Pesach Travel Adventures - Day 4

Day 4 – Saturday, April 7 – Paris

On Saturday Becky and Eric went to Versailles, and Jeremy and I attempted a somewhat ambitious walking tour of Paris. We got on the metro near our apartment, and were greeted by two musicians playing music on the metro. The metro in Paris is very different than the Tube in London. In London, people don’t talk on board the train. It’s incredibly quiet and a lovely respite from the outside world. Also, the seats are REALLY comfortable! In Paris, the metro is louder, with many more stops (although, it is pretty cool that in Paris you are never more than 500 meters from a metro station), a much louder beep as the doors close, and less comfortable seats. One cool part about the Paris metro, though, is how the announce stations. As the train approaches a station, you hear the name said with an upward tone, as if asking a question. When the train arrives at the station, the name is said again, but with more definition, as if to say, “Here we are.”

When we emerged from underground, we finally felt like we were in Paris. Wide streets perfectly lined with trees, old white buildings, and the feeling I thought I would have when being in Paris for the first time.

We started our tour at the Arc de Triomphe. After walking around the base and after visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI and taking the requisite pictures we climbed the 284 stairs to the top. The 360 degree view from the top was absolutely breathtaking – the perfect way to start our first full day in Paris. Each of the street leading out from Place Charles deGaulle was different and led to a different part of the city. Looking one way we could see modern downtown, another led to the Eiffel Tower, and a third down the Champs Elysees.

From the Arc we crossed back under the street and strolled down the Champs Elysees. We stopped for some breakfast and coffee at a local café, and continued our way down the tree-lined street. We passed the Grand Palace and the Petit Palace, and made our way to the Place del la Concorde. There, we took in the sights of the Obelisque and strolled through the Jardin des Tuileries up to the Louvre. Since the Louvre was on our itinerary for Sunday, we turned to the right and continued our walk up the Seine. We crossed the bridge to Il de la Cite, and walked around the back-side of the island to the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation (Deportation Memorial), a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from France to the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. The memorial was closed when we got there, so we only got to see the part that was visible from the gate. 

From the memorial, we crossed the park and made our way to Notre Dame. As much as I wanted to go inside, the line was a few hours long, so we went to grab some lunch then stood in the plaza listening to the Rick Steves audio tour explaining the beautiful façade. From there, we did a small walking tour of the island and made our way to Sainte-Chapelle. The line was about half an hour long, and having now been inside, I would have waiting 10 times as long. Sainte-Chapelle (Holy Chapel) is in the courtyard of the royal palace, and was built by Louis IX to house the Crown of Thorns and other relics of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Louis IX was so proud of these relics, he paid three times as much for the relics themselves than the building to house them. Standing inside the chapel felt like standing inside a jewel box. The walls all the way around the room are floor-to-ceiling stained glass in the most brilliant colors. No words or even photographs can do this building justice.

From there we crossed to the left side of the river and walked along the Seine until we came to the Musee d’Orsay. The museum is magnificent. Built in a old train station, it houses late 19^th to early 20^th century French art, including a huge collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. It was somewhat surreal to see such a large collection of original Monets and Degas all in one place. My favorite part of the museum was getting to see Degas’s statue of the ballerina. The incredible beauty of this work brought tears to my eyes. The other feature of the museum worth mentioning is the gigantic clock on the outside of the building, which can be seen backwards from the inside of the building. Very cool.

From the museum we continued our walk along the Seine, past the Musee de l’Armee with its beautiful gold dome, to the Rodin Museum. I have always had a love of Rodin sculpture, and the museum did not disappoint. We arrived just half an hour before the museum closed, so we didn’t get to see all of the gardens, but did get to see The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and The Kiss. From the gardens we went into the house which is filled with smaller sculptures, paintings, and paintings from other artists of Rodin’s work. As we were walking through the museum we bumped into Becky and Eric, who came to the museum after their day in Versailles.

From the museum, the four of us walked together (with a slight detour for a crepe) to the Eiffel Tower. What a great way to end our first full day in Paris! The tower is just as beautiful and magnificent as it seems in pictures. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of venders and people trying to sell us things, and also pleased that we were not standing in the crazy line to try to climb the tower. We only have one or two pictures of the tower to share.

From the Eiffel Tower we took the metro back up toward our apartment and had a great dinner at Margarete. They begrudgingly made me a plate of vegetables, and Jeremy had the steak tartar. Needless to say we were all pretty tired from our long day of walking and touring (we walked about 8 miles), and were more than happy to take our shoes off and get to sleep.