Paris Day 3

Today's adventures started with us walking the short distance from our hotel, across Tuileries Gardens, over the Seine river by bridge, and up to the Musee d'Orsay.  This museum's art begins chronologically where the Louvre left off, 1848, and continues through WWI time.  It displays Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work.

The museum building was once a train station, and was remodeled in 1986 to house the plethora of art around Paris that needed a home.

They left the giant clock that adorned the train station, and it remains a focal point in the large main gallery.

The most famous artists here: Cezanne, Manet, Ingres, Renoir, Monet, and Van Gogh.  Here were some of our favorite pieces of art.  I've tried to make notes of the names and artists of the paintings, but if they're missing...just assume we liked it but I'm not sure what it was!  LOL.

The Etretat Cliffs After a Storm by Gustave Courbet

I believe this is an Auguste Renoir painting but I'll be darned if I can find it.

Chasse-Maree by Claude Monet

Dance At Le Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Claude Monet's Bridge Over Pond with Water Lillies - one of my favorites

The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet - part of the first movement to paint the common man as the subject.

Detail of some fabulous pointillism in a painting

Thatched Cottages at Cordeville by Vincent Van Gogh

Floating Ice by Claude Monet

The Dance of the Hours by Gaetano Previati - very beautiful

The Siesta by Vincent Van Gogh

Self Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh

Camille Claudel's Maturity - Depicts how she longed after her lover who was married.

I didn't make note of who this is but it's beautiful pointillism work

The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin

After the museum, we hopped on an RER train, whose station was right outside the museum, and rode it a few stops to the Eiffel tower.  We didn't have advance tickets (I'd tried 3 months ahead of time and was too late), so we waited in line for tickets.  We waited about an hour and a half, and it seemed like that was a mild day.

We bought tickets to go up to the second level only, as we were told the wait to go up to the top is an additional hour wait, because you went up to second level, then waited in line again for the elevator to the top.  Regardless, we got some great views.  Eiffel tower is just something you can't miss when in Paris.  But after Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe, there was NO WAY I was taking the stairs...

A nice couple took our picture, we didn't do this often, as we were warned people would offer to take your photo then run off with your phone or camera.

Looking NW, over the Seine river

Looking N/NE toward the Sacre-Coeur Basilica

Looking east over Champs de Mars and Ecole Militaire

Me and my sweetie

Chris on level one, me on level two looking up.

Just lovely.

Whew.  Now with that touristy job out of the way, I directed us to the Opera Garnier.  We took a couple wrong turns coming out of the metro, but finally found it.  Now the Opera Garnier is a functioning opera house.  But historically, it's significant because it is the setting for the Phantom of the Opera.  Charles Garnier built it in the late 1800's, and the building is ornate and over-the-top.  It is decorated with real gold leaf, colored marble, paintings and sculptures from the top artists of the day.

We toured through, but were slightly disappointed in the whole experience, mostly because of the cost of admission (20 euros).  But it was undeniably beautiful.

We finished up in early afternoon, earlier than I anticipated.  We decided to stop at a cafe and refresh, so we ordered some Cokes and shared a ravioli.  We had dinner reservations at the Opera Restaurant at 6:30, but didn't want to wait around, so we decided to return to the hotel, do some in-sink laundry, and go on an evening river cruise.

The Bateaux Parisiens river cruise left from just under the Eiffel tower, we boarded at 7pm.  We were able to watch the sun set on Paris from the Seine.  Most of my photos didn't turn out due to low light and haze, but here were two good ones:

The cruise was nice, informative, and relaxing.  Kinda what we needed after a busy day!

At night, of course, the Eiffel tower lights up.  But as a special treat, at the top of each hour for about 5 minutes, it sparkles with a million little lights.  It was beautiful.  We were on the river out near Notre Dame at the time, so I didn't have a good shot of it, but it was amazing.

We walked back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow (our last in Paris): A day trip out of town to see the Chateau de Versailles.

Paris Day 2 - Musee du Louvre

This quote echoed my feelings throughout our trip.  Sometimes, when asked where we were from, I felt a little silly saying "little 'ole Oklahoma".  But even though I do occupy a tiny place in the world, I aim to explore the corners far from me whenever possible.

We have since returned from our European vacation, but the absence of WIFI on the majority of our trip prevented me from posting.  So I'd love to catch you up on all we saw during Day 2 in Paris.

Our 2nd day in Paris led us to the Louvre.  The Louvre is massive, displaying more than 37,000 pieces of art within 675,000 square feet of exhibition space.  We read somewhere that if you considered each piece for 2 minutes, it would take you nearly 2 months to see it all.  We used Rick Steve's audio tour on our cell phones to narrow it down to the biggies, then explored on our own.  In all, we spent 7 hours there.

Chris standing in the Grand Gallery

The inverse pyramid viewed from below in the Carrousel du Louvre shopping center, where we entered.

View from within the pyramid

The famous Venus de Milo, carved in 120 BC

My favorite: The Winged Victory, which depicts the act of descending from Olympus.  It was a very emotional piece.

The Mona Lisa by Da Vinci.

Chris examining The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese

The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David.  Napoleon stepped on the toes of the pope and crowned himself, then placed the crown on his wife Josephine.

The Slaves by Michelangelo

The museum itself is beautiful.  Stunning, really.  There are ornate carvings, majestic ceilings, intricate marble floors, beautiful courtyards, and of course tons of people.  Our feet were so tired at the end of the day!

We stopped for lunch in a cafe within the museum and were blessed with a fantastic view!  The food was great too!

St. Michael Vanquishing Satan by Raphael

You always hear the Mona Lisa is small, but it's quite striking how small it is.  In a huge room, it is swallowed by a glass pane, wood barricade, and the sea of people swarming around it.

The Raft of the Medusa by Gericault

Me next to Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VIII by Ingres

This is me touring the apartments of Napoleon

In one of the glorious courtyards

Hey look!  We found an American!

The massive Lamassau

Chris next to Muse Melpomene

We returned to the hotel and rested, then got ready for our dinner reservations: Le Meurice.  This restaurant is a 3-Michelin Star rated establishment, guided by chef Alain Ducasse.  For those who aren't familiar with Michelin Stars, 3 is the highest rating.  In the USA, there are only 4 restaurants with this distinction, 3 in New York and 1 in Chicago.  The meal was THE BEST food we have EVER eaten.  Creative, beautifully presented, flavorful, rich.  It was an experience that just lit our fires.  (We're foodies!)  Chris ordered the chef's tasting menu, and I ordered lobster.

The room was extravagant, the service was spectacular (we had no less than 6 waiters, and the maitre-d appeared several times), and Chris tried about 40 types of cheeses.   A perfect evening.

Worn out and with a box of truffles in our hand from the restaurant, we returned to the Renaissance for some much-deserved sleep.  Tomorrow, The Musee de Orsay. Eiffel tower, Opera Garnier, and Seine river cruse!

Paris Day 1

Indeed. 

I've had a blast planning this big trip, and it's finally here. We had a great trip across the big pond. We flew Delta and had a good experience. (They didn't lose our luggage, and all the rest is pretty much the same for me!). From Atlanta to Paris was an 8.5 hr flight on the 777, and luckily our travel agent got us Premium Economy tickets, and they were great. We had fully reclining seats with footrests, upgraded menu with "beverages", a toiletry kit with socks, eye masks, tooth brush, and other nice things.

AND. I could not believe the size of the engine out my window. :)

Here's Chris getting comfy in our seats before takeoff. We watched two movies each, then ate a pretty good meal and tried to sleep. It was pretty darn hard to sleep. We were either hot or cold, or being disturbed by someone, so we didn't get more than 3-4 hours. 

But I got to see a fabulous sunrise over the Atlantic.

We landed at 8am local time, and knew we needed to keep on our feet to beat jet lag. And boy, did we ever. 

First, we walked a few blocks from the hotel and walked along the Seine river: Chris is below with the Museè de Orsay in the background. 

We followed the river walkway all the way to Notre Dame, which is stunning and amazing as it towers above you.

We walked through the inside, and the vast, high arched ceilings are impossible looking.

The stained glass is breathtaking. This church was begun in the 1100's!!  It really makes you feel how small you are in the scheme of things...

There were some great views from the top, 69 meters (about 210 ft) and 400 steps up:

And many, many narrow steep little steps. Our legs are jell-o. 

Then it was over to the Arc de Triomphe.

This thing, built by Napoleon, is massive.

And, with little foresight on my part in planning, we had a ton of more stairs to climb. 284 to be exact. But we were rewarded with more fabulous views of the city:

My impressions of the city: it's a melting pot of many nationalities. You can hear multiple languages spoken by those around you, but nearly everyone we've encountered at restaurants, hotels and such speak English well. Signs are written in English also and the metro was surprisingly easy to figure out, comparable to our experiences with DC metro. There are places that smell, and areas I wouldn't want to be in at night, but there's a HUGE police presence. And I mean even ones with machine guns. I haven't felt threatened with pick pocketing. The buildings in downtown are beautiful with stunning architecture and history. So far, I'm impressed and am glad we came.

Tomorrow: the Louvre!  And now: sleep!