Paris

Mum and I got the train to London to board the Eurostar for Paris. On arrival, we got cashed up and sorted with metro passes and Carte Musée et Monuments pour 3 jours consécutifs, then the challenge, to visit as many of the 35 musées et monuments in the tres jours, began.

Having located our hotel near Porte de St Oeun, we caught the train to Champs Elysees,


checked out the Tour de Eiffel,


strolled along the Seine enjoying the beautiful evening

past a few ponts

and the Assemblee Nationale,

to the Musee d'Orsay.

Highlights there were the art nouveau furniture,

and Alexandre Cabanel's Birth of Venus.

Back on the metro, a couple of 1664s and called it a day. With une jour down, for a return of only une musee, there was some serious work to be done in the following days.
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Up at the crack of dawn and to the Montmartre to see the Basilica de Sacre Coeur,

Strolled south, stopping briefly to admire some of Hector Guimard's Metro handiwork, before continuing to the Musee Gustave Moreau,

the former home and studio of the Symbolist painter, which featured a large number of his early studies of famous paintings and later works both complete and incomplete.

Next stop the Ile de la Cite and the St Chapelle, a 13th century gothic cathedral that is spectacular both inside, and out.

Heading east to the Place de Notre Dame,
where we descended into the bowels of the earth to visit the Crypte Archaeologie, which featured a history of the city from Roman and Merovingian times.

Upon returning to the surface we ventured south into the 5th arrondissement, the Latin quarter, ate our baguettes in the sunshine and walked up the hill toward the Pantheon.

Originally built by Soufflot as the Church of St Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, it's purpose was altered after the French Revolution to become a secular monument to the great men (and women, but mainly men...) of France.

The walls feature a whole lot of murals by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes ands others, depicting the life of St Genevieve and various other tales.

Looked at Foucault's pendulum, checked that it was changing direction and that the earth was still spinning properly,

then went down into the crypt where lots of famous people are buried: Rousseau, Voltaire, Marie Curie, Marat, Langevin, Bougainville et alia.

Walked down Rue Soufflot to Jardin de Luxembourg,

then headed to the Musee de Moyen-Age at Thermes de Cluny, the middle ages museum located in what used to be a Cluniac abbey and the ruins of 3c Gallic-Roman baths.

Highlights were The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry and the original inspiration for Foghorn Leghorn. I say, that's a joke, son.

This used to be the Frigidarium, the cold bath room.

Back to Ile-de-la-Cite to see Notre Dame. After a short but painful (family of Australian bogans directly behind us) wait in the queue, we climbed up and up and up,

to check out the fabulous view and the funky gargoyles.

Had a peep inside the church also, though that's free to get into, so it didn't count as a museum on our card, so i wasn't keen on sticking around for long.

Had a bit of a rest and a quiet drink at a streetside cafe. 12euros80 for one beer and one lemon squash. Heavens above. Thankfully we had some entertainment as the manager shouted at beggars who were accosting the patrons. After paying for the drinks i seriously considered doing some begging myself.

Found ourselves some crepes for dinner and took them to the tuileries,

where we scored some seats by the fountain pond, enabling us to enjoy several idle, idyllic moments,

before sprinting to the Louvre,

the king of the Paris museums, the one that even the idiots go to ("Umm, excuse me, can you tell me which room the curator got murdered in?"),

Fantastic as expected. Mum was kind of relieved that some of the wings were already shut for the evening.

Highlights: Theodore Gericault's Raft of the Medusa

and Veronese's Wedding at Cana (arguably the most, relatively, neglected and overlooked painting in the world, as it sits opposite La Joconde)

Back to hotel to reflect on the day's achievements over several 1664s: 7 musees for our second day, a creditable performance.
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The continuing clear weather afforded nice views from our hotel window,

Not exactly the Champs Elysees but probably a more appropriate reflection of life and environs for most of Paris' 12 million inhabitants.

First stop was the Musee Rodin,

It's great being able to see a bunch of his small works, studies, paintings etc inside the house, then to stroll about the gardens and see the fullsize statues, The Thinker, Balzac, Burghers of Calais, etc.

On to the Hotel l'Invalides,

where we visited the Musee de la Armee, which featured amongst other things a display of uniforms and weaponry from Louis XIII to WWII, and the Musee de Plans-Reliefs, a collection of scale models of different sections of France, initially made for Napoleon's strategic military purposes. This is Mont St Michel:

Visited the Tombeau Napoleon, where Napoleon's body has lain since 1861, having been repatriated from St Helena in 1840.

Our next museum was a little less conventional: the Egouts des Paris, the sewers, apart from being a bit stenchy, was very interesting, both from a technological and a cultural/social history/public health point of view.

Back out in the fresh air, we went over to the Palais Chaillot and had lunch in the Trocadero gardens,

then checked out the Musee de la Marine at Palais Chaillot,

before getting the train out to Versailles,

After wandering throught the main palais, we walked down through the enormous gardens

to Le Grand Trianon,
and Le Petit Trianon.

These are much less ostentatious and accordingly preferable, in my humble (yet correct) aesthetic opinion, to the main palace. Moseyed back along the edge of the gardens as afternoon turned to evening.

Train back to Paris and zipped along to the Musee de Arte Moderne at Centre Pompidou.

Excellent view over the city to Sacre Couer.

We rested our weary legs over a glass of wine and dinner at the nearby Le Chevalier Bleu (geddit - The Blue Rider ie. Der Blaue Reiter - Kandinsky and co - artists, right? Next to the art gallery. mmm) Good steak as well as a clever name.

Traipsed back to hotel, obligatory 1664s, reflections on final musee challenge day: 10 museums/monuments, bringing the total to 18 for the 3 days, a respectable achievement we felt.
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On our final morning, with our musee visiting work completed, we could afford a relaxed breakfast. Strolled through Les Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen, the flea markets (the colour puce is in fact named after fleas, being the colour of them - think about that the next time you're trying to decide between puce and Mountbatten pink).

As Mum noted, they were a far cry from the haute couturiers we'd strolled past near the Eiffel tower on our first afternoon, but interesting nonetheless. Had some croissants, packed our bags and limped onto the Eurostar, after a mighty effort in Paris. Glorious weather, awe-inspiring art, grand history, tasty food, fine company in one of the most exciting cities in Europe - tres magnifique!