Saturday, May 11, 2013

Paris, France, May 8, 9 and 10

Wednesday, May 8

We were so fortunate to have our Intervac friend Frederique offer to drive us to Monet's Giverny today.   Because it was a French national holiday, Victoire 1945, celebrating the end of hostilities in Europe in 1945, she had the day off.  It was raining as she picked us up for the hour-long drive, and it really poured for part of the drive, which didn't give us a good feeling for our day.  But the weather cooperated and by the time we got to the charming town of Vernon, the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing.  We were one of the first cars in the parking lot, although there were the inevitable busses, but only a couple.  Because we arrived early, we had the beautiful garden almost to ourselves for a short time.  And the flowers!  Drops from the morning's rain made the blossoms sparkle.  I think we took more pictures today than any other day of our trip, so it is hard to choose which ones to show. 




 
 
We heard a curious noise as we walked around the garden near Monet's house, which we finally figured out was croaking frogs.  The noise got louder as we went through the underpass under the
 
road (with a Philadelphia connection, no less!) to the other half of the garden with the pond with the (reconstructed) green bridge where the famous water lily painting were made.  The azaleas and willows were lovely reflections in the water.  We especially enjoyed this part of the garden, having seen the huge water lily canvasses at the Orangerie Museum in the Tuileries Garden in Paris recently.
 
We looked and looked and finally spotted about a dozen frogs-boy could they make noise.  In taking a picture of a frog, Dane inadvertently got the best picture, don't you think?
 
 
By this time, busses of visitors were flowing into the gardens, but we still were able to enjoy the beautiful colors.  Joan was particularly impressed with the succession planning and planting.  While we were enjoying tulips of many hues and varieties (fringed, peony, Darwin hybrid, etc.), crown imperial, wallflowers. forget-me-nots and pansies, we could see the next plants ready to come out and replace them: peonies, iris, columbine, phlox and roses.  It takes a fabulous gardener to ensure that something is in bloom all the time, and Giverny certainly has one.  Or more!  In Monet's time, he and his family and six gardeners worked to make the garden, we learned. 
 
We waited in a short line to tour Monet's house, where, alas, pictures were not allowed.  But you can see some of the colorful rooms here.  Monet painted most of the rooms all in one color: yellow for the dining room, green for the bedroom, blue for the kitchen.  Bright, cheerful colors, just like the garden.  Speaking of which, the view of the garden from the house was lovely, like looking at a picture of Monet's in a frame. 

 
 
Afterwards, we strolled down the lane to the Giverny Museum of Impressionism, where we enjoyed a show about the works of the artist Paul Signac, an early pointillist.  There were beautiful gardens around the museum, too.  Here's Frederique posing for us in the garden at the Museum:
 
 
From there, it was just a short walk to a charming inn, La Musardiere, where we enjoyed Breton crepes (made with buckwheat) called Gallettes de Sarrasin for entrees (Dane had an equally delicious smoked salmon salad), traditional sweet crepes for dessert, and the most delicious hard cider brewed right in Giverny.  We learned that cider is drunk from big ceramic cups in France!  If we could, we would have brought a case of the cider home with us!


 
Frederique suggested we stop and visit the town of Vernon on our way back to Paris.  It has a charming medieval town center, with a handsome church.  The striking modern stained glass windows replaced ones lost to bombs during WWII. 


Then Frederique treated us to a driving tour of the center of Paris, which made us enjoy the beautiful city but also reminded us why we were glad not to be driving ourselves, but instead depending on our feet and the speedy and frequent Metro.  Pedestrians certainly make driving in Paris a challenge.
 
 
We enjoyed tea at Frederique's apartment, got to see the bathroom renovation project that has been keeping her busy and met her cute cat, who posed for us in her garden. 

It had been a long, but wonderful day, so we stuck close to home for dinner, our larder of cheeses and pates having run out.  An Afghan restaurant just up Rue Paul Albert had caught our eye on one of our walks, so we went up the hill to give it a try.  Delicious food, friendly service, and a crowd of customers. 
 
 


 

Thursday, May 9

 
Our last full day in Paris.  Sob.  So much still to see and do! 
 
Museum of Natural History at the entrance to the Jardin des Plantes
 
We still had one garden Joan wanted to see, the Jardin des Plantes, so off we went to a new arrondissement, the fifth, to explore that area.  More beautiful flowers, but also a learning experience,
as the garden is a botanical garden, with the displays organized according to plant classification. 


After strolling through the outdoor gardens, we enjoyed the recently renovated greenhouses, showing hot dry and wet tropical climates. 

 
The surrounding park was studded with ancient trees. 
 
Needing a little snack, we visited the Mosque of Paris around the corner from the garden, where we bought pastries from the stand just inside the door and ordered mint tea, which we enjoyed in the courtyard.  Another time we would like to try the busy, delicious-smelling restaurant at the mosque. 
 
It's a huge complex, which we discovered as we walked around the outside, until we finally found the main entrance to the mosque.  Unfortunately it was closed to tours at the time we visited, but the glimpse we got of the courtyard garden was a real treat.

 
From there, we explored some more of the neighborhood, including a charming street Rue Mouffetard, where Dane got another scarf at Diwali,  colorful shop with a huge assortment. 
 
We couldn't help but notice that both men and women wore scarves in Paris no matter the weather, so Dane wanted to fit right in and get something a bit more colorful than his grey German scarf.  The cheerful shop assistant even taught us a couple more ways to tie our scarves.
 
We noticed today, especially, all the Velib' or bicycle rental locations, in this neighborhood.  We weren't brave enough to tackle the Paris streets and traffic, but they looked like a terrific way to get around if you knew where you were going and where the other stands were.  We found them everywhere.  What a great program; we hope Philadelphia will come up with something similar soon.
Place de la Contrescarpe
We would have stayed to eat at one of the restaurants on Rue Mouffetard and the neighboring square, Place de la Contrescarpe, but we thought we'd cap our Paris visit with a special meal at a restaurant on Ile St. Louis, so, fortified by pastries and tea, we walked back to the Seine where we found yet another museum/garden, the Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air
 
It was very pleasant to stroll along the river and enjoy interesting modern sculpture and attractive garden beds. The sun had come out and many Parisians were enjoying the benches and gardens as well.
 
We found a delicious restaurant for our final meal, Mon Vieil Ami. With a heavy emphasis on vegetables, chef Antoine Westermann provided us with a fabulous final meal for us to savor.  Dane is still remembering the spring vegetables in broth and I couldn't resist one more taste of fresh spring asparagus and arugula with a perfectly poached egg on top.  A Kir and a Martini Rossi Rouge vermouth were nice to start the meal too. 


 
Roast guinea fowl on peas, broad beans and morels for Joan and a stuffed breast of veal with orange and yellow carrots and spicy bulgur with apricots and almonds for Dane.  We topped the meal off with rum baba and rhubarb tart in strawberry sauce with a cottage cheese sorbet.  A perfect spring meal!  One interesting aspect of the menu: the vegetables were featured first, we had to dig down to find out what they were served with! 
 
One final thing.  We had seen it up close and far away from the outside, but still hadn't been IN Notre Dame.  So we endured the rude line cutters and only a 10-minute wait to enter the magnificent space which was jammed with people, because again, May 9 is a French national holiday, Ascension Day. 
 
The cathedral is as imposing inside as out, and we soaked up the sacred atmosphere in spite of the crowds.  But then it was time to return to Helene's cozy apartment on the "foothills" of Montmartre, to pack, clean and get ready for our departure tomorrow.




Friday, May 10

 
Alas, no pictures of our departure day.  We had to get up early to be out the door by 8 am, wheeled our bags down the hill to the Chateau Rouge Metro which took us just a couple of stops to the Gare Nord.  There we picked up the RER train to Charles de Gaulle Airport, where we discovered we stupidly had not found out from which terminal our fight departed.  Luckily we had plenty of time, because we had to hike a fair ways, catch the intra-terminal train, and finally get to the USAir departure area for our 11:30 am flight.  It was a long, but uneventful trip home.  We arrived a little bit early and sailed through immigration and customs, caught a cab, and were at our doorstep at 2:45 pm Philadlelphia time, just as Helene was walking down the stairs to catch a cab to the airport for her fight back home to Paris!  We had not expected to cross paths but were delighted to see her once again so that we could thank her in person for her wonderful apartment in Paris. Dane saw her into her cab and we hiked up our stairs to unpack, tackle the piles and piles of mail and try to stay up until our regular bedtime to get back on our regular schedule.  We still have lots and lots of pictures to review and memories of Paris to enjoy.  But surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, considering all the walking we did, neither of us gained an ounce in spite of all the delicious food and pastries we ate during our trip! 
 
 


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Paris, France May 6 and 7

Monday, May 6

Because so many museums are closed on Monday in Paris, we decided to take a day trip to Vaux-le-Vicomte.  What a great day.  Our advice to any traveler to Paris who wants to see a lovely chateau and a fabulous garden in a manageable trip without the crowds is to go to Vaux! Such a contrast from our experience at Versailles!   We caught the RER train from
Gare du Nord to the town of Melun.  Loved the double-decker commuter train-we had great views from the upper level.

We took a 10-minute taxi ride into the countryside to Vaux, so we were there shortly after it opened.  We had to pinch ourselves when we realized we were almost the only people there-three busses and a few cars were in the parking lot. The busses were all French school children-nary a tourist bus in sight!

Vaux-le-Vicomte was the architectural inspiration for Versailles and set the standard for European chateaux for centuries.  Its owner, Nicolas Fouquet was Louis XIV's finance minister.  When he threw a party to show Louis XIV his new chateau and garden, the young king was so jealous that he arrested Fouquet and took his architect, Louis Le Vau, artist Charles Le Brun and landscape designer Andre Le Notre to his hunting villa at Versailles and had them transform it into the splendid palace we know today. 
 
Because it is the 400th birthday of Andre LeNotre, there were special exhibits about his revolutionary garden design at Vaux le Vicomte, which made the visit extra special. 















But we enjoyed the entire day, starting with the charming carriage display in the original stables,

 showing well-restored luxurious carriages and charming children's pony carriages with background music and sound effects to get us in the mood.

Then we walked over the stone bridge across the moat and up the front steps of the chateau, nary a tourist in sight, and just opened the front door as if we were going to visit a friend.  Totally cool.  We wandered around Fouquet's dream house with the audio guide which explained in detail his relationship with Louis XIV, Colbert and the other main characters of 17thC France.  There was little original furniture left; Louis XIV took it all to Versailles! 

First came the comfortable bedrooms on the second floor, which had the best views of the LeNotre's gardens,

 then the grand library, card room, dining room (with it's interesting video presentation)

and grand salons including the "King's Bedroom" where no king ever slept. 

Finally the wine cellar and restored kitchen in the basement.

Before we tackled the gardens (saving the best for last?) we thought it best to have a bite to eat, since the garden walk was estimated to take 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Glad we did; the café at the entrance to the chateau provided a perfectly adequate meal of duck in peppercorn sauce with mashed potatoes and haricots vert for Joan and a charcuterie plate for Dane.  Floating island dessert was good for Joan, but Dane's dark chocolate mousse was fabulous. 


Then it was off to the gardens.  Be sure to read the article in Wikipedia about the gardens and Le Notre's revolutionary design, especially the optical illusions he utilized.  Our photographs hardly do the garden justice.  We were delighted to enjoy the clearing skies and warm sun for our stroll through such a remarkable landscape.

We walked all the way to the far end of the garden, climbing the hill to get a close up of the Hercules statue, and to enjoy the view back towards the chateau, the picture at the top of this blog entry.  Le Notre's garden design is exceptional.
Privately owned by the same family that bought the dilapidated chateaux and overgrown gardens in 1875 at public auction, Vaux le Vicomte is certainly worth a visit.

We asked our taxi driver back to Melun to drop us in the center of town, which we were told had a small medieval center. 
We strolled around the old church, had a warming hot chocolate
at a very quiet neighborhood cafe, then walked back to the gare, where we caught a fast train back to Paris with its hustle and bustle.  It was nice to be home relatively early, where we enjoyed another of our evening snacks of wine and beer, cheese and pate and delicious gazpacho straight from the shelf of the Carrefour grocery store down the street!

 

Tuesday, May 7

A long day today!   Long day because we stayed out late to see the Eiffel Tower at night.  Here's a picture just at dusk, about 9 pm, as the lights went on.  Beautiful, and it got better as it got darker.


We started the day at Pere Lachaise cemetery. Explored it for two hours, finding graves of some notables, but barely scratching the surface.  Click on this link for a fabulous virtual tour of the cemetery.  We found Jim Morrison's grave after some searching, by all the graffiti around it. 




Oscar Wilde's tomb was interesting, Sarah Bernhardt's was small and unremarkable, Edith Piaf's had fresh roses on it! 

Edith Piaf's grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery


Oscar Wilde's Tomb, surrounded by guardrails!
 

Sarah Bernhardt's Tomb at Pere Lachaise cemetery


The most remarkable and moving were the many monuments to the victims of the Nazis at the various concentration camps. 

Next, caught a bus, a first for us, as we've been doing the Metro exclusively so far, but enjoyed the bus ride very much, as it took us all the way across town so we saw many sights and recognized many neighborhoods we'd already visited.  Our destination was the Bon Marche department store:

We especially enjoyed the food hall.  Dane always gravitates to the cheese displays.

Wisely, we'd already stopped for lunch at Chez Graff, a charming bistro we encountered on the walk to the Bon Marche.  Joan's spring pea soup was as delicious as it was colorful, and Dane's tuna and avocado salad was also great.
Dane's swordfish and Joan's prawns were delicious too! 


We walked to the Musee Rodin and toured the beautiful gardens.  Although Philadelphia has a remarkable collection of Rodin sculptures, it was great fun to see our favorites in a Parisian setting. Balzac with the golden dome of Les Invalides behind him:  we're definitely not in Philadelphia!

From there, we explored Rue Cler, a small pedestrian street of two blocks with a few interesting shops and bistros. Rick Steves raved about it, but after we'd spent some time on Rue Montorgueil in the Les Halles area, we found Rue Cler was disappointing.  We an unremarkable dinner at a Rick Steves-recommended restaurant, Café du Marche, with the weirdest Cobb Salad ever.  Yep, those fried slices of ham and chicken are the Cobb Salad. Dane's salad was slightly better.  Thank heavens we'd had such a lovely lunch at Chez Graff! Not so impressed with Rick Steves' recommendations...

The only redeeming feature was that it was warm enough for a mojito made with Havana Club, the Cuban rum we'd enjoyed on our recent trip to Cuba. 

Then it was off to the Quai Branley Museum, which was closed, but we went to see the gardens and green wall. 


On the way, we stumbled on the most remarkable Art Nouveau building.

Just as dusk was settling in, we arrived at the Tour Eiffel, found a seat on the grass, and watched the sky get dark and the tower light up.  While we had no desire to stand in the snaking lines to go up the tour, we enjoyed a relaxing hour wait until 10 pm when the twinkling lights began. Nice show to end a nice day.