Saturday is "Ella Day"

Every so often we have an "Ella Day." She puts up with so much boring walking and historical sites that we think she should occasionally have some fun.

I wanted to go to Jardin du Luxembourg one more time. It has a small palace on one end that was built by Queen Marie de'Medici shortly after her hubby was assassinated (don't worry, they didn't like each other very much anyway). She was Italian, and wanted an Italian-style palace.

Marie didn't really get to enjoy Luxembourg Palace.
Her son, King Louis XIII, had her exiled when he learned of a plot to assassinate him.

The Palace now houses the French Senate.

The Grand Bassin houses ducks and sailboats for the kiddies.


There are 100s of statues and fleurs and palm trees -- typically French.

A carousel for jousting practice ...

and a HUGE playground that costs 1.60 Euros for kids
and 2.60 Euros for adults. It is really nice, though.

Eric plays with Ella (while holding his iPhone) until ...

Ella meets some friends from Atlanta, Georgia!

They promptly lead her up to the top of this tall tower.
Yes, she made it all the way up ... and proceeded to jump up and down
(giving me and Eric heart attacks)!

Thursday d'Orsay

On Thursday, we went to the Musee d'Orsay. It's a nice "little" museum (compared to the massive Louvre) occupying an old train station. The art in this museum is from the late-19th/early-20th centuries -- most notably the Impressionists.

Eric at the Orsay with the big train station clock in the distance.
This station became obsolete when trains got too long for the platform.
This was the only good photo I got before my camera battery died.

Of course I was excited to see the Degas paintings!

I took this with my iPhone, at an angle so the glass wouldn't glare.


I believe this Degas statue was recently in Milwaukee,
but I missed it there. Her tutu and hair ribbon are real cloth.


I discovered that I really like VanGogh!
His paintings have so much energy. Madness perhaps?


Here's a closeup of all those amazing little energetic brush strokes.


Wait! What is this I'm stepping on?


It's a wee-little 3-D model of Paris -- under glass and under foot!

We also learned about Le Chat Noir. You've probably seen this poster before.

It was a cabaret that developed these elaborate "shadow plays."

Le Chat Noir was open through the 1880s & 1890s. They would use shadow puppets
to tell historical stories or reenact famous battles; there were even caricatures.

With no TV or movie theaters, this was pretty impressive.


The tab at the bottom would allow the puppeteer to move
the figure through the scene. There were also elaborate shadow sets and
scenery that showed perspective much better than those early days of moving pictures.

After the museum we made a quick trip to Eglise Saint-Sulpice of DaVinci Code fame. It had the Rose Line, but it looked different in the movie ... ah that Hollywood magic!

Interior of St. Sulpice
(still using my iPhone)


The Rose Line is a brass line going all the way across the church.
There isn't any "x-marks the spot" on the ground. It then climbs this obelisk.

Tuesday, Monet Day

Having spent several weeks in Paris, I'm always excited to get out into the country. Tuesday we headed to Giverny, about 50 miles from Paris. Giverny is where artist Claude Monet lived out the last 40 years of his life. Much of his art was inspired by the garden and water garden that he cultivated.

One of Monet's paintings of the "Japanese Bridge"
We stood on this along with about 90 other tourists.

One of the many Water Lily studies. Ella thought Monet got it wrong,
because the pond was much greener the day we went.

Earlier in our trip, we'd really enjoyed the Monet museum - Musee Marmottan - so we were excited to see his place. Heather (Price) loves to take people to Giverny so she offered to be our guide.

The four of us set off for Giverny, but had some transportation issues. We finally arrived well after lunch (fortunately they have delicious sandwiches at the train station). As we waited in line, we were attacked by little black "nuage" bugs. Nuage means "cloud" so you can imagine how much fun they were!

We got into the garden at about 3 p.m. along with about 900 other tourists. So much for retreating to the country! It was a hot and humid day, but the air was fragrant and fresh. Plus, they must spray the garden for those horrible little pesky bugs, so we didn't have to worry about them once we got in the gate.

The crowd swept us through the garden and onward to the pond. It was a gorgeous setting and amazing to see these scenes from so many pantings in real life!

Here's the Japanese Bridge in a photograph from the Giverny website.
(Eric has all our photos on his camera)

This is Monet's house in the spring.
There weren't any tulips in July, but believe me,
there was no shortage of gorgeous flowers.

After our tour, we headed for dinner at a restaurant down the road. We had crepes, omelettes and ice cream and this place was NOT crowed. It was very peaceful and relaxing and it had the cleanest bathroom in all of France; it even smelled good! We headed back to the shuttle bus (meeting some Americans along the way) and boarded our train. The train was wonderful, too ... air conditioned and almost empty!

Monday Menagerie

On Mondays we have to vacate the apartment so the cleaning lady can do her thing. Eric went for sushi, and I took Ella to the world's first public zoo at the Jardin de Plantes.

After Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were imprisoned, the new regime seized the animals from their menagerie at Versailles and brought them to the Jardin for the public to enjoy. And since Eric wasn't with us, I took all the photos and actually have them in this post for you to enjoy!

I'm not sure if this statue was also from Versailles.
It's not often you're greeted at a zoo by a savage hunter wielding a severed bear head.

Here, Ella does a flamingo pose in front of the flamingos.


A very popular exhibit: raccoons all the way from North America!


Ella preferred the mammoth statue to the hunter statue,
especially since we recently saw Ice Age 3 (also known as L'Age de Glace).


This Orangutan was earning his keep by washing the windows.


For those Harry Potter fans, Hedwig summers in Paris.

I guess it's poetic that the hunter eventually becomes the hunted.
Oh the drama ...

The other drama happened when we got home at 4 p.m. and the cleaning hadn't been done, yet. Fortunately or unfortuately, she arrived at 4:30 -- just as I was starting a session with a client! Oh well, at least we have a clean toilet.

It was much better than Versailles ...

Saturday we decided to go to the Chateau Vaux le Vicomte.

We started out kind of late, because the night before, Eric was slipped a Mickey at the Hippopotamus. The Hippo is a chain of restaurants around France that serves mostly beef at a fairly reasonable price. It's right around the corner from us, and Ella gets some chicken nuggets, Orangina and ice cream for less than 7-Euros.

Not our Hippo, but a reasonable representation ...

Friday night we ate a late dinner at the Hippo and decided to split a Ben & Jerry's dessert. The flaky waitress asked if we wanted coffee, and Eric asked if they had decaf. She said yes and naturally brought Eric an espresso (he forgot to order American-style coffee). It wasn't until about 1 a.m. that we both realized that it was not a decaf espresso. Lesson learned: don't order decaf from a flaky server who barely speaks English.

So Saturday at about 11 a.m. we headed out for the Chateau with plans to take the M1 to Gare de Lyon where we'd catch the RER D to Melun. In Melun, we'd hop on the Chateau shuttle bus for the 5 km ride to the estate.

However, the platform for the M1 at Gare de Lyon was closed for renovations. We backtracked into the heart of Paris to catch the RER D at another station. It was a pleasant 45-minute ride, but when we got to Melun there was no signage for a Chateau shuttle bus. We went to the taxi stand (where there were two parked, unoccupied taxis) and waited for an on-duty cab. The ride was quick and cost 16-Euros.

When we got to the Chateau we were delighted ... there was hardly anyone there!! This Chateau was built by Louis XIV's financial secretary Nicolas Fouquet. The story is that Fouquet held a fete and invited the King. The King saw the chateau and was extremely jealous, because it was the finest estate and garden of the time.

Voltaire summed it up best, "On 17 August at 6 in the evening,
Fouquet was King of France; at 2 in the morning, he was nobody."
Some believe Fouquet was the Man in the Iron Mask.

The next day, Fouquet was thrown in to prison for life. He was accused of embezzeling the King's money to pay for the estate (but it was never proven, as far as I can tell). The King seized his property and hired his artists and archetects to make Versailles the amazing palace that it is.

Chateau and gardens - Versailles on a smaller scale

Versaille is a seething mass of sweaty, stinky humanity, but this lovely precursor was nearly empty. Plus it has costumes for the kids. While Eric and I listened to the audio guides, Ella twirled and curtsied around the Chateau in a princess dress with roses.

Oh ... and this place is furnished with some original pieces and period pieces to show what the place REALLY looked like. It's privately owned, and between the furniture, the costumed employees and the multmedia emersion techniques, it seems the owners really know how to create a tourist attraction!

Here's the library

Tapestries hide the masonry walls to make the place more cozy.

Ornate ceilings painted by 17th Century master Charles LeBrun

Ya gotta see Versaille, because, well ... it's Versaille. But if someone was short on time, I'd send them here instead (sorry Chad & Nicole, we didn't know). We enjoyed the entire estate and especially enjoyed being away from the crowds. Along with Chateau Vincennes, this has got to be one of the best kept secrets in Ile-de-France.