Another Day in Paris: The Latin Quarter and Montmartre

Sunday morning, we headed back to Paris and started our day with another hearty American breakfast. This time, we went to the Breakfast in America location in the Latin Quarter so that we could explore this district after our awesome brunch.

The Pantheon. This is the final resting place for some of the most famous movers and shakers in French history: Voltaire, Rousseau, Pierre and Marie Curie (their ashes are buried here, not their bodies because I think their corpses would still be pretty radioactive today), and Alexandre Dumas (Alex's current favorite famous French mover and shaker). The upper section of the dome is closed to visitors until the end of March, so we opted not to go inside. We'll have to save this monument for spring.

Right across the square from the Pantheon is the Law School for the University of Paris. Don't know much else about this place, don't know why the front door is blue.

The Sorbonne. Founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon as a school for theology. It was the seat of the University of Paris until 1969, when it was divided into 13 separate universities. This is one of the oldest universities in Europe.

By this time, it was raining pretty hard, so we ended our walk and took the metro and headed indoors.


Musee d'Orsay. This museum opened in 1986 inside an old train station. It houses Impressionist paintings and art from 1848-1914. This is the view from the fifth floor. The entrance to the museum is under the big clock on the other end of the building.

Closeup of the clock. We saw some of our favorite paintings here: Monet's Rouen cathedral series, pastels by Degas and the portraits by Renoir.

It wasn't raining when we left the museum, so we decided to walk around Montmartre, which is up on a hill north of the Seine, overlooking the rest of Paris.

The streets of Montmartre are lined with tourist shops and artists. We were going to have our portrait taken, but it started to rain again, preventing the artists from working. Montmartre is also home to the world famous cabaret, Moulin Rouge.

St-Pierre de Montmartre, a church built in the 6th century. Behind this church you can see the top of the dome of the basilica of Sacre-Coeur. The dome is the second highest point in Paris (second to the Eiffel Tower).

View of Paris from the front steps of Sacre-Coeur. You can't see very much in this picture because it's raining pretty hard. We didn't take a picture of the front of the basilica because the front steps were filled with people trying to get out of the rain.

Deauville-Trouville

On the way home from Brittany, we stopped by the twin towns of Deauville and Trouville. Both are beach towns along the English Channel and are separated by the Touques River.

Deauville

Alex calls this the Saratoga Springs of France. The streets are lined with exclusive shops (Hermes, Gucci, Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Longchamp, Cerruti, Burberry) all housed in these cute little Norman looking buildings. This square is called the Villa Strassburger. The building to my right, which you can't see except for the column, is the Deauville Casino.

Notice how there is nobody walking around this place. The town is so Norman looking that it almost looks fake. Lots of really nice cars around here too. Rich and famous French people supposedly spend a lot of time around here--- they could have walked right by us and we wouldn't know unless they were Tony Parker, Zinedine Zidane, Gerard Depardieu, Jean Reno or Johnny Depp (not really French, but I wouldn't recognize his French wife).

Trouville

The oldest seaside resort in France, it is a lot more laid back than Deauville. We saw a lot more people on this side of the river.

Crowds along the boardwalk. The white fence on the right sells Shetland pony rides. Trouville is a lot more kid friendly than Deauville.

Notice the people wading through the frigid waters of the English Channel.

Northeast Brittany

The eastern-most portion of Brittany is only a two hour drive from Rouen. We headed into the clouds and drizzle of Brittany on Tuesday afternoon.

St-Malo

The town is known for its great sailors, but it is most famous for its corsairs, or pirates paid by the French royalty to pillage the British on the other side of the Channel during the 16th-19th centuries.

The ramparts of St-Malo. Viscount Rene de Chateaubriand is buried on the island in the background.

Alex, a cannon and a fort. To the left is the Fort National, a huge fortress and dungeon. You can't see them, but there were a couple of little boys waiting in line to take a picture with the cannon after Alex was done.

Walking down the ramparts.


Jacques Cartier is buried in the church of St-Vincent. Cartier is the explorer who discovered the St. Lawrence River and promptly drove a cross into the ground, claiming Canada for France.

Dinard

More clouds and drizzle as we headed towards Dinard, only 8 miles west of St-Malo along the Brittany coast.

Dinard has a promenade where you can walk along the coast. The rain started coming down a little too hard by the time we arrived, so we went to a creperie instead. Brittany is known for its crepes, so we had to try some. Delicious.

After the crepes, we drove from Dinard to Dinan for dinner and overnight. The road signs were a bit confusing: beware of the road signs between Dinard and Dinan. It's hard to remember which town you're headed toward (and which town you're in) when you see signs for both towns while driving in a roundabout.

Dinan

The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day. Sunny and not a cloud in the sky.

The viaduct on the outskirts of Dinan, spanning the Rance River. You can see part of the ramparts to the left.

View of the Rance River valley from aforementioned ramparts.

Dinard's streets are lined with artisanal studios and shops. The streets are also very steep. The buildings are very well preserved, so you feel like you're walking in medieval times (and at Medieval Times). There are also lots of shops that sell swords and suits of armor.

Rue de l'Apport and Place des Merciers. All of these streets are lined with 15-16th century houses.

Sunday in Paris: The Marais District and the Eiffel Tower

On Sunday morning, we left for Paris at 7:30 in the morning. Why? To eat brunch at Breakfast in America. They serve American breakfasts with free refills of orange juice and coffee on Sundays. Here's their website: http://www.breakfast-in-america.com/index.htm?http://www.breakfast-in-america.com/investors.html. They have two locations in Paris, one located in the Marais district. So after a breakfast of sausages, eggs over easy, toast and pancakes, we went for a walk around the Marais.

Place de la Bastille. The Bastille prison used to be here, but it was destroyed during the French Revolution. Behind me is July Column and the glass building is the Opera de la Bastille. The Paris Opera is housed here.

Seine River. You can see the two massive columns of Notre-Dame behind me. It was 65 degrees outside, so the pathway along the Seine was filled with tons of Parisians running, biking, walking and rollerblading. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the first wonderfully warm and sunny day of the year.

Church of St-Gervais-St-Protais. Named after two Roman Soldiers in the first century. Alex is holding a back of groceries from a store called Thanksgiving. This store sells American groceries, including Vlasic kosher dill pickles, Betty Crocker cake mix, Betty Crocker frosting, Crystal Light, baking powder and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. VERY expensive, but cheaper than shipping from the US.

Centre Pompidou. It houses the Modern Art Museum. Very colorful. If you look all the way down the street, you can see Notre-Dame. It's the column-like shadow in the background.

For lunch, Alex made reservations at the Jules Verne, a restaurant located on the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. The view was spectacular and the food and wine were excellent. We highly recommend eating here, especially if you want to go up the Eiffel Tower but do not want to wait in the long lines.

After lunch. Notice all the people waiting in line to buy tickets to walk up the stairs of the Tower. If you want to go up an elevator instead of walking up the stairs, there is another line, just as long, on the other end of the Tower.

View from under the Eiffel Tower. This thing is huge. And handpainted.

Place Vendome. Very fancy shopping and expensive jewelry stores: Cartier, Bulgari, Van Cleef and Arpels.

Opera National de Paris Garnier. Opened in 1875, it is now home to the Paris Opera Ballet.

La Fermette Marbeuf

We drove into Paris for dinner with two of Alex's agents, Harold and Charles. My friend Jen recommended this restaurant, and it was incredible. It's right off of the Champs-Elysees. No pictures of the restaurant since we don't like taking pictures of our food and they have a website. Check it out at http://www.fermettemarbeuf.com .

Paris

No practice on Wednesday or Thursday. We wanted to go down to the Loire Valley since it's very rare to get two full days off in a row in the middle of the week. However, all of the hotels we wanted to stay at were closed until mid-February. So, we planned my first trip to Paris. Actually, we really didn't do any planning until we got to the hotel late Wednesday afternoon. Turns out, the Louvre stays open until 10 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. We were psyched, and headed to the museum.

The Louvre at 7 pm. Pretty Da Vinci Code-esque, huh?

Surrounded by French sculptures in the Cour Marly. This used to be an open air courtyard before it was covered in glass. You get very weary after three hours of wandering around the Louvre. We saw tons of artwork (Mona Lisa), sculptures (Venus de Milo), jewelry (this 186 carat diamond), pottery and furniture from all over the world. Even with a museum map, you can't help but get lost. Our advice: bring water and snacks and wear comfortable walking shoes.
Notre-Dame. Both of us are in this pic. Very rare.

Karen and two gargoyles. We walked to the top of Notre-Dame. 387 steps. Great leg workout.

Gargoyles on top of Notre-Dame.

Panoramic view of Paris from the top of Notre-Dame.

Across the street from Notre-Dame is the Conciergerie. We didn't take any pictures of this site because it was really dark inside. The Conciergerie used to a prison. Marie Antoinette spent her last days here before she was guillotined. Louis XVIII built a chapel on the spot where she was imprisoned to commemorate the queen.

Arc de Triomphe. We walked up to the top of the Arc, almost as many steps as Notre-Dame. The calves were burning at this point. At the bottom of the Arc is the tomb of the unknown soldier. A flame of remembrance was lit in 1923 and has not been extinguished since then. This pic was taken while waiting for the light while standing in the middle of the Champs-Elysees.

Panoramic view of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

View of the Avenue des Champs-Elysees from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Good shopping in Paris, but not as good as Milan. You can kind of see the Louis Vuitton mother ship on the right (it's the one with the glass roof).

Place de la Concorde after a brief afternoon shower. The pointy thing in the middle of the square is a 3200 year old obelisk from Luxor, a gift from Egypt.

Versailles

By far the best weather day we've had since arriving in France, so we drove down to Versailles on Saturday, only about an hour away from Rouen.

Versailles used to be Louis XIII's hunting lodge. His son, Louis XIV transformed and enlarged it, installing his court and government here.

The Palace chapel, or Chapelle Royale, completed by Louis XIV in 1710. It is the tallest room in the entire Palace. This is the view from the King's box. The murals on the ceiling depict Apollo, the sun god. Interesting mix of Catholicism and greek mythology.

Listening to the audioguide in the Peace Room. We highly recommend the use of audioguides, especially if you don't read French and really don't know much about French art/artists/art history/furniture. We also saw the state apartments for the King, Queen and Prince (heir to the throne), Opera House, TONS of war paintings, sculptures of famous French people and lots of paintings of former kings, queens, their family members and animals.

We're standing in the middle of the garden, or Parc, behind the Palace. Versailles used to cover an area of 7,800 hectares (19,274 acres) and was surrounded by a 43 kilometer (26.7 mile) wall. Today, it is only about 800 hectares (1,977 acres).

A view of the Fountain of Latona. You can see the beginning of the Grand Canal in the background.

Standing alongside the Grand Canal. You can see the Palace way in the back. From the Palace to the top of the Grand Canal is 1 km. We saw a bunch of people rowing in the canal, including a high school crew team. It was very odd, they didn't seem too impressed to be rowing in Versailles. Practice as usual.

In the gardens behind the Petit Trianon, more than a mile from the Palace, but still in the Parc. Louis XVI gave this small estate to Marie Antoinette. Years later, she built a make believe Norman village nearby, with thatched roofed houses, a dairy, fishery, barn, mill and farm, so that she could enjoy the simple life and live a normal life away from the Palace.

Pierrefonds and Compiegne

Erin and I drove east into Northern France to visit a couple of chateaus. Very exciting, especially since this was Erin's first time navigating in Europe, trying to figure out which way to turn or exit a roundabout. Road signs around here, as in most of Europe, simply list a town with an arrow, no road names or directions, like I-10 west, simply Paris-->. It is up to you to figure out whether the town you're going to is on the way to Paris, after Paris, or nowhere near Paris. Even worse, you're almost never going to Paris, so you're looking for a sign with an "obscure" town name which may or may not be on your map. Even though she got the hang of it really quickly, I know that there were a couple of moments in the car when she wished that she'd studied our map of Northern France a bit more before we took off.

Pierrefonds

Chateau de Pierrefonds. Louis d'Orleans, the second son of Charles V, built this chateau in 1393. It was demolished in 1617 by Louis XIII. In the 1857, Napoleon III decided to restore the chateau and use it as an occasional imperial residence. Full restoration did not take place, as all work on the chateau ceased in 1885.

The chateau houses the Collection Monduit. The Monduits were master lead-workers, who were entrusted by the great French architects and sculptors to restore the spire of Notre-Dame-de-Paris and create the Statue of Liberty, among other things. This is a very small replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Compiegne

The Chateau de Compiegne is where Louis XVI first met Marie Antoinette. Tsar Nicolas II and the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna were the last royal guests to stay here, back in 1901. This is a picture of the outside of the chateau. The sign said that it closed at 5:00, but 5:00 really means 3:45, since they close all the doors at 5:00. Pretty neat from the outside, huh?

Trees lining the sidewalk along the cobblestone streets in Compiegne as far as the eyes can see.

Exploring Normandy with Erin and Nic

Erin is here visiting us for the week and Nic came over from Berlin for the weekend. We visited Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery and Memorial, Queen Matilda's Tapestry in Bayeux, Mont-St-Michel and Chartres Cathedral.

Omaha Beach

Erin, Omaha Beach and the English Channel.

A few of the 9,386 marble tombstones in the American Cemetery and Memorial on a hilltop overlooking Omaha Beach.

Wall of the Missing. The names of soldiers whose bodies could not be found are etched into this wall.

Bayeux

This town is famous for its tapestry, known as Queen Matilda's Tapestry. It is 225 feet long and contains 58 scenes which tell the story of William's conquest of England in 1066. Cameras are not allowed in the tapestry room, since the tapestry was stitched in 1067. Here we are, eating lunch outside of the Tapestry Museum. Chips, sandwiches and clementines, delicious!!

Mont-St-Michel

One of the absolute COOLEST and impressive places any of us has ever seen. The Mont-St-Michel abbey sits on top of a 264 foot rock off the coast of France. The original church was completed in 1144 and the abbey took over 500 years to build (1017-1521). Benedictine monks live and work at the abbey today.

You can see sand flats surrounding the abbey because it is low tide right now. We wouldn't be able park our car in this spot if we were visiting during high tide, since the sea can rise up to 45 feet.

Halfway up the steep staircases going up to the abbey.

Close up view of the abbey.

The streets of the village at the bottom of the island are lined with shops, restaurants and hotels. It looks like a Disney village.

The abbey at night. Looks kind of like Cinderella's castle, doesn't it?

Chartres

Built in 1250, the cathedral in Chartres is famous for its over 150 stained glass windows.

The stained glass windows depict both biblical stories as well as 13th century daily life. This window depicts the Glorification of the Virgin. The five windows beneath depict the kings of Judah and the prophets (including Nebuchadnezzar, David, Solomon, Aaron, Saul and Pharoah).

A typical French half-timbered house.