Versailles - Sunday January 28

Sunday January 28-

Erica, Laurie and I all agreed that visiting the Chateau at Versailles was a must and today we got up early and took the train out there. The train only takes about 35 minutes, I never realized that the palace was so close to the city. Although I guess that makes sense and all. There were tons of tourists, when we walked from the train station to the front gates, we were part of a huge sea of people all streaming toward the ticket office.

Anyway, here is the palace from the front entrance:

So, you weren't allowed to take pictures inside the building, but for some reason everyone was and none of the guards were doing anything about it. I contented myself with taking pictures out of the windows. Here are bits of the garden from inside:

Here is the famous marble courtyard. We only saw it from inside the building because there was a lot of construction going on out front:

After the tour of the building (which was fantastic), we went out to investigate the gardens on foot. The gardens are beautiful and expansive, but it was freezing cold again today. Some of the fountains and streams had ice on them. So, that kind of hampered my enjoyment of the whole thing. When I go back (because I definitely want to go back) it's going to be in May.

Here is a sculpture at the edge of the pool just outside the building.

This is the building from the back
Everything in this photo is part of the Versailles gardens:

Here is the Latona fountain, from the back:
Close up:

From the front:
And here is the Apollo fountain, a little bit down the road:
Looking across the canal-y thing to the other side of the park:We walked down this road to get to the Trianons. The Grand Trianon was the vacation house for the king, while Petit Trianon was Marie-Antoinette's fantasy house. Imagine having an estate so large that you have a vacation home on the same property and you can't even see your huge palace from it. Now that is wealth.
Grand Trianon:

Petit Trianon and its gardens:
Petit Trianon, and Laurie trying to dodge a picture:
A crazy tree that was in the Petit Trianon's garden
Marie-Antoinette's Grecian Temple of Love from far away:
A crazy sign whose meaning is indecipherable to me. Why a PDA and an iPod??

Temple of Love close up:
The statue of Eros inside

We had lunch at the restaurant in the gardens. I don't know if I've mentioned this already, but I LOVE CREPES. I had one of the best ham and cheese crepes ever at that restaurant. I'm tempted to fly back just so I can have another. Yum!

The palace again as we were leaving. We tried to get back into the building to use the restroom, but someone had called in a bomb threat on the building. Who would do that?? Why?? Crazy people.
Then we took the train back to Paris, completely exhausted. We had a sweet crepe as a snack, near the Jardin du Luxembourg and then had dinner at the Embassy (aka McDonald's) before heading back to our respective hostels for sleep.

Paris January 24-30

Wednesday Jan 24 -
I took the train from Amsterdam in the morning. I was so amazed that I actually managed to be on time for my train! It was a nice journey, about four hours with stops in the Netherlands and Belgium. When I got on the train all the announcements were in Dutch and English. Then when we got to Brussels they added French and German. There was snow on the ground from just outside Amsterdam until just outside Paris. Apparently the day I arrived heralded a "brutal" temperature drop, according to my friend Arnold. When I got to Gare du Nord, I was very disappointed that I did not have to go through Passport Control. No Paris stamp for me this time! I walked to my hotel (yay for saving money!) and put my stuff down. This is the view from my window:
Georges Bizet apparently lived in the building opposite for a time. At least, I'm assuming that's what the plaque said.
Since it was already quite late in the afternoon, I decided to just go take pictures of something famous. So here are my pictures of the Louvre.
The inner courtyard

The front courtyard with the super famous glass pyramid:

The Jardin des Tuileries directly opposite the museum
A statue in the bushes:

The Eiffel Tower from the Tuileries:
So, pretty much everywhere I went, I saw these trees that were quite oddly shaped. For some reason, they were trimmed so as to be flat on one side. I really don't understand why, it looks so crazy:
Walking along the Seine:

After I went back to the hotel, I watched 'Seventh Heaven' and 'Charmed' dubbed into French (I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I was only watching it because I'd finished all my novels). My French is actually much better than I had thought - of course, I had basically considered it non-existent, so I was very ready to be surprised. I can't have an actual conversation, but I could get around well enough.

Thursday Jan 25

Today I actually went inside the Louvre. They let you take pictures inside the museum, which I find insane, so I mostly refrained. Unfortunately, the exhibits I was most interested in seeing were closed. I wanted to see the Medieval Louvre exhibit and the French paintings from the 18th and 19th century (since those are the paintings I remember best from the art history class I took in summer 2005) but neither were open. Oh well, I still saw some really great stuff. I saw lots of marble sculptures (which I love), plus Venus di Milo and La Joconde (that's Mona Lisa, to us English-speakers). The Mona Lisa is a really anticlimactic experience because that painting is tiny. And on the wall opposite, there is a huge painting portraying a busy scene that absolutely dwarfs the far more famous Mona Lisa. Anyway, I had lunch in the cafeteria and I sat next to an Australian woman and a Scottish man! In fact, he was from Fife and went to Madras College (a high school in St Andrews)! Small world! I had been hoping to meet a Scot while I was travelling and impress them with my knowledge of Scotland (because that's what I'm like) and I got my chance! Very happy.

Anyway, here's the upside down triangle inside the building. Oh yeah, there's also a shopping mall and a Starbucks in the Louvre.

More Eiffel Tower from the Tuileries
Okay, this isn't actually the Arc de Triomphe, but sort of a scale model of it in the Tuileries.
Walking across the Seine
Walking along the Seine
I decided that I should hit all the major sights on the first day. Next on my list was Notre Dame, which is on the Ile de Cite. So, if you've ever looked on a map and wondered, 'Hmmm, for a major city, why is Paris so far inland?' I will now tell you. Paris was chosen by the Gauls, or whoever, because there are two little islands in the middle of the Seine that apparently were quite easy to defend. After that, the south bank (or Rive Gauche - 'left bank') was mostly built up until it was smashed up by the Romans. Anyway, Notre Dame was built on the larger of the two islands, Cite (the other one is now named Ile de St Louis).
(And yes, there is still a Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame one month after Christmas)

Here is the inside of the church
One of the famous stained glass windows.
The altar. The golden cross is quite new, but the pieta sculpture is quite old, I believe.
Then, I went to the Eiffel Tower. The most amazing thing happens when you go to the tower right before dusk on a Thursday in late January: I only waited in line about 30 minutes. Yes, it's all true. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get up there until after dark (it was SOOOOOOOO cold) but hey, it could've been a lot worse. It could have been sweltering and I could have waited 3 hours.

With these pictures I'm trying to give you the impression of exactly how huge this thing is. It's GIGANTIC in person.

So, here's the point where I finally made it up to the top. My camera is not very good at night photos, but I took a whole bunch and some of them actually came out.
The lights around the Seine, plus a tennis court (Jeu de Paume)
The real Arc de Triomphe
So, I was standing there, wondering who I should ask to take my picture, and this random Chinese tourist guy comes up and says 'Do you want me to take your picture?' And I said 'Yes!' It was perfect. Here I am, freezing my butt off, on top of the Eiffel Tower. That giant light behind me is the searchlight from the very top of the tower.
When I was waiting in line for the elevator down to the bottom of the tower, I very nearly froze to death. I was wearing my Converse shoes and after about 10 minutes of standing on the metal platform, my feet were quite literally frozen solid. Or, that's what it felt like anyway. It was crazy cold up there.

Here's the Palais du Chaillot in the Trocadero Gardens:
And here is the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It sparkles for about ten minutes on the hour, and I wanted to get video of it, but I was there at the wrong time.
Later that night, I caught up with a friend of mine from Irvine (Arnold) who now lives in Paris. He teaches English to elementary school children now. One of his friends was having a concert-thing and he took me along. It was at a little Brazilian cafe in the 11th, and we had fried plantains (yum!) and listened to awesome music. Later, we went out for dinner (by later I mean 11pm). It was fun to catch up and hang out and I really enjoyed his friend's music. You can listen to it here (it's all in French, though) http://www.myspace.com/vidalnicolas . Also, Arnold is quite an accomplished photographer and you can view his pictures here: http://www.arnoldlozano.com/

Friday January 26 - my birthday today

I went up to Montmartre, which is actually on a hill (Martyrs Hill). Witness:
I decided to have my "Amelie" day and see the Sacre Coeur.
The views of the city from the Sacre Coeur

Here's the garden underneath. Okay, so, do you remember the part of "Amelie" where she sends the boy she likes on wild goose chase and he has to follow the arrows and he thinks that he's going to find his book of torn up photos, but she tricked him and then he looks and down and sees that she put the book in the bag on his motorbike? Yeah, that part happened here.
Recognize it??
And here is the Art Nouveau style Metropolitain. Some of the stations have kept the signs designed in the early 1900s. This is the Abesses station right down the block from Sacre Coeur. (This station is featured in Amelie too, but right now it's all torn up because it's under construction)

Here it is, the Red Windmill! Or Le Moulin Rouge, as they say in French.
Later, I decided to go to la Cimitiere Montmartre to see some famous graves. Erica thought that was weird, and maybe it is, but there were at least 4 or 5 cemeteries listed in my guidebook, so obviously it's a pretty common form of tourism. The cemeteries in Paris are very odd. They have these little mausoleum-type things that look like mini churches. Some of them even have stained glass windows in. And they are all very close together. Francois Truffaut (the only New Wave filmmaker I really like) is buried here. It took me FOREVER to find his grave, so I didn't even bother looking for Edgar Degas.

This is in the aptly named Jardin des Plantes. (Garden of Plants. So very creative) There was supposed to be a Jardin d'Hiver (Winter Garden) but I couldn't see find it, and the Alpine Garden is closed during the winter. All in all, visiting a botanical garden in the winter is a bad idea.
This is a dragon sculpture in the garden. It is made entirely out of recycled trash (I read that off the French sign! Yay!). It was so cool, I just had to take a picture of it.

This plant seemed very confused. I tried to explain to it that it was in fact winter and not spring, but this plant is from China so I don't think it understood me. Seriously though, there was an inch of ice on the water lily pond. It was freaking cold, you guys! It was uncomfortably cold every single day of my trip.
Walking through the cinquieme arrondissement (5th neighborhood). Ever wondered where Hotel California is actually located? Well, wonder no more, because I have found it. It's on Boulevard St Germain in Paris, France.
Here is La Sorbonne
And the Champs Elysee. I spent 11 minutes talking to my mom sitting on a bench here and was charged $34. Cell phone rates are brutal.

Here's the real Arc de Triomphe, from the ground! There are 12 boulevards that come together at this spot, one of which is the Champs Elysee.
And then I walked out to the Arc to take pictures and caught the Eiffel Tower sparkling.
Zoomed in ...
The underside of the Arc

Okay, so tonight, Laurie and Erica flew into Paris for a little vacation of their own. Erica had spent 5 days in Barcelona before meeting up in Paris. We got together and all went to dinner (at 11:30pm) at a little place on Ile St Louis. It was all good fun. Erica had the creme brulee of her dreams and I had the most wonderful hot chocolate for dessert! I had to actually mix the chocolate and the milk myself, at the table. Yummmmm...

Saturday January 27

Today had to switch from hotel to hostel. See, hostels suck. They are so cheap but, with every declining dollar, you are really losing a lot in terms of comfort. Since I had been sleeping in hostels for 7 days before I reached Paris, I told myself that I would stay in a hotel for the first 3 days and then switch. Anyway, who wants to spend their birthday in a damn hostel? Not me. So I had to waste some time switching, but it was alright in the end.

The Palais du Luxembourg in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Right across the street from here I had one of the tastiest ham and cheese crepes I have ever had. Do you know what I would give for one of those little guys right now?? Oh man, crepes are fantastically amazing. Especially with ham and cheese.

After the garden, I went to the Archaeological Crypt under Notre Dame. This is a little museum where all the ancient ruins underneath the church that date back to before the Romans are displayed. It was very cool.

And then I went to the Orsay! Oh wow. Beautiful. Here's the inside of the main hall. (The Louvre is where it's at for art until 1848, at which point the Orsay takes over.)
It used to be a train station before it was turned into a museum
They had a fantastic Art Nouveau exhibit on, with posters for Sarah Bernhardt performances. And they have an amazing permanent collection of Art Nouveau furniture and decorative arts. Oh man, I LOVE that stuff. I wonder how rich I'd have to get in order to be able to afford furniture like that for my house ...
There's the Sacre Coeur (seen from a window in the Orsay)! And some scaffolding, since everything is under construction.
Here's the outside of the Orsay

Here is the view from my hostel:
And again, from a different angle:
I met Laurie and Erica for dinner again (much earlier tonight) and ordered something crazy at the restaurant. I thought I could make it without an English menu (which I was ever so politely offered) but apparently not. Oh well. Had a lemon and sugar crepe afterward, so it turned out alright!

Sunday January 28

[Went to Versailles, which will be detailed in a later post]

Monday January 29th
Part 2 of my cinematic pilgrimage: La Cinematheque Francaise:

After that, I went to the Picasso Museum. The Picasso Musee was a definite let down. Oddly, it was not in chronological order, though it attempted to be. It was very small and had none of his most famous paintings. Honestly, what was the point? I had read in the guidebook that it exhibited art works that he owned as well as those he created, which was part of the reason I went, but I didn't find any such exhibit.

And then to Pere Lachaise Cemetery

It took me over an hour to figure out where to buy a map, which sucks because there are something like 80,000 graves there.Mainly I went to see Oscar Wilde's grave. For some reason it is covered in lipstick kisses:

And I encountered a bunch of wanna-be hippie kids while looking for Jim Morrison's grave
I left the cemetery and had yet another tasty crepe. Then I went to the Cluny Museum, which is the National Museum of the Middle Ages. I'm not a big fan of the Moyen Age, as the French say, but this museum was really, really great. There was lots of old stained glass and ivory artefacts, very cool. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have enjoyed it more. They have the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestry there, and it was really cool to see it. There are 6 panels, 5 of which deal with the senses and the 6th is called To My Only Desire. You can learn about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_and_the_Unicorn

Went back to the Eiffel Tower to try to get some video, but no luck. Had dinner with Laurie and Erica again (omg, I had the tenderest lamb EVER, it was so good). And then I went back to the hostel and packed up my stuff, since this was my final day in Paris.