Paris: Musee D’Orsay

This fabulous museum was originally the Orsay Train station.  It was converted into a museum in the 1980s with major exhibition area built inside as well as added on outside the back wall.

This museum houses a major collection of paintings by the French Impressionists as well as a beautiful collection of Art Nouveau objects.

And of course crowds of tourists.  If you can’t see the painting hold up your phone and look at it there.  😝🤣😂 This was the room with Van Gogh paintings…and no it is not Starry Night they are all looking at.  The other rooms were not as crowded.

THE SAGA OF THE CONTINUING BAD KNEE

I was able to borrow this fabulous Swedish design Museum chair here and at The Louvre.  Which meant I could sit anywhere.

And now for the saga of trying to find a handicap route to Le Toilette. The diagram below illustrates the convoluted route we were lead on when we asked for HELP. We were reminded often that this was a train station, so toilettes on any floor other than original main floor entrance are a bit of an architectural afterthought.  This diagram shows the main entrance (Level 0) on the left.  Don’t ask me about floor 1, 3, or 4, or -2 for that matter.  It’s a mystery!  Read the saga below the diagram.

So we begin our journey on Level 5 (#1 – diagram on the right) where all Impressionist paintings are. I take the elevator (#2) to level 2 ( don’t ask) Pat takes the stairs and meets me there. We find a very nice lady guard who takes us to a secret elevator and hands us off to another young guard who takes us on a tour of the back rooms where they are setting up another exhibit.  All this time I am walking (limping) what seems like the entire length of the museum.  Pats says don’t walk so fast or they won’t believe you have a bad knee. We come back out around #3 to find two guards sitting there. A third guard joins us as the nice young guard explains the situation.  The four of them proceed to have a very animated discussion in French about the best way to get there..pointing in all directions and looking at the guide map.  By this time I could have stayed in the line on the 5th floor and been done.   But NO, they insist on helping me. 😝😂🙃.  So the young guard takes us down a back hallway ramp labeled “handicap “ #4 …but they are painting it.  So the poor painter has to move his ladder so we can get by, all the while I am hoping I don’t get any wet paint on me.  We then get to another secret elevator  #5. to take us to another elevator and end up…I am not sure where.  And behold there is a very large public ladies room..almost empty.  By this time I am sure my knee is swelling more so after resting on the sculpture gallery level overlooking the bottom floor, I take one last quick look at another special exhibit in a small gallery.  However I am faced with 6 steps to get to it.  #6.  Which I use in spite of everything.  We finally make it to the main entrance and escape.

In need of dinner and liquid pain killer we find Cafe Mucha right around the corner.  A lovely old world looking restaurant with great food, great service and great wine.

But of course Le Toilette is in the basement… down very narrow stairs.

 

Paris: tourists, Arc de Triomphe, Gallery Lafayette

The idea of walking down the Champs-Elysees boulevard to the Arc de Triomphe is a nice fantasy…BUT…it is crowded with tourists, incredibly wide to get across and very long. The crosswalk near the Arc was so crowded I am surprised any cars could get through.  However if you look above the crowds, the massive Arc dev Triomphe is an imposing site.

Overwhelmed by the crowds, metro rides and of course more metro stairs we decided to find a nice cafe for lunch.  And of course liquid pain killer.  Needless to say French house wines are always wonderful.  I tried a few that were from the Loire Valley.

 

GALLERY LAFAYETTE – an amazing 6 level  “department store” filled with very high end designer stores, a cafe with a panoramic view of Paris, and a view rooftop filled with tourists taking selfies.

 

 

 

 

Paris: Luxembourg Gardens and the phantom bus

 

It was little too early for many flowers to be blooming.  It was still raining every few days so as soon as the sun came out, so did the Parisians.  I decided to sit in the sun on one of the lounge chairs and sketch.  I had my sketch hat with me and also sunscreen.  I think I was the only person wearing a hat. Tombow pens and waterbrush.

THE PHANTOM BUS
We planned to take the bus to Rue Mouffetard where all the crepe restaurants are.  We missed the first bus because I could not run with my bad knee.  So we waited for the next bus…and waited…and waited.  Finally 2 buses came, stopped and the drivers got off and said fin…finished, end of the line.   There was a protest starting just ahead on the route we wanted to take.  The driver said “ not a long walk…close”.  Yeah right…maybe to a Parisian with good knees. Needless to say we walked up and around and finally got there 20 minutes later.  We waited on this corner and could still see the bus we missed in the distance.

Arriving at our destination.  Lots of tourists, crepe stands but we didn’t eat any.  Continued walking and finally just sat down exhausted in one of the restaurants.  It wasn’t great food, but nice atmosphere.

 

Paris: the saga of the disappearing Metro ticket

Gare de Nord

The Paris metro system is wonderful…except for the stairs.  The RER Train system has escalators and elevators,  but the metro system does not.  We took the RER train to versailles and Giverny.  The tickets for the transit system work for everything –  buses,  trains, metro.

Train to Versailles

 

 

HOWEVER…THE TICKET WAS A PROBLEM

Metro ticket

 

 

 

The magnetic strip on the back was a continuous problem for me.  Maybe it’s my magnetic personality😝

It stopped working 3 times.  Maybe it’s me.  Although the various theories were – too close to a credit card, too close to my cell phone, too close to metal jewelry.  this must happen a lot and  they were able to issue me a new ticket each time,  but Pat got stuck on the other side of the gate waiting for me to be FREED by the system .  😭😭😭😭

 

 

Paris: always lost

We have Wi-Fi in the flat, sporadic in restaurants and venues.
Methods to navigate

* metro maps

* Google maps on & offline – still tells us where we are but have to do screenshots for lost wifi

* Rick Steve’s guide book with confusing maps and terrible instructions for metro.

* printed tourist map

* plus anyone who will take pity on us when we are lost … which is often. The Parisians will go out of their way to help …as long as you start with – Bon Jour .

We may have been lost but we always found the toilettes…. Except at the Musee D’Orsay, which is another very long story on another post.

Paris: memories of Ile de La Jatte

The location of some of the most famous of the Impressionist paintings, Ile de La Jatte , grass lawn area overlooking the river has been eroded quite a bit by the river.  Retaining walls were necessary to prop up the banks from the rain.

 

 

 

So the famous painting by George Seurat is a memory of a by gone era. The path that was there is now closed.

 

I attempted to get the feel of the place as it is now, sitting  on a bench in front of a dog park.

tombow pens and waterbrush on watercolor sketch pad

 

 

 

Paris: Disneyland

You may ask why 2 California girls would go all the way to Paris to see Disneyland.  The answer ..because we could and my BFF  Pat is addicted and had to go. I managed to re-injure  my knee from the Versailles trudge and moving luggage up 2 flights of stairs.

THE SAGA OF THE PRIORITY PASS

I rented a wheel chair, which from my experience here in CA would get us to the front of every line.  But then “we are not in Kansas anymore Toto”. This being Paris and not CA, I did not know that a PRIORITY PASS would be needed.  When I rented the wheel chair, there was no mention of a priority pass, so we merrily wheeled off to the first ride.  Pat pushed and I frantically pushed the wheels which was fine until we came to a slight incline.  I am sure the two of us were quite a site trying to get up the incline…here no one offered to help.  I guess they were all tourists, not the lovely Parisians who had helped us with our bags.  In a crowd of tourists trying to get to the next ride, you are on your own.   We got to the first ride to discover the need for dreaded PRIORITY PASS.  The guy at Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom took pity on us and let us through.   See below for my evaluation of the Paris Disneyland rides 🫣🤬😝

When we asked how to get the priority pass, he said “you have to go to City Hall”.  We are panicking …in Paris???? No he says, on the park Main Street. Apparently, they want you to have a doctor’s note that you are actually disabled to get the pass.  We talked to a very kind lady while we were in the long line at City Hall.  Apparently being old – over 65 – is not enough.  I should be flattered she wanted to see my passport to confirm my age.  I fessed up to my age and tried to look as pathetic as possible, saying “I injured my knee on the Paris Meto”.  Finally I said we are from California…you know, home of the ORIGINAL Disneyland.  That finally worked and she said…”i will make an exception because there are only two of you, and you are only visiting one park for one day”.   She even asked if we needed a pass for just me or both of us.  I just looked at Pat…the unspoken language of friends for over 40 years.  😟🫣😝

RIDE EVALUATION

For the most part the rides were pretty good, some similar to CA, but some new versions seemed to be mostly focused on short, fast, head jerking rollercoaster types with almost no narrative.
Indiana Jones was particularly awful as it was just a roller coaster around the Temple of Doom.  In particular you, sat in a tight little seat with a high back and padded sections on both sides of your head. I sat down and suddenly my knee was bent in a painful position up against the seat in front.  I just kept my head down for the short but painful, head bashing ride to nowhere…thinking – I am going to die here.  I had to crawl out when it was over with the help of Pat and the guy working the ride.

This is Space Mountain which Pat went on by herself as I have never liked it, even here.

Best of all is drinking champagne on Main St watching the parade.  This made up for all the rest.

 

Paris: Versailles

After a short metro ride…and more stairs, we boarded the train to Versailles. We had a short walk up this beautiful tree lined boulevard to the golden main gates, and a horde of people grouped to go in with timed tickets.
The guide said they have 45,000 people on the weekends and 25,000 during the week.  Of course we went on a Saturday.

Versailles is truly a marvel with all the gold adorning intricate decorations inside and out. In fact after being squeezed like sardines into room after room of golden opulence I final said

“ENOUGH GOLD ALREADY!”

THE SAGA OF THE TICKETS – WI-FI – THE WEAK LINK

We got tickets to most of our events though an online service which for this most part was fine…except for Versailles. We were supposed to get the final bar coded tickets the night before.  What we got was a voucher that said – this is not the final ticket.  Not receiving the ticket we go anyway hoping the ticket will come through. WI-FI – We have it in our flat, on the train and supposedly at Versailles.  We get there…no WI-FI, and no tickets.  So a lovely lady in the ticket office proceeds to try to help us. She takes us to get WI-FI at a restaurant in the complex so we can figure out how to download our tickets.  An hour later we final find them by clicking a link – “ meeting location and tour guide’….suddenly there were the tickets.

SQUEEZING THROUGH VERSAILLES LIKE SARDINES
While it is incredible to see Versailles, on a Saturday is probably not the best choice.  We squeezed through room after room of famous portraits of French Kings and Queens that I had seen in classes but to see so many clustered together on walls of every room was a bit overwhelming.  But with the push of the throng taking photos at every turn, I was a little sad that I could not look at them more closely.

Here are some of the highlights.  I may try to do some paintings and add later.

HALL OF MIRRORS

Rain was on the forecast and we were starving so we left without going to the gardens and headed for a lovely cafe nearby…Chez Chapeau.
The best French Onion Soup I have ever had.

 

ch

 

 

Paris: adventures in getting there

After a delay of 1 day due to an air traffic controller strike…which was called off..we flew out on Thursday April 25 at 2:40 pm.  My friend Pat and I flew together out of San Francisco airport. The day started out great with lunch at the SFO AIRPORT.

After some drama over London, the flight arrived mostly on time at 10:15 am.  After a 10 hour flight with 3 small meals of strangely spicy food we started our descent toward Paris. Suddenly about 45 minutes out a lady toward the back of the plane started screaming that her husband, who was a relatively you man, stopped breathing. So 4 flight attendants and 2 or 3 doctors and nurses that were on board rushed back to assist.  The good news is that he was revived and with help of the ENTs was able to walk off  the plane when we got to Paris.

At the Paris airport, we rode a strange and very long moving side walk that actually went up a few small hills remaining as a ramp to arrive at the customs area.

Finally getting through customs we headed the find out about trains into Paris and metro to our Airbnb studio apartment .

 

To make a long story short, taking the metro in Paris with bags is a very bad idea.  The larger stations have escalators and elevators but the smaller ones don’t. So our final stop at Republique, we lugged our two bags each up the stairs with the help of many very kind Parisians.

After  arriving in Paris at the airport at 10:30 am, we and just made it to meet our Airbnb host at 2pm. And of course more stairs.  After 2 flights up a curved stairway in an old 4 story French building and I was glad I brought my ice packs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris: painting while I wait.

Decided to paint in the beautiful backyard of my BFF and travel buddy in Concord, CA.  Flight delayed a day.  Tombow pens and waterbrush on small watercolor sketch pad.  Warming up for Paris sketching.