Wednesday but not at choir

Out for breakie in Montmontre

Kevin and I planned on having a musically inspired day in honour of it being Wednesday, but we got held up early on, so part two is happening tomorrow. But anyways. We got up in the morning to do laundry, which meant we had about an hour to kill in Montmartre. We started with a petit breakfast at a café- orange jus, café au lait, an omelet, and a croissant. I didn't eat all the flaky delicious pastry, but I had some, because how could I not?

As we waited for our clothes to get clean we took the funicular up the hill and popped inside Sacré-Coeur. I like the outside better than the inside, but I'm glad to have seen both. When we finally got our clothes dried, and my underwear hanging all over the apartment, we set out for the day.

Love this view

Our first stop was the train station at Saint-Lazare to sort out our tickets for our train trip. Turns out that even in the off season, you really do need advances reservations, so we had to do a lot of refiguring. We were at the station for over an hour pouring over potential schedules, and so that set our day back a bit.

We soldiered on though, and made our way to the Palais Garnier to lift our spirits. Unfortunately, the auditorium was closed for the day, but we did see the splendor of the grand staircase and some fancy foyers. They had a really cute gift shop too, where I wanted to buy everything.

After visiting the opera, Kevin and I got a dose of department store history at the Galleries Lafayette. They had a giant Swarovski Christmas tree in the centre of the cupola that so got me in the holiday mood. By chance, we discovered a "100 years of fashion" exhibit on the 2nd floor. My favourite part was the "Centennial Catwalk", which was cutouts of women wearing the fashion of each decade from 1900-now. Made for some sweet "pose" photos. There were other neat things too. I was quite glad to have stumbled across it!!

We went for dinner at a chinese food place in the building, and then scoped out the top floor for some souvenirs. Next up, we metro'ed to St. Chapelle, where we had tickets to see a classical concert entitled "Ave Maria" (very SCC of them). St. Chapelle is super old, and a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It made for an intimate concert. The string orchestra and mezzo soprano soloist were quite grand musicians, and I enjoyed the concert thoroughly. They had a great mix of well-known faves (Schubert, Bach-Gonoud), and also neat lesser known tunes. The acoustics were brilliant.

The concert was short and sweet. Only an hour and over at 8- so Kev and I decided to keep the night going a bit longer. We recharged on a donair and dessert crêpe respectively (I'm such a cheater), and then metro'ed to the Palais de Tokyo- a modern art museum that is open until midnight.

Dude, it was weird. But also awesome. My favourite room was one with fake grass spread out on the concrete and white sheets hung from clothes lines, creating a sort of maze. There was also a room set up like a little farming area that had "element" shacks that surprised you when you opened the door with claps of thunder or a gust of wind. Pretty cool. It was fun seeing such "out there" stuff after having seen so many "classics" over the previous days.

We got back to Kev's apartment around midnight, packed up a picnic and guitar and went up the hill. We serenaded the drunkards of Sacré-Coeur that evening, and had a rather lovely time munching on brie and sipping on white wine and cranberry juice.  Kevin and Walter had a French assignment to finish that night, so we were up super late. Which meant I got to sleep in the next morning without feeling guilty. Bonus.

Une belle nuit au Sacre-Coeur

Just me

Tuesday I had the day to myself, and spent most of it at the Musée d'Orsay. I'll admit to having a rather leisurely morning...I think I arrived at the museum around noon. Because I'd bought the "M 'O" passport from the day before, I didn't have to wait in line- which was a huge bonus, as it was a long one.

I was quite glad to have lots of time to spare to explore the different galleries. It meant I could really soak in the different artists and their styles. Of course though, to a certain extent I was simply pushing through the first 3 floors in anticipation of the Impressionism exhibit on the top. There was the most adorable little boy up there with a sketch book, copying out famous paintings. It was just too cute.

Charade starring
Audrey Hepburn

I finished the museum at about 2pm, and then took a break with a café creme at the Cafe des L'ours (bear cafe? There was a polar bear sculpture out front so I figured maybe). After killing a little time there I headed back to salle 58 on the second floor, which had been transformed into a little theatre and I'd noticed the next show was scheduled for 3pm.


Turns out that as part of their "Impressionism et la mode" exhibit ( which cost extra- boo) they were looking at fashionable actresses in Paris, and so I got to watch a Hepburn film!! It was called "Charade", was in English, and was such a lovely way to wind down my afternoon!!

I left the museum around 5 and walked to Place St. Michel, where I knew there was a Starbucks. I chilled there for a while and eventually met Kevin at Trocadero for a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower all lit up in the night. We went for dinner nearby. Kevin tried Foie Gras and I had ratatouille. We're so French.

We went home and planned out our train trip- or we thought we had it planned out...but more on that later!!

The Eiffel Tower 

Les musées

Cupid and Psyche - The Louvre

My girl Athena

On Monday, Kevin had an early morning class so Walter and I set out to meet Lina and Timo at the Musée de Louvre. I'd been before, when I was here in 2009, but I felt this time through to be a lot more extensive. In fact, Walter and I conquered practically the entire Denon wing- which is a pretty decent feat.

Winged Victory.  Love it.

The four of us started our Louvre experience with the Italian painters section, and yes this was largely due to our desire to visit Mona. The lovely Ms. Lisa is just like I remembered her- a little underwhelming but something you just have to see. Amazing that even in the off season of November it can get so crowded in front of that tiny painting behind bullet-proof glass.

this painting inspired Les Mis

There were several paintings in that section that I thoroughly enjoyed, and also in the next two sections we visited- the Spanish and French painters. A highlight of the latter was Delacroix's "Victory Leading her People", which is quite simply moving.

Lina and Timo had to go at that point, but Walter and I continued through the sculpture section, crossing "Venus de Milo" and "Cupid and Psyche" off our list. We were then satisfied we'd done the Denon wing justice, so we popped back under the pyramids and over to the Richelieu wing.

Napoleanic Apartments

Here we saw more sculptures, and some German, Dutch and other "Nordic" paintings, but the highlight was definitely visiting Napoleon's apartments. I didn't even know they were there! It's really cool that while the rest of the Louvre has clearly been repurposed to house art, the apartments are likely quite close to how they were when Napoleon actually lived there. I was pretty awestruck by the "Grand Salon". Plush red velvet everywhere, huge mirrors and glimmering chandeliers. The "Dining Room" was equally impressive, and I had a soft spot for the display of tea ware.

By the time we were through the apartments we'd spent nearly 3 hours staring at art, so our brains we a little mushy. We ducked in to the Starbucks on rue de rivoli just as a petit shower started trickling down on the streets of Paris, and took a well-deserved coffee break. Walter went full Parisian, reading some Voltaire, and I went full tourist, writing postcards in broker French.

The rain stopped just as we were ready to move on. The day really agreed with us. We took a stroll through the Jardin des Tuilleries and made our way to the Musée de l'Orangerie. Still my favourite part of Paris so far. There is something about Monet's "Les Nympheas", his water lilies, that just makes me feel so at ease and so filled with emotion. The same is somewhat true of Impressionism in general. I just love the style! Walter and I both took our time on the first floor, which is the set of 8 water lily paintings by Monet. You really have to take that time, I think, to appreciate their beauty. We had enough time to view the rest of the museum as well (also lovely as ever) before catching the metro to Mark's house, where he and Kevin made risotto for dinner. We were joined by Lina, Timo, and another Italian friend, Erika, and after dinner we watched "V for Vendetta" to commemorate it being November 5th. Kevin had class early the next morning so he just stayed at Mark's, and Walter and I metro'ed back to Montmartre and went to bed!

The scene at the end of our museum day.  Perfection in Paris.