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Published: July 27th 2011
On Île de la Cité
Notre Dame and the beautiful Seine behind us.There is no lack of travel blogs or favorable words written about the love affair humans seem to have with Paris, and I will be no different.
Michael and I left Interlaken with our feet tired and hearts full, ready to spend a few relaxing days lazying around the cafés of Paris. We took the direct bullet train from Lausanne, Switzerland, and upon arriving, made our way from Paris' huge Gare de Lyon train station to our St. Germain neighborhood hotel just in time to join a conveniently-located sports bar across the street for the U.S.-France game in the Women's World Cup. It was fun to watch this game in France, and it just so happened that we had stumbled into an expat bar, so many people were cheering for the U.S. with us! While mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, and beer are not what one immediately thinks of when thinking of Paris, the U.S. win was a good way to start our time there!
But alas, the grease and Guinnesses quickly gave way to reveal the true City of Lights as we walked the lively and adorable streets of St. Germain by twilight in search of a dinner café.
It would not be difficult-- every storefront across Paris seems to be an outdoor café, and with the beautiful weather and late summer nights, every single one of them were filled with lovers and smokers. We joined and enjoyed a nice, slow dinner filled with delicious creamy sauces over seafood that the French do so well, and before we knew it, it was late.
That seems to be part of the magic of Paris-- when the hours slip by dreamily and you don't really know what you did all day other than stroll and snack, but you know it was good. That pretty much sums up our four days in Paris.
Having both been to Paris before (though never together), Michael and I really had no plans for this visit other than to walk, eat crêpes, eat croissants, and eat cheese. As Owen Wilson's character so accurately stated about Paris in Woody Allen's latest film,
Midnight in Paris, "...every street, every boulevard is its own special art form." While we did not get transported to the Parisian golden era of artists and writers like he did, I did feel transported in a very light and carefree way.
Unbeknownst to us, our first full day in Paris was July 14th, the French National Day, or "Bastille Day" as we often call it in the U.S. This means that all morning there were fighter jets flying in formation performances in the air, and there were fireworks and parties along the Seine River at night. We did not find out early enough to catch the parade down Champs-Elysees in the morning, so we spent the day visiting Sainte-Chapelle, one of the Gothic masterpieces and holy houses on the Île de la Cité built in the 1200's (!!) and famous for its amazing stained glass panels. The stained glass windows depict Biblical tales through thousands of images that are impressive beyond belief, especially knowing that they were created so long ago (quite a few of them are still the originals). While the sanctity of the place speaks to many visitors, it was the architecture and intricacy of the artwork that stayed with me.
We then walked across the street to visit the OTHER Gothic masterpiece on this tiny little island in central Paris, the Lady herself, Notre Dame Cathedral. As expected, Notre Dame was far more busy than Sainte-Chapelle and
Michael had been inside before, so we just did a quick walk through of the interior, felt similar notions of smallness as we stared up at its tall Gothic naves and stained glass rose windows, and left, deciding not to wait in the ridiculously long line to go up to the towers (though I really wanted to check out the gargoyles and look for the Humpback). We checked out the gargoyles and buttresses from the backside, and then made our way to another café, where we had possibly one of our best meals of the trip!-- Apparently, you haven't had a proper niçoise salad until you have one in France. Makes sense. And now that I have, I don't know if I can go back to our American versions!
We spent the rest of the afternoon weaving in and out of the lively neighborhood of Le Marais, drooling as we passed the falafel craze in the bustling cobblestone streets of the Jewish quarter, relaxing in the parks, and searching for the Picasso Museum. Unfortunately, when we found it, it was closed for renovation. It was also closed when I went six years ago. I guess I am just not
meant to know Picasso in Paris.
No matter. We walked until we found ourselves in front of the Centre Pompidou, a modern art museum and exhibition hall built inside-out and named after the former French president. All the piping, vents, steel beams, and infrastructure of the Centre Pompidou is inverted, placed on the outside of the building for all to see, and, while interesting, it certainly makes for a very sharp contrast with the charming old traditional European architecture around it. We did not go in to see the exhibits, but wandered around the front halls and the energetic courtyard for awhile, enjoying the street performers out front for which it is known. At one point, there were what seemed like thousands of people circled around this one French mime-- I know, so stereotypical, but there he was!
In the long evening hours before dark, we went over to the Central Park of Paris, Jardin du Luxeumbourg. Almost more than anywhere else in Paris, everyone in this colorful and very well-manicured park was just relaxing. Whether it was reading a book, laughing with friends, or just sitting still and staring out over the terraces, I don't think I've
ever seen a more laid-back group of people. We let the tranquility wash over us, as well, until the sky started to turn pink, easily polishing off the bottle of wine and large round of Camembert and crackers that we had brought with us.
That night, we joined hordes of visitors and locals alike to line all the bridges and banks along the Seine, waiting for the fireworks. It was like a big festival, with outdoor food carts filling the air with the smell of smoked kebabs and fresh pizza, and kids screaming everywhere. The sunset was spectacular, and we landed ourselves a decent viewing spot along the most ornate bridge across from Les Invalides. The sky did not completely darken until well after 10pm, so the fireworks started at about 11pm. While the launching point must have been quite far, since we did not feel the great boom in our hearts that I love about fireworks, it was still a great show. Few other night scenes can compare to the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance, boats cruising along the Seine below us, and fireworks illuminating the water and bridges of beautiful Paris. (See pictures!) It was a
great celebration to cap off an exceptional day, especially because we had missed the firework celebrations of July 4th back in the States, as we were on our red-eye coming to Europe!
The next couple days were a comfortable blur of more traipsing around the city:
We made ourselves go back to Le Marais to experience a giant falafel and lamb pita for ourselves (since we had just eaten and were too full when we first walked by them the first day). These are not to be missed! The line for one of the windowfront restaurants (Falafel King, or maybe Falafel Palace...?) literally stretched around the block-- for a 7€ pita! But, mmmmmm, what a piece of heaven! Literally every other person walking around that neighborhood was holding a bulging pita of deliciousness, and I was so happy to hop on the bandwagon.
We also explored the Montmartre district for the first time. Montmartre is a charming hilly neighborhood full of character, and home to Amelie, Moulin Rouge, and Sacré-Cœur. Sacré-Cœur, a beautiful large Catholic church hardly 100 years old that sits atop the highest hill overlooking all of Paris, seems to be the biggest tourist draw
Happy French National Day!
Fireworks and a sparkling Eiffel Tower cap off Bastille Day here, but there is really so much more to experience in this quarter. Montmartre also has the popular Plaza de Tertre, which, while very touristy, was still very fun to walk through with its hundreds of caricaturists, landscape painters, and other artists. Our favorite part was its plethora of gelato shops! Montmartre's small streets, many stairs, and graffiti walls make for a great place to get lost and wander.
One night, we hung out in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower to see it light up and to people-watch, and were glad that we had both been up before, because the line to go up was outrageously long! In fact, every attraction in the city seemed to boast very long lines. We know it is busy during summertime in Paris, but we did not expect it to be quite
this busy! I mean, aren't we still in the midst of a global recession? Where did all these visitors come from? We had heard that the wait just to get into the Louvre was over 3 hours! Again, thank goodness we'd both been before and did not need to go this time.
We did, however, make it
to the Musée d'Orsay, which is one of the most beautiful museum buildings I have ever seen. It is an old train station, and they have artfully transformed it into a welcoming space where the building itself seems to be an exhibit. Not that it needs any more draw to bring visitors to its doors. Housing many original and recognizable works of Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Degas, and Picasso-- to name a few trivial artists-- the line to get in here was not small either. I was grateful that it was rainy outside when we went so that I would not feel bad spending so much time indoors! The big temporary exhibit on display was Édouard Manet, and though these exhibits are always too large for me to fully focus on each piece of work, I enjoyed this particular exhibit because they displayed many of his unfinished pencil drawings and sketches, showing his process and planning as he composed larger paintings.
But, despite all these famous names and museums and iconic landmarks, the beauty and romance of Paris still truly lies in just wandering and being.
At one point, we hopped on the Seine boat taxis,
covering the entire route in the rain, with no particular destination. I enjoyed simply being on the water, slipping under the bridges, and watching people stroll along the riverwalk or laughing as their umbrellas popped in the wind. On more than one occasion, we just found ourselves at an outdoor café, eating endless baguettes and cheese or sipping libations, without the need for words or the demand of schedules. Ah, Paris!
It was really too bad when we actually had to look at the time to catch a flight and end this trip!
Check out the next few pages of photos!
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non-member comment
awesome trip...woah. sometimes clichés are meant to be done...they had to get that name somehow :) wooo! miss you both! xo aa