As the days go by, I am gradually coming out of the Paris glow-that beautiful feeling of a wonderful week spent in a long awaited place. The memories are becoming hazy and I need my photos and of course my travel companion, in this case my husband, to fill in the gaps.
The third day we walked to the Ile de Cite, the center of Paris. It’s an island in the Seine, base of the world famous Notre-Dame Cathedral. We knew it from one of our daughters favorite movies, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The cathedral is being rebuilt and renovated after the fire, due to be complete by Olympics 2024. They have surrounded the area with a description of the fire and what is being done to preserve the building.
We spent a couple of hours here. Just absorbing the surroundings. My husband, who has never in his life read anything apart from words concerning his profession and job, actually read each and every one of those descriptors and came away looking so pleased that he had increased his knowledge in some way. Behind the cathedral we came upon the Brasserie Esmeralda, a nod to the heroine of the movie.
Later as we were walking along the road, we crossed the Paris town hall-the Hotel de Ville. The building is beautiful, but what attracted my husband was the Olympic Rings placed in the front. We went to get some pictures and as we were standing there, a crowd started collecting. Apparently there is an artist who is unfolding flags in major cities as part of ‘Save the Ukrainian child.’ So we became a part of that. It was a nice moment, a sort of connection between all these people wanting the best for the child.
Later after lunch and a brief rest in our hotel room, we walked to the seventh arrondissement, to see the Museum Rodin. The 7th Arr. is the quiet, elegant neighborhood with the government ministries and embassies. All very affluent and high society. I just finished a novel by Cara Black–Murder on the Champ de Mars, and she describes it perfectly.
I enjoyed the museum. It’s not overpowering, the descriptions are well-written, and the garden with its sculptures is lovely. We walked through the gardens first. The fact that the weather was perfect, slightly cloudy and breezy, enhanced the experience.
We walked back to our hotel with a short detour though the Luxembourg gardens. It’s amazing to see these beautiful gardens in the middle of the crowded city. We saw pony rides being taken, and lovely flower beds, a central pond with ducks and toy boats. It reminded me of the Rose Garden in Chandigarh.
As a side note, Chandigarh is considered to be the Paris of India, its master plan was prepared by Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect. We sat here for sometime to enjoy the scenes.
On the fourth day, we woke up early to reach the Louvre in time for our timed entry. For this momentous occasion, I had downloaded the Rick Steves Paris travel talks podcast for us. The first thing as we entered the museum was to rush towards the room with the MonaLisa.
This is what I had heard-that it is a small, unimpressive painting in a small crowded room, and one can’t see it properly. What I saw was a beautiful painting by itself on a huge marroon(it seems almost black in this picture) wall, and yes, well, she is smaller than the paintings on the other three walls, but she is pretty. That smile! The problem is that when you have seen the replica so many times, it does take a bit of the wonder away. I would go see it again.
Then it was three hours of us walking around looking at all the paintings and the sculptures. I think we enjoyed the Louvre more because of the podcast. Rick Steves outlined the major paintings and sculptures to see with a little bit of description of each. It was enough for us. We took a little break between the rooms and uff! the benches for relaxing, placed along the center are anything but. I kept slipping and sliding on the smooth, narrow pieces of wood, art is not synonymous with comfort.
For lunch we sat under the shade of a tree and had a baguette from one of the cafe stands. I think, sitting and watching people while eating a sandwich were one of my favorite times of the day.
We walked through the beautiful Tuilieres Gardens, to the Musee de L’Orangiere, the home of Monet’s waterlilies. This was the first time an artist was commissioned to paint for a specific house.
The room with the two panels of waterlilies, very restful, the benches were actually comfortable. There was pin drop silence in the room, people just admiring the view. The room is lighted with skylights, meant to be seen in natural light. On this day, it was cloudy and gray so the colors were a bit muted. I would love to go back and see it on a sunny day.
That evening we went to the Musee d’Orsay(Recently seen in the second season of Lupin). This museum is housed in a train station, it still has the beautiful, humongous clock. Its airy in the center with four floors of exhibition rooms along the sides. On the day we went the elevators were not functioning, so we did a lot of stair climbing. It was worth it. Seeing the originals of all the great works by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Manet, Cezzane, its a different experience. Thanks to the internet and the websites of these various museums, I can sit in the comfort of my home and see all these paintings, but nothing can beat the originals.
This was a day filled with wonderful art. By the end of the day though, I was a bit overwhelmed by all that we had seen. It was nice to sit back at the bistro and have a nice dinner, watching the world go by.
