Five Days in Paris: Day 4, Part 2

Walking back around the basilica, we tried to sit on the steps for a few minutes, but the crowds and pigeons drove us away pretty quickly, and we headed to our second stop of the day, the Louvre.

Louvre

We grabbed lunch from the Moroccan restaurant in the Louvre’s food court, deciding to skip out on the popular choices of Starbucks (there were 2) and McDonald’s. Who would have guessed that this pinnacle of French culture would play home to these American staples?

Then, it was time to start our intimidating self-tour of the Louvre. We’d picked up some maps the first day we were in town and had tried to narrow down the sites we wanted to see. We decided we needed to see the crowd surrounding the Mona Lisa,

Crowd Around Overrated Art

the large format paintings,

Wow. These are HUGE!

the Code of Hammurabi (Actually Mr. Traveler decided this. I didn’t even know what it was.),

Code of Hammurabi

and that we should see Napoleon’s apartments, since A had raved about them.

Napoleon III Apartments

Initially, we were kind of hesitant about visiting the apartments, because we had just been to Versailles and seen similar palace rooms the day before. However, we really liked this part, which displayed the excesses of Napoleon III. The chandelier in the above picture pretty much sums up these rooms.

Beyond those "must see" points, we decided we would walk by the paintings from the Netherlands; check out the sections on ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; and pretty much see whatever else was along the way. Some of the things that I enjoyed the most were random things we didn’t even know existed.

For example, I really liked this creepy green lion:

It's kind of cute, isn't it?

And, I was thoroughly impressed by the works in the “Near-Eastern Antiquities” (Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Levant) section, which we had originally said we could skip. I loved the colors in the green and blue wall art and was amazed by the size of some of the carvings.

I love these colors!

Me with large carving

Most of all, though, I was impressed with the building, itself. From my experience, art museums, especially those with ancient art, tend to be dark and uninviting. In contrast, the Louvre was bright and friendly, somewhere I could imagine just sitting and writing or reading. The architecture was also interesting and frescoes on the ceiling reaffirmed the Louvre’s place as not only a place for art, but a work of art in its own right.

A Ceiling in the Louvre

 Even with as much as I loved wandering through the Louvre (more than I ever thought I would), after seeing at least a taste of almost every section, I was definitely ready to sit down and rest my feet. After leaving the exhibits, we grabbed some coffee and a macaroon at Paul’s, located right in the center of the three wings. I’d been eyeing these macaroon’s since we first arrived in Paris, and finally I got to try one. It was even more amazing than I thought it would be and we ended up having another one at a McCafé the next day.

Yum!

Leaving the Louvre, we decided to try and find the French restaurant that A had recommended. We knew the Metro stop and the address, but without the phone (the street didn’t show up on our map), I figured it was a long shot that we would actually end up at the restaurant. Still, with a couple hours before dinner time and no other plan, we figured we’d look for it and if we didn’t find it by the time we started getting hungry, we’d just stop in at a different restaurant.

We got off at the Opera stop and were immediately impressed by the large Opera House. We actually briefly considered trying to see a show before realizing that we probably weren’t dressed appropriately. Tours had stopped for the day, but we walked around the building before the great restaurant search.

Opera House

Eventually, we did locate Chartier.

Chartier

The experience was definitely worth the bit of walking it took to find our destination. The servers were not just polite, but friendly, chatting about their own travels and food experiences. We ordered a recommended red wine and both got the Endive and Roquefort salad as an appetizer. The endive came out piled high with cheese and a creamy dressing. I opted for the steak (and after a bad experience with a rubber-tire-textured and burnt steak during our honeymoon in France, ordered it rare) and Mr. Traveler went with the beef tartare. Finally, we finished with dessert. I had the Baba au Rhum Chantilly (which came highly recommended) and Mr. Traveler had the Coupe Mont-Blanc (a chestnut mousse/pudding like dessert, which the waiter insisted was too sweet, but was also very good). 

After dinner, we were stuffed, and ready to head back for the night. We made it back to the RER train station near Cousin C and A’s place and took the bus from there (since we couldn’t call for them to pick us up).

Cousin C and A had to leave early the next morning for London, so they left us a key, which we slid under their door before we left for our final day of sightseeing. Stay tuned for the last installment of “Five Days in Paris”.

Five Days in Paris: Day 4, Part 1

Sunday, I let Mr. Traveler sleep in a little while I played princesses with Baby L and watched Cinderella. I’d agreed to wake Mr. Traveler up at 10:00, but he stumbled out of the bedroom a minute before his human alarm clock. After a cinnamon roll, we were both ready to go, and Cousin C drove us to the train station once again. When we got to the station, Mr. Traveler realized he didn’t have his phone, but I wasn’t in the mood to go back, and I was sure we could manage without its navigation capabilities.

Our first stop was the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, from which we had been told we could see a great view of the city. Luckily, the sky was bright blue without a cloud in sight. When we got off the Metro at the appropriate stop, we started up the nearest street, having been advised that the basilica was atop the hill. The street was lined with tourist shops selling trinkets and tasteless merchandise. Men hustling for cash with the shell game stood in the middle of the street and cars that wanted through had to honk and wait for the swindles to move. This definitely seemed the right direction for a tourist site, and sure enough, about halfway up the street the basilica came into view. Stark white against the blue sky, the building seemed to be asserting its presence in the city. We began to make our way up the many steps leading to the church, itself. 

Me at Sacré-Cœur

Along the steps, we were greeted by independent (and most likely illegal) trinket vendors, selling miniature Eiffel Towers, toys, and friendship-style bracelets. Some of the vendors were especially assertive, and one went so far as to grip hold of Mr. Traveler’s arm when he tried to bypass the man without buying. The vendor seemed taken aback when Mr. Traveler asserted himself, showing his disapproval at the vendor’s technique. (A few days after we returned from our trip, I finished reading Nigel Barley's “The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes from a Mud Hut”. In it, Barley discusses his trouble reacclimating to polite British culture after living in Cameroon, where West Africans asserted themselves with firm tones and even by gripping hold of a person with whom they were having a discussion. Since many of the vendors were from West Africa, I wonder if the cultural differences contributed to what we perceived as inappropriate aggression.)

Other people tried to earn a profit in different methods, and we saw one person performing balancing acts and dances with a soccer ball and another playing the harp on the steps to the basilica.

Soccer Ball Performer

Seems difficult to get this instrument up and down the steps

Finally past the vendors, hustlers, and performers, we encountered crowds of fellow tourists at the top of the hill.

Fellow Tourists

We decided to head into the basilica and look around. No pictures were allowed in the building (there are a few limited ones on their Web site - you kind of have to look around), but I was struck by the beauty of the tile mosaics on the walls and ceilings. Construction on the basilica began in 1875. According to Wikipedia, "Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the brutal recapturing of the city during the socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ."

After touring the basilica, we forgot about the artist community A had told us about down the street, and instead opted to rest for a second in a park behind the church. Walking around the church, I was struck by two things. First, I was surprised that no one seemed to be photographing the beautiful church next door. Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. Of medieval origin, the church was rebuilt in the 19th century.

 

Saint-Pierre de Montemarte

Second, I noticed that the back of the basilica was covered in dirt, showing the true age of the building. Although the bright white in the front certainly made a statement, the back seemed to evoke more of a connection with the past of the church, and in my mind seemed more sacred than the touristy views normally captured.

Back of the Basilica

Stay tuned for Day 4, Part 2 (because there is just way too much to include in one post).

Fijne Valentijnsdag

Since today is Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a good time to take a break from telling you about our Paris adventures and share with you our early Valentine's celebration.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Traveler mentioned that there was a restaurant in a castle in Houten, which had recently been awarded a Michelin star. He suggested we make reservations for the Saturday before Valentine's since the restaurant is closed on Monday evenings. I glanced at the restaurant's Web site, agreed to the plan, and didn't hear anything about it until I mentioned a week later that we probably needed to go ahead and make reservations if we still wanted to eat at the suggested restaurant. At this point, I found out he had already taken care of it, and we had a reservation for 7pm on Saturday, February 12th.

Before heading to Kasteel Heemstead, we went to see True Grit at the movie theater. In the Netherlands, movies are typically shown in their original language with Dutch subtitles provided, so we didn't have to struggle through a Dutch translation. After the movie, we headed back to the house, changed clothes and made our way to the train station. We still had plenty of time to get to the restaurant, leaving almost 45 minutes before our reservation.

However, when we got to the train station, the train arrived early, but did not depart until 10 minutes after it's scheduled time. We made it to Houten with only a few minutes to spare and immediately called a cab. Unfortunately, though, the taxi company said that no one could be there for an hour. (Mr. Traveler had programmed the number for 2 companies into his phone, but we found out after dialing that both companies were part of the same overarching organization.) We walked around to see if there were any cabs sitting near the train or bus station. None were in sight, and the bus station was dark with no sign of a bus arriving soon. I suggested that we call the restaurant, let them know we were running late, and see if they had a suggestion of a different taxi service. They called a taxi company and soon we received a phone call that the cab would be arriving in about 15 minutes.

When we arrived at the restaurant, I snapped a picture of the building, and then we walked down the stairs, across the moat, and into the restaurant.

Kasteel Heemstead

The wait staff took our coats, instructing us to place our scarves in the sleeves (when you live in cold weather, I guess you discover some tricks for handling things like that), and sat us at one of the first tables near the door. Our waiter, then, offered us some champagne, but we opted instead for a Dutch white wine (I think it was a Müller-Thurgau). The waiter explained that the growing of grapes in the Netherlands is greatly affected by the lack of sunlight, which affects the flavor. Still, I thought that the wine was refreshing and, as he described, minerally.

With the wine, we received a small plate of appetizers: vegetable crisps (kind of like Terra Chips) with a curry mayonnaise and a skewer with a piece of salami, a pickle, and an olive. As soon as we finished this snack, another plate of appetizers arrived for each of us, including an oyster with cucumber sauce, a shooter filled with beef tartare, a shooter of soup, and a dim sum filled with goat cheese and chicken. When we finished these appetizers, the menu was finally delivered. We could either order the Menu “Kasteel Heemstede”, which included 4 courses selected by the chef; the Menu “Dégustation”, which included 7 smaller courses selected by the chef; or order a la carte. We discussed the options for a while, and even asked our waiter whether the 7 courses would be too much. He insisted that they would not be, as they were designed specifically to allow for eating 7 courses. Finally, we decided we would go all out and each get the Menu “Dégustation”.

As we waited for the menu, we enjoyed bread with the choice of olive oil or butter. The waiter also offered us more bread throughout the meal.

The first course consisted of 3 scallops, topped with scallop tartare in a shell. I have some pictures, but they just aren't very good because a) the lighting wasn't good for pictures and b) I didn't want to keep using the flash. So, imagine the food as much more vibrant and beautiful, and you will get the idea.

Scallops

After the scallops, we were served a small piece of salmon with "eastern vegetables" and an apple chip. The eastern vegetables ended up being a salad of beets, but I was surprised how well it went with the salmon.

Salmon

Next, we had what was called a "puff pastry" filled with lobster. I'm not a big lobster fan, and the dish was more of a wonton than a puff pastry. I didn't remember to take any pictures of this dish, but I was interested in the spoon that came with it. (Actually eat of our dishes came with their own set of unique silverware. We were fascinated by the variety of utensils.)

Saucier spoon (I believe) that came with the lobster

After the lobster, out came a piece of cod in smoked eel sauce. If this dish had appeared on an a la carte menu, I would have never have ordered it. Yet, it ended up being one of my favorite dishes. The smoky flavor of the eel and the fresh taste of the cod made for a great combination.

Cod with Eel Sauce

Then, we had the main dish, which was chicken with a tarragon sauce, surrounded by wild forest mushrooms and other vegetables. The chicken was extremely tender, but this was probably my least favorite of the dishes, as it just didn't have that "wow" factor.

Chicken - I'd already taken a few bites

 After the main course was taken away, the cheese was delivered to our table. It was a brie topped with celery and olives and served with a little mushroom shaped roll. While I don't care for celery, I had to admit it went well with the flavor of the cheese.

Cheese

Finally, we ended with a dessert, composed of orange flavored ice cream, a cone filled with yogurt and cream, an orange mousse, and some slices of orange.

Dessert

I really liked the dessert, because the taste was so refreshing. After dinner, we decided against coffee (as it was now almost midnight), but we noticed that the coffee delivered to other tables, came with another selection of sweets, once again displayed with an artistic flair.

I enjoyed the entire meal, because not only were all of the dishes very well prepared and plated, but the set menu also encouraged me to try some dishes I probably would never have ordered on my own. 

We finished our night by taking a cab back to our place, opting to pick up our bicycles from the train station in Utrecht in the morning, since we weren't sure whether or not the train was still running.

Despite the bit of a rough patch at the beginning with the taxi, we ended up having a nice and romantic Valentine's dinner. I'm sure glad we stuck with it and came up with a new plan when it looked like there was no ride in sight.

Five Days in Paris: A Visit to Versailles

When we started settling on dates to come to Paris, Cousin C offered to take us to Versailles while we were in town. Not too familiar with Versailles, I had to run a Google search to figure out it was the location of a large palace (or château, as the French call it) with extensive grounds filled with gardens and auxiliary buildings.

Walking up to Château de Versailles, the first thing you see is the golden gates surrounding the palace. Usually, you have to pay to go into the château, itself, but since it was free Sunday, we were able to tour the buildings for free. We decided that we would walk through the main palace first, and then head out to the gardens and other areas of the grounds.

Gates to Versailles

Inside, the palace showcased artwork and excess. Although the majority of rooms were not furnished, the decorative ceilings, chandeliers, and paintings provided some insight into the type of luxury the château provided in its day. Even more interesting, was the fact that the château actually began as a royal hunting lodge

Hall of Mirrors

After the self-guided tour through the palace, we took the little train down to the Grand Trianon, a building created for the royal family's enjoyment and an escape from the formality of Versailles.

Grand Trianon

The Grand Trianon was completely furnished to give an idea of the various styles throughout the years.

Bedroom in the Grand Trianon

After the visit, I learned (from Wikipedia), "In 1920, the Grand Trianon hosted the negotiations and signing of the Treaty of Trianon, which left Hungary with less than one-third of its pre-World War I land size. To the Hungarians, the word "Trianon" remains to this day the symbol of one of their worst national disasters."

By the time we left the Grand Trianon, we were getting pretty hungry, so we stopped to eat at an Angelina's Cafe on the grounds. This gave us a few minutes to rest while we enjoyed quiche and salad.

After lunch, we walked down to the Hameau de la Reine, which was created by Marie Antoinette who missed the countryside and farm life of her childhood. A working farm, the area still plays host to cattle, roosters, rabbits, and other livestock.

Rooster at Hameau de la Reine

Many of Marie Antoinette's opponents felt that her creation of the farm was an eccentricity and after her death, little was done to upkeep the buildings around the farm.

At the Farm

After the visit to the farm, it was time to get back on the train and head back towards the palace. First, we stopped for a little picture session by the rocks.

Mr. Traveler and Me at Versailles

We exited the train early, so we could walk up the gardens back to the château. From the back, the palace was even more impressive, a large structure on the hill above the gardens.

Château de Versailles

After our walk back up to the palace, we were ready to head back and rest our feet. As we made plans for Monday, A cooked up some eggs, bacon, and biscuits. We all stayed up talking for a little while, but at around midnight A and I both decided to call it a night. The boys stayed up, however, to watch the Superbowl. When I woke up at around 4am, the game was just ending. Needless to say, the following day Mr. Traveler slept in a bit before we started our day at Sacré-Cœur Basilica and the Louvre. I'll be filling you with details of these stops in the next Paris entry.

If you missed Parts 1 and 2 of our trip, check out my entries from Friday and Saturday.

Five Days in Paris: Packing in the Sites

On Saturday morning, we set down for a breakfast of French toast casserole. Then, Cousin C ferried us to the train station, helped us purchase our public transportation tickets for the day, and we headed out to see the sites.

The first stop was Notre Dame. On the aforementioned boat tour (see Part 1), I had glimpsed the cathedral from the outside, but this was my first time to see inside the world renowned building.

We didn't head up into the towers. It was just too cloudy; besides, we already had plenty on the agenda for the day. We did however, make a loop around the interior. While it was very large and the stained glass was pretty, I wouldn't say it was much different than other cathedrals I have toured. In addition, the combination of tour groups, people talking, and loud footsteps, made the church feel less sacred and more like just another site to see.

Inside Notre Dame

After Notre Dame, we made our way over to Sainte-Chapelle, built in the 1200s by King Louis IX of France to house biblical relics. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to go through a metal detector, as the church is surrounded by government buildings. Inside, however, it was worth the wait. While much smaller than Notre-Dame, this chapel amazed me with the intricate stained glass covering the second floor. The building is made up of a lower and upper chapel. The lower chapel, beautifully painted, was created as a parish church for the residents of the palace, while only the royal party was allowed in the upper chapel.

Upper Chapel

After visiting the two churches, we were beginning to get hungry. We decided to hold out until we got near the
Musée National du Moyen Âge and eat at the crepe stand A had recommended. When we got to the crepe stand, we didn't know whether to get 2 crepes each or 2 to share. We eventually decided we could share a savory and a sweet one, and then if we were still hungry we could get a snack later. We enjoyed the two crepes (ham and cheese & nutella and Grand Marnier) we got, but I don't think we could have taken another bite!

In the Moyen Âge (middle ages) museum, I enjoyed looking at the old stained glass and original statues from sites around Paris. I also liked this old comic-book style fighting manual, displayed in the museum.

Fighting Manual

Mr. Traveler didn't find the museum quite as interesting and was especially bored by the many items used in old Catholic services, including incense boats and many objects we couldn't identify. He did, however, enjoy spotting dogs in the stained glass and tapestry displays.

Dog in the Stained Glass

Next, we moved on to the Musée d'Orsay which is located in an old train station and known for its collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces. Photographs are not allowed in the museum, but many can be located on their Web site. Not an art aficionado, I enjoyed this museum, but didn't mind moving rather quickly between the exhibits. When we had seen the majority of pieces, we stopped for some coffee in the museum cafe and enjoyed resting our legs for a few minutes.

The next item on our agenda was the Musée Rodin, which showcases works by the creator of The Thinker. However, we decided we were kind of tired of looking at sculptures, since we had hurried past that area at the Orsay in favor of the paintings.

Instead, we opted to visit the Tomb of Napoléon at the Invalides. We were so glad that we made this decision, because it ended up being one of our favorite parts of our visit. The dome, the tomb itself, and the magnificent lighting inside left us with a sense of awe.

Tomb of Napoléon

After leaving the tomb, we were pretty close to the Eiffel Tower, so we decided to end our sightseeing there for the day. We climbed up the steps behind the tower and took some photos looking back over the park.

At the Eiffel Tower

We ended up back in the Latin Quarter for dinner and opted for a rather touristy French restaurant. The price was right, and the food was decent, but there were quite a lot of Americans enjoying their dinner alongside us. After dinner, we hopped on the train, headed back to Cousin C and A's place and planned our adventures for the followings day.

Stay tuned for the next installment of our Paris adventures, when we go to visit Versailles.

Five Days in Paris: Planning (or lack there of) and Arrival

The last time I was in Paris was October of 2001. My roommates and I had just spent a week in Spain during our fall break, and we had decided to spend a night in Paris before flying back to London. (Only, it was much more complicated than that. Originally, we booked a plane ticket into Madrid and out of Paris. We had ambitious notions about taking a train ride through the country to see both Spain and France before our flight left from Paris. The only problem was, we found out once we got to Spain that these trains run over night, so we wouldn't be able to see anything along the way. We found a travel agent in Seville, who helped us book a flight back to Madrid and then Paris, so we could make it back for our flight to London. This meant we ended up with one evening in Paris.)

During that time, we took a very long walk, which ended exactly where it had started -- i.e. we got lost, we saw the Eiffel Tower, and we took a touristy boat trip down the river so that the major sites could be pointed out in a number of different languages. We also had some sub-par Italian food and some great crème brulée. It was nice to see somewhere new, but I certainly wouldn't say it was the best travel experience ever. And, although I was excited about taking the trip with Mr. Traveler, when it came time to plan our vacation, there was nothing jumping out at me as a "must see". Eventually, I decided I wanted to visit the Louvre, but other than that, we'd just have to see what to do when we go there. It was surprising, then, when we managed to pack in non-stop sites each of the days we were in Paris, and I never grew tired of the city. It helped that we had amazing hosts who helped us plan out our days and shared with us some of their favorite things to do from an insider's perspective.

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On Friday, we arrived around lunchtime after our ride on what I would like to call "the Valentine's train". (Check out the picture below and see if you can tell why I gave it this name.)

Valentine's Train

Mr. Traveler's cousin (Cousin C - for future reference), his wife (A), and daughter (baby L) met us at the train station. We headed to the Jewish Quarter to eat at one of their favorite falafel places (I'm sorry I don't have the name or a picture to share with you. We were tired and hungry from the train ride and not really ready to get out the camera.) We each had a falafel sandwich (in a pita), which lived up to the rave reviews given by Cousin C and A.

After lunch, Cousin C and A gave us the option of tagging along on their errands or taking off on our own. Since we didn't have a plan in place, we decided to tag along. We quickly made our way through a 6 floor department store and then walked up and down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Arc de Triomphe at the end of Champs-Élysées

We ended up at the Arc de Triomphe, where we talked and watched Baby L play on the steps of the monument. Isn't she adorable?

Cousin C and Baby L

Then, we headed back to Cousin C and A's place, where we stayed for our trip. They were amazing hosts the whole time! A fixed some taco soup, which was really good (especially since we only get Mexican food if we make it over here), and helped us plan an itinerary for the following day. Once she started mentioning museums and sites that they enjoyed, I really started to get excited about seeing Paris. Before we went to sleep, we had a plan for the following day, including Metro stops and changes for each site.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our adventure, where we visit Notre Dame, the Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, and much much more!