Kayla as Marie Antoinette

 Our kids at the Pont du Gard

Bobbi in the pillory at Château le Baux

Saturday dawned partly cloudy but chilly, in the low 50s. After a breakfast heavy on carbs and coffee, we boarded our coach for a bus tour of the city. We started at the Église du Dôme, the place where Napoléon’s tomb is. We got off for some photo ops, but did not go inside.

Our tour took us to the south side of the of the Eiffel Tower, giving us a view from the perspective of the Champs du Mars. Then we circled around, crossed the river and got off the bus so we could see the Eiffel Tower from the Palais du Chaillot. We took lots of pictures. 

Bobbi and Kayla bargained with the street vendors who swarm tourists. They ended up with come cool souvenirs at great prices. Bobbi attached two small Eiffel Tower replicas to her purse. The clinking of these little treasures was to become an accompaniment to our entire trip.

Our coach took us through the streets of Paris. We drove around the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs-Élysées, through Place de la Concorde, past the Opéra and the Madeleine, and finally got dropped off to visit the Cathédrale Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité.

We walked through this amazing gothic cathedral that dates from the 14^th century. We saw the famous rose windows, the side altars that celebrate various saints and the impressive main altar.

At this point, it was time for lunch. Our compatriots from New York had reservations elsewhere, so the six of us dined with Linda at one of her favorite cafés, the Café de la Tasse, just across the river from Notre Dame. Bobbi chose a steak and pommes frites, Sydney had pasta, and the rest of us tried several versions of the classic croquet monsieur, a sort of ham and cheese sandwich.

David was overwhelmed by the richness of the cheeses, so much so that he was half way through his sandwich before he noticed the ham. Dr. B liked it so much she ate every bite, but the chèvre cheese on mine was too rich for me to finish. 

Then it was off to the Louvre!

We saw Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, the Coronation of Napoléon and of course, La Jaconde, the Mona Lisa. At this point, jet lag and sore feet were beginning to get the better of us, so we chose to only spend another half hour visiting the largest collection of art in the world.

The Métro took us to Place Charles de Gaulle (Étoile), the location of the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Elysées. While most of our group chose to do some shopping on that famous street, Dr. B, Sydney and I decided to mount the 300-odd steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. I have to admit, I haven’t had that much cardio-vascular exercise since I did that same thing last year.

The views from there are stunning. We spent 20 minutes or so admiring the view, taking photos and catching our breaths, before descending once more.

The Métro then took us to a most wonderful café, the Café Cambronne. The menu consisted of a beautiful salad of peas, potaotes and carrots wrapped in prosciutto to make a small circle, followed by poulet roti (chicken) with sliced potatoes. Dessert was crème brulée, which is just heaven.

Bobbi’s headache kept her from eating her whole meal. But the proprietor supplied ibuprophen and wrapped her meal to go. I thanked him for his kindness. He asked if I knew why he was so nice, “Because I am not Parisian, I am from Avignon.” We laughed and he was delighted to know that Avignon was our next stop. He implored me to give his greeting “to the whole city.”

A quick Métro trip brought us to the Iron Lady herself, the Eiffel Tower. It was quite chilly by this time, in the low 40s, but we braced ourselves. The view from the summit was not to be missed. We quickly ascended and walked out onto the platform to view the City of Light in all her splendor. We took in as much as we could. When our noses were red, our ears pink and our fingers blue, we descended.

The Métro brought us back to the Villa Modigliani and our warm beds.

Sunday was cold, it has to be said. We knew it would be, so we dressed in layers, stoked up on another really good breakfast, and boarded the coach for Versailles.

We approached the opulently decadent palace gates in a bit of awe. Everything is gilded and the gold shines brightly even in the gray, overcast light. We got into groups and walked from room to room in the lavish palace. Our tour company provided audio guides for us and the ‘voice’ of Louis XIV talked us through with comments by other personalities.

David, our history buff, had a real ‘ah-ha!’ moment when he entered the Hall of Mirrors. He found himself walking through the room in which the treaty was signed to end ‘the War to End All Wars.”

We ended with a brief, very cold, tour of the gardens that surround the palace. This time of year the only colors in the gardens are greens and browns, but we could see the sculpted flower beds and the various lakes and fountains. In full summer, it would be an incredible sight.

Our coach then took us to a small building not far from the palace where the assistant director of theatre for NETC (our tour company) lead us through role playing the French Revolution in just under an hour. Kayla made a resplendent Queen Marie Antoinette, Sydney was a poor Parisian, Bobbi a member of the Bourgeoisie, David and I were peasants and Dr. B was a member of the clergy. It was very fun and we learned a lot.

Lunch was at a wonderful restaurant, l’Entrecôte, that opened just for us on a Sunday afternoon. We had a mozzarella and tomato salad followed by a delightful veal dish. Dessert was fondat du chocolat, an overwhelming chocolate cake with a sprig of fresh mint planted in the top. We departed in a chocolate coma.

Most of us dozed on the coach ride back to Paris. I awakened to overhear a conversation between our driver and a policeman on the street. It seems that there was a huge demonstration around the Arc de Triomphe that had become so large that it covered over a square kilometer. The Police had closed Paris to incoming traffic. Our driver politely discussed our situation with him. In the end, the policeman permitted our driver to proceed with the admonition, “Just don’t kill any demonstrators.” Our driver negotiated the narrow streets of Paris, getting us to the heart of the city and depositing us next to the Musée d’Orsay, the museum of Impressionism. Hooray!

We had less than an hour left, but it was absolutely worth the effort to go through the galleries and see “The art that changed the world.” We saw Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Pisarro, Whistler, Gaughin and the others who came to dominate the world of art of their time…and ours.

After being gently shooed out of the museum, we walked through the Tuilleries Gardens, to the Place de la Concorde, up Rue Royale to la Durée, the famous macaroon shop. Unfortunately, the was a long line, so we simply joined our New York friends in a visit to Starbucks, followed by a Métro trip to Place Pigalle in Montmartre, home of the Moulin Rouge.

(I love that David said he decided on the walk through the Tuilleries that this was a really cool trip.)

From Pigalle, we started up the steep streets of Montmartre. We saw an apartment where Van Gogh lived with his brother. We saw the restaurants where the impressionists ate and drank. We saw Place du Tertre, where they sold many of their works. At this point, our New York friends wanted a bathroom, some shopping and something to eat.

I am so proud of our kids. They were a bit hungry as well, but they chose to go see the Basillique du Sacré Coeur and a couple of more unique sights of Montmartre first. We were rewarded by a wonderful dinner at La Bohême on the Place du Tertre.

Kayla was brave enough to try escargots, which she deemed amazingly wonderful, but not very filling. She added a bit to her choices.David had a pizza. We shared the various glasses of wine we chose. Bobbi's choice was a bit suspect, be we all shared.

The Celts and the Gallo-Romans bow down to the Frankish king, Clovis

- Linda's 800-year history of France in five minutes.

 

Our group at Chez Clément

En France 2013

Enfin! We are in France. It took a while to get here. Our flight from Indianapolis to Detroit was delayed by about 45 minutes, but that was nothing to our delay in Detroit. On a previous leg of our airplane’s trip, it was forced to divert because of a medical emergency. It’s a busy time for the airline, so there was no other available airplane for us or even an alternate flight. Thus, we spent five additional hours in the Detroit airport. Our plane departed at 3:35 am Friday instead of 10:35 pm Thursday.

But our flight was smooth, the food good and the service incredible. An NETC rep met us at the exit and we were at our hotel in slightly over a half an hour. We met Linda, tour tour director, who is wonderful! She took us on a brief tour of our Montparnesse neighborhood. The Luxembourg Gardens were closed because it was dusk, but we got a feel for the neighborhood. Linda took us to a tiny park and had us act out 800 years of French history in five minutes. I have pictures!

The hotel is really great. Rooms are nice, clean and bright. The amenities are nice. I did happen to forget to David, Kayla and Bobbi about how the room electricity works. In French hotels, you put your key card into a fixture just inside the room and it unlocks the electricity. Oops!

Dinner was an extraordinary meal at Chez Clément on Boulevard Montparnasse. We had a salad of cucumbers and cream, followed by porc rotis and mashed potatoes. Dessert was a delightful crème brulée.

We dined with our new friends from New York. Compared to us, they are a large group – 17 students and 7 adults. It seems that we will hit it off with them very well.

Tomorrow will be a full day of touring finishing with the light display on the Eiffel Tower!