au revoir - goodbye (french)
so much left to see. we'll have to come back.day 4: but the book said...
our last day in paris and i just now realize i could have been having complimentary hot chocolate for breakfast?!
we're up early on day four to try to hit a few spots before our flight. we have many things left undone, but the rodin museum is at the top of the list. after a walk across the seine and through the place des invalides we head off to the museum to get there as it opens, only to find that on mondays no such event occurs. the museum is very, very closed. you can't even look through the bars to the sculpture garden.
me: but the book said it was open!
dan: did the book say it was open...?
together: ...or did we have too much champagne?
me: (checking the book) it doesn't say anything at all about opening times or days.
dan: doh!
oh well, no rodin sculptures for us, luckily, we've been to the stanford art museum so we've seen them all before, or at least a copy of a few of them.
after a brief discussion about plan B - which is to say that we had no plan B because it took most of our drunken effort last night to come up with plan A. we decide everything else will be closed too so we might as well see the windmills and the montmartre area. windmills don't close.
that's what every other tourist in paris was thinking as well, which should have been a clue that we were headed the wrong direction, as we veered away from the crowds and the area got seedier and seedier. soon, sex shops surrounded us and we giggled nervously as we passed the musée de l'érotisme and an erotic supermarket. the upside to this detour was that we got to see le chat noir and the moulin rouge.
soon we were headed back uphill (the earlier downhill walk should have been another clue that the windmills were not that direction) with the tourists. we shot some photos of paris's last two remaining windmills, and generally wandered through the neighborhood, admiring the views and the nice homes - very nob hill. we passed vincent van gogh's home, the only inner-city vineyard, the lapin agile, and the sacre cœur church. all of this took a surprisingly long time.
so we headed back to the colorfully painted interior of the abbesses metro station. the artistic vibe of the neighborhood is vibrantly concentrated on the walls of the station, and covers the walls, ceiling and steps of its long winding stairwell. my photos don't do it justice. paris is renovating the station this month and i fear the murals and graffiti will be painted over in the ubiquitous off-white of the other stations. it's a shame to see them go, but i have a hunch those murals will be replaced with new, equally colorful artwork soon enough.
we bid adieu to paris at breakneck speed as our cab driver carried on about eBay in english. dan listened patiently and gripped the door as i looked at my lap instead of the certain death awaiting us on the highway. 30 minutes and way too much money later we were at the airport and riding the space-age escalator tubes to our gate.
in berlin it was pouring and there was hardly a tulip to be found. but the week has brightened up, the trees have some leaves, and we're happy to be "home" in germany.
our last day in paris and i just now realize i could have been having complimentary hot chocolate for breakfast?!
we're up early on day four to try to hit a few spots before our flight. we have many things left undone, but the rodin museum is at the top of the list. after a walk across the seine and through the place des invalides we head off to the museum to get there as it opens, only to find that on mondays no such event occurs. the museum is very, very closed. you can't even look through the bars to the sculpture garden.
me: but the book said it was open!
dan: did the book say it was open...?
together: ...or did we have too much champagne?
me: (checking the book) it doesn't say anything at all about opening times or days.
dan: doh!
oh well, no rodin sculptures for us, luckily, we've been to the stanford art museum so we've seen them all before, or at least a copy of a few of them.
after a brief discussion about plan B - which is to say that we had no plan B because it took most of our drunken effort last night to come up with plan A. we decide everything else will be closed too so we might as well see the windmills and the montmartre area. windmills don't close.
that's what every other tourist in paris was thinking as well, which should have been a clue that we were headed the wrong direction, as we veered away from the crowds and the area got seedier and seedier. soon, sex shops surrounded us and we giggled nervously as we passed the musée de l'érotisme and an erotic supermarket. the upside to this detour was that we got to see le chat noir and the moulin rouge.
soon we were headed back uphill (the earlier downhill walk should have been another clue that the windmills were not that direction) with the tourists. we shot some photos of paris's last two remaining windmills, and generally wandered through the neighborhood, admiring the views and the nice homes - very nob hill. we passed vincent van gogh's home, the only inner-city vineyard, the lapin agile, and the sacre cœur church. all of this took a surprisingly long time.
so we headed back to the colorfully painted interior of the abbesses metro station. the artistic vibe of the neighborhood is vibrantly concentrated on the walls of the station, and covers the walls, ceiling and steps of its long winding stairwell. my photos don't do it justice. paris is renovating the station this month and i fear the murals and graffiti will be painted over in the ubiquitous off-white of the other stations. it's a shame to see them go, but i have a hunch those murals will be replaced with new, equally colorful artwork soon enough.
we bid adieu to paris at breakneck speed as our cab driver carried on about eBay in english. dan listened patiently and gripped the door as i looked at my lap instead of the certain death awaiting us on the highway. 30 minutes and way too much money later we were at the airport and riding the space-age escalator tubes to our gate.
in berlin it was pouring and there was hardly a tulip to be found. but the week has brightened up, the trees have some leaves, and we're happy to be "home" in germany.
posted by jordan at
5:41 PM
2 Comments:
What a beautiful photo of the Eiffel Tower and surrounding gardens! I'm sorry the Rodin was closed; it was my favorite museum. Now you can understand why I am going back. A week in Paris wasn't enough, and there is always more to see and do.
By
Anonymous, at April 21, 2006 10:42 PM
What, pray tell, does an erotic supermarket sell? I can only think of phallic fruit and chocolatey things commonly found at bacholerette parties...I hope it was more exciting than Spencers ;)
By
Anonymous, at April 25, 2006 11:24 PM
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