Cole Porter Was Right

pastis de Marseilles

I love Paris in the springtime, the fall, the winter and the summer - the City of Lights drizzles and sizzles every moment of the year.  Each time I visit somehow finds me falling deeper and deeper in love.  I can’t quite put my finger on why or how I get caught up in her magic but she has clearly cast her spell on me.

This past March, I left Mr. U behind in snow-covered Moscow (trust me, he wasn’t sad) to meet a dear friend in CDG airport for what would prove to be an unforgettable week in Paris.

For whatever reason, the weather was about 15 degrees colder than is normal for the end of March.  They haven’t seen temperatures this low in almost 50 years.  My friend came from a warm climate and was cold and I was coming from a cold climate and as such, I was warm.  Everything is relative.  Nevertheless, we spent our days walking about the city, visiting more art museums than you could shake a stick at and partaking of the many Earthly delights available to us; mostly of the Guinness variety.  Our evenings were spent resting our feet and laughing at Frankie Boyle’s outrageous antics on reruns of the BBC’s Mock the Week.

Bubbles!!!!

living wall

I'm pretty sure Leonardo is rolling in his grave.

Digit goes to the Tuileries

sidewalk café

Café Renard, Jardin des Tuileries

Rodin sculpture garden

 An afternoon spent in Montmartre...

luncheon in Montmartre

La cure gourmande - the salted caramel candies were heavenly

Grammar lessons

 *pay close attention to the last couple of seconds of the video; there is a guest appearance by a very special person

Artists in Place du Tertre

A walk through the city streets

le pont des arts

love locks

looking across to the Palais du Louvre

 

sculpture outside the Musée d'Orsay

 Clocks of the Musée d'Orsay

bare chestnut trees

Place de la Concorde

the fountains were empty as there was still a chance of frozen pipes

Dôme des Invalides

The Louvre

Louis XIV

I. M. Pei's pyramid

vaulted ceilings

The view from inside the museum.

Out and About

4th Arr.

Père Lachaise

I'm pretty sure someone was compensating for something but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Le jardin du Luxembourg

As the highlight of our French escape, on April third we were booked on a tour that would take us out of Paris and into Normandy to the gardens and grounds of Monet’s home and studio as well as to Auvers-sur-Oise to visit the place where Vincent Van Gogh lived out the last two months of his life.  The first of April each year marks the opening of the tourist season in Giverny.  More specifically, Monet’s house and gardens are once again open to the public on the first of April.  Since ours was the first excursion of the season, there were (thankfully) only four of us in the mini-van.  By some strange coincidence, the other twosome had the same last name as me!  We aren’t related but for a moment I thought we might be.  (The father-daughter duo were from the States.)

The grey and overcast skies over Paris cleared up once we reached Normandy and we were met with wall to wall sunshine for our time in Giverny and Auvers-sur-Oise.  Since the spring was a few weeks late arriving, the leaves and flowers were in their budding stage and hardly any flowers displayed their colours.  Despite this, walking in Monet and Van Gogh’s footsteps proved to be the experience of a lifetime.  There were a handful of people were on site in Giverny which provided a rare and peacefully unobstructed glimpse of the gardens, waterlily pond and the japanese bridge.  Only the bravest of flowers were brave enough to reveal  their delicate petals to bask in the chilly spring sunshine but it still wasn’t difficult to imagine Monet setting up his easel along the narrow walking paths and spending his days painting the splendor of the changing seasons in this exquisite environment.

Here rests our beloved Claude Monet, missed by all. *note the paintbrush on the side

 Waking down the main road in Giverny

Water Garden and Waterlily Pond with Japanese bridge

holdovers from last summer

Stopping in the small town of Fourges on our way to Auvers-sur-Oise, we enjoyed a lunch of local delicacies in a mill-turned-restaurant.  The free-flowing red wine and slice of apple tart made from locally-grown fruit was a delicious way to end our meal.

 

Our leisurely drive through the wide open and well-manicured Norman countryside was a welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of the urban sprawl of downtown Paris.

Our last stop before returning to our hotel was in Auvers-sur-Oise to visit the Auberge Ravoux and walk through the town following in Vincent’s footsteps as he was descending into the madness that would eventually engulf his mind and send him to the depths of despair before taking his own life.  A brief multimedia presentation in the attic rooms of the auberge where Vincent rented a room educated us about the last few months of Vincent’s life.  We were welcomed into the small, simple room where he slept and then shown the restaurant where he sometimes took his meals.  He was not permitted to paint in his room so he worked outside or in a separate studio space in the company of his peers.  He was said to have produced more than 80 canvases in the last 70 days of his life.  We walked through the narrow streets of the town to see a number of sites where Vincent painted as well as spending a brief, solemn moment at his graveside. 

the stairs up to Vincent's room

Vincent's room

courtyard wall 

interior of the Auberge Ravoux - still in operation today

Almond blossoms in the courtyard of the Auberge Ravoux.

info panels were posted at the painting sites

 

A couple of new friends along the way - all we needed was a cat and a rooster and we would have had the Town Musicians of Bremen!

the donkey brayed to let everyone know that people were coming up the lane

A menorah tree?

this was painted in under 2 hours

 

the original is on display in Amsterdam

 

Brussel Sprouts  Who knew?!!

Theo’s widow laid Theo to rest next to Vincent in order to reunite the two brothers in death.

We returned to our hotel where my friend packed her bags and so did I.  We were both leaving Paris the next day - she, flying halfway across the globe and I, off to Gare du Nord, headed to Amsterdam on the Thalys to visit MM for a few days before my  return to the Motherland.


Au revoir Paris, à très bientôt, j’espère.