Last days in Paris

I didn’t have a lot of plans for my Sunday in Paris. I only had 2 more days and I asked Jeremy what he thought I should make sure to do and his answer was “get up early and watch the stores and stalls set up for the day”, which is what I did most days anyway since I would usually be awake by 6 and the city doesn’t really get started themselves until 10. But, being Sunday it was particularly quiet as I got started for the day but I did take note of what he said- the downstairs fruit and veggie stalls were getting brought out to the sidewalks and the little white delivery trucks were bringing in the stuff for the restaurants. The bakery across the street had the guys wearing all white puling baguettes out of the oven. The mostly pedestrian streets were pretty quiet so I preferred to walk along the road instead of the sidewalk. I was head back to the island where Notre Dame was to a different church and to see how close I could get to Notre Dame from the front, there is a big square there with an archeological museum and the “Point 0” of France.

Sainte-Chapelle is a special little chapel made for the king in the 1200s. Back then the royal palace was on this island, and the King wanted a place to put a very important relic there, the Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus. Now, the validity of this relic is pretty sketchy and apparently there is no mention of Jesus wearing this at his death in early parts of the Bible. But a few hundred years later it was brought up and at some point someone went to Jerusalem and dug in and area and said “I have it”. And eventually it was passed on to this King Louis IX and he built this chapel for the soul purpose of housing it. I’m not sure why, but eventually it was taken to Notre Dame and it is shown there on special occasions, and recently made famous when the fire at Notre Dame happened and someone was able to run into the fire and take it to a safe place.

Entering the chapel, you can’t really see the whole building, now it is partially surrounded by other buildings including a national court. The line to get in wasn’t too bad, and we entered in the back to the lower chapel which was still very pretty with dark ceilings, low light and some pretty stained glass. A very unusual feel to the place being so dark and the whole church not very wide. This is where other members of the palace would come to worship, the upstairs was only for the royal family. To get upstairs the staircase was a ridiculously narrow spiral stone staircase and seeing the height of the ceilings in this lower chapel, I knew it wasn’t short, so I elected to go find the elevator which took me around the whole budding and came out with a later built balcony that led to a really pretty door. Stepping into Sainte-Chapelle was amazing, I have never seen such a pretty church. Almost every inch of the wall is stained glass, and there is an overall blue hue to the place. There are candle chandeliers hanging (now electric) and otherwise the light is coming in at a low level (especially on a misty day like today) to bathe you in a dark blue light. Besides the overall beauty of the place, its as amazing to realize that each window had scenes from the Bible on one side, and then the other side re-enacted the finding and brining back of the Crown of Thorns. The altar is even very different with a very high pedestal and this is where the Crown of Thorns would sit, the focus because it was the soul purpose of the place – to house and commemorate them. Turning around, the rose window was just gorgeous, I would love to have a painting or a t-shirt with this on it, such a pretty shape and colors of the stained glass. It took my time looking at this place, at times just sitting and staring at the light, it was very comforting. As I mentioned, it was a misty day and that actually made it nice because the light was homogenous, I guess on sunny days you have a bunch of light coming from one direction and it makes it more uneven. I was really surprised that I didn’t come here before- I guess I probably went to Notre Dame and figured nothing could beat it. Unfortunately today I cannot compare, but as grand as nice as Notre Dame is, I think Sainte-Chapelle is prettier.

Back outside, I started to venture toward Notre Dame and randomly found a “Festival of bread”. There were several tents and set up inside where various baker stations. You got to watch them roll out the dough, decorate, add ingredients, it was a really fun thing to happen upon. There were some pieces for sale though I wasn’t hungry yet, and then there was one tent with completion level displays of breads in a decorative way- with a music theme. The best part for me was to watch them unclose making it look simple.

I was using my guided tour in the book and another interesting surprise for me was that there was a flower market here, and on Sundays it turned into a bird market. Bird markets are a strange European phenomena, instead of pet stores there are these markets where shops bring birds in cages and display them outside, I guess it seems more appealing this way. I just think it is sad to see them in such small cages. There were some cute brightly colored finches that I really liked, but I just wanted to put them in a giant cage the size of a house, or set them free wherever they came from. The flowers were planted ones, like a small green house.

On the other side of this, the streets were all blocked off, so that was the end of the Notre Dame observation. Otherwise, it had started to rain a little more and I had to pull my umbrella out. The weather forecast was that it was supposed to clear this morning and rain in the late afternoon, so that was wrong. Along the side of the island was a big building that was the old prison from around the Revolution, this is where Marie Antionette was kept before she was beheaded. You could take a tour, but somehow I wasn’t in the mood to go to a prison and see old cells. I walked around it, much prettier out here with castle like turrets that made you think of princesses being locked away. The final tip of the island was a pleasant little park that was empty on this rainy day but would be really great on a sunny day. There were a few cafes around and I was thinking about lunch, but they were pretty empty, so the atmosphere wasn’t there. At this point I walked over to the bridge, still using my umbrella and started to assess the rest of the day’s situation. In the end I decided to head back home and have lunch and reassess in my hotel how the weather would turn out, my other option was going to a museum for the afternoon, but I was still pretty tired from the long museum day and almost 20,000 steps that day, so I didn’t want to push it. I crossed the Seine and went through that neighborhood with lots of art galleries and small shops, window shopping along the way and then the active cafe street popped up and there was a fun band of guys playing some lively music on there corner. I realized I had heard them some evenings from my room, so I stopped to enjoy them and give them a little money.

I remembered that last Sunday I had missed brunch at this one cafe and their menu looked good, so I headed back there to eat, Cafe de Paris, a little more upscale than my crepe place. Brunch was still going on but it was a little annoying that you had to also order a “brunch platter” to go with the dish I wanted. The platter was delicious but it was a coffee, OJ, croissant and baguette with some butter and jam. Then the dish I was there for, a salmon poke bowl that was really delicious, so I am glad I went back and it was worth filling up with the rest of their tasty food. I took my time and the rain did settle down to a mist again. I went back to my hotel in the early afternoon but the forecast didn’t look so good, so I actually spent the rest of the day at home.

My final day in Paris. So, when I had met up with my friend Erin in Amsterdam I had told her I had gone to the Van Gogh Museum that day and she told me about a Van Gogh exhibit her friend had gone to that looked really neat- it was like walking through his paintings. She showed me that it was located in Les Baux, which is a town way south in France and she was disappointed when I told her I was far from Paris. I never looked into it, but then randomly I was in the Orsay Museum and was chatting with a lady from the US and I asked her what her favorite thing in Paris had been, and she told me about a Van Gogh immersive video experience and I realized it was the same thing. She told me to make sure I booked it in advance because it was selling out, so on that Friday I looked and saw the only day open was Monday. The location of it was a little further north than the Bastille and the only other thing to do in that area was the famous Le Pere Cemetery where Jim Morrison and a bunch of famous writers were buried, it was supposed to be interesting and pretty to walk through. So, I planned on going there first, but I woke up to a changed forecast again and I didn’t want to walk through the cemetery in the rain.

My museum appointment time was at noon and I decided to find a coffee shop on the way to spend some time in. I took the bus and got off to find that the coffee shop wasn’t even open today. I searched around for another one and never found anything appealing, so I just headed to the museum early. I guess you can also show up and try to get in for the day- but there was a sign that said they were not accepting anyone else. I knew a little from the video my friend showed me, but really nothing prepared me for what I was about to see when I entered- the biggest reason I say that was the size.

This set up is in a giant warehouse, and while it is a rectangular room it has different shapes along the walls and then a few small rooms built into the center. I would guess there are probably 50 or more projectors displaying the “movies” onto the various walls, floors, ceilings and they are not all showing the same thing and some are overlapping. The actual movie is like an artistic combination of Van Goghs works of art, combined with some photographs, some letters to his brother, and then the background music which varied from classical, to jazzy, to modern. I walked in to the dark room and there was color and light all around me, and it was overwhelming to go anywhere as there isn’t really a main place to see it all, and there was one line of bench seats all full and then around some poles there were a few seats. I was watching the seats but realized that not many people were going anywhere, they were mesmerized and others were filming with their cameras. I tried filming some to distract me from all of the options, and then about 10 minutes later I found a seat for the last 5 minutes of the Van Gogh show. At the end of the show they show the last few paintings he did and had a chaotic “Please don’t let me be Misunderstood” song and then the last scene is the dark field with the black crows (I’m pretty sure not his very last painting, but in the last few months), and the crows get closer and closer until the black of the crow fills the room for the end, and then Vincent’s name in red is all that remains. As the credits rolled I felt more comfortable getting up to wander and check things out, behind me was a bridge and below it was some water where the movie was also projected, they had some bubblers in the water to make it move and this accentuated the movement. I had forgotten that there were other “showings” with this and next the one called “Japanese Dream” started which featured the old Japanese wood prints that were so influential over Van Gogh, Monet, and more. It started out with some pretty fans that moved a lot and then progressed into a strange forest where creatures moved around and warriors appeared and disappeared. There was this square area here that I finally realized was a little room, and I went in it to find like a hall of mirrors- well, one square room but so many mirrors it looked like there were 100s of me, and the mirrors were also on the ceiling, and they had a slightly reflective floor that bounced colors and light all around. At one point in the Japanese dream it was like a Kaleidoscope on the ceiling, it was so pretty! This made me want to explore more, so I set out to the other side of the room which featured a balcony area above it, and a lot of open space. So many people were on the stairs to the balcony so I figured it must be a good view up there. One other little room in the middle was a little disappointing- but it actually was projecting the pieces of art that the images were coming from with the artist name and dates. There was also a sign for a “bar” and I checked that out first, wondering if there was an elevator to the balcony from it. I walked into the bar and it was like a miniature theater there, little comfy chairs set around a wrap around screen and behind it was the bar with snacks and beverages. While I was there, the 3rd film started, called Verse, and it was really neat. It was about universes and it was a computer animated imagery that looked like a bunch of stars and then would zoom in to little explosions and pretty colors all to a very dramatic soundtrack. I sat down for a little bit and saw on the wall they had a clock saying how long until the Van Gogh show. At 5 minutes to go I got up and asked the bartender about the elevator and indeed they had one, so I had a behind the wall way up to the balcony. However, once I got there, it was pretty crowded. There was a line of chairs along the railing and then people standing behind the chairs, and I’m pretty short so it was hard to see a lot as the Van Gogh movie started, but I could see that from this angle, you could really see a lot of the show, though you weren’t so close up. Toward the end of the Van Gogh show I was able to get a seat and I stayed there for the next 2 movies. The Japanese one is really nice, there is one part that has these giant ocean waves- a common theme in Japanese art and then it transitioned to these giant moving fish that was really cool. The big disappointment was that the “Verse” movie was not that good on the big walls, I think it was just not detailed enough so all blown up it was not so good, and I could tell the people around me agreed.

I gave up my balcony seat and was excited to roam around now that I had seen all of the films from the balcony- I think the best thing for someone would be to enter at the balcony and watch there first, then wander around and it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. Now, wandering to the water area, the kaleidoscope room, finding which walls I liked best- usually not the big walls, this was the fun part. I was disappointed to find out that the kailedoscope room did not show kaleidoscopes during Van Gough- it was a lot of color but pretty boring. In the end, for color and excitement, the Japanese Dream was my favorite. So, in the end I spent almost 3 hours in there, or more, and watched the 3 movies 3 times. Fantastic, so worth it.

I walked out and the weather was not so bad, but I was really happy with my experience and didn’t want to go to the cemetery. I took the bus back to my neighborhood and was so hungry for lunch, but I also wanted to check out some pastry and chocolate shops. Luckily as I was walking from the stop, I found the perfect restaurant. It was called something “galette” and those are the buckwheat crepes I love, and I said to myself that if they had the one with scallops on it, I was going for it. And they did. And it was perfect. Giant perfectly seared scallops with a creamy leek sauce in the middle. A block later I got to the bakery I wanted, La Duree which I had checked out on the Champs Elyesses and bought the pistachio pastry to take home to eat later. I did a little siesta at home and then in the evening went for a stroll to do a little shopping. I have a sister-in-law having a baby later this summer, so I looked at baby clothes, bought some chocolate for my mother-in-law and macarons to share with mom. At 8 I made my way home and had one last dinner at the place around the corner that I usually eat crepes at. This time I went for the last French meal I hadn’t had yet- mussels. I giant pot of them in a nice sauce, but there were so many that the accompanying fries and bread were wasted on me. I also had my usual Eurepean cocktail- Aperol Spritz as a way to say good bye to the continent.