Flying in on a cool, sunny day gave us our first glimpse of Paris laid out below. My excitement must have shown as I ooh-ed and ah-ed at views of the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomph. A Parisian lady beside us smiled and wished us a ‘joyful discovery’ of her city. At the airport we found information on taking a bus to the Paris Opera close to our hotel for 9 euros each. Our hotel was supposed to be only 1.5 km away, so we started towards Montmartre. When hauling your baggage uphill, nothing is very close. Map in hand, a few wrong turns and forty five minutes later we were in our hotel. A small dumpy hotel is supposed to have character, right? Our hotel prided itself on its elevator and telephones. The elevator did not work and I found the phone under the bed on our last day.
Mission one was to find a place for supper and explore the local terrain. Our first stroll revealed that we were staying in a sleazy part of the city. Our hotel brochure proudly proclaimed that we were only 200 meters from the Moulin Rouge, but left out the proximity to sex shops, sex clubs, strip joints, and something called Sexorama. Elenore would not let me find out more about that.
Fortunately, we were soon passing art shops, elegant apartments and cafes out of a postcard. We chose our restaurant and feasted on salad, onion soup and roast duck. Wonderful!! We topped off our first evening with a long climb up the stairs to Sacre Coeur Basilica, just over a hundred years old (new for Paris) and a masterpiece of 19th century architecture. The night view of the city from the front steps and gardens was beyond expectation. We even caught a glimpse of the Eiffel tower all lit up.
The next day we walked downhill from our hotel to Trinity church, a baroque work of art and after a short visit, continued up to the Paris Opera with its golden dome. I could go on and on about beautiful the streets, gorgeous churches and the old world charm of everything including little corner grocery stores (did I mention they sell amazing Bordeaux wines for around 4 Euros?). Alas, the Paris Opera is under repair and had no performances during our stay. Don Carlo was playing at the Bastille Opera, but only had a couple of isolated tickets at 165 Euros. We decided we would use those Euros to eat and drink instead, starting with a delightful lunch in a Brasserie on the way to the Arc de Triomph. Of course we passed through the Tuilliery Gardens (mostly naked trees in winter) and all the way up the Champs Elysee to get there.
We’d been so enthralled with all the sights that we hadn’t noticed our stressed feet until after lunch, so decided to take the metro (subway) back downtown to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral. Well....., you won’t believe it, we got lost. It truly is a labyrinth down there. Thanks to a kind Parisian, we made our way to the correct track and found our destination.
I don’t want this to be just a tourist’s description of Paris because my words cannot express how much fun we had. Paris alone could take up one ‘On the Road’ a day, so here’s just a quick list of some of the other things we did and our general impressions:
Walked the Left Bank (day and night)
Walked the Right Bank (day and Night)
Took busses and the metro and actually got pretty good at getting around.
Visited the Musee D’Orsay (feasted our eyes on many impressionist art works including works of Monet, Degas, Manet, Pissaro, Toulouse Lautrec, ...
Went to a piano concert of Chopin and Shubert in the Latin Quarter’s Eglise St. Julian Le Pauvre the oldest church in Paris.
Took the train to the Palace of Versailles and picnicked in the gardens.
Went to a play “How to become Parisian in One Hour” in the Bastille quarter.
Went to a noon hour soprano, alto, organ concert of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Trinity Church. (Found a piece of heaven for a little while).
Went to a Brahms Requiem concert in the ancient church of St Severin... Unfortunately we arrived to find that the poster was for 2009 so we went to a nice restaurant, walked around the Latin Quarter, then had wine /tea in a café with a perfect view of Notre Dame Cathedral all lit up.
Oh la la! I almost forgot the Louvre. A week would not be enough, so on our one day, we focused on Egyptian and Mesopotamian antiquities, the Mona Lisa, then did an in depth study of Rubens.
We ate well, drank well (did I mention the wonderful red wines?) and slept well. It turned out our hotel was clean, centrally located, and had a good bed-so it serves the budget minded. The Parisian people, waiters, servers, were wonderful and always helpful. Perhaps due to my ability to speak some French or that the winter season is less stressful, we found the myths about their arrogance to be completely inaccurate.
After six blissful days, we headed to Toronto on Air France. It was a whirlwind of delight and there is still so much more to see. We must return for another visit.
The next day we walked downhill from our hotel to Trinity church, a baroque work of art and after a short visit, continued up to the Paris Opera with its golden dome. I could go on and on about beautiful the streets, gorgeous churches and the old world charm of everything including little corner grocery stores (did I mention they sell amazing Bordeaux wines for around 4 Euros?). Alas, the Paris Opera is under repair and had no performances during our stay. Don Carlo was playing at the Bastille Opera, but only had a couple of isolated tickets at 165 Euros. We decided we would use those Euros to eat and drink instead, starting with a delightful lunch in a Brasserie on the way to the Arc de Triomph. Of course we passed through the Tuilliery Gardens (mostly naked trees in winter) and all the way up the Champs Elysee to get there.
We’d been so enthralled with all the sights that we hadn’t noticed our stressed feet until after lunch, so decided to take the metro (subway) back downtown to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral. Well....., you won’t believe it, we got lost. It truly is a labyrinth down there. Thanks to a kind Parisian, we made our way to the correct track and found our destination.
I don’t want this to be just a tourist’s description of Paris because my words cannot express how much fun we had. Paris alone could take up one ‘On the Road’ a day, so here’s just a quick list of some of the other things we did and our general impressions:
Walked the Left Bank (day and night)
Walked the Right Bank (day and Night)
Took busses and the metro and actually got pretty good at getting around.
Visited the Musee D’Orsay (feasted our eyes on many impressionist art works including works of Monet, Degas, Manet, Pissaro, Toulouse Lautrec, ...
Went to a piano concert of Chopin and Shubert in the Latin Quarter’s Eglise St. Julian Le Pauvre the oldest church in Paris.
Took the train to the Palace of Versailles and picnicked in the gardens.
Went to a play “How to become Parisian in One Hour” in the Bastille quarter.
Went to a noon hour soprano, alto, organ concert of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Trinity Church. (Found a piece of heaven for a little while).
Went to a Brahms Requiem concert in the ancient church of St Severin... Unfortunately we arrived to find that the poster was for 2009 so we went to a nice restaurant, walked around the Latin Quarter, then had wine /tea in a café with a perfect view of Notre Dame Cathedral all lit up.
Oh la la! I almost forgot the Louvre. A week would not be enough, so on our one day, we focused on Egyptian and Mesopotamian antiquities, the Mona Lisa, then did an in depth study of Rubens.
We ate well, drank well (did I mention the wonderful red wines?) and slept well. It turned out our hotel was clean, centrally located, and had a good bed-so it serves the budget minded. The Parisian people, waiters, servers, were wonderful and always helpful. Perhaps due to my ability to speak some French or that the winter season is less stressful, we found the myths about their arrogance to be completely inaccurate.
After six blissful days, we headed to Toronto on Air France. It was a whirlwind of delight and there is still so much more to see. We must return for another visit.
