Paris – Page 3 – KEVIN CRAIG

Paris – Day 10 – September 18th – Palais Garnier and Le Train Bleu!

Our next day was one of our less jam packed days. It would be a breeze!

Palais Garnier (The Opera House)
Le Train Bleu

We walked to the Opera House first and, since we had plenty of extra time this day, we were able to take a little side trek to Place Vendome for a looksie…

Prior to our first tour of the Opera, we hit a creperie for lunch and we did another quick tour of Galeries Lafayette…since we were in the neighbourhood.

We found Crepes City on Google Maps, searching for creperies in the area. It was really good!

The Galeries Lafayette are just so gorgeous…we had time and it was right there.

The large building here, seen from the viewing terrace of the Galeries Lafayette, is actually the Palais Garnier…the Opera House, right there!

Everything in Paris was getting gussied up for the upcoming 2024 Olympics…including the Palais Garnier. This mural covered the entire facade of the building. So glad we saw it during our previous trip. The facade is one of the most beautiful features of the building.

We were booked for TWO tours of the Opera Garnier. I wasn’t entirely sure what the difference was between the two. It seemed one promised to reveal mysteries of the opera house and the other more the building itself.

Here are the two options from the website:

Visit Palais Garnier in the Belle Epoque

Visit The Mysteries of the Palais Garnier (after closing)

As someone who has now done both, I can tell you that there is no value in seeing both tours. And, I can tell you which of the two to choose. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I would choose the Mysteries Tour after closing! That’s the one you should go on, if you decide to tour the opera house.

The daytime tour is FILLED with people. Everywhere you turn, there are bodies…hundreds and hundreds of people everywhere.

The tour after closing time is more interesting and there are FAR LESS PEOPLE AROUND.

During the daytime tour, it was almost impossible to take photos. We were wedged into the building like sardines. The night time tour made us feel we were there alone. There may have been 2 or 3 small intimate tour groups walking around taking the tour. We saw the opera house unencumbered by crowds.

There were two things everywhere you looked…one was beauty and one was people.

The day time tour was filled with people…

We were blown away by the beauty of this building. A lot of what we covered in the daytime tour was covered again in the night time tour. Again, that’s the tour you want to book.

Here’s some shots of the night time tour…we actually got to view the performance hall, AND the Ghost’s box! This is the box that was reserved for the ghost in the famous Phantom of the Opera book by Gaston Leroux.

What you will notice in the above photos is a lack of people.

The most stunning part of the night tour was seeing the theatre. And the best part of being inside the theatre was seeing the Chagall ceiling. It was absolutely breathtaking. Such whimsical colours and scenes. I LOVED it! Sheer perfection!

The theatre…

And then we were escorted inside the box of the opera ghost…all those re-readings of Phantom of the Opera came to life for me. I had goosebumps!

Alone in the vastness of the Palais Garnier!

Not much can compete with the second tour of Palais Garnier. But we were willing to let Le Train Bleu give it a try! It was as decadent as the palais and just as magical…

The walk across town to Le Train Bleu was, of course, stunning!

If you’re pondering Le Train Bleu, but you’re not quite convinced…do it. It is worth the price tag. A beautiful dining experience, from the food to the atmosphere to the architecture. One of our favourite dining experiences so far!

It really had it all…

That’s it. That’s the entirety of our day. Not a lot in it, but jam packed with wonder all the same. We took the Metro home, and as usual it was super easy! I love to walk, but it’s handy knowing the Metro is there for those late nights when you just want to finish your day.

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Paris – Day 9 – September 17th – Last Museum Pass Day – d’Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle and Much More!

Day 9 was a FULL day. Weren’t they all?

Angelina’s (on a whim!)
Arc de Triomphe
Trocadéro
Musée D’Orsay
Rosie’s Smokehouse
Sainte-Chapelle

The first thing on our agenda for this day was Arc de Triomphe. As it was a beautiful day and we mostly chose to walk over taking the Metro, we started off in the direction of the Arc…taking Rue de Rivoli almost all the way.

We quickly remembered that there was something along Rue de Rivoli that we were itching to experience…ANGELINA’S! We had yet to have the melted hot chocolate drink Paris is so well known for. Actual chocolate, as opposed to the powdered sachets most North Americans are familiar with.

Leave space for spontaneity in your days! We were so glad we had the time to visit this iconic restaurant!

Thick rich melted chocolate, in a cup! Madness and bliss!

We opted for the petit dejeuner…no sense NOT having a bite to eat while we were there. It was delicious!

Soon after Angelina’s, we found ourselves on the Champs-Élysées! Sidenote: This is French for Elysian Fields, the place for dead heroes in Greek mythology. Sidesidenote: Elysian Fields was the street that Stella & Stanley Kowalski lived on in A Streetcar Named Desire. But back to our day…

It turned out that, for some unknown (to us) reason the Champs-Élysées had become a pedestrian road for the day. Maybe they knew we were coming, so they planned it in our honour? Nope…as much as I would have loved that to be the truth, it is frequently closed for this purpose. I believe mostly on Sundays. Sidenote: In 2021, around 64,000 cars traveled down the eight-lane avenue each day. So for us to have it to ourselves to walk on was quite a special event. Where those 64,000 cars went to on this particular day, I don’t know!

A rare car-less Champs-Élysées moment just for us…

The formidable Arc de Triomphe looms over the Champs-Élysées, its protector, its pearl…

The spiral staircase inside the Arc strikes fear in me every time. My first visit was right after I walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2014. I found these stairs to be way more difficult than the mountains of Galicia!

This happens to be one of my favourite sculptures in Paris…found near the top of the Arc de Triomphe, just prior to walking up and out onto the rooftop terrace. If you look back at the photo of the sculpture on the outside of the Arc that I posted, you might see a similar face among the warriors of that sculpture…

Even the headpiece matches that of the warrior on the outside sculpture…

The views from atop the Arc are among my favourite of Paris. Something about being in the middle of the wheel, with all the streets spoke-ing out and away from us…it’s gorgeous!

This is the kind of forever that I love to look out upon!

Every view in Paris is better than the view from atop the Eiffel Tower…because when you’re at the top of the Eiffel Tower, the tower is not part of the view…

Next, we were headed for Trocadéro. My third trip to Paris, and I had never been to Trocadéro.

This is a famous spot for great photos of the tower. It’s directly across the Seine from the tower, and raised…making it a great view.

There are several great vantage points to snap the tower here!

Yes, of course we did the very touristy red heart balloons photo shoot while we were there!

After Trocadéro, it was time to walk over to one of my favourite Paris museums. Musée d’Orsay! We were really making the most of our Paris Museum Passes. If you go to Paris and you only see one or two museums, make sure d’Orsay is among them. It’s the cream of the crop. Beautiful architecture and gorgeous exhibits.

Musée d’Orsay was once a train station…you can see vestiges of that incarnation the moment you enter…

The d’Orsay is such a perfectly curated museum. Every piece is a wonder. Some of the world’s greatest works reside there…

There was a tightrope walker walking the depth of the museum while we were there!

There’s a wonderful window in d’Orsay that looks out onto the Seine. It has a clock in it, but you can look through the clock onto a wonderful vista of Paris…

They also have one of the most beautiful Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paintings in existence…

Our next stop for this day was for dinner. This wasn’t spur of the moment, but it was a place that wasn’t on our radar when we were back home planning. We first walked into Rosie’s Smokehouse needing only a drink a few days earlier. We picked it at random. The staff was nice and the atmosphere amazing. And the beer was cold.

After two stop-ins, we had decided to give their food a go…so this was our third time there. It did NOT disappoint…

After dinner, it was a short walk over to the Sainte-Chapelle neighbourhood. I had purchased tickets for a Sainte-Chapelle concert for Michael’s birthday…a belated present. First, the tickets came with a glass of champagne served at a restaurant across the street from the church.

After our champagne, complete with an ice cream dessert, we headed over to the chapel for the concert…

But first a little sit-down by the river…because no matter how well we planned things, there were always a few extra minutes here and there that we wanted to fill with magic!

We had great seats! And, if you ever have the opportunity to go to a concert at Sainte-Chapelle…DO IT! It was pure magic. The setting, the acoustics, everything! Just stunning…

So ends another day in the City of Light! With a quick late night stroll back to our hotel, we were done with another of our quickly disappearing days. A walk back across the river on one of its beautiful bridges, filled with music and the sights and smells of Paris, and we were ready for bed.

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Paris – Day 8 – September 16th – Another Museum Pass Day – Picasso, Louvre, l’Orangerie and More!

Day 8 was another museum day! We needed to bunch them all together to take advantage of our Paris Museum Pass. We purchased the 4-day version.

This day started at the Picasso Museum. I was really looking forward to this one, but was deeply disappointed. What they had was excellent, but most of the museum was inaccessible. Had we known, I may have suggested we give it a pass. But we got there only to discover that most of the areas were closed for rehanging. It was a ten minute tour of what little they had.

Michael standing at the entrance to the courtyard of the Picasso Museum. We arrived at opening time to give ourselves the time we needed for the busy day. Little did we know, we wouldn’t need much time to see this museum.

The building was beautiful, but every step we took led to another dead end where NO ART was displayed.

There was just enough artwork hung to allow us to know what museum we were visiting. So entirely sparse. Yes, I’m bitter. I know museums need to refresh every once in a while, but this is the one I was dying to see. It’s not like we could just go back in a month to see the new exhibits. Again, no warning.

Our next museum stop was the iconic Louvre. It’s always a great idea. We made some notes to see some of the things we didn’t get to take in on our last visit back in 2021.

The sculpture section was one of the ones we did NOT see in 2021. Such an amazing section, too. There were so many breathtaking pieces to look at…

I think my favourite piece in the Louvre will always be The Winged Victory of Samothrace. I remember seeing this one WAY BACK in my childhood when it served as a backdrop for the flawless Audrey Hepburn in the movie FUNNY FACE.

When I go to the Louvre, I go to the Winged Victory.

After the Winged Victory, we made a mild pass through ‘The Mona Lisa Room’. This snap is from far away, because we were not going to line up to see the underwhelming Must See Louvre painting. Not again. (-;

In 2021, we did the line up and it was a zoo…a masked zoo. When I went to see her in 2014, it wasn’t as busy…there was no line up, just a crowd.

Our masked snap shot with the venerated lady from our October, 2021 visit…

The Louvre will always be a stunning place to while away a day in Paris. Around every corner, you will find something to fascinate.

This photo gives a good idea of the zoo that Paris has become. people and phones EVERYWHERE. Ours included, of course…

Look UP when you’re in the Louvre. Of course, even the ceilings are beautiful…

Once we caught up on the Louvre offerings, we went to a little cafe inside the complex attached to the Louvre.

Caffe Concerto is just outside the Louvre at the Metro exit where the mall and exits are.

This was an unscheduled stop, but the raspberries in the window spoke to me. Deeply. Raspberries ALWAYS speak to me.

It was a swanky little place!

After our little side-bar at the cafe, we were ready to take another impromptu side-bar. This one a little more substantial. With our heavy schedule, I didn’t think we could add anything else. But it seemed that every day we would inexplicably find lag-time somewhere in the schedule. This day, we discovered we had enough time to squeeze in a visit to Musée de l’Orangerie. It was just on the other side of the Tuileries from the Louvre. We booked tickets on our phones and set out on the beautiful walk through the gardens. Unquestionably, this is one of my favourite Paris walks. With the huge trees and the endless paths and the gorgeous fountains…it has everything!

The Tuileries are a special kind of magic!

We saw the museum before, with its breathless and endless Monet gardens. But it didn’t hurt to pay it another visit. This is a great little museum!

Monet just wraps around you like a warm soft blanket in this museum. Immersive.

Time for yet another Bouillon! This time, Le Petit Bouillon Pharamond!

We ate all the things! Le Petit Bouillon Pharamond was a great choice! And a nice end to another amazing day. We were not that far from our hotel, either. Another great walk through the streets of Paris!

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