World Quest

NOTE: Tonight (in real time, not posting time) is our last night in Paris. It is 11:55pm local time and we leave here at 9am tomorrow morning (Friday) to go to the airport and pick up our rental car to drive out to the country where we will spend the next week. I am up this late trying to get this post finished before going to bed.

Two things I'd like to mention; First, I'm not sure if we'll have Internet access our next 2 nights in Giverny, so posting may not be possible. Also, when we reach Loire Valley our cottage does have broadband access, just not sure if they meant Wi-Fi or if I'm going to need to hunt up a Cat5 cable.

Second, this may make the above moot. I am spending a great deal of time writing, getting photos ready to upload and rendering and editing video. It makes the days very long for me. It appears that I have 2 readers in the group (family and friends) that I am publishing this blog for, or at least 2 who comment; my daughter and father-in-law. I'm not really sure if anyone else in that group is reading or following along now and if no one else is, it would make more sense time-wise for me to simply e-mail my daughter and father-in-law the pictures and videos. If you're reading but haven't commented on the last few posts and want to continue to follow along, please either slip a comment in, or if you don't want to do that, drop me an e-mail. I love doing this if folks are enjoying it, but if no one other than my daughter and father-in-law are reading...

After enjoying our sidewalk cafe lunch, we thought we would "walk it off" by taking a leisurely stroll along the Left Bank of the Seine River.

Although the water of the Seine is not pleasant looking at all (a sort of dirty, murky green color) the bridges that cross it and the architecture that lines each side of it make the view an extraordinarily beautiful one. At any time, day or night, you will find lovers embracing along its banks, people relaxing on benches and boats of all varieties bobbing against their docks or riding down the river.

Here's a picture of Cindy and her mom walking along the Quai Voltaire running along the Left Bank:

And another one of the two of them with the Seine in the background

All along sections of both the Left and Right bank, you will find contraptions like the ones below. You might think they are receptacles for garbage or cabinets for river equipment...

but actually, they open up and become little storefronts on the river for businesses that sell books, magazines, souvenirs, etc. to both Parisians and tourists. I thought those were pretty cool.

Here's another photo of Cindy and her mom on the Left Bank with the "arms" of the Louvre in the background on the opposite side of the river.

Tuesday morning dawned cloudy and rainy. We watched from the tree-high windows of our apartment (love this view, the branches and leaves are practically in our rooms) as raindrops splattered on the big leaves. Still, we had places to go today so we hoped that perhaps "down" in Paris it would not be as wet.

I should also mention here another one of Cindy's great ideas. In preparation for our trip before we departed Orlando, she had seen where we could purchase week-long subway transportation tickets (Carte Orange) for one low price that would allow us unlimited travel during our stay in Paris. Those passes have been so handy as we make our way around the city and I would heartily recommend them to any visitor. Way to go, baby!

Our first stop this day was the Musée d'Orsay, a former train station that was abandoned and about to be destroyed. The French people went up in arms about the proposed destruction of what would have been a great historical building and their protests resulted in the former station being remodeled into one of the finest museums in the world.

What drew us here is the fact that Musée d'Orsay holds one of the most complete collections of Impressionism artwork, as well as an extensive gathering of one of the foremost masters of impressionistic style painting, Claude Monet. Both my mother-in-law and I are great admirers of Monet (in fact, Friday and Saturday we will be visiting Giverny and Monet's Garden), so there was no way we would miss the opportunity to enjoy such a large amount of his work while we were in Paris. And yes, for those of you who have been wondering if I was REALLY in Paris, since you haven't seen me in photos, here I am with Cindy's mom in front of the Musée d'Orsay sign outside.

And again, Cindy's suggestion that we buy the museum pass allowed us to bypass the long line of people waiting in the drizzling rain and go right into the museum. Inside, the main hall is huge. Here are 3 shots, 2 from the second level looking down and one from the fifth level looking down.

And more proof that I am indeed along for this trip:

After exploring the extraneous stuff like van Gogh, Renoir, Cezzane, Degas and Pissarro, lol, we made our way to the main section of the Monet exhibit. Here's a little video of the main room showing his works and Cindy's mom.

And below is a shot of something that just gladdens my heart tremendously. This little girl, about 7 or 8 years of age, was sitting on the floor in front of Monet's "Water Lilies", busily yet contemplatively sketching away on her own version.

Finally, we decided it was time to feed our hungry stomachs, so we took our leave of Musée d'Orsay and walked to a nice little cafe across the street in the rear of the museum to enjoy a nice lunch on the sidewalk.

Next post: A Walk Along the Seine

Sitting at the end of Champs-Élysées is the Arc de Triomphe, a carrousel (a French monument generally depicting horsemanship) commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806 and completed in 1836 that was meant to commemorate French victories (and specifically Napoleon's) in the field of battle.

Also known as Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, the monument is 164 feet high and 148 feet long and 72 feet wide. It is an absolutely stunning piece of craftsmanship and art. Here's a photo of Cindy and her mom on the Champs-Élysées with the Arc in the background. That's as far as they went and the closest they got to the Arc. It was left to me to explore the Arc itself from a close-up perspective.

The Arc sits at the convergence point of 12 different avenues, all approaching the Arc like spokes on a wheel. It is definitely NOT a place for novice drivers in Paris and I have heard a rumor that insurance companies will not insure any vehicle that will be driving around the Arc because there are so many accidents. It is also NOT a place for pedestrians, as it would be certain suicide to approach the Arc by crossing the multiple lanes of traffic (12) flowing around the monument. That's why they have a tunnel you can walk through under the street to get to the Arc.

Once you emerge from the tunnel you can either stroll around the bottom and outside of the Arc,

or you can purchase a ticket and pay for the privilege of walking up 284 steps on a circular stairway through the inside of the Arc to the top.

I'm going to find it hard to complain about the 60 circular stair steps we have to walk up to get to our apartment after this!

But once you're at the top and have spent 10 minutes getting your breath back, the view is spectacular.

Back at the base and under the Arc (going down those stairs is a whole lot easier than going up them) is the French memorial to The Unknown Soldier. I thought this particular guard at the Tomb, with its eternal flame, looked like the quintessential French soldier.

Next post: The Musée d'Orsay; we give you our impression.

After leaving the Louvre, we strolled down through the Jardin des Tuilleries again, through the Place de la Concorde (Concorde Square) and over to the starting point of the most famous street in Paris, the Champs-Élysées, which links Place de la Concorde with the Arc de Triomphe and is a mile and a quarter in length. Here's Cindy:

We didn't get far on our walk before we came across this vendor and I could not help but laugh; selling the French national food, crepes and the American national food, the hot dog in one location. Along with the French national water next to the American national beverage. Marketing genius!

We kept on walking and soon saw a crowd of people and I could make out a studio movie camera over by the street so we walked over, pushed our way through the crowd like the ugly Americans we are and this is what we saw:

Two of the biggest stars in the world, Kevin Spacey and Liam Neeson, filming a scene together on the most famous street in Paris! And if you look closely, you'll see a restaurant in the background of their scene. Fouquet's is a restaurant that Cindy's mom and dad ate in (or at least had a cup of hot chocolate in, her mom's not quite sure so we're counting on her dad to supply the correct memory when he reads this) 17 years ago when they visited Paris.

After Spacey and Neeson wandered off, we continued walking up the Champs-Élysées toward the Arc de Triomphe and passed a hamburger restaurant. In all the time we've been in Paris and with all the places we've been, we have only seen the American brand McDonald's hamburger restaurants (no Burger King, Wendy's or even Dairy Queen). At the Restaurama at the Carrousel du Louvre (like a shopping mall food court) we did see a hamburger place called Universal Burger, but that's been it. Now we happen upon this obviously fast food hamburger restaurant named Quick (?) and I'm laughing because they don't just sell hamburgers...they sell Spider-Man Burgers!! With cheese that's like Spidey's webbing. Yuck!!

Next post: The Arc de Triomphe...who makes it to the top?

Monday morning we went to the Louvre. It was strange how the Concorde Square (the Metro Station nearest the Louvre on our line) was practically deserted in comparison to the thousands of people and media trucks that had filled it the day before. We strolled up the Rue de Rivoli on our way to the Louvre (since we had walked through that side of the Jardin des Tuilleries the day before), looking at the shops and windows and searching for a place to enjoy a late breakfast/early lunch. We finally settled on a little cafe right across from the Mall Entrance to the Louvre and enjoyed a poulet (chicken) sandwich on a tasty baguette.

We then walked over and into the Mall Entrance to the Louvre. Cindy, who is full of excellent ideas, thought we should buy the museum pass packet, which would allow us 4 days of entrance to not only the Louvre, but to many other Paris landmarks. After calculating the individual daily costs, we found that it would be a perfect purchase for us to make. One of the best perks of the pass is that it allows you to move to the head of the line at any of the venues you attend. Sweet!

The Louvre is a former medieval palace, shaped like a "U" with the now-famous glass Pyramid placed in the middle of that "U". All of the upper floors have been reconstructed over the years, but the original medieval underground level remains intact and parts of it can be seen when entering through the Mall Entrance.

We entered the Louvre and I don't know how Cindy and her mom felt, but it was almost overwhelming for me, and I'm not speaking about the art. The place is massively huge, we knew that from seeing it on the outside, but you just don't get a real sense of it until you are standing at the entranceway struggling to take in all the different ways you can begin. Fortunately we knew we were headed to the Mona Lisa first (of course) and the Venus de Milo and then we would see whatever other masterpieces there were along those routes. Masterpieces such as Winged Victory (shown below) which sits atop the head of a massive stairway as you make your way to the Richleu Wing and the Denon Hall where the Mona Lisa occupies its own wall.

After about 20 minutes we finally came upon The Lady herself, along with a few hundred other admirers, and had to spend a few more minutes working our way to the front of the crowd. Unfortunately, there are no photos or videos allowed, here or in the entire hall outside her room where other fragile and priceless works of art reside. There is a roped off area in front of the Mona Lisa extending out about 6 feet (in comparison all the other works in the hall have an area of about 3 feet roped off in front of them) and there are 2 burly Frenchmen standing to the side of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work. I watched one tourist attempt to surreptitiously take his camera out of his pocket and snap a photo, but one of the guards was quickly on him (even in that tightly packed crowd) ordering him in no uncertain terms to put it away.

There's not much point in describing the painting as it has to be the most well-known work of art in the world. And it would be impossible to describe the feelings one has while viewing it, as I'm sure it is different for everyone. Suffice it to say that, for me, it was a long held desire fulfilled and it is an experience I doubt I shall ever forget.

From there we continued through the remainder of the hall, then doubled back to make our way to the other lovely lady, Venus de Milo. This statue sits in the center of a room in the Sully Wing and dominates everything within. I probably took dozens of photos from different angles, but below is one with Cindy and her mom included, to give you the perspective of both the size and elevation of this famous Hellenistic work of art.

Next post: Our walk up the Champs de Elyse and a close-up encounter with 2 movie stars!