Paris Trip - July 2008

Ahhh, Paris! Going through these pictures made me "homesick" all over again. While going to Paris was one of the best things EVER...it sure has spoiled me. Every time I see ANYTHING that has to do with the city, I long to return. One day! And, next time, Nate and I are going ALONE (sorry Anna and Cate!).

Yes, this trip in fact happened last July. I'm slowly getting caught up.

Just for posterity's sake, here are the posts I put up from Paris last summer:
The Thinkers
Good Girl, Jane
Gates of Hell
Anna visits Jim Morrison

And here are all of my food posts...so much amazing food to photograph and write about in Paris. Wish we were eating there right now!
La Cremerie
Relais de L'Entrecote
Our Boulanger for the week
Lunch
Cups
Pastry
Pretty Paper
Grapes
Chocolate Eclair from Paris, I mean, from HEAVEN
Croque Monsieur (which was SO good, but I think made me violently sick our last night in Paris. Rats.)
Tarts
Anniversary Dinner
More Lunch
Another Boulanger
First Day in Paris

Now, for the pictures! Note: I am leaving out all the accents on the French words. This post has taken forever to write, so I just can't bring myself to go back and fix all the French words. Sorry. No giving me a hard time...Dad!

Our Apartment. We rented a studio apartment for the week on the Left Bank, just steps from the Louvre and Musee D'Orsay. I didn't take ANY pictures of the inside of the apartment...strange. It was great - tiny kitchen, sloped ceilings that I frequently hit my head on, tiny washing machine, loft with a bed...which was wicked hot at night. But the apartment was seriously great and we could see the Eiffel Tower over the rooftops. It just makes me happy thinking about our little Parisian home! :)


The Eiffel Tower put on a little light show for us each night.

This is looking out our window...that building there on the other side of the trees/river is the Louvre. The first night we got there it was quite late, but the city was alive and tons of people walking around (it didn't get dark until well after 10, I think). We walked down to the river and over to the Louvre and it was just SO BEAUTIFUL. A magical night.

Here's our street, Rue de Beaunne.

The last night in Paris we realized that Voltaire died in a building right down the street. Which, presumably, is why the cross street was called Quai Voltaire. Go figure. ;)

This boulangerie was right across the street from us...but the owners decided to take a holiday while we were in town. It was very disappointing to read that news in the window!

Our neighborhood was full of art galleries, furniture shops, etc. Dead on the weekend, more lively during the week. Pretty cool.

Even though the boulangerie next door to us was closed, there was another just a block over that served us well. I picked up some pain au chocolat one morning that were still warm and literally melted in your mouth.

Here is the entrance to our building. We were on the very tip top floor, but thankfully there was a TINY elevator....we figured out how to squeeze both of us AND the stroller in there, but I had to pretend I wasn't claustrophobic when we did it.

Versailles. Was. Awesome. It seriously was stunningly beautiful, and unreal. Can't believe people lived like that. Here are Nate & Anna getting ready to venture down the hall of mirrors.

This was in the gardens out behind Petit Trianon in the little village that Marie Antoinette had built to replicate the country. The gardens were amazing.

Here is Petit Trianon, Marie's getaway.

View of the back of Versailles. The front had scaffolding and such for renovations, so no good picture or that.

Now Versailles is as beautiful as it can get. :)

Look at the size of that toppled tree trunk!

Anna and her mom enjoying Marie's village gardens.

More of Marie Antoinette's little village. We're really happy we walked all the way out to see this.

Another view of the palace.

The Tuilleries. The Tuilleries are gardens near the Louvre. Here are Dad and Anna enjoying a french children's book near one of the fountains. There was a little book shop in the gardens that I could have spent a fortune in. I resisted and escaped with only two cute books for the girls.

We stopped at a cafe in the Tuilleries for some crepes. Anna decided to have a doozy of a diaper change right there in that lovely setting. Tacky American.

Tiny Cars. Berlin was disappointing on the tiny car front, but Paris really stepped up. Could be because the streets are as wide as sidewalks. We could barely get our small umbrella stroller around!

Sacre Coeur & Montmartre. Glad we went all the way across town to see Sacre Coeur. Very beautiful. And we found a nice little park right behind the church where I fed Anna. It was a beautiful day. We went and walked around Montmartre and picked up a few watercolors to thank our parents for taking care of Cate. It was a really beautiful neighborhood, although pretty far from the middle of Paris...I personally am planning on living on the left bank or Ile St. Louis. :)

The man on the right is "our" artist, who we purchased the watercolors from. He was great and did lovely work - watercolors and pen & ink drawings. He liked Anna's bracelet.
Rodin Stickers. Everyone who goes into the Rodin museum (which was cool, by the way...see earlier posts from this summer for the fun we had there!) gets a little sticker. And then all those people stick those stickers on the posts outside the museum. For some reason I loved it. This traffic light was the best.

Pere Lachaise Cemetary. Seeing as how I love spooky things, no surprise I loved Pere Lachaise. We didn't have a lot of time to explore, but it was a really cool place. Read more about it here. Anyway, here are some shots from the cemetary.



This is Chopin's grave, just one of many famous people buried here. Amazing how many people bring flowers, etc. This was one spot in Paris where we got annoyed at the tourists trying to get a picture of themselves in front of something. Not kidding, everyone here had to have their own individual picture in front of Chopin. WEIRD. Okay, done ranting...at least until we get to the museums.

Notre Dame. I can't even count how many pictures I took at Notre Dame, both inside and out. That place rules. Both times we went in they were doing something cool - one time it was a movie about Notre Dame (sort of a missionary effort night)...which was great because it was playing spooky-ish music while we walked around, which really set the church mood. Anna wouldn't let us sit and watch the movie, however. The other time we went in, it was mass, which was neat to see as well.

Take a gander at the number of people in front of the cathedral. It was INSANE. We literally had to wait in line to get into the church. DO NOT EVER GO TO PARIS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SUMMER. Bad idea. Most expensive time of the year AND unbelievably crowded. Nate didn't remember Paris ever being that full of people from the 2 years he was there. It was really annoying. Oops, ranting about the tourists again. Yeah, I know I was one of them.





Hands down, this is the best shot I got of the cathedral, wouldn't you agree? :)

Handsome French-Speaking Husband. Nate doesn't like this picture, but I do. What a cutie. And I'm so happy I finally got to go to Paris with him. It was just so fun to visit his mission home with him, and hear him speak French, which he did a great job with, especially considering he never speaks it now. Thanks for a wonderful trip, honey!

Sexy French-Understanding-Some-of-the-Time Wife. Okay, not really that sexy. But I tried! PS...Moulin Rouge is so TINY. And dumpy looking. But it still brought the "oh-la-la" out in me. Ha!

Les Invalides. Here is Les Invalides, old military hospital, now home to several museums and monuments, including Napoleon's tomb and a cool military museum that Nate wanted to check out and I'm glad we did, in the end. Although, I went through it much more quickly than he did. :)



Little kid armor is pretty creepy, eh? Watch out! These guys are coming to get you!

The ghost of Sir Nathaniel Maynard staring back at us from his old armor.


Short man's complex?

Centre Pompidou. This is the modern art museum in Paris, which was really cool. If you go, make sure you head to the top floor of exhibits first, that was definitely the better floor. Although, we did see a visiting exhibit about this homeless Polish guy who made cameras basically out of garbage and then took pictures of unsuspecting women...which was kind of creepy, but the pictures were actually pretty cool.

Just a cool painting...it was HUGE. Great colors and brush work.

I just LOVED how they set this gallery up, with the sculpture lining up with the paintings the way it does.

This was Anna's favorite piece in the museum. Not kidding. As soon as we rolled up to it she got SO excited. It was a car mashed up into a cube shape. It was really funny how she reacted to it.

This was the plaza outside the museum...a homeless man was feeding the birds.

A sculpture by Matisse.

The Metro.

The Louvre. What can we say about the Louvre? It's HUGE. And unbelievable. And amazing. One of our favorite parts was the history of the Louvre itself and the original Louvre castle, which is in the basement and is partially excavated.

Since Nate was in Paris, they've changed how the Mona Lisa is displayed. This is the crowd trying to see her. The room was PACKED.


This is as close as we could get to the smiling lady. Nate said the old set up was better...you could get right up next to her. I guess we can thank Dan Brown for the Mona Lisa frenzy. Yeah, thanks buddy.

I absolutely LOVED the Dutch painters. The use of light is just amazing to me. These two paintings really caught our eye...by an artist named Denner. No matter how close you got to the painting it looked like a photograph. Amazing.



Georges de la Tour was another of our favorites. This painting is of Christ as a child with Joseph learning carpentry. I love it for so many reasons.

I thought this sculpture was just so cool...how do you make stone look like a wispy piece of fabric? PS...we could not BELIEVE how many people TOUCHED THE ART. They should all be arrested. Seriously. It's nuts. One crazy woman was very sensuously caressing a lot of the statues...she was especially disturbing in addition to infuriating! Weird.
Of course there was MUCH MORE at the Louvre, but it's overwhelming thinking about going through all the pictures. Just go there yourself, it's worth the trip.

L'Arc de Triomphe. Loved this monument. Nate said that the view from here of Paris is actually better than from the top of the Eiffel Tower, so this was our Paris from the sky viewing moment. It was funny, when we got to it and it was time to go up, we decided that I would climb up first while Nate stayed with Anna and the stroller, then we would take turns. As I was nearing the top I was thinking how I felt bad for Nate, just hanging out there at the bottom alone waiting for me. As I emerged into the light, who is there to greet me? None other than Nate, with Anna in her stroller! What the?!?! Apparently there is an elevator that we neglected to notice BEFORE I took every last stair to the top. At least I got more exercise than Nate, right?

Here is the classic "surrounded by traffic in the shadow of the Arc" shot...Sadly I took the picture portrait instead of landscape, so you don't get the full traffic effect. But at least there WAS traffic...

When it was my turn, hell happened to freeze over and all the cars disappeared. Has anyone ever seen this circle so empty? It's still a cool shot, though!

One view from the top.


French Flour. Every time Nate bit into a baguette, as he would pull the bread away it would look like he had just applied a lovely layer of white lip gloss. Very fashion forward. When in Rome, or Paris, I suppose.

Eiffel Tower. We actually went and walked around the Eiffel Tower at night, which was very fun. First off, amazing how many people were there. Besides the fact it was pitch black out (which means it was probably after 11 pm), it felt like the middle of the day it was so busy. And the tower was really beautiful. ALTHOUGH...the light show is a LITTLE cheesy (we kind of wish at some point during the night they would just shine a stationary white light on the tower)...and Nate didn't like the EU theme (just like he didn't like the equally-large EU flag hanging alongside the French flag at the L'Arc de Triomphe, which did seem very strange since it's such a national symbol)...but despite all that, it was still beautiful and cool. Oh, and huge. Amazing how big it is when you're standing right underneath.
Cute story. After we saw the Tower, we were trying to find a Metro stop. We noticed a young American couple wandering aimlessly like us. The girl was on the phone, but we talked to the guy and discovered they too were looking for the Metro, so we joined forces. The girl was still talking on the phone, which seemed kind of strange. We started chatting with the guy, only to discover he had just proposed on top of the Eiffel Tower! She was on the phone with her parents sharing the happy news. They were so happy and it was really cute. It was fun sharing that exciting moment with complete strangers. They were so nice and hopefully the wedding was as fun as the proposal! :)

Musee D'Orsay. I think this was our favorite museum, as it is with most people. The art is beautiful, the building is so cool. Just a really fantastic place. When we first arrived at the museum, Anna was really fussy...so Nate took her out of the stroller and she immediately fell asleep in his arms. It was so sweet.

I pretty much looked like this lady 50% of the time in Europe. Seriously, can we count the number of historical/religious/famous/public places that I nursed at in Berlin in Paris? Probably not, the number is too high. Let's see, Musee D'Orsay, the Louvre, Versailles...twice. The list goes on. Although, I did try to cover up a little more than this lady. Not that Europeans would notice.


Did I mention how annoying the tourists were? This wing in Musee D'Orsay was by far the worst spot the whole trip...the wing with Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, etc, etc...the big hitters. First of all, it was PACKED. I mean, wall-to-wall people. You could barely see the paintings. And I am honestly not exaggerating. Half of those people insisted on getting their pictures in front of {insert name of famous painting they read about in the Frommers tour book}, art lovers be damned. It was weird, annoying and funny, all at the same time. Don't get me wrong, we wanted a shot in front of the occasional monument or work of art...and I DO like having pictures of people and not just things...but this was out of control. Anyway, we were totally making fun of these people, so we decided we had to get Nate his very own "look I'm so cool standing in front of a Monet painting" shot. Boy am I glad we knocked out a few people and blocked everyone else's view for this amazing shot! (yes, that was sarcastic)


View of the Louvre from the top of Musee D'Orsay...which also happened to be our 'hood.



Conciergerie. This is where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned just prior to her unfortunate demise. The only original part of the building still standing is the basement, with this amazing ceiling and pillars. It was such a cool room, and the Conciergerie was a very interesting place to visit. And you've gotta feel a LITTLE bit bad for Marie and Louis. What a story.

Happy 9th Anniversary, Nate & Jane! Yes, we happened to be in the city of love for our anniversary...with our 9-month-old daughter in tow! Okay, maybe not the most romantic way to spend your anniversary, but it was still a wonderful evening. We ate dinner at La Petite Chaise, which is the oldest restaurant in Paris. The food was divine. Mmm mmm. And the waitstaff were so kind and friendly, and very accommodating with Anna and the stroller, which we were very grateful for. It was a great dinner.


After dinner we walked around the Seine. This is the only picture of all three of us together in Paris...and Anna JUST made it in the shot. :) It was a perfect evening.

Breakfast. Breakfast is one of the best things about Paris. Seriously, why can't we have patisseries and boulangeries like that in the States? Why oh why can it not be replicated? I suppose it wouldn't be good for my health, but whatever. I'd be happy.

The first morning in Paris we grabbed a baguette and some pastry and ate breakfast on a bridge over the Seine near our apartment. Anna, who wasn't eating much real food at this point in time, really enjoyed a good French baguette.

Breakfast doesn't get better than this!

History abounds. Every time you turn around there's another old, historical, important building to look at, juxtaposed with a tiny, Jetsons-style car. This was some legislative government building. How's that for specific?

Church of the Madeleine. The first morning in Paris we just set out and explored. There was SO much to see in Paris, our week was overly-scheduled, so we wanted to just have one open morning of wandering. We happened upon the Church of the Madeleine, which was really cool. This, among other churches, had free concerts. We wanted to go to one so badly, but just couldn't trust Anna to be well-behaved at night at a classical music performance. So, next time we go to Paris, we are going to go to one of those concerts!

You could see Place de la Concorde (location for the beheading of Marie & Louis XVI) and a building across the river (I think it's that legislative building above) from the steps. This is one thing we loved about Paris...how everything is lined up, so you get these amazing views. I know whole neighborhoods were destroyed to create this aesthetic...so I just make sure I am even more grateful for it all! :)

Fashion Forward. As we all know, Paris is very fashion forward. Nate and I were not. I wore sneakers almost everywhere we went. Too bad. We ventured into THE fancy Paris shopping neighborhood after we saw the Church of the Madeleine...it was fun and the window displays were great. This one in particular caught our eye. Kind of weird, no?

Ile de St. Louis. If I were a gabillionaire, Ile de St Louis would be my home. We loved this little island, which sits right next to Ile de la Cite, home to Notre Dame and the original heart of Paris. Ile de St. Louis is residential with tons of cute little shops everywhere...it's a very expensive neighborhood and we could totally see why. It was awesome.

Here is a beautiful shot that Nate took of a church on the island. He is an artist, no? :)

Wow! Is that all?!?! Of course not! But if I were to post all the pictures we took I think Blogger would shut down. Of course there are zillions more pictures, and we saw more than I wrote about here...a military map museum (plans reliefs), Victor Hugo's home, Sainte-Chappelle (an amazing OLD church on Ile de la Cite), St Sulpice (which has a meridien line, but no rose line I'm afraid), archeaological crypt at Notre Dame, tons of great neighborhoods, jardins de luxembourg, and more. It was an amazing trip. And everyone should go to Paris at some point in their life. It truly is one of the greatest cities in the world.

Thank you, Nate, for being the best Parisian tour guide ever! And HUGE thanks to Pat, Herm, Hans & Phyllis (i.e., the grandparents) for watching Cate while we gallivanted around Berlin and Paris.