//Paris – July 2019
Picture the WorldJuly 27, 2019

Paris – July 2019

Warning: Long post ahead.
On our way from Lisbon to India, we spent a week in Paris and rented a lovely apartment a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower, where we could watch the elevators go up and down and the lights come on in the evening.
We spent most of our time walking the central eight arrondissements,
visiting landmarks and mentally checking them off our lists.
Some things weren’t on our list but got seen anyway, like time-worn St. Merry’s (above) and Les Invalides (below), a retirement home and hospital for war veterans until the early twentieth century.
 
Notre Dame was, of course, inaccessible and under the care of cranes and men on scaffolds (above and below). And wouldn’t you know, it is the only place we wanted to visit that doesn’t charge admission.
 
Somehow, one of our walks took us through Le Bon Marche department store, which at 180 or so years old is supposedly the first of its species.
I’m not sure why we have a picture of the dresses section. I was most impressed by the mini espresso cafe in with the designer stuff.
One of us also wanted to see the George Pompidou Center, for its inside-out architecture (above and below).
 
Our favorite walks were along the Seine River, with its many bridges and classic views.
Like Pont Alexandre III (above and below)
 
On one walk we picked up a picnic lunch at Fauchon, a boutique deli, and found a shady
bench in a park along the Champs-Élysées.
After lunch we walked along the Champs-Élysées, where the city was setting up viewing stands for the upcoming Bastille Day Parade.
We of course stood in traffic to get iconic shots.
Eventually we reached the Arc De Triomphe. We had bought tickets to climb to the top, but it closed early this day, and we never made it back. Instead, we grabbed one of the sparse benches and Arc-watched.
Overhead flew any number of planes, low and lined up with the Champs-Élysées, practicing for parade day.
We kept our eyes peeled for street crepes and pounced on the first one we saw. The crêpier was totally entertaining, though I’m not sure that was his intent.
Late one afternoon we had elevator reservations for the summit of the Eiffel Tower.
Having reservations doesn’t mean you get to avoid the security line, or the lines for the two sets of elevators it takes to get to the top, but it gives you access to (way) shorter versions of them. Here we rode the final elevator to the top, while the elevator attendant rocked the cab with her iPhone playlist.
From the top there are views, of course (above and below).
The Arc de Triomphe at the pinwheel hub of the 8th, 16th, and 17th arrondissements.
The Palais de Chaillot (site of the 1867 and 1878 World Fairs and 1937 World Exposition) with the La Défense business district in the distance.
6Dining in Paris was hit and miss. The service was much friendlier than we expected, though not particularly attentive. But even with the help of Google reviews, we were disappointed in many of our choices.
One success was the seared ahi and linguine vongole we had from a little Italian restaurant just downstairs.
Another was Vietnamese food from a restaurant named, surprisingly, Vietnamese Food. It was excellent, and when the owner learned we have visited Vietnam, he treated us to their homemade madeleines with fresh raspberries and sweet cream — though he insisted we eat it as an appetizer.
One of our favorite meals was at a Christian Constant restaurant named Les Cocottes, which serves only variations of traditional French casserole dishes.
One morning we walked to the Louvre. Here we approach the Denon Wing through the morning quiet of the Tuileries Gardens.
We had 9:00 am reservations, so we could both skip the longer lines and enter as soon as the museum opens. Look Ma, no crowds.
Once in, we headed through the great halls toward the Mona Lisa, to catch her before the crowds descended.
There were only a handful of people viewing her, so we got to spend some time enjoying her in relative peace. By the time we moved on, the first of the larger tours were entering and starting to pack the hall.
We then leisurely walked the halls and galleries (above and below), seeking out the areas and works that drew us.
 
The Louvre is about art. Here are a few of the works that got our attention (above and below).
The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Second century marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike.
The famous Venus de Milo,second century BC Greek sculpture of Aphrodite.
Unfinished painting of Napoleon Bonaparte by David.
The Lacemaker by Vermeer.
Inside the Lower Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi by Granet. Perspective and light.
Musical performance at the Teatro Argentina on the occasion of the marriage of the Dauphin by Panini, a work only slightly more impressive than its name.
One of the halls we really enjoyed was also the emptiest: The arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.
Unnamed by unknown artist. I titled it Is that an outie or are you just glad to see me.  Neither poetic nor original, but apropos.
One of the photographer’s favorite areas was the Louvre Courtyard with its Marly horses, Statues of Fame and Mercury, commissioned by Louis XIV (above and below).
 
We also visited the temporary Hittites exhibition, fascinating for the sophistication and breadth of their almost forgotten civilization.
We had signed up for an official tour at 11:00 am, but by then we had visited all the areas that the tour covered, so we spent our time exploring instead, and taking pictures out of windows, like this one.
The Louvre is indeed large, and one could spend days there, but by 1:00 we had seen what we had come to see, and more. So we picked up lunch-to-go from one of the cafes under the pyramid…
… went back out to the Tuileries Garden, moved a couple of comfortable chairs under a tree, and kept an eye on the Eiffel Tower.
And the Ferris wheel.
After lunch, instead of going back to the Arc De Triomphe as planned, we instead went to the Musée d’Orsay. We bought preferred entry tickets online just before we got there and went right in, bypassing the long ticket lines. This Internet thing is still a mystery to many.
This museum houses so much of the art that we see in books and posters we couldn’t pass up the chance to see the originals, by those like Renoir,
Degas,
Monet,
and Van Gogh (duh).
Another day took us to Versailles and its palaces. We went with the biggest one first, The Palace of Versailles, the on-and-off official residence and favorite home-improvement project of the last three reigning Louis.
We found it huge, and opulent, as expected.
The hall of mirrors, huge in its own right, and hugely crowded.
The Gallery of Battles was somewhat less crowded, but we spent more time here, the huge historical depictions being hugely interesting.
But we preferred the even hugher grounds.
Originally a lodge and a hunting estate, now palaces and over 2,000 acres of curated gardens, lakes, canals, and fountains.
We must have walked a few miles of hedged paths and treed roads (above and below).
 
In keeping with our habit of lunch out-of-doors, we grabbed salads and beverages and lazed on the lawns next to the palace’s Grand Canal. Built for staged boat races, among other things, it’s now used by tourists in rowboats to practice not drowning.
Another smaller palace — and actually more beautifully marbled — is the Grand Trianon,
built by Louis the XIV to escape court life.
Inside, it’s hard to tell one French palace from the next.
Stepping down again in size, we walked to the Petite Trianon, a small chateau built on the site of a botanical garden. A queen’s retreat, Louis XVI gave it to Marie Antoinette.
The queen’s bedroom. One would have expected at least a queen-size bed.
Wandering through the Trianon grounds took us through meadowlands and streams…
…to Marie Antoinette‘s rustic hamlet. A retreat she had built. For when she needed to retreat from her other retreat?
As it just so happened, our last day in Paris was Bastille Day. We spent it wandering the closed-off streets around the Champs-Élysées (above) and getting peeks of the parade (below).
 
Overhead flew a long procession of just about anything that would fly…
And military hardware endured the throngs, patiently waiting their turn to parade.
That night we watched the Eiffel Tower fireworks from the comfort of our apartment.
The next day we took wing over the farm fields outside Paris and headed for New Delhi.
Ciao, ciao Paris, and France.

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