Europe Christmas 2009: Day Six in France’s train stations
January 3, 2010
Oh Day six, you were not quite what we were hoping for but you worked out well anyway.
Last night before going to bed, Chris and I checked the weather and knew there was a fair chance we’d get rained on today. And, since we only brought one dinky umbrella and it didn’t even fully cover the two of us, we knew lots of rain was going to put a bit of a damper on our plans… especially if lugging luggage was going to be involved at all!
To counter this we decided to wake up a little later (we’ve been setting the alarm for like 7AM) and have a very leisurely breakfast downstairs again. Taking my time, I had like three glasses of coffee… which seemed a good idea at the time but proved to be less than intelligent when I had to pee every five minutes for the next few hours.
After all that, though, we packed up our stuff, Chris made a quick map of Colmar, and then we left our luggage at the front desk so we could make a quick trip to the Notre Dame cathedral in Strasburg and a Christmas market to pick up Chris’ mom’s Christmas present before heading to Colmar.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
On the way to the cathedral guess what we saw? We were walking across one of the canals and we spotted what looked like either a mini-capybara or giant-ass rat! The funny this is – I thought it was “oh so cute” down there in the water nibbling away until all of a sudden it turned and I saw its tail. A RAT TAIL! A giant nasty gross fat rattail!!!! I don’t know what it is but somewhere deep down in my very essence it says “rat tail = gross nasty little beast!!”
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
After much Googling I think I’ve figured out what the thing way… I think it wasn’t a rat but a coypu. Look at the pictures and you tell me what you think!
Anyway, after that little fiasco Chris and I hit the cathedral. Turns out you don’t have to pay to go inside… you just have to pay if you want to stay around lunch time and watch this video they’ve made about their clock. Chris and I passed on the video but had a good time walking around the church. Well… actually… Chris had a good time while I felt sort of creeped out. Basically this church was made in large part by the church, among other things, reinstituting indulgences. So in other words, the church decided to make shit up, scare the crap out of people, and then get lots of money to finish their project because of it. So much of the architecture you see in Europe could be stuck in the book “The really fancy stuff you can make by using religion as a justification for taking lots of money.” Perhaps I was just feeling pessimistic but for some reason all that particularly bothered me at this cathedral. Though I will say it was very beautiful.
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After that we stopped by a Christmas market to pick up Chris’ mom’s Christmas gift (I’m not telling what it is!) and then went back, got our stuff, and headed for the train station.
The rest of the entry isn’t so interesting. Basically we got to Colmar, found out they didn’t have luggage storage at the train station, and since it was pouring out, decided we’d just hang around the train station for 6 hours until our train to Paris.
To help the time pass we went to what turned out to be a very tasty restaurant at the train station. I ordered this “salad” that was, I guess, technically a salad in that there were green leaves on the plate… but really that was just garnish for all the other crazy stuff that came with it – onion tart, quiche, lots of meats, and some cheese. Chris got this ultra decadent pasta in this uber cream with pesto and cheese that was then all covered and with fresh prosciutto. So delicious.
Chris and I just sat there talking and talking and eating and eating for about three to three and a half hours. And while there are probably more exciting things we could have been doing, just sitting there with a bottle of wine, lots of good food, and good company was a really lovely way to pass the afternoon as the rain poured outside.
Eventually though, the rain cleared up and I talked Chris into taking a quick run out to “cute” Colmar… even though it meant we had to lug our luggage.
Chris agreed and it was a good thing we did – the walk was really pretty (sort of had this more suburban Paris meets Disney haunted mansion meets gothic New Orleans mansion vibe) and Christmas-market-Colmar was totally adorable!
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
We walked through quickly, got a little treat (a delicious cup of cider and a big heart cookie that tasted like lavender infused shortbread), and headed back to the train station.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
From there it was smooth sailing back to Paris.
So a much slower day than we were anticipating but great nonetheless!
Europe Christmas 2009: Day Five (Guten tag from Triberg!)
January 2, 2010
Today Chris and I went to Triberg, located in the magical Black Forest in Germany. Having a predilection for fairy tales and magic, I was particularly excited about today.
We arose in Strasburg and, after double-checking, were happy to discover that our hotel came with free breakfast! And, it turns out that breakfast was better than the ridiculously expensive one in Paris. Chris was a big fan of this yummy cinnamon-bun-esque cake thingie and I, trying to save room for as much choucroute (sauerkraut with bratwursts) as possible, tried to minimize my eating to some cereal and a few licks of precious nutella. Oh and their coffee… because for some reason the coffee over here is, on average, seriously better than that in “the states.”
After a leisurely breakfast and a bit of blogging, we headed over to the train station. We didn’t buy our train tickets to Triberg ahead of time because, unlike the SNCF (the French train system), Deutsche Bahn (the German train system) didn’t allow us to print out e-tickets. After having some issues with the machines, we decided it easiest to get in the very short line for some help.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 5 |
Turns out that was the best decision ever. We told the girl (in French, which probably helped) that we wanted tickets to Offenburg and then Triberg (two different lines [the local OSB train and Deutsche Bahn, respectively]) and she let us know that we would save a lot of money if we just bought tickets to Offenburg now and only buy tickets to Triberg once in Offenburg. It would have cost us 172 euros if we bought everything up front but, with her help, we did the whole thing for 53! That’s a LOT of money! So basically buying Deutsche Bahn tickets from the SNCF is a huge ripoff. If in the future you find yourself in a similar situation, I recommend first talking to one of the tellers and second, figuring out if you can just buy different legs as you go along.
The train rides (both legs) were really great. It’s fun to just sit next to a window and look out and see the different landscapes and ways of life… though I have to say, we did see our fair share of poverty out the window. Very near the train tracks there are these shacks that are so small we weren’t even convinced they were homes at first. But, after seeing some with laundry airing out, we figured it out. Seeing how everything is so expensive for Americans in Europe, at first it’s easy to think that everyone over here must be making loads more money than us, but that’s very obviously not true.
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Eventually we made our way to Triberg, with the last bit of the train ride particularly fun as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains, riding through countless tunnels and seeing ever increasingly beautiful snow-covered forests.
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Once we got off the train we had to figure out which way to walk to get to the city center. To help out those of you who go to Triberg in the future, here’s what you do: Get off the train, walk out the station and make a right down the road. Just past the overpass there are stairs on the left side that go down to the road below (so the road that goes under the overpass), take those stairs down. At the bottom of the stairs make a left and keep walking up! Eventually you’ll hit “the real” Triberg!
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The walk was exciting save for the raining bit. We only brought one small umbrella (and a temperamental one at that) so we got a bit wet and, worst of all, my poor little feet got wet through my three layers of socks! Ick!
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But nothing could diminish my positive mood! Triberg is so gorgeous! I only wish I were there in the summer with some good hiking boots – I bet it would be amazing out there!
After a bit of walking we stumbled upon a little bakery-café called Adler’s. In the window I saw these little pigs (probably because of the whole black forest ham thing) that were made of marzipan.) You might not know this but I LOVE marzipan, especially marzipan in cute shapes! So, naturally, we went inside and I got myself one.
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With the piggie in my belly, we made out way up the road a bit more and decided to stop in at a little shop filled with woodcarvings. The woman there was super friendly and on our way out Chris asked her if she had a recommendation for the best place in town for my choucroute (isn’t he sweet?!) and she recommended both the Tick Tack and Tresor.
So we ended up going to Tresor, with it being a few euro cheaper than Tick Tack and having a few more options that appealed to us.
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Interesting tidbit about the place – when we went in we were fortunate to get one of only two tables left. Now, you’d think when other people came in after us the woman would write their name down or give them some sort of time estimate on the wait. Nope. She just turns them away, letting them know that she’s just full. The reason is (I think) two-fold. First, in Europe people tend to sit down to eat for much longer than they do in the US. And so, it would probably be difficult to estimate when a table would realistically open up. The second reason is that the window of time a restaurant over here is open for lunch is, on average, much more limited. In the Bay Area, I can basically go to a restaurant anytime between 11:30AM and their closing time (so at least 9 or 10ish) and get food. In Europe, at a lot of places at least, there is a window for lunch – and then they close for a while – and then a window for dinner, much like some fancier places are in the US. And with this in mind, she might just expect to have one seating for lunch and that’s it.
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This doesn’t hold for every place in Europe but it’s something to keep in mind when you’re hungry! While you can always get a crepe and whatnot from a street vendor, a sit down place might be a bit different.
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Anyway, our lunch was quite delicious and I’m happy we got a seat! And, unlike much of France, the portion sizes were much more, shall we say, “American sized,” which, where my hot chocolate was concerned, was a welcome surprise!
After a satisfying German lunch we made our way further up the hill and saw the much more touristy Triberg. In some ways it’s great to take the train because as you walk up to that area, you can see the main drag where more of the locals eat and hang out.
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Once we got up there, cuckoo clocks were in plentiful supply. We went into quite a few shops and had the opportunity to see lots of different looking ones and have all the cuckoo clock mechanisms explained.
Eventually I saw, across the street, the Triberg museum and we settled on going there. But first, we thought it made sense to finish our walk up to the very top of the street - and good thing we did!
Near the top of the street (the “top” being where all the shops ends and it’s just road again) there’s a clock place that, right when we entered, we thought had much nicer clocks. It’s hard to say exactly why but basically the carvings seemed more detailed, the wood richer, and the place a bit less touristy (this one not having the 10% discount cards everywhere) and a little more special. I instantly had a flashback to the marionette shop Leslie and I found in Prague.
While the shop was mostly clocks and a few woodcarvings, they had one small display of exceptionally beautiful (and exceptionally pricey) steins. Chris instantly fell in love with one of them. After gazing at it for a bit, we walked through to look at the rest of the clocks.
Before we even came to Triberg I knew I wanted a clock and I imagined I wanted a medium sized clock with a few little people carvings on it doing something cute when the hour hit. You know, something like this. But, as we got to the very last room, I came across a very simple clock that just, for whatever reason, really stuck out to me.
As I was staring at it Chris whispered “oh my god, look at this!” and I turned around to see the absolutely most awesome and unique gnome clocks! They were so amazingly awesome and magical! And so, I looked back and forth between my small dark traditional clock on one wall and a collection of not very “cuckoo clock” gnome cuckoo clocks on the other.
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Not wanting to buy anything yet, we decided to head to the museum. It was fantastic! When we first walked in we thought it was just this first room but it turned out to be pretty big! And, thanks to some English pamphlets, we learned a lot about the clock and automated musical instrument traditions that run deep in Triberg.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 5 |
Speaking of the musical side of things, here is a video that Chris and I have watched about a million times. I’m not sure if it’s just hysterical to us or not but you’ve got to check out my face and body movements about 2/3 of the way through (~35 seconds). All I can say is, let your true colors shine through my friends.
After our mini education at the museum, we made our way to the Christmas market area. Triberg is different from the other places we went because you have to pay to get into that area. But, also unlike the other markets we’d been to, admission also included watching all the locals do little performances and access to the waterfall and a little light show they were doing over by it.
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The market here was totally adorable and much more like what I hoped for! Instead of a zillion cheapy things for sale, there were little stands spread out up the trail and each one was super cute and lovely. And, with all the lights and the gorgeous waterfall, it was perfect.
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Down near the base of it they had a log fire going and a sign that for one euro you could get a stick and, I thought, roast some marshmellows. Thinking that sounded like the perfect thing to do, we went over. Well, right as they got me my stick, opened a tub and pulled out a white substance that didn’t seem very marshmellow-y, I realized that something got lost in translation. Upon inspection we realized it wasn’t marshmellow but pretzel bread! You got to roast up your own little pretzel tube!
Lacking the correct skills and required patience, my pretzel tube ended up being an interesting combination of burnt (having caught on fire more than a few times) and chewy-gooey (I don’t think the catching on fire bit is particularly conducive to a thorough cooking) but I split it with Chris and we were happy nonetheless!
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After that we speedily made our way back up the hill to our favorite cuckoo clock shop and at the final hour, too – they were just about to close for the night!
The owner, Oli, happened to be around and he spent a bunch of time talking about both the stein Chris was really interested in and then even more time talking about cuckoo clocks in Triberg and how his were made – even a few stories about the gnome ones!
After much internal debate I settled on the smaller, and much much cheaper (though still pricey) cuckoo clock I originally liked. While the gnome ones were seriously awesome (and I’d still love one!) the price was just way out of my league and, when I thought about it, am I really going to potentially pack up a clock that big and nail it to my dorm at law school? The smaller one would be much easier to transport and much more dorm-room sized. And, all in all, much more cuckoo clock-y.
Chris also ended up getting his beloved stein and I’m happy he did – the thing is gorgeous and I look forward to stealing it and filling it with hot chocolate with whipped cream in the morning and Lambacs at night! Perhaps after I pass out from the sugar overload he’ll get a chance to use it himself.
On our way out Chris asked Oli for his recommendation on the best place to get black forest cake in Triberg and, who would have guessed, he recommended the very place from which I got my lovely piggie that same day.
In a merry mood, Chris and I quickly made our way back down there only to find that the place had closed! I was upset (also upset I wouldn’t be able to buy another marzipan pig!) but decided to go back up the hill to the more touristy place with black forest cake. So, for dinner we had dessert (black forest cake and an apple stredel with ice cream) and beer. Well, I got ½ beer ½ sprite and Chris experimented with Radler, which he discovered, is way way way too sweet for his liking. In reality it practically tastes like sprite and beer before you add the sprite in!
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After our perfect dinner we made our way back to the train and smoothly back to Strasburg. All in all a great day and everything I could have hoped for from Triberg!
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Germany, I miss you and your food already! We will be back! (Perhaps just not in winter…)
Oh and here are our purchases!
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Europe Christmas 2009: Day Four in Strasbourg
December 30, 2009
This morning at 5:30 our alarm went off… that’s 8:30PM for all of you back home. We quickly finished packing up our bags and then checked out of our lovely hotel in Paris and headed for the metro. From the metro we went to Gare de L’est, which is one of the bigger train stations in Paris. Everything went smoothly and we got a little breakfast and hopped on board for our 7AM departure on the TGV.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 4 |
This train ride was on the luxurious side, as we got first class tickets! (sing it with me now “big pimpin’ we be spending cheese everybody go…”) Well actually, there wasn’t that much additional cheese involved in this first class excursion. The TGV releases a limited number of discounted tickets (prem and loisir) and we got the better of the two (prem) for first class. It pays to book ahead! We paid about 10 euro more for those seats and they were definitely worth it, especially on such an early ride.
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After we got off in Strasburg at around 9:30AM, we headed straight to our hotel to drop off our bags. Once again, we were staying at the high-ball Best Western – this time the Monopole Metropole. The German lady at the front desk was super helpful and took our bags and armed us with a map and little “isn’t Strasburg oh so cute” pamphlet.
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After that we basically just spent the morning looking around petite France (the uber cute section of the city that looks straight out of a fairytale) and then headed over to what is unquestionably the main attraction of the city, the cathedral (Notre Dame de Strasburg.)
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Unfortunately, with this being France and nobody actually ever working, the cathedral was closed at lunchtime when we made our way over there. And, since we knew lunchtime also meant all the little shops would be closed, we decided that meant it was time to get some lunch. When in Rome, my friends!
As for dining in Strasburg, we were in luck. Not only did I know someone from here (a fellow triathlon member back from my days at UCLA) but Chris has a friend from his old lab at Stanford, Laurent, who both loves food and is from Strasburg, too! Laurent, a self-confessed cheese lover (being French and all…), told us about a place called “La Cloche a Fromage” – a cheese-lovers paradise!
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And so, after getting only a little lost in the narrow cobblestone alleyways, we made our way there.
Oh.sweet.god. the smell upon entry was enough! Cheese – really good rich cheeeesssseee! I knew it was going to be a very good…and very expensive lunch.
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We got a Riesling (because I’m a big fan and it would be a sin not to in the Alsace region!) and for an appetizer we decided to go with the slightly strange sounding foie gras with gingerbread and honey – with just a little coarse salt on top.
Oh my god it was delicious. Trying not to gain 100 pounds on this trip, I gave Chris a big piece of my half but let me tell you – you should try it. The gingerbread was toasted, the foie gras was fried, and the honey was drizzled across the plate. And the salt really tied it all together. Perfect!
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For our main dish we got goat cheese fondue with white wine and kirsch. That cheese fondue was without question the best cheese fondue I’ve ever had. Whereas in California the cheese is sort of thinish (as in, you can’t stick your little fondue fork in the cheese sans bread or apple and really get any substantial amount of cheese out), the cheese here was somehow simultaneously thick (I could stick my fork in, twirl it, and get out a serious amount of cheese) and very fluid. And it smelled like heaven. The only downside was that here they don’t give you a bunch of stuff to put in the cheese – just bread… though it was some seriously good bread. And really in the end it didn’t matter – I basically just ate the cheese straight!
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For dessert (because no matter what, there’s going to be dessert at a restaurant like this!) we got two things. I got the chocolate fondue with fruit and Chris got the 3 scoops of cheese ice cream: one parmagiano reggiano, one goat, and one cottage.
Naturally we split both.
The cheese ice creams were weird but tasty. I think our favorite was the cottage cheese ice cream with blackberry cream. It was probably the closest to dessert flavors that we’re used to. The other two were both very good, too. The goat took a second to get used to but somehow the cold creamy goodness was quite good. And the parmagiano with a little of the ginger crumble spread over the plate made for a very tasty bite!
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As for the chocolate fondue, I mean, what’s there to say? How could it go wrong?! The chocolate was uber rich and we basically ended up just taking a spoon to it. The accompanying fruit was ok – though I was sad there were no strawberries and only a little banana, but it was amazing. So amazing.
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By the end of this meal I was pretty much in the best mood possible… tinged only slightly by the feeling that I ate way more food than I should have.
As we were about to leave our big fancy meal of the trip we stumbled upon what might be the best technological innovation France (I’m guessing) has ever been responsible for. There was this metal contraption with a hot stone in it that was basically a cheese luge – and by that I mean you stuck the cheese at the very top of this 45 degree stone slope and the super hot stone basically caused the cheese to melt and slowly drip down the stone onto the blessed food that sat at its base (on your plate). Does that make sense?
So basically as we walked by we saw a globs and globs of cheese dripping down onto potatoes and ham.
It took everything in my power not to sprout a third stomach, push the potatoes out of the way, and stick my mouth right under it!
After our indulgence we decided the gluttony wouldn’t be complete without a nap. So, we headed back to the hotel to find our bags in our room, and took a luxurious nap as (I’m sure) the cheese congealed around our arteries.
After the nap, we ended up spending the rest of the night strolling around the city – not doing anything in particular but looking at cute stuff and taking more pictures of the cathedral. Having mastered the art of dressing for cold weather (tights under the pants, two layers of socks, my northface fleece under my jacket, and my hat, scarf, and gloves!), it was a perfect night for doing nothing in particular.
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Tomorrow, though, it’s time for another mini-adventure – this time we go for a day trip to Triberg, Germany! Land of the cuckoo clock and a beautiful waterfall! I can’t wait! I’ve always wanted to go to Germany and it’s finally happening!
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Europe Christmas 2009: Day Three at the D’Orsay
December 30, 2009
Today was our second full day in Paris and I have to say, it has been my favorite day so far (Chris’ too).
We learned our lesson about ridiculously priced hotel breakfasts, so we found a little café on our way to the metro for our petite dejeneur (breakfast, you American fool!) Feeling like something fancy for breakfast, I decided to order a “tartine.” Visions of tarts filled with berries and cream filled my mind as I waited for it and my chocolat chaud. Well, turns out “tartine” in France doesn’t really translate to the sort of “tartine” experience I’m used to in the Mission because “tartine” apparently means a piece of baguette. Lesson learned!
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After our less than totally inspiring breakfast (it was fine, just not fancy), we took the metro to the D’Orsay, the second big museum we wanted to hit in Paris.
Long story short: the D’Orsay is brilliant! We both agree that we much much much prefer it to the Louvre. Whereas the Louvre is just overwhelming and full of both art I’m really interested in and art I would rather just skip, the D’Orsay was 99% filled with stuff we loved. From Van Gough to Degas to Monet to Renoir, the D’Orsay is an Impressionist and Post-Impressionist wonderland. And, since the gods apparently favor me most of all, it turns out they were having a special exhibit on Art Nouveau, which is a favorite school of mine – especially where architecture is concerned.
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Interesting tidbit for you – did you know of the close relationship between the Art Nouveau movement and the hippy-dippy psychedelic movement of the 60’s? It seems that the Art Nouveau school sort of split between a naturalist look (which is what I most think of when I think “Art Nouveau”) and a more funky acid-trip look (think the cover of a Jimmy Hendrix album or one of those total 60’s women’s flower-power dresses.) Crazy, hey?!
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So anyway, we spent a good long time at the D’Orsay and it was great. And, unlike out marathon pace at the Louvre, we were smarter and took a nice mid-way break for a snack. (Though I will say their café is less than awesome, it gets the job done.)
After interviewing Chris I can report on our favorite pieces.
Chris’ favorite is between three:
Van Gogh’s self-portrait
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Renior’s “Bal au Moulin de la Galette”
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Monet’s “Essai de figure en plein air dit Femme a l’ombrelle tournee vers la gauche” (which means “a figure in plain air, a woman with an umbrella turned to the left”)
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And my favorites were:
Van Gogh’s self portrait again (the pictures here don’t do it justice, but one cool thing to note is how the swirls of the background are then continued in his clothing. It sort of made me think of those ads for antidepressants where they have the actor’s clothing the same color as the wallpaper. Very interesting…)
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Lucien Levy-Dhurmer’s “Le lac Leman” (though really all his pastels were absolutely fantastic – and it was cooler because I had never heard of him before today!)
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Jozsef Rippl-Ronai’s “Un Parc la nuit” (which, again, was really awesome in that I’d never heard of him before. And I’m partial to pastels myself!)
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And speaking of pastels, after we finished at the D’Orsay and were making our way to Saint Chapelle guess what we stumbled upon! The original Sennelier – founded in the 1800s! Sennelier, for those of you not in the know, is who makes the oil pastels I use to make my own paintings! The sad thing was that the damn place was closed! Hopefully when we go back to Paris in a few days it’ll be opened. I know I can get my oil pastels in California, but to get one or two (or three or ten…) in Paris would be, I think, super special!
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After that we decided to have lunch before heading to Saint Chapelle (it being already 3PM!) After much debate, we settled on a café in the Saint Germain with a nice people watching view. I of course sampled their French onion soup and have to say – ‘twas delicious! The cheese over here is just so friggin good!
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After that we tried to go to Saint Chapelle but, alas, it was closed for the evening (for a concert apparently.) So instead we decided to stroll around the Saint Germain for a while, window browsing and the like. Oh! But before that we had to pleasure of seeing about, oh, 30 police trucks and perhaps 50+ cops in riot gear circling around a group protesting about Palestine. Having not watched the news in awhile, I wasn’t sure if something new happened, but it wasn’t looking good!
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Since I’m decidedly against getting arrested in lovely France, we decided to make our way into the Saint Germain and away from the excitement… though we could hear stuff going on for a fair distance.
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After walking around that area for a while, and I must say you definitely should spend some time there wandering the picturesque alleyways full of shops and bistros, we decided to take the metro to see the Eiffel tower!
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While the tower was beautiful (especially at the hour when it does a little fancy light show) the area around the Eiffel Tower was probably the one area where we didn’t feel particularly comfortable. Basically there are a lot of aggressive vendors trying to sell stupid little trinkets right at the tower and otherwise it’s just very dark and isolated.
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We even walked over to the smallish Christmas market right there and it just seemed more like the after hours of a sketchy carnival than anything else. But either way, we had to see the tower! And we did eat a yummy nutella-filled crepe along the way!
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After that we hopped on the metro and make our way back to the hotel – where we once again drank sauternes and soaked our very tired feet!
And tomorrow we leave dear Paris for the slower life of Strasbourg!
A bientôt!
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Europe Christmas 2009: Day Two at the Louvre!
December 29, 2009
Today was our first full day in Paris (said “Pair-Reeee”) and boy golly did we do a lot! And, once again, I never knew my feetsies could hurt like that!
The first part of our day is tied together with the common theme of “oops!”
But let me explain…
In the morning we got up and went downstairs in our hotel for some breakfast. We weren’t 100% sure if breakfast was included in the cost of our room but we thought it was, so when we went downstairs and didn’t see anybody asking for money or room numbers we just figured it was included. Well, after we got our breakfast stuff (I got a bowl of cereal [very French of me, I know] and Chris got lots of croissant-y and meat-y stuff) and sat down a little woman came over and asked for our room number.
At that point we looked at each other with a little flash of fear in our eyes. How much was that breakfast per person you ask? 15 friggin euros!! So basically that was, and god willing will continue to be, the most expensive breakfast of our trip. (As I write this I’m shedding a baby tear)
But, we basically said there was nothing we could do, stole an extra pain au chocolat to make ourselves feel better, and headed towards the Louvre!
So breakfast was “oops” number one.
Oops number two happened right when we got going at the Louvre. Trying to be technologically savvy (and avoid long lines), we opted to use one of the machines to get our museum tickets. While getting them we decided we’d pay what we thought was a measly extra two euros to get into the special exhibit on Venetian masters (think Titian and the like.)
Well, we got our tickets, headed over to the special area, went through (sans problems), I realized I had to pee, headed back out of the special section, peed, decided we’d rather go in this other non-special section of the Louvre first, tried to go through, and the little ticket taker Frenchman said “no, no – the special exhibit is over there.”
Long story short we ended up spending all that money for just the special exhibit – not the regular Louvre admission plus the exhibit. At that point we headed back to talk to a real human and luckily we had to just pay a few more euros and we got the dual pass we were looking for.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
Oy-vey! For “oops” numero two.
After all that we spent the vast majority of our day trying to make our way through as much of the Louvre as possible. In reality, I really think you need at least two days dedicated to it. Three would be even better because then you wouldn’t have to do marathon museum-ing each day. But, for the amount of time we were there, we saw all the stuff on our big list.
Having now interviewed Chris in detail I can report that his favorite thing there were the Napoleon the Third apartments. Surprising isn’t it? But actually, they really were super awesome and ostentatious. And, since we weren’t really seeking them nor expecting them to be so amazing, I think it made the experience even better.
Basically you walk through different rooms that show how the beds were, how the study was, the formal dinning room, etc. and you just get a sense for how abso-freaking-lutley richer than god these people had to have been. I mean I cannot even begin to fathom it. And the stuff was just so remarkably beautiful. We were both totally into it.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
As for me, other than the apartments, I’d say I though the Vermeer paining was something very special. I’ve taken (and so has Chris) a lot of art history classes in my day and one of the things we agreed was missing from learning about art in the classroom was having a sense for the size of the painting and how being in the same room with it, given it’s size, really impacts your experience of it. For the Vermeer painting we saw this was especially true. By just seeing a photo of it I don’t think it seems all that amazing but, for some reason, when you see it in person and it’s so very small, surrounded by such a large frame, you feel like you are witnessing this very private moment and she doesn’t know you’re there. You feel movement not in the Degas/Impressionist let’s-paint-a-scene-that-really-happens-in-only-a-second (like a ballerina in a certain position) way, but in the real-life, looking through a crack in the wall and watching her weave way. Make any sense? Anyways, I was surprisingly into that painting. Oh, and the mermaids I spotted in one of the Rubens. (but of course!)
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
After we spent forever walking around (you know it’s intense if I’m telling Chris he’s leading me on a death march!), we headed over to the Galeries Lafayette to see the window displays that everyone talks about.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
But first we stopped at a chocolate shop and picked up a bar of chocolate and a little box of macaroons!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
But back to the oh so famous Galeries Lafayette… Well, I thought the displays were neat and all (though the gingerbread men looked seriously evil) but holy god it was not worth the insane busyness. It took forever to wiggle through to see them and…I don’t know… they were cool but they weren’t that cool. Let’s just say Splash Mountain has better moving animals.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
By far the best part was the beautiful dome inside. It’s hard to believe a dome like that is inside of an overly-glorified department store and not some museum or something.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
After taking lots of pictures of the dome and giant tree we walked around the monsterous store for a while, hoping that with time we’d come to understand what the big deal was. But, to be honest, we never got it. Perhaps it’s because we live in the bay area and have access to as many malls and fancy-schmancy stores as we’d like, but I do not recommend wasting your time in Paris in a department store. No no no.
The only good that came out of it was we bought a bottle of Sauternes to drink later.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
After finishing up at the department store we decided to be a bit spontaneous – so we hoped on the Metro and headed to the Jewish district (the Marais) in hopes of finding some food and walking around somewhere new (and hopefully less crowded.)
Getting off the Metro I could already tell we’d come to a good area. Things were lit up and active but there weren’t a zillion people all over the place. The shops were super cute (I went into one and saw the cutest crystal hair thing) and there was even a row of art galleries we took a peak in.
Inevitably, though, I had to pee. And in Paris, that can be a bit of a problem. We walked around looking for one of those little bathrooms you pay for on the street but, alas, there were none. But then, like a beacon of light in the darkness, I spotted a McDonald’s. And sure enough, they had a bathroom! So advice for all you travelers out there – the big American chains (McDonald’s and Starbucks to be specific) have bathrooms you can use! Yay!
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
After the peeing fiasco was over we thought we should eat dinner. Not being that hungry (the time difference has gotten our eating all out of whack), we weren’t in a particular rush so we decided we’d look in our Michelin guide and just walk to whichever sounded particularly delicious. We found one (L’A.O.C. is it’s name), headed over to it, and were denied. Why? Nobody knows. I’m guessing it’s just closed for the holidays (friggin’ French hippies).
After that we just ended up walking back home (which was probably another mile or two) and satisfying our hunger with our bottle of sauternes (chilled naturally with all the plein air walking!) and a granola bar.
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| From Paris 2009 Day 2 |
‘Tis the life!