Summer Vacation Part 2 - Paris

My plan for Paris was to see as much as possible in 5 days. I think I was pretty successful in terms of museums, monuments, and such, but unfortunately that exhausted me so much that I didn't get to see much of Parisian nightlife. Although I was there by myself so that may have been a bit awkward anyway.

I also took the Eurostar train through the Chunnel, which was really cool, and it allowed me to see some of the British and French countryside as well. Northern France is really quite beautiful. While in London, I bought a 2-day museum/monument pass, and I had a lot of recommendations from Christi, Marjorie and Justin, and Doug, so I spent my time on the train planning my trip. And the stamp on my passport has a cute little train on it :-)

Overall, I like Paris a lot as a tourist place. I wouldn't say I'm a complete Francophile at this point; I can't see myself living in Paris the way I can see myself in London, but it was certainly a wonderful place to visit, and I think that next time I'd like to see more of the country and not stay in Paris as much. But with only 5 days I couldn't wander too far, so Paris it was for this trip.

The first day was really bad weather, I started to think that I brought the rain with me from London. My plan for the first afternoon, Monday, was a walk along the Champs Elysees, but that was pretty much ruined by the rain. Combined with the fact that I had to walk through the sand and grass because they set up the seats for the last leg of the Tour de France about a week in advance, I was pretty gross by the time I gave up and looked for an indoor tourist attraction. I settled on the Opera Garnier, the Paris Opera House. Two minutes in that place and all my discomfort from the rain had melted away. It was absolutely gorgeous and I got there just in time for an English tour. I could write a whole blog post just about what I learned there, but the coolest thing, and the overall theme, was that the architect (Garnier) won the contest to design the opera house because he embraced the opera as an important social gathering for Paris's high society of the time. So everything is ornate and looks really rich because it was a place for the wealthy to gather.




Garnier's favorite spot in the opera house, where he could see the most of his design

One disappointing thing: no phantom. Apparently the guy that wrote the Phantom of the Opera made up most of the stuff about fires and murders and subterranean lakes. Sad.












The second day was the first of my museum/monument pass, and I started with the Musee d'Orsay, the impressionist museum. The architecture and sculpture there was really interesting, and the collections by Monet, Van Gogh, Pissaro, and all the impressionists are so extensive that it was like a new famous painting was in front of me every time I turned around. I am admittedly not very knowledgeable about art, but the Orsay had more originals of paintings that I recognized than any other museum I've ever been to. My favorites were Monet (cliche, I know, but there's a reason he's so famous!), Sisley, and Pissarro.

my new favorite Monet painting

And, they let you take pictures as long as you don't use the flash! After I left the museum, I got a delicious croque madame from a cafe (mmmm, ham and cheese).













Next I went to the Pantheon, which took quite a bit of time since I exited the very wrong direction out of the metro stop and wandered the streets before finally finding it. Wandering was nice at first, but after awhile I was getting frustrated that I couldn't find a gigantic building with a huge dome built on a hill in an otherwise ordinary Parisian neighborhood. (This was to become a theme in Paris: the metro always lets you out really close to where you want to be, but somehow just out of sight of the huge monument/building that is your destination). Anyway, once I got the Pantheon it was really cool. I went downstairs into the crypt first, and saw the graves of Voltaire, Rousseau, Marie and Pierre Curie, and many other famous minds. When I was little I had a book about Marie Curie - it was one of my favorites in a series of biographies for children - so it was pretty cool to see that. After that I climbed to the top of the dome for a great panoramic view of the city. While I was up there I realized how close Notre Dame was, so I headed there next.


Notre Dame was beautiful inside and out, but there were so many tourists there that it was hard for me to think of it as really spiritual place. I did get the audio guide, so I was able to learn about the cathedral and the history of the church in Paris. I wanted to go to the top and see the bell tower and the view from there, but the line closed just as I got there. I still had a bunch of daylight left, so I walked over to the Place des Vosges, which was very pretty, and I saw the home of Victor Hugo there, but didn't actually go into the museum (gotta save some stuff for the next trip!)












One of the French sculpture squares in the Louvre.


The third day I went to the Louvre. I was intending to spend quite some time there, but I didn't expect it to be as overwhelming as it was. They have art collections and sculpture from every era of history and cultural exhibits on other parts of the world. There were also a couple thousand people there, I think. I had to elbow my way toward the Mona Lisa, which was pretty cool to see but I'm not sure it was worth the crushed toes. My favorites were the squares with French sculpture, the Napoleon Apartments, and the Venus de Milo. And, it was great to see that the Louvre is now offering a "DaVinci Code audioguide tour of the museum." Nice that no one is immune to that bandwagon. After seeing a lot of art and sculpture and the Islamic arts exhibit, I decided I had to get outside for a bit, and by that time I had been in the museum for almost four hours. The Louvre is at one end of the Champs Elysees, and it was a beautiful day, so I decided to walk all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe.
I climbed to the top of the Arc, since it was free with my 2-day museum pass. There were some great views, especially back down the Champs Elysees, from up there.





















From there I tried to go to the Eiffel Tower, but the line was about 2 hours long and the top deck wasn't even open, so I went to the Centre Pompidou instead. The modern art museum there is absolutely awesome. The architects built the building with the pipes on the outside, color coded for water, air, and electricity. Inside they have some installation art, some theatres for live and film productions, and more classic sculpture and painting. On the top floor they have a chronology of the world's most famous modern artists, including a bunch by Picasso, the Delaunays, and my favorite - the Matisse room (below). The whole place just has a very unique aura about it. My feet were absolutely killing me by the time I made it through the museum, and it closed pretty late anyway, so I went back to the hotel after that.










The fourth day I went to Versailles all day. It actually is a pretty short train ride from downtown Paris. I went to the Chateau first, and saw the apartments of the Kings, Queens, and Princesses. They also had a beautiful chapel, since the French kings at that time believed in Divine Right to rule, and wanted to thank God every day for their power. Oh the things that money buys - besides the gigantic building itself, there were paintings commissioned from the most famous artists of the day, stained glass windows, furniture, and the beautiful hall of mirrors. I also spent a long time walking through the gardens, appreciating the naturally-occurring green :-) I actually just sat in the grass for awhile and just breathed, it was awesome. I also saw Marie Antionette's estate, which is on the ground of Versailles but a bit separate. The "summer palace" was there, along with her peasant village. Basically, she saw a painting that depicted life in a peasant village, and she thought that the painting was cute and made peasant life look charming. So she had them build a little village for her to use. (I'm not sure if she caught the irony of telling a bunch of poor people to build her a village because she thought it was cute, but whatever...) I stayed in Versailles pretty late and then still had to take the train back, so I didn't do any Paris touristy stuff that day but it was totally worth it.


Marie's peasant village











um, I don't think this picture really needs a caption












On the very last day I finally made it to the Eiffel Tower, after a week of seeing it everywhere I finally took the elevator up! There's not much to it, its mostly just a big tower, but the views are amazing (and how could I go to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower??). Afterwards I went to Montmartre, a neighborhood built on the highest hill in Paris which also serves as the artsy area of town and the red light district. Many of the impressionist painters that I saw at the Orsay were inspired by scenes in Montmartre, so it was very cool to then go there. I also saw the Moulin Rouge. I had been hoping to go inside but didn't realize that it was still a working theatre, so I checked out the chronology that they had outside, which was pretty well done and quite informative, actually. Then I went to Sacre Cour, which ended up being one of my favorite things in Paris. Its a Catholic church built on the highest point in Paris, and I happened to walk in just as mass was starting. If I could go to church here, I would go every day. It was so peaceful and welcoming, even though there were tourists all over and the mass was in French. This time that I spent in Montmartre was really the only time that I really felt like I could live in Paris. It was very comfortable, in a way.

A street carousel in Montmartre, with Sacre Cour in the background.











My last stop in France was the Pere Lachaise cemetery, where I saw the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and (the primary reason for the visit) Jim Morrison. I don't know how Chopin, Wilde, and all of the other famous people buried there would feel about the fact that Morrison's grave is the busiest one in the entire cemetery. Mostly people wearing Doors shirts. I took pictures for my Dad :-) Wilde's grave attracts a crowd, too, but its entirely different kind of "cool" crowd. Wilde admirers kiss his grave while wearing lipstick to show their appreciation of his work. There's a sign that says "please do not graffiti the graves" but somehow I think that Wilde would be ok with the kisses.

After that my five short days in Paris were over and it was time to head back to London, then the next day back to Qatar. And that's the story of my summer vacation. I wish I could have blogged it sooner, but in a way it was kind of nice to be able to go back a couple of weeks later and think about it again. Life gets so hectic sometimes that its good to be able to take a couple of minutes to remember stress-free holidays :-)