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!