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Published: September 19th 2014
Rebecca and the Notre Dame
Rebecca standing across the river from the Notre DameWhen we arrived in Paris on Monday August 4th, we headed straight to the place we were staying for the week and napped. After we woke up, we had a relaxing afternoon, walking around the islands in the middle of the city and along the banks of the Seine. We ate ice cream and walked through parks before enjoying crepes for dinner, then sat by the river until we were ready to head back and go to sleep.
On Tueaday, we got up in time to go on a free walking tour of Paris in the morning. We started by the Saint Michel fountain and then walked around the Latin quarter, an artsy but touristy area of the city, and walked down the narrowest street in Paris. We saw Notre Dame, the Chapel St. Louis, the place where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before being executed, the French Academy, the Louvre, and the place where executions happened during the French Revolution. We walked along the Pont Neuf and the Love Lock Bridge and ended with a view of the Eiffel Tower. After the tour, we walked along the Champs-Elysées to the Arc d'Triomphe, and after taking a break, we walked to
Notre Dame 2
Another view of the Notre Dame cathedral the Eiffel Tower. We decided not to go up it since it was expensive and wouldn't have the best views, but we enjoyed walking under it. By the time we left, we were tired from a long day with a lot of walking.
On Wednesday, we went on a tour of the gardens of Versailles. The gardens are beautiful, but it rained throughout the day, so it wasn't the best experience. It is interesting to see how everything has been forced to grow a certain way, and nothing is allowed to grow naturally. The gardens require a huge amount of maintenance so that everything looks perfect. The palace had been built by Louis XIII as a summer retreat and a hunting lodge, but Louis XIV initially didn't like it as much as his predecessor had. After the young Sun King had a falling out with one of his top ministers, (the guy had tried to stage a massive festival in the King's honor -- against the warnings of other ministers -- but the king felt that he was being upstaged and thus fired him) he moved to Versailles and worked to expand and beautify it. He then added the
Notre Dame
The Notre Dame de Paris cathedral legendary gardens to the palace, pouring huge amounts of money into it in order to display his vast wealth and to convey the impression that mankind -- and, more importantly, he himself -- could control nature. Going into the palace was optional, but we decided to go since we wouldn't be coming back. We waited in line for about 2 hours in the rain and then finally were able to go in (and of course the weather improved once we were inside). The inside of the palace is beautiful, and every room is elaborately decorated with paintings, furniture, and other items. In many rooms, the walls and ceilings are painted as well. The Hall of Mirrors is awesome, especially considering how expensive mirrors were at the time. Louis XIV basically made the palace as lavish as possible to show off his wealth. Unfortunately, we were only able to see about half of the palace because it closed at 6:00. There were no signs, announcements, or any warnings about the closing time, and we didn't realize it was closing until they were pushing us out the door. So that was really disappointing, especially since we would have walked through faster if
The love lock bridge
Max standing in front of the love locks. Locks on locks on locks! we'd known. But we spent a bit more time in the gardens before heading back to Paris, because the weather had improved a bit.
On Thursday, we decided to do a museum day. We started out at the Rodin, which is small but had amazing sculptures and paintings. We went to the indoor section first, to escape the rain, and then went outside once the rain had stopped. It was definitely interesting to see the small studies of sculptures inside before seeing the full sized ones in the garden, including the famous "Thinker." After leaving the Rodin, we headed to Musée d'Orsay. Musée d'Orsay is in an old train station and has various types of art. Works there include paintings (there's a whole Impressionist gallery), sculptures, furniture, jewelry, and pottery. There was a special exhibit about Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, with information about his life and many of his works displayed. We managed to walk through the whole museum and get at least a glimpse of everything before it closed. Our timing throughout the museum was most impressive.
We knew that we would spend Friday evening at the Louvre since everyone under 26 gets in for free after 6 pm.
Pont Neuf
Rebecca near the Pont Neuf, the New Bridge, which is the oldest bridge -- actually the first bridge! -- ever built in Paris across the Seine. It has been said that this bridge actually created modern Paris. So we needed something to do earlier in the day. We hadn't been to Notre Dame Cathedral yet, so we decided to walk around the islands and go visit Notre Dame. We ended up taking a free walking tour of the cathedral, and we enjoyed learning more about its history and architecture. We then headed over to the Louvre since we wanted to get there early in case there was a line. But there was barely a line to buy tickets and no line to get in! And it turned out that we didn't even need tickets: we just needed to show I.D. to prove we were under 26. So if you're planning to go to the Louvre, go on one of the evenings it's open late if you don't want to wait in line. We started out at the Mona Lisa, which is remarkably unimpressive. It's small, covered by thick bulletproof glass, and surrounded by an endless swarm of tourists. It is on a display wall in the middle of a room, so there are actually pieces of art behind it. We almost felt pity for those pieces, because they are so close to glory (physically) but yet so
Louvre
Max in the courtyard of the Louvre far away. We then did the Greco-Roman section, which was totally awesome. We saw statues of Roman emperors and gods, pholosophers, and other figures from myths and legends. Since we saw the most important pieces, we decided that it wasn't necessary to go see the other several hundred thousand pieces in the many other galleries, so we left after a productive evening.
Saturday, August 9th, was our five year anniversary, and we spent a relaxing day wandering around. We started out by walking around Le Marais, the area that once contained the Jewish ghetto. It now contains shops and restaurants, with multiple crepe stands and other such places. We sat in the National Archive gardens and then later in another park. We then walked along the Seine and around the islands before heading back to the apartment and getting ready for dinner. We had a nice dinner and ended our evening by going to the top of Montparnasse tower, above the Montparnasse train station, looking over the city. The Tower is the tallest building in the old part of Paris (no tall buildings can be built there now because it is considered so ugly), and there are great views
Louvre 1
Max squashing the Louvre pyramid. from it. The best part is that you can see the Eiffel Tower and don't have the Montparnasse Tower in your pictures!
August 10th was our last day in France (for the time being), and we spent our day in Normandy. Max really wanted to do a tour of the beaches in Normandy where the D-Day landings occurred, but we didn't want to stay overnight in the area if possible. So we found a half day afternoon tour that allowed us to take the train there, go on a tour, and take the train back to Paris in one day. On the tour we saw Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, the cemetery for American soldiers who died in the world wars, and Arromanches. Point du Hoc is where the US Army Rangers landed and scaled the cliffs to take out the Nazi heavy artillery. They faced communication failures, an aggressive tide, and 80mph winds, and despite losing about 60 percent of their forces, the Rangers prevailed. Omaha Beach is where the bulk of the US forces landed that day, and it still remains much as it did that day. There is now a memorial to all the troops and
Louvre 2
Rebecca squashing the Louvre pyramid. the National Guard members who died there. The American Cemetery is where all the US service members who died in Normandy are buried, including Teddy Roosevelt's son, Teddy III (who died in Normandy about a month after the invasion and is now buried next to his brother Quentin, who died in aerial combat in World War I). Finally, we drove to Arromanches, where there are ruins of Mulberry harbors, artificial structures used to accelerate the landing of supplies to the troops on the beach and further inland. In the months after D-Day, the Mulberry harbors landed millions of tons of supplies, men, and vehicles. Arromanches is also home to a very good ice cream place: we got creme brulee and apple cider ice cream. In Arromanches, the farmers produce Calvados, and make Arromanches coffee by spiking their cup of morning joe with the alcohol. Then we headed back to Paris. We had a very good and successful tour after a great week in Paris.
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Doris Sachs
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Paris Plus
So glad to read your blog today. You brought back Happy Memories of the trip Grandpa and I enjoyed. XOXO Grandma