Beattys Overseas

Our drive from Mt. St. Michel into Paris was long but easy on Wednesday afternoon.  Finding our hotel in the 10th arrondissement was not so easy.  Once we arrived, it was so disgusting, we soon opted to find another place for Thursday night.  Ah, Paris...  Nothing like I expected, yet everything that I had been warned. 

John's a brave one behind the wheel, and we agreed that we'd drive our bags to our hotel, then drive the car back to the Hertz office to drop it off.  Why not use the car for another hour and save our backs from having to sling our cases on and off the Metro?  Sounded like a grand idea, until we were lost, and lost, and lost again.  Each time we'd ask someone to point us us the general vicinity, it seemed we were sent in a different direction than before, and we were pretty irritated by the time we checked into our filthy 120 Euro per night hotel in the Opera district.  Not only was our room visibly dirty and cramped, but the neighborhood resembled NYC's Port Authority area circa 1978.  Shame on us for booking at the last minute via hotels.com and trusting the 3-star rating. 

Figuring we'd deal with it later, we continued on our path to return the car and do some sightseeing.  Drove down the Champs-Elysees, saw the Arc De Triomphe, and witnessed a dozen motorcycle/moped/scooter near-crashes; it was swell.  We took the Metro from the Hertz place to the Eiffel Tower.  Funny how at huge attractions like that people end up taking such bad photos of themselves, and you either have to witness their incompetence or step in to aid them.  Well, John stepped in with one particular couple, offering to take a photo of them together with the Tower behind them.  These people took advantage of John's courtesy, and had him take about 15 shots of them in varying positions, including laying on the grass (which was surrounded by a wire fence that they had to hop over).  I was laughing so hard; it was like they hired him to take their engagement portraits! 

Meanwhile, I caught sight of a guy taking a photo of the California State flag in front of the Tower, so I approached him and was surprised to hear that he was French. But, he lived in Modesto for a year (presumably on a student exchange plan), and fell in love with California.  So, he was taking a photo of the flag to send back to his friends in Modesto.  He lent me his flag for a photo op, and I was more than inclined.  Cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Following the Tower, we walked down to the Seine, and saw a deal for a one-hour river cruise with commentary leaving in a few minutes.  What a good choice.  It wasn't expensive, it wasn't a huge time commitment, and turned out to be a perfect introduction to Paris for a newcomer.  Even John, who'd been to Paris many times before, grabbed a few new tidbits of data from the tour.  Did you know that Notre Dame was constructed over a period of two hundred years?  Neither did we.   

We crashed at the awful hotel on Wednesday night, fully knowing that we were being ripped off.  By the next morning, we had booked a new place about 15 blocks away and 30 Euro less.  Yay!  The Metro zipped us to Gare de Lyon, where we purchased train tickets for the following day and the next week going to Burgundy and Switzerland.  We took a bus (super efficient!) to the Louvre, which was indescribably overwhelming, as expected.  The Louvre museum is the oldest and most celebrated museum in the world, with more than 8 million visitors each year. 
Mona Lisa, there you are!Our first order of business at the Louvre was Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (as it is for most visitors).  She's smaller than you'd expect, but she is special when you see her in person.  She glows.  The Louvre has built a crescent-shaped handrail around her, and placed her behind a large sheet of glass.  There is a line of tourists taking her photo, and a buzz of discussion about her in the exhibit room; very exciting.  Also in the 16th century exhibit is the breathtaking Wedding at Cana, by Paolo Veronese, which hung at a full 2.5 metres (8¼ ft) from the floor in the San Giorgio Maggiore monastery for 235 years, until it was plundered by Napoleon in 1797.

Speaking of Napoleon, my favorite stop in the Louvre was the exhibit of Napoleon III's Apartment in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre, which originally housed the apartments and offices of the minister of state. It was a construction project called for by Napoleon shortly after he became emperor in 1852.  An exceptional record of Second Empire decorative art, the state dining room features an amazing array of gilt furniture, rich tapestries and unbelievable murals & chandeliers on the ceilings.  Needless to say, it far surpassed the style and space of our diminutive apartment back home.  My envy was palpable. 

After the Louvre, we wandered the Jardin du Palais Royal, then waited for our bus back to our new hotel.  But, the bus never came, as we noticed some sort of demonstration marching down Rue du Montmarte, so we caught a cab - an absurdly expensive cab.  We shared a lovely dinner together in the lovely residential neighborhood of our new hotel, near the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Coeur.

All in all, Paris was fine.  It wasn't (for me, at least) overwhelmingly gorgeous, or magical, or even romantic.  It was a cool historical metropolitan city rich in culture, architecture and culinary arts, but so are other European citites.  By Friday morning, at the Gare du Lyon train station, I was ready to leave the big city and get back to the French countryside, which feels so much more inviting and invigorating.  It must be in my blood.  Thanks, Grandmere and Grandpere. 

-Whitney