Paris: Day 4

Photo Credit: Pinterest

One of the appeals of Paris's history isn't from the Parisians themselves, but the art produced by the "étrangers" or expatriates welcomed by Paris in the 1920s from all over the world.  Perhaps most famous of these expats were the so called "Lost Generation". The term was coined by Gertrude Stein, an American expat herself, to describe a group of writers who came of age during WWI. She said, "That is what you are. All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation."  Members included F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Elliot, Ford Maddox Ford, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson. With that period in mind, we set off on a walk centered on our favorite of these writers, Ernest Hemingway, and his life in Paris during the 1920s.

We used this book as a guide. It's a wonderful little book, outlining 25 walks around Paris, each focusing on a different person. It includes walks for Monet, Picasso, Chanel, and Julia Child. Unfortunately, we lost it during our walk, probably while carrying our stroller down the stairs into the Luxembourg Gardens. However, we were able to find everything we wanted to see.

We took the bus to the start of our walk and then strolled up Rue du Cardinal Lemoine to #74. This was Hemingway's first apartment in Paris, which he shared with wife, Hadley. He was quoted saying, "We were very poor and very happy."

Just past his apartment, we spotted a little grocery store and bakery. We decided to get some items for a picnic. Bread, cheese, olives, oranges, and wine. What could be better? Hemingway described this street as, "a wonderful narrow market street". It was fun to shop on this same street!

Next, we headed up towards the Panthéon. Built to house the relics of St. Genevieve, it now contains the remains of many distinguished people, including Voltaire, Marie Curie, Rousseau, Émile Zola, and Jean Moulin.

We then headed over to the Luxembourg Gardens. It's 60 acres of beautiful and the perfect place for our picnic lunch. It's also where Hemingway strolled daily.

After lunch, Monsieur Bacon and the kids headed over to the pond and rented a toy sailboat. They chose a boat with the U.S. flag (gotta represent!) and had a great time with it. This boat was the best part of the kids' day. You push the boat out with a pole, but then the wind takes it wherever it wants, so it's easy for the little ones. The kids ran, literally, dozens of laps around this pond.

After a half hour, the kids (and Monsieur Bacon) reluctantly turned their boat back in. We paid the standard .50 euros a person to use the restroom and continued on our walk. We walked through the main path of the garden and back out onto the street. Just ahead of us was our next destination, La Closerie des Lilas Café. Hemingway said it was his favorite café because it was the quietest. It is supposedly where he wrote the majority of The Sun Also Rises. It did seem like a peaceful place, even today. We thought about going in (a plaque at the bar above where Hemingway liked to sit honors him), but with so much of the walk left and one kid asleep in the stroller, we decided to continue on.

We had a bit of a hike to our next destination, but with the baby still asleep in the stroller, and the other two kids in a good mood, we enjoyed every second. We headed to Rue de Fleurus and turned left.

We found our way to #27, the home of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. It was here, during Stein's highly sought after weekly "salons" that writers and artists met. Gaining Stein's approval was key to success for many, many introductions to publishers and art dealers were made based upon these meetings. We had an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia at this place. Through these doors, passed regular attendees, Hemingway, Picasso, the Fitzgeralds, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Sinclair Lewis, Henri Rousseau and Henri Matisse. FYI, Stein was a major art collector and one of her very favorites, was our main man, Cézanne. 

After Gertrude Stein's, we headed over to a corner of the Boulevard Saint-Germain that boasts two cafés that Hemingway wrote about in his book about Paris, A Moveable Feast: Les Deux Margots and Brasserie Lipp's. We had intended to stop in for a drink and snack at either of these establishments, but both were very busy and very fancy. D*mn tourists. Oh wait, that's us. Seriously though, what would Hemingway think if he saw a Louis Vuitton store next to his old haunts? Or an Abercrombie and Fitch?

Hot, sunburned, thirsty, and sore-footed, we resigned to catching the bus home. Then, it happened. IT... HAPPENED... While walking by another café, Madame Salade glanced to her right and saw a woman sitting at a table who looked exactly like Ina Garten. Madame Salade thought, "Wow, she looks just like Ina Garten". Then, Madame Salade saw sitting next to her, a man who looked exactly like Ina Garten's husband, Jeffery. Having watched countless hours of Barefoot Contessa and cooking from her cookbooks (helloooo madeline cookie recipe!), Madame Salade remembered that the Gartens LOVE Paris. Madame Salade speaking here...you know, I always wondered how I'd react if I ever encountered someone famous who I admired in public and the answer? Not well. I hyperventilated, started sweating profusely, and could barely speak (to my credit though, I saw Fred Thompson once in an airport and kept my cool). Through gestures and fragments of sentences, I was able to convey what had just happened to Monsieur Bacon. He told me to go on over there and say hi! For those of you who do not know me, I can be painfully shy. In no way was I going to march over to her table and interrupt her dinner with her husband. I mean, how do people DO that? We thought about our options, and shamelessly using a kid was best. Our oldest started to cry about the very real possibility of talking to a stranger (gee, wonder where he gets that from?), but our middle child was golden. He's as cute and friendly as they come. We asked him what his favorite salad is. Duh, Greek Panzanella! One of the many Ina Garten recipes on our regular rotation at home. We walked back towards the table and proceeded to pester Ina Garten. Our 3 year old told her, "My favorite salad is panzanella." She was incredibly sweet, shook our son's hand, asked his name, and said "nice to meet you" with a smile. At this point, I was standing 3 feet back, paralyzed, about to cry. She asked if we were on vacation, to which we said, "yes". We said, "thank you, sorry to bother you" and moved on. She said, "oh no, don't worry" and smiled and waved as we walked away. It all happened so fast. It was here that I regretted that I did not take a picture, although wouldn't it have been SO rude? Since I have something called manners, I crossed the street and began snapping secret pictures of her. Our oldest said, "Is she the one with those chicken burritos watching the ball game?" By which he means, curry chicken wraps watching volleyball at the beach in the Hamptons. Yes, yes she is. Oh my gosh, I love that woman!

I swear, the blurry people sitting at the table next to the tree are real celebrities!

This walk was a great excuse to stroll around Paris away from the monuments and museums. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, but then five exhausted people caught a bus across town. Since everyone was so good, we got treats: ice cream for the kids and beers for the parents.  Great times!

Paris: Day 3

Today we took the bus instead of the Metro, and well, we will never again ride the Metro in Paris!  Why would you want to climb down underneath this beautiful city to zip along crammed with thousands of people when you can be chauffeured through it in comfort with big beautiful windows?  Our bus took us up the beautiful Boulevard Saint-Germain, along the Seine, and then dropped us off at the Place de la Concorde.  There were no guillotines today, but it's pretty much jaw-dropping in every direction.

The Luxor Obelisk. It is 3,300 years old and was originally located at the Luxor Temple in Egypt. 

From there we walked into the Jardin des Tuileries, looked behind us up the Champs-Élysées at the Arc de Triomphe. We made our way over to the the Musée de l'Orangerie, one of few places we regretted not seeing our last trip to Paris. The Orangerie is an impressionist and post impressionist art museum, home to Claude Monet's Water Lilies. The Water Lilies depict Monet's flower garden at his home at different times of the day and were the focus of his career for the last 30 years of his life. The paintings are huge murals, displayed four per room. They were mesmerizing. We gazed over each one up close and from afar and tried to choose our favorite. Each painting looks so splotchy and unorganized up close, but perfectly clear from afar. We admired each set as long as we could before heading downstairs to check out the rest of the museum. We saw paintings by Renoir, Degas, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Modigliani, and our old pal, Cézanne. We all like Monet's best. It's hard to choose a runner up, but Monseiur Bacon and the boys chose Cézanne, Madame Salade chose Degas. We also saw a sculpture by Rodin:

By this point, the kids were unbearable. Time to find some lunch. Luckily, the Tuileries had a few options nearby. We chose a cute diner-like café, called Café Renard. The food was fine and the prices reasonable. It was a great place to take a break.

After lunch, the kids had a wonderful time playing in the gardens. We heard them exclaim things like, "Let's go play in the dirt!!!!". We eventually ended up sitting in chairs next to the fountain. I imagine it would be a really peaceful place to sit and think, but I have no idea. I was too busy being annoyed by our kids fighting over who gets which chair. *sigh*

We headed home because obviously our kids needed a break. Naps followed by "Linnea's Garden" on Netflix was just what everyone needed. "Linnea's Garden" is a sweet film which follows a little girl on her trip to Paris and to Monet's Garden. Our kids have seen it several times and love that they can now relate to the film. One told me, "They stayed at the Esmeralda Hotel by Notre Dame, and we walked right by it!!". That we did!

Something Madame Salade wanted to do was to watch the Eiffel Tower light up after sunset. So, after dinner we walked over to a tower in our neighborhood, the Tour Montparnasse. It was the tallest skyscraper in Paris until 2011 and offers an amazing panoramic view of Paris. There was a bit of a line to get in, but not too bad. We took the elevator up to the 56th floor (holy popping ears, Batman!), where there are windows all around with unbelievable views of the city and a restaurant/bar in the center. Mom and Dad grabbed a couple French Bud Lights (Heineken) and attempted to keep sane with our kids as it got dark. The tower also allows visitors to go up to the roof where it is open air (another 6 flights of stairs up), but we did not feel comfortable doing that with the kids. We were just fine with the views we had:

Once the Eiffel Tower is lit up, it sparkles every hour, on the hour. Sunset was a bit after 9:00 p.m., so after watching the the Eiffel Tower and parts of the city light up, we headed back down the elevator and back towards our apartment. We stopped on a street with a view of the Eiffel Tower and sat down on the sidewalk. The kids were loopy and crazy and ready for bed, but we persevered. Here it is sparkling:

We thought that was the end of our night, but no. On the way home, we saw this:

Apparently our neighborhood is the starting point for the "Pari Roller" where up to 35,000 people get together to rollerblade around Paris under police escort. Mostly we saw lots of skaters, but we also saw a few costumes and a rolling DJ with speakers all over his body. They get together every Friday from 10:00 p.m-1 a.m. to skate the streets of Paris. The skate is open to anyone with enough skill. Crazy-fun!

Paris: Day 2

"Gee whizz, what a city. Why live anywhere else is the eternal question." -Julia Child, 1955

We share your sentiments today, Julia. What a beautiful city. We're tired and need sleep, so here is a skimpy recap of the day.

Rain was in the forecast, but we woke up to a shining sun. We listened to the church's bell tower next door chime eight times. Time for breakfast. We had stopped at a little convenience store last night for a few groceries, so we had scrambled eggs, yogurt, and melon. Cleaning up after meals takes forever in France, since dishwashers are not a standard feature. We eventually got out the door and headed to the Metro.

We did have to switch metros once, but it was a smooth trip to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Going inside the Notre Dame was Garçon Livre's top priority this trip and we obliged. This cathedral, built in 1163, is so full of history and grandeur, it's overwhelming. It's where Joan of Arc's mother fought against her daughter's heresy, where Mary, Queen of Scots married Francis II, and where Napoleon I was crowned by Pope Pius VII. Our first view:

The last time we were in Paris, the line scared us and we bypassed the inside of Notre Dame. Monsieur Bacon was of the mindset that you could just walk right up and in to the cathedral, so maybe the line was just for the tower tour? Hey, it's a Catholic church, right? They are always open and free. As we walked towards the church, our hearts sank a little bit. We saw a line wrapping around the block. Oh well, what do you expect? We sat down in front of the cathedral to take it in. The detail is amazing.

After awhile, we got in line to enter. It actually went very fast and gave us the opportunity to gawk at the exterior more. Here is a shot I took and almost deleted from my camera. I was trying to be all artsy and get a picture of the church visible between tree branches, but instead I got a picture of, well, a tree. After looking at the picture a bit longer, I decided I liked it. God's glorious handiwork displayed before one of man's grandest accomplishments. I like that tree.

We eventually made our way in. It felt like stepping in to a painting. Honestly, the ceiling and walls looked fake. We had an overwhelming sense of Quasimodo lurking above us. Amazing. Sadly, pictures do not do it justice. I almost hesitate posting them here. You have to see it to believe it.

Our prayer candle we lit:

At noon, Mass started. Visitors were still coming in and out, but a section was roped off up front by the altar. We would have considered staying for Mass, but the kids were tired, hungry, and hadn't been to the restroom in hours. Time to go. We found a restaurant nearby and asked to use the restroom. Only begging in bad french about "an emergency" while one of the kids danced with his legs crossed softened his heart. He granted us mercy, knowing full well we would not be staying to eat, but called after us "Seulement pour l'enfant!" We said "merci" and went on our way to find a more reasonably priced restaurant further away from Notre Dame.

We ended up at a lovely café called "Pain d'epices". We grabbed a table outside and enjoyed the picturesque setting. Everyone loved their meal. Monsieur Bacon had steak with roquefort cheese, frites, and a salade vert. Madame Salade tried a common salad, the salade au chévre chaud (a lightly dressed mixed green salad topped with prosciutto-like ham, toasted french bread, and warm goat cheese). The food was divine, one of the best meals we've had in France. Madame Salade's plate:

We got our second wind after lunch. We walked along the Seine and stopped in a couple of shops. We had a mission: find a lock and key. We eventually found one from a vendor near the Notre Dame. You see, Madame Salade is addicted to Pinterest and on Pinterest, she found an image of a sea of padlocks on a bridge over the Seine. Couples write their initials on their lock, lock it on the bridge, and throw the key into the Seine as an illustration of their unbreakable love. Some say it's graffiti, we say it's romantic. The bridge felt hopeful. As cruel as the world may be, there's still a whole lotta love. Call us fromage-ey, but the "Padlock Bridge", "Lover's Bridge", "Love Lock Bridge" or whatever else you want to call it, was a Paris must-do for us. We wrote our initials, along with our kids' and threw the keys into the Seine on the count of three. That lock is there now forever. Or at least until they cut all the locks off and throw them away. Hey, we're romantics, but also realists, okay?

After attaching our love lock, we walked to the back side of the Notre Dame. It's a pretty area with shady trees, benches, flowers, and a kid's play area. The kids were in heaven. Mom and Dad had fun too.

Here are some armed gentlemen in uniform, walking in the park where my baby is playing. Kind of jarring to see, but it seems the French are taking security seriously.

One last stroll past the Notre Dame for the day:

While walking towards our Metro station, we spotted Shakespeare and Company Bookstore and had to pop in. It was the gathering place of literary giants and American expats like Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. It's crammed with tourists now but tries real hard to stay true to its roots. Pictures were not allowed inside, but rest assured, it was awesome. It truly felt like 1920's Paris (plus the tourists). Two cozy floors attached by a creaky staircase, crammed with books and couches with windows facing the Notre Dame. It is still an operating bookstore and Garçon Livre was thrilled to see books in English. He started pulling them from the shelf and eyeing a lounge chair. No time today, but we hope to sit there sometime and read. When he is a famous writer, he'll be able to say he read at Shakespeare and Company!

Once back at the apartment, Monseiur Bacon made a grocery run, the babies napped, Garçon Livre did his school work, and Madame Salade went out on the patio with this:

Don't get too jealous, there was either a toddler crying or yelling at me for help in the bathroom most of the time.

We had plans to go for an evening walk, but the kids were tired and asked to stay home. Peanut butter sandwiches and apples for dinner and to bed they went. Mom and Dad hung out on the patio for awhile. We spotted the Sacre Coeur tonight! It has been too foggy to see until now.

Pretty good day.

Paris: Day 1

Photo source: Pinterest

We're thrilled to be spending the next week in The City of Lights. Monsieur Bacon and Madame Salade were last in Paris nearly 11 years ago. How is it possible so much time has passed?! We obviously don't get here often enough. We've been here ten hours and have already vowed to come more often. It's nice to be here a second time. We don't feel the go-go-go pressure to see EVERYTHING, since we made the rounds to many of the tourist must-see sites our last visit. We are free to stroll the city and take it all in.

We left our apartment in Aix this morning around 8:00 A.M. with two suitcases, a backpack, and three excited small children. We grabbed some pain au chocolat from the bakery in our building (breakfast of champions!) and walked down to the bus station. We rode the bus to the Aix train station where we got on our high speed train to Paris! It was the first time any of us had been on a train going 200 mph and it was awesome. Aix to Paris in 3 hours! We loved watching the French country side fly by. We saw beautiful fields, sheep, cattle, old towns, random ancient towers, and castles. I'll say it again. Castles. 

We arrived at the beautiful Paris train station where I eyed everyone suspiciously after a late night reading about Paris crime. It seems pickpocketing has become a huge problem, even forcing the closure of the Louvre last month. We paid to use the restroom (yes, you have to pay to use restrooms in many public places, .50 euros, usually) and grabbed a cab to our apartment. Our cab driver was young, spoke broken English, and had an affection for American Pop Music. We rode along the Seine, staring at the glories of Paris-Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and The Louvre, while listening to, "Call Me Maybe". Our son, Garçon Peanut Butter, exclaimed, "It's the cookie monster song!" If you haven't seen it, watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTIGg3I5y8 Our other son, Garçon Livre, about flipped out, actually I should say, he flipped out big time when he saw the Notre Dame. He has been wanting to go there for a long time. By long time, I mean a year. Which is like 1/6 of his life, so give him a break. 

We used www.airbnb.com to book a great little apartment in the 15éme. It's very small, but bright and clean. It's decorated in a way that says, "only a single young woman could possibly live here". It's also very functional. It reminds us of those IKEA "500 Square Foot Apartment" displays. There is one bedroom and a fold out couch for the boys. We brought the pack and play for the baby. It's snug, but comfortable. We like staying here in a nice residential area, not too touristy. It's a better feel of the city. Our apartment has some fun views. For as long as Madame Salade can remember, she's loved images of French rooftops. It's a dream come true to have one of her own! 

We even have a partial view of the Eiffel Tower. It has been foggy all day, but we can still see a bit of it. Here it is behind the cross, all lit up:

After settling in a bit and taking a family nap, we went out to get some dinner. Our apartment is nice, but the only food in the refrigerator is mustard, pickles, and some sort of duck paste. The owner of the apartment had recommended "Les Montparnos", a café nearby. We had a nice walk. The trees are green and the flowers are blooming. It was raining, which seemed so cliché and perfect. Our waitress put to rest the "French waiters are a**holes" stereotype. She was so nice, helped us decipher the menu, and spoiled the kids with treats. The food was pretty good-Monsieur had a steak with roasted shallots and crispy potatoes, Madame Salade had roasted cod over risotto with veggies, kids had the common French kid's menu, a ground steak pattie (burger) and fries. The kids cleaned their plates, which is sadly one of the few times they have this trip, plus we were having a lovely time in a Parisian café. Since everyone was soooo good today, we treated everyone to dessert! Chocolate Mousse. It was the best part of the meal. The kids practically inhaled it. Of course, all good things must come to an end. One child got loopy and screamed very loudly in delight (and I mean, very loudly), another became cranky and defiant. How quickly moods change when you are under four years old! And to think we almost thought we would be able to go back there, but no.  We headed home for showers and bed.

And... scene.  End of day one.