Sunday morning (June 25th) I woke up at about 5 am. It was a rainy day. Not a problem since we had umbrellas and had planned to see a couple of museums (Picasso and Pompidou) today. I puttered around for a while and watched some French t.v. while I waited for my husband to get up. I have to say, I really did enjoy watching some American shows that were now dubbed in French. MTV France was also very interesting. I was amazed at how %26quot;Americanized%26quot; a lot of the music was. A lot of the rap videos looked very American, but for the fact that they were speaking French. Anyway, I decided to go out and get few things for breakfast at the bakery across the street. With my few words of French I managed to buy a couple of croissants and a mushroom quiche. I don%26#39;t like mushrooms (my husband does) but that quiche was delicious. We found that pretty much all of the food we ate tasted better in Paris :-)
My husband finally got up and we started our first trip via metro. We were going to the Marais, so we got on at Ecole Militaire. I was surprised at how truly easy it was to use the metro. I used my trusty map, got off at what I thought was the right stop, and we made it! Our first stop was the Picasso museum. It%26#39;s in a beautiful building in a really quaint neighborhood. We were enjoying ourselves just wandering around the streets looking at the buildings. I was slightly disappointed with the museum because the one painting that I wanted to see - Blue Nude - wasn%26#39;t there. Oh well... There was definitely lots of other works of art to see. I hadn%26#39;t realized that Picasso also did sculptures so it was interesting to see those works.
After the Picasso museum, my husband decided that, since it was close by, he wanted to go to the Jewish museum. This was an interesting experience. This museum had the highest security of any place we visited our entire trip. There was a short line to get in, and an individual who worked there was actually questioning people about where they were from and what they were doing in Paris - like he was a profiler or something. There was also another individual checking bags and running the metal detectors, and a third person who was in charge of buzzing the doors open. You had to be buzzed both in AND out of the museum. A woman in front of us actually had to empty the entire contents of her purse on to the bag x-ray machine. It was quite bizarre. However, my husband and I were simply asked where we were from, walked through the metal detector, and were let in. I guess saying that you were from the US was the right answer. They must have had something really bad happen here that now requires them to have that much security. Anyhow, the museum wasn%26#39;t that interesting to us, but the going through security was enough excitement for the day. Also, FYI, this museum is not covered by the museum pass.
After that, we found our way over to the Pompidou Center and decided that we would get some lunch. There was a restaurant directly opposite the front of the Pompidou and the name had a %26quot;Bleu%26quot; in it. I can%26#39;t remember the whole name though. We had a great meal there. We both had wonderful salads with nice fresh greens. Mine had goat cheese and toast (chevre chaud) and my husband%26#39;s had salmon on toast with green beans and a garlic dressing. We also had a couple of hot chocolates since it was a bit chilly that day and they were fantastic. That was definitely one of the best lunches we had and the service was very good. Our entire bill came to 29 Euros which I thought was a good deal for the quality and service.
We ventured into the Pompidou and I have to say, this was probably my least favorite museum. I%26#39;m really not in to modern art. Additionally, there was one exhibit that just rubbed me the wrong way. In this dark room they had a large screen flashing pictures of this family - presumably a husband, wife and their son who was about 7 or 8. Some of the pictures were fine, but then one came up showing them all naked in a bed together, then the next one was a full frontal nude shot of the little boy. I didn%26#39;t like that AT ALL. Maybe I%26#39;m being too sensitive or can%26#39;t appreciate %26quot;art%26quot;, but where I come from that is child pornography. If adults want to display public nude photos of themselves that%26#39;s great, but displaying nude photos of your children? Enough said.
We wandered around a bit more until we decided to call it a day and caught the metro back to our apartment. We were pretty tired so we napped for a couple of hours. This basically became our routine. On the move by 9:30 or so in the morning, then back to the apartment between 4:00-6:00. Nap for a bit, change clothes, then go to dinner at 8:00 or 9:00. We decided to stay close to home for dinner this night since it was still raining quite a bit. We went to Cafe Champ du Mars which was just around the corner from us. My husband had veal with mushrooms and cabbage which he said was very good. I had salmon with noodles, which were pretty bland. There was a sauce, and if you mixed everything together then it gave it a nicer flavor. We had excellent desserts - apple tart with ice cream and profiteroles. Overall, it was a pretty good dining experience, not too expensive and our waiter was very nice.
Monday
This was our Arc de Triumphe and Champs Elysees day. The Arc was beautiful. It was bigger than I thought it would be. We dragged ourselves up all the steps (about 300 or so) and were rewarded with wonderful views of the city. I was surprised to see that there were quite a few (maybe a dozen or more) military police type people on the top patrolling things. We managed to get back down the steps and started our walk. It wasn%26#39;t really what I expected. I saw many high end stores, and then a McDonald%26#39;s which seemed very much out of place. The only store that I had an interest in going into was Sephora. This place was HUGE! I managed to finda a couple of gifts for my mother and my sister. After that we found our way into a park at the end of the boulevard. We bought a couple of baguette sandwiches and sat on a bench and just watched the people. It was wonderful. That was one of my favorite things that we did. It was really interesting to watch the Parisians going about their day and sitting having their lunch on a bench while dressed up in nice suits. Again, I noticed that there were lots of police patrolling the park. I definitely felt very safe during this visit. There were police everywhere and on all modes of transportatation. I saw police in cars, on motorcycles, on horses, on rollerblades and even in boats on the Seine.
We made our way down to the Tulieries and again just sat and watched the people. We also grabbed a couple of ice cream cones which were delicious. After that we caught the metro and went over to St. Germain to wander around some more. We stopped at a cafe and had a couple of cocktails while doing some more people watching. We never got tired of doing that. However, our feet were getting tired of walking so we hopped on the metro again (we were experts by this time :-) and went back to our apartment to rest. That night we decided to have dinner at a brassiere that had been recommended - La Terrasse, next to Ecole Militaire. We had a very good dinner - I had the salad Parisienne, and my husband had steak and fries. He said they were the best fries he ever had. We also had the best desserts here - a wonderful chocolate cake and creme brulee. The only down side to this meal was our waiter. He wasn%26#39;t exactly rude - he just seemed pretty indifferent. The service was pretty slow, and we asked twice for water that never appeared at our table. We were trying to finish dinner before 10:00 so that we could take a 10:30 Seine cruise, but it became painfully clear that that plan wasn%26#39;t going to work. We asked for our check before 10:00 but it took almost 15 minutes to arrive. Then, when our waiter was rearranging chairs directly next to me, he slammed one back against the wall and nearly hit me with it. He didn%26#39;t even say pardon or acknowledge that he almost hit me. That was when we decided that he didn%26#39;t get a tip.
Since we weren%26#39;t going to make the boat cruise I thought we could still make it over to the ET and ride the elevator up. We made it over there at about 10:40 so I thought we would be all set to catch one of the last elevators by 11:00 since the line wasn%26#39;t that long. After about 15 minutes of standing in line, it finally dawned on me that we were in the line for the STAIRS ONLY. I was so mad at myself. There was no way at that point that we were going to be able to go up. The other elevator lines were just too long - even at 11:00 at night! I was definitely a bit discouraged since I felt like we had wasted a night. I got over it pretty quickly though, and we decided to call it a night and start over again the next day.
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I am enjoying your reports!!! Yes, I also was less than impressed with Pompidou too. Certain floors were closed when I was there (late April) . We did view the special Cinema Exhibit (can%26#39;t recall exact name of exhibit) and like you...I was , if anything, put off. But we learn! (and maybe others would enjoy greatly. That was just my take, so am interested to hear yours on the same topic). So fun to hear all your adventures !!!!
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cybee -
That exhibit was definitely not for the American crowd. A young man (25 or so) walked out of the exhibit behind me and was completely appalled by what he%26#39;d seen. I think a lot of it is just cultural differences. The one thing I did like about the Pompidou were all the couches covered up with carpets. Very comfy. We sat there for a little bit and almost fell asleep.
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I too am not into modern art, and on both my Paris trips I opted not to go to the Pompidou Center. I%26#39;ve always wondered if I missed something worthwhile because a lot of people rave about it.
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