Down by the Bayeux

Aboard the train to Bayeux

Yesterday Kevin and I started part 1 of our grand France train trip. We arrived in Bayeux at 12:15 ish and headed straight for the Bayeux Tapestry. Everything we wanted to see was in walking distance. It was awesome.

Bayeux's Notredame

The tapestry was beautiful. The museum entrance included an audio guide, which you absolutely needed to view the piece. It pointed out what was going on in each scene, and who the key players were. It also pointed out random details you may have missed on your own. Plus there was medieval music in the background, so you can't help but love that.

After the tapestry, which we both thoroughly enjoyed, we visited the Notre Dame cathedral (France is just full of those things!). It was truly mesmerizing. So many spectacular stained glass windows and intricate stone work. Kevin and I did some Pie Jesu singing in the little anteroom at the entrance. The acoustics were to die for.

rainy streets of Bayeux

inside the cathedral

Old French Style

Next, we went for lunch at a restaurant Kevin had researched called "Le Rapiere". They had a set lunch menu for 18€, that given the quality of the meal was an absolute steal. It had quite a strong French feel. After so many tourist sites, that was a big deal. Honestly though. The food was unreal.

For a starter, Kevin had this tuna cake thing. It was like, bread...but fishy. Weird. But apparently it was good. I had smoked haddock in a risotto. It was delicious, but either had mysterious gluten in it, or was just too rich for my sensitive stomach, because I spent the rest of the meal (and afternoon) in a fair bit of tummy pain. Kevin helped me with my main course- some sort of fish (Rouget?), and he tried veal kidney. So adventurous, that boy. Kevin's dessert choice was a homemade pear brownie, and I took home my local cheese plate for later, when I didn't have feisty ninjas battling it out in my stomach (throwing stars and everything).

After lunch, we walked over to the Normandy Memorial Museum. It was very informative and interesting. In the middle of our visit we caught a short film (en anglais) detailing the various operations along the coast. There were neat artifacts and photos and accompanying facts. At the entrance to the museum, there was an Eisenhower quotation that really spoke to me:

"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."

When we finished at the museum we walked a bit further to the Commonwealth War Memorial Cemetery. We found the corner with Canadian graves and walked up and down the rows, paying our respects. There were ages on some of the headstones. 25. 23. 22. 19. I found myself thinking how if either of my grandfather's hadn't returned home from the war (which so easily could have happened), me, my brother, my parents, my aunts, uncles, cousins...none of us would be here. So strange. Many of the graves had messages of love and memorial on them. I got pretty teared up by a few.

"He gave his life so others could be free"

"He gave his tomorrows for our todays"

I know the term "ultimate sacrifice" is overused and ordinary, but it really speaks the truth.

Canadian Section at the Bayeux Commonwealth Cemetary

After that solemn and moving experience Kevin and I took the main road around Bayeux back to the train station and took the train to Caen.

When we arrived there, we rocked their public transit system (which itself rocks), taking the tram and then bus to our hotel. We had both hoped that at 60€ a night (the cheapest option in Caen) we'd be getting pretty pampered, but our hotel was a bit of a hole. Oh well, we made the most of it!!

Hotel Crocus had pink walls and green doors inside, and bathroom like in an airplane and a mystery soap dispenser in the shower that apparently provides hand soap, body wash and shampoo all in one. But the heater worked (after we inquired how to use it), so at least things we cozy.

We arrived at our hotel around 7:30 or so, and left shortly after to a different hotel down the road with an Internet-recommended restaurant. We were the only people there for most of our meal, and had an awkwardly absent waitress. The food was good though (well, except for the rock solid complimentary dinner rolls). Kevin had steak and I had a massive salad with prosciutto and cheese cubes in it. We got back to our hotel around 10, found an English news channel on the tv, planned out our next day and eventually went to bed.

One week in Paris

Can't believe I've been here for a week already! It's zooming by so fast.

Yesterday, Friday Nov 9th, Kevin and I started our day with a visit to Victor Hugo's house in Place des Vosges. Holla at you SCC- the place where he started work on Les Mis! It was a short little walk through as the house isn't very big, but it was super cool to know your were standing in the study where Hugo wrote.

After quickly mailing some postcards we took the metro to cité and went for lunch at the "Great Canadian Pub". We were disappointed that they didn't have poppies for us (still haven't found any. Shoot), and the food was only so so, but I appreciated the hockey jerseys on the wall. If there was an NHL season this year I'm sure they would show the games there.

beauty stained glass

After lunch we went inside Nortredame. It had very beautiful stained glass windows and Kevin and I just sat inside for a while and soaked up the serenity. There was, however, a mysterious rogue organ player tweedling away that no one seemed to notice but us. The phantom of the cathedral? Pretty epic to be sitting inside one of the most iconic buildings in the world, like its no big deal.

After the cathedral we took the metro way out to the end of the yellow line, La Défense. It's like nowhere else in Paris! Shadowed by the "Grand Arch" is a big open space and high rise office buildings. It was so futuristic looking and so not the Paris I'm used to!! They had a big mall there, and I got a really cute blouse for 40% off at a store called "Pimkie". There was a SNTF office at the station and we finally got all our train travel sorted out. Yaaaay!

dinner: Dan and Kev style

We had a chill night in and got ourselves ready for our weekend in Normandy. Kevin made salmon and scalloped potatoes (both delicious. We substituted brie for parmesan in the potato dish and it worked excellently) and I was in charge of a springish salad with grapes and cherry tomatoes and an improvised honey-balsamic dressing. We bought sparkling apple juice and mixed it with cran. Yum.

We were in bed by midnight, but I somehow still managed to sleep through my alarm. Crap! Our trip was only pushed back by 30 mins though, and now we're on our way to Bayeux! It's gonna be an awesome weekend, I'm sure.

Hemingway, the old hood, Père-Lachaise and Sondheim

74 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine
Hemingway's first Parisian home

Thursday was a lovely day. I got out of the apartment later than I'd originally planned, but I spent the morning booking my hostel in Salzburg and my train to Ljubljana, so it was still productive.

I started my day off with a walk through "Hemingway's Paris", from a book I forgot at home, meaning my mum had to snap pictures of the pages and copy out the directions in an email. Thanks mum!

The walk started off with the first home Hemingway lived in when he first moved to Paris. It had a dark blue door and there's now a clothing shop on the ground floor called "Under Hemingway's". Cute. Next the walk pointed out some squares and streets detailed in H's novels, including Rue Mouffetard! My jam!

The square on Rue Mouffetard!

Our old stomping grounds!

A bad idea.  But such a good idea.

It was seriously awesome to be back in the area where I "lived" with Kirst, Grady and my mum when I was in Paris in 2009. It surprised me how much it all came back! I instantly recognized street corners, shops and markets, even little alleyways! My heart strings were most definitely tugged at when I passed by our apartment door, snuggled between a wine shop and a poissonnerie. I visited cute jewelry and clothes shops I recalled from before, and yes, had a crêpe from our crêpe place. Just as delicious as I remembered. Ham and cheese. It'll get you everytime (it got me later that day. Serves me right with my blatant gluten intake).


After strolling up and down rue mouffetard, I made my way to the Pantheon- a building I'd passed by many times in my 2009 visit, but had never gone inside. Rectified that this time around. It's just as magnificent inside as out, with a highlight being "Foucault's Pendelum". Hung from way way up on the ceiling, a little gold ball is in constant motion, measuring the rotation of the earth. Entrancing, to be sure.

I also ventured below the Pantheon, into the crypt. I saw the tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau and Victor Hugo, to name a few. It was a bit eerie and cold down there, but I felt humbled and pensive rather than creeped out.

The Pantheon

After my visit to the Pantheon I took a stroll through the Jardin de Luxembourg. It was about 3pm when I got there, so tons of adorable French children were out of school and racing sailboats in the fountain. My heart melted. There is something about little high pitched voices nattering en français that is too cute to handle.

My last stop on the Hemingway walk was his favourite café in Montparnasse, where it is rumored he wrote "The Sun Also Rises" (one of my favourite novels from my degree).

I took a metro to meet Kevin, and we entered Père-Lachaise Cemetery about an hour before closing. Because of the rush, we missed out on a few key resting places (sorry Edith, sorry Oscar), but we did visit Chopin, Poulenc, Abelard and Héloïse and Jim Morrison. The sun began to set while we were in there, and it was quite beautiful. I find cemeteries to be really gorgeous, and a pretty pink sunset makes it even better. At one point we were high up enough to see the Eiffel Tower. Brilliant.

Chopin's grave

Poulenc's Tomb

Père-Lachaise

After the cemetery Kevin and I found a little church nearby, Notredame de la Croix, and did some renegade singing. We couldn't go all out, as there was some sort of service going on in the back of the church, but the acoustics were honestly so amazing that even singing covered and with our throats closed, our voices echoed up and up and around the sanctuary. I've taught Kevin the alto part of Pie Jesu and we do a nice little soprano/tenor rendition.

We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Belleville and then metro'ed to Châtelet with the hope of getting student rush tickets to see, get this, West Side Story!!! No luck on that front, but they were selling "obstructed view" seats at a discount, so we hopped on that. Our seats were in the nosebleeds, but it was fine, really. The music carried and we just sat perched on the tops of our chairs in order to see better.

The dancing was fabulous, definitely the strength of the cast. The singing could have been better, but honestly the music is so great, and the story so powerful that its hard not to create an emotional performance. I still loved it. I still cried. Don't know if Parisians have low standards or are always profusely appreciative of their arts, but holy did the applause go on forever, and the cast took, like, 5 curtain calls. It was quite amusing.

After the show we went home and tried to get to bed early, but failed. Oh well! Stay tuned for Friday!

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.

Un jour a la Chateau Versailles

Paris has this great deal on the first Sunday of every month, where practically all the museums, monuments and other attractions are free. Since Versailles is one of the most expensive of these (18€ a pop!) we decided to take advantage of the freebie on Nov 4th and visit the famous palace.

We were joined by Lina, a friend of Kevin and Walter's from Germany, studying at the Sorbonne, and her brother Timo who was visiting. We took the RER train out to Versailles (unlike my last time visiting, I paid the proper fare this time), arriving around 11:40. After a round of coffee, we found a little grocery store to add to our picnic fare (they had an olive bar. It ruled), stopped in at a boulagerie for a baguette (90 cents. So awesome) and arrived in the palace courtyard at around 12:15. It appears many people shared our grand idea. The line of these people snaked around the courtyard several times and appeared to be at least 2 hours long. Onto plan b!

The lineup for the gardens was literally non-existant, and as I'd visited the palace before but not the grounds, I was totally fine with the change of plans.

The Gardens

Posing in the sunlight

I could list several synonyms for the word "massive" and still not do the size of those jardins justice. Absolutely colossal. And also stunningly beautiful! There was a "grand canal" in the middle shaped of a cross that started at the chateau and then expanded almost as far as the eye could see. Around the canal the gardens were organized into lovely tree lined lanes and courtyards. There were fountains and statues everywhere.

It took us about an hour and a half to walk down one stretch of the canal, where we met up with Mark and some more student friends, these ones from Italy. We took a break for our pique-nique, which felt quite quintessentially Parisian to me. A bottle of red wine of course. We had figs, plums, oranges and bananas. Fresh olives, salami, baguette and briiiiiiie! Such lovely brie. You can get a wheel here for 2€ the same size as you'd pay $15 for at home.

BAGUETTE!

I allowed myself one small piece of fresh baguette and momentarily ascended into gastronomical heaven. After our nice little picnic, we parted ways with Mark and the gang and continued along just the 5 of us who had arrived together. We went inside the "Petit Trianon"- a summer castle Marie Antoinette enjoyed all to herald. It was what you would expect- a lot of grandness, but on a lesser scale than the main chateau.

Our next stop was Marie's little village she had created so she could feel normal, which was definitely a highlight of the day. It was just so adorable with its little thatched roofs and cute knobby fences! There were even operating vegetable gardens and a field filled with goats and geese and two strange looking highland cows. I fed an adorable baby goat.

Cute little fella

Such a rebel.

After the village we parted ways with Lina and Timo and continued on to the "Grand Trianon". It wasn't anything that special really, except that it boasted some exquisite views of the garden. Man, last time I was at Versailles I had no idea any of this stuff even existed!

We made our way back down the canal (had to jump a fence like a bad ass to get there) and to the main palace around 5pm- the last admittance. We basically blitzed through the first floor of the chateau at lighting pace, but we saw the hallway of mirrors, which was my fave from last time anyways, so I was satisfied.

Petit Trianon from afar

We couldn't be bothered with the evening onslaught back to Paris on the RER, so we killed an hour at the Starbucks in Versailles, leaving around 7pm. Walter made a yummy dinner for the three of us that night, and after a game of "Ticket to Ride" we said our good nights and went to bed!

Next up is a grand museum day. Get pumped.