My last night in "The City of Lights"

Today Mom and I packed as much as possible in our last day. By now we are tired with sore feet, but we trudged through as well as we could. We started with mass at Notre Dame, always full of people, incense and crazy organ music. Next we grabbed a sandwich on the go - not a big deal to most, but you have to remember how wonderful the bread is here! Definitely one of my favorites. Next we went in search of a chocolate shop. Mom bought a sample package.. Maybe we will break into the bag tomorrow.

After this bit of running around the Marais and Ile de Cité, we ran back to the apartment. While I began to pack (a hour ritual), Mom caught a cat's nap on the couch. Yesterday our perfume salesman told us about a special fair on the Champs Elysées. The entire street is closed to cars and filled with all sorts of plants. Thinking it would be interesting to see lots of flowers and such, we decided to check it out. Bad idea. The crowd was insane! Since I grew up in the country, most plants are minimally interesting to me; add thousands of people, and that interest dissipates. We nearly ran away from there, just to get out of the crowds.

shot southeast down the Champs Elysées.

shot northwest toward the Arc de Triomphe.

We have been talking about taking a cruise on the Seine all week, and we checked it out multiple times today. As we went down to the river front, we saw the long lines and lost our desire. BUT we stumbled upon an artist and bought my first bit of artwork for this trip! Sorry, didn't take any pictures before rolling it up..

Next, dinner time! Our favorite part of the day. We dined at a small but popular restaurant on Rue Cler. I had to take a picture it was so pretty. We had a camembert cheese with a truffle sauce. SO good.

From dinner, we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower!

northeast. Sacré Cœur is in the center.

southeast. Parc du Champs de Mars.

east-southeast. Notre Dame is in the center; Hôtel des Invalides is at 3:00.

southwest along the Seine.

Me and Mom at sunset on the Eiffel Tower.

As the sun set over the Trocadéro:

northeast after sunset.

from the second deck.

beautiful.

I also have a video of the light show, but I need to edit it before posting. Promise it will appear soon.

Tomorrow we leave Paris and are going to London! Native English speakers, here we come!

France Smells - in a great way!

Today Mom and I walked to Cité for the Marché aux Fleurs (Flower Market). Although not the cut-flower market Mom was hoping for, it was full of potted plants and trinkets. From there, we stopped in Sainte Chapelle, home of some of the most note-worthy stained glass around. And it was beautiful. Unfortunately, they are restoring the main part of the glass, but we were still impressed by what was available.

church is building on the left.

Next, we walked down the Seine to the Louvre - time for some museum touring!

first, a peek at the Royal Palace.

mom and me in front of one of the pyramids!

While wandering around the Louvre, we decided a guided tour would be a smart way to spend €5. A small French woman guided us around the museum, picking out the masterpieces, for about two hours. Money well spent.

Marly courtyard.

the Code of Hammurabi. dated to 12th century BC. wow, it's OLD.

the top relief depicts King Hammurabi receiving laws from the god Shamash.

ancient Egyptian statues with a man's head, horse's body, and eagle's wings.

the Exchange of the Princesses of France to Spain.

dated early 1600s, sponsored by Marie de Medici.

The Lacemaker by Johannes Vermeer, dated 1670.

The Ceiling at the Louvre - painted this year by American modern artist Cy Twombly.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace. 2nd century BC

and from afar.

Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, self-portrait with daughter - 1789.

The Coronation of Napoleon. 1807 by Jacques-Louis David.

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Véronèse in 1563.

Venus de Milo again.

Learned a new fact from our French guide - Venus's arms most likely once held gold bracelets.. When she was abandoned in Greek times, her right arm was most likely cut off to remove the bracelets, hence the two small holes above the severance. Who knew?

After this touring, we moved on to the second necessary item on the list - shopping! We had a great time smelling perfumes.. Our noses were very confused. But we were helped by a great French salesman, who gave us coffee beans to clear our sense of smell and recommended things unique to Paris or France. What a great way to find exactly how France smells!

Next, the much anticipated Sacré Cœur! We went as the sun was setting to the west. It made the city views even more picturesque. Didn't mean to rhyme, but I guess it was about time! bahahah.

so many people to be out past 8:30!

We made it back to the Marias in time for a pizza and beer; now it is off to bed. After being tired all day today, we are sleeping a little bit later tomorrow.. Then it is mass at Notre Dame, a cruise down the Seine, and a trip up the Eiffel Tower. We learned today (from our French perfume guy), that a special gardening exhibit it being held down the Champs Elysées. Obviously, they close down the road for this special event. Should be worth a trip down the grand avenue.

Also, had a comment recently that my blog themed around sleeping and eating.. Hmm. Just wanted to be clear: those are two of the most important things in my life. Hah. Thought I should set the record straight! :)

You're full already?!

For only sleeping one hour last night, Mom did pretty well! We left the house around eleven, which is completely on time for me, grabbed a pan au chocolat (for Mom) and a butter croissant, and headed to Versailles. What a huge place! It definitely met our expectations as the best palace in Europe.

King Louis the XIV.

the Château.

the Chapel.

the Apollo Salon.

the Hall of Mirrors. (Mom's favorite room.)

king's bedroom.

queen's bedroom.

view from Château down to the Grand Canal.

 

Mom with the pruned cedar-esque trees.

view from Grand Canal back to the Château.

one of my favorite rooms. in the Grand Trianon.

porch/breezeway at the Grand Trianon. I'll take one of these, s'il vous plaît.

me!

At some point amid the touring, we stopped for lunch at a nice cafe. We had salads and, of course, crème brûlée. Oh, so good. Since Mom has arrived, I noticed that either she is eating less than normal.. or I'm eating more... Certainly not! She must be eating less. But I have realized that it sometimes looks as if you are displeased with the meal if your plate is not clean. (Something I picked up from Marco and Thibaut's ever-happy plates.) I may have joked with her a time or two at this point.

After touring the Château and gardens for hours, my feet were dirty and Mom was ready to get on the first train to Paris. We came back to the apartment and freshened up. (We also ate the raspberry tart we bought from Ladurée yesterday!) We struggled to decided whether a dinner cruise was worth the money or not, and opted to try a restaurant recommended by one of my chef-teachers from last week. This may be the best decision of the trip. It was so, so, so good.

Dinner started off with an apertif - just a small snack before the meal begins. Thank goodness for the Californians at the table next to ours: they deciphered our menu for us and made recommendations! First course: Mom had the grilled white asparagus with a delicious cream sauce and a poached egg on top. I had an untraditional shrimp bouillon with spaghetti noodles; I can't really describe it. Second course: Mom had white fish over peas and mushrooms served with a light sauce. I had a veal roast that was oh, so tender, served with a garnish of olives and red peppers with basil mashed potatoes on the side. Since this was more closely our third course (add in the raspberry tart and pre-meal snack apertif), Mom was quite full and could only eat about half of the serving of fish. I was worried that the chef would notice and think we were not satisfied with the food. (The restaurant only sat about thirty five, and the chef's station was at the entry of the kitchen.) Needless to say, I finished my meal and coaxed Mom through four or five more bites.

And if that wasn't enough... The wait staff may have forgotten to tell the kitchen our meal was done, and we had to wait for our dessert to be served. However, it fabulous restaurants such as this, you cannot wait! The chef sent us two small desserts of vanilla cream pudding garnished with fresh strawberries. Minutes later, our real desserts appeared! Mom had the chocolate mousse with a praline-like crust and pudding, while I had the classic soufflé.

half eaten desserts. (don't worry, we finished them!)

At the end of the meal, this girl who was been drinking coffee nonstop for four weeks, could not bear to think of consuming anything else. We waddled our way home while planning tomorrow's ventures. It looks like we will hit an open air flower market, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, some shops, and possibly the Musée d'Orsay!

Mom's in Paris!

I arrived at the airport around ten to learn that her plane (which was due for 11:30) was delayed until 11:50. Since I was planning on being quite early to begin with, I waited for about two and a half hours before she finally walked through the security gate. We found each other easily, thank goodness! We were both quite worried that we would miss each other and spend hours looking, but it was extremely easy. Too much worrying, indeed.

After meeting up, I took Mom on a whirlwind tour of the city:

- crepes for lunch in the Marias (I had a ham, egg and cheese; Mom had chicken, mushroom, and cheese.)

- metro to the Arc de Triomphe, climb to the top (284 steps was a lot for a jet-lagged lady, but she did great!), and enjoy the view(s)

Arc model - to see it up close and personal.

view to the northeast - note Sacre Cœur in the middle.

the Eiffel Tower.

- cruise the Champs Elysées and visit (my favorite) Laudrée for macaroons

- laugh at men in a tiny car

- marvel at the Seine

- visit Place de la Concorde on the way to sit in the Tuileries Garden

- have drinks and a croque monsieur in Trocadéro

had to take a picture - first time I have seen real ketchup in a month!

and it was DELICIOUS.

- walk near and admire the Eiffel Tower

- visit Shakespeare and Co. bookstore (I bought Thibaut's recommendation of The Stranger by French author Albert Camus)

- see Notre Dame from afar

Wow, what a day! Now it is time for poor Mom to sleep! Plane rides are never conducive to much sleep, so hopefully she will sleep well tonight (even with all of the Thursday night street noise) and be fully energetic for a long day at Versailles tomorrow!

I am beginning to worry about coming home.. I don't think I am quite ready to yet..