Well, the last week of this grand adventure is upon us so time to catch up on the sightseeing "musts" still on our list and to just enjoy Paris.
Monday started with a visit to the
Ile de la Cite with the first stop being
Sainte-Chapelle famous for it's fabulous stained glass windows...
... interesting that this is the only church we have been to, on this entire trip, where you have to pay an entrance fee to enter. There was quite a crowd so a bit of a long line to get in but worth the price and time to see the windows.
By the time we got in and had a good look at the windows and the rest of the church, it was time for lunch. We tried Le Soleil d'Or on the corner of Blvd du Palais and Quai du Marche Neuf (still on the island). It was finally time to try the very popular (everywhere in France according to our waiter) oeufs mayonnaise which were very good. That was followed by a Croque Madame for Brian and salmon salad for Kris so by the end of the meal we were well filled up with oeuf!
After lunch it was on to the
Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris where the crowd was even bigger but definitely a place to see...
Leaving the cathedral we decided to walk over to the
Left Bank (for which we have generally just used the phrase "the south side of the Seine"). Walking along Rue Saint-Jacques we came across the
Church of Saint Severin, a much smaller church with the corresponding much smaller crowd, i.e. almost nobody else. This church has some of the newest windows we have seen and they are spectacular modern style...
.... many more pics of all 3 churches on our photo album.
After wandering along Blvd Saint Germain for a bit we recalled seeing a poster about one of the oldest metro stations which still had the original ornate glass and cast iron entrance way. The
Abbesses metro station, built in 1912, is on the #12 metro line so we continued along Blvd Saint Germain to Blvd Raspail and the Rue du Bac metro station which is also on the #12 line. Unknown to us, at the time, Abbesses is the deepest metro station at 36 meters which means a lot of steps. We caught an elevator part way but, of course also unknown to us at the time, there was a second elevator to take you right to the top, so up the stairs we went. It was a winding staircase with great murals painted on the walls...
... and the glass and cast iron entrance at the top was pretty cool to see...
We sat and sketched for a bit but it was quite hot out with no real shade so packed it in, took the two elevators back down into the station and the metro south to the Marais district. Walking along Rue de Rivoli we went into a large department store (
Le BHV) where, Brian discovered, in the lower (basement) level they have a DIY department that could give any Canadian home improvement store a good run for it's money. After wandering around the Marais a bit more we jumped on the #1 metro over to the Bastille for some refreshments and called it a day.
Tuesday we set out for the
Fondation Pierre Berge - Yves Saint Laurent at 3 Rue Leonce Raynaud to see the special exhibition on the Berber Women of Morrocco. Fabulous but no photos allowed!
Leaving the exhibit we walked along Ave Marceau towards the Arc de Triomphe checking out the Church of Saint Pierre de Chaillot along the way before stopping in at La Comptoir l'Arc for lunch and to get out of the sudden rain. We must have picked a good place because it was very popular, mostly an office type crowd, with a fairly long line forming just after we got seated. Aside from finding out just how tough a "rare" steak can be we also got charged 10 euro for a bottle of water after asking for just tap water. TEN euro for a bottle of water... that's like SIXTEEN Canadian bucks and it wasn't even that big of a bottle! Anyway, other than being soaked for the water, we were inside for the worst of the rain. As the rain abated we paid our bill and continued on towards the Arc de Triomphe...
As we neared the giant traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe a guy tried out the "did you drop this gold ring and if you didn't would you like to buy it" scam on us. As he walked towards us he bent down and pretended to pick up this ring and asked if it was ours. GIVE US A BREAK!... anyway, there is an underground walkway to get to the base of the monument then there is a stairway up to ground level. They make it look like you have to pay but don't get fooled; the paying is to go to the top of the monument; just walk past the booth and up the stairs to the ground level (unless you want to pay to go to the top). It is pretty neat there with the tomb of the unknown soldier and the view down the Champs Elysees...
After hanging out there for a bit we headed down the Champs Elysees where we caught the #1 metro to the Bastille then caught a bus over to the left bank to the Arab World Institute where they had a special exhibit, "Once upon in time the Orient Express" consisting of the train engine and several of the coaches which were set up as if the people of the day had simply got up and walked away from their seats...
They also had the dining car their but it was not part of the exhibit. It was actually set up as a dining car where, for a mere 145 or so euro, a person can have a multi-course meal in the style of the day. We passed on that part.
After that we headed home. Remember the bit last week about the renovations going on next door? Well we got home, today, to find a rather good sized hole in the wall between our apartment and theirs... oops...
The guy wanted to come in and patch it up but we told him "No, you will have to deal with the apartment manager on this one". However no big deal... the manager came over, took a few pictures, emailed them to our apartment owner who lives in California. She emailed them to the owner of the apartment next door who promised to fix it. No biggie, these things happen. They patched it from their side and will come Friday, after we have left, to fix the wall in our apartment. We wondered how much of a conniption fit someone would have if this happened in an apartment building at home.
Wednesday we awoke to rain so decided it might be a good day to visit the art galleries at the
Centre Georges Pompidou. We arrived at about
10:40 am to find a bit of a line. The centre doesn't open until
11:00 am so we joined the line, all under cover from the rain. At about
10:50
some rocket scientist comes out and says the line can't go along the
building under cover, it must go straight out into the plaza, so we all
march like lemmings to maintain the same order but now in the rain!!!
11:00 am
rolls around and no movement. We think somebody is just enjoying seeing
people stand and wait in the rain. Finally about 10 after they open the
door! Security is very tight, ie, buddy taking a cursory glance in a
purse. We avoided the long line
at the ticket wicket, opting instead to use a self help kiosk which went
very smoothly and within minutes we had our tickets. We dropped our
coats and wet umbrellas at the coat check then decided to start with a
visit to their cafeteria for a croissant and pain au chocolat (fast
becoming our regular breakfast fare), but alas they had only croissants
so that had to do.
After munching the croissants we took the hamster
cage like escalators to the top floor. It was still raining quite
heavily and was quite cloudy so potential great views over the city were
somewhat muted but we could still see the Eiffel Tower in the distance...
In the top floor gallery was a special exhibit featuring the works of
Martial Raysse. WOW! Fantastic exhibit of modern art from the sixties on...
Leaving that exhibit we again entered the hamster cage escalator down a
couple of floors to the general museum collection covering art from
about 1910 to the present. WOW again....
... lots more pics from these galleries are on our photo album.
After
spending several hours in those wonderful galleries we left the centre. Walking along Rue
Rambeauteau then Blvd Sebastopol to the Reaumur/Sebastopol metro stop,
we jumped on line #4 to the St Germain des Pres station on the left
bank. We stopped for an excellent lunch of sausage wth
lentils and tagliatelle (unfortunately we remember what we had but don't remember the name of the place). We wandered around the area for a
while stopping in at the famous
Le Deux Magots for what was probably the
best cappucino we have had in Paris, albeit the standard 7 euro for a smallish cup. After more general aimless
wandering we took bus #86 along Blvd St Germain over to Le Bastille for a
couple of glasses of wine. While slowly sipping our wine a most tremendous
rainstorm opened up causing a great rush for cover...
We sat it out although just being under the canopy the water did come close to washing around our feet.
Afterwards we decided to walk a different way home and got ourselves
totally discombobulated as the skies opened again. At one point we
stopped under cover to check our map. A very nice women stopped and
asked if we needed help... ok, yes! Turns out we were way off from where
we thought we were but we were only a block away from a metro station.
One of the great things about Paris is that as long as you can find a metro station you
can get yourself home. A half hour or so later and a couple of metro transfers we made it back to our
apartment, albeit somewhat wetter than we would have liked.
Thursday is the local Bastille market so we decided to head out for a wander through there. Kris picked up a few more stripped
shirts and we got some sausage and chicken for lunch. Back at the
apartment Brian called to reserve a taxi for tomorrow morning then we
began packing round one. We finished packing two suitcases that will now not be
opened, by us, until we get home. The other two contains clothing etc
that we will need in Frankfurt on our way home (yes, we have 4 suitcases but they are all small!).
Happy with the way packing went,
we stopped for a break and the sausage and chicken we bought earlier at the market then headed out for our last day in Paris. We took metro line #5 to Bastille then onto the #1 line to the
Tuileries where we wandered around the
beautiful gardens...
... then walked
across the river to the left bank for a last stop in at Grom for ice cream
then Le Deux Magots for cappucino and a nice sit of people watching.
Then after walking over to the Bon Marche before taking metro line #10 to
Gare l'Austerlitz and a swtch to line #5 to Breguet-Sabin for a short walk
to L'Industrie for our final dinner in Paris. Decent chicken but the flank steak, although cooked beautifully (rare) and tasted great, was tough as an old shoe. How do they do that? Afterwards we read that the French do not age their beef and the cattle are raised for muscularity. Man, it was even hard to cut it with a steak knife. After we stopped at Le Paris for some wine to
finish our Paris visit in the place we started it.
Friday morning our taxi guy arrived pretty well on schedule and off we went to Gare l'est to catch our train to Frankfurt. After a comfortable train ride through the countryside of eastern France and western Germany we arrived in Frankfurt late afternoon and grabbed a taxi to the Hotel Am Zoo, our home for the next couple of days.
Saturday was the last shopping day (pretty well all stores in Germany are closed on Sunday). We started out the day at the Oska store near Schweizer Platz where Kris picked up a few items. Heading back towards the Zeil shopping area we decided to walk over towards and across the river. Just before the river we came across a huge outdoor flea market. This one is true "flea worthy". Man, was there ever a lot of useless crap there. Still fun to wander along checking things out though. Once across the river we took the metro back to the center of the Zeil. While waiting for the metro we noticed a poster for an expressionism exhibit, featuring the work of
Alexej von Jawlensky at the museum in Wiesbaden, a city not far from Frankfurt so we decided to give it a try.
So, Sunday morning off we went. After all the wonderful museums and art galleries we have been to on this trip, this was, as Kris put it... "like a nice after dinner mint" or "the icing on the cake". Beautiful city, beautiful museum, great exhibit... all in all a great last day before heading home.
Monday morning we caught an early taxi to the airport and the flights home.
