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8 June: Versailles, France
Drove from Caen to Paris. Took a little longer than usual and I missed the Versailles exit, but we found our bearings and parked in front of the Chateau itself. Largest palace I've seen out here. Its not hard to see why the peasants of the 17th and 18th century who saw it were kowed. The hotel is cheap and a block and a half away from the chateau. Got parking and a room. After attempting to get food but realizing we werent hungry, we went slept.
9 June: Versailles, France
In the morning saw Versailles. Big. Very big. If you see only one castle in Europe, this one should be it. But, frankly, after all the castles we've seen, some of the imitations actually are better (in aspects). The hall of mirrors is impressive, but the one in the Residenz was more awe inspiring. The apartments were great, but Palacio Real's felt more lived in and ornate. The gardens were large and ornate, but the green cones detracted. The only thing that truly awed me, beyond the sheer size, was the Green Carpet with its Grand Canal. The sad fact of this trip is that its quite hard to appreciate the stuff near the end without endless comparisons to what has come before.
Word to the wise. In Paris, Get the Museum Pass.
We had lunch at a TexMex place across the road from our hotel because it was just too funny. At this point, we had both figured we could slide into Paris and meet our friends Karen and Bob. Karen worked with both of us at Calico and caused our reintroduction last December. Since she set us up, we tried to convince her and Bob to take some vacation and visit us. 30 minutes of RER later and we are standing in front of the Musee d'Orsay. We walked along the Siene to the Hotel du Louvre to find Karen and Bob and to figure out where we would be staying for the next few days.
10 June: Paris, France
In the morning we drove into La Defence (i.e. the hotel we would have on the 12th) which is on the outskirts of paris. If you know the environs, if you continue the Champes Elysses past the Arc de Triomphe, for about 2 km, you'll end up at that hotel. But first, we are staying across the street from the Louvre in the chichi, Hotel de Louvre. After parking we take the Metro to the hotel. Big mistake; very crowded and it takes about 20 minutes. After checking in and finding Karen and Bob, we get some lunch at the McDonalds and cross the Seine to the Musee d'Orsay.
Musee d'Orsay.
Get a Museum Pass!! We avoided a two hour line just by having it. The Orsay museum is devoted to the art after 1848, i.e. all the art after the Louvre. This means impressionists, and we saw a bunch. The museum is housed in a former train station, and the building itself is quite striking. Large lofty ceilings and the walls knocked between the station and the former quite elegant Hotel Orsay. This place was swank and happening. We took a couple photos of the old ballroom of the hotel. There is a statue there with wonderfully flowing hair and a very perky smile, and another that accurately represents a bridal veil made of silk, but its in marble!
The museum has whole rooms devoted to priceless works by Monet, Manet, Gaugin, Renoir, van Gogh, Cezanne, etc. Sculptures by Rodin and his prodigy/lover Claudette. Of the four of us, Karen knows the most about art, which by all our estimation isn't saying a lot.
Here are what Stacey and I took photos of: a very stark landscape of Jerusalem with the Crucifiction depicted only in shadow by Jean-Leon Gerome; a Renoir of a creepy little boy and a cat; Gustave Caillebotte "Rabouterus de parquets", a Renoir of a child with a cat; a Cezanne involving card players; and an intricately carved statue titled simply 1871. My favorite though was the pastels "Meduse" and "La Sorciere" by Lucien Levy-Dhumer where the subject seems to pop out of the background.
11 June: Paris, France
Our hotel is, as Bob put it, half a lob wedge from the Louvre. If you get out of the Louvre metro station; you pretty much there. In the square in front of the hotel, there are cones set up where rollerbladers perform obstacle tricks. One group try and jump over a 5 foot high limbo stick, three other groups try to slalom cones as fast as they can. One guy in jeans was amazing and would make passes at about 30 mph on one foot perfectly. Quite over the top.
Musee de Louvre.
The Louvre is big. Calling it big is like saying Manhattan is crowded. 30,000 pieces await, so many that if you spent 3 seconds looking at every piece on display it would take you 40 hours. The Grand Gallery is a 1/4 mile long of art. Its so big that it is quite numbing, because the layout is convoluted, all the religious art seems indistinguishable, or the massive crowds around the famous works.
We started in the greco-roman statue sections and saw the Venus de Milo. Frankly, it's more impressive for its historical value than as art. The Venus d'Arles in the next room (whose replica we saw in Arles) was just as beautiful. The most impressive statue was the Statue de Muse dite Meloponeme, or the Muse of Tradegy. From there through the Grand Gallery, we past the Mona Lisa and took our picture. The most interesting part of this was the kid next to us from Huntsville who took a picture of himself with the Huntsville Times to win some sort of contest.
Then on to the real paintings. A masterwork by Giovanni Paolo Pannini which is another painting of painitngs. A couple wonderful still lifes. Then behind all the hubbub of the main room to see the room devoted to Tiepolo (mildly disappointing) and the ability to stare for 5 straight minutes uninterupted at an El Greco portrait. Some more Spanish school masters, like Jose de Ribera, Valdes Leal, and Velasquez, then the rest of the group tracked me down. Then through the French School paintings, including George de la Tour, whose use of light and shadow (including the subject of card cheating) made him one of my favorites of the trip.
Then we trapsed through the middle eastern statue area. The tomb of the Kind of Syria was awesome, and we got a picture of three three large men (Bob, I, and Tomb) Then through the Darius Ier section. His palace rocks. We saw just the capital of one of the colums which was 15 feet tall with two raging bulls. Through to a 4000 year old stile with the Code of Hammurabi on it. Very cool. By this time we were done. Food at a forgettable restaurant on the way to the opera and more attempts at sleep.
12 June: Paris, France
We check out in the morning and take our stuff to the Hotel Ibis at La Defense. Then back into town by 2 am to hit the Rodin Museum.
Rodin Museum
and Invalides.
13 June: Paris, France
With Karen and Bob off to craziness at Mont St. Michel, we decide to take it easy and walk around the city.
Pompidou Center.
The coolest thing about this was the rainstorm. On the 5th floor is an outdoor terrace with a bubbling fountain of water sheeting around sculptures by Matisse. With the torrential downpoor, the fountain seemed to glissen with the raindrops appearing to emminate from the ground and not the sky. The lightning probably hit on of the lightning rods on the building. The adjacent Stravinsky fountain (ground level) also looked amazing with the modern art sculptures spewing water. The architectural aspects of the building, such as all the duct work on the outside and coloured is cool, but doesn't require admission. The museum pass doesn't get you into the high-priced exhibitions, so we skipped.
The museum itself has a lot of modern art (i.e. all the art after the Orsay); the top floor is Matisse to 1960, the bottom floor is everything after. The first piece, and the only one on the bottom floor I thought was brilliant was by Yaacov Agam. It was the antechabmpre of the private rooms of George Pompidou in the presidential mansion. It is almost impossible to describe, so you'll have to wait for the picture. The other memorable pieces on the bottom floor was "Home, Sweet Home" by Arman (I'd heard of it, Gas Masks in a box); Yoko Ono film of buttocks, a Giant Lamp (or Luxo Sr.) by Gaetano Pesce, and a concept series by Ettone Sottsass called "Italy: The New Domestic Life." This last one was a series of interchangeable 7 foot by 2.5 foot plastic containers that were arrainged to form an Etap-like Toilet, Shower, and Bench. Very Cool. Frankly, most of this floor was either over my head or crap; this was definately worth a stop.
The upper floor contains modern art from every modern artist of which you've heard. By this time the storm was raging so I had a hard time concentrating on it. Stacey seems to like Matisse a lot more than I do, and I was enthralled to finally see a Mondrian piece in a modern art museum in Europe.
That night, called AAdvantage to try and change my flight from the my birthday (July 26th) to the end of this month, but there was a little snag. Can't fly in Business Class with my award between the 22nd and the 2nd of July. So I'm scheduled to fly in coach class and pray they have room in business. Turns out I'll have to pay $100 for the priviledge of flying in coach. That's what I get for not planning enough ahead (although Stacey's switch to the 30th was only figured out in Milan...)
14 June: Paris, France
Eiffel Tower
I'm very glad I came here, because the construction of it is amazing. Take the stairs if you can, because the impact of the architecture is quite heightened. Unless you have a fear of heights, skip the 1st floor; the view from the Arc de Triomphe is much better.
Notre Dame
After so many cathedrals, the impact of this one is dulled. The facade with its sumpsuous gargoyles is amazing. The line for the tower doesn't let museum pass holders skip (so we skipped).
Sainte-Chapelle
This is the first cathedral in a long time that got me to say Wow. The stained glass is top notch, the carvings are equisite, the intimacy is overwhelming, the line through the metal detector is too long. But this is well worth the visit, and is truly a must-see in a city of must-see's.
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