Between April 7th and 14th, Sarah and I were in Paris, France! This was, of course, Sarah's first trip there. I had spent a quick three days in Paris back in 2002 after I finished my study abroad in Cambridge, England. At that time I had actually only been interested in going to Paris to make my pilgrimage to see the Louvre. I really wasn't interested in the Eiffel tower, or all the romantic sights of the city. I was surprised to find that I quickly fell for Paris. It was a surprising beautiful city that you can only really take in if you have at least 5 months. So I was thrilled to go back again!
The most surprising thing that I learned about Paris on my first short trip was that it was exactly as romantic and beautiful as you always imagined it might be even though you suspect it really wouldn't be so romantic and beautiful. On this second, longer visit, I still found that to be true. So here are my impressions on the romantic and beautiful Paris!
Museums
Paris has some of the most amazing art museums in the world. And as an art historian, this was one of my favorite parts of visiting Paris! I think the French revere their artists in a way that no other country really does. When my sister came back from France where she served as a missionary for our church, she brought back some French francs for me: on one was printed the image of my favorite music composer, Claude Debussy, and on the other the author of one of my favorite books, Antonie St. Exupery, author of The Little Prince. They put their artists on their money (that is, before the switch to Euros)! Americans tend to revere our political foundations as our models for being a good American. The French revere their artists! I think that says a lot about how the French view their lives.
Of course we visited the Louvre. This is the largest art collection I've ever seen. It's one of the largest art museums in the world. It is housed in a former palace in the center of Paris. And they literally have the Best of Everything! Walking through the Louvre is like getting to step into the most selective and comprehensive art history book. Just one work of art from any random gallery would become the focal point of any envious art collection in the world. Just one gallery could be a world-class art collection in itself. And this palace has gallery upon gallery upon gallery of masterpieces! We spend two whole mornings at the Louvre and barely scratched the surface looking at Egyptian art, Greek and Roman sculptures (including the Venus di Milo), Italian Renaissance masters (including, of course, the Mona Lisa), large-scale 18th century French paintings, the former palace apartments of Napoleon Bonaparte III, and so much more! It was just as stunning and overwhelming the second time as it was the first.
Paris' second most popular art museum is the Musee d'Orsay. This museum has a collection of French art from the mid-19th century to the first few decades of the 20th century. Its popularity comes largely from its Impressionist galleries on the upper levels. But Sarah and I concentrated on its other galleries that were both more interesting to us and less crowded. We saw some of the great Realist works of Courbet, the fascinating and ground-breaking paintings of Manet who paved the way for the Impressionists, and some incredible sculptures and Art Neauvou rooms and furniture. The building itself was just as wonderful to look at. The museum is located in an old 19th century train station. You still get the sense from the great hall of the station including a huge clock and an opulent restaurant of the traveling elite of Paris.
We also visited the Rodin Museum. Towards the end of his life, Auguste Rodin, the great 19th century sculptor and the most inventive sculptor since Michelangelo, purchased an old mansion in the center of Paris to live out the end of his days, intending for the home and gardens to become a museum of his art after his death. Which is exactly what happened. We spend some time strolling through the gardens and the galleries of the old house. The museum houses only the works of Rodin and some works from his personal art collection (a few 19th century masters and ancient Greek sculptures). The only other artist he allowed to be represented in this museum is the work of Camille Claudel. She had been his pupil, then his model, then his assistant, then his mistress, then his jilted and bitter lover. She spent the end of her life angry and suspicious of him in an insane asylum. But she had created wonderful sculptures! In fact, some of her art can be easily interpreted as representing their troubled relationship. Rodin seemed to always have some strong guilt over how he treated he as well as respect for her work. So, in order to help her career and her legacy, he insisted that her work be shown in his museum.
After our visit to the Rodin museum, Sarah was exhausted, so she went back to our hotel while I went up to an exhibition of photographs of Atget on the other side of the Seine.
Look at some photos of these museums here.
Cafes
I never stopped to eat in a Parisian cafe on my first trip to Paris, so eating almost daily at a cafe was a delight! And a must! It was the loveliest thing to sit outside at a little table, watching Paris stroll by, and eating simple but such delicious food. All of life seemed to slow down and the simple act of eating became one of the delights of the day. I began to realize that one of the things that make Paris such a beautiful city is that they see the simplest and most mundane parts of life as not only something worthwhile, but something of beauty. All the details of Paris were beautiful: from the door on a house, to a display of macaroons in a shop window, to a salad at a cafe.
See photos of cafes and cafe food here.
Shopping
Paris must be a wonderful place to shop, because it was a wonderful place to window shop! Unfortunately our week's budget didn't allow us to indulge in some Parisian houtre couture, but it was plenty satisfying to walk by the many boutiques of Paris! Everyday we would walk from our hotel straight up the Rue Bonaparte to the Seine and we passed wonderful fashion boutiques, chocolate shops, art galleries, and print shops along the way. A few times during the week we wandered down side streets just to gaze through the windows. The fashions and antiques were beautiful enough, but the window displays themselves got plenty of gasps from us. We kept trying to define what it was about the Parisian clothing that made them so beautiful and desirable. We finally decided that it was their simplicity. Once again, Parisians displayed their talent for making the simple, Beautiful!
See some of these Paris shops here.
Churches
Paris has many beautiful and famous churches to visit. Unfortunately, we couldn't see them all, but we saw some incredible ones. Of course, we visited Notre Dame which was stunning! We stood in line outside the cathedral for nearly an hour and were finally let in to walk up the narrow step through one of the bell towers to see Paris from a gargoyle's point of view. We stood high above Paris between Notre Dame's two bell towers and it's gargoyles for a while before being let up to see the great bell of Notre Dame itself and then up to the roof of the bell tower. The interior of the church was no less stunning with amazing stained glass window and chapel niches with altarpieces from various centuries.
We also visited the St. Sulpice church. (This is apparently sometimes called the Da Vinci Church because part of “The Da Vinci Code” takes place in this church.) It's a beautiful, Neo-classical church. We enjoyed the stroll through the church, looking at the different chapel niches and the beautiful main altar.
One afternoon we climbed the hill of Montmarte to see Sacre Coure (church of the Sacred Heart). It was a holiday for the French and the crowds were as suffocating as the heavy air of the church. We walked, or rather were pushed along with the crowd, through the church which we both found more beautiful on the outside than the inside. The air was heavy with incense and the drones of organ music. We were glad to make it back outside to at least enjoy the panoramic view of Paris.
See photos of these churches here.
Paris Opera House
This was an unexpected treat. During my first trip to Paris, my hotel was within walking distance to the Paris Opera House so I had seen the beautiful exterior of the building, but I had never entered. This trip, I insisted that Sarah and I see the inside, because I had heard it was beautiful. As it turned out, beautiful was an understatement: it was Stunning! Gorgeous! Breathtaking!
The original Paris Opera House (where Degas painted many of his ballerinas) burned down in the mid-19th century. This one was finished in 1875. The public is allowed to explore the foyer and the library and catch a peak into the theater itself with its ceiling mural decorated by Marc Chagall during the daytime. Walking around this building, dripping with gold and more details than the human eye could possibly take in at once, you definitely get the sense that attendance to the Opera or Ballet in this building was an elite, social event. This was not necessarily a place to view a performance, but rather a place where the society in attendance, viewed each other: a place to be seen. It also becomes clear why the city decided to build a second Opera House in the 1980s for the people, with less of an elitist feel to its design. The Opera House we visited, known as the Opera Garnier, is now only home to the Ballet.
Try to get a sense of its beauty here.
Luxembourg Garden
The front door to our hotel was directly across the street from the entrance to this beautiful park, the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden). The garden and the palace within it were originally built in the 17th century for Marie de Medici. Now the palace houses the French senate and the gardens are for the public. The park is huge and I spent our first full day in Paris wandering through its beauty. I was amazed at how much there was going on: there was a playground for children, a puppet theater, pony rides for children, tricycle races for children, an enclosed toddler play area, several Tai Chi and other martial arts classes, bocce ball, chess, toy sail boat rental near the pond, a cafe, beehives, designated areas for jogging and dog walking and only two strips of grass to sit on (otherwise, no walking on the grass!). Steel lawn chairs were everywhere and people could pull up a chair in the shade or in the sun and near the pond and read, talk, people watch, or doze. Statues were everywhere of animals, famous Frenchmen, Greek gods, and around the central pond area one statue after another of past French queens, and beautiful flowers everywhere! We spent a lot of time there. Every day we'd either take a stroll to unwind, or cut through the garden on our way to the center of Paris. I could have spent my entire week inside the walls of this garden and went home a happy woman.
See this beautiful garden here.
Eiffel Tower and Arch de Triomphe
Of course, a trip to Paris would be incomplete without visiting these two icons of Paris: the Eiffel Tower and the Arch de Triomphe.
The Eiffel Tower was lovely! Sarah and I decided that this tower is well deserving of being a symbol for Paris itself: it is pure beautiful with no real useful purpose whatsoever. Paris, I think, is about enjoying life in all its simplicity and beauty. Everything we had been doing in Paris had to do with food, art, religion, nature...these are things that don't put food on the table or money in your pocket; they don't serve a purpose other than to feel your soul. And Paris is a place that feeds the soul! The Eiffel Tower was engineered to impress, not to perform a task. It rises so gracefully up out of the Paris landscape that you want to rise with it! So we did! We walked up the first to levels of the tower (at 200 and 400 feet) then took the elevator up the very top (900 feet). The view from every point was beautiful!
You can also climb to the top of the Arch de Triomphe but we opted not to...we had already seen Paris from so many high vantage points...plus, we long line wasn't appealing. But we did get up close and walked around the surprisingly huge arc--the largest triumphal arc in the world, in fact--built by Napoleon.
Look at my photos here.
Americans in Paris
After living in Germany for the past six months, the thing about Paris that struck me immediately was the number of Americans in Paris! I think I heard more American English spoken in my first 24 hours in Paris than in all the previous six months in Germany. Why are there so many Americans in Paris? It certainly seems to be one of those European destinations that you just don't feel like you've experience Europe without. The French, especially the Parisians, have a way of enjoying the simple things in life that Americans seem to rush through. For me, Paris reminds you that the details of living are worthwhile. And I think, Europe as a whole, at least the parts of Europe I've experienced, can teach that to us Americans.
See a few more photos here.
Please take a look at Sarah's own blog entries on her point of view of Paris and Germany...her blog is here, click on Archive at the left, than start reading at March 30th. (Her May 15th entry also has a little film she made about our Paris trip.) I think its well-worth reading about her first impressions of Europe!
