À bientôt

Well it's my last night in Paris and I am back at the hotel trying my best to keep from getting a cold. I can feel it coming. Oh no! I want to have my taste buds for Italy. The pharmacist nearby gave me some little supplements to try and keep it from arriving. Fingers crossed, but I do believe I am at the point of no return. Drat!

Here is a short version of my last couple of days...

Yesterday I left early in the morning to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur and walk around the area. The church is so high on a hill that you can see all of Paris from it. Since I went early in the morn, most of the city was still under a haze, most likely pollution.


On my way back to the metro station I saw the Moulin Rouge. I took a photo, but it doesn't look that great in daylight. Plus, there are so many strip joints and sex shops on that street. It's kinda seedy. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the sign for Pussy's strip club. I wanted to, but too many people around. It was a great sign though, trust me. ;)





I then went to Centre Pompidou, but I was way too early so I ended up walking down Rue de Rivoli and I never got back to it. Oh well, I wanted to see it, but I guess you can't fit everything in. Although, I did fit in another trip to Berthillon, the ice cream parlor. Yum!

This morning I bought a ticket to the Monet exhibit from the concierge at the hotel. I'm glad I did because it put me second in line. The line up to buy tickets went around the block. Whoa nelly, that exhibit was amazing!!! Definitely a highlight of my trip. They had paintings from London, Toronto, Ottawa, New York, Chicago, Boston, Harvard, Yale, etc, etc. What a treat!


They also put all of Monet's series beside each other so you could really see how he painted the same subjects at different times of the day. It was just stunning. There must have been around 100 of his paintingsf. Some of the highlights for me were his series of haystacks, London's Thames river, woman with parasol, and of course the waterlilies. He had one still life of chrysanthemums that I also loved as the colour was so vibrant.


So, that was Paris. Didn't get to see as much as I wanted, but did get to thoroughly enjoy a beautiful, artistic, laid back city. I loved it!


Oh yeah, I cannot even count on one hand how many times I saw people walking down the street carrying a full baguette and just taking random bites from it. Just something you don't see back home.

Two tours, two days, too much

It's 10:30 on Tuesday evening and I'm enjoying a glass of wine I bought from a winery and some biscuits from a highly recommended bakery. That's a great end to two long days touring the countryside.

Yesterday was tiring as I had a 12+ hour long tour of the Loire valley. The French countryside is beautiful and the castles are enormous. We went to three in total. Ambiose, Chenoceaux and Chambord. All very nice.

The best part of the tour was our visit to Plou & Fils, a winery that has been handed down father to son for 500 years. The current owner is 25 and has total passion for his vineyard. He gave us a quick tour of the wine cave (not a cellar, a cave that was dug out by his ancestors) and showed us how they make certain wines. It smelled good in there. Afterwards, we lined up for a wine tasting and he gave us a sample of the wines. This was before lunch, so I got quite a buzz going and ended up buying three bottles. They were only six euros each and you cannot buy this wine outside Europe.


Now, on to today. I have no energy to blog about the castles. I've seen too many of them and I don't want to see anymore. Oh wait, I had to see Versailles today. Uh oh.

This morning I had my other tour in Paris. This one took me to Giverny in the morning and Versailles in the afternoon. As I didn't really care for Versailles, I will just talk about Giverny. Wow, Claude Monet's garden there is so pretty. The lily pond is to die for. The tree leaves that gently fall into the pond, the lily's that are still present, and the reflection all add up to a spectacular view.

I can see why Monet loved this place. You gasp when you see the way the morning light hits everything.












I found a great place to have lunch called "Hotel Baudy." It was quiet and only locals were eating there. I ordered the onion soup and goat cheese stuffed with fresh peppers and mushrooms. Oh, and wine since it's cheaper than anything else! It was a tasty lunch for sure.


When I got back this evening I did a little shopping and found a cute pair of italian leather boots from a department store called "Le Bon Marche." Ah, new shoes!

I then hightailed it to a river cruise company. I was hoping to get on the boat that gives you the view of the Eiffel tower when it is being lit and sparkling. I got there just in time and took an amazing hour long ride. If ever in Paris, definitely do the night cruise, everything looks great lit up.





On the cruise we passed by all the big monuments and when you went under the bridges, the people on the bridge would wave or try to start conversations with you. We even passed by a small park on the river where a dozen couples were waltzing to some man playing an accordion. Doesn't that sound like what Paris should be?

When our boat floated by the Eiffel tower, my camera died. Whoops. Oh well. I still got to witness the light show. It's very impressive. So much better than actually going to the tower and dealing with the crowds.

I'm off to drink my wine. Au revoir

Another beautiful day in Paris

I woke up this morning to a sunny, cloudless day. I opened the windows and laid back in bed and took in the view for a few minutes. Breathtaking. When I stepped out of the shower awhile later, church bells were ringing. Great start!

My first stop today was "Marche des les creations" a Sunday art market in Montparnasse. I certainly found what I was looking for, original art by local artists. I took two trips up and down the market absorbing each piece and deciding what I wanted. My first two pieces were small watercolours; one of Sacre Coeur, the other of Cafe de Flore. One is the view I look at every morn, the other is in the area I am staying. I think those were good choices. The artist, Jacqueline Legendre, was very sweet and she had some beautiful watercolours of flowers. A woman after my own heart!





I then found an oil painting by a gentle older man. He was like a sweet grandpa. He had oils of nudes. I was struck by one that reminded me of a Degas I saw the day before. Not that it is even close to a Degas, but that was the first thought that jumped in my head.


As I was leaving the market, I stopped by Jaqueline's tent again and looked through her larger pieces. She had one large pen & ink with touches of watercolour that drew my attention. It wasn't a bad price, so I bought that one too!


After I had spent all my money, I visited the Cimetiere du Montparnasse as it was close by. I didn't have a cemetery visit on my agenda, but I should have. It was beautiful. The grandeur of the head stones is impressive and it is very serene. What a nice place to walk around and glance at the history in front of you. When I think of graveyards, I usually think of bad zombie movies and creepiness. But in this one, all you see is how much they cherish the people who are no longer with us. There is a large amount of care and devotion put into one's resting place here. And the flowers! So many graves have little gardens around them with tons of fresh flowers.

That's one thing that is a huge difference from North America. The people here (and in England) cherish fresh flowers. They are everywhere. I see them being bought and carried around all the time. I wish we North Americans did that more.





After the cemetery, it was on to Notre Dame. Very cool. The gargoyles are awesome. I didn't go in as the line was very long. I just sat down and took it in. It smelled like pee. That's one thing about Paris, I think men just piss wherever. Hey boys, your pee stinks! Remember that before you whip it out.


Then it was on to Ile St.-Louis, the little island beside Notre Dame. I read that you can get the best ice cream in the world there. Yep, it's true. The place is called Berthillon. It's the parlor with at least 25 people waiting in line. It was worth the wait! Their ice cream is to die for. I got chocolate and caramel butter salt. Pure heaven.

My last stop of the day was the Eiffel Tower. What a zoo! I think I would rather take it in from a distance. When you are there it is not so parisian, more like Disneyland. I did wait the hour to go up. Now, that's much better. It's very nice up there and the view is pretty awesome.





Hey, is that me in a photo!?

I heart art

Walked my shoes off on my first full day in Paris. I started out at the Rodin Museum and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe. In between I saw the Hotel Invalides, Musee d'Orsay, Garden Tuilleries and avenue Champs-elysses. All in all a full 12 hours of walking was had.

The Rodin Museum has a wonderful garden full of sculptures, including The Thinker. I had a quiet walk through and did a little sketch of a statue in the middle of a pond. I totally forgot about my sketchbook! Crap. Oh well, I did get two sketches in.





After the museum, I ventured into Hotel Invalides as it is right across the street. It is not somewhere I was going to see, but I was there, so why not. I'm glad I did. The place is massive and has the tomb Napoleon is in. Boy did that dude have a bad case of short-mans syndrome. Everything he did was over-the-top. The tomb would fit at least 50 clowns.


I then ventured into the army museum there. I believe it's the biggest in the world (don't quote me on that). The French keep everything. They have thousands of pieces of armor from medieval times alone! And the amount of artillery, swords, crossbows canons and horse armor is impressive.


I would highly recommend seeing this place if you are in Paris. It is beautifully laid out and they have demonstration areas where you can put on the armor to see how it feels.


Another cool thing they have is full depictions of most of their war battles. They have these huge screens that animate a battle and you listen and watch as they show you on maps how the battle was won or lost. I listened to the Battle of Waterloo completely.

What a contradiction though. In London, they have so many monuments and are so proud of defeating Napoleon. And in Paris, they are so proud of Napoleon and his accomplishments. It's interesting to hear both sides. It makes me want to learn much more about this crazy little man.

Afterwards I walked over to the Musee d'Orsay. Ok, this is my favorite museum ever! The amount of impressionism and post-impressionism is, in a word, impressive. The one piece that absolutely "wowed" me was van Gogh's self portrait. I bet you can see it a mile away, it's so bright with colour. The aqua colours in the painting are so bright and contrast greatly with the orange of his hair and beard. It's almost cheerful until you look at his face, which is full of pain.


I saw so many other pieces that I loved, but I will not go on and bore you with my nerdiness.

But I'm still sticking with art, I am in Paris after all. After the Orsay, I sat by a fountain in Garden Tuilleries and there was a woman beside me painting in a small book. She had her shoes off and was resting her feet on the fountain edge. She held two little metal bottles of paint while she painted. I kept looking over at her work. It was beautiful. It looked like art deco from the 40's. I finally got up the nerve to ask her if she was willing to sell. Unfortunately, she couldn't. She is making a new design for a larger piece she is working on. Her name was Rusudan Petviashvili, she's an artist from Georgia. Too bad, I would have cherished it. Wasn't meant to be. But she gave me her card and a small pamphlet of her work.

Bonsoir.

Paris c'est magnifique!

Bonjour! And that's about the extent of French I know. I arrived this morning via the Eurostar. It took 2 hours and was quite a pleasant ride. The staff were extremely nice.

The Hotel Pont Royal is very nice too. The staff are extremely kind and the room is elegant and large. I'm on the sixth floor and when I open the window I have a view of the top of the Eiffel tower on the left and all of Sacre Couer on the right. Here are two pics from outside my window.






I did a short walk to the river and back as I had someone picking me up for a Louvre tour. I didn't get lost at all. Hmm, maybe I'm getting the hang of this. I have yet to see a car that doesn't have scratches or dents or worse! They drive like maniacs here.

Our tour guide was a good dude, he was originally from Holland. He said he came here for a trip and didn't go home. He showed us the big things, like Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. Mona was stunning. It's too bad it's so busy in there. It would be nice to sit in front of it and appreciate its beauty. Hard to do when there is about 60 people in the room and they are all just taking pictures and talking. I didn't think that would ruin my experience of it, but it did. Ah well, I did get to see another Leonardo that was just as beautiful, The Virgin of the Rocks.

After the tour I walked through Napoleon's state rooms. Holy, they are ornate to the extreme. You know how American's say "go big or go home?" I believe the French originated that title. The ceilings and floors and walls are works of art, and that's not including what resides within them.


I also tasted the best quiche. I have no idea what it was, but it had mushrooms in it and was so good. I think I will just eat pastry here. ;)

There is no wireless access in my room at the hotel, it's just in the bar and lobby downstairs. I hope to upload as much as I can, but it might be few and far between.

Here are some photos from tonight. I went for a walk and there is this one pedestrian bridge that is all young people sitting around eating baguettes, drinking wine and smoking. Looked like everyone was having a great time. Also, the bridge has thousands of little locks attached. Don't know the history behind it, but it was pretty cool.

Vincent

Just received an email from my friend Brenda who is currently visiting Paris. She was telling me about all the art she is seeing and how fantastic everything is.

She also mentioned a Van Gogh self-portrait that made her emotional. Funny, that is exactly how I felt the first time I saw one at the WAG in 1999. I have always loved Van Gogh, but was never interested in the self-portraits. Then I stood in front of one. I was stunned. As someone who paints, I was blown away by the colour and lightness he created. The painting seemed to glow. That's the problem with prints, they just look so dull next to the real thing.

Here is the painting I saw, this is hardly how I remember it. It did not look this dark.

Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat