The Water Lily vs the Sword

Champs d' Elysees grandeur

Strolling along the Seine

As far as museums go - well, we definitely have our favorites. I favor the impressionists and the artists' ability to capture sunlight and the color of the fields and small villages of Provence.  Ernie favors sculpture, history and the unlimited collections of military paraphernalia dating back to the beginning of civilization. These are all in abundance in the museums here in Paris.  Here is just a small sampling of what we have enjoyed seeing and doing over this past week:

With friends from Dutch Flat, we visited a contemporary realist artist, Angie Brooksby, at her studio. She is quite talented! This scene is from the US. 

From the lunch terrace, we viewed the iconic pyramids of the Louvre

Indoor sculpture garden - Louvre

 

Messing around with trouble - Louvre

Ancient Greek pottery - 1200 BCE.  Note the artist's signature above - Louvre

Inside the pyramid looking out - Louvre

We're definitely safe; the military is prevalent in the Marais. This was taken from our window. Note the big guns!

Musee de l' Armee - we couldn't believe the sheer quantity of ancient armor here & the artistry involved!

Entrance to Napoleon's tomb

Napoleon's tomb - forever revered

Chapel - Napoleon's tomb

Intricate artistry on ancient pistols

Giverny gardens - but in the St. Germain area

Throughout Paris, wherever construction work is being done on famous buildings, artwork is used to camoflauge the effort and at times, it is so well done, one can hardly notice the construction. We saw this at Versailles, at the Musee de l' Armee, and all over the city.

The Pantheon was being remodeled, but original artwork camouflaged the construction effort. Note the happy faces.

Galeries Lafayette - shopping in elegant surroundings.

The Galeries Lafayette stained-glass dome.

Another wonderful cafe - where we observed the locals and tourists.

Dinner - Saumon et haricorts verts (with quinoa) - yum

Arc de Triomphe - lots of traffic and chaos!

Champs d' Elysee Abercrombie and Fitch store entry path

Massive door to A and F store - teen clothes in elegant surroundings

Tuileries gardens

Exterior view of the Denon Louvre wing - it is enormous and grand.

Another grand boulevard

Half of this is a painting covering the construction - Musee d' Armee (the bleachers were for the WWII celebration)

An ancient Roman bath site - viewed at the Cluny museum complemented with Gregorian chants

One of the famous "unicorn tapestries" at the Cluny

Luxembourg gardens - a great place to relax and breathe

 Throughout the parks in Paris are fantastical children's playgrounds with trampolines, tiny sailboat rentals (complete with long sticks), and all types of play equipment. (Where are the lawyers?)

Children rent sailboats here - a child's paradise

Marie d' Medici's famous Palais du Luxembourg

Street art

Relaxing for lunch at Carettes - in the Place des Vosges square

Fairy tale homes

Chicken window art - for Lisa and Ava

Another view of Notre Dame and the thousands of locks

 People in France still read - apparently, and Libraries (bookstores) are readily available.

Shakespeare and Co. made famous from the 1920 - 30's. Fun for its books in English

Tiny car; tiny doorway. She actually made it - backing in.

Copper pots - anyone?

Window art - sweet treats

Monet's Water Lilies - the Musee de Orangerie

More water lilies

I could have stood there all day...nearly blind, he completed these masterpieces near the end of his life

Gauguin - Musee de Orangerie - Paul Guillaume collection

Haussman-styled buildings near Galleries Lafayette

A favorite lunch spot near our apartment

Opera Garnier and city viewed from the rooftop terrace of the Galleries Lafayette

Stairs to deportation - WWII, Ile de Cite

Quiet, charming 1920's era Tea Caddy lunch spot - Rive Gauche (Left Bank) - one block from chaos.

Yesterday we spent the entire day taking it easy - touring with the theme: rivers, gardens and bridges. We followed the Seine and crossed back and forth over each of the bridges, then explored the Luxembourg gardens...and the little left bank neighborhoods hidden behind the main streets. This is the way to travel!

Today, we're off to the BHV - a huge department store in search of a few small necessities.  We will probably find everything we don't need and more.

Museum Heaven

We've  been really busy this week! Excluding last Sunday, we've visited seven museums, plus have visited numerous other historic and cultural sites and and have walked to every site we've visited - and have been on our feet at least 8 hours each day!  We needed a little exercise and we're obtaining it!  Of course, we definitely need to work off those wonderful lunches/dinners and all that rich food. Plus, we have the added benefit of seeing the city first hand.  We literally fall into bed at night.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Orsay museum has to be one of our favorites - for its style (a converted train station) and its incredible collection of impressionist and later paintings.  We started on the 5th floor with Monet, Matisse, Gauguin, Pissaro, etc. and worked our way down.  We are glad we did. There was so much to see here.

The Orsay museum - a converted train station - Parisian style - a magnifique impressionist collection!

We were mesmerized by these paintings!

The old train station clock

Paul Gauguin

Orsay rooftop view

Peek-a-boo view of Paris at the Orsay

Me before coffee in the morning - Orsay

Eiffel Tower blues

Spring is here

Lunch in the Rue Cler district

The Hotel de Ville - Administration offices - can you imagine working here?

BHV - a huge department store down the street from us - provides anything you want and much more

Playfully poking at a snake...is that a good idea? A sculpture at the Orsay

We visited Versailles mid-week in order to avoid the crowds and the thundershowers also definitely helped reduce the visitor count.  Let's just say that we wouldn't want to visit there on a crowded day. This palaces were ornate (to say the least) and the French people definitely needed to rebel. The gardens were spectacular - even on a rainy day - and perhaps we'll return next week just to see them on a warm, sunny day. 

H

"Honey; I'm home!"

Front doors...

Versailles chapel...not sure who was being worshipped...

The artistry and gold!

Hall of mirrors - to admire our ensembles

Which door was it?

Cottage garden

They start young here learning their history - and they need to....

Room of battle paintings

Adding more gold leaf

Charming village style restaurant in the gardens - we'll return there!

Ahhhhh...the serenity

Gorgeous landscapes surround you here

Happy trees

Ernie's deciding where to place the furniture - Petit Palais

Everywhere we looked, there was beauty

There's more, but we'll catch up on these tomorrow...

2015 Gay Paris!

We're visiting France this year!

Notre Dame cathedral interior nave

Carnavalet garden

It's May, 2015 and we have just arrived in Paris!  We've planned our trip as an eleven week tour of France - focusing on Paris and the southern and western French countryside. Why did we decide to stay in France?  Because close friends and family absolutely love this country and recommended it highly because of its culture and history.

We're not camping on this vacation; instead we're touring first class (for us) and are renting apartments and cottages for one or more week stays while we will be visiting Paris, and the French countryside including Burgundy, Provence, Dordogne, Loire, and the Languedoc areas. Our intent is to tour where we want, maintain the independence that apartments provide, yet have a home base in each locale.  We will be leasing a car once we leave Paris so that we can be spontaneous in our choices, can visit the less touristy local sites and can drive the back roads to view the countryside.

We've planned our trip itinerary based on the many recommendations from our family travel experts (Al, Doug and Mary Jane) and good friends (Chloe, Heidi, Susan, Donna and Adele), we have all the backup information provided by the Rick Steves and Eyewitness books, plus we referenced the Secret and Most Beautiful Villages and the Ina Carrow books for their recommendations as well.

We've arrived!

We arrived in Paris on a rainy Saturday afternoon, May 2nd - jet lagged and exhausted, but the flight over (via Delta airlines) was perfect with impeccable service and connections, and our ride into town (via the Inter-Service Prestige bus service) was comfortable and easy.

Our Marais retreat

Our room with a view

Our Parisian apartment is located in the Marais district on Rue de Rivoli close to the St. Paul cathedral.  It's quaint with aged charm (complete with creaky uneven herringbone floors, our own tiny WC, a frighteningly narrow/steep four-floor wooden spiral staircase, but we have views of the sky and the busy Rue de Rivoli below, so we can quickly check out the weather and how warmly people are dressed).  Yes, we can hear the motor bikes, the energetic garbage truck pickup in the morning and we have our own personal homeless gentleman on the doorstep right outside our door, but this location is perfect for us.  It's central to great historic sites, museums, Notre Dame, the Marais and a variety of shops and cafes are right around the corner.  What more can you want?

There is so much to see in Paris; we're working our way gradually around the city to enjoy and explore as much as we can.  Here is a sampling of some of the sites so far:

Directly in front of Notre Dame, this marks the center of Paris from which all destinations are measured

One of many Notre Dame stained glass windows

Place Dauphine - small quiet retreat on Ille de Cite - we enjoyed our lunch here on Monday

Model of the Notre Dame cathedral and its flying buttresses

17 Century business advertisements - Carnavalet museum

Hotel Sully garden

Locks of love - Seine

Whipped cream, meringue and chocolate melt-in-your-mouth decadence

Each day we encounter little challenges, like learning basic phrases and words in French and continually trying to be very polite and formal, which is the expected behavior here. And we're adapting...We're discovering that eating a nice lunch out at a cafe or restaurant is wonderful; then we can enjoy a light dinner in our apartment and can go to bed reasonably early.

Tonight's project was to figure out (by reading the Swedish manual) how to operate our induction cook top - task accomplished with trial and error.  Our next task - to work the microwave/oven - but that's for tomorrow...along with resisting those yummy desserts.

More church decals

Pompidou center chaos

Pablo Picasso - cat with tweety

Picasso museum - artwork lovingly displayed

Old world charm; new world fixtures