Parisian Walkabout (Paris part 2)

Wednesday, 14 August

So, my original intent was to just hang out in Paris, enjoy an Americano along the Champs- Elysees, and soak up as much of the city as I possibly could.  While I'm not going to say I totally failed in this quest, I will admit to altering it slightly.  :) 

I stayed in the 20th arrondissement in a spare room I found on Air BnB Tuesday night..  The hostesses- Melissa et Sara- were very cool and had a great extra room, complete with a little balcony reserved for plants and their visitors to perch on and look outside.  After a small breakfast and packing up my stuff, I took off to just meander about the city for the day.  I decided that I did want to go see << Montmartre and Sacre Coeur as I have never been there, and seriously.. it's Paris.. I *needed* to see Le Tour Eiffel in person again. 

Sacre Couer was beautiful- not only the actual church, but the view of the city from the hill was stunning.  The only issue was that it was literally swamped with tourists.. as was most of Paris.  Having said that, I know that a lot of Parisians were out of town as August is their month to go on holiday, so I guess it could have been a hell of a lot worse!

There was the most adorable carousel as you walked up the hill, between the tourist shops and the actual church.  It was in beautiful condition... and just so.. Parisian in its color and painting style..

The view from the hill..

this guy was setting the mood with a little bit of the "Titanic" soundtrack on the Harp.  Seriously.  

In keeping true to my goal of exploring I meandered about this area for an hour or so.  After a bit of trinket shopping and a coffee, I popped on the metro and made my way to the 5th arrondissement, Ste Michelle, and decided to just have a bit of a walkabout and see where I ended up (it was so stunningly sunny and beautiful I could not justify sitting down for more than 10 minutes at a time).  I had about six hours before I needed to pop back to the apartment, grab my bag and then make my way to the airport so I picked up a baguette, got my camera out, and just started walking.  And walking.  And walking.  While I *occasionally* stopped to take a photo, or sat on a bench and just people watched, enjoyed another crepe (mmmmmmmmmmm Nutella and bananas), mostly I walked.  Did I mention I walked? Across Paris?  To the point where every muscle in my legs hurt, I had blisters on my heels, and I had pretty much ruined my adorable little dress because I was effing sweating so much because it was sooo lovely and warm?  (who said I couldn't be charming :) 

And if I am being totally honest.. it was soooo totally worth it.

At the end of the day I walked about 8 miles. 

I *may* have gone a bit overboard with the photos...  I took at least 200+ pictures throughout the day... 16 gig memory cards and digital SLRs for the win :)

Not much to say about these other than I LOVE PARIS!!  I keep using the word picturesque about the different parts of France, and even I am getting sick of saying it but seriously.. it is SO TRUE... especially in Paris!  The city has so much history, culture and personality that it makes me want to live there for six months just so I can spend a couple weeks in each arrondissement, and days in each of the museums and parks, all at my own pace.  So, enough typing.. here are a handful of my favorite shots..

Meandering along the Blvd Saint Germaine...

    

The Muse D'Orsay is one of my favorite places in Paris- it is a beautifully restored train station whose architecture offers as much to admire as the stunning works of art it houses.  While I didn't have enough time to go in this trip, I was able to admire it from the outside for a bit.

Again.... picturesque.

The details below the bridges are often times as interesting as the sculptures above..

Seriously.. not sure what this guy was all about, but, um, yeah.. 

I can spend hours walking about the city and examining the details of pretty much every building, sculpture or lamp post and not get bored.. 

Meandering about the Jardin des Tuileries was awesome.. truly awe inspiring.. 

As I was walking around the Louvre I realized the time (holy crap.. it's 3:30!!) so I booked it to the Isle de la Cite so I could walk about the lovely Notre Dame and then head out.. Again, Awe Inspiring detail and beauty in an over the top way that only the Catholics can deliver...

 

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.. GORGEOUS!  

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Again, I was crazy for only allowing myself 24 hours in the city, but in a way it was actually perfect- a little side trip from London, and enough of a visit to remind me of how much I love it and to provide a good kick in the ass to plan another trip there sometime next year.  While a six month visit is probably not in the cards, seven or 10 days could be......... 

24 hours in Paris (Paris, part 1)

Tuesday, 13 August

J'adore Paris.  

I arrived at Gare St. Lazare from Rouen around 4:30 Tuesday evening.  This station is not a big or busy as Gare Du Nord, or as opulent as many of the others, but St. Lazare has a really good vibe going for it.  Architecturally, this is a station that has not changed too much since Monet painted it in the late 1880's*, however it probably has a hell of a lot more ambiance and attitude now than it did back then.  

*check outWikipedia for more on his works at St Lazare:  

 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_-_The_Gare_Saint-Lazare,_Arrival_of_a_Train.jpg 

One of the very cool things about the station is not only the open beam, glass ceiling (which lets in beautiful, streaming rays of sunshine), but that there is a piano on the top floor available for anyone to play... I was meeting a friend here and I was able to watch/ listen for a while while I was waiting for her.  I loved seeing people from all different walks of life, age, income, etc sit down and play together, coax each other on, or offer a helping hand (literally jumping in and sharing the keys for a few songs).  

In St. Lazare I met up with an old co-worker and her family.  We meandered to their apartment, got their kids settled and then, Jean, her hubby and I went walking about Paris.  I intentionally didn't take my big camera because I really wanted to just walk around and take it all in... again, did not want to be a slave to my camera.... having said that, there were a few things I had to bust out my iPhone for: 

Seriously.. this is the same one as in the BioWare office in Austin- how'd this comic shop on Rue St. Germaine get one!? 

After dinner crepe... mmmmmmmm Nutella and banana...  

There is a movie (no idea which one.. anyone?) where a couple secures a lock on a bridge in Paris and then throws away the key.. it has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to do the same on bridges all across Paris. 

The western view of the Isle de la City as we were walking west, towards the Oblisque and the sunset.

Meandering through the Louvre towards the Tuileries we heard someone singing opera- I swear I thought it was some outdoor summer concert- the sound was breathtaking- not only his voice, but the acoustics were perfect.  I was shocked to find that it was actually a couple people set up with a bit of background music and their raw voices in an alcove.  

yeah, the sunset did not suck :) 

it was such a fantastic evening croque-monsieur and pome frites for dinner, crepe for dessert, a surprise concert in an alcove, sunset behind the Louvre  and snagging glimpses of Parisians have late dinners and drinks in cafes as we walked down Rue St. Germaine to pick up my stuff.  I realized it had been a while since my last visit to Paris and I was kicking myself for only allowing 24 hours in the city.  I decided that I needed to pop off to bed so I could make the most of the next day before grabbing an 8:00 pm flight back to London...

Hortensia (aka Hydrangeas)

I love hydrangeas.* 

If untended they can turn into a hot, brambly, overgrown mess... however if they find their sweet spot- a little sun, a little shade, and most importantly: the right amount of water, I think they are actually one of the most beautiful flowers in the world.  It's easy to look at a giant plant and think it's just a mess of  unruliness, but I think that hydrangeas have a delicate, dainty quality about them that you don't really appreciate until you take a minute to really look at them up close... and I love that contradiction about them.  

I think another part of the reason I love these flowers so much is that they remind me of my maternal Grandparents house in Sonoma, CA.  They had two acres just a few miles south of the downtown plaza and they were able to grow virtually anything there.  My Grandmother had a few areas with gorgeous light and dark pink hydrangea plants, as well as a ton of red, yellow, white and peach roses.  While the roses outnumbered the hydrangeas by like 5 to 1, for some reason I always think of both plants whenever I think of her or their property (that I still loooove soooooo much). 

I think Normandy and Sonoma have very similar environmental conditions- rich soil, a lot of hot and sunny summer days and fresh, cooling air coming off the sea in the evenings.  Driving around the Normandy countryside really did remind me a lot of driving around the Sonoma Valley... cows and sheep grazing in fields...small dairies... flowers all over the place.. and cute houses and estates clumped together in adorable little villages (although yeah.. Normandy's villages have just a *bit* more going for it in the centuries old charm department).

Another thing Normandy has over Sonoma?  HOLY HYDRANGEAS BATMAN!  while you see them a lot in Sonoma, I could not BELIEVE how abundant and beautiful they were as we got closer to the coast.  I saw some of the most gorgeous flowers I have ever seen - dark blue and violet petals so saturated with color it looked like they had an Instagram contrast filter applied.  Intense and vibrant dark pinks that gave the flowers a depth you do not see in normal pink flowers- not <<fuscia>> so much as a cross between magenta and hot pink and purple. 

Stunning.    

Seriously, I could have spent a full day just driving** around, seeking out as many color hydrangea plants as I could find, taking a ridiculous amount of photos with multiple types of lenses. (*or instead of driving, riding one of those adorable old WWII era upright cruiser bikes with a basket.. which of course would have baguettes and camembert cheese a bottle of wine in it, as well as my camera).  

On the drive back, from Veules les Roses to Rouen, Matthew was a good sport and stopped the car so I could grab a snap of these.  While they are not the most dark and intense blue flowers I saw on the roadside, they are stunning none the less.  (and as a bonus, we found these in a village called "Dudeville", so that just adds to their level of pure awesome :) 

I think this plant was in the village of Veules les Roses

love, love, love.  

OK, enough gushing about a flower.. for now anyway.

* I did make the caveat in my previous post that I was waxing poetic a bit due to the overwhelming stunning-ness of the French countryside.... case in point?  this post.  deal :)