Paris!

Back in 2001, Dennis and I visited Paris, but the museum workers were on strike and we were not able to see the Louvre. Now that we are so close to Paris, it was a no-brainer that we would make the trip. We hate to waste good summer weather in a city looking at museums, so we decided to go in the winter. It seemed fitting to see the City of Lights during the holiday season.

Our tour began with a 3 hour train ride from Amsterdam to Paris. Armed with our trusty Rick Steves Paris guidebook (on Kindle of course), we easily made the transition from the international train to the local metro train. After the rather modern trains we are used to riding in the Netherlands, we were surprised that the Paris Metro trains are rickety vintage things that shake, rattle, and roll. A ride on the Metro reminded me of Mister Toad’s Wild Ride – yikes! Despite the age, we found the Metro to be convenient and cheap. Train rides in the Netherlands are 3-5 euros at the minimum and can be quite pricey for long rides. The Metro was a little more than one euro per ride – probably more comparable to the trams in Amsterdam.

Our quaint hotel was located near the Eiffel Tower, in a neighborhood with a pedestrian-only shopping street. The room had everything we needed except space to walk around the bed, but that’s typical for European hotel rooms. We didn’t spend much time in the room anyway. We arrived pretty late on the night after Christmas, so we just grabbed a quick bite and went to sleep.

Priority number one was to visit the Louvre, but breakfast was first. We had our French breakfast in one of the numerous cafes near the hotel. A French breakfast is a bit weird to me. You get coffee or tea, orange juice, a croissant and French bread with butter. It seems a bit heavy on carbs to me. A Dutch person would be wondering why there wasn’t any cheese. After breakfast, we walked to the Louvre. It was a bit further than we thought it would be, but it’s fun to look at everything while you walk.

The Louvre was disappointing in some ways. All the “famous” art was mobbed with crowds. The Mona Lisa is quite small and impossible to see with all the people jockeying to get the best picture of the painting. We moved rather quickly through the important pieces with the help of the Rick Steves audio tour that we downloaded from the computer before we left. After the audio tour, we explored a bit more on our own. We found some really cool stuff that nobody else seemed to care about. It was nice to appreciate the art without so many people. We ended up staying until about 3:30 in the afternoon – pretty long for us in an art museum!

We walked back to the hotel and managed to see the Paris Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. It was getting pretty dark as we got closer to our hotel – so dark it was impossible to read the street signs OR the map. When we finally made it back, we were exhausted from walking so much – and hungry! With little energy to explore further, we found a restaurant close to the hotel and enjoyed a lovely dinner. After Dutch food, all the food in Paris is lovely!

Day 2 was the Orangerie museum. Since the Orangerie didn’t open until 12:30, we spent the morning exploring the Sacre Coer Cathedral on the north end of the city. It’s a pretty cathedral in the part of town where the artists hung out in the 1800’s. It’s a fairly seedy part of town now – but it probably was then as well. You know those artist types! We had lunch in a café near Pig Alley – the red light district. I felt the need to wash my hands frequently. It is surprising that Amsterdam is so well known for its red light district, but this area was larger and at least as colorful (just lacking the prostitutes behind glass).

The Orangerie museum houses a large set of Water Lilly paintings that Monet created specifically for this building. They were quite pretty, but as usual, we found the other exhibits more interesting. This is a small museum so we had some free time in the afternoon to explore a bit more of the museum neighborhood. We walked and we walked and we walked. After our long walk the day before, I was getting pretty tired. We had time for an afternoon break and to find a proper restaurant for dinner. The guidebook had plenty of recommendations and we easily chose one. After walking around all day, we were ready for dinner around 6:30, meaning we’d be dining with the tourists and not the locals. That was OK, but we ended up eating with American tourists. I think every group in the small restaurant had a copy of Rick Steve’s Paris. The food was good, but come on!

Day 3 was the Museum d’Orsay. This was actually the main event for me – the museum I really wanted to see – full of the French Impressionists like Monet, Degas, Renoir, and the rest. All the art is housed in a former train station which was beautiful in its own right. My only complaint was the dearth of bathrooms. There were a grand total of 6 stalls for women. 6 stalls for a huge and hugely popular museum! This should be a crime. But in the Netherlands, you are likely to have to pay for the bathroom even after you have paid admission, so maybe I should be thankful. Aside from the lack of bathrooms, the art was phenomenal. We couldn’t get close to any of the Degas paintings which seem to be quite popular, but I really like Tolouse Latreck. As an odd coincidence, a Degas painting from the Orsay collection was stolen on New Year’s Eve from another museum that had borrowed it for a temporary exhibit. I’m not sure why everyone wants to take a picture of the paintings. You can buy lovely postcards of all the favorites in the gift store – higher quality and no random heads in the way.

Day 4, we probably wandered around a bit aimlessly because we didn’t have much of a plan. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Ile St. Louis, an upscale neighborhood on an island next to Notre Dame. We didn’t have much of a plan for dinner either –except to avoid the Rick Steves crowd. We walked south of the Eiffel Tower into a neighborhood that didn’t seem to have any tourist attractions. Most of the restaurants and stores were closed, but we finally found one that was open. We didn’t spend much time reading the menu, just made sure it wasn’t 200 dollars a plate. As we entered at about 7:00, we were the only customers. They graciously took our coats and seated us in the small dining room. The waiter helped us a bit with the French menu, which was nice because I almost ordered squid by accident. The waitress, an older overweigh grandmotherly type, brought our first course. On a small plate she placed a tablet that looked like an antacid, but she said in her very limited English, “No eat!” She poured warm water from a pitcher over the tablet and it expanded into a napkin to clean our hands with. One of the few French words I know is serviette because the British tend to use this term for napkin as well. Kind of like a Far Side comic, I heard her say, “Blah, blah, blah serviette. Blah, blah, blah.”

My first course was a cream soup. You might be wondering as I was, “Cream of what?” The answer: cream. It was a cream soup with a garnish of balsamic vinegar and parsley oil, but I could not identify any flavor in the soup besides cream. It was like going to heaven. Dennis ordered the escargot (yes, snails), but they were served in a different style than the normal butter-garlic presentation. These were in a tasty stew with andouille sausage and tomatoes. For my main course, I had scallops on a bed of pureed celery root. I’ll have to try cooking celery root this way because it was really wonderful. Dennis had white fish cooked a la Provence, which means with tomatoes. At this point I should also mention the wine that was like no other wine I’ve ever had. It was a white wine, but dark yellow in color. It tasted just a bit like sherry, but very dry. It complimented the fish perfectly, “My, what a lovely fish you are, such beautiful eyes and kissable lips.” Just kidding. But it was really good. For dessert, Dennis had the better pick a chocolate cake with the molten center. My Grand Marnier soufflé was also good, but it wasn’t chocolate. I should have asked him to trade, but I don’t think he loves me THAT much! As we enjoyed our food, the restaurant was filling up with mostly French people. It was nice to eat in a less touristy spot.

On our last day in Paris, we took a walking tour (but of course!) that took us through the St. Sulpice Church. For those who have read the Da Vinci Code, you might recognize the name of the church. The tour guide told us all about the architecture of the church and described the history of how it was a pagan temple for some time after the French Revolution. We also walked through much of the Latin Quarter learning about the people who made this area famous. I leaned more about Paris in 2 hours than I did in a lifetime. I wished that we had done the walking tour at the beginning of our trip – maybe we would have found time to do a couple more. But alas, it was time to head back home.

We made it back home in time to watch the New Year’s fireworks at midnight. I fell into bed exhausted from walking nearly 10 miles a day for the last 4 days.