Wow--I've had such a busy last day in Paris! This morning seems so long ago! I slept in a little, but not too long. My camera lens still does not work. :( No rain in sight for today, but temps only in the 40s. (Brrrr). I decided on a sweatshirt, jacket tied around my waist, and scarf in my bag. Parisians everywhere wear scarves--it's kind of crazy. I only brought one--never travel without a scarf. By the end of the day, I had all of them (and my little knit gloves) on. I brought a winter hat, but didn't want to go completely crazy--I'll probably need it in New York tomorrow though. I wound the scarf around my neck as I began to walk--chilly today!
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| Place de Bastille |
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| I keep seeing these creature mosaics! |
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These toilets make trying to find one in Paris so much easier! They are free. They have
a green light when you can press the button and enter, a yellow light when it is being used, and
a blue light while it is being washed. It cleans the whole thing which is why the seat is sometimes wet!
I remember seeing these introduced around 10 years ago, but they charged for them. And
now they are in many areas. |
First, I had read in a review of another place about the Promenade des Plantes. What they really meant was what popped up when I googled it: coolée verte René Dumonte. If you've ever walked the High Line park in Manhattan, you know what this is like, except twice as long! They created a park--walking path, benches, and plantings along an old elevated rail line through the city, so that you are at about the third floor of most buildings. It is 3 miles long. I had been intending to go to the Bois de Boulogne--a large public park. Well, the coolée verte René Dumonte ends nearly at Bois de Vincennes, so it made more sense to go there. I walked to the coolée and along it to the Bois de Vincennes. I love that this apartment is so central (2nd arrondisement) that I can walk to most things!
From Wikipedia: The Bois de Vincennes has a total area of 995 hectares (2,459 acres), making it slightly larger than the Bois de Boulogne, (846 hectares/2,091 acres), the other great Parisian landscape park located at the western side of the city. It occupies ten percent of the total area of Paris, and is almost as large as the first six arrondissements in the center of the city combined. The Bois de Vincennes is about three times larger than Central Park in New York City (341 hectares/843 acres).
It reportedly has an English landscape garden with four lakes; a zoo; an arboretum; a botanical garden; a hippodrome or horse-racing track; a velodrome for bicycle races; and the campus of the French national institute of sports and physical education. I only saw one lake and lots of trees. I walked around a lot to the sound of singing birds, cooing pigeons, quacking ducks, and honking geese (lots of geese); very different than where I have been for the past 6 days! The park is more wild than Central Park, dirt paths and not a long of maintenance. It was very clean, though. And there were a lot of people there for a weekday afternoon. It is on the far Eastern edge of Paris.
I really loved the coolée verte René Dumonte. It was full of spring flowering flowers, trees, and bushes! Many of the same plants at home, but in Minnesota they're still covered in a foot of snow! It ended before reaching the Bois de Vincennes, so I meandered my way through small city streets to get there. Lots of pictures of this!
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| Another one of those mosaics, though this one appears to be a raccoon. |
After walking around the Bois de Vincennes, I decided that since it was my last day, i wanted to go to Musee de l'Orangerie and walk around the Tuileries. So, I pulled out my trusty metro pass and zoomed across the city (so that I could get to the museum before it closed). On the walk to the Metro stop, I stopped to pick up a patisserie--a flaky pastry filled with pieces of chocolate. I thought it would be a perfect snack to eat in the Tuileries after the museum.
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| Cool building on the way to the metro |
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| Old building right next to a very modern building |
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| Place de le Concorde |
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| Place de le Concorde |
Again, like yesterday, I went from a non-touristy area and walked off the metro into a very touristy area! I went to the Musée de l'Orangerie. This is the one thing that I am repeating, because I love Monet. The museum was originally an orangerie (in the 1850s) sheltering the orange trees that lined the gardens of the Tuileries Palace. It was used for many different purposes over the year and in the 1920s was chosen as the place to house Monet's Water Lilies paintings. The paintings were donated by Monet to France, after the first world war, to offer Parisians "a haven of peace, inviting them to contemplate an image of nature evoking infinity" (that's from the museum guide). Monet helped to design the rooms for his paintings which I think is awesome. There are two elliptical rooms with the paintings surrounding you. The eight panels "evoke the passing of the hours from sunrise in the east to sunset in the west." From the early 90s to 2006, they have added galleries and fixed the lighting in the Monet roooms. The galleries house a collection from Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume. They are incredible, including photos by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Derain, Laurencin, Renoir, Rousseay, Guillaume, and Utrillo (remember him from yesterday?). Absolutely great. I don't really care for the bowls of fruit and vases of flowers, but the others are very interesting. All of Utrillo's work is of Montmartre and many of these artists were part of the group that hung out in Montmartre at the cabarets and created art together and learned from each other.
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| Monet |
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| Renoir |
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They had models of each time the building was altered. This shows the two elliptical rooms that Monet
designed for his paintings. A guard saw me looking at them and gave me a great history of the building
and the impressionist painters and their paintings. I only wish that I understood more of it! (He
had a very heavy accent and mixed up French and English) |
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| Renoir |
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| Laurencin |
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| Maurice Utrillo |
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| The museum |
After that, I walked in the Tuileries and found a nice spot for my pastry. Very yummy. I spread the crumbs on the ground for a bird that came over to me with an inquiring look. By this time I had added my jacket and gloves.
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| Across the Seine |
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| The Eiffel Tower in the distance |
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| A closer view |
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| Tuilieries |
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| My bird friend |
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| a small garden in the Tuileries--raspberry canes in the back! |
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| You can see the Louvre in the distance |
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| Musée d'Orsay across the Seine |
I walked the Tuileries some more and ended up at the Louvre. I'm reading a book right now in which the characters go to see the King at the Louvre Palace. I sat on a bench, looking at the immense former palace, imagining that as a palace and trying to figure out which parts were the later additions to the original. Some were easy--different style, different materials, different roof line, but the earlier additions were harder to discern.
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| The Louvre |
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| Just part of one wing |
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| Another part of the wing |
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| The center section |
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| Another wing |
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| Part of another wing |
After that, I walked back toward the apartment, stopping at a café for dinner. I had Soupe de l'oignon, or French Onion Soup. Yum!! I've always loved the soup--with the cheese and bread in the soup. I also received a basket of bread!
I arrived back around 8:00, before sunset, but I decided to stay in. Most of my interactions today were in French! It's getting easier. I need to pack tomorrow by 2:00 so that Antoine had time to clean before the next guest at 3:00. I'm not sure if I'll have time to go anywhere since I'll probably need to leave around 2:30 for the airport, using the metro and either bus or RER (regional train). I'll see what Google Maps recommends. It only says 45-60 minutes, but it took much longer coming into the city than that. I'll play tomorrow by ear. I hate to waste the whole day packing and getting to the airport, but I don't want to go too far and have trouble getting back to get my bags and still get to the airport on time.
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