Paris - Chapter 6

Tuesday, 4.1.08

So, today I decided to head back to some museums, and made my way to Musée d'Orsay. This museum is on the left bank of the Seine River, and is in a former railway station, Gare d'Orsay. It houses mostly French art, but is best known for the amount of impressionist works housed there.

I was able to purchase a ticket at an automated machine, as I did at The Louvre, so I was pleased about that. But once I was inside & saw the extensive collection of pieces, I decided to get a set of headphones to have the different pieces of works further explained to me as I wandered around. At this point, I felt somewhat comfortable with my broken-French, enough so to ask for a headset to be played in English. I put my headphones on and started my journey through the old train station (which was pretty cool in and of itself).

Two and a half hours into my tour, and only partially through the museum, I realized I probably wouldn't have much time for any place else, so I took my time wandering through the rest of the museum. My preference toward smaller, more genre/artist specific museums was confirmed as I walked through this museum. It was also really neat to see pieces that I had studied in college, right there in front of my face, even looking back at the pictures, it's sort of surreal that I had the opportunity to do this. Pictures of some of my favorite pieces are included at the end.

After about 4 hours at the museum, I figured I should head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I had taken the Metro/RER there, but as was the case other days, I liked to do some exploring while walking, so I looked at a map and figured out a general direction I needed to head.

After walking for about 20 minutes, I decided to take a break on a bench, to take off the scarf I was wearing, and to give my legs a rest. A gentleman quickly sat down next to me, eventually asking me if I spoke French. I simply shook my head (as I was told not to tell any shady-looking character what language I spoke). He followed that up with Spanish and eventually English, both of which I shook my head at. Feeling a bit like I was in a bad situation, I decided to get up and start walking again.

As I'm crossing the street, two guys in street clothes point at me & one approaches me. He starts speaking to me in French, showing me this folder he had in his hand. I assumed he wanted me to buy something, or that he was in on something with the guy from the bench, so I sternly told him I wasn't interested and that I didn't speak French. He then took a wallet out of his pocket and flashed a badge, and in broken-English confirmed that he was with the French police. He then followed up with more broken-English, asking me what the gentleman who sat next to me said. I tried to explain that all he asked was whether I spoke French. His response was something along the lines of, "Well, that's good. He's not a nice fellow." The rest of my walk was spent on well-populated streets with no stops.

This night, we decided to head to a restaurant the hotel recommended. Based on the business card they gave us, it looked to be a relatively close walk. It wasn't. This ended up being fine with me, because I was able to point out things as Matt, Heather and I walked to dinner (as if I knew the city or something). :) The walk ended up being well worth it, as the food and wine were delicious. Matt and I ordered a random bottle of red wine from the menu, and it ended up probably being the best wine from the trip, and that I've ever had (as far as I can remember). I ended up ordering veal, and it too, was probably the best meal of the trip.

With stuffed bellies, we made our way back to the hotel/Pantheon area. This night, we had planned on meeting up with a friend of ours that lives in Paris (well, I guess he lived there, as he's since moved back to the States)... being that it was late, we weren't sure if we'd be able to, but we headed toward a bar anyway.

We wandered down the narrow streets near the Pantheon and stumbled upon Le Piano Vache, which was a pretty neat little dive bar. As I was on the phone outside explaining where we were, someone from inside popped their head out and said, "Are you going to stand outside all night or come in for a drink?" I knew this would be a nice place.

With directions given to our friend, we headed inside and found a table. We ordered our drinks and settled in for the night, anticipating their arrival as we listened to the eclectic mix of music coming from the jukebox. After about an hour, they eventually arrived, citing getting lost as their reason for being late (in my mind, that made this bar a little cooler than I already thought it was). We spent the rest of the night talking, explaining where I'd been, as well as hearing what it's like to live in Paris as an English-speaking American. It was a really nice way to end our night.

Musee d'Orsay:

Paris - Chapter 5

Monday, 3.31.08

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:

Paris - Chapter 4

Sunday, 3.30.08
So Sunday was my first day exploring on my own. I had a loose schedule of things I wanted to see. As I'd get ready in the morning, I'd take a look at the list and check to see what was closed when.

At dinner the previous night, one of Matt's coworkers had suggested taking a bus tour, to see most of the sights and then make the decision on what you wanted to go back to. Being that it was overcast/rainy, I figured I'd try that on Sunday.

I used the borrow copy of The Eyewitness Travel Guide to Paris to find the better bus tour options. Once I located the one I wanted to use, I started my walk toward its location. After walking up and down the street it was located (according to the book) in the rain, I was about to give up, when I looked to my left and saw one of the buses coming toward me. I followed the street from where the bus came & eventually found the office.

It was approximately 11:35AM at this time - I went in and asked when the next tour would be.
"That was the 11:30 bus you just missed. The next tour is at 2:15." A little bit let down, I still purchased my ticket. I decided to head back out and explore for a few hours. Luckily, this bus tour company was a short jaunt from the Louvre, so I decided to spend some time in there.

Much to my surprise, there weren't long lines to enter. Once inside, there were longer lines for the ticket windows, but thank goodness for automatic ticket machines. I made my way to that, much shorter line. I had the ability to read the instructions in English & pay with my debit card, what an easy transaction.

It was roughly 12:15 at this point, so I decided I should get to all of the bigger things that everyone goes to see during their visit to the Louvre. I booked it to where the Mona Lisa was displayed (and even though I knew it was small, I was still a bit surprised at just how small it was) - and then walked around looking for the Venus de Milo & then the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It was probably around 1:00PM at this point (*note* I did not have a watch & my cellphone didn't work over there, so the only way for me to immediately know what time it was was to take a picture with my camera and then add the 7 hours to the timestamp).

I leisurely walked through the museum, eventually making my way to the exit, as I needed to pick up lunch at some point before the hour-long tour. I figured I could come back after the tour to see the rest of the museum.

I made my way outside & found another one of the street vendors selling baguettes. I did my best French impression & placed my order for a tomato/mozzarella baguette & bottle of Evian water (mainly because it was the easiest to order).

Because it was raining/wet, I couldn't plop down on the grass like I had hoped. I found a covered bench area though & started to eat there. I finished up around 1:45 and started to walk back to the bus tour company. A line had already begun to gather, so I hopped in it.

As I stated above, this tour was roughly an hour & went to such places as: the Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Palace de Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Notre Dame, The Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower (I know there were others, I just don't recall them - sort of says something for the tour). We were relegated to the bus for each site, no getting off to explore as I anticipated. While it was nice to have a quick-ish tour of these sites, I would have preferred a more interactive tour.

We returned to the bus tour company around 3:15, once I deboarded the bus, I decided to head back into the Louvre for a less-rushed tour. I spent probably another 2 hours inside, and then decided I should head back to meet Matt, as that was our plan on the days he worked (meet at the hotel between 5-6 to decide what to do about dinner).

That night, we were invited to dinner with some Chicago-area colleagues at a place on the Champs-Elysees called L'Alsace. Not knowing what to expect, but excited to go to Champs-Elysees, I figured I'd find something I could eat. Now, having no idea what Alsatian food was, I was a bit surprised by the menu. Apparently, Alsace is right near the border of France and Germany (read: sauerkraut and sausage). Most plates included a big ol' pile of sauerkraut, some sausages, a carrot, and more sauerkraut. Needless to say, Matt, Heather and I weren't all that impressed.

After dinner, Heather headed back to the hotel, while Matt and I decided to explore the area, where we ultimately ended up in a pub with live music. It was a little bit of a goosebump moment when the musician played "Sweet Home, Chicago" (he didn't know we were from Chicago).

After a few drinks there, we decided to head back to the hotel area, and either head to the pub we had went the previous night or to the "cremeria" for more beer. The pub appeared to be closing, but still had a couple of gals inside working on their laptops. The bartender offered us a couple of drinks, saying, "Well, you're in here now, it'd be a shame if you didn't have at least one pint" - SOLD! 3 beers later, but before the girls had packed up their laptops, we decided to call it a night.

I'm really enjoying Paris to this point.

Pictures from the Louvre (I did a lot of this weird picture-taking throughout my trip)




Palace de Invalides

Matt and I on Champs-Elysees

Paris - Chapter 3

Saturday, 3.29.08 - PM

So, after spending some time at Montmartre/Sacré Coeur, Matt and I headed back to the Metro/RER (I never knew which subway I was on) to make our way back to the hotel. By the time we made it back to the area of our hotel, we still had about an hour before we could check in, so we stopped at a local deli. Once again, I left it to Matt to place my order for me, but the guys behind the counter seemed pretty friendly & not at all angry that we spoke English to one another (I guess I had this idea that all French-speaking people we'd deal with would be offended & rude to us when they heard English. Turns out, if you put forth an effort to speak French, they're a little more forgiving).

This was my first taste of a mozzarella/tomato baguette sammich, and let me tell you, it was delicious. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. By the time we were finishing up, our eyelids began getting heavier, our bodies feeling worn down.

We headed over to the hotel about 30 minutes early, just hoping we'd be able to check in. Luckily, our room was ready! *sidenote* They put your hotel key on this huge, heavy key chain. Sometime similar to this:



I didn't really get it, and neither did Matt really, but we took it. Even took it with us when we'd go out for the night (well, the first night, at least). I had noticed someone earlier dropping off their key before leaving the hotel. I guess the hotel holds onto it & when you return, you just asked them for the key. This did pose a little bit of a problem for me, as silly as it is, I had trouble saying "43" in French, so I'd usually just say "4-3" (as in the word "four" followed by the word "three"). By the end though, after one of the friendly desk staff explained how to pronounce it, I was able to say "43" in recognizable French (I kept trying to pronounce the 'forty' portion of it how one would pronounce it in Spanish - so that was my main problem).

So, back to the story. We were able to check in to our room, so that made us both happy. We had planned on crashing for a couple hours, to refresh ourselves before dinner.

Now, I had always heard the worst about European hotel rooms (mainly that they are really small), so I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of our room. Below are some pictures:




Now, here's the bathroom. Looks pretty normal, I know - however, the tub/shower only had one small window as the barrier between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. I had to be extra careful when showering not to splash water all over the freaking place.



Once we awoke from our naps, we started to get ready to head to Au Petit Riche for dinner. The place came recommended from Matt's parents, who ate there when they visited Paris a few years ago. Again, I was really happy to have Matt with me. With most meals, I'd ask him to look over the menu & suggest what he thought I'd like. Most of the time, it wasn't anything I'd ever try, but I've been trying to do better about eating new foods. I ordered the sole, which is a type of fish. Matt and I split a carafe of wine as well (which actually was a part of most every, if not all, meals we had. Not that having wine with dinner is odd, it just is for us non-wine drinkers).

After dinner, we cabbed it back to our hotel where we dropped off Matt's coworker who had joined us for dinner. She headed to bed, but Matt and I were still somewhat awake, due to our earlier nap. We walked around the area and found a pub around the corner. We enjoyed a few beers there, before retiring home for the night. . . but not before stopping at the local grocer to take beers/booze back to our room with us!

I've included pictures from dinner, beers post dinner & our beer/booze run below:

This is where we bought our beer/booze

This is the beer/booze we bought

Paris - Chapter 2

Why am I writing these in chapters?

Saturday, 3.29.08 - AM
By the time we arrived in Paris, it was 7AM local time. As we got off the plane, we were corralled through customs, another new experience for me. I did have a twinge of excitement, as the little person in the booth was going to stamp the first stamp in my passport!

"Bonjour!" she says, as she takes my passport. She thumbs through it & hands it back to me. No stamp. WTF? I even paged through it in case I somehow missed the process of her stamping it. No stamp.

Anyway, we're now following the other passengers from our flight, but I'm also paying attention to the signs in an effort to teach myself some French. I look up and see "Baggage Claim" with an arrow, next to "Sortie" with the same arrow. Aha! I learned my first French term while in France! Sortie = baggage claim. It makes sense, sortie is close to sorting.

I'm shuffled to the side, while Matt waits for the bags. This part of traveling always makes me nervous. What if my bag doesn't pop out onto the conveyor belt? Would I have to spend money otherwise designated for fun in Paris on stupid clothes? Out comes my bag. Woohoo! More money for fun and not stupid clothes!

As we're headed to the currency exchange/ATM, I notice more "sortie" signs. We're nowhere near any baggage claims, so I'm wondering why they'd have sortie signs upstairs. Meanwhile, I send Matt to the currency exchange line, as he's at least able to speak some French. I stand in line at the ATM, but then begin to freak out a little, thinking, "what if all of the directions on the machine are in French? What the heck will I do?" Again, my non-international traveling self should have realized the machine likely offers multiple languages. It did. Hooray.

With cash in hand, Matt and I head to the taxi line, again, passing under a sign that read "sortie." Once I saw the sign hanging over a door to the outside, I realized "sortie" must not mean baggage claim, but rather "exit." At least I kept that to myself, no one knew how dumb I was.

We get into a cab, and once again, Matt is able to communicate with the driver, using the French he remembered. The ride took quite sometime, and ended up being about €40 (which translates to roughly $63). When we're almost to our hotel, we pass by a pretty old & large building, with well-dressed kids standing outside smoking. We're told this is one of the richest high schools in Paris. First, it was Saturday, what were kids doing in school? Secondly, everyone seemed to be dressed really well, like professional-business well - they weren't in uniforms, rather, their own clothes. I know this shouldn't be surprising to me, but it was.

We pull around the circular drive, see the Pantheon on our left & our hotel straight ahead. What a cool place to be staying!

Entering the hotel, it's Matt duty again to do the talking. I sit in the quaint lounge area of the hotel lobby while Matt speaks with the two guys at the desk. There seems to be some confusion. There isn't a room for us at the hotel. It's not under Reynolds, or under his coworkers last name either. The men behind the desk seem a bit frazzled, and ask numerous times for the last name & if we're sure we're at the correct hotel. Eventually, one of the men calls the hotel located directly next door. They have our reservation! Thank goodness.

We lug our what seem to be well over 100lb bags out the door and into the oddly similar hotel next door. I take my seat, Matt once again does the talking. Because it was around 8:30AM at this point, we weren't able to check-in. This ended up being a good thing, as while I know it's probably best to stay awake once arriving in a foreign country, the odds of me getting into the room, seeing the bed, and wanting to crash for a few hours was pretty high. The hotel was gracious enough to hold our bags while we ventured out into the city, not able to check in for 5 1/2 hours.

We decide to head to the subway and head to Montmartre/Sacré Coeur. (More can be read about it here ). Here are a couple of pictures:

Paris - Chapter 1

So, I'm not too sure how I'm going to organize my thoughts on my trip, so bear with me.

Friday, 3.28.08

I get to the airport around 3:15PM for our 5:30PM flight. I assume the place will be a zoo, and expect the worst for check-in (as I've never travelled internationally, I was ignorant to the process). Turns out I was able to walk right up to a self-check in & check myself in. *Rewind* As I'm leaving my apartment to take the Addison bus to the Blue Line to O'Hare, I'm struggling with the weight of my suitcase. In my mind, it's at least 75, if not 100 pounds. This worries me, as I know there's some sort of fee associated with that.

Ok, so I finish checking in & head to the agent to plop my 100 pound suitcase onto the scale to be checked in. beep.beep.beep, the number keeps going up. It stops at 49.8. 49.8!! I almost wanted to high-five the gate agent in celebration. She smiled, but that's all the emotion I received.

So, I'm all checked in & I head to security. Now, I don't know why I was concerned, but for some reason, I was a little worried about my expired drivers license (it expired the day before). I obviously had my passport, which I knew would work, but stupidly, I was expecting them to ask for a secondary ID. They didn't.

I make it through check-in and security in less than 15 minutes. This is faster than any other experience at an airport, even without checking bags. I was pleased. I immediately see a Chili's and I belly up to the bar and order a drink. I figured I'd wait there for Matt, once he arrived from work. Three or four Stellas in, it's time to head to our gate.

We make it there as they're boarding. I was pleased to find out that he and I would be in a 2-seater on one of the sides, rather than squeezed into the five-seat middle section. Granted, we were in economy class, so we would be a little tight, but it still made me more comfortable for the 8-hour flight.

As soon as drinks started being served, Matt and I ordered drinks.



After a few more drinks, and thanks to Jerry Seinfeld and the awful Bee Movie, I was able to drift off to sleep. I probably only slept for an hour or so, but it was enough to keep my body tired enough to drift in and out of short stints of sleep for the next couple of hours.

I was woken up a short time later with breakfast (served around 11PM Chicago time) and the end of Apollo 13 (hooray for the astronauts who survived! I know it's a true story, but I didn't know it. For those who also didn't, SPOILER!).

At this point, we began our decent into Paris. My excitement level was through the roof. I felt like a kid on my first trip on an airplane. I held Matt's hand and enjoyed the smooth landing. We were in Paris.

Eurotrip

I'm really trying to put together a well-thought out recap of my trip to Paris/London. I'm still in the process of organizing my thoughts, so to my one or two loyal reader(s), please be patient.