Day Six: Last full day in Paris

We awoke (to more sun!) and took the metro to Sacre Coeur. This is a church in the Montmarte area which offered breathtaking views of Paris from atop a hill. 

When you get to the bottom of the hill, you can use a metro ticket to take the funicular (like an incline car) up the steps and save your feet a bit. Wanting to conserve our tickets, we climbed more steps to see the cathedral. No pictures allowed inside here. 

But what did I tell you about those views?!

We then began a walk downhill past Place du Tertre where many "artists" wanted to paint our portrait. Continuing on through Montmarte which was the inspiration for many famous artists who lived in France including Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne. This was also the dirtiest part of Paris, with scammers and litter all around. We saw the Moulin Rouge. The can-can girls still perform nightly but the tickets are $$$$.

We made our way back to the hotel for a pit stop before taking the metro to Les Invalides again this time to see Musee de l'Armee that had been closed the other day. This was one of John's highlights.

Les Invalides

You guys! My dad collects antiques and he has one of those yellow handled Nazi daggers!

We also saw a ceremony with French military cadets. 

They were singing La Marseillaise!

After the museum, we went back to see the Eiffel Tower in the sun and got pictures with blue sky. 

This is our only picture together in France. We need to work on asking people to take them for us.

We headed in the direction of the next (and last) two museums on our itinerary but first we needed sustenance. I wanted to write down every restaurant, what we ate and how much our meals were but sadly, I did not. I don't recall the name of the place we ate but it was most likely a tourist trap, due to the proximity to the museums. I ordered a hamburger but it arrived, inexplicably with no bun. I didn't bother trying to inquire for one. I'll talk about this later in a wrap-up post but as a whole, we were completely underwhelmed by most meals in Paris.

Then, we headed over to Musee de l'Orangerie. This was on the Museum Pass (duh) but we would have gone anyway just to see Monet's Waterlilies. Holy cow! I have seen other prints of this in other art museums but there is nothing like the original. The colors were so vivid and it's HUGE! There are 8 (I think) gigantic panels on the walls all around the oval shaped room that houses it. No pictures here, sadly. But I will never forget what it looks like.

Relatively nearby is the Musee d'Orsay.

No photos allowed in here either but we saw a lot of people breaking that rule. Including John, who took this photo on the sly. If you saw the movie Hugo (highly recommend!) you'll recognize the clock. Musee d'Orsay used to be a train station before it became home to masterpieces.

LOTS of Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Cezanne and more. I love impressionism so both of these museums were awesome for me. d'Orsay is also on the Museum Pass. I didn't add it all up but I know we got more than our money's worth, especially with saving time not standing in line.

Looking a little tired here

There is a sizeable cafe in Musee d'Orsay where we had a delightful treat of wine (I forget what I had but John's Gewurtztraminer was outstanding!) and a pistachio mille feuille. Oui, I even ordered in French.

Delicious! We stopped back at that outdoor market near the Louvre, bought a few more things and made our way home. A few drinks at the Cricketer (yes, we went back -- it was Ladies Night!), dinner at Cafe Marco Polo and back to the hotel to pack. The last night of a trip is always the saddest.

We ate some dessert and drank wine while we packed and went to bed thinking everything to be all right for our flight the next day. Boy, were we wrong!

Day Three: London & Traveling to Paris

We began the day in London by sleeping in a bit. After checking out and leaving our bags at the hotel, we moved on to breakfast at Pret-A-Manger....again. They really need to get these in the States. We then walked down to the British Museum. 

Look! My camera has a fish-eye setting!

What an amazing place! It wasn't on our original itinerary but when I found out it opened early on Sundays (9:00 AM) and we had a slot to fill, we added it in. The proximity to our hotel was nice too.

Rosetta Stone

Highlights include seeing the Rosetta Stone, several pieces of antiquity from Greece, Rome, Eqypt, etc.  I know I really undersold this museum by summing it up in half a sentence but there was just so much to see it's difficult to list everything. Admission was free! Although there was an exhibit on Pompeii that a fee was charged for. We didn't bother with that because we didn't have time.

Easter Island statue

We left the museum for one last pub meal nearby. Fish and chips, cask ales and cider of course. Then we grabbed our bags and set off for St. Pancras. We walked to the station from our hotel which wasn't bad at all. I don't think I mentioned the weather yet. In London, we had temperatures in the upper 50's to low 60's. No real sun to speak of but we weren't expecting any either. We wore jackets the whole time but were not uncomfortable, temperature-wise. I was glad for my scarves though.

St. Pancras International is where you board the Eurostar to continue your adventure to Paris. We booked the seats well in advance. I believe the itineraries open 120 days ahead and they do sell out. Also, the closer to the departure date, the more expensive the tickets are. Our seats were $65 USD each one way. So, very reasonable. Be careful when selecting your seat on the train as some are next to windows and some are not. The Eurostar has a dining and bar car and a tourist desk of sorts where you can buy Museum Passes for Paris and more. We had some pounds leftover while awaiting our departure so we used those to buy one of our museum passes. More on the museum pass later but, if you have cash left before leaving the UK, this is a great way to spend it. You can also buy train tickets to be used in Paris for the Metro.

You do have to pass through Immigration prior to boarding the train since you'll arrive in a different country. You are also responsible for loading your own luggage onto racks at the end of your train car. Each car has its own bathroom as well. The seats were roomy and there were racks above them for smaller luggage too.

The journey takes just over 2 hours and passing under the English Channel only takes about 20-30 minutes. The rest of the time you are traveling at very high speeds through countryside, some more idyllic than others.

French countryside

On the train....looking a bit tired.

I considered having us take the Metro to our hotel but decided against it when I realized we'd be dealing with large suitcases. Instead, we took a cab from Gare du Nord to our hotel Le Grand Hotel de Normandie which is in the 9th arrondissement. The ride cost about 10 euros. I booked our room on hotels.com  for its decent reviews on location and its rate. We paid about $200 USD/night. Yes, the room is tiny. And the bed was EXTRA firm. Luckily, we were so tired at the end of each day, we had no trouble sleeping. The walls, however, are thin. I'm glad I brought earplugs to drown out our neighbors' conversations. I will never travel without earplugs again. They have changed my life!

Too tall for this bed

This is the view out of our window. Oh yes, we arrived to the rain that I had prayed so hard would not show up. 

My prayers were not answered. If you are willing to use the Metro, you will save your feet, time and money in getting around Paris. Do not be afraid of navigating. Just make sure your train is going in the right direction and you'll be fine. As it happens, Gare Saint-Lazare is also an SNCF station which came in handy on our Versailles day. Inside there were a few fast food places and some shops as well.

A little rain wasn't going to stop us. We are in PARIS! Let's go explore.

It was about 5:30pm on a Sunday at this point so we just started walking and knew that eventually, we'd find dinner. We headed down toward the Seine to see what we could and catch our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

La Madeleine

Place de la Concorde -- get used to that umbrella

There she is!

This is a bridge with Love Locks. You write your names on it and maybe a date, lock it on the bridge and throw the key in the river as a symbol of your undying love for one another. We didn't do this but, here they are. Actually, many Parisians hate them because they ruin the bridges. Periodically, les gendarmes come through with bolt cutters and remove them. So much for undying love!

We also walked by l'Opera Garnier, the department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, and in and around various streets and neighborhoods.

After walking around for a few hours, we decided to head back up to the 9th to find dinner. We did so at Cafe Madeleine near rue Tronchet. This was my first experience ordering in French and I think I did a great job! At least, John was impressed and the food we wanted came to our table. We had hamburgers and wine. Classy!

We had a drink at a bar/restaurant next to our hotel but decided to call it a night when the waiter didn't really seem interested in us after the first round. No matter, night one in Paris, a success!

Paris, My Sweet

In my never-ending quest for knowledge for my upcoming European adventure, I borrowed Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas from the digital library on my Kindle. I follow her blog, God, I Love Paris and decided her memoir would be a good read as well.

Source

Good Reads' Synopsis: "Part love letter to New York, part love letter to Paris, and total devotion to all things sweet. Paris, My Sweet is a personal and moveable feast that’s a treasure map for anyone who loves fresh cupcakes and fine chocolate, New York and Paris, and life in general. It’s about how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a sliver of cheesecake and about how the life you’re meant to live doesn’t always taste like the one you envisioned. Organized into a baker’s dozen of delicacies (and the adventures they inspired) that will tempt readers’ appetites, Paris, My Sweet is something to savor."

What I Thought: I really liked this one but it's possible that I liked it only because I love eating and can't wait to go to Paris. It was an easy, conversational read about a topic that I'm interested in. It also made me wish I could go live in Paris for a year. I would love to have the guts to do that but I'm pretty sure no one will be knocking on my door to hand me that opportunity. If you like pastries and you like Paris, you'll enjoy this book.

Rating: * * * 1/2