Paris!

This is a bit late, huh? There have just been too many wonderful things to do and see, and I’ve fallen behind in my blogging. However, I’ve finally posted some highlights of my adventures in Paris. I had a wonderful time there but it felt very strange and kind of sad to be there without Jeff. Jeff took me to Paris two years ago for my first trip to Europe. We had such a wonderful time! This visit was wonderful too, but it made me miss him even more.

Here is a map of my route across Europe so far.

Arriving in Paris started off a little bumpy. Because of all of our luggage, we had to take two separate taxis from the airport to the flat we were renting. Merilee and I were in one car with a few of our bags and Jason was in a second car with a few more bags. Merilee and I arrived at the flat and the driver charged us €8.50. Jason arrived a few minutes later, after having to show his driver on the map how to get to the flat, and his driver tried to charge him €20! Jason wasn’t about to fall for this, and stood up to the driver and demanded the appropriate change back from the €20 bill he gave him. The driver refused and Jason continued to demand. Meanwhile, the traffic began to build up in the street behind the taxi car, as it was stopped in the middle of the narrow road. Jason continued to demand for his fair change back, and the driver continued to refuse. Also consider that the driver spoke no English and Jason spoke no French! Merilee and I were standing on the sidewalk with our bags watching the whole event unfurl. After a few more cars built up in the waiting line, one of the drivers got out of his car and walked up to Jason and the taxi driver to see what the hold up was. Then another driver got out of his car, and then another. Soon there were about four people standing around hollering, trying to get change, refusing to give change, and trying to get the cars moved! Thankfully, one of the French individuals spoke English and was able to negotiate the release of change from the driver. The driver begrudgedly gave Jason his change and finally drove off, allowing the backed up cars to get through. The whole even lasted several minutes and was very exciting and a little scary! Poor Jason! But I thought it was great of him to stand up for himself like that and demand fairness!

So, finally, we’re standing outside the flat with all of our luggage, waiting to meet the owner of the flat to get our keys. Jason finally was able to get a hold of her, but she refused to come meet us in person and sent Jason on a wild goose chase to find the keys! After running down the street, Jason came back to the flat with the keys and we were able to get in. While Jason was upstairs in the flat talking with the owner on the phone about the workings of the apartment, Merilee and I were taking trips up the elevator with the baggage. On the first trip in the elevator, I put in three bags and myself, and could barely fit, as the old elevator was tiny. For the second trip, I decided to put in just two bags and send the elevator up by itself and I would take the stairs. So I loaded the bags, sent the elevator, and headed up the stairs. Well, the damned elevator got stuck on the first floor! We tried everything but couldn’t get the doors to open. I went upstairs to find Jason still talking with the owner on the phone. I tapped him on the shoulder and said “the elevator is stuck.” Jason looked at me with a pale face and fear in his eyes and said, “Is Merilee in the elevator?” Ha! I laughed and reassured him that it was only our luggage, but none the less we needed help. After much persuasion Jason was finally able to convince the owner of the flat to call the elevator repair person who showed up about an hour later, only to yell at Jason and call him “Stupid!” for putting two bags in at once! Oops, my fault! It would have been really nice to have put a sign up that said, “one bag at a time!” OY! But at least we had our bags back. After the elevator repairman threw them on the floor we lugged them up the stairs and finally settled into our tiny flat.

Here’s a picture of the damned beast of an elevator…

WHEW! What a beginning, huh?

Here’s our apartment building…


Here’s our street…


And here’s our living room/kitchen area which was also my bedroom …


The flat was tiny but it worked and was situated in a great area. We weren’t right in the center of Paris, which was kind of nice as it forced us to explore areas we may not have otherwise found. Our neighborhood was full of interesting markets, restaurants and bars.

Finally, somewhat settled into the apartment, feeling frazzled, tired and hungry, we decided we’d better find some lunch before we all got too cranky. We wandered out onto our street in search for food, not knowing where we’d go. Just down the street and around the corner we found an open restaurant serving lunch. The three of us walked into the restaurant and all stopped at about the same time as we each realized that this setting looked familiar. Almost at the same time it donned on each of us that we’d just walked into “Café des 2 Moulins” – the restaurant where the movie “Amelie” was filmed! This movie was made about 5 years ago and was nominated for several Academy Awards. The story is about a young girl living in the 18th Arrondissement (Parisian Neighborhood) – which is where we were staying – and about her job in the restaurant and a story of a romantic pursuit. It was a beautifully artistic film. Thanks to Jason sending me the movie because we were going to be staying in the in that area, Jeff and I got to watch it just before I left. It was almost surreal to accidentally walk into a place you’d just seen in a movie.

Here are a couple shots of the restaurant…




While in Paris I quickly realized I had “public transportation envy.” Their metro (subway) system is wonderful! Just like in London, you can hop on the metro, at very affordable prices, and be anywhere in the city in just minutes. You don’t need a car. You don’t need to pay for gas. You don’t need to worry about parking. You don’t need to worry about traffic. It’s wonderful! I wish we had a system like this. There is a metro entrance every 500 meters in Paris, so they’re really easy to come by. Many of them are marked by these beautiful, historic signs…



The area we stayed in, the 18th Arrondissement, is in the northern area of Paris. It’s known for Montmartre, a hilly area of the neighborhood famous for being home to many well-known painters including Van Gogh and Picasso, and also for the Sacre Coeur basilica – both which were just blocks away from us.

Here’s a view of our hilly area of town.


Here is the nave of the church of Montmartre. It’s a small and simple building, but has a beautiful interior with many wonderful stained glass windows. Dad & Marie, I lit a candle and said a prayer for you both while I was there.


Just up the hill from the Montmartre church is the magnificent Sacre Coeur basilica dating back to Byzantine times of the 14th century. Much of the church was rebuilt in the mid 1800’s. Dad & Marie, I lit another candle for you here.


While we were visiting Sacre Coeur it began to rain heavily and everyone ducked for cover. We found shelter in a tunnel under the base of the church where we had a wonderful view of the rain water flowing out of the gargoyles all around the church! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!


These gargoyles act as water spouts for the rain gutters of the building. They were really beautiful, in a scary kind of way!



We took another one of those open-top, double-decker bus tours. They’re just a great way to get a broad look around the city in a short while. It’s a nice way to orient yourself when you arrive at a new place.

While on the bus ride we saw many famous buildings and streets of Paris. The city is so magnificent and so huge that you would have to live here for a very long time in order to see it all. At least we got to drive by some of them! Here are a few of the highlights we toured around…

Hotel Invalides, commissioned by Napoleon as the first hospital committed to wounded and invalid soldiers. The building is vast and is a beautiful work of architecture. Much of the structure today is a museum, but much of it is still used as a working hospital for the military.



This is the historic and famous cathedral of Notre Dame. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go inside, but we did get to appreciate the beautiful architecture of the exterior.


This is the historic Opera building – which is still used as a live theater today. Over hundreds of years it has been used for entertaining royalty and the privileged, and also for hosting important events. Hundreds of years ago a large hill was leveled and moved in order to build a huge road that would directly connect the Opera to the Place du Concorde, where the royal palace was located. You wouldn’t want the king to be late for the opera, would you? You might lose your head! Oh, we’ll get to that later. Good stories!


Riding around on the bus gave us many great views like this one, showing the wonderful mix of historic architecture and the hustle and bustle on the Paris streets.


While driving around we also passed my store! Yes, the French have created a clothing store in my name. I just love the French! Unfortunately they didn’t get the spelling quite right…



One of the major sites we visited more in depth was the Arc de Triomphe, which was commissioned to be built by Napoleon to celebrate the many victories of the French army. Today it still stands as a commemoration to their successes, but also as a memorial to all of the fallen soldiers who have given their lives for France. The structure is located at the end of the trees lined street Champs Elysees (a famous shopping and walking promenade in Paris). The arc hovers many stories above the street and boasts beautiful carvings and statuary. Currently, in the center of the arc hang a French flag beside a European Union flag – a symbol of France’s commitment to the EU. We saw this everywhere – France showing very strong support for the Union.



And yes, you can even clime to the top of the arc! How could I say no to that? Do these stairs give you vertigo???


The view from the top was spectacular! At the bottom right corner you can see a red bus – that’s one of the open-air buses we took around town.



Another amazing site we visited was the Eiffel Tower. What a wonderful structure! Seeing pictures of it, as we all have throughout our lives, just doesn’t do it justice. It stands as such a powerful icon of the country, people and ingenuity of France. At night, it’s lit beautifully in striking blue, and every hour it displays a show of sparkling lights covering the entire structure. From the top, the view is incredible! You can see everything from there. The wait in the line to get to the top was about an hour long, but well worth it. Here are a few pictures I took.


A beautiful view of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.


The Seine River from the Eiffel Tower.

The Arc di Triomphe from the Eiffel Tower.

And the gardens below the tower.

This is how the tower looks at night with the blue lighting. It’s really beautiful!

This shot is just me playing around with my new camera that I still don’t know how to use. The shot was taken at night, and I’m playing with the aperture opening and shutter speeds…

Across the city we visited the Place du Concord. This used to be the location of the royal palace and was the site for many executions of royalty and high ranking political officials. There is a legend that says oxen wouldn’t even cross the plaza because the earth was so soaked with blood that it frightened them! Charming, huh? Many famous people including Marie Antoinette were beheaded there. Today, the plaza is a meeting place for people and some of the surrounding buildings are used as political offices. In the center of the plaza stands a huge, 3,300 year old Egyptian obelisk from the tomb of Ramsey II. Over hundreds of years the center of the plaza was occupied by many different sculptures, statues and monuments paying tribute to various political parties and agendas. It was eventually decided that something without any political affiliation should be placed there, and the obelisk was set in the late 1800’s.

This is a close up image of the beautiful hieroglyphics on the obelisk.

From the Place du Concord you have a nice view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The evening we were there, the clouds made an opening just above the tower – as if it was emanating some energy force or perhaps divine light? It was really striking!

And of course we visited the Louvre! It was wonderful. That place is just amazing. It’s the largest museum in the world with a collection of over 300,000 pieces. Some of the highlights I saw included Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese (Jeff’s favorite and one of mine!), the ancient Greek statue of Venus Di Milo, and also the ancient winged statue of The Victory of Samothrace. Being here I felt like a kid in a candy store. It’s just such a wealth of art and history – it’s humbling to be around it all. The building itself is incredible as well. It was originally the royal palace. Over the past couple hundred years it has changed uses and even fallen into disrepair. At one point French officials considered demolishing the building because it was in such bad shape. Thankfully, they chose to renovate it and make it the amazing museum it is today.


About ten years ago the central place of the Louvre was redesigned and the modern pyramid you see behind me was made the main entrance. In the demolition for the construction they discovered many ruins below the plaza that included sections of walls of the old castle that stood there nearly 700 years ago. In the bottom floor of the museum there is a section you can walk through (you’re actually in the bottom of the old moat) where the base of the original castle walls and towers can be seen. It’s really something!

Here’s a closer look at the wonderful architecture of the building.

The plaza of the museum is FILLED with guards carrying automatic weapons! It was a little unsettling. Do you think they might have something of value inside this old building? It made me feel better though that the guards were all really cute!

This picture is for the boys at home.

While walking around the city we stumbled upon the tomb of King Henry XVI and Marie Antoinette. A little macabre perhaps, but cool to see.


Get a look at this picture of Jason standing in front of one of the very common Smart Cars. They’re tiny! Jason’s arm span is as long as the car! The nice thing is that you can park them anywhere.

Some of our walking tours included world famous bakeries and pastry shops! Merilee, having been a pastry chef, is very knowledgeable about baking and knew of all the famous Parisian shops. I loved seeing the beautiful shops and sampling their specialties!

Also, as we were walking around we saw these stands of matching bikes. Jason, being an avid cyclist, checked them out. The city has this wonderful system where you can rent bikes as you need them. All over the city were these bike racks and kiosk stands. At the automated kiosk stands you can reload your bike card to buy more time for the bikes. The bike racks lock the bikes in magnetically. To get your bike you just touch your bike card on the rack near the bike you want and it releases the bike and charges your account. Then, you can take the bike back to any station and simply place it back in the rack and it’s locked down. A great way for people to get around the city. We saw systems like this in London and Barcelona also. Isn’t that a great idea?

This is the automated kiosk where you reload your bike card…

Merilee and I took the metro across town to visit Versailles, the royal palace and gardens of King Louis XIV. The site was originally his father’s, King Louis XIII, hunting lodge. In the 17th century, King Louis XIV had the palace and garden built to be the most magnificent of any palace or garden in existence, and he succeeded. Both the building and the grounds are testament to the artful design of the French of that era. The site also includes a separate garden and estate which is where Marie Antoinette lived. Today the palace and gardens are a museum, but are still used to receive political officials and dignitaries and for hosting special events.

Everything about the building and gardens is oversized and over the top. Imagine the greatest opulence you can and then double it! I think Mr. Louis may have had a bit of an ego.

Just a modest front gate.

The building on the left is part of the palace and contains the royal gallery. The building on the right was the King’s private chapel.

This is one of the wings of the palace containing the living quarters, offices, and social rooms.

This image of inside one of the rooms shows the incredibly elaborate carvings and gold gilding. Talk about Baroque!

Oh, it was so crowded in there! Damned tourists. The pictures aren’t very good because it was impossible to take a shot without someone’s head (or 50 heads) in your way. Each room contained magnificent art pieces – both paintings and sculptures. And in almost every room there was a painting or sculptures depicting the King in some heroic setting. Again with the ego! It was really interesting to me though that so many of the paintings, especially the ones on the ceilings, were of Pagan scenes and deities. King Louis XIV considered himself to be extremely religious and saw himself as a direct liaison between God and the people of France, so I wouldn’t have expected all of the Pagan artifacts. I think there were more Pagan paintings than there were Christian ones.

Another interior of a room in the palace. Honestly, I lost track of which room was which. There must have been over 100! Jeff, I think we should see if we can find this wallpaper for the house.


A picture of Louis himself! White tights, huh?

This is the famous “Hall of Mirrors.” The room is lined with windows on the right and mirrors on the left, and rows and rows of huge chandeliers down the center. I think this was the bathroom. Just kidding! The hall was used for entertaining and celebrations.

The GARDENS! WOW! Look, I was really there.

The formal sculptural trees and hedges are really representative of the Gardens of Versailles. The scale of this place is unbelievable and truly fit for a king. The gardens contain open areas, fountains, ponds, a grand canal, forests and a vast network of pathways. I think I read that it takes 20 minutes to walk from end to end.



This picture highlights a clever design aspect of the landscape architect (whose name I should probably know). The slope of grass below was carefully angled and shaped in order to force the perspective view of the visitor, making the garden look larger and grander than it really is. As if it needed to look any larger! The dark dots in the grand canal are actually people in canoes.

I was so glad I had an opportunity to see this place. It’s an incredibly important historical site for us landscape types. It was really beautiful.


Paris was really wonderful! It's just a magical city that has so much to offer. I hope to come back again and again.