So, this day began much like the others - awaking as Matt was getting ready to head off for work commitments, sitting down and taking a look at places I wanted to visit & deciding on a game plan. Today, I planned on heading north and a little bit east/central, as I wanted to check out Notre Dame and the Picasso Museum, which was a bit away from where I had been walking previously.
I headed over to Notre Dame on foot, and it's really just an amazing-looking building. To think that people were able to build this some 800 years ago is something I'm not even able to comprehend. I walked into the cathedral and simply took my own tour. There was a mass going on, but people are allowed to walk throughout the church, so long as you didn't want into the individual chapels on the sides. While pictures were also allowed, some that I took of the inside didn't turn out so well (what can I say, I'm an amateur!). I probably spent about an hour inside Notre Dame on my own & then decided to head out, toward Musee Picasso (the fancy way to say "Picasso Museum).
Now, I didn't have the same luck here as I did at the Louvre the previous day, in that, I had to purchase my ticket from a person, and not from an easy, little machine. So, I used the little French that I knew and muttered, "Je Voudrais un" as I held up one finger. The woman said some amount, I wasn't sure what it was, so I handed her €10, hoping it was enough. Thankfully, it was - and I even received change! With ticket in hand, I headed toward the entrance of the museum.
I knew a little bit about the museum from Art History classes in college, but it was really neat to see in person. The museum is actually inside the building known as Hôtel Salé, which was built back in the 17th century for Pierre Aubert, a tax farmer who became rich collecting the salt tax ("Salé" means "salted"). The mansion had changed hands, as well as uses (I believe it was a school at one point), but eventually became the Musee Picasso in the 1970s.
The museum houses a lot of Picasso works, through many of his different artistic periods (Blue, Rose, African, and Cubism). The floor plan was a little confusing, but for the most part, the pieces were displayed in chronological order. I really enjoyed my time here & probably spent around 2-3 hours inside.
After finishing up there, I decided to head outside, but take a somewhat different route back to the hotel. Along the way, I'm fairly certain I walked through Paris' version of Boystown, which was sort of cool. I also ended up passing a pretty cool fountain, Stravinsky Fountain, which seemed to be in the middle of a commonly-seen area in Paris - some sort of square/outdoor-gathering place.
I eventually made it back to the hotel, worked up the courage to attempt to pronounce "43" to the front desk to retrieve our key, only to be told Matt was already upstairs with it. Argh!
Tonight, we had a fairly fancy dinner with the group of people he was there with for work, at Hôtel des Invalides. The Hôtel des Invalides was built in the 17th century by Louis XIV to provide accommodation for disabled and impoverished war veterans. The complex features 15 courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur (court of honor). This courtyard was used for military parades. Matt and I attempted to take a picture with this in the background, located below.
Dinner was very good, and held in a lavishly decorated room. It was served over 4 courses - scallops being first, followed by veal, followed by a salad, which was then followed by a dessert sampling. When the salad was brought out third, one of the more annoying Americans at our table blurted out, "This is weird, we have our salads first in America" in a louder & slower tone, as if that'd help those who didn't speak English understand.
After dinner, a French magician/comedian came out to perform. This was our cue to leave. We hopped in a cab & headed back to the hotel, where we decided to stay, as we were pretty tired & bars were likely closed.
Notre Dame:
Stravinsky Fountain:
Matt and I at dinner at Hôtel des Invalides:
No comments:
Post a Comment