Category: France

Posted on August 3, 2008November 23, 2009

Our last couple of days in Paris were more laid back and slow-paced than the others. We still had some sights to see, in particular the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, on Ile de la Cite.

When we came out of the island’s metro station, the first thing we saw was the Marche aux Fleurs, or flower market, which was perfect because it was on my to-see list already:

I’m not the green thumb in the family – that honor goes to my parents and sister, who had a ball exploring the little shops selling all kinds of flowers, seeds and garden wares. I bought some lavender-scented soaps and satchels for a cousin and we soon walked the short couple of blocks to the Notre Dame:

The cathedral is huge. I’m not particularly into gothic architecture, but it was impossible not to be impressed by the imposing walls, statues and stained glass:

I spent a good amount of time walking around and exploring inside the church. As one of Paris’ most popular landmarks, the Notre Dame attracted tourists aplenty, but the sheer size of the cathedral meant that it never felt crowded or stuffy.

Afterwards, we started walking towards Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge across the River Seine and reputably the one with the best views. Unfortunately, it was overcast while we walked across the bridge, so it lacked the je ne sais quoi of say, the view you’d get during a balmy evening sunset. But still, it was nice:

I had planned for us to pay a visit to Berthillon, the infamous Parisian ice creamery, at the nearby Ile Saint-Louis, but they were closed that day. Instead, we stopped at Jess’ Cafe near the bridge and I had a croque monsieur that didn’t live up to my expectations, but was filling nonetheless:

We took our time walking towards the metro station after lunch. Ile de la Cite is full of flower shops, cafes and pet stores; in other words, the place is oozing with charm. By the time we got back to our apartment it was time to pack up and say goodby to Paris. The next morning we took a taxi to Charles de Gaulle Airport to catch our flight to our next destination: Istanbul.

Posted on July 28, 2008November 23, 2009

My guidebook describes the district of Montmarte as the bohemian heart of Paris, bustling with artists, music, and uh, ladies of the night. My only backround on the neighborhood stemmed from repeated viewings of Amelie and a tip from my cousin to make sure to vist Tati, sort of like a French H&M. Tati turned out to be closed when we visited, but it was on the way to our main stop anyway: the Basilique du Sacre Coeur:

Perched at the summit of butte Montmarte, the Roman Catholic basilica is at the highest point in the city, providing a spectacular panorama of the Paris skyline:

It felt like a million steps to finally reach the Sacre Coeur, so my family and I took our time walking up the hill and admiring the view (and the good weather, finally).

Photos are not allowed inside the basilica and silence is observed as much as possible, lending a more solemn air to this house of worship than any of the other ones I visited during our trip.

After exploring the basilica, we took the metro to the nearby Marche aux Puces de St-Ouen, which my guidebook described as the largest and finest antique flea market in Europe. Not so. It felt more like a typical market in Berkeley, complete with mass-produced Bob Marley leather jackets and incense. (Sorry, Berkeley.)

We cut that part of our day short and took the metro back into the city center and stopped for lunch near Les Halles (which happens to be the namesake for Anthony Bourdain’s New York restaurant). I had the plat du jour at Au Pere Tranquille: shrimp salad with avocado and grapefruit:

Afterwards, we walked a few blocks towards Centre Pompidou, a postmodern complex housing a public library, the national museum of modern art, and a center for music research:

It took a few minutes to get a sense of direction in this huge building, and we ended up spending most of our time in the modern art museum:

I really enjoyed Centre Pompidou. I just wish I knew what all of the signs meant. Applying my knowledge of Spanish to French was a slow process fraught with guessing games, and I’m sure Parisians got a chuckle or two at my Spanish-accented attempts to communicate. Parlez-vous Anglais? can only get you so far!

Posted on July 22, 2008December 24, 2009

I had read in my guidebook that despite the crowds and more expensive admission, weekends are the time to visit Versailles because all the ornate garden fountains are on, making it all the more worth the trip. With this in mind, we woke up early on a Saturday morning to take the RER train to the Versailles train station.

On our short walk to the palace, my family and I stopped at A La Coiffe Bretonne to have crepes for lunch. I had the cockles and mushroom crepe with Moray sauce:

It was more buttery than crepes I’ve had in the U.S. and fortified me for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Once we got to the palace gates, we stood in line for about an hour (!) before we finally purchased our tickets and began exploring Chateau de Versailles.

It was unfortunate that part of the palace is under renovation, and another part of it was closed during our visit. Still, we took our time strolling through the grands appartements, the grand appartement de la reine and the sparkling Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors).

It turned out that a ticket purchased later in the day (we didn’t reach the ticket booth until almost two in the afternoon) does not grant you full access to the gardens. That wasn’t hugely disappointing, since the greatly-coveted fountains had not been turned on all for the weekend:

I don’t know why, but I sort of expected more from Versailles. Maybe it was the long lines, the overwhelming crowds, the partial renovation and closing off of quarters, or just a general overload from so many museums over the past few days, but I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I’d be. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but in France everything is so stunning that perhaps it just takes more after awhile to really be stopped in your tracks.

Though we didn’t have a chance to visit it, we had fun looking for signs pointing to Saint-Cloud, the little city between Paris and Versailles where my cousins grew up. Since we were running late, we caught the RER back to Paris and headed to our neighborhood for dinner.

We ate at L’Auvergne a Paris, a small restaurant a couple of blocks from our apartment. I had been wanting to try escargots so I was delighted to find and order them from the menu:

They tasted a little like clams, although less flavorful and overpowered by butter, garlic and parsley instead. Still, I was satisfied enough to be able to say I’ve now tried escargots.

By the time we finished dinner, it was evening and we hopped on the metro to visit every tourist’s requisite stop: the Eiffel Tower:

And you know what? Despite the cliches, it was magical. For fifteen minutes at every hour, the entire tower would light up with sparkling lights, and it felt like all of Paris was giving you a great big stinky, wine-soaked, cheese-laden hug. And I wanted to turn around and give it one right back.

Paris, je t’aime.

Posted on July 13, 2008December 24, 2009

When I was planning our itinerary a few months ago, I knew I was going to have to squeeze the Louvre in there somewhere. Now don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a must-see and I was looking forward to the visit. It’s just that ever since the Da Vinci Code hype a couple of years ago, my interest in the museum waned. I tend to dismiss anything associated with a fad or phenomenon, sort of like trucker hats and Dr. Phil.

Thankfully the Louvre can survive a trend better than any of the aforementioned items, and so my family and I found ourselves at the museum early in the morning to try and beat the crowd.

It turns out you can’t beat the crowd because there are hordes of tourists looking for (a) the Mona Lisa, (b) Tom Hanks, or (c) Tom Hanks deciphering the Mona Lisa, in all her bulletproof-cased glory. This was actually okay, because it diverted the throngs from the Near Eastern antiquities section, which is where we went first. And found oh, about half of Persepolis on display. (I always wondered where so much of the ruins in Iran went.)

We spent a few more hours exploring the museum and finding the must-sees (Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, of course), and then walked outside towards Jardin de Tuilieres.

Walking along a straight path, we strolled down Place de la Concorde, passing the Obelisk, the Rue Royale and the Church of the Madeline along the way.

Finally, we reached the Arc de Triomphe, which was beautifully imposing, albeit a bit anticlimactic after all that walking.

We looped around and began walking along Avenue des Champs Elysees, mostly window shopping and people watching. The avenue is so much longer and broader than I had ever expected, so we didn’t walk along the whole thing. We did, however, come across Iran Air’s offices on the Champs-Elysees, right by the Louis Vuitton boutique and Laduree shop – who knew?

We were pretty exhausted after all that walking, so we hopped on to the closest metro back to our apartment where we enjoyed, in typical French fashion, an assortment of fresh cheeses and deli meats with baguettes for dinner.

Posted on July 8, 2008December 24, 2009

My family and I spent our last morning in London trekking to St. Pancras train station, where we got our passports stamped and boarded a high-speed Eurostar train bound for Paris’ Gare du Nord station. The three-hour train ride went by quickly and was impeccably comfortable, although hectic and seemingly without order (carriages were unnumbered, luggage was arbitrarily shoved away).

In Paris, we quickly became familiarized with the metro station. A note on Paris: Unsurprisingly, nothing is in English. This is fine if you studied French in school, but unfortunately I studied Spanish. Still, after a little reorientation we were fine and on our way to our apartment in the 15th arrondissement, at quartier Saint-Lambert near Vaugirard. Our apartment couldn’t be easier to find and the neighborhood was perfect, conveniently located near lots of markets, bakeries and delis. It was so stereotypically French; during the five-minute walk from the metro to our apartment, I lost count of how many impeccably-dressed Parisians I saw carrying baguettes under one arm and a small dog under the other.

We were tired from the journey so we spent the rest of the day getting settled in and exploring the neigbhorhood. The next morning, we got up early and took the metro to Place Maubert, an open-air market with vendors selling everything from roast chicken and tapestries to foie gras and flowers:

Our next stop was the Pantheon, within walking distance, but we were getting hungry. We stopped on our way at La Methode, where I ordered the prix fixe because I was craving the featured coffee and dessert that came with the meal. What followed was a sign of things to come. Apparently at La Methode, if you don’t speak French, you don’t get your whole prix fixe and the waiter will insist to you that he doesn’t know what you’re talking about, even though the tables next to you who ordered the exact same thing are enjoying coffee and dessert, and the prix fixe menu clearly has “cafe” and “le gateau” scrawled on. This happened at a couple of other restaurants too.

Anyway.

My “prix fixe” included a penne eggplant salad appetizer and a country sausage and mashed potatoes entree:

The Pantheon was a stone’s throw away, and it was stunning:

Inside, the Foucalt pendulum is the centerpiece among impressive Corinthian columns and domes:

Downstairs lies the burial place of French heroes such as Voltaire, Rosseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola and Marie Curie.

After we exited, we continued to explore Paris by foot, even though it had begun to rain. We shortly arrived at the city’s largest park, Jardin du Luxembourg, which is now among my favorite parks in the world. It certainly didn’t hurt that a high school brass band was playing hits such as “The Final Countdown,” and playing them well! That pretty much made my day.

The main feature is Luxembourg Palace, but the park also boasts a puppet theatre, merry-go-round, a pond, and statues scattered throughout the entire area. We loved it so much that if it wasn’t starting to pour, we would have stayed longer.

Our last stop for the day was Musee D’Orsay, an art museum housed in a former train station along the Seine River:

The museum is best known for its extensive collection of impressionist paintings, but my favorite part was the unique and eclectic layout of the museum:

Oh, and it didn’t hurt that Musee D’Orsay has an amazing rooftop view:

We saw a whole lot on our first full day in Paris and just about fell in love with the city’s breathtaking architecture and depth of history. I dunno about those pseudo-prix fixes or eight dollar coffees (thanks, Euro), but Paris is gorgeous.