Europe '15: Part 3 - Paris

Bonjour

Je suis à Paris, et il est très bon. Firstly, the weather has been a HUGE improvement from Amsterdam.  In fact, its been too hot – Monday was 28 degrees.  Finally the jeans and t-shirt weather that I was looking for. 

We arrived on Sunday and are staying at the Marriott on the Champs-Elysées.  My aunt has “elite status” at the Marriott, so we are staying here for practically nothing.  It’s a pretty incredible deal for Paris really, as the room is large (by European standards) and is very very well located.   Had we not been getting it for free, it would have been something stupid like €1,000 a night.  With that said, its nowhere near the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at and I’d expect a lot more if I was actually paying €1,000.  Its good, but its still a Marriott (American) and its still Paris (therefore complete with the Parisian attitude).  I’m not complaining though – it’s a great deal we are getting.

Paris is still Paris, nothing comes easy.  Compared to Amsterdam- where everyone was friendly and everything worked and makes logical sense- Paris is harder.  For instance, when the walk sign turns green, you would expect that the traffic coming towards the pedestrians would be stopped.  But no.  Both lights are green at the same time.  Good luck to the pedestrians.   And forget about getting any extra services without asking.  Table water?  Flag someone down and remind them twice to bring it over.  Wi-fi? Ha!

Although, people here are a lot more willing to speak English than I remember from the last time I was here.  I remember the Parisians used to get a bit frustrated when tourists didn’t speak French. But now I am finding that even when I try to string together a sentence of broken French, they just switch to English automatically and don’t seem to mind.  So that’s an area of improvement.  Also, less people seem to smoke than I remember, which is good.

We were here six nights in total, and had a similar routine each day.  Generally, it was a museum (or museums) in the morning, followed by walking and shopping in the afternoon, and dinner and drinks in the evening.  So its been a good mix of culture, shopping and wining and dining.

We visited a number of museums including the Musee d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Picasso Museum, Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Sacre Coure, L’Orangerie and a few old Parisian houses (from the 19^th century) which have been converted into museums.  My favourites were the Musee d’Orsay and the Picasso Museum.  I love Picasso’s work and the museum has recently re-opened, so that was a real highlight for me.  France passed a law in the 1970s that allowed inheritance tax to be paid through the donation of art.   Picasso’s family was, obviously, left with an incredibly large inheritance tax bill (given the number of painting he left) and so the decision was made to donate a number of works instead of paying the tax.  Over 5,000 pieces were donated and some of these form the basis of this museum. 

The best part of the museum was the excellent audio tour that came with it. It was on a Samsung Galaxy phone and had pictures and information about many of the pieces.  It was so good to have as it really explained what a lot of the pieces were meant to represent (which is helpful when looking at Picasso’s because half the time you have no idea about what is going on).  It also put the paintings into context regarding what was going on in the world at the time, and where Picasso was living, etc.  It really was excellent.  Picasso really was a bit of a perv – a number of the pieces were really sexual or violent (or both!).

Vincent and I at the Musee D'Orsay

I have been to the Musee d’Orsay before, but it was 15 years ago and most of it was under renovation, so it didn’t have nearly the collection that it did now.  This museum was also very good and there were lots of wonderful impressionist pieces by Monet, Manet, Renior, Cezanne, and Degas.  There were also some post-impressionist works by van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec which were interesting (see selfie of me and Vincent).  Also, the building, which is an old train station, is stunning and really lovely to walk around.

The Louvre however was a major disappointment.  To say it was busy, would be a huge understatement.  It was worse than Disneyland during spring break; people EVERYWHERE. Really made it difficult to enjoy as most of the time was spent trying to find somewhere to stand. Luckily, I’ve been a few times before and its not really my type of art, so we just went for a quick look.  Of course, we went to see old Mona and I pushed through a giant crowd to get a picture. We also went to see the Napoleon apartments, which were quite stunning.

Napoleon Apartments - Louvre

As with Amsterdam we have had a number of excellent meals, although I think finding a good place to eat was easier in Amsterdam.  Paris is such a large city and so many of the restaurants are very similar that we have struggled to make a decision about where to go.  Adding to the complexity of trying to decide where to go is the ridiculous hours that restaurants (and shops) operate in this city.  Firstly, nothing is open Sunday.  Restaurants included.  Monday the shops are open, but the restaurants are largely still closed.  Tuesday more restaurants are open, but some are still shut, and Wednesday everything is open.  However, the shops all take a lunch break (usually from 1-2) and nothing opens until at least 10:30-11.  Also, just because something says it will be open at 11am, doesn’t mean it actually will be.  So basically, the probability that the shop/restaurant you want to go to will be open when you are there is about 20%.

Another thing we had difficulties with at first was the sizes that wine comes in.  No menu specifies “glass of wine,” its all presented as a measure of “cls.”   So for instance, you can get a glass of wine that is 7cl, 12.5cl, 14cl, 15cl or 25cl.  Now, I understand that ‘cl’ is centilitres, I get it, but we had a few embarrassing mix ups at first when we hadn’t read the menu closely/given it any thought.  For instance, one restaurant had two wine prices – 25cl for €5 and 50cl for €8.  Without really reading it properly and just based on the prices, my mom and I assumed that the 25cl was a glass, and the 50cl would be a carafe of two or so glasses. So we both ordered the larger size, and two ½ litre carafes arrived at the table.  We looked like drunks sitting at dinner with a good part of a bottle each.

This over ordering was the result of the mistake we had made the night before.  We had made the mistake of ordering a “glass of wine” at our hotel.  The menu had the prices €8 for 7cl and €15 for 14cl, so we assumed that the glass was the 8 euro pour.  No.  We received a normal size glass of wine, and a bill for €15 each.  Anyway, we’ve got it mastered now.

Speaking of wine, we did a wine tasting/drinking class on Tuesday.  My aunt had done a class with this company before (5 years ago) so we went again.  It was two hours long and was a bit of a “masterclass” in French wines.  Aside from being given 6 full glasses of wine (1 champagne, 2 whites and 3 reds), a sommelier took us through all sorts of info about French wines.  What I thought was the most helpful was the big map he had of the regions and the info provided about what comes from where and how it all works.  Unlike in the “new world” French wine is labelled by where it is from, so I am always a bit lost as to what something such as a “Sancerre” is.  Now I know what kind of grape that is and from what region.  So that was quite good.

One funny thing in this class was a Vietnamese family who was also in the group.  It was parents and their grown daughter.  The daughter was the only one who spoke English, so it must have been a pretty boring 2 hours for the parents.  Also, the dad didn’t really drink anything.  He just had a sip of each wine.  I never understand why someone would go on a wine tasting if they are not interested in drinking the wine.  I have seen this before – I did a wine tour in NZ and one of the guys in the group didn’t drink.  So he just tasted and spit everything out.  To each’s own I guess!

Margaritas at the George V

While we are on the topic of drinking, I guess I will mention that we went out one night and splurged on a very fancy drink.  My family has a bit of a tradition that we go for a margarita at the Four Seasons in every city we visit.  Here in Paris, the George V is a VERY high end hotel, but we decided it would be fun to get a bit dressed up and go see how the rich live.  Although the cocktail was ridiculously expensive, it was a fun thing to do.  We sat outside in the lovely garden and had a fairly good Margarita and enjoyed the ambiance and people watching.  I tried to justify the cost by eating all the olives and chips provided, as well as by stealing the fancy rubber coaster and linen (disposable) napkin, but I dont really think the price tag was justifiable. 

Other than the museuming and drinking, we also walked around a number of interesting neighbourhoods and did some shopping.  On Monday, we went up north to a flea market.  My mom was interested in picking up a few things and she had read that the flea markets here are very interesting.  Most are only open on the weekend, but one is open on Monday, so we went.  Of course, it was in a pretty dodgy area of the city and my aunt and I had just stocked up on cash from an ATM earlier that morning, so we were a little stressed walking around trying to find this market with a bunch of money in our bags.  Eventually, we cut down a side street and into the main market area, and once there, it was much less sketchy.  Some stores/stalls were closed (I guess because it was Monday) but many were open and it was quite interesting walking around.  I found the old pictures, artwork, magazines, etc to be the most interesting. 

We did some neighbourhood walks as well.  We went to Montmartre one day and wondered around, which is where all the famous artists lived 100 years ago.  We also went to the old Jewish quarter where we had an excellent falafel at a famous little place.  Another day we stopped at a number of fancy chocolate stores and tasted various things.

Fab falafel

We have been mostly taking the metro around everywhere which is super convenient and super run down.  The line we are on is ok – most of the trains are new-ish, but some of the lines have the most run down, gross old trains.  Also, it seems that about 75% of the stations are either completely under renovation (think exposed wires and plywood everywhere) or are so old and gross that tearing it apart would be an improvement.

Anyway, I think that’s about it from me for this trip.  Its been good - too short, as usual.

Au Revior.

SH