Saturday April 19 - Paris!

Alrighty, time for Saturday now!

Like most days when I’m traveling, and in general with me it seems… I had aimed to get up by 9 am to give me the whole day to see things. Since it was my last day in Paris, there were a lot of things I wanted to squeeze in. However, I was not at all ready to move out of my bed when my alarm went off, and since Benjamin was sleeping in, I didn’t get up till around 11 am again – oops! But I was ready to head out the door by noon, so it wasn’t that bad.

Like I said, there were a bunch of things that I had hoped to do in Paris but either hadn’t done yet or my timing didn’t work out that well – so I had made a list and tried to figure out how to do the most of that list, in the time I had without backtracking. So that meant I was first off to Sainte‑Chapelle as it was closed the day I had tried to go see it. So I got there, and had to wait about 15 minutes to go through security as it is in part of a government facility. But once there, I bypassed the line for tickets and went right on in.

It’s a tiny chapel was built in the thirteenth century by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion of Christ. The most famous of these relics was the Crown of Thorns – which actually cost more than building the Chapel! But it is really small, with two levels. The lower level was for the palace staff to worship in, and it is full of arches supporting the upper level and bright colors upon the walls. It also is where the oldest wall painting in Paris is. The upper chapel though is the glory of Sainte-Chapelle with its beautiful stained glass windows. The room has a total of 15 stained glass windows that are amazingly tall. In all of these windows, 1,113 stories from the Old Testament are told from Genesis to Christ’s Resurrection. At the base of the naves are statues of the 12 apostles, of which 6 are original. Saint Peter is the most well known as he is shown holding the keys to heaven. It was in the great shrine that the relics were held – though those that survived the Revolution are now kept in the treasury of the Cathedral de Notre-Dame de Paris. Since it was a bright and gorgeous day, the windows were incredible to look at! Though as that is really all there is to see there, I did not stay too long to admire them!

After leaving Sainte-Chapelle and the Palais du Justice (why I had to go through security), I crossed over the Seine to the Latin Quarter. I had been here the other day and wanted to see if one of the souvenirs I had been looking for was here. Plus, I loved the small streets with tons of shops and restaurants on it – it has a very student atmosphere. I couldn’t find what I was looking for however, but I did buy a crêpe made with Grand Marnier, sugar, and butter – which was delicious!

From there, I went underground to take the RER train to the next stop so I could visit the Musée d’Orsay. So I put my ticket through the machine and waited for the train to come. The RER line is not like the metro as it is slower and the cars have two levels in them! So when I get to my stop at the next station, I headed on out and tried to leave… and ran into a problem… I put my card through the machine to leave and it let me go through the turnstile… but the gate wouldn’t open! I tried to run my card through again but that didn’t work either. I ended up having to jump back over the turnstile and tried another turnstile, but to no avail. I knew my Carte Orange was good on the RER lines, but was getting worried about me not being able to get back out! Thankfully, one of the girls hanging there I guess waiting for someone used her card and let me through! So up to ground level I went.

I got up there, and first thing I saw was a rather long line to get in the Musée d’Orsay – so my first thought was … do I have to wait in that line? Thankfully I looked at the signs and since I had the Museum Pass, I had a different and much shorter line to wait in! The reason we had to wait was to go through security. But after about 15 minutes, I was inside and ready to go.

The Musée d’Orsay used to be an old train station that was abandoned for years until it was refurbished and opened up as an art museum. So where the train platforms would have been, there is a huge open area in which the statues are kept. There are smaller exhibit rooms along the sides, so after consulting my map, I just started going up one side. I didn’t see that many painters or paintings I knew at first but then some common names started to appear such as Eugène Delacroix, Eduard Degas, and others. The one end of the main gallery was an exhibit on the Palais Garnier which was rather interesting! It had a huge scaled down model of the theater and the rooms behind it and everything so that was really cool to see having been there the day before. The exhibit though was mainly to showcase the Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s renderings and original plaster models for the sculptures at the Palais Garnier. From there, I headed back down the other side of the smaller galleries and this time I came across even bigger names than before. This time, I was looking at paintings of Manet, Monet, Degas, and Pissarro. By now I was taking my time to look at such masterpieces. I then followed the crowds as well as the museum map guideline and headed up to the top of the museum on the 5^th floor to the Impressionists and worked my way back down.

So in the first room, I come across Degas’ works of the dancers and even his sculpture of a dancer. They were incredible! Also in the room were more works of Manet, Caillebotte, and James Whistler – including his famous painting Arrangement in Grey and Black N. 1, also called Whistler’s Mother. This is one painting that I have studied before so it was awe inspiring to see it in person up close.

The next room held works by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley. It was really hard to think that I was seeing paintings I’ve read about, and to be able to look at the detail they painted with – it gives anyone a new impression on art! This is the room with the famous Renoir painting, The Bal du Moulin de la Galette. And Monet’s works just kept going on as he was the only artist in the next room. This room housed such masterpieces as his gardens at Giverny, London and the Houses of Parliament, his series on light based on the La Cathédral de Rouen, and of course one of his most well known works – The Woman with the Umbrella Turning to the Left.

Continuing on, I came upon Van Gogh’s works – which were a different painting style in itself! I saw his haystacks painting, Starry Night at Arles¸ and both oh his self-artist portraits. It was incredibly to see how thick the paint was layered; you can even see it like that in the few close up pics that I took! The next room was dedicated to Cézanne, so it was of course full of his works! Though there was definitely a distinct difference between his works and Van Gogh’s, there were not many well known works that I knew of of his in the gallery. In between this room and the next, there were two huge paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec which were amazing.Next, it was the room dedicated to Renoir – so a lot of his famous works were in here including The Bathers, as well as The Young Girls at the Piano.

After this, there was a room where a couple of the pastels were kept – due to the material, the light is dimmed and the works are kept in air sealed cases. Thus, it made pictures hard to take! Following on, there was a short collection which included some of Monet and Cézanne’s works. By now I was in another part of the museum and this one was for other artists that followed the Impressionist movement with Neo-Impressionism such as Gauguin, Matisse, Rousseau, Signac, and Seurat. There were also some lesser known works intermingled in there as well. There were also some small sculptures which actually were done by Gauguin – I thought he only painted! It was also interesting to see some Pointillism works by Seurat and Signac as I have only seen them in pictures before. The last area on the top floor was dedicated to Toulouse-Lautrec’s pastels which were really cool to see, even if they were behind glass!

After that, I headed down a few levels, and there were smaller exhibits there but just had a few works by a couple of well known artists – nothing major of course. I ended up on the second floor of the museum and started off onto a new set of exhibits which consisted of newer movements in art such as Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, etc. Most of these artists I had never heard of before – so I didn’t spend too long walking through the various rooms although there were some really cool works in there. As this was most of the museum, and I still wanted to leave some time to get over to the Pantheon before it closed, I made a quick stop in the bookstore and then headed out.

From there, I got back on the RER line and hoped that my ticket would work this time! After changing trains and going a few stops, I got off and it worked – so I was happy! From the station, I walked over to the Pantheon which was an impressive site to see in the first place. After going inside, the first thing I could think of was – it was empty! It is a huge space which architecturally is impressive, but aside from the paintings on the walls and a few wall sculptures here and there – it was really empty. I noticed after looking at the guide for the Pantheon that it was possible to go up to the upper levels … however it was then that I noticed it was a guided tour only and the last one of the day left 5 minutes before I got there! Bummer! So, I headed down to the crypt which is what I wanted to see in the first place.

The Pantheon is originally a church to honor the Sainte Genevieve, built in a style mimicking the Pantheon in Greece, but it ended up becoming final resting place of the great intellectuals of France. There are not many in there though as the criteria of the selection committee is very strict and many are often turned away. As such, the crypt is rather empty and mostly contains exhibits about the Pantheon itself. There are some well-known people buried in their and of course I visited their graves. This list includes: Voltaire; Victor Hugo (who wrote Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame – which actually helped save the cathedral and raised the money to restore it to its former glory!); Alexander Dumas, père (who wrote The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and many others novels!); Louis Braille (who was the created of the Braille language for the blind); Marie Curie (who is the first woman interred in the Pantheon – she discovered radium) and her husband; and Rousseau (who was a Socialist in France and a great philosopher). Also held in the Pantheon is the Foucault pendulum which first demonstrated for fact that the Earth rotated.

Since the place was closing soon, I got a few postcards and then headed out. I had planned on heading to the nearest metro and taking that home but in walking there, I had discovered another smaller church beside the Pantheon. Since it was still open, I stopped inside to check it out! In here, there was a beautiful rood screen which separates the altar from the choir with two spiral staircases carved into it on each side. Also here is where the remaining relics of Sainte Genevieve are kept. She is the patroness of Paris, who had a rather unique history and the prayers led by her have been attributed to why Atilla the Hun’s diverted his attack on Paris.

But as I was running out of time, I headed on out and received quite a shock. Not once have I ever completely used up the memory card of my camera in one day – until today! I only had the 1 GB card since the 2 GB one I had was in the other camera I had bought in Dublin but was stolen from me. Sure enough, I had taken 800 pictures that day! It was rather quite easy to explain why as I take a lot of pictures, and often if a picture is blurry – I don’t erase it, but just take a new one till I get a clear picture. Plus, with me spending the whole afternoon in a museum, I had taken a picture of the painting as well as another picture of the title card next to it so I would remember what it was! So I deleted a few pictures and took some of the façade of the church before headed to the metro to head back to Benjamin’s.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was invited along to celebrate Antoine’s birthday today. (He is the friend of Benjamin who had been there when I got back after the Moulin Rouge show.) He was planning on leaving around 7 pm to head over to his place so I did my best to get back by then – and was successful! I got back and quickly uploaded my pictures onto my computer… we headed on out! Antoine had asked Benjamin to make an apple tart, though Benjamin didn’t have a dish to make it! So we stopped at the store on the way to the metro and picked up some things for dinner. After about a 15 minute ride on the metro, which took us into the eastern area of Paris below the Père Lachaise cemetery, we were at Antoine’s place. It was a really cool place, definitely not busy with tourists which made it quiet and a nice place it seemed to live. He had a great view off the balcony of his studio flat. We got there, and he started making dinner – which consisted of an appetizer of sliced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese covered in vinaigrette, then a Caesar salad with slices of chicken cooked in honey – overall it was amazing!

While they were making that up, his friend Lavender came in with a bottle of champagne, opening it up and saying happy birthday as it goes all over the place! The relationship between Antoine and Lavender really reminded me of the one between me and Hilly – so it was cool. They were all incredibly friendly and throughout the short dinner and chilling afterwards we downed two bottles of champagne and just chatted and relaxed. Then, we all headed over to the St. Martin canal where there is a club along the canal that Antoine really likes. While there, more of his friends came by and they just welcomed me in the group which really was cool. Lavender had bought all of us drinks, though Benjamin disliked the way they had made our mojitos. Then later on, Benjamin had bought me a beer as well. It really was cool to just sit right along the canal drinking and relaxing – which is why the whole area is popular with students and the young adult scene.

Around midnight or so, we hopped back on the metro and headed back towards Antoine’s and went to a bar up the street. It was a bit crowded at first as there was a live band finishing up, but soon we were able to get a table and we sat down. The rest of the night was spent downing another three bottles of champagne among all of us, and I spent a good time talking with a friendly couple who were friends of Antoine’s about all sorts of things. We ended up closing the bar around 2 am, and then headed back towards Antoine’s. We all were just a tad bit drunk and as the metro had stopped running, we all just kind of passed out/crashed at Antoine’s!