Wednesday, June 16th - another boring day in Paris! :)

(That title's a joke. Nothing is boring in Paris, not even the fact that they collect your garbage every day!)

We thought we were overwhelmed yesterday with all we saw.  Today we go into overload.  The Louvre and it's gardens Jardin des Tuileries (don't ask me to pronounce that!), La Madelaine, a boat trip on the Seine with a stop and tour of Notre Dame, the boat back to the Eiffel Tower and a stroll home through the boulevards.  Achey, breaky feet....

Well, you all know about the Louvre.  Did you know that it has over 35,000 pieces in its inventory of art and furnishings?  Have you ever tried to see them all in one day?  Of course not, but I sure felt like it before we gave up.  You're supposed to start at the Pyramid; we ended up here.  We started at the bottom from the Metro train station which is a mall at the below ground level and worked our way up!  I liked the pyramid a lot better than I thought I was going to but it still looks out of place to me.  It's very dramatic and it's  hot under there!

Of course, one of the biggest draws at the Louvre is the Mona Lisa.  It's surprisingly small.  The crowd was not!  People were pushing to get to her.  I just stood still until someone in front of me moved and I would move forward a spot.  Until!!  Until these two old women who kept shoving me from behind shoved one too many times so I just used my butt as a weapon and they didn't touch me anymore!  I plead self defense.  I finally was able to gaze at her for awhile and decided that that sly little smile on her face was saying "What is all the fuss about, anyway?"

There were at least three artists painting copies.  Even the old masters did that!  These folks were good, even with spectators watching over their shoulders.  I guess you have to be good to be allowed to do this in this most famous of art museums.

The Louvre is not the easiest place to get around in.  We all agreed that the mapping was confusing and you were frequently just walking around trying to figure out where you were.  However, it is huge and some of the spaces you find without looking for them.  I found this one trying to find my way out!

One of my destinations was Napolean's apartments.  It was a rather round-about route asking every attendee along the way because the mapping of where you were didn't seem to match where you were going!   The apartments were at the end of one wing but you couldn't go straight to them; you had to weave your way in and out of other displays although the map made it look like it was a straight shot.  John never got to this part of the museum and I didn't have my camera with me, so if you would like to see some of the apartment go to
http://www.panoramicearth.com/1464/Paris/Le_Louvre_-_Napoleon_III_Apartments.  I was surprised how long it took me to research this - about an hour - because there are few pictures even on the Louvre website which had no reference to the apartment at all.  You will most likely have to cut and paste that address because I don't think this blog program gives direct links, but it will be worth your effort and if you click on "full screen" on the little option icons at the bottom of the screen, you can move it around and you will really get the true effect.  Enjoy.  Oh, and yes, he really did live there!

 Our next destination was La Madeleine, a lovely old church within walking distance of the Louvre.  It was originally built on the foundations of another building and Napoleon wanted it to be a Greek monument to his triumphs but when the Arc de Triomphe was finished, it didn't seem so important.  Then Napoleon was defeated and the next guy decided to make it into a church after some debate that wouldn't it make a fine train station!  It has 3 domed skylights that make it unique from all the other churches we went to see.
 

Honestly, now I have to confer with Robin and John because they are all starting to blur.  They all have arches and naves and gravestones on the floors and plaques on the walls - and beggars at the doors. 

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It was time for a rest and the city in perspective so we took the river tour down (or up, I'm not sure) the Seine.

 I was ready for the rest but then we came to the two islands in the middle of the river and on one of them is Notre Dame!  So off we went to tour that.  Now, first of all, I did not know that Notre Dame was on an island, did you?  Secondly, I learned about flying buttresses in the 6th grade and as far as I can recall, this is the first time I've seen some real ones!!

The day was exhausting and overwhelming.  We gladly got on the boat to get us to the area of the Eiffel Tower so we could walk home from there.  Picked up wine, bread and cheese and "dined" in the apartment.
Have found a very good cheap Viogner!

Tuesday, June 15th - More magic...

Imagine a tiny apartment in Paris furnished with lovely antiques and lovingly used furniture, doll house like in it's size, comfortable, equipped with everything you would need for a short stay - even a long one, if your schedule allowed.  Imagine that within walking distance of your front door there is a patisserie with wonderful baguettes and rolls, cakes and cookies and that it is open early in the morning!!  Imagine that within two blocks there is one of the biggest and best markets in the city with rows and rows of all you could want from eel to pocketbooks!  Imagine that the city transit system is within blocks no matter which way you go, that there is a grocery store within five minutes and a wine store around the corner.  Imagine a cafe at one end of your street and beautiful parks at the other with historical monuments and fountains at your intersections.  You're in Pareeee and in our "space".

Imagine, too, that you get the chance to have a "french experience", that you come home from your magical first night out and the kitchen floor is wet and you have to find a plumber, that the apartment "manager" tried to stop the leak but it got worse.  That you don't speak French so you are glad you have the phone numbers of your owner's friends so they can call the "urgent plumber" for you.  That the urgent plumber says that someone will be there in 30 minutes and two hours later you are still using the turkey baster under the sink to control the water.  That when the plumber comes to the door in the waiting area and you don't believe he is the plumber because he is young and gorgeous so you don't let him in!

Imagine going down the street to your own patisserie for your pastry for breakfast the next morning, little works of art begging you to take them home.  Only too happy to oblige.  Oh, heaven.  

If you can imagine all of that, then you are right there with us in Paris, city of contrasts.  You are at Montmartre, the highest point in Paris and the location of SacréCoeur, beautifully appointed with marble and gold, colossal in its size, monumental in its inspiration.  Outside, you are accosted with sellers of postcards, barefooted beggars, tourists with cameras.  Perhaps you are at Galleries Lafayette, a store built in the early 1900's with the vernacular of a cathedral, a stained glass dome worthy of any worshiper, wall carvings as if it were a great hall, sale signs of 50% off the underwear and still too expensive to replace the ones John forgot to pack.  You are walking the streets, looking in windows arranged as if works of art whether they display food or shoes or loaves of bread.  You are overwhelmed with the beauty of the Opera House, appalled at the trash in some parks.  You are in a city, any city perhaps, but this one is startling in its beauty..... and you are anxious to see more.

So Robin took us Tuesday morning to  Montmartre - the highest peak in Paris topped by the SacreCoeur.  This basilica is a stunner.  Hard to describe but a great place to start your introduction to Parisian landmarks and sacred places.  Pictures will have to do it for me

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The view of Paris from this, its highest point, accentuates how big this city really is.  Even on a foggy day.

You can see the Eiffel Tower from almost any place in the city, often peeking in between the trees as here on the Mont appearing ethereal and mysterious.

We climbed hundreds of stairs to get to Mont Martr including in the Metro station when the lift was an alternative.  We went around and around and around and around and up and up and up and up and at the top, legs aching and chests heaving, we decided that if there were EVER a lift available, now we know why we should take it!  Then we had to climb more to get up the hills to get to the Mont and Robin said the last flight alone - and there were several flights before to the Basilica - had 82 steps!  So we did the logical thing, we took the Funiculair down!  Why we didn't take it up, I don't know but it wasn't worth a Metro ticket to take it down!

Going from the sacred to the secular, our next stop down the hills - with a few shops as diversions - was the Gallerie Lafayette.  This is not the domed ceiling of a church but of a retail store built in 1906!

 The atrium this tops is 5 or 6 floors high and each floor surrounds the atrium with heavily carved balconies displaying goods.  Not quite Macy's but it will do!

It's food hall is known as the Harrod's of Paris - can't imagine why...  These are just the spices!

After more walking and walking and looking in shops, we stopped in a typical cafe and had Salad Nicoise, wine and more bread, compliments of Robin.  Parisian cafes are fun with half the people sitting outside at little tables, the chairs all facing the street so they can watch the world go by, drinking their wine or espresso, reading their papers and many smoking their cigarettes! I would have loved to do that - not the smoking part!

Now it was time to take in the opera house, Palais Garnier.  Wedding cake exterior, opulent interior, lavish with statuary, marble and gild.  Criticized at its inception, it is now considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.  It is one of those places where once your jaw drops in amazement, it rarely closes until you leave!  Every surface of public space is decorated to astound.

This is the grand staircase!  Just one level of it.....

surrounded by balconies where attendees would see and be seen and here's a casual room for intermission!

There were student groups all over the place with guides, sitting on the floor as in the picture above, and I envied this country that they had such outstanding buildings and art and heritage and history to teach their children. 

We had worn ourselves out by now, so we worked our way back to our neighborhood and our own grocery store and patisserie to get our goodies.  We had had lunch in a little sandwich shop where small glasses of wine were on the counter sealed with an aluminum peel-off top much like a yogurt serving in our groceries.  Had to have one just for the fun of it.

Entertainment on the Metro....

Dinner at home again seemed to be our style.  I hear that's what the natives do - lunch at a restaurant and dinner at home.  Baguette, butter, olives, cheeses, and a very good wine we had discovered the day before for only 4 euros a bottle.  Stocked up on those!!  Plus the kitchen floor was dry!  (If you don't understand that comment, you missed yesterday!)

Monday, June 14th - Magic in Paris

It took almost all of Monday to get to Paris!  Leaving the flat at 9:30, taking the bus to the tube, the tube to Heathrow, the fkight to Paris.  The plane we boarded at Heathrow had two stories and held 535 people!!  Look at the size of the guys on the tarmac next to it.  It took one hour to board.  During takeoff, you could watch the plane taxi and take off on the TV screen at your seat because it has a camera on its tail.  The wings were wider than the runway!  It was a little nerve wracking!

Then when we got to Paris it was an hour on the Metro until we got to "our neighborhood" and a short walk to this absolutely delightful little apartment and beautiful area.  By then it was 6:00 PM.  So that was 8 hours for a one hour flight!  The joys of modern travel.

However, we didn't let the evening go to waste.  We no longer got into the apartment and dropped our bags then we went to the grocery store and the patisserie and got coffee, cream (which, since it was in French, we didn't find out until the next morning that it was sour cream!), and our evening meal - bread, cheese and wine!

Back to the apartment to picnic at the coffee table for a couple of hours, and then at Robin's urging to go for a walk.  Now, Robin, John's brother who had come to London to join us in Paris, has been here many times on business but not as a tourist.  However, he knew the neighborhood we were in in relation to the rest of the city and soon after we started on our walk, he grinned down at me and said "Tonight, you are going to see magic!"  I couldn't get him to tell me what he meant, but he kept grinning. About two short blocks later, we turned the corner and my gosh, right in front of us less than a mile away down this wide open boulevard was the Eiffel Tower!  It WAS magic!

My mouth dropped open and I stopped dead in my tracks.  It IS magic.  He was right.  We continued walking straight up this sandy expanse,  lined with trees, until we were almost there and then we just laid down on the grass and stared at it.  Robin kept saying "Tonight you are going to see magic!"

I couldn't get him to give me any more clues.  So we waited and watched - that was fun, watching the people, watching the sun set.  That was magic, too. 

And then it started - the sparkling of the lights all over the tower, like a bright Christmas tree.

If you click on this picture and imagine these specks of light randomly flashing on and off - bright halogen white, you might be able to conjure up the magic I was feeling but it would be very hard.  One of those "you had to be there" moments. 

And to think - we had four days of magic ahead of us.
                                                              

Sunday, June 13th - Robin's here!

(Sorry that this is so delayed.  My "public" has been clamoring for the next blog!!   :)   I took the computer with us to Paris to add pictures to this entry and then blog our Parisian adventures while there.  Discovered there that the pictures I needed for this day had not been loaded on by my photographer, so I can blame him for the delay.  Our Paris trip will be next and since we walked about 8 hours a day, I didn't have the energy by the time we got back each night to get it done so they are going to be late, too!  Too much fun.  Hope this doesn't confuse the chronology too much - that's why I'm dating the titles!)
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Sunday, June 13th -

Robin's here!  John has 4 younger brothers and Robin is brother #2.  We are so glad he is here.  We plan to leave tomorrow (Monday) for four nights in Paris but today we are taking Robin to places he hasn't been yet.  He comes to London frequently on business but never as a tourist so we are going to do touristy things!  We started out with a cruise on the Thames.  John was really intent on taking Robin to see the Thames Barrier.  This is the second largest flood barrier in the world  (the first is in the Netherlands) and would prevent London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides.  The barrier parts will remind you of the opera house in Sydney.  You'll know why in a few paragraphs why we don't have a picture of it!

So we got on the cruise boat, sitting of course on the top so we can see everything.  We had a great guide on the boat who cracked some pretty good jokes about places along the river - none of which I can remember, of course!!  Going under the Tower Bridge is a highlight of the ride.

We had decided to first take the boat that only as far as Greenwich - the barrier is beyond that - have lunch at The Trafalgar, a very popular pub, get on another boat after lunch that would go on to the barrier and turn around and go back to Westminster where we boarded.  We had a great lunch of fried fish bait!  Whitefish, little tiny herring fried in batter - Trafalgar's signature dish for a couple of hundred years or so- brown bread and butter and of course, the pint!

Sitting next to us was the cutest little 14 month old boy who didn't know how to do anything else than smile!  Big tike!  And his name was Tycho!!!  An old Finnish name.

When it was time to catch our boat, we got on and the darn thing did a U-turn and started back to Westminster instead of the Barrier!  John was very put out!  We found out that we got on the wrong boat.  Robin couldn't stop laughing.  At least John got another picture of a favorite pub -

So back to the starting point we went and on to the London Eye!!!  This is the carousel wheel that dwarfs a lot of London - it's a lot higher than Big Ben!  Robin nor I are big on heights but I had been on the Eye before and knew it was very manageable.

Getting in to the pods is a little tricky because they are constantly moving, but they are moving so slowly that you step in as they move along.  The personnel keep us moving so it all seems so easy, you get into the pod and find your place - right in front of the window or sitting on the bench in the middle so you don't have to get near the edge!  This picture is at the loading dock where people are getting off and on the moving pod.

The views from the pod are extensive and on a sunny day, even better.  John took this one of Parliament through the struts of the Eye's frame.

Sometimes the view of the next pod is one of the most intriguing - if you don't mind heights.

Robin spent the first half of the trip sitting on the bench in the middle of the pod - the same place I was on my first trip.  We're holding each other up in this picture!

As we were going down, he made it to the edge and the rest was easy. 

On our walk back through London, we hopped a bus to Hammersmith and Robin realized we were in the neighborhood where he often stays on business and wanted us to experience a great little pub back in the mews area.  The mews are areas all over London where the horses and carriages were housed along with the footmen and their families.  If you could see the houses here, which are now worth millions, you would see the doors to the stables which are now garages and the doors to the residential part of the buildings which are upstairs and several stories high.  They surround this little pub and hide it from the rest of London. 

Home to pack for Paris.   We leave tomorrow!!

Lazy days; Crazy foot!

It's Friday, June 11th and we spent Wednesday and Thursday being lazy and productive at the same time.  Lazy in that we sat at our computers for hours, me writing and doing research, John doing I don't know what!  Posting his pictures on facebook, I think.

Today we plan to go to the Tate Britain Museum and he is planning our route, he says that's what he's doing!

On Wednesday and Thursday, we were up early but didn't get out either day until 2:00.  Sort of nursing my foot as an excuse.  Wednesday, we had lunch at 3:00 at a recommended Indian restaurant, Chula, in Hammersmith.  Although we were at the tail-end of the Noon to 4 lunch buffet, it was still warm and delicious.  No dinner that night was necessary!  Then we took a tube trip into London to find the elusive location of the seminar I am taking tomorrow, Saturday, on travel writing! 

Yes, just for kicks I am taking a course on travel writing taught by a bona-fide travel writer,  and who knows?  This blog has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot.  Not only how to do it, but I have learned a lot because of all the side trips I have taken on the internet to make sure I am giving you correct information - which is why this takes so long.  I get very interested in what I'm checking and one link leads to another and 30 minutes later, I realize the time has flown by.  So when I found the information on a seminar given by a travel writer on travel writing, I thought why not??  John's brother Robin arrives tomorrow so they will have the whole day to do boy things before we meet for dinner, perhaps at The Anchor on the Thames.   That's a great pub with great atmosphere.  Shakespeare and all his cohorts used to go there, but we hear the food has gotten really bad, so maybe just a pint and a look across the river at St. Paul's and up the river for a peek at The Globe Theater - solidly booked for the next month or so. Soak up some local color.

Anyway, after locating the seminar location, we went to Covent Garden where the London Transport Museum is located.  John wanted a DVD on the history of the Underground that he had spotted on a previous visit and I wanted little London presents for friends.  It's always fun spending money on others!

I love Covent Garden, all the hustle and bustle of London, all the history, all the street actors - The Bronze Man who looks like a statue until he moves and scares you to death - see him back there in the crowd?   The sword swallower, the Houdini character - and all the colors of all the vendors of quality and junk!

However, my foot was giving me a fit again.  Don't know what this is all about but it hurts!!  One of the reasons, really, that we have been getting out so much later in the day is to try and give this foot some healing time before traipsing off on it again.  It's a long walk from the house to the tube station so I tried to take it easy.

Yesterday, Thursday, same sort of routine but out a little sooner and off to the Tate Modern.  I'm not a big fan of modern art, I'm more an Impressionist fan myself but it was pretty exciting to see original Picasso's and Miro's.  And there was one very large Monet that just made me sigh.

I love the humor of this shot that John took!

As I said, not being a big fan of modern art, my purpose was to see the building more than the art and I wasn't disappointed; it is awesome.  What a trite word for such an incredible space, but it is.  Kids love it.  On the ground floor, the entrance space is like a huge driveway (and probably is because some of the art and sculpture on display would need a space like this just to be delivered!).  It is a temptation to children to just RUN!  How clever to make the delivery zone a playground!  I was standing on a bridge over this area and this little fellow, running with glee, was the last of a pack of children to run through the space.

The building used to be a power station and it has been converted into this incredible museum'  To quote the Tate website:  "In the late 1980s it became clear to Tate that its collection had outgrown its home on Millbank. It was decided to create a new gallery to house Tate's international modern art, and a search began for a suitable site to build on, or a building that could be converted.  The redundant Bankside Power Station   proved an astonishing discovery; a building of enormous size, great architectural distinction, superbly sited opposite St Paul's Cathedral and in a fascinating and historic, if neglected area, next to the rebuilt Globe Theatre. An international architectural competition was held, which over seventy architects entered, including some of the world's most distinguished. The final choice was the young Swiss practice, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron."

The same architectural firm is now involved in adding 3-4 times that space behind it.  Models of the new addition show that it will be worth a visit once again just for the architecture.

I did fall in love with some of the textiles and this was one of them.  I think, looking at this picture though, I realize that you have to be there to appreciate it!!  This stood about 12' high and I was dwarfed by it.

Here's another by the same artist.  I can just hear my designer friends now - "Come on, tell us, - who's the artist?!"  Her name is Magdalena Abakanowicz; she calls them Abakans and your client better have a mighty big house. Here's another and the rope is obviously suspended from the ceiling but you can barely see the tie.

Then there was this one:  I don't recall the name of it - something like "statue with rags".
I called it "Laundry Day"!  Isn't that more appropriate?? 

Now this one was very close to home.  You know John drives a VW camper and we camp quite often.  Well, the camper we have now is our 3rd one.  The first one we got in 1976 was a 1972 which nowadays would look about like this.  We belong to a club of VW campers and some of them do look like this! 

It had many sleds leaving it like lemmings and I never could quite figure out what that was all about.  But then, it's art and we're not supposed to understand it!!  Little do our friends know that they are driving art!  I haven't quite figured out the sleds which looked like lemmings to me but they were "pouring" out of the back.

Anyway, we spent about 2.5 hours at the Tate and I could have spent the day.  John's opinion wasn't quite the same; I won't repeat it, but he did say that he was glad that he had come.

We left and went to a rather modern pub on the Tate grounds and on the Thames for a snack and a pint.  Folks were on the riverside porch wrapped in blankets the pub provides.  Yes, I said blankets.  It's still very cool here - yesterday was in the low 60's and very windy.  If you look closely you can see two men on the left side with blankets and the fires lit in those towers to keep their outdoor customers cozy.   (Sorry for the blue tint.  I had the camera on the wrong setting.  That's why John takes the pictures!) 

I don't normally like contemporary pubs but this one was terrific.The view of St. Paul's was great.

Actually, when we were in the Tate Modern, I saw another great view of St. Paul's through a double paned window which was dirty so this isn't so great but it's a great view across the Millenium Bridge (which crosses the Thames) from the Tate to St. Paul's.  Whoever thought of this is a genius!

After leaving the pub, we expected a quiet walk to the tube station to head home but forgot about the 6.5 km marathon going through the city during cocktail hour!  Here they come over the Millenium Bridge -we all had to move over to one side to let them by.

It was a lot of fun to be there at the finish line - the end of the bridge - to cheer them on.  I found it hard though to imagine doing a marathon after your work day!  Seems to me that the work day is the marathon!

Today, Friday, we got out early - 12:00!!  Headed by tube right to the Tate Britain.  Now this is my kind of art museum: Constable, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Turner, van Dyck, sculptor Henry Moore.  After five hours, my feet just ached but my mind and my heart were filled with the beauty and the God given skills of these artists.  I don't think I have ever had the privilege of seeing this many of my favorite artists all in one day.  I mean an entire room full of John Constable's work!  It was a very fine day.

This sculpture by Henry Moore is the one picture I took in the Tate Britain today and I got in trouble for that!  The Modern didn't seem to mind your taking pictures but the Brit sure did.  So no pictures of Constables.

We left the Tate and walked down the Thames toward Parliament.  It was an approach I had never seen before.  Usually I am across the river or coming up the other side from Westminster Abbey.  This approach was breathtaking and as we approached it on the tower side, we were close enough to see the intricacy in the building's surface carvings.  It's like a cathedral and it's hard not to just stand there and stare at it.

Across the street there was a field of totally different kinds of buildings - in fact, an entire village of them - a tent city in protest of the Iraq war.  You might want to click on this one to see it up a little closer.  There is always something going on in London!

And finally -  here's a sign we spotted in a church a couple of days ago that I wanted you to see but forgot to include.    Don't you  just love it?   My dogs would.