Going Home

Today is the last day.  We were a little worried due to another transportation strike, but the departure goes smoothly.

We leave behind our Paris maps, guidebooks and Nespresso refills. May the next tenant of the apartment use these as happily as we have. The car to the airport arrives early and the traffic is light. The driver does not seem to need to use the shortcuts the previous one did to avoid traffic jams. We drop off our luggage at the Continental counter and promptly get lost trying to get to the airport gate. A short wait, and then we are aboard the plane for the 7 hour ride home. The plane from Newark to Rochester leaves late due to mechanical difficulties. We are very tired by the time we get home- after all, it is more than 6 hours past our bedtime!

Tickets and Restaurant Cards

Marmottan Monet Museum

Fred has been whining all week about wanting to eat the delicious elephant ears we've been seeing in the Boulangeries.  Finally on our last day, he succeeds!

Elephant Ears

If you only have time in Paris for a few sites, we recommend that the Marmottan museum be one of them.  Off the beaten path, on the west end of Paris,  a beautiful walk through the Bois de Boulonge park from the subway (metro) brings one to a former hunting lodge that now houses the largest collection of Monets in the world.

Aesop Statue - Boulonge Park, Paris

They had a temporary exhibit in the basement that compared and contrasted (just like in school) Monet's works to his contemporaries and later artists, both abstract and impressionists.  Unfortunately no pictures are allowed in the museum. Loretta is disappointed that the large Monet "Water Lilies" paintings are not at this museum but enjoys the rest of the works nonetheless.

The last dinner in Paris was at Comptoir de la Gastronomie restaurant in Les Halles area. Loretta enjoyed the foie gras ravioli with truffle butter sauce but was disappointed with dinner, which was a foie-gras type spread.

Comptoir de la Gastronomie

Museum Of the Middle Ages

Today is the first day where we actually got a real rain overnight.  The morning is cloudy and slightly cooler, but still a perfect beginning to our last day in Paris.

We have a pleasant breakfast at Cafe Blanc (best croissants in Paris while being serenaded by Jazz) down the street and walk towards the museum, which is within walking distance of Notre Dame.

The french call the museum Musée National du Moyen Âge.  It is located in what used to be the home of the Abbot of Cluny, which began construction in 1334.

Musée National du Moyen Âge

Sundial at Musée National du Moyen Âge

The museum is well laid out and contains gothic statues, tapestries done in the mille-fleur style, and decorative gold work through the centuries.  The chapel contains a hagioscope, which allowed the abbot to participate in masses while staying in his adjacent room.  We are not certain why the abbot did not directly participate.  Hagioscopes were usually used by nuns and lepers to listen in on masses without being there.

Reliquary

Tapestry

Baccarat Glass Museum

Having had enough, at least for a day, of traditional museums, we decide to go to the Baccarat Museum, which, according to the guide-book, displays dining rooms and place-settings.

The mansion which houses the museum on Place des Etats-Unis, is gorgeous and used to be owned by  Marie-Laure, Viscountess de Noailles, an art patron who had parties with the who's-who of the art world.  It is now a high-end restaurant, a museum and a boutique.


Now, the guide book says "museum", and the cashier who took our 5 euros each called it a "museum", but 4 rooms, two sparsely furnished, which took us 10 minutes to walk through should perhaps be called  a Museumette.


They did show Baccarat glassware which famous people used or had commissioned in the last 100 years.   But it was not large enough to be really impressive.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures.  Fortunately we took a picture of the bathroom, whuch made me grin for a good half hour.

Bathroom at Baccarat Glass Museum

Bathroom at Baccarat Glass Museum

Seine Boat Tour

The morning is overcast and hinting of rain but still warm.  We decide on a one hour boat tour of the Seine, starting near Notre Dame.


The Vedettes du Pont-Neuf tour took us downriver to just past the Eiffel Tower. Fred is disappointed since the cruise did not go far enough to see the mini-Lady Liberty statue at  Île des Cygnes, but it seems to Loretta that the double-decker boat we are on could not pass under one of the bridges on the way there past the Eiffel.


It is a fun and easy way to get some nice pictures of Paris.

Note the small car on the roof of the houseboat

Cooking Class at Le Cordon Bleu

As this trip had much to do with eating, one of our more exciting expeditions is to take a 3 hour appetizer cooking class at the Cordon Bleu.  The building, near the Eiffel tower is an unassuming building on an unassuming  street.

Le Cordon Bleu Paris

The appetizer class consists of:

• Three tomatoes, balsamic cream and Parmesan mousse served in a glass
• Fingerling potatoes with fresh seaweed, salmon tartare and smoke herring caviar 
• Duck mousse and fruit salad flavored with spiced honey

The class was taught by a french chef with an english translator helping out.

Appetizer Class

We take the appetizers home and have them for dinner, along with a bottle of wine and some bread from the boulangerie around the corner. There is way too much for the two of us to eat, as there are 4 full boxes worth of appetizers.

Pompidou Centre

Wednesday is a light day, we plan only on visiting Pompidou Centre and then a cooking class at the Cordon Bleu later in the afternoon.


The centre is only a few minutes walk from the apartment and houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne, the largest modern art museum in Europe as well as a huge public library and a music and acoustic research centre.

Pompidou Centre

While english speakers call it the Pompidou Centre and french speakers call it the Centre Georges Pompidou or Beauborg (for the neighborhood), we call it the hamster house due to its many tubes and glass walls.

Place Pompidou Centre (seen from inside pompidou centre)

Today the museum had a special exhibit by Women artists which was quite interesting. The kinetic exhibits were also fascinating. The outdoor sculpture terrace on the 5th level was not open, which was a shame as we could clearly see Paris and especially the Basilique on the hill through the dirty windows in the museum. The museum had a kinetic artwork by an artist Loretta recognized from earlier last week at the Antiquaries art show, it may have been Victor Vasarely.

It had different sections for different periods, that is, historic modern era (1905-1945) and modern era.

Yves Klein's patented blue

View of  Sacré-Cœur Basilica from Pompidou

Walk along Seine

Notre Dame

We go to Notre Dame in time for the lines to be short and for the beginning of Mass. The singing is very nice.
The reason why Notre Dame is still around today is because it was saved from demolition due to the popularity of Victor Hugo's "The hunchback of Notre Dame".

Notre Dame

Interior of Notre Dame

Interior of Notre Dame

Rooftop of Notre Dame

Left Bank

Pompidou is closed today so we'll do it later this week. Went though the Île de la Cité and across the river to the Left Bank.  Right at the riverside are plenty of street vendors selling old books and illustrations. We pick up some prints for the house and walk along the river. We look at some options for cruising the Seine and decide on more research.

Loretta has her portrait done by a vendor in pencil on one of the riverside quays. It is extremely well done. Fred noticed that he started at one corner and worked his way to the other corner. He tells Loretta stories in his soft French-toned voice that is hard to make out over the bustling noise of the city

Basilique Sacré-Cœur

We take the Metro to Basilique Sacré-Cœur in the Montmartre neighborhood and climb the dome. It is a wonderful view from this high peak across the city of Paris. It started building in 1875 and completed in 1914/dedicated after WWI in 1919. The interior is a little plain (compared to St. Eustache) but the embellishments on the outside make up for it. There has been continuous prayer for 125 years, as a consecrated Host is on display above the altar.

We come back to our neighborhood and have lunch at a café, after bypassing the Les Halles station. Fred hates Les Halles and forbids further usage of this station. It is overly complicated and the signage is not what it should be.

Barge on Seine

 We have dinner at Namiki. It is interesting to see that most of the clientele are Asian, which we take as a positive sign that the food is authentic. And it was, since dinner was very good.