Last day, already...
Trip Start
May 05, 2007
1
11
Trip End
May 15, 2007
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Monday, May 14, 2007
Fresh from our visit to Giverny, Mom and I (not so much Dad...) wanted to see the Musée de l'Orangerie, located in the Jardin des Tuileries, and home to the most famous display of Water Lilies. We found that it didn't open until 12:30, so we vowed to come back in the afternoon.
Down the Métro we went, towards La Bastille and Le Marais. We then did what we do best: walked around the 'hood, taking it all in. We stopped for a coffee. Having coffee in Paris is not a matter of popping into a Starbucks - which aren't welcome there yet. It is, first, a quest for a cafe with the appropriate atmosphere for the moment. (I'm easy, but Mom and Dad haven't got the same appreciation for Frenchness that I have developed...). Second, one has to know whether one is in the mood for Cappucino, or Espresso, or a Court or a Long. One has to know these things, otherwise one ticks off the waiter by asking for "juste un cafe ordinaire" -- which doesn't really exist. But - no one ticked off any waiters, and we sipped our tasty coffees sitting on a sidewalk cafe, observing Parisians relaxing with a coffee, newspaper and croissant. Ah, what a life...
We explored an international market that suddenly materialized next to us, and spent a fair bit of time looking at wonderful clothing from around the world, smelling weird and intriguing spices and herbs, devouring with our eyes colourful and appetizing candy, and more importantly, chatting with people from Peru, Eastern Europe, all over France, Italy, Africa, the Middle-East, who were all trying to make a living selling their wares at this little international market near La Bastille.
It had better not fall....
It was wonderful - the kind of stuff I love. What makes me want to travel.We continued our walk down Rue St-Antoine and Rue Rivoli, going to the beautiful Place des Vosges. Hummmm... so elegant... Back on the main street heading to the Mairie, we watched for a few minutes as movers were busy sending boxes of stuff down a flimsy "elevator platform" leaning against the building. One of those famous "mansarde" apartments -- an attic studio, really --was being vacated by its tenant, and the outside elevator is really the only way to quickly move stuff out of a walk-up 5th floor apartment!
Walking by the Mairie (city hall), we could see, just across the Seine, the Ile St-Denis and Notre-Dame. It seemed wonderful to me that all these beautiful historic sites, Place des Voges, la Mairie de Paris, les Tuileries, Notre-Dame, la Sainte-Chappelle, le Louvre... were literally all within a stone's throw from one another. What an amazing city, to have collected all these masterpieces of architecture and art and human achievement!
After a quick bite at la Pomme de Pin, we walked through the courtyard of the Louvre (under once-again cloudy skies), and back through the Tuileries towards the Musée de l'Orangerie.
Dad decided to head back to the hotel - which caused Mom some anxiety, as it was the first time they were apart for the whole trip, and she worried he would get lost. I assured her, as had Dad, that he would be fine (and he was, of course!), and we made our way to the museum.
It's moving day!
We had never been to the Orangerie. The newly restored museum was designed specifically to house eight spectacular Water Lilies by Monet. Two white rooms, each in the shape of an oval, are connected at their narrow end. The ceiling in both rooms is made of an opaque cloth, diffusing natural light in the softest way possible. The two rooms are huge, and designed to give the visitor the perspective of looking at the Water Lilies as if one was standing in the middle of the pond, at Giverny... It is a stunning effect.
The two long walls of each oval room hold paintings that are ten meters long, and the two short ends have paintings that are four meters long. The effect is that of being surrounded by peace, and beauty, and a perspective on nature never felt before.
It would be easy to sit there for hours, long after the end of the audio tape describing each piece, simply turning 90 degrees once in a while to see it all -- or better yet, slowly slowly rotating a full 360 degrees to soak it all in...
We stayed as long as we wanted, then went downstairs to view the other collections housed at the museum. Several pieces - some famous, most less so - by Matisse, Renoir, Derain and Picasso - mainly from their early, less well-known days.
After an afternoon of immersion in art, Mom and I returned to the hotel, where Dad was expecting us. We had a great dinner at L'Entracte, near the Opera, to celebrate the end of our trip to France.
The next day, we would get on the bus to CDG in the morning (Mom tricked us on getting there hyper-early...), and return to Toronto, where I would spend two days getting ready for my 2.5 month adventure to South America.
I felt really privileged to be able to travel with my parents the way we did in France. Our common appreciation for history, beautiful places and scenery, and our rather flexible tastes and adaptability for shelter and food made it easy to travel together and enjoy each other's company.
They're already starting to talk about a trip to Provence, next time... Watch for the blog!
