
We walked upwards our newly named Ham street and made our way to Place Vendome passing up designer store after another and even the Ritz hotel and not enjoying the ambience at all. It felt so hurried and snobby, and petulant like a spoiled heiress. It was like South Coast Plaza on steroids - only mildly tolerating its Sears wing (in this case the Sears wing would be the out of place duty free shop at the end of the street). We found Place Vendome and took some photos - realxing for only a tiny bit before moving on to L'Opera down the way.
We turned the corner to the right and I prepared John for the dazzlement that was about to happen. L'Opera Garnier is not only beautiful, its exsquisite - its stunning - its breathtaking - it so nice we that got to see it up close and personal! John was so in awe of the outside and I told him that the inside is even more intense. We sat on the steps outside to rest for a little while and enjoy the scenery.
After relaxing for a few minutes we headed down the street to Gallaries Lafayette - the six floor-two building department store - but we arrived with only two minutes from closing so we only had a few minutes to take a quick picture.
By the time we realized that we were really hadn't eaten any food during the day and we were hungry. Most of the day and we were hungry. Most of the places close to the store were closing so we grabbed a quick sandwich to hold John over and we then headed to the Metro. We got off at the stop close to the supermarche and ran inside for things for a dinner. As we were leaving the store we noticed that it had started to rain really hard - so it made it impossible for us to get to the cyber cafe to upload any pictures or send off any news home. So we took our groceries back to the hotel and had a picnic in the room.
All in all the day was very full and we saw so much and experienced very extreme levels of emotion that we were very tired - but it was a good sort of tired. We relaxed and unwound from the day and feel into a deep relaxing sleep.
-Karen
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Half of Tuesday - and this is only half???
We started off our morning with breakfast at the hotel again. The fare seemed more yummy than the day before - could be because we were very hungry from all of the walking yesterday.
After breakfast we walked to Ile St. Louis and walked down the main street through the island until we crossed to Ile de la Cite and walked up to Notre Dame where we stopped for some photos in the Square Jean XXIII. We followed the church around to the front and were awed by the details of the facade. We waited to take photos at Point Zero - the very center of Paris from which all measurement is taken from, there was a tour group crowded around it and almost every person took a spin on the point - we assumed that it is considered good luck. So we got in and got pictures of the spot, even Clubber got his picture taken on it!
We went inside the cathedral and if we were awed by the facade we were blown away by the interior! It was so gorgeous to see all the beautiful windows, artwork, and iconography. I was so distracted that I tripped over a temporary rise and fell - luckily I and the camera were okay - the rise actually broke my fall, so John put it eloquently - the item that tripped me is what saved me. While inside the cathedral we went into the separate museum of the religious reliquaries and artifacts. There were so many interesting things to see.
The cathedral was outstanding. One of the hardest things to get my head around is how long it took to build, and how long its been standing and how many people have visited it over the years - okay, that's more than one thing...
We waited outside to climb the steps to the tower for about thirty minutes. We felt the climb up ought to be interesting - but John and I were sure it would be well worth it!
We survived the 300+ steps! The climb up the tower was very intense - I kept saying that there was no way we'd ever be prepared for it. The steps were unusual in that they have been worn down from the years of people ascending up the towers. The compressions are worn smooth on each step making and interesting indentation - you keep spiraling upward with a glimpse every so often out a small window. It was a quest to arrive to the top and we were so happy to have achieved it. It was so very worth the challenge - it was an amazing view - and so breath taking. From the front of the cathedral we could see all kinds of landmarks: Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, L'Opera, Grand Palais, St. Eustache, St. Severin, Sacre-Couer, the spire and rooftops of the St. Chapelle, Colonnades, and lots more.
There were so many gargoyles - they were fabulous. I wasn't sure how many there were because in most of the pictures I've seen they show the same three gargoyles. {John said "There Gar-rate!"} We saw the giant bell - his name was Emmanuel. We learned that all church bells are baptized with names and are referred to by their name. He weighed 1600 kgs - big baby!
When it was time to go back down from the tower I thought that it would be easier but it actually was a little bit of a challenge too - I experienced a little bit of dizziness. John's philosophy on stairs: When going up if you fail, you end up at the bottom again - but when going down if you fail, you at least make you intended destination.
We walked to the Palais du Justice where Sainte Chapelle is in. The chapel is housed inside because the Palais du Justice was originally a prince's palace before and the chapel was his private church. The palais is now where the courthouse is held. We got in what we thought was the line to get into the chapel but it was really the security check. While in line I overheard two women who were complaining that the wait wasn't worth it - they were so wrong. Once inside the courtyard you're greeted by the chapel and the outside architecture was fabulous.
When you enter the chapel you enter directly into the lower half - or lower chapel - which when originally build was used for servants and other employees of the Palace. The lower chapel has a gorgeous multi arched ceiling and beautiful decorations on the walls with a few stained glass windows and John asked, "Is this it? That's all there is?" I kind of snickered at him and said "Uh, no - lets go upstairs."
When we got to the upper chapel he was in awe! The room dances with color from the large amount of stained glass in the walls. The entire room is lined with 50 foot tall stained glass windows that depict the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelations. Even the floor of the chapel is beautiful! We spent a bit of time in the room marveling at it's exquisite details and soaking in the beauty. We looked in the windows for the specific moments of the Bible and I was pleased to find the window I believed was of the Nativity. John was impressed with the huge rose window of the apocalypse and it representation of the book of Revelations. We enjoyed it as much as Edana said we would - if not more!
When we came out of the chapel we still had to walk through the courtyard to exit the Palais, and along the way we saw many barristers walking in and out of the building. The place was heavily patroled by Gendermes officers everywhere. We stepped though the gorgeous gates and on to our next destination of Place St.-Michel (pronounced Mich).
We did a few more things but we'll have to finish the blog later because we didn't time our evening well enough to get updating and laundry done too...so stay posted!
-Karen
After breakfast we walked to Ile St. Louis and walked down the main street through the island until we crossed to Ile de la Cite and walked up to Notre Dame where we stopped for some photos in the Square Jean XXIII. We followed the church around to the front and were awed by the details of the facade. We waited to take photos at Point Zero - the very center of Paris from which all measurement is taken from, there was a tour group crowded around it and almost every person took a spin on the point - we assumed that it is considered good luck. So we got in and got pictures of the spot, even Clubber got his picture taken on it!
We went inside the cathedral and if we were awed by the facade we were blown away by the interior! It was so gorgeous to see all the beautiful windows, artwork, and iconography. I was so distracted that I tripped over a temporary rise and fell - luckily I and the camera were okay - the rise actually broke my fall, so John put it eloquently - the item that tripped me is what saved me. While inside the cathedral we went into the separate museum of the religious reliquaries and artifacts. There were so many interesting things to see.
The cathedral was outstanding. One of the hardest things to get my head around is how long it took to build, and how long its been standing and how many people have visited it over the years - okay, that's more than one thing...
We waited outside to climb the steps to the tower for about thirty minutes. We felt the climb up ought to be interesting - but John and I were sure it would be well worth it!
We survived the 300+ steps! The climb up the tower was very intense - I kept saying that there was no way we'd ever be prepared for it. The steps were unusual in that they have been worn down from the years of people ascending up the towers. The compressions are worn smooth on each step making and interesting indentation - you keep spiraling upward with a glimpse every so often out a small window. It was a quest to arrive to the top and we were so happy to have achieved it. It was so very worth the challenge - it was an amazing view - and so breath taking. From the front of the cathedral we could see all kinds of landmarks: Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, L'Opera, Grand Palais, St. Eustache, St. Severin, Sacre-Couer, the spire and rooftops of the St. Chapelle, Colonnades, and lots more.
There were so many gargoyles - they were fabulous. I wasn't sure how many there were because in most of the pictures I've seen they show the same three gargoyles. {John said "There Gar-rate!"} We saw the giant bell - his name was Emmanuel. We learned that all church bells are baptized with names and are referred to by their name. He weighed 1600 kgs - big baby!
When it was time to go back down from the tower I thought that it would be easier but it actually was a little bit of a challenge too - I experienced a little bit of dizziness. John's philosophy on stairs: When going up if you fail, you end up at the bottom again - but when going down if you fail, you at least make you intended destination.
We walked to the Palais du Justice where Sainte Chapelle is in. The chapel is housed inside because the Palais du Justice was originally a prince's palace before and the chapel was his private church. The palais is now where the courthouse is held. We got in what we thought was the line to get into the chapel but it was really the security check. While in line I overheard two women who were complaining that the wait wasn't worth it - they were so wrong. Once inside the courtyard you're greeted by the chapel and the outside architecture was fabulous.
When you enter the chapel you enter directly into the lower half - or lower chapel - which when originally build was used for servants and other employees of the Palace. The lower chapel has a gorgeous multi arched ceiling and beautiful decorations on the walls with a few stained glass windows and John asked, "Is this it? That's all there is?" I kind of snickered at him and said "Uh, no - lets go upstairs."
When we got to the upper chapel he was in awe! The room dances with color from the large amount of stained glass in the walls. The entire room is lined with 50 foot tall stained glass windows that depict the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelations. Even the floor of the chapel is beautiful! We spent a bit of time in the room marveling at it's exquisite details and soaking in the beauty. We looked in the windows for the specific moments of the Bible and I was pleased to find the window I believed was of the Nativity. John was impressed with the huge rose window of the apocalypse and it representation of the book of Revelations. We enjoyed it as much as Edana said we would - if not more!
When we came out of the chapel we still had to walk through the courtyard to exit the Palais, and along the way we saw many barristers walking in and out of the building. The place was heavily patroled by Gendermes officers everywhere. We stepped though the gorgeous gates and on to our next destination of Place St.-Michel (pronounced Mich).
We did a few more things but we'll have to finish the blog later because we didn't time our evening well enough to get updating and laundry done too...so stay posted!
-Karen
The rest of Tuesday...can you believe it???
Place St.-Michel...can't say much more than...Wow! Huge fountain, lots of traffic! We stood and marveled at the fountain and its craftmanship for a bit. Its features, specifically the Griffins, were magnificent. We stood there and were impressed - but our attention was severly drawn away when we realized that we were very hungry. We noticed a place called Mich sandwich that was making sandwiches to go so we went to check it out. John got a chicken sandwich and I got a 3 Fromage (cheese) one, mine was put into a panini press. It was soooo yummy. It was like a grilled cheese sandwich. It had mozerella, blue cheese, and goat cheese, and tomatoes and after being pressed the guy put a pesto sauce inside it - it was scrumptous!!
We walked back across the front of the Palais du Justice with our sandwiches and made our way to Place du Chatalet where we visited another fountain, this one with sphinxs. The sphinx fountain was incredible. John and I talked about how much Egyptian influences are in different parts of the city and I explained that its because of Napoleon's travels to Egypt and the art that he "brought" back - so of course there would be a lot. While we were standing at the fountain it got incredibly windy and the water from the spinxs splashed everywhere. Leaves tumbled around and the sound of the wind through the trees, along with the roar of the traffic made such a jumble of energy. Silly me got a little wierded out and looked at John and said, "I don't know - has Paris ever had tornadoes?" Which was funny because I always go to the extreme and John looked at me like I was crazy - at first I thought it was a "You're asking me?" look - but instead he just thought I was my silly self.
There was a creperie close by making to go/take away crepes so we got one and were a little disappointed with it - we've decided we're not crepe people. Across from the creperie was a landmark of Tour St.-Jacques. Its a gothic tower that looks like it should belong to Notre Dame - it is actually thr remains of an ancient church, we took some photos of it then made our way to find the location of the web cam. We twisted and turned our way through the streets until we started up towards the Pomidou Center, then we turned down a little alley-like street looking for the courtyard we wanted.
For months leading up to the trip I had been watching the web cam of an enclosed patio and while peeking in on it I would see a beautiful black labrador dog that I started referring to as the cafe lab. When we got to the patio she was there! She is even cuter in person! We sat at the cafe, called The Studio, and had coffee and tea along with a crumb du pomme, to make up for our dissatisfying crepe and enjoyed the scenery. We had made plans with Edana and Jen back home to capture our photos at the web cam and I realized I'd left my cell phone at the hotel - so we decided to go back for it, which was good because I needed to change my shirt anyway (I'd gotten spills on it earlier from my cheese panini). It rained a little while we were sitting at the cafe and it cooled off the day. We got the phone, changed my shirt, freshened up, lightened our load - and headed back out. We picked up some water and I bought some slippers for my sore feet and headed back to the web cam locale.
When we returned to the patio we met a young woman that was playing with the lab and we chatted with her for a bit. We found out that she is French/American. Her American half is from San Francisco of all places! She was very pleasant to talk to and cued us in on a few secrets of other little gardens by the Louvre. By the time we were ready to get going we noticed more dogs showing up at the patie. They were adorable. There was a husky/malamute and a Pekenese.
We got on our way to the cyber cafe so we could upload our photos, contact people back home, and get our first couple of days blogged (like this one :) ) John had to run back to the hotel (agian) because we had run out of battery power in the camera and we forgot the extra ones, and on the way back he picked up dinner - falafels!
By this portion of the trip our feet were really hurting, worse than I had anticipated - so we're going to have to adjust our sightseeing to include more rest stops! We're so impressed by all we've seen so far and there's still so much to see and enjoy! We're looking forward to whatever our whims guide us to!
-Karen
We walked back across the front of the Palais du Justice with our sandwiches and made our way to Place du Chatalet where we visited another fountain, this one with sphinxs. The sphinx fountain was incredible. John and I talked about how much Egyptian influences are in different parts of the city and I explained that its because of Napoleon's travels to Egypt and the art that he "brought" back - so of course there would be a lot. While we were standing at the fountain it got incredibly windy and the water from the spinxs splashed everywhere. Leaves tumbled around and the sound of the wind through the trees, along with the roar of the traffic made such a jumble of energy. Silly me got a little wierded out and looked at John and said, "I don't know - has Paris ever had tornadoes?" Which was funny because I always go to the extreme and John looked at me like I was crazy - at first I thought it was a "You're asking me?" look - but instead he just thought I was my silly self.
There was a creperie close by making to go/take away crepes so we got one and were a little disappointed with it - we've decided we're not crepe people. Across from the creperie was a landmark of Tour St.-Jacques. Its a gothic tower that looks like it should belong to Notre Dame - it is actually thr remains of an ancient church, we took some photos of it then made our way to find the location of the web cam. We twisted and turned our way through the streets until we started up towards the Pomidou Center, then we turned down a little alley-like street looking for the courtyard we wanted.
For months leading up to the trip I had been watching the web cam of an enclosed patio and while peeking in on it I would see a beautiful black labrador dog that I started referring to as the cafe lab. When we got to the patio she was there! She is even cuter in person! We sat at the cafe, called The Studio, and had coffee and tea along with a crumb du pomme, to make up for our dissatisfying crepe and enjoyed the scenery. We had made plans with Edana and Jen back home to capture our photos at the web cam and I realized I'd left my cell phone at the hotel - so we decided to go back for it, which was good because I needed to change my shirt anyway (I'd gotten spills on it earlier from my cheese panini). It rained a little while we were sitting at the cafe and it cooled off the day. We got the phone, changed my shirt, freshened up, lightened our load - and headed back out. We picked up some water and I bought some slippers for my sore feet and headed back to the web cam locale.
When we returned to the patio we met a young woman that was playing with the lab and we chatted with her for a bit. We found out that she is French/American. Her American half is from San Francisco of all places! She was very pleasant to talk to and cued us in on a few secrets of other little gardens by the Louvre. By the time we were ready to get going we noticed more dogs showing up at the patie. They were adorable. There was a husky/malamute and a Pekenese.
We got on our way to the cyber cafe so we could upload our photos, contact people back home, and get our first couple of days blogged (like this one :) ) John had to run back to the hotel (agian) because we had run out of battery power in the camera and we forgot the extra ones, and on the way back he picked up dinner - falafels!
By this portion of the trip our feet were really hurting, worse than I had anticipated - so we're going to have to adjust our sightseeing to include more rest stops! We're so impressed by all we've seen so far and there's still so much to see and enjoy! We're looking forward to whatever our whims guide us to!
-Karen
Monday, September 8, 2008
Schwooboo, I don't think we're in Anaheim anymore!
Monday, September 8, 2008
We started off the day with breakfast at the hotel: coffee, orange juice, croissants, baguette, and preserves - YUM!! While eating we people watched out of the window to see if we could spot Parisians going about their day. We noticed two guys walking along together and talking - one was carrying a computer/electronics box while the other was carrying a sledgehammer - what the??? - we thought it was funny and unusual. We saw a guy reading a book while he was walking and we wondered when he would bump into something, and John noticed our first beret! Not too bad for the first few moments of the day!
We finished our meal and we got going after we asked our hostess to make our dinner reservations for us at the restaurant we chose to go to. We wound our way through the streets and came across a portion of an old wall of the city dating back to medieval days, so we knew we were in the right direction since our goal was to reach the Hotel de Sens, a medieval mansion now serving as an official office. The architecture of the building was very unique from what we had seen so far. We continued from there to the Metro station of Pont Marie and made our way to the fifth arrondissment and the Latin Quarter. We were distracted by a relic of a building sitting just down the street from where we were going so we went to check it out - it turned out to be the Gallo Roman remains of the city that are part of the Musée Cluny - Museum of the Moyen Age, a museum housing all kinds of artifacts from Paris' earlier times.
Side note: Paris homes are small, well - the average Paris home is - and hardly any of them have gardens or extra room like backyards or patios - you're lucky if you have a balcony. Because the culture is so boxed in the city has tons of garden, green areas, small town squares filled with trees and shrubbery, and sometimes fountains, these areas have been set aside to give the inhabitants of the city a place to go and enjoy. Our trip itinerary is made up of seeing a lot of these spots, and we had several on today's list.
We got off the Metro and made our way to the first fountain of the day - the Cuvier. It sits at an intersection of three streets and is a memorial to naturalist George Cuvier. Its fitting that it sits close to the Jardin des Plants, a botanical garden that I had not planned for us to go into but we decided to take a few moments to peek inside to see it. It was beautiful! We walked around a tiny bit and took a few photos then we headed out to our next destination.
We twisted and turned our way to find the church St. Etienne-du-Mont. We were pretty early - so it wasn't opened yet. The Pantheon was next to it and since I wanted to get pictures of the building we went to check it out to use up the time while waiting for the church to open. The outside architecture of the Pantheon is unbelievable - is is covered with all kinds of frieze work from the tops of the columns to the memorial reliefs - it was absolutely incredible!
John sat on the steps while I buzzed around taking pictures. When I turned my back to the doors to look out over the city I froze and my heart skipped a beat - I finally got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! I called John over and became so excited I started sobbing! It was unbelievable, I didn't expect it to make me feel so shocked and moved.
John was so impressed with the outside of the Pantheon that he wanted to see what was inside even though I had not planned to go in, so he decided to amend our plans and go inside and I have to say that I'm glad he did - the building is as spectacular as its history. We saw so much there! The frescoes on the walls were amazing. They told the story of Sainte Genevieve and her entire life. There were amazing statues at every point. A Foucault Pendulum hangs in the center. And the crypts below hold the remains of some of France's greatest men. They were interesting and eerie at the same time.
After completing the Pantheon St.-Etienne was open so we made our way inside. The details inside were just as fabulous as the outside. The blending of Gothic and Renaissance styles seems to work somehow. The stained glass windows were very pretty and the iconography was very beautiful.
We headed over towards the Jardin and Palace of Luxembourg after we finished at St.-Etienne, and as soon as we stepped inside we were blown away by its beauty and its massive size. Its stated that it is the most popular park in the city and we could understand why - its very lovely. We found the Fountain de Medici easily and it is just as beautiful as the pictures I'd seen.
While walking around the fountain we spotted our second beret! We took some photos then started to make our way across the front of the palace and out the opposite side of the garden to have lunch at Bread & Roses - a high-end bakey/cafe. It was a little more expensive than I expected but John said it was okay since it was our first official full day in Paris. It was funny that he said that because I found myself so lost in the moment that sometimes I'd lose track that we were there and experience the whole surreal feeling of, "Oh yeah, I'm in Paris!" For lunch John had a vegetable quiche and I had what was called a Ploughman's Lunch which consisted of a huge hunk of bread, and a large portion of a round of a white cheddar cheese, and some salad. It all tasted so very good!
After lunch we returned to the gardens and walked through to take pictures of the statues of different queens in the history of France along with some other prominent figures. We walked along the avenue through two other garden areas to end up at the Fountain l'Observatoire. It was so beautiful, even more than the pictures I had seen of it. After enjoying the fountain we made our way to our next destination, a stationery shop called Marie Papier that features hand-made papers and every kind of desk/writing/journaling/paper item you can imagine. While we were there a man was contemplating buying a 400 Euro writing pen, needless to say I bought my 8 Euro's worth of paper and went along my way! We saw an adorable game store next to the stationery shop and had fun looking around inside. We then headed to St.-Sulpice, a classical church built over 134 years ago!
The Place St.-Sulpice in front of the church has a large fountain in front that we stopped for a moment to enjoy, but it was only for a moment! The church was partly covered up for renovation so I wasn't able to get a picture of it - so we'll have to try to find a post card of it. Inside the church were three Delacroix paintings inside and they were stunning! Large arched windows filled the interior of the church with light - enough to get some awesome photos. John and I were both moved by the beauty of the church.
While inside we took closer note of the posters that we'd seen on almost every Catholic chruch we'd seen so far (even the ones we didn't stop in to visit) - we found out that the Pope is to be in town at the end of the week - so we're trying to figure out how much its going to impact our days. We certainly won't be able to visit any Catholic churches on Friday and Saturday.
After leaving St.-Sulpice we returned to the Jardin du Luxembourg since we had extra time before our dinner reservations at 7 o'clock. We found the miniature Statue of Libery that I had wanted to see, and beside it we noticed an American Oak tree had been planted in 2002 in memorial to the 9/11 terrorist attacks back home. It was a sobering moment.
We walked a little longer through the grounds to the children's play area that John had caught a glimpse of earlier. It was an amazing spot with all kinds of wonderful climbing, swinging, sliding activities and fixtures for kids to go wild on. We stopped to watch them for a while.
Once we gathered up more energy we made our way to our dinner location, Bouillon Racine. Its a quaint little belle epoque bistro that used to be a beer hall a long time ago, that has very good food. John had steak carpacchio, potato soup, and an entree of a lamb shank. I had an appetizer of crab followed by a spinach salad with shrimp and my meal was chicken with risotto in a mushroom sauce. It looked, smelled, and tasted soooo very good! While we were there we started talking to two women about our trip and Paris in general. We found out that one was from New Zealand (originally from Canada - she had to point out) and the other from Switzerland. We enjoyed talking with them and hearing their stories of their visit.
After dinner it was time to retrace our steps and return to our hotel. Our feet definitely got a work out. I'm not so sure that its jet lag we'll have to recuperate from when we get home. While on our way back we stopped again at the Pantheon to get a night time shot, when I turned around the Eiffel Tower lit up like crazy - it was incredible!!
Its safe to say that this first full day was intense. I find myself saying beautiful over and over again - but there really isn't any other word that quite compares with what we've seen - well...maybe outstanding, magnificent, awesome, moving, and of course one I've already used a hundred times already, unbelievable!
Can't wait to see what the next day brings!
Our next cyber cafe visit will be in two days - we'll have another update then.
Love to all!!!
-Karen
We started off the day with breakfast at the hotel: coffee, orange juice, croissants, baguette, and preserves - YUM!! While eating we people watched out of the window to see if we could spot Parisians going about their day. We noticed two guys walking along together and talking - one was carrying a computer/electronics box while the other was carrying a sledgehammer - what the??? - we thought it was funny and unusual. We saw a guy reading a book while he was walking and we wondered when he would bump into something, and John noticed our first beret! Not too bad for the first few moments of the day!
We finished our meal and we got going after we asked our hostess to make our dinner reservations for us at the restaurant we chose to go to. We wound our way through the streets and came across a portion of an old wall of the city dating back to medieval days, so we knew we were in the right direction since our goal was to reach the Hotel de Sens, a medieval mansion now serving as an official office. The architecture of the building was very unique from what we had seen so far. We continued from there to the Metro station of Pont Marie and made our way to the fifth arrondissment and the Latin Quarter. We were distracted by a relic of a building sitting just down the street from where we were going so we went to check it out - it turned out to be the Gallo Roman remains of the city that are part of the Musée Cluny - Museum of the Moyen Age, a museum housing all kinds of artifacts from Paris' earlier times.
Side note: Paris homes are small, well - the average Paris home is - and hardly any of them have gardens or extra room like backyards or patios - you're lucky if you have a balcony. Because the culture is so boxed in the city has tons of garden, green areas, small town squares filled with trees and shrubbery, and sometimes fountains, these areas have been set aside to give the inhabitants of the city a place to go and enjoy. Our trip itinerary is made up of seeing a lot of these spots, and we had several on today's list.
We got off the Metro and made our way to the first fountain of the day - the Cuvier. It sits at an intersection of three streets and is a memorial to naturalist George Cuvier. Its fitting that it sits close to the Jardin des Plants, a botanical garden that I had not planned for us to go into but we decided to take a few moments to peek inside to see it. It was beautiful! We walked around a tiny bit and took a few photos then we headed out to our next destination.
We twisted and turned our way to find the church St. Etienne-du-Mont. We were pretty early - so it wasn't opened yet. The Pantheon was next to it and since I wanted to get pictures of the building we went to check it out to use up the time while waiting for the church to open. The outside architecture of the Pantheon is unbelievable - is is covered with all kinds of frieze work from the tops of the columns to the memorial reliefs - it was absolutely incredible!
John sat on the steps while I buzzed around taking pictures. When I turned my back to the doors to look out over the city I froze and my heart skipped a beat - I finally got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! I called John over and became so excited I started sobbing! It was unbelievable, I didn't expect it to make me feel so shocked and moved.
John was so impressed with the outside of the Pantheon that he wanted to see what was inside even though I had not planned to go in, so he decided to amend our plans and go inside and I have to say that I'm glad he did - the building is as spectacular as its history. We saw so much there! The frescoes on the walls were amazing. They told the story of Sainte Genevieve and her entire life. There were amazing statues at every point. A Foucault Pendulum hangs in the center. And the crypts below hold the remains of some of France's greatest men. They were interesting and eerie at the same time.
After completing the Pantheon St.-Etienne was open so we made our way inside. The details inside were just as fabulous as the outside. The blending of Gothic and Renaissance styles seems to work somehow. The stained glass windows were very pretty and the iconography was very beautiful.
We headed over towards the Jardin and Palace of Luxembourg after we finished at St.-Etienne, and as soon as we stepped inside we were blown away by its beauty and its massive size. Its stated that it is the most popular park in the city and we could understand why - its very lovely. We found the Fountain de Medici easily and it is just as beautiful as the pictures I'd seen.
While walking around the fountain we spotted our second beret! We took some photos then started to make our way across the front of the palace and out the opposite side of the garden to have lunch at Bread & Roses - a high-end bakey/cafe. It was a little more expensive than I expected but John said it was okay since it was our first official full day in Paris. It was funny that he said that because I found myself so lost in the moment that sometimes I'd lose track that we were there and experience the whole surreal feeling of, "Oh yeah, I'm in Paris!" For lunch John had a vegetable quiche and I had what was called a Ploughman's Lunch which consisted of a huge hunk of bread, and a large portion of a round of a white cheddar cheese, and some salad. It all tasted so very good!
After lunch we returned to the gardens and walked through to take pictures of the statues of different queens in the history of France along with some other prominent figures. We walked along the avenue through two other garden areas to end up at the Fountain l'Observatoire. It was so beautiful, even more than the pictures I had seen of it. After enjoying the fountain we made our way to our next destination, a stationery shop called Marie Papier that features hand-made papers and every kind of desk/writing/journaling/paper item you can imagine. While we were there a man was contemplating buying a 400 Euro writing pen, needless to say I bought my 8 Euro's worth of paper and went along my way! We saw an adorable game store next to the stationery shop and had fun looking around inside. We then headed to St.-Sulpice, a classical church built over 134 years ago!
The Place St.-Sulpice in front of the church has a large fountain in front that we stopped for a moment to enjoy, but it was only for a moment! The church was partly covered up for renovation so I wasn't able to get a picture of it - so we'll have to try to find a post card of it. Inside the church were three Delacroix paintings inside and they were stunning! Large arched windows filled the interior of the church with light - enough to get some awesome photos. John and I were both moved by the beauty of the church.
While inside we took closer note of the posters that we'd seen on almost every Catholic chruch we'd seen so far (even the ones we didn't stop in to visit) - we found out that the Pope is to be in town at the end of the week - so we're trying to figure out how much its going to impact our days. We certainly won't be able to visit any Catholic churches on Friday and Saturday.
After leaving St.-Sulpice we returned to the Jardin du Luxembourg since we had extra time before our dinner reservations at 7 o'clock. We found the miniature Statue of Libery that I had wanted to see, and beside it we noticed an American Oak tree had been planted in 2002 in memorial to the 9/11 terrorist attacks back home. It was a sobering moment.
We walked a little longer through the grounds to the children's play area that John had caught a glimpse of earlier. It was an amazing spot with all kinds of wonderful climbing, swinging, sliding activities and fixtures for kids to go wild on. We stopped to watch them for a while.
Once we gathered up more energy we made our way to our dinner location, Bouillon Racine. Its a quaint little belle epoque bistro that used to be a beer hall a long time ago, that has very good food. John had steak carpacchio, potato soup, and an entree of a lamb shank. I had an appetizer of crab followed by a spinach salad with shrimp and my meal was chicken with risotto in a mushroom sauce. It looked, smelled, and tasted soooo very good! While we were there we started talking to two women about our trip and Paris in general. We found out that one was from New Zealand (originally from Canada - she had to point out) and the other from Switzerland. We enjoyed talking with them and hearing their stories of their visit.
After dinner it was time to retrace our steps and return to our hotel. Our feet definitely got a work out. I'm not so sure that its jet lag we'll have to recuperate from when we get home. While on our way back we stopped again at the Pantheon to get a night time shot, when I turned around the Eiffel Tower lit up like crazy - it was incredible!!
Its safe to say that this first full day was intense. I find myself saying beautiful over and over again - but there really isn't any other word that quite compares with what we've seen - well...maybe outstanding, magnificent, awesome, moving, and of course one I've already used a hundred times already, unbelievable!
Can't wait to see what the next day brings!
Our next cyber cafe visit will be in two days - we'll have another update then.
Love to all!!!
-Karen
Sunday, September 7, 2008
John's broke his what?!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
We arrived at CDG at approximately 11:00am. We had a tiny bit of turbulence here and there but it wasn't too bad. I chatted with the woman next to me and found out that she was on vacation from Tahiti. The flight was an interesting experience because it seemed at first that it was the longest flight ever - but then at the end it didn't seem long at all. John's backside felt like it was severely bruised, he kept saying, "I think I broke my butt," because of sitting in one position for so long.
We got dinner and breakfast, which wasn't too bad, and we had on-demand video screens to use. John watched half of two separate movies: In Bruges, and Speed Racer because he kept almost falling asleep- while I watched Sex and the City - The Movie.
John noticed how strange it was at the beginning of the flight to here the different sounds that the French language makes when people are talking - the usual burr of voices that you hear when you're in a large space and everyone is talking at once, but it was more lyrical - but yet had a specific rhythm to it. I guess when you fly Air France to France, you should expect to hear a lot of French.
We got off the plane and into the airport and I was surprised by the lack of people there. It seemed almost desolate - I expected it to be much busier and I wondered where everyone else was. All that was gathered around us was the other passengers on our flight hanging around the luggage carousel - it had an eerie Twilight Zone feel to it. After getting our luggage we went to the Tourism Board and bought our 6 day museum passes - then it was time to take the long walk to the RER train station - that's where we found all the people! It was like a beehive of activity. I was confused about the tickets a little but it seemed to work itself out, I didn't expect the RER tickets to be 8,40 Euro each, but it was still the cheapest way into town.
The RER ride was different than I expected, I anticipated it being underground like the metro, but parts of it were outside. It was fascinating too see the outlying areas of the city. We saw definite differences between areas of low income to comfortable means. There were buildings that looked older than 100 years with unique styles that have been kept in good condition and others that were dilapidated. There were many industrial-type looking structures that we figured were apartment complexes - they looked like dorms or what I assume to be their version of something like project buildings. Those buildings were also varied in upkeep. I tried to get pictures of some of the interesting houses and buildings, but we were going by too fast.
We saw a lot of graffiti; I am glad that I had anticipated seeing some, but I didn't know how much there would be. There was a lot of the usual "tagging" but there was also a lot of beautiful works.
We first glimpse of a landmark I recognized was of Sacre Coeur sitting on top of its hill, shining in the sunlight.
While on the RER a man came into the train and was playing guitar and singing - we spotted our first busker! He started off singing a song in French but then he sang some songs in English: "Bad Moon Rising," "Oh-Bla-Di, Oh-Bla-Da," "You Look Wonderful Tonight," and "Rock Around the Clock," all sung with a definite nasal twang.
We got off the RER and switched to the Metro at Gare du Nord - it was a bit of a walk, and the Metro was a tad crowded, we realized that there is a big difference in activity between hubs and basic stops. At first when we got on things were a little hectic, but it tapered off. Our first official mass transit experience was a success!!!
We got off at Bastille and made our way up through the maze and up the steps to be greeted by the Colonne de Juillet, the July Column. It was breathtaking to finally see things I had read about and seen tiny pictures of. We were going to stop to take some pictures but instead we decided to find our hotel and freshen up. As we were walking down the street we were amazed by how fast the people drive! It was a big, loud, fast, busy area of cars and people - but the feel was so exciting!
We set off to find our hotel and it was a little bit of a challenge with the streets jutting here and there - it was a little awkward to navigate but we were enjoying the experience. We walked by a statue that I believed to be of Beaumachais but we decided to come back to it later. We got a little turned around here and there and we found ourselves at Place des Vosges, another place on day one of our itinerary. It was fascinating to see - but again we pressed on.
We found our hotel once we got our bearings and were greeted by a wonderful hostess, Betina, and we chatted for a bit - then went upstairs to unpack and freshen up. I had originally planned to do minimal unpacking but we (well, actually - I) had a burst of energy and excitement so I went ahead and unpacked everything.
Our room is bigger than I expected, which is nice. There is a big window that opens up into the street and our view is another hotel/apartment building across the way, the architecture of it is delightful. After freshening up we went out to explore a bit. We were hungry so our goal was to find something to eat while we were out, along with seeing what we'd find. We didn't follow the itinerary I had set so we didn't go back to Bastille or Place des Vosges (yet), instead we let our impulses lead us.
We looked for specific places that we would be needing during the week: laudromat, cyber cafe, the closest market/convenience store, etc. We set out to discover and explore! Right away we were happily pleased to notice how compressed the streets are - we covered a lot of space in a few moments. We saw beautiful buildings along with older ones that are showing their age and haven't been treated well - but the textures were magnificent! We found the cyber cafe easily (obviously) and then we continued on. As we got closer to the famous falafel place we could smell delicious aromas along with the ever present bubble of cigarette smoke that only became more pronounced in larger groups of people. Whenever a car, scooter, or motorcycle came by the smell of the exhaust would penetrate the air and it actually made the cigarette smoke smell good by comparison. We noticed the drivers here are very aggressive and impatient, I don't think I could drive in this city.
We got our falafels - John had chicken curry, I had traditional, and we wondered the streets while we ate. I stopped from time to time to take photos of architecture and friezes. I'm sure we were probably by some important building or another but for then I was just immersed in the moment. As we were turning this way and that I got a glimpse of the towers of Notre Dame and I got so very excited! It seemed so surreal to me - again, to see something that I've only read about or seen tiny pictures of (tiny in comparison to the actual sizes). While walking down one of the streets John stopped and said, "Hey, Look!" as he pointed out the Pompidou Center that was peeking out at the end of the street we were then crossing. He was excited to notice a landmark on his own without me pointing it out first. We were amazed by the reality of its size. We anticipated it to be only a three story building - but its huge!!!
We started heading east towards the Seine - I wanted to see Hotel de Ville and it was even more amazing in person. The detail on it was unbelievable. We took a few pictures and then continued on to the river. We saw the spires of Notre Dame and Sainte Chappelle and the conical rooftops of the Conciergerie - but we were on the wrong side of the islands so we had yet to see the Eiffel Tower. With the streets being so compressed you really couldn't see it everywhere - so it evaded us. The streets all seem to have a forced perspective to what is at the end of the road - and so many of them twist and turn that it looks like the buildings bend.
We were getting pretty tired so we started heading back to the hotel. We had felt a few raindrops hit us - so we didn't want to dawdle too much. We picked up our first Parisian pastries from a little crowded pastry shop and made our way back to rest. We called home to let our folks know we were safe. We tried to stay awake until at least 8 o'clock, but it didn't work - we were too tired - we decided to go to bed at 7.
It was an awesome first day!!!
-Karen
We arrived at CDG at approximately 11:00am. We had a tiny bit of turbulence here and there but it wasn't too bad. I chatted with the woman next to me and found out that she was on vacation from Tahiti. The flight was an interesting experience because it seemed at first that it was the longest flight ever - but then at the end it didn't seem long at all. John's backside felt like it was severely bruised, he kept saying, "I think I broke my butt," because of sitting in one position for so long.
We got dinner and breakfast, which wasn't too bad, and we had on-demand video screens to use. John watched half of two separate movies: In Bruges, and Speed Racer because he kept almost falling asleep- while I watched Sex and the City - The Movie.
John noticed how strange it was at the beginning of the flight to here the different sounds that the French language makes when people are talking - the usual burr of voices that you hear when you're in a large space and everyone is talking at once, but it was more lyrical - but yet had a specific rhythm to it. I guess when you fly Air France to France, you should expect to hear a lot of French.
We got off the plane and into the airport and I was surprised by the lack of people there. It seemed almost desolate - I expected it to be much busier and I wondered where everyone else was. All that was gathered around us was the other passengers on our flight hanging around the luggage carousel - it had an eerie Twilight Zone feel to it. After getting our luggage we went to the Tourism Board and bought our 6 day museum passes - then it was time to take the long walk to the RER train station - that's where we found all the people! It was like a beehive of activity. I was confused about the tickets a little but it seemed to work itself out, I didn't expect the RER tickets to be 8,40 Euro each, but it was still the cheapest way into town.
The RER ride was different than I expected, I anticipated it being underground like the metro, but parts of it were outside. It was fascinating too see the outlying areas of the city. We saw definite differences between areas of low income to comfortable means. There were buildings that looked older than 100 years with unique styles that have been kept in good condition and others that were dilapidated. There were many industrial-type looking structures that we figured were apartment complexes - they looked like dorms or what I assume to be their version of something like project buildings. Those buildings were also varied in upkeep. I tried to get pictures of some of the interesting houses and buildings, but we were going by too fast.
We saw a lot of graffiti; I am glad that I had anticipated seeing some, but I didn't know how much there would be. There was a lot of the usual "tagging" but there was also a lot of beautiful works.
We first glimpse of a landmark I recognized was of Sacre Coeur sitting on top of its hill, shining in the sunlight.
While on the RER a man came into the train and was playing guitar and singing - we spotted our first busker! He started off singing a song in French but then he sang some songs in English: "Bad Moon Rising," "Oh-Bla-Di, Oh-Bla-Da," "You Look Wonderful Tonight," and "Rock Around the Clock," all sung with a definite nasal twang.
We got off the RER and switched to the Metro at Gare du Nord - it was a bit of a walk, and the Metro was a tad crowded, we realized that there is a big difference in activity between hubs and basic stops. At first when we got on things were a little hectic, but it tapered off. Our first official mass transit experience was a success!!!
We got off at Bastille and made our way up through the maze and up the steps to be greeted by the Colonne de Juillet, the July Column. It was breathtaking to finally see things I had read about and seen tiny pictures of. We were going to stop to take some pictures but instead we decided to find our hotel and freshen up. As we were walking down the street we were amazed by how fast the people drive! It was a big, loud, fast, busy area of cars and people - but the feel was so exciting!
We set off to find our hotel and it was a little bit of a challenge with the streets jutting here and there - it was a little awkward to navigate but we were enjoying the experience. We walked by a statue that I believed to be of Beaumachais but we decided to come back to it later. We got a little turned around here and there and we found ourselves at Place des Vosges, another place on day one of our itinerary. It was fascinating to see - but again we pressed on.
We found our hotel once we got our bearings and were greeted by a wonderful hostess, Betina, and we chatted for a bit - then went upstairs to unpack and freshen up. I had originally planned to do minimal unpacking but we (well, actually - I) had a burst of energy and excitement so I went ahead and unpacked everything.
Our room is bigger than I expected, which is nice. There is a big window that opens up into the street and our view is another hotel/apartment building across the way, the architecture of it is delightful. After freshening up we went out to explore a bit. We were hungry so our goal was to find something to eat while we were out, along with seeing what we'd find. We didn't follow the itinerary I had set so we didn't go back to Bastille or Place des Vosges (yet), instead we let our impulses lead us.
We looked for specific places that we would be needing during the week: laudromat, cyber cafe, the closest market/convenience store, etc. We set out to discover and explore! Right away we were happily pleased to notice how compressed the streets are - we covered a lot of space in a few moments. We saw beautiful buildings along with older ones that are showing their age and haven't been treated well - but the textures were magnificent! We found the cyber cafe easily (obviously) and then we continued on. As we got closer to the famous falafel place we could smell delicious aromas along with the ever present bubble of cigarette smoke that only became more pronounced in larger groups of people. Whenever a car, scooter, or motorcycle came by the smell of the exhaust would penetrate the air and it actually made the cigarette smoke smell good by comparison. We noticed the drivers here are very aggressive and impatient, I don't think I could drive in this city.
We got our falafels - John had chicken curry, I had traditional, and we wondered the streets while we ate. I stopped from time to time to take photos of architecture and friezes. I'm sure we were probably by some important building or another but for then I was just immersed in the moment. As we were turning this way and that I got a glimpse of the towers of Notre Dame and I got so very excited! It seemed so surreal to me - again, to see something that I've only read about or seen tiny pictures of (tiny in comparison to the actual sizes). While walking down one of the streets John stopped and said, "Hey, Look!" as he pointed out the Pompidou Center that was peeking out at the end of the street we were then crossing. He was excited to notice a landmark on his own without me pointing it out first. We were amazed by the reality of its size. We anticipated it to be only a three story building - but its huge!!!
We started heading east towards the Seine - I wanted to see Hotel de Ville and it was even more amazing in person. The detail on it was unbelievable. We took a few pictures and then continued on to the river. We saw the spires of Notre Dame and Sainte Chappelle and the conical rooftops of the Conciergerie - but we were on the wrong side of the islands so we had yet to see the Eiffel Tower. With the streets being so compressed you really couldn't see it everywhere - so it evaded us. The streets all seem to have a forced perspective to what is at the end of the road - and so many of them twist and turn that it looks like the buildings bend.
We were getting pretty tired so we started heading back to the hotel. We had felt a few raindrops hit us - so we didn't want to dawdle too much. We picked up our first Parisian pastries from a little crowded pastry shop and made our way back to rest. We called home to let our folks know we were safe. We tried to stay awake until at least 8 o'clock, but it didn't work - we were too tired - we decided to go to bed at 7.
It was an awesome first day!!!
-Karen
Saturday, September 6, 2008
We're on our way!!
It's actually here!! The time has arrived to go!!?? I don't know which emotion to sort through first...anxiety, excitement, disbelief, shock....they're all fighting with each other for center ring status. I'm so hyper-emotional right now...I know how a hummingbird feels, I think.
So here we go!!
We'll be in touch soon, and we'll have soooooo much to share ;)
Have a great day everyone!
Karen and John
So here we go!!
We'll be in touch soon, and we'll have soooooo much to share ;)
Have a great day everyone!
Karen and John
Friday, September 5, 2008
Just the beginning
This is the first post of many for our Travel Blog about our trip to Paris (Karen's Dream come true).
It is the night before and we have just finished packing. But we still have oh so much to do.
We will be periodically loading out pictures to our flickr account so make sure to check back in periodically to see everything.
Still much to pack and prepare for, so we're going to finish that up and get some sleep. Got to be well rested for that 11 hour flight tomorrow.
12 hours and counting before we leave for the airport.
À bientôt!
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