Last Full Day in Paris

As soon as we woke up, Teri and I headed out to find a new bakery that promised to have exactly the eclair for which Teri was looking. It took us about 10 minutes to reach Rue Montorgueil, an endearing street filled with butcher shops, bakeries, and fruit vendors. I don't think many tourists hang out here.

We came all this way to find the patiserrie Stohrer, and we did. Unfortunately, they did not have the custard-filled eclairs, either! Teri was not wiling to give up after the long trek, and moved on to the very next shop... where she finally found a custard-filled eclair. It was not covered in chocolate icing, but I guess that is secondary to the filling.

We returned home with chocolate croissants, and made breakfast for the three of us (Emily spent the night with us so we could get an early start).

Our next outing was back to the shoe store, where I bought Emily a pair of boots for her holiday gift. We had bought another pair the evening before, but Em had been somewhat pressured into boots she wasn't so sure she loved. Welcome to Paris: No returns! They were willing to allow an exchange, and somehow Emily found another pair of boots that she did love.

Next we had to venture back near the Louvre to once again visit Angelina, since Teri had decided to buy some boxes of their exquisite macarons as gifts for some friends back home.

The day was already speeding by, so we laid out a plan for using the Metro (and we still had a bunch of Metro tickets left). We jumped on at the Louvre Rivoli station, and headed eastward to the Hotel de Ville. No, it's not a hotel-- it's city hall! From there, we made our way back to Notre Dame Cathedral to see the inside and climb to the top of one of the towers.

Unfortunately, it was Christmas Eve, and they were closing early... we had already missed the last tour group. And we also missed our last chance to tour the Crypte Archaeologique-- I don't think it even opened that day.

We still were able to go inside the cathedral, and I'm glad we did. Notre Dame is enormous! The vaulted ceiling looks to be over 100 feet high... it's amazing to realize that such a massive structure was built before 1200 A.D. It's stained-glass windows are simply spectacular. It was so dark, so big, and so quiet. Many of the visitors were praying and lighting candles. This was truly an impressive place.

Once we were finished inside, we headed back toward the Hotel de Ville to meet up with Emily (here she is in her new boots). We then hopped on another Metro train and headed back to Rue de Louvre for dinner at Chez Alexandre. It was pretty obvious they were in a hurry to go home on Christmas Eve-- they didn't even ask us if we wanted coffee after dinner!

With our bellies full, we headed down to the Metro again, and this time we passed quite a few stops on the way to our destination: The Arc de Triomphe. It was dark by now, and the arch was bathed in light from below. There was also a beautiful view looking East along the Champs-Elysees. All of the trees which line the boulevard were decorated with blue lights, some that looked like droplets falling from melting icicles. While we were there, a French army honor guard marched and played hymns to commemorate the fallen soldiers of wars past.

The last checkmark checked, we returned to our apartment to begin packing. Emily had been invited to a Christmas party by some of the other students in her program, so I accompanied her to the Metro station, walking slowly to make the goodbye last as long as we could. It was great to see her, and it will be about six months before I see her again.

Teri and I were packed by about 11:00 pm, and had the light out by 11:30. I was awakened by an unearthly sound, and it took a few moments for me to identify it... it seems that at midnight, all the bells in all the churches of Paris were ringing to herald the arrival of Christmas! I even got up and opened the window a crack to listen for a while. But I was quickly back to sleep, since the alarm was going to ring in just 6 short hours.

Shop Till You Drop

Another beautiful day-- not a cloud in the sky.

This was primarily a shopping day. We visited several stores in the high-end shopping district along the Rue de Rivoli (yep, due East of the Louvre). Not much of interest to report, I'm afraid.

We met Emily after taking some great photos of Notre Dame in the sunlight, and did MORE shopping. If Teri thinks she has something interesting to say about the shopping, hopefully she'll write her own post.

When we were ready to drop, we decided to look for a place to eat. Walking back to the apartment, we stumbled onto a Greek restaurant that we must have passed several times before, but decided to try it this time. The Chez Alexandre was wonderful! The waiters were friendly and helpful, and spoke pretty good English. Emily pointed out that this was typical of non-French restaurants in Paris-- they usually were owned and operated by foreigners who are almost always more friendly.

I believe the restaurant was owned by Greeks, but the most friendly waiter was from Turkey. We had perhaps the best chicken kabobs ever, and for only 8 euros it came with a big portion of cous cous, a salad, and a huge pile of fries.

We liked it so much, we decided to come back again for our dinner on Christmas Eve.

You Just Can't Visit Too Many Museums or Eat Too Many Desserts

We stayed up waaaay too late Sunday night uploading photos to Flickr and blogging... so we decided to sleep in until 9:30am.

So much for that... at precisely 8:00am, we were awakened by hammering, drilling, sawing, and other loud banging noises. It seems someone is renovating the upstairs apartment.

We scrambled some eggs, got ready, and hit the streets of Paris with a a few important objectives.

Our first stop was the patisserie... BINGO! Teri got her chocolate eclair. However, as good as it was, it turned out to be filled with chocolate creme, not vanilla custard... so technically, we're still looking for the perfect eclair. I had a bite of this one, and I know that irrespective of the filling type, it was the best I'd ever had.

Flush from our eclair success, we headed for Angelina, hoping to get some of their famous hot chocolate. Found it! We had a less-than-friendly server, but managed to communicate our desire for some hot chocolate and a plate of cheeses.

Teri didn't like the hot chocolate! It was like drinking a dark chocolate bar, but it just didn't do anything for her (so I drank the rest!). She ordered another dessert that was alternating layers of pastry and custard, called Millefeuille. It was yummy, too.

Knowing that cheese and dessert were not enough nourishment to sustain Teri for long, we found some tasty pizza from a street vendor.

I read on several internet sites that there is a "secret entrance" to the Louvre which allows you to bypass the long lines of people descending into the museum at the glass pyramid. Obviously it isn't much of a secret, but the 99 Rue de Rivoli entrance delivers what it promises: A way to enter the museum without standing in line at the main entrance in the Louvre courtyard.

The secret entrance is easily found further West along the Rue de Rivoli-- it is easily recognized due to the red awning with the address clearly written on it. When you pass through this door, to descend stairs to the large shopping mall which features many high fashion stores. There are automated ticket machines where you can buy your admission tickets , and then walk straight into the museum.

The Louvre is beautiful. It is more than simply the largest museum I've ever seen... it is also a grand royal palace, and a landmark in its own right. It is larger and more grandiose than Versailles which replaced it. Much like Versailles, there is intricately carved stonework everywhere, inlaid stone floors, and beautiful elaborate frescoes on the ceilings.

Knowing we had only a few hours before museum fatigue would set in for Teri, we hustled to the Big 3 prizes of the Louvre: The Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa. You can get quite close to the Venus, and its detail and beauty is plain to see. Winged Victory is impressive for its story of discovery and its antiquity. The Mona Lisa looks just like you expect, only smaller... and it's very difficult to get close to it (see photo at the right). After that, we just kinda walked briskly through a great deal of the museum.

In our sprint through the Louvre, we saw more paintings than I thought existed; hundreds of marble sculptures; and also walked through the "History of the Louvre" exhibit, which was fascinating.

The Louvre has an extensive exhibit of Egyptian artifacts, including dozens of sarcophagi. It spans two floors at one end of the museum, and we only managed to see half of it. Many of these items were "collected" by Napoleon during his Egyptian campaign, and to this day the Egyptian government's requests for their return fall on deaf ears at the Louvre.

The biggest surprise for me was yet another part of the Louvre itself. During the remodeling which featured the construction of the controversial glass pyramid, archaeologists excavated what remains of the 12-century version of the Louvre: A medieval castle. At least 20 feet of the castle walls are intact! You can walk around and through them by descending into a special chamber below the museum.

We managed to see quite a bit more of the museum than we anticipated, since we got lost trying to leave! After racing through the Mesopotamian displays, we must have taken a wrong turn. We found ourselves in the Richelieu wing, home to an enormous collection of French Sculptures ranging from the 5th to the 19th century. They were magnificent, but I must admit I didn't pay much attention... we still couldn't find the Sortie. Teri was imagining us being stuck in the museum when it closed, and all those sculpture coming to life!

An exit finally presented itself, and we hit the coat/bag check just ahead of the crowds. Two grocery visits later, we had everything we needed to make a delightful meal at home: Ravioli w/ meat sauce, a fresh baugette, and a bottle of wine.

It had been quite a day!


Eclair Update: We had a success of sorts... Teri got a fresh eclair, but the filling wasn't quite what she hoped (see above). She has searched the vicinity (using Google Maps) for other patisseries, and she's probably going to visit them in the quest for the perfect eclair.

SPECIAL ECLAIR BULLETIN

On Monday morning, we got up early and headed to the patisserie... BINGO! Teri got her chocolate eclair. However, as good as it was, it turned out to be filled with chocolate creme, not vanilla custard... so technically, we're still looking for the perfect eclair. I had a bite of this one, and I know that irrespective of the filling type, it was the best I'd ever had.

A Little Bit of Everything

Today (Sunday) was our first full day with Emily. I had brought a very large suitcase from Arizona full of stuff she had not been able to bring with her back in September, so the three of us hauled it over to her dorm (she lives on Ile Saint Louis, an island in the middle of the Seine).

Em's dorm room is on the fourth floor of a quaint old building, and it overlooks a courtyard with lots of green growth and a bad-tempered black cat.

By the time we had shlepped the suitcase halfway across Paris, Teri was ready to eat (actually, Em and I were, too). We found a nice-looking restaurant whose entrees were well under 20 Euros, so in we went. The waiter did his best to speak English to us, and was quite amused with his attempts. Even so, he managed to misinterpret Emily's order for an espresso and broght three coffees, not one. Teri acted surprised, and even though he acknowledged that he had been stupid and wrong, he still charged us for all 3.

A short trip on the Metro, and we arrived at the Musée d'Orsay. Once through security and heading for the main exhibit, Teri remarked that it was great to enter a venue and not need to eat!

The Musée d'Orsay is Paris' museum of Impressionist art. Housed in a beautiful old train station, it is the perfect setting for exhibits. We saw paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, and many others. We even saw Whistler's Mother, and even though it was bigger than I had imagined, it was just as boring as I remembered from grade school.

After we'd had enough (and the museum was closing), we headed for the famed Angelina, a restaurant and bakery that is known for the BEST HOT CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD.

We discovered that we could cut straight across the Tuileries Gardens (once the royal gardens of the Tuileries Palace, West of the Louvre) to the North, and finally get that hot chocolate from Angelina. As we approached the area, the sidewalk was clogged with people... all waiting to get in at Angelina. No hot chocolate for you!

A bit crestfallen, we headed for the nearest Metro station since we had decided that
before getting dinner we would go visit Emily's apartment (she's sub-letting it for a month over the holidays from an Australian woman). The neighborhood is a tad iffy, and the 5 locks on the door confirm that I'm not the only one who thinks this. Still, it is a cozy little place, and Em can get a better idea of what it is like to live alone.

Back on the Metro again, this time stopping at the Hard Rock Cafe. We thought it might be nice to get a little taste of home, and Emily said it was the first American cheeseburger she had eaten since leaving the U.S. The food was good, the music was loud, and my diet coke was over $6.

Anyone who has dined out with Teri knows that she always has to modify the items she orders in some fashion. We heard from multiple sources that the French don't do this, and that waiters don't like it. Amazingly, Teri has completely resisted the temptation to ask to "leave something off," or "cook it without oil," or make some substitution! But at the Hard Rock Cafe, it must have felt too much like home. She ordered a hamburger and asked the waiter to toast the bun dry (the menu stated they were buttered and toasted)... and he took it all in stride.

we bid Emily a good night, and walked home. We had big plans to take our shoes off, upload photos, and do a little blogging.


Eclair Watch: While I was showering this morning, Teri got dressed quickly and ran down to the bakery... which is it turns out is closed on Sunday. Tomorrow, maybe?

If it's Saturday, we must be in Versailles

Getting There

Emily's foot continued to hurt her today, so she opted out of the Versailles trip. Teri and I managed to get up early, and we headed for the ticket office to get our all-day passes to Versailles, which included round-trip train tickets.

We arrived at the ticket office at 8:20am, only to discover than on Saturdays they do not open until 10:30. Instead, we headed straight for the RER train station (nope-- I don't know what "RER" means. Google it if you are really interested.) where we managed to buy tickets to Versailles.

We hopped on the train, and settled in for the ride. We has passed a few stops when Teri leaped up and said, "We have to get off. Come on!" Teri had correctly deduced that we had taken the wrong train. This train began its journey along the same path as the one we should have been on, but then had quietly turned North without us noticing.

The story continues on in a fairly tedious and boring fashion, so I'll just summarize: A nice man helped us figure out how to go back to the Eiffel Tower station, get on the right train, and arrive in Versailles only an hour late.

Even though we arrived later than we wanted, Saturday turned out to be an excellent day to visit Versailles. We walked right up to the ticket windows for our tickets, and we were in (by 1:00pm in the afternoon, a few hundred people were in the same ticket line).

Our admission included a recorded walking tour, so we had to stand in line to pick up some digital audio players and headphones. By the time we finally were ready to begin the tour, Teri needed to eat. It was almost noon, and the two scrambled eggs we ate for breakfast were long gone. My map showed a cafe, so we headed in that direction. When we attempted to go through a hallway which led to the cafe, a gentleman spoke to us in French, and seemed to be gesturing at the headsets. It seems we were not allowed to leave the palace proper with the headphones, and all the available food was outside the palace!

He spoke English well enough to tell us that we should go back and explain our situation to the woman who gave us the headsets and see if she would give them back to us once we finished eating. He was right-- she took them back and assured us that we could have them again.

We finally reached the building containing the cafe, and read the fancy menu posted outside. They had hot and cold sandwiches, salads, desserts, and more. It sounded good (and we were hungry). Once inside, we couldn't find the cafe. There were dining areas filled with people eating, restrooms, hallways, and a small snack bar with doughnuts, bottled sodas, a few pre-packaged ham-and-cheese sandwiches, and... hey, wait a minute... this IS the cafe! Teri was in disbelief. "The real cafe must be here somewhere," she exclaimed. But a thorough search of the premises revealed the sad truth: This was the best it was gonna get.

Fortunately, the tunny sandwiches (French for "tuna"?) and chocolate tart were delightful, and we were able to resume the tour.


Chateau de Versailles

Wow. Versailles is one spectacular place. Serving as the palace for Kings Louis XIV, Louis XV, nd Louis XVI, it is the ultimate statement of royal wealth and opulence. If you are a history buff, you can find lots of good stuff on the Wikipedia Versailles page... I'm just going to share my impressions of the place.

When we first entered the courtyard of the Palace, I was struck by the sheer scope of the place. Sure there are bigger buildings in the world, but they are not covered with intricate cut stone and elaborate ornamentation (most of it gilded) as this one is. The interior of the palace is even more startling.

The tour begins with the chapel. Louis XIV was very religious (he believed he ruled by divine providence), so he worshiped here a lot. I cannot fully express the impressiveness of this chapel. The beautiful inlaid stone floor, the ornate stone arches on the first level, the tall Corinthian columns on the second level, the vivid frescoes on the ceiling, and the golden organ pipes above the golden altar... this all adds up to a breath-taking room.

The tour continued as we passed through room after room in one palace wing that serves as an art gallery. It contains an impressive collection of paintings, most of them quite large. Among the subjects are Louis XIV, Louis XIV, and Louis XIV. There are also many of his relatives, some of his friends, several of partially nude women, and it ends with a room full of paintings of the royal artists themselves.

I had grown pretty weary of all these paintings when we were directed upstairs. We were now entering the large rooms used by the king. These were the places where the king entertained his family, met with members of the court, entertained dignitaries, held parties, etc. These rooms had a few things in common:

1. All were extremely ornate: It was difficult to find an undecorated area greater than a square inch.
   
2. most had impressive cut-stone fireplaces
3. Each ceiling featured a wondrous fresco portraying roman gods, men, and women
4. Exquisite draperies
5. Very tall windows which presented a person in the room with a gorgeous view of the gardens

This is a theme which continued, and was elaborated on, as we entered the private chambers of the King and then of the Queen.

The curators have created an added bonus: In each of these elaborate rooms, they have placed a piece of art by the sculptor Jeff Koons. He is a modern artist who creates amazing copies of pop culture items. For example, he created a 7-foot tall sculpture from aluminum that looks an awful lot like a twisted balloon dog. He also created a porcelain replica of Michael Jackson and his chimpanzee. I did not really consider this exhibit a bonus... these bizarre items were completely at odds with their surroundings, and I wish they had not been there.

We left the palace and headed for the gardens, which are beautiful, intricate, and immense. You could spend an entire day walking the grounds and not cover the full length of every path. I only wish we had gone in the Spring or Summer, when the trees are alive and they take the silly bags off of the outdoor sculptures. The body of water in the distance, known as the Grand Canal, is open to the public. We saw several crew teams rowing up and down the canal!

Traveling through the garden, we reached the Estate of Marie Antoinette after about 45 minutes. This is a separate palace with its own large courtyard, elaborate rooms, and an expansive garden. Marie Antoinette hated the demands and rigors of court life, and used this estate to escape. More modest than the main Chateau at Versailles, the Grand Trianon could stand as a king's palace in its own right.


Heading Home

By the time we returned to the town of Versailles to catch a train home, we had walked several kilometers. We were a bit hungry, so we stopped at a familiar (if not favorite) place: McDonald's. My Big Mac^tm, fries and Diet Coke were just as I remembered, although about twice as expensive. Teri had a little problem with her drink... can anyone tell here how to say "I spilled my Diet Coke on the floor" in French?

We caught the right train on the first try (although I should add that ALL trains leaving Versailles are the right ones), and made it back to Paris without incident. Walking back to the apartment from the train station near Notre Dame, we saw two very cute Dalmatian pups through the window of a pet store!

Emily joined us for dinner at the Cafe Saint Honoré, and then we finally got to sleep after midnight.

Tomorrow: The Musée D'Orsay.

Eclair watch: No eclairs today, either... since we were in a hurry to get tickets for the train to Versailles, we didn't want to go out of our way to the bakery near the apartment. There must be a bakery on the way to the train station, right? Wrong.

If it's Friday, we must be in Versailles

Did I say we were going to Versailles today? Um, things didn't quite work out that way. Teri and I had been without significant sleep for almost 30 hours, and once we hit the pillows it was pretty hard waking up again. Instead of arriving at Versaille by 9:00am, we slept nearly until noon.

Oh no! Thursday was rainy and gloomy, but we awoke late Friday to a beautiful, sunny day! We scrambled some eggs, got dressed, and hit the streets of Paris.

Our first goal was Angelina, a place Teri had heard about from a friend. We had to walk past the entirety of the Louvre, and that is one long building. We finally arrived at Angelina. It's a pretty fancy, and serves the best hot chocolate in the local galaxy cluster. They also sell delightful pastries and cookies-- we're bringing some back. Today we only purchased a delicious cookie, but plan to go back for hot chocolate and macaroons!

Teri wanted to get some great photos of the city from the Eiffel Tower, and figured we shouldn't waste a sunny day... so off we went. A somewhat circuitous route could take us along the Champs-Elysees and the past the Arc de Triomphe, so we headed that way. After a bit, it became clear it would take us quite a bit out of our way, so we took a shortcut to the Sienne, and followed it to the the Iron Lady.

At least 500 people were queued up for the ride to the top, so we opted to climb the stairs for a bargain of 4 Euros each. This took us to the first level, which is still pretty high. From there, we could see all of Paris! The buildings of the city were spectacular in the light from the setting sun.

We were pretty tired when we got back to ground level, but we were still of five kilometers from the apartment. We started the walk back, intent on finding a cafe where we could eat something good but not too expensive, and manage to order it without Emily's help (she stayed home with a bad headache).

After reading the menus outside of about a dozen restaurants, we settled on the Café Saint Honoré. Sure enough, the waiter did not (or chose not) to speak English, but we muddled through. Teri had what was an amazing chicken breast in a mushroom and wine sauce, and I enjoyed my cheeseburger, as well.

We ended the day with a visit to the local grocer to pick up some cheese, milk, and Diet Coke for the next day.

Eclair watch: No eclairs this morning-- the bakery was closed when we got there last night, and they were sold out by the time we woke up midday.

Base Camp Established

We're here. Teri and I have settled into our base of operations for this field season: A small apartment in Paris very near the Louvre. The flight from Miami was uneventful, but we slept very little.

Once in France, we were met by an American colleague who has been studying the French for almost 4 months: My daughter Emily. She is a "study abroad" student at the Sorbonne, and is studying French language, culture, history, and politics.

While I have yet to begin formal observations, I must say that our experience with everyone we've met, from a restaurant waiter to someone waiting for an elevator in the same building, has been friendly and kind. Emily speaks a fair bit of French, and helped us out enormously.

First Cultural Difference Noted: Driving

The only cultural difference that jumped out at me was the traffic. Drivers in France seem to be highly skilled, very attentive, and quite safe. But they do things in traffic that most Americans would never do. Traffic in Paris is a kind of organized chaos. Drivers will suddenly change direction and cut in front of traffic moving in a different direction, or merge where there is no room to merge, or drive in a lane clearly not intended for them. Even so, there is little horn beeping (unlike New York City), and I saw not a single crash.

I suspect that the attentiveness required by these risky driving habits actually lowers the number of accidents. It has been my experience that in the U.S., crashes happen when one driver is on autopilot, and another car does something unexpected. French traffic is so chaotic, drivers must always be expecting just about anything! (Caveat: I have not checked the statistics on this little hypothesis of mine, but I would like to).


Something Else You Don't See in the U.S.

As we were walking along the Sienne at about 5:00pm local time, I passed a side street and looked down to its end. As I did, something I saw stopped me in my tracks (and my companions, too): A huge crowd of what appeared to be all men ran around the far corner and continued on toward us (they were still 200-300 feet away). It had the same feeling as footage I'd seen of the "Running of the Bulls" in Spain, but there were no bulls... then a startlingly loud expolsion was heard, and we saw that someone was lighting off fireworks. Flares were also being lit and dropped from windows in the buildings.

The people continued to surge forward, aproaching the place where we stood. We decided to keep moving. Within 30 seconds, at least 20 large white police vans with their sirens blaring and blue lights flashing zoomed into the area. They blocked off three or four side streets, and guys in riot gear jumped out. There were a LOT of cops! As we watched the spectacle unfold, a police helicopter began orbiting the area where I had originally seen the men running. We walked on, heading for the Sienne river tour. As we did, we continued to see and hear police vehicles heading the the scene.

I learned later from the AFP Web Site that a large group of Dutch soccer (futbol) fans were causing a bit of trouble, and that's what we stumbled onto. I wish I had taken some video!


Acting Like Tourists


Ok, we took a delightful boat tour on the Sienne, although by this time we kept falling asleep if we sat down. We saw all the notable bridges across the river (I didn't know bridges were such a big deal), and circumnavigated the island where Emily's dormitory sits. We also went right past the Eiffel Tower at night, illuminated by blue lights. It was beautiful.

Once we returned to land, we stopped in a small cafe (well, it seems they're all small), and had some coffee and dessert before heading home.

Tomorrow, we're off to Versailles!

Sights to See

I may be studying these people, but I'm a tourist, too! Here are the "Must see" items on my list:

1. Eiffel Tower (Yep, I'm goin' to the top)
2. Versailles
3. Notre Dame Cathedral
4. The Louvre
5. Musee d'Orsay (gotta see that Impressionist stuff)
6. Arc de Triomphe
7. Chartres Cathedral (in village of Chartres)
8. The Catacombs of Paris
9. Musée de Notre Dame de Paris
10. ...

I also read a list of the ten things you should do (not see) while in France, and Teri liked one of them in particular: Buy a fresh chocolate eclair in the morning and eat it while strolling down the street.

Preparing for the Field

Teri and I leave in just a few days on our grandest expedition yet: living among the native Parisians. We'll be leaving behind the familiar, and hope to find a way to blend in so as to study the locals and their customs.

This blog will function as our 21st century field notebook, where we can record our observations and our reactions to what we see. I'll do my best to report on the culture into which we will be immersed, and provide some photographs, too.

Stay tuned! We arrive in France to begin our first European field season on December 18th.

Paul Wren
Wannabe Anthropologist