Paris: The Museum Installment

The Louvre

Have you ever read the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown?  It's a great novel that mostly has nothing to do with our experience in Paris, except that it was my first exposure to the Louvre - arguably the most famous museum in the world.  There are many things to say about the Louvre.  I have never been to a larger "place of looking".  Everywhere you go - outside the museum, inside the museum - people are just looking.  Adam Gopnik once made the observation in his book Paris to the Moon that people in Paris prefer things that have light shining on them (the Louvre) as opposed to light shining from them (Time Square).  Gopnik has spent much of his life living in Manhattan, so that obvious difference was not lost on him when he moved to Paris in the 90's.  It's an insightful observation, I'd say, about Paris as a hole, and the Louvre is a shining example of how Gopnik's statement is true.  

Standing before the Louvre, the first glaring observation we made was that in addition to being very pretty, the building is absolutely enormous.  The second observation was that there were a lot of people staging jumping pictures in front of it.  Most jumpers did their leaps with the famous glass pyramid in the background, most were under the age of 23, and most were actually able to clear the ground.  I'm not going to tell you how many out-takes our photo shoot had, and I still haven't determined if my apparent lack of a vertical is due to Fritz's photography skills or the fact that I'm a 30-year-old white girl with messed up ankles.  Oh well.  We tried.  

Here's another view looking out at the glass pyramid, which serves as the official entrance to the museum, with the Tuileries Garden behind it where you can just make out the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Ferris wheel.  

Touring the Louvre in its entirety could have easily taken us the full 6 days of our Paris trip.  As it is, we spent the better part of a day winding through the colossal museum's numerous galleries.  We did our best to hit the Louvre's most famous installations.  Antonio Canova carved Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss out of marble in 1777, which might have been my favorite piece there.    

One wing of the Louvre contains the preserved apartments of Napoleon III.  He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution and is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris.  He was a very influential figure during his time and he lived lavishly at one end of the Louvre. 

Image downloaded from the internet

Now open google in your browser and type in "Mona Lisa".  Or you could just ask Siri to "find images..."  If you do, you'll find something much like the what you see pictured above.  I downloaded that image from the web.  While it is true that in this modern technological age, the Mona Lisa is always at your fingertips, you haven't really been to the Louvre until you have seen the Mona Lisa in person.  It hangs behind a sheet of thick glass surrounded by a ten-foot rope preventing visitors from getting too close.  Even with all of these restrictions in place, a sea of museum guests overwhelms the gallery to peer at Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting every day.  This means that when you try to get your own pic of Ol' Mona, you end up with photos like this...

... because trying to get a clear shot of the portrait without someone's selfie stick in your photo is next to impossible.  Scratch that, selfie sticks are not allowed in the Louvre (thank goodness).  So instead, you can stand and watch as everyone admires "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world" through their 4.5 x 2-inch screens.  

Like these people.  They all are so happy to be eternalizing the most famous piece of art so they can forever carry that questionably lovely countenance of Lisa Gherardini in their pockets.  A few paragraphs ago, I suggested that you google "Mona Lisa" because if you do, there is a very good chance that your view will be just as good, if not better than mine was when I was standing in the Louvre.  And it is certainly better than a cell phone picture taken from 15 feet away.   

Considering all these things, one is led to consider that perhaps visiting the Mona Lisa is less about appreciating art (for many), and much more about "making it," as Fritz puts it, in life.  Every day, people come from all over the globe to see this one painting.  And for this reason, a crummy cell phone picture, even if Siri could produce a higher quality image from a bathroom stall in Maysville, Kentucky, is invaluable; perhaps even as priceless as the Mona Lisa itself.  

It's actually best if you take a Mona Selfie.

The other notable part of the Louvre is that the entire museum is now accessible via a specially programmed 3D Game Boy! 

The Louvre: brought to you by Nintendo.  The interactive map was extremely helpful, allowing us to navigate through the building with ease as we sought out our art pieces of interest, tracked down the bathrooms, and located the nearest in-house café.  

Plus it had hours of commentary and education on all the featured works of art.  We just had to remind ourselves to look up from the hand-held virtual Louvre every now and again so as not to miss the real museum.  These things have a way of sucking up all of your attention.

We were fortunate enough to be in town on Museum Night, a magical evening when the museums of Paris open their doors from 8pm to midnight for free access.  Fritz and I went to the Musee d'Orsay, which is located in a converted railway station on the left bank of the Seine.  It houses the largest collection of Impressionist masterpieces in the world!  

Guests can have a coffee in the attic of the building while looking out through the old clock face to see Sacre Coeur, the elegant white church perched on the distant hill. 

In addition to the incredible collection of art, we heard that there would be live jazz music played all evening in front of famous art pieces.  This trio is playing in front of Monet's depiction of the Tuileries Garden. 

The finale was a 30-minute concert featuring a 15-piece ensemble playing Dave Brubeck!  Gathering with hundreds of people to enjoy art and music was a breath of fresh air, especially considering how many of the guests were in our age range.  It was wonderful to see that in our modern world, art continues to be valued and appreciated.  

Eiffel Tower at night

Fritz and I walked home, hand-in-hand at the end of the night through the illuminated streets of Paris.

The full moon made its presence known, peaking between the clouds above the Louvre as lovers traded secrets in the grass.  

Paris: The First Installment

Notre Dame

Paris.  Possibly the most romanticized city in the world, and rightly so, as Fritz and I learned after our 6-day stay in this gorgeous place.  We arrived in the middle of the day following our overnight train trip, a few hours in Cologne, and then a shorter train ride through Brussels for the final leg.  After checking into our AirBnB, a tiny but charming studio apartment with exposed wooden ceiling rafters on the top floor of a building in the Bastille District (a central area of the city), we wasted no time and set out walking.  

The ground floor entrance to our apartment.

The first thing I realized as we walked through the small streets making our way toward the river Seine, is that Paris really is just beautiful.  Everywhere.  Before coming, when I thought of Paris, the image that came to mind was the Eiffel Tower.  It is certainly a Parisian landmark and graphics of the Eiffel Tower often accompany "Paris" whenever it's printed on a t-shirt or a piece of art, etc.  What I did not realize was that Paris is loaded, and I mean loaded, with one architectural masterpiece after another.  You can't turn a corner without stumbling on a breath-taking church (Notre Dame being one of many beautiful churches), or a fancy government building, or a grand museum, or a stunning bridge, or a romantic garden.  Walking in Paris is like walking around Disney World, only everything is real.  The city has been around since the 3rd century BC and through the centuries, it had the good fortune of being wealthy during important developmental eras like The Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century.  It was a hub for culture, fashion, and art during some of the most prosperous times.

The other thing about Paris is that it's big!  Despite its size, walking everywhere is recommended because the routes in between all the major Parisian landmarks are definitely worth seeing, although we did take the metro a few times.  But the size means that all of the tourists that flock to Paris each week are a bit more spread out and mixed in with the locals.  I don't mind feeling like a tourist sometimes, but I also like the idea of understanding a place from an every-day life perspective.  It was nice to shop at local vegetable markets, sip coffee at a neighborhood café, and enjoy a fresh-baked croissant from a corner bakery.  We could pretend like we belonged - like we were a part of the fabric.  We felt flattered when a merchant mistook us for a Parisian local and initiated a conversation in French rather than English.

Naturally, I took over 400 pictures during our visit.  They aren't all blog-worthy so don't worry, I'm not going to dump them all on you, but prepare yourself for quite a stream.

As I mentioned, our first walk after arriving was along the river toward Notre Dame.  

Lining the river walk are little built-in lockers.  Vendors open them up and sell their wares as the people stroll through admiring the beautiful views.  

Artists set up their easels, doing their best to capture a scene in pastel watercolors as lovers pass by hand-in-hand. 

Notre Dame sits on an island surrounded by the flowing Seine.  This medieval Catholic cathedral was built in 1345.  It is known to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and was one of the first churches to incorporate the flying buttress. 

The ornate gargoyles that line the sides of the building were designed for water run-off.  

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was my first exposure to the cathedral, and I'm guessing it probably is for many Americans.  The Disney movie that I saw as a little girl was based on Victor Hugo's famous novel published in 1831.  He titled the book "Notre-Dame de Paris" but when it was translated to English, the name was changed because, at the time, Gothic novels were more popular than Romance novels in England.  Hugo wrote the novel because he felt that people did not value French Gothic architecture which meant beautiful buildings were being neglected, defaced and replaced with newer styles.  Hugo included long descriptive sections about the cathedral's architechture, but when Disney converted the book to a kid's movie, they made a few family-friendly tweeks negating much of the architectural descriptions and adjusting the ending a bit as well.  

Crepes!  This was a must-do for me.  I was dying to start the first day with a crepe.  We had a little more trouble finding a good crepe than we had anticipated, so our breakfast crepe turned out to be more of a lunch crepe.  Fritz located the "best crepes" in Les Marais (our neighborhood) and we shared one savory and one sweet crepe!  When I reflect on that meal, the word "Yummmmm" comes to mind. 

And while we are on the topic of food, I'll skip over to a totally delicious brunch we had in a hole-in-the-wall cafe on a quiet street.  We were lucky we didn't walk right past it on our hunt for breakfast, considering how unassuming the entrance was.  Inside, the walls were plastered with old french advertisements for performances and events.  Antiques were hanging from the ceiling and it looked a little like someone had been rooting around in your French grandmother's attic to furnish the place.   The waiter was incredibly friendly and took the time to translate each menu item into English for us in his heavy but charming French accent.  Behind my seat was a long counter peppered with one delicious-looking torte after the next.  Fritz and shared a slice of Strawberries and Cream Heaven (my name for it).

A view of the Eiffel Tower from across the Seine. 

We loved seeing all of the roof-top gardens.  Between the architecture and strategically placed flora, the Parisians really know how to beautify their space! 

A perk of staying in an AirBnB rather than in a hotel was having the option to cook at home in our little studio kitchen.  Not that we didn't ever go out.  We weren't about to go to Paris without experiencing the fabulous French cuisine, but we balanced it with a few home-cooked meals.  This meant visiting the little vegetable markets to collect our ingredients.  Paris isn't big on supermarkets, so we got all of our food from little shops and produce stands.   

Fresh thyme to season our portabello mushrooms sauteed with garlic and shallots over a bed of quinoa.  I never knew thyme had little purple flowers!  So pretty!

As I mentioned, Fritz and I walked through the city most of the time, but we did hop on the metro once or twice when it was late or drizzling.  The lighting and the font for metro stations give the public transportation system a kind of spooky vibe at night.  

This is our stop.

It's right next to the Bastille.  The July Column stands in the famous square, the Place de la Bastille, where the Bastille prison stood before July of 1789 when it was destroyed during the French Revolution.  There is virtually nothing left of the former fortress that had been standing there in one form or another since 1357.  The surrounding neighborhood, particularly the Marais, was a really lovely area to call home for our 6 days in Paris!

And here is a quick shot of my love, the brains behind this incredible adventure!  I know that sharing this experience and making these memories with Fritz will stay with me for the rest of my life.  I can't think of a more incredible way to end our European adventure, nor can I think of a more wonderful person to share it with!

Train Slumber Party!

The itinerary that Fritz put together for our two-week trip is filled with very cool places, but I think equally noteworthy is our mode of transportation.  Although this was not my first time riding on a train, it was my first time sleeping - intentionally, that is - on a train.  Our commute from Prague to Paris started around 6:30pm and went through the night with a stop in Cologne, Germany the following morning.  

Fritz booked us our very own private sleeper car with bunks!  The bed I am sitting on folds up into the wall to reveal chairs for a pre-bedtime hangout.  

We even had a little sink cubby with fresh towels and "mouth rinse"!  I'm pretty sure the mouth rinse was just regular water.  I'm guessing the train water isn't recommended for drinking, but I got really thirsty in the middle of the night so I guzzled 2 and a half mouth rinses.  There haven't been any adverse side effects to speak of yet.  

Before we left Prague, we picked up the essentials for a proper Train Picnic:

Fresh bread

Brie cheese

Prosciutto 

Rotisserie chicken

Red wine

As we toasted to the adventures ahead and reminisced about the incredible year we've had in Europe, we watched the beautiful scenery streak past our window.  And when the sun set and our eyelids grew heavy, we curled up in our bunks and let the gentle motion of the train rock us to sleep.

We awoke the next morning to the soft knocking of our friendly train attendant.  He had come bearing coffee, tea, and two boxes of train breakfast.  Each box contained 2 versions of a roll, butter, jam, and chilled paté.  In addition to delivering these breakfast boxes, he informed us that we would be arriving in Cologne in one hour.  We munched our rolls, changed out of our jammies, brushed our teeth and readied our bags for departure.  

It was a beautiful sunny morning when we stepped out of the Cologne train station, and the very first thing we saw was the gorgeous and massive Cologne Cathedral.  The picture above shows you just one small portion of it.  Our Wikipedia research revealed that the construction of the cathedral began in 1248 and it took all the way until 1880 to finish the thing!  That's over 600 years of church building!  Apparently it averages 20,000 visitors daily, though I'd like to see the data on that claim.  That seems like a pretty lofty number to me, and I'm curious to know if they are counting every person who comes out of the train station as a visitor.  

Anyway, Fritz and I had a few hours to kill so we stored our luggage in a locker at the station, guzzled a coffee, and headed to the Museum Ludwig.  Fritz had read that Ludwig has a large Picasso collection, which happens to be his favorite artist. 

They didn't end up having very many Picassos, but it was still a lovely museum.  

The blur is me, in case you were wondering. 

Something about this triangle piece is so deeply satisfying to me.  I'm not always one for the geometric-type paintings, but I just really love this piece.  So simple.  So balanced.  So isosceles.  It makes me feel good to look at it.

The museum was the perfect activity to fill the hours between train rides.  From here, it's just a few hours to complete the journey to Paris, France!

Prague Blogue: Museums And The Prague Zoo

The Lobkowicz Museum occupies a corner of the Prague Castle.  Fritz and I ducked into the museum when it started to rain, and it turned out to be a fascinating detour.  We were given an interesting history of Prague as we strolled through the galleries of paintings and artwork.  

Lobkowicz Palace was built in the second half of the 16th century which means it has witnessed some of Prague's most significant historical events.  One of the more miraculous facts about the Lobkowicz collection is that all of the art was lost and subsequently recollected not once, but twice.  The Nazis confiscated the palace and all of its artwork during WWII and the Lobkowicz family fled to the US.  The Palace was returned in 1945 only to be seized again in 1948 after the Communist takeover.  

In addition to a plentiful number of paintings, the museum also houses an extensive collection of antique musical instruments and the original scores for some of the most influential classical music.  Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven all composed works in Prague during the 18th and 19th century.  The 7th Prince Lobkowicz had a tremendous impact on classical music as he provided Beethoven with a generous annual stipend.  This patronage allowed Beethoven the freedom to compose without dependence on commissions or other time-consuming obligations to support his work.  As a result, Beethoven composed some of his most famous works in Prague.   The score in the picture above is Beethoven's Symphony in B, the 4th which premiered in March 1807 at the Vienna palace of the 7th Prince Lobkowicz.  Clearly it pays to fund the arts.  Where would we be without Beethoven?  From now on, anytime I hear that another school district is cutting funding to their arts department, I'm going to think fondly of Prince Lobkowicz, send my gratitude to the past, and pray for more wisdom in the future. 

The Prague Jewish Museum is actually a series of buildings and historical sites scattered throughout the Jewish Quarter.  It contains a history of the Jewish community in the region as well as some of the Jewish relics and art produced in Prague over the centuries.  

The museum took us on a path that wove through a beautiful Jewish cemetery. 

Stones and shells have been left on the headstones as a sign of remembrance. 

We were fortunate to have 5 days in Prague which allowed us to get out of the touristy center and hit some less-visited spots, like the Prague National Gallery.

Double exposure art

The modern building was, in many ways, its own form of artistic expression. 

Momma hippo opens her mouth for some veggies while baby munches an apple.

Before jumping on an overnight train to Paris, we skipped over to spend our last day at the Prague Zoo.  

It was AWESOME!  First of all, it's huge!  Second of all, it's beautiful.  And third of all, there were soooo many babies!  Note to self: always visit zoos in the spring when all the baby animals are born!

Sleeping on the ground is a one-month-old baby elephant - the first one to be born in the Prague Zoo. 

The elephants were really cool!

The wild cats were all so beautiful.

Little ones could take a pony ride through the zoo.  If I had come here as a little girl, I know I would have been in heaven peering at the animals from the back of my pony.

The flamingos were just funny.  They make a silly honking noise as the flick their heads nervously back and forth.  

We tried to go to the gorilla house earlier in our visit, but when we arrived, the enclosure was completely empty.  Not an ape to be seen.  We asked a zoo keeper where all the gorillas were and she explained that they were out having their lunch.  

Not wanting to miss the gorillas, we circled back before leaving the zoo hoping they might be back from their luncheon. 

They were!  And I'm so glad we went back so we could see this little cutie hanging out on his momma's back.  Hold on tight little guy!  

The loved the Prague Zoo, but we had to book it back to our apartment in order to pack up and catch our next train to Paris!  The adventure continues!