Paris

Dr. Knoblough canceled her Thursday classes making for an extended travel weekend. I took a bus with the rest of the group to Bergamo before parting ways. Quite a few people went to Dublin for the weekend. Stuart and I went to Paris instead. Mike was on the same flight as us to meet a friend studying in the city.

          We arrived pretty late. The discount airlines fly to the remote air ports. Between transportation to and from air ports the savings seems negligible, not to mention a waste of time. To those traveling abroad be weary of Ryan Air and Easy Jet. You will pay 50+ Euros for additional transportation. If you are not a member of the EU you will have to pay for your boarding pass.         

          Our Hostel, St. Christopher’s was located on the outskirts of the city in Crème. It was very affordable and brand new. I was impressed by the design. Each bed was compartmentalized and had curtains and light. There was also a great lobby for relaxing in the morning with free WiFi and baguettes.

Our trip was pretty full. Upon reflection we may have done more on this trip than any other. Thursday morning we woke up early and took the metro to the Louver. We walked from there to the Eiffel Tower. The lines to the top were really long. We opted to save money and allocate our time by just walking around the base. The gardens and boulevards of Paris are very impressive. The restructuring of the city was done during the reign of Napoleon. The construction was accomplished through public work programs, profiting Parisians and improving their city.

          The city has changed in recent years as well. The city has restricted the number of cars and encourages biking and public transit. When Megan visits I’d like to rent bikes and cover more ground. Paris is an infinite city and can take a long time to cover by foot. Check out the sweet green building.

From the Tower we made our way to the Museum de Orsay.

The muse was originally Gare de Orsay, a train station. In 1977 it was converted into a museum. The isles stretch on into long views. It’s easy to imagine a train rolling through the sculptures on the main floor.  A few floors up we took in views of the city from the old glass clock faces.

          Stuart and I went right for the 5^th floor. Orsay houses many different periods and would take several trips to examine the entire collection. I recommend seeing floor 5 first. If you have the energy for rest so be it. Toulouse Lautrec,  Degas, Van Gogh are all under one roof. Not to mention a plethora of other styles including pointillism.

. The “Impressionists” all flocked to Paris drinking absinth and chasing prostitutes. The subjects of most of the collection are straight out of the Montmartre; Dancers, hookers, drunks and windmills.

I remember walking into Lauren and Nathalie’s apartment and seeing a large poster of Le Chat Noir and obnoxiously inquiring “who here likes art?” Not only were they cultured but the posess their very own chat noir, a one BoJangels. (Bo if you are reading this, Im counting down the days. Get ready to snuggle.)

Lautrec painted scenes from Parisian night life. His advertisements for the Moulin Rouge and can-can, can be seen everywhere in Paris. Orsay had two very large paintings and two rooms full of smaller sketches and paintings.

Edgar Degas is known for his dancers and snap shots of Paris during the 19^th century. Orsay has The Dance Class showing a group ballerinas working with their instructor. I enjoyed the scenes from the cafes and bars the most. Le Absinth shows a woman sitting alone feeling the effects of her night cap.

All of these paintings are pretty common in college poster shops I had this Van Gogh above my bed in Maple Ridge, and barely recognized it in person. Van Gogh used gobs and gobs of paint. The colors were also different but texture makes the biggest impact. After seeing the real deal I am rethinking my decor. I plan to visit again when Megan visits on Tuesday.

After the Museum we walked towards Notre Dam. The plaza preceding the church was packed with tourist and street performers. We crowded thought the doorway and spent a brief amount of time inside.

The Metro is a very important part of the city. It was design in the 19^th century by Hector Guimard. The style is art nouveau; flowing flamboyant and curvey. The style seems vine like but very animated. I remember studying the style during a museum preservation class. Paris has worked very ahrd to preserve all of the original iorn work. The details are amazing but the entrances seem to get lost. We found a lot incommon with the Guadi arcitecture in Barcelona.

For dinner we went to the grocery store and bought some cheese a baguette and some wine. We went with a camembert and Bordeaux Premius.  It was typical and it was cheap. We relaxed a bit before going out again.

Paris has some pretty amazing night life. Stu and I had swung by a tourist office earlier in the day and found some brochures advertising life Jazz Music. We took the metro to the Latin Quarter to Café Universel. Universel offers live jazz performances every night at 9:30. The drinks are a bit pricey but the show is free. We sat and watched a set until 11.

The ensemble consisted of a saxophone player, a pianist, drummer and a bass/ vocalist. Their performance indicated a lot about the dynamic of their group.

          The bassist seemed quite pleased with himself; awkwardly dancing to every beat and closing his eyes in song. He was quite flamboyant and contrasted the rest of the group. The other players moved minimally and would not look at him. I imagine the group would not have a long future together. The bassist will most likely perform solo in the subway.

          Group compatibility aside the band made great song selections. We stayed and watched their set until 11:30. A few songs we heard that night;

Sunny Side of life, Beautiful Love, My favorite Things, & Gentle Rain.

The next morning we headed for the Picasso Museum. If you follow the blog you may notice a trend, we like Picasso. After Barcelona I became hooked. My favorite part about this particular museum were the photos of Picasso. The upstairs had photos taken by Man Ray. I was particularly impressed with a black and white photo showing Picasso creating art out of thin air. There were also some great posters which would have advertised his exhibitions during his career.

          We spent the rest of the day honeymooning down the Seine. ( “the Ballad of John and Yoko” keeps coming on my ipod.) We made our way in and out of little shops. There are tons of used book and record shops not to mention funky home stores.

I loved the art supply stores. I had to stop myself from buying new oils and brushes.

 On Rue Beautreillis we stopped at a kiosk called Au Sanglier. The stand had all sorts of traditional food for very cheap. I also plan to bring Megan back here for a Croque Monsieur. Paris has a bakery on every corner with the most delectable pastries. Stuart is partial to Mille-feuille, or as he calls them ”bombs”.

Our walk led us right into the Latin Quarter and we stopped at an Irish pub for a beer. During the day the LQ is full of boutiques and quirky cafes. I imagine it is much livelier at night. The jazz club we went to the night before was in a quieter part of the area. I read in my guidebook about a large flea market near there. Meg will be staying at the Oops! Hostel for her last 3 nights in Paris and will have plenty of time to enjoy the LQ.

That night we went to Montmarte. The Louver is free for students on Friday nights. We were simply too exhausted and decided it wouldn’t be enjoyable. Montmarte was the perfect alternative. I didn’t know much about the area beyond the representation in Bas Lurman’s flick. Wild can-can dancers, painters, writers and drugs. We came out of the metro right at the foot of the Moulin Rouge. The street was lined with all sorts of risqué shops and dance halls. We walked off the main road and up the hill. There were all sorts of cafes and shops. We found ourselves over looking the city. There is a spectacular view from Sacre-Coeur, the church at the top of the hill. We could see the city lights and the Effie tower. We stopped in for crepes. I was boring and went for plain chocolate; Stuart branched out and had a cheese and egg. The crepe maker cracked and fried and egg over the hot crepe, it was quite the spectacle.