June 30, 2015- Last Full Day in Paris, Sainte-Chapelle, Shopping, Fancy Dinner, Goodbye Montmartre

We Overdo it on our Last Day in Paris, Breakfast at Home, An Unlimited Metro Pass Because We Meant Business, Sainte-Chapelle Church, Pantheon Under Construction, Yet More Depot-Ventes, A Proper French Lunch, More Depot-Ventes, A Used Scottish Sweater is Not a Proper Souvenir, Hermes is Always the Answer, Sardine Tin Subway, A Fancy Dinner in Montmartre, Last Visit to Sacre-Coeur

Today was our final full day in Paris. We had breakfast at home and then went to the metro. We bought the unlimited one day pass for today, because we knew we'd be swiping more than four times (the magic number where it makes sense instead of buying a value pack of 10 tickets as we had been before).

First, we took the metro down to Ile de la Cite and joined the lineup for Sainte-Chapelle church. The church is one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture and has one of the largest and oldest collections of original stained glass windows in the world. April though she had been to Paris a few times before had never been inside. Bill and April were blown away by the church once inside and agreed that it was more beautiful than larger Notre Dame or the perhaps more impressive Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. The light filtering through the magnificent stained glass windows was ethereal.

We left the church and walked over the bridge and towards the Pantheon. It was under construction and closed, so we just walked around it.

We caught the metro to near to the Bois de Boulogne again to look in a few different Depot-Ventes for a unique French souvenir (in case you can't tell April loves vintage). We found a wonderful lunch at Le Francois Coppee. April had grilled chicken and fries. Bill had a steak and fries. For dessert, April had an apple tarte which tasted like a combination of apple pie and apple sauce, amazing (especially when vanilla ice cream was added at her request). Bill had sorbet. It actually tasted like the fruit that it was advertised to be. Why is it in Canada we have lost the ability to produce real fruit flavours and instead when you order say strawberry, it tastes like what someone who has never tasted a strawberry would think that strawberry tastes like based on looking at a photo of a strawberry and hearing other people's descriptions of what a strawberry actually tastes like?

We then took the metro to another area of town where there was a Depot-Vente that had seven different stores in the same street, Reciproque. Neither of us found anything other than the yellow cashmere sweater in like new condition that was from Scotland originally that April found. It didn't really scream French souvenir. Disappointed we went home. Bill saw that April needed a true French souvenir and roused her from the couch and out the door into the sweaty and super hot day again and back onto the metro.

On the metro there was some weird delay to do with one of the stations and it was impacting all the other ones (we could only hear part of the rapid French announcement as it was very crowded and loud in the metro). We eventually were able to get onto the train, but it was completely packed. April and Bill became separated and April, who was right against a central pole, became completely crushed and lodged against it after a few stops of a sea of more and more people fighting their way onto the train. All semblance of order and French politeness suddenly vanished in the panic for commuters to get home. Women were screaming for people to stop coming onto the train, everyone was sweating profusely, and April and Bill were very happy to emerge unscathed later near Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore.

Bill dragged April at high speed down the packed street, becoming lost only once, and then right into the flagship store of Hermes. They looked at a few things in the three story high store that was just closing. Mostly, the spectacle lay in the tourists who were dropping Euros like the world was ending (95% Chinese we'd say).  Finally, we viewed all of the gorgeous scarves and not being able to decide between a scarf that looked almost Moroccan and a little twilly scarf with a pattern and colour scheme that looked very 1970s, Bill bought both of them for April and whisked her out of the side door and back into the blazing day.

Unfortunately, the weird metro problem was still happening and we were crushed back onto the metro, this time with Bill making sure he was right by April. There could not have been even one more person on that train back to our apartment. You didn't even have to hold onto a pole because you were wedged in so tightly that you could not have fallen over even if you had tried. It was far more packed and chaotic than anything we experienced in Japan. This was the seventh and final time we swiped our metro card that day.

At the apartment we had a cool shower to erase the sweaty metro embraces we had just experienced, packed, and then dressed in fancy clothes to go out to a nice restaurant recommended by our host, Eric. The place appealed to us right away because it specializes in seafood, La Mascotte (it's been around since the 1870s). We climbed the hill halfway up Montmartre to the restaurant in suit and silk gown and had a lovely dinner of duck pate with toast, escargot, mussels, fries, fish and chips, and molten chocolate cake with vanilla cream sauce. We reflected how the Impressionists that we had observed in the galleries might have been sitting around that same restaurant living it up back in the day (the successful ones at least).

We left the restaurant and walked up Montmartre further to Sacre-Coeur where we overlooked Paris at night, straining our necks for a view of the lit up Eiffel Tower (while avoiding the African merchants who were now shoving beer in our faces instead of miniature Eiffel Towers).  We saw the searchlight on top of the Eiffel Tower shining out over the night and all of the many lights of marvelous Paris twinkling. We returned home to sleep our last night in the City of Lights.

13.14 km walked today.

Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral

 

Outside Hermes' flagship store in Paris

The Moulin Rouge in Montmartre

Our fancy dinner called for fancy clothes

Oh look in the mirror behind April

Farewell Sacre-Coeur

June 29, 2015- Depot-Ventes, Walk Through the Bois de Boulogne, Notre Dame, Ile Saint-Louis

A Cold Induced Sleep-in Again, We Have Breakfast at Home, We Visit some Depot-Ventes in Search of a Unique French Souvenir, A Gross Take on a New York Bakery, Going Natural in the Bois de Boulogne, The Walk Becomes a Really, Really Long Walk, We Fail to See Sainte-Chapelle, We Visit Notre Dame Cathedral, We Explore Ile Saint-Louis, We Return Home to Have Bill's Well Cooked Eggs Again for Dinner, We Sleep Like the Dead After We Have Traversed Much of Paris in One Day

April was forced to sleep a little longer this morning again due to her awful summer cold. There is truly no cold like a summer cold. We ate breakfast at home feeling lucky every day for the baguette, croissants, and the pain of chocolat that we would share. April contemplated what it would be like to live without this again when we returned home, but Bill reminded her to just stay in the present moment and enjoy the vacation.

We started out by taking the metro to the 1st arrondissement to look at a couple of Depot-Ventes, but they wanted thousands of dollars for used clothes and handbags, so we left and walked into the neighbouring area, where we failed to find a second Depot-Vente that was listed online.

We stopped for lunch at a truly gross French take on a New York bakery. We didn't exactly know this was the theme of the restaurant, being lured in by hunger, a lack of other restaurants around, and the offer of burger and fries. It all sounded good to us until we discovered that the burgers were on bagels and had weird things like guacamole with cream cheese dripping out of them. It was like when you order something foreign in Canada or the U.S. and the restaurateur has never been to that place and just imagines what their food might taste like based on pictures they've seen and stuff they've heard about it. But seriously, guacamole with cream cheese? No!

We cut our losses and took a metro to the Bois de Boulogne. We walked through the vast park, ate our watermelon quarter, that we had picked up at a fruit stand on the way there, like wild animals on a park bench, became lost more than once, failed to find the one public restroom on the map, used the bushes like true Canadians, walked more, stumbled onto the one public restroom, ran into a weird collection of vans and people in a hidden corner who looked like they were up to something tawdry, hastened away from them, wandered more, and eventually came out the other end by the river, overlooking La Defense. The modern high rises in the business district of La Defense are in sharp contrast to the old low buildings of the core of Paris and it was neat to look across the river at them.

We stopped by a cafe and had a cool drink and then caught the metro to Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle churches are. We wanted to see both. Sainte-Chapelle closed while we were waiting in line, so we joined the lineup for Notre Dame (the Paris Museum Pass does not get you priority in either of these venues and you have to wait with everyone else). We did get into Notre Dame and marvelled at the stained glass windows and beautiful soaring ceilings. We also enjoyed the gargoyles on the outside of the church. Why don't we add gargoyles to our buildings nowadays? Everything around our neighbourhood in Victoria is so boring. It would certainly be more interesting with a gargoyle or two (neighbours don't count). We were too exhausted from our very very hot and dusty walk through the Bois de Boulogne to walk up to the bell tower of Notre Dame to take in the view of Paris.

Instead of old fashioned stair climber cardio, we walked across the bridge to the neighbouring Ile Saint-Louis. We tried a pastille at a candy shop that had been around longer than Canada, walked the island one end to the other (not impressive, it's very small unlike the island we live on at home), and then ordered an ice cream at a local shop (Ile Saint-Louis is sworn by many to have the best ice cream in Paris). It was very good ice cream, but it was impossible to say if it was better than other ice cream we had tasted in Paris and we were too tired to debate the issue.

We took the metro home. Despite having taken the metro four times today, we walked 20.06 km and were absolutely exhausted when we reached home, so we had eggs at home for dinner and peaches from Spain (even Bill admits that they were very delicious, but won't say they were better than Okanagan peaches). By some strange magic, Bill managed to cook the eggs again, there were no raw parts and they weren't cooked to hell either. Maybe some people just don't possess the spell necessary to cook eggs . . .

Beautiful wildflowers in the Bois de Boulogne

A ravenous animal in the distance devours a watermelon

La Defense, business district

Notre Dame

A Costa cruise customer captured for eternity on the side of Notre Dame

Bill leads the way

Ile Saint-Louis is pretty much the most prestigious place to live in Paris

June 28, 2015- Picasso Museum, Walk around Marais and Bastille Districts, Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Summer Colds are Miserable, We have Breakfast at Home, Picasso Museum, We walk around the Marais and Bastille Districts Having a Crepe Lunch and seeing a Depot-Vente, We Explore the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Street Food in Our Neighbourhood

This morning April was feeling somewhat worse with her cold and Bill made her sleep a while past the alarm. We had breakfast at home and then took the metro to near to the Picasso Museum in the Marais District (used to be a swamp slum, now it's hip and trendy). After sending a tourist in the wrong direction to the Picasso Museum, we followed and ran into the man coming back because it was actually in the opposite direction. We eventually found it.

The Picasso Museum has an astounding number of Picasso's paintings and his very interesting mixed media sculptures, as well as his own collection of art of his contemporary artists that he collected over his life. It was perhaps more fascinating to see the collection of this art of others after seeing Picasso's art and see how the artists influenced each other's work and the evolution of their styles. Picasso's own evolution from classical style to cubist style was startling. We enjoyed even seeing a cubist cat with a dead bird hanging from his mouth. Yes, even cats weren't spared Picasso's searing gaze.

We found lunch in the Marais at Page 35 Restaurant, run by an eccentric man who exuded the mannerisms that cinema has taught us to expect in French restaurateurs. We both had the set menu of a savory crepe, salad, dessert, and drink (14.50 Euros). It was a good meal though the crepes weren't as spectacular as the ones we had the night before. However, after the cruise this lunch was luxury.

We walked through the Marais and into the Bastille District (where the famous prison used to stand- now this is a monument in a traffic roundabout). We looked in a Depot-Vente (consignment store), that descended two levels into the deep basement below and packed full of second hand French clothing and accessories. We left empty handed and walked to McDonald's to get a cool drink and go to the washroom before walking up to Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

April had really wanted to go to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, famous for its notorious permanent residents, but did not think that we would be in the area (it is rather on the outskirts of the main part of Paris). When we saw we were near to it, we leapt at the opportunity to go.

We sat down in the shade of a tree on steps in the cemetery and had the half a baguette that we brought with us from breakfast with the drink from McDonald's. We walked around the graveyard and made a particular effort to find Oscar Wilde's grave as we both enjoy his witty writing. The graveyard has a note asking people to stop marking up his grave because his family has to pay to have it cleaned and they have gone so far as to erect a plastic barrier around it to prevent people from kissing his grave with bright red lipstick which had apparently become the tradition. Even despite this, people had climbed on a neighbouring grave to get over the barrier and kissed his grave with red lipstick. His grave is in a sort of Egyptian style, very grand. Instead of kissing his grave, we kissed each other in front of it and went on our way.

We took the metro home with sore feet. We looked at the cafe by our place, but didn't like the menu and found a sort of neighbourhood street fair happening at the park in front of our place, so we went to food carts and Bill had a hot dog on baguette, which he quite enjoyed, we had some fries which were okay, and April tried a waffle with Nutella, which tasted suspiciously like a doughnut.

We went for an early night's sleep after walking 9.99 km.

Picasso's cat

Bastille

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Oscar Wilde's grave

Kiss someone else, not Oscar Wilde's grave