Paris: Part 3

Okay, we're almost through - just a couple more days of photos to go! It's actually been kind of fun to relive the trip this way :)

Our third day in Paris was dedicated to 2 things: 1) Finding tickets to some kind of play/opera/show, and 2) the Louvre. We got up bright and early and started by looking around for a tourist bureau, since they tend to have information on all the happenings in the theatre world. Did you know that there is only one tourist bureau in Paris? And that it has virtually no useful information in it? We ended up traveling to every theatre icon on our map of Paris to see what was showing there, which actually turned out to be a good way to see more of the city. By noon, we'd found a play that TC wanted to attend so we bought the tickets, had some lunch, and made our way back to the Louvre.

If it isn't already there, make sure that visiting the Louvre is on your list of things to do before you die! Incredibly amazing, beautiful and overwhelming.

Even the courtyard when you first walk through the gates is beautiful, but then so is the rest of Paris, so I should have expected it. I know there are mixed opinions about the glass pyramid, which is where you enter the Louvre, but I quite like it. It's one of the few examples I've seen where modern architecture complements, and even adds to the existing structures, unlike the horrific ROM here in Toronto.

We were impressed by how efficiently the entry is run - it took no time to get our tickets and a map, and once we'd figured out what we wanted to see (because there's far too much to see everything in one visit) we set off. First up...

...the Cour Marly, a massive indoor courtyard filled with very impressive French sculpture. It was a really beautiful space, and one of the quietest sections of the museum.

This is the Code of Hammurabi, which is one of the most ancient examples of written law. We had studied about it in university, so it was quite exciting to actually see it. Can you imagine how long it took to carve all of that into the stone?

Here we have a statue of Ramses II, who is believed by some to have been the Pharoah of "Let my people go" fame.

Picture this guy, along with 35 of his friends, staring down at you from the top of a 21m high cedar beam as you entered the audience hall of Darius I of Persia. (Remember the king in the story of Daniel and the lions' den? That's him.) Methinks it might have been a little intimidating, yes?

We realized as we were climbing these stairs that they've obviously had a lot of visitors at the Louvre over the years! I wonder how long it will be before they wear through?

My favourite part was the section containing Roman sculpture. Before leaving for France, TC and I had just finished watching the BBC mini-series I, Claudius, which traces the history of the Roman imperial family from the perspective of Claudius, the emporer between Caligula and Nero. It's really quite excellent - I highly recommend it! Anyway, we were walking through the collection and lo and behold, there were the busts and statues of all the characters we'd been watching! Working clockwise from the top left, that's Claudius himself, Marcus Aurelius (who wasn't in the mini-series, but is the famous Stoic philosopher-emporer), Tiberius, and Livia (who did have a head, but the collage maker cut it off for some reason).

We visited some of the more famous exhibits as well, but as you can see in the picture above, they were quite crowded, which made it difficult to actually see whatever it was. That's as close as we were able to get to the Mona Lisa (it's behind the guy with the white shirt's head) without elbowing through the lot.

And, of course, the inverted pyramid of Davinci Code fame. I wonder how many of these people actually think the remains of Mary Magdelene are hidden below? Whatever else it may symbolize, I thought there was a nice symmetry in ending our visit to the Louvre here, since it began in the upper pyramid.

We were rather tuckered and culturally overloaded by the end of the day, but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Paris: Part 2

On a much lighter note, I finally had time to post the pics from day 2 in Paris, which also happened to be my 29th birthday :) After having breakfast at the salon du the right next to our hotel, and being highly amused by the cheeky little birds that sat on our table and took the food out of our hands, we set out to hit the major tourist attractions. First up:

L'Arc de Triomphe. It's a truly amazing monument - much larger than I had pictured it in my head. With our metro passes, we were eligible for discounted tickets to go up inside the Arc, so we decided that this would be the place we'd get our view of Paris from above. One thing we didn't consider was that there was no elevator. Just lots and lots of winding stairs. Fortunately, there are two stopping-off places on the way up - one is a display area with explanations of the various features of the Arc, and the second a gift shop - so we could take a breather. It was well worth the climb, though.

Isn't that gorgeous? The Arc is in the middle of a huge rotary, which didn't appear to have any kind of lines or guides. We had a great deal of fun watching the drivers go all over the place. One little green mini-cooper must have driven around the Arc five or six times before it figured out how to get where it wanted to go :)

We made it back down in one piece, and went for a walk up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where we had lunch at a little outdoor cafe, and then headed off to that most famous of Parisian landmarks:

The Eiffel Tower. That's me, standing at the Eiffel Tower, on my birthday. Pretty awesome. We didn't bother going up, since the line was the length of two or three soccer fields, but it really is a remarkable structure. The pictures don't really convey the sheer massiveness of it - I've always thought it looked almost dainty, but up close it seemed much sturdier and more substantial.

Our next stop:

The Opéra Garnier. This is the opera house that inspired the Phantom of the Opera. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but the lighting in the place was really bizarre, and our poor little camera couldn't handle it :) The picture above is the grand staircase (obviously) leading into the auditorium.

This is the foyer. Walking through the building, we were both completely overwhelmed by the sheer opulence of the place. Everything about it was showy and grand, which I suppose was it's purpose. Who wants to go to a shabby opera house?

When we came out, there was a full brass band on the front steps of the opera house doing their thing. Not a Salvation Army type brass band, more like a swing band. They were really good, so we stopped (along with about 100 other people) and sat on the steps to listen for a while. Then we headed back across the Seine to...

...the Jardin du Luxembourg. What a beautiful garden! One of my favourite things about it was that it was full of statues like the one above, many of various influential women in France's history. Queens, saints, noblewomen - but all women. This one is Catherine de Medici.

There were also a couple of beautiful water features. This one is the Medici fountain, but in the middle of the garden was a large pond-ish affair, where kids were sailing little boats.

After all the running around we'd been doing, we were pooped! Or at least I was - TC could keep going forever if he put his mind to it. Anyhoo, we decided to head back to the vicinity of our hotel to have dinner, which was a 2+ hour affair. They really take their food seriously - no rushing it! By the time we were done, we were ready to call it a day.

Paris: Part 1

Okay - on to the Paris pics! We left Nancy very early in the morning...

TC is going to love me for posting that one :) After a 2-hour train ride, the purchase of week-long metro passes and a trip on the subway, we arrived without too much ado at our hotel. It's the building on the right, just before the blue awning.

The awning, by the way, was for a little salon du the, and the yellow awning right across the street was for a book store. Could we have been any more ideally located? Methinks not! The hotel was right in the Latin Quarter, which is a wonderful spot, though pretty touristy. Lots of little windy streets to explore and get lost in. And at night, the place is party central (though we aren't partiers, we thoroughly enjoyed watching those who were).

One of the many, many bridges that cross the Seine. I've seen lots of pictures of Paris, and watched plenty of movies set in that city, but to be completely honest, they're no comparison at all to the real thing. I'm not sure I can adequately describe it. Everywhere you look, it's beautiful. Seriously - everywhere.

Since it was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel, after we checked in and dropped off our luggage, we headed onto the Ile de la Cite and went to Notre Dame.

The pictures don't do it justice, but it's breath-taking. The inside was a little less so, mainly because it was so crowded, but it was still an awe inspiring experience. Afterward, we sat in the shadow of Notre Dame and shared a sandwich that we'd bought from a little vendor across the street. Have I mentioned yet that the food in France is amazing? Even the sandwiches - I don't know what they do differently, but they're yummy!

The only thing on TC's must-see list was this bookstore: Shakespeare & Co. It's an English bookstore in the heart of Paris, and has a rather famous history.

And a raven. This is one of the 16 pictures TC took of the store (no lie). Have I mentioned that my husband is a bibliophile? And apparently a shutterbug as well!

This is me while he was running around taking pictures. The entire upper level of the store is a reading area, filled with books that aren't for sale but can be read while you're there. It's actually quite lovely. I started reading David Copperfield, which we then found a used copy of downstairs and bought so that I could continue reading it.

Oh, there was one other thing on TC's must-see list: Cafe Procope, which is the oldest restaurant in Paris. We never did eat there, as it was kind of pricey, but apparently lots of famous people have. I mean historically famous, like Robespierre, not Paris Hilton famous. (Quick aside - why is she famous anyway? I've never understood that.)

That's pretty much it for day one in Paris, but there's still more to come!

France: Part 3 (the countryside)

The following day had been set aside for a jaunt through the countryside, which is always a priority for me. I live in a city, so when I'm on vacation, I want to see some green! At least part of the time :) I woke up that morning and walked out of the room to see...

A breakfast of champions! Do you see the pile of pastries on each plate? Mmm. So yummy. Our lovely hosts, who had been up for a little while, ran out to the local patisserie first thing and picked them up still warm from the oven. Heaven, people. Pure heaven.

Then we all piled into our little rental car. I drove while KP navigated, and the boys sat in the back and did their best to drive/navigate from there :) Our first stop...

Actually, there was nothing there except the sign but we had to stop and take a picture. How awesome would it be to be able to say that you lived in Sexey aux Forges? On to the next stop!

I've always wanted to visit a winery, so what better time than when driving through the French countryside? We found one in Lucey, and were given a tasting by the guy in the red sweatshirt. His name was David (pronounced Da-veed), and his family had run this winery for several generations. The region is best known for producing two things - a gris, which is a white wine version of a rose, and the mirabelle, a type of plum used to create various wines and liqeurs. All in all, we tried 2 different gris, a white wine, a pinot noir, a mirabelle liquer, a mirabelle brandy, and then the mirabelle liquer mixed with a sparkling wine. As the driver, I only had a very tiny bit of each, but they were all quite good. We ended up buying a bottle of the mirabelle liquer and a bottle of gris.

It was decided that before we jumped back in the car, we'd walk around a bit and try to find somewhere to have a picnic. Lucey turned out to be a very picturesque little village! The old winepress above was in a little park right next to the winery we'd visited. As we were sauntering about, David drove by and then stopped and told us about a water garden in the area. We looked, but weren't able to find it, so we sat at the first picnic table we came across and watched the local kids play soccer.

Our next stop was an abandonned abbey, which you see above. That was as close as we could get without trespassing (I took the picture through the iron gate that kept us out) - apparently it's only open to the public on Sundays.

That was a problem we ran into quite a bit in France - at least outside Paris. Things seem to be open whenever they feel like it, rather than following their posted hours, if they had any.

Everywhere we went, there were fields upon fields of canola. It was gorgeous!

Our last stop of the day was in the little town of St-Mihiel. Other than the cathedral, there wasn't much to see - at least that was open. But the cathedral was one of my favourites. You could tell while walking around that it's main purpose was to be used by an active congregation, not just to look pretty.

After having a little snack, we headed back to Nancy, driving through village after village, each with it's own little church, and flower-lined streets, and fields of canola.

France: Part 2 (Strasbourg)

On the next day of our trip, we took a train to Strasbourg in Alsace, which is close to the German border. In fact at several points in its history, Alsace has been part of Germany, and the dual influence shows.

That's TC headed down one of the many side streets, which all seem to be shared equally between pedestrians and vehicles of every type. Just a little further down this one, we came across...

...an extremely yummy-looking window display! I had to stop and take a picture, even though we were there before the place opened. I could write for days about the pastries and desserts that we had in France - chocolate mousse, apple honey and almond crepes, vanilla gelato with fresh raspberries, meringues. I need to stop. I'm making myself hungry.

Strasbourg, like almost every other French city or town, has a beautiful cathedral. They're really quite something - everything is more than functional, it's also aesthetically pleasing. We decided it would be a good idea to climb to the observation platform at the top, which meant a good 25 minute climb up a narrow set of circular stairs.

A shot from a window part of the way up gave a really nice view of the buttresses (I think that's what they're called - any architects out there?).

And then the view of the city from the top was definitely worth the climb! It was a clear, sunny day, so we could see quite a ways. Do you see all the windows in the roofs? I learned while there that the reason so many older French buildings are designed that way is that houses were taxed based on the number of rooms, but any that were above the roof line weren't included.

Ever wonder what graffiti looked like before spray paint?

Yup. Pre-spray paint graffiti. "Baron de Seckendoree wuz here 1770" :)

After we made it back to the bottom of the cathedral, we decided that for the sake of our now rather jello-like legs it would be a good time to take a boat cruise through the city. Do you see the German influence in the buildings pictured above? It was a wonderful way to get an overview of Strasbourg and it's history, and really, what better way to spend the rest of the morning than cruising down a river in the sun? All the Strasbourg-ians had come out to eat their lunches along the river, and waved when we came by, which I though was very friendly.

This is where we had our lunch. Alsace is known for its cuisine, so we wanted to try some traditional Alsatian dishes. All of them - heavy cream doused, deep fried, cheese laden meat and refined flour. And incredibly tasty. My arteries were glad we were only there for a day.

After lunch we visited the Alsatian museum. The inner courtyard was beautiful! As for the museum itself, it really wasn't all that remarkable. Lots of ovens, and lots of wardrobes - at least one per room, and often more.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around, looking at all the sights and the people. I got a kick out of the church pictured above. Do you see anything that looks a little off? Apparently, the guy who built this church back in the day messed up a bit when he got to the top. According to the guide, the congregation beat the tar out of him. In good Christian love, no doubt...

All in all, it was a fun day. We headed back to Nancy around 6:00, arriving at 8:30, which is dinner time in France. KP and I were pooped, so we stayed home and sent the boys out to pick up some pizza. Can I just say that pizza makers in Nancy must be on crack? The boys brought home 4 different kinds, and each one was an experience. One had doritos on it. Who puts doritos on a pizza?

Speaking of pizza, I think I'll order one for dinner tonight. Minus the doritos.

France: Part 1

I just can't seem to get ahead this week. I'm finally getting over the jetlag, and wham! TC gives me the cold/flu that he picked up on the last day of our trip. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, but I tried so hard not to get it - washing my hands, using sanitizer, making him sleep on the futon, taking my vitamins and echinacea. Alas, all to no avail. So today, instead of going to work I am sitting on my couch watching the Price is Right, blowing my way through my second box of kleenex, drinking orange juice and blogging :)

On the bright side, that means I have time to post some more pictures! Here are some of the highlights of our first full day in France (the day we arrived was pretty much a write-off).

We spent the first part of our trip visiting with our friends JP & KP, who moved to Nancy earlier this year. Nancy, which is in Lorraine, is a beautiful city, so we spent the day exploring it. The picture above was taken in Place Stanislas, the huge town square which is surrounded by all of this beautiful gilded ironwork. The downtown area of the city is very cute and medieval, with tiny winding streets, and lots of interesting little shops. And it's only slightly touristy :)

After looking around downtown, JP & KP (that's them walking down the lane - aren't they cute?) took us to the Pépinière, a public garden. Let me say right now that the French definitely have the whole public space thing down pat. And their gardens and parks? Beautiful!

Except for the knobby trees, which were everywhere. Apparently they cut them back like this every year so that they form specific shapes when the leaves bloom. This one will look like a square, or so I was told.

The rest of it was amazing, though. Lush green everywhere we looked, and quite a few flowers though there aren't any in this picture. No, that's not true - you can see some white ones through the arch if you look closely.

The park also had a little zoo, which contained these guys, among other animals. The ape, whose name was JoJo, took a real liking to TC and came right over to see him when we walked by his enclosure. I'm tempted to conjecture as to why the attraction to TC, but it might be best if I refrain from doing so :)

Now that's a clock! It was right on time too, which means I took this picture at around 1:40pm. Just around the corner from here was a long lane that was lined with tents housing the wares of every patisserie in town, who were there to celebrate the "Fete du Pain". We sat on a bench for a while and just breathed in the smell of fresh bread. And listened to the really bad English techno-dance music that seems to be so popular in France.

We ended our day with a walk through a different part of town, where we saw this rainbow. How perfect is that?