10/23 to 10/26/2013
Michael and I returned home from our recent Paris and London
trip last Friday afternoon As usual, real life has kept me busy and I did not
have much opportunity to write during my first week home. I had expected to
take notes each day of the trip and write them up on my return to Boulder. As so often happens when Michael and I
travel, we visited sites and attractions so intensely that there was little
relaxation time. I didn’t take
notes. I think that we packed as much
into ten days as was humanly possible, at least for these two humans. Here is some of what we did and a few pictures from the almost 500 photos I
took.
Michael and I took a 10:30 flight from Denver with a two-hour
layover in Chicago, arriving at Charles De Gaulle Airport by 9:30 the next
morning. We were able to sleep some on
the overseas flight so the seven-hour time difference was too bad. We were checked into our
hotel, the sumptuous Victoria Palace, and went out to see the sights before
noon, Paris time.
That first day we walked more than a mile from our Left Bank
hotel near the Montparnasse railway station to the Eiffel Tower enjoying the
sights and city scenes along the way.
The cold weather turned rainy just as we got to the tower so we were
not tempted to linger, nor join the long line waiting for the elevator to the
second level. We decided to walk
eastward along the Seine toward the d’Orsay museum, one of the places we both
wanted to see. Besides, the museum was indoors. The lines outside the museum were as long as
those at the Eiffel Tower had been. The
rain had decreased to a drizzle but waiting around in the cold and wet didn’t
seem like a good idea. Instead of
waiting, we took a bus back to the hotel for a late afternoon snack and quick
nap.
Our first experience sightseeing in Paris turned out to be
typical. The weather was cold and mostly
drizzle or threatening drizzle. There
were huge crowds everywhere. We
thought we had planned this trip for the off-season but still we heard American accents constantly. I later read a
statistic that more than 85 million tourists visit Paris annually compared to
25 million who visit London. There
doesn’t seem to be any off-season. Everything is always crowded.
Later in the afternoon, we took the Metro (subway) to the
Isle de la Cite, the historic small island in the middle of the Seine where Notre
Dame de Paris is the most visited attraction.
I wanted to visit Saint Chapelle, famous for beautiful stained glass
windows, but it closed unexpectedly early.
Later, on its website I discovered that unscheduled closings are common.
We visited Notre Dame Cathedral , it even had bleachers full of people in front
of the famous doors. We continued around the backside of the cathedral to view the memorial to those deported by the Nazis during WWII and we walked across a
very pretty bridge to the right bank or Paris proper. Another metro ride took us to the Arc de
Triomphe where we came upon an unexpected parade of what appeared to be
military veterans. We were able to walk around the arch and view it from all sides.
We made our way to the Darjeeling restaurant, a kosher Indian
restaurant Michael visited on his last trip to Paris and remembered fondly. A large Jewish population, refugees from the
Spanish Inquisition, migrated hundreds of years ago to the Indian state of
Karola. Some of them later moved to
Paris. The manager told us the
restaurant had been in business for the past eighteen years. Here we were - in a French restaurant eating
Indian food served by Hassidic Jews.
The food was very good and very Indian. It was a strange experience!
On the ride back to Montparnasse, we saw a lighted Eiffel
Tower as the metro rose above ground to cross the river. For a time the rain held off and the view was
lovely.
Day two we traveled to Versailles. A visit to Versailles is a tourist must
do. Unfortunately, thousands of others decided
they had to do the tour at the same time as Michael and me. I’m glad I went, the palace is worth
seeing. I didn't enjoy moving with
hundreds of others through the rooms, or having to worm my way to the edge of
the crowd to see the décor. I took some really
good pictures of the ceilings. The rest
was problematical. The worldwide middle class must be expanding if all these
people from everywhere can afford to come to France. I heard German, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch,
English, Russian and several other languages I did not recognize. For all the hassle, it was a worthwhile
experience. The Palace of Versailles is a marvel. I can’t imagine anyone building anything like
it today.
Of course, it started to rain as we left the Versailles palace
for the railway station.
We were back in overcast Paris early enough to see some
major Paris sights before making our way
to the Marais district, the old Jewish neighborhood, in time for a late lunch. We walked through the Place de Concorde and
through the Tuileries gardens as far as the western part of the Louvre
Museum. There appeared to be
wall-to-wall people around the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. We ducked into the nearest Metro and went to
Rue des Rosiers, the heart of the Marais.
Michael took me to the place he said had “the best falafel in the
world.” I can attest that it was the best I had ever had. We walked through various neighborhoods
between the Marais district and the Hotel de Ville before taking the Metro back
to our hotel for a rest.
Michael and I set off shortly before sunset for
Montmartre. The sun had come out and
there was a possibility of seeing some great views. We emerged only a few
blocks from the Funicular that takes people to the Basilica du Sacre-Coeur on
the top of the Montmartre mountain. We
went up to see the panoramic view of Paris, which was wonderful. Unexpectedly, we found a wine festival
underway. We wandered among tents offering
wine tastings and samples of food. We tried some Saint Emelion wine for two
Euros per glass. It was ok wine from a
great grape. We tasted some charcuterie and I bought four small cans of foie
gras. I took a photo of an unusual
looking brass contraption that one exhibiter was using to heat water for
specialty teas. We watched the sun set over the city of Paris below. Very romantic.
Just after dark, we found a small restaurant serving moules
frites (mussels with French fries) as the evening special. We had that and a bottle of white wine for
dinner, a truly French (actually Moules Frites is Belgian in origin) experience. We completed the evening of unexpected pleasures
by wandering a street on the backside of Montmartre coming upon a small
vineyard next to Lapin Agile, a famous hangout for writers and artists early in
the twentieth century. The wine festival
we had visited started years ago as a celebration of harvesting this
vineyard. Now the festival celebrates
the regional wines of all of France.
The
picture on the cabaret of a rabbit hopping out of a frying pan is world
famous. It reminded me strongly of a
picture on the signboard of a new Boulder café, Bramble and Hare. Michael and I were in downtown Boulder the
other day, looked at the local sign and compared it to a photo of Lapin Agile’s
sign. The two paintings are much the
same except for the backgrounds. There
must be a story there.
Saturday, day three, we took a train to Chartres to see the
famous cathedral. It was drizzling and
cold as expected. For once, we visited a
major attraction without crowds of people around us. I don’t know if that was because of our early
start or the miserable weather. Chartres
cathedral has beautiful stained glass, marvelous stone carvings and much else,
but I found the surprising colors in the marble of the part of the nave
recently cleaned and restored the most impressive sight. We followed our exploration of the cathedral
with a walk through the restored medieval village next to the church. Restaurants and high-end stores occupied the
ground floors of most buildings.
Everything was freshly painted and cleaned. The village certainly did
not look authentic to me. I don’t mean
to imply that old buildings should look run down or grimy although France has
enough of those, just don’t replace the ground floor space with plate glass
windows showing Louis Vuitton leather goods.
Michael and I would have liked to linger but it was drizzling and a cold
wind was blowing. Instead of walking
along the picturesque river, we returned to the railway station and boarded a
train for the return trip to Paris.
It wasn’t raining in Paris so we were able to walk around
the city center. We walked to the
Pompidou Center through more crowds.
This time there were as many locals as tourists out enjoying what was
gradually becoming a sunny Saturday afternoon.
After looking at the unusual architecture of the Pompidou Center, we skipped
visiting a Roy Lichtenstein exhibit and continued on the Metro to the Pere
Lachaise Cemetery.
Both the Rick Steves Paris guide and a friend who had seen
it recently recommended a tour of the gravesites of the famous people buried in
Pere Lachaise. I became so
absorbed in following the tour map of famous graves on my Kindle that I
neglected to take pictures of anything beside the grave of Frederic Chopin. We could almost tell where the famous
people’s graves were by the small groups surrounding them. Michael found the
grave of Gertrude Stein most interesting.
We both were curious as to who might be visiting the grave of Jim
Morrison. The visitors appeared to be
free spirits of all ages. The strangest
grave was that of Oscar Wilde. Though the
cemetery was a bit weird, we had a most pleasant walk.
At dinnertime, we took the Metro to Invalides and walked on
Rue de Universite toward the Eiffel Tower.
Our destination was a Chinese restaurant with a dynamite view of the
Eiffel Tower from its sidewalk tables.
Though the evening was clear, it was too chilly to eat outside. The seasoning of traditional Chinese dishes showed a
definite French influence.
I think this was the first time I’ve had French wine with twice cooked
pork. I think there was wine in the sauce too. Later we walked right up to the
Eiffel Tower, took pictures of the hourly laser light show, and a walked by the
edge of the Seine where we watched the party boats ply the river.
Sunday we didn’t take a train anywhere. Almost all shops and restaurants in Paris are
closed Sunday morning. We toward the
Montparnasse station and found an “all the time” restaurant (open twenty-four
hours). The patrons were an interesting
mix. A man of middle age was asleep in
his chair by the bar, a half-empty beer glass in front of him. A youngish man in a wheelchair came in and
ordered a steak and a whisky. Two older
women were having baguettes and coffee.
The bartender served usjuice, coffee and baguettes. It was a French version of an all-night
diner. We had made a late start compared
to our usual routine – we arrived at the café after 8:00 am. It appeared that most of the rest of Paris
was still asleep or just returning from the previous night’s revels.
It was a good day to walk around Paris, The sky showed some blue and it was pleasant
walking. We started at Place d’Italie
where several friends had stayed when they visited Paris. It is a very nice neighborhood in the 15th
Arrondissment, on the Left Bank, southeast of the center of Paris. We visited a marvelous Sunday market
frequented by local residents. Even though we had just breakfasted, the sights
and aromas made us hungry all over again. We nearly bought Turkish flat bread
and French stew. We did sit in a café
for a leisurely cup of coffee. The morning was cool and glorious.
Our next stop was in the center of Paris at the Opera
Garnier, former home of the state opera.
The state opera has relocated opera productions to a modern new facility
at Opera Bastille. The nineteenth
century Opera Garnier is used now mostly for ballet. The ornate, stately building is probably most
famous to Americans as the setting for Phantom of the Opera. I took some
pictures then we sauntered down Rue de la Paix past some of the most expensive shops
in the world. We emerged at the Place
Vendome and admired the column, which immediately reminded me of Hadrian’s
column in Rome. I later looked it up
and, indeed, Napoleon Bonaparte had it erected, modeled on the Roman one, to
celebrate his victory at Austerlitz. The
column was removed and replaced a number of times during the nineteenth century
as different political factions, royalists and republicans, took power. We turned onto Rue de Rivoli toward the
Louvre and the gilded statue of Joan of Arc then took the Metro at the
Tuileries station to Saint Michelle on
the Left Bank. 
Michael and I returned to Saint Chapelle hoping for light
crowds. No luck. There was a forty-minute
wait in line to purchase tickets and another half hour plus wait to get
in. I didn’t want to spend much time
waiting in lines on my first trip to Paris so I readily agreed that we should
continue our exploration of the Left Bank and the Latin Quarter. “Latin “refers
to the University of Paris and the Sorbonne where scholars spoke Latin when they
were founded in the twelfth century. We wandered Boulevard Saint Michel past
various stone temples to learning until we spotted the Pantheon.
The Pantheon started by Louis XVI as a church, became a secular
temple during the French Revolution and now is a mausoleum containing the
remains of distinguished French citizens.
We handed over the admission fee and gave our respects to the French greats
buried here. Between Pere Lachaise cemetery
and the Pantheon, we saw most of the notables interred in Paris.
Michael and I then strolled into the Luxembourg Gardens and
caught the beginning of a free concert by an enthusiastic but not
well-practiced band. We relaxed for half
an hour in much appreciated sunshine before getting on the RER train for a
quick trip to the arch at La Defence, about two miles west of the Arc de
Triumph.
La Defence is a modernistic high-rise business complex just west of
Paris proper. Its centerpiece is a huge office building in the shape of a
squared arch lined up precisely with the Champs Elysees Boulevard. From the arch we were able to see the Arc de
Triumph and, through the opening of the Arc de Triumph, the obelisk at the
Place de Concord a mile behind it. Earlier I had taken a picture from the
Tuileries of the obelisk, the Arc de Triumph and the great arch at La Defense
lined up in the other direction.
We completed our last day in Paris with an evening walk
through the St. Germain district, then along another stretch of the Seine followed
by dinner at a quirky Greek restaurant on the Left Bank near St. Michael. The
following morning after a last breakfast our usueal corner café, we traveled to
Gare du Nord railway station to board the Eurostar for the train trip under the
English Channel to London.
I found the Parisians on the street to be rude. They walked into people in their way, would
not move out of anyone else’s way and cultivated an attitude of disdain for everything. Yet my personal interactions with French
citizens were very pleasant. Several
times when Michael and I had stopped looking at a street map, people came up to
us and offered to help. As long as one
took the time to say “bonjour” upon entering an establishment, store clerks and
wait staff were most cordial. By the
third morning we entered the local café for breakfast, we were old
friends. The waitress brought our coffee
and baguettes immediately, just as we had ordered them previously. Almost everyone spoke understandable English
but appeared to appreciate at least a fumbling attempt on our part to begin in
French. I would definitely return to
Paris, next time perhaps with a museum pass and information on the least
crowded times to visit.
The high speed
Eurostar travels between Paris and London in just under three hours. We set our watches back an hour so we arrived
at Paddington Station about two hours on the clock after we left Paris. After checking in to our hotel, The Royal
Park,three blocks from Paddington on a beautiful tree lined street, we were ready to venture out to the
theater district in search of tickets for an evening performance.
Michael and I were able to walk up to the ticket window at
the Royal Haymarket Theatre and purchase two tickets, in the first row center
of the first balcony for half price. The
ticket seller looked at us and said, “Over sixty-five? Pensioners, right?” We had tickets to a London hit and Broadway
Tony Winning play, “One Man Two Guvnors”, later that evening.
Before the theater, we had dinner at Mr. Kong’s in London’s
Chinatown. Every time we visit London,
we usually have dinner there at least once.
The Chinese restaurants in London make no allowances for western
tastes. The food is authentic, served
with efficiency and one is expected to use chopsticks as a matter of
course. A group at the next table was
complaining that the food wasn’t like what they were used to in the U.S. The Chinese waiter just rolled his eyes. I thought the chicken with curry we had was
the best I had ever eaten.
The play was a very British farce with musical
interludes. Once I became used to the
style and language I found it funny. It
was something different from what Michael and I would usually choose. The play was on our list list of possible
shows because of its great reviews and because it was different from our usual
theater experience. We both had a good
time.
We experienced large crowds walking in central London
similar to the size of those in Paris.
At least the British didn’t push or walk into us. We also heard far fewer American
accents. Local Londoners apparently like
to flock to the West End in the evenings. I was surprised that younger people drinking
in Pubs often carried their drinks onto the sidewalks. Michael and I frequently had to make our way
through or around groups partying outside a pub, having, is seems, a great time
together. We saw Lon din nay in the evenings; I don’t know how busy it is
during the day.
The next morning, Tuesday, Michael and I used our first class
BritRail passes to travel to Oxford, by way of Morton-In-Marsh. Morton-In-Marsh is a cute little town in the
Cotswolds that has many bed and breakfasts where Londoner vacationers take long
hikes on trails through fields and woodlands.
Michael had stopped there once, intending to hike but was discouraged
from doing so by pouring rain. He had
always wanted to go back in better weather and this was a good opportunity. The
weather was misty but not raining. I
wanted to see the Cotswolds. Tuesday was
a market day and there were all manner of things for sale in numerous booths
set up in the center of the town. We
strolled around the town a bit and located a hiking trail. The trail began at a community garden and
went west through fields where sheep were grazing. It was most picturesque but, after half a
mile, we were both tired of trying to avoid the abundant sheep droppings and
muddy places so turned back and explored the market until the next train for
Oxford.
We arrived at Oxford near lunchtime. This is where we learned that the local
custom for ordering food in a pub is to seat oneself, scan the menu, proceed to
the bar, put in a food and drink order and pay for it there. You take your drink to your table and a
server eventually delivers the food. We
have not ordered pub food elsewhere in England so I don’t know if this is a
local custom or if it is widespread. The
first pub we entered, Michael and I sat down and no one paid any attention to
us so we left. The second pub had staff
that explained the procedure to us so we eventually were fed.
Michael and I spent a number of hours exploring the various
colleges, museums and libraries at the University of Oxford. I particularly enjoyed the Museum of the
History of Science. This free museum is
housed in the original building built for the Ashmolean Museum, reputedly the world’s
first university museum. The building
was constructed in the late sixteen hundreds and had the first chemistry lab in
its basement. Long ago, the Ashmolean
moved to newer quarters and the building now houses an eclectic collection of
early scientific devices. Many of the
displays have to do with the development of ways to measure distance and time.
There were lots of orreys and astrolabes. One of the oddities on display is a cabinet
on the development of penicillin showing the flask in which supposedly the
first successful penicillin culture was grown.
The flask was coated on the bottom with dried out white powder. The Marconi estate had recently given the
museum a gift of some of Marconi’s original radio equipment. I had not realized
that he was a British citizen of Italian descent. The whole museum was a wonderful, quirky
place that I would enjoy visiting again. 
Michael and I visited most of the sites recommended by our
walking tour guidebook. Oxford is a busy
college town of contemporary students and professors filling the streets as
well as the location grand old buildings where great scholars once walked.
Back in London in the evening, Michael and I walked around
the West End near Convent Garden. We
checked out a Belgian restaurant we had enjoyed on the last trip to
London. We had wanted to have fish and
chips with Belgian beer there but we had chips with lunch so continued on looking
for an interesting place serving another kind of food. The places with all English menus weren’t as
interesting as those with a more ethnic flavor.
Without really trying, we found ourselves at a Turkish-Moroccan place
near St. Martin in the Fields where we had had a great meal a few years
ago. We had another great meal this time
too.
The forcast for Wednesday was rainy and cold. We planned a long train trip to see the
English countryside and stay, mostly, out of the weather. We departed Paddington for the city of Crewe,
northwest of London almost to the Welch border.
Like characters in an Agatha Christie novel, we changed trains in Crew. I have changed trains there several times but
I have never seen the actual city. Our
destination was Shrewsbury, a town in the west Midlands region of England, only
nine miles from Wales. The town has many
historical buildings, a castle and is the birthplace of Charles Darwin. We arrived in a downpour and brisk wind. As a result, we limited our sightseeing to
the main street, the castle, the library and some interesting buildings nearby. The library is in a fifteenth century
building and has a statue of Charles Darwin in front. I’ll remember Shrewsbury because my umbrella
blew inside out and broke. Michael and I
did take some interesting pictures of the castle and some old half-timbered
buildings but we quickly retreated to the railway station in time for the nest
train to Hereford.
When we reached Hereford, it was still raining hard and
windy. We didn’t linger but took a train
for Reading as soon as possible. Michael and I had chosen these destinations in
order to make a circle through the hilly Midlands. We saw much beautiful scenery from the
comfort of the trains. We did experience a train breakdown at Worcester and had
to transfer to the next train to Reading. At Reading, we caught a direct train back to
Paddington Station, London.
Our long train excursion took most of a day and involved
three different rail lines. The last leg
back from Worcester to Oxford (a few stops before Reading) went through the
Cotswolds again so I got to see more of the very lovely rolling hills and
fields of sheep I had seen close up at Morton-In-Marsh the day before. From Shrewsbury to Hereford, along the Severn
River Escarpment, we passed through more mountainous countryside. Michael and I have taken rail trips each time
we have visited England and have enjoyed seeing the variety of the English
landscape. I find it interesting that
clusters of place names that are close together in England are also clustered
in parts of the United States settled by emigrants from these areas.
The third and last day on our rail passes took us to Winchester
and Salisbury. These are both
picturesque towns that have preserved much of their medieval character. Both have impressive cathedrals. Michael and I did not get to see much of the
inside of the Winchester Cathedral as a graduation ceremony for Southampton
College was just about to begin as we arrived there. We followed the walking tour in our guidebook
and managed a pleasant walk through the historic parts of the town and a short
distance along the river Itchen.
Winchester has many historic buildings and the government has made an
effort to keep new structures in the old city center compatible in style with
the historic treasures. We saw the
wooden “roundtable” dating from the fifteenth century, purported to be King
Arthur’s roundtable; intriguing but constructed hundreds of years later than
the Arthurian era. Henry the VIII had it
painted in the sixteenth century and the pictured King Arthur supposedly bears Henry’s
likeness.
Salisbury Cathedral is famous for its tall thin spire
reaching over 400 feet toward heaven, the tallest spire on a gothic church
anywhere. It is a beautiful sight from a
distance and Michael and I followed the suggestion in our guidebook, saw the
views, and then explored the cathedral.
The sun was shining brightly and the stained glass that has survived in
the interior was beautiful. The most
surprising artifact in the cathedral was an antique clock mechanism dating from
the 1300’s that is still in operation today.
There is no clock face; bells ring on the hour. Salisbury Cathedral also has one of only four
original copies of the Magna Carta displayed in the Chapter House. No photographs were allowed there but we
looked at it and listened to the volunteer docent describe its importance. I doubt that it is the foundation of English
law, as the docent claimed, since very little of the text is relevant today but
the document the English nobility forced King John to sign did establish the
concept of the rule of law.
Michael and I dined at the Belgian restaurant we had found
on Tuesday. We had wonderful fish and chips with sautéed tiny snow peas instead
of the traditional English mushy peas, accompanied by a great Belgian beer. We finished the evening by walking to the
Thames and along the Embankment where we saw many photographers taking pictures
of the lighted bridges, the London Eye Ferris wheel, and the houses of
Parliament where Big Ben appeared well lit.
As Big Ben chimed nine-forty-five, we headed back to the hotel to pack
for our trip home the next day.
Paris was all new to me and I had a wonderful time
there. I was more interested in walking in
the various neighborhoods than spending time waiting to get into museums. If the other major museums are as busy as
Versailles, I would not have much time to appreciate the art, but would have to
travel along with a large group blocking the views. It is sad that Paris’ treasures are so
popular that it is difficult to appreciate them in person. On the other hand, there is a lot to see and
the best experiences are often the things one comes upon unexpectedly.
England was marvelous.
Michael and had planned to spend our four days there mainly on train
trips. Britain’s high-speed rail is
superior to anything we have in the U.S.
We were able to see many different places in a short time period. Next trip,
I would like to spend more time in London. There is much to see and do there too.
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