The Rest of Paris in a Nutshell

The main activity of our fifth day was a visit to the Musée D’Orsay.  The building was formerly a train station. They were having a special exhibit of works by John Singer Sargent. One of his most famous works is Portrait of Madame X, seen here.

What I like most about seeing actual paintings rather than photographs of them is the ability to appreciate the brush work and paint application up close. The Femme au fichu vert by Camille Pissarro was one of my favorites from this perspective. You could see the how the paint was applied in gobs.

We spent the rest of the day roaming around. Dennis wanted to see the Pont Alexandre III, an ornate bridge crossing the Seine, so we headed that way. It is recognizable by its gilt statues as seen in the photos. We then wandered down the Champs-Elysées, which was closed to car traffic for a Christmas tree lighting, as far as the Arc de Triomphe.  We saved our visit to the inside of the Arc for another day as the weather was not great.

The next day we visited the Louvre. The Goya painting below was one of my favorites. The Mona Lisa is a bit underwhelming, especially since you can’t get close to it. The barrier keeps the crowd back about 15 to 20 feet. I’m not sure why people feel the need to take a picture of it. I have noticed in recent years that many people at museums simply walk around the entire time with their phones out taking pictures of nearly every work of art. Walk up to a painting, take a picture, walk to the next one, take a picture … Are they making a book? Will they ever look at all those photos?

Of course, Dennis had to have Escargot at dinner that night.

The next day we visited the Palais Garnier, an opera house built in the late 1800s at the behest of Napolean III. The interior is described as being “characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness”; see the photo of Dennis walking through the grand foyer. The ceiling area around the chandelier in the auditorium was repainted in 1964 by Marc Chagall.

We headed back down the Champs-Elysées, this time with the intention to visit the Arc de Triomphe. The traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe has 12 streets feeding into it!  Fortunately, there is an underground tunnel to access the center of the circle where the Arc is. We climbed the many stairs to the top and were rewarded with great views on a much better day than when we were there previously.  In one of the photos you can see the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre on the hill which we had visited a few days earlier.

On our last full day, we headed to Notre Dame Cathedral and nearby Sainte Chapelle (known for its beautiful stained glass windows). No sightings of the hunchback while at Notre Dame.

View of the outside of Notre Dame

Inside the Cathedral

Inside Sainte Chapelle

One item of interest is the statue of St. Denis outside Notre Dame. It depicts the saint holding his head as he wanders to find an appropriate spot to be final resting place.

The next day we started our trip home, heading to Barcelona to spend the night. The train trip was beset by delays and we ended up getting into the station more than four hours late. We ate dinner and then flopped into the bed. The second leg to Alicante went off without a hitch and we were soon back in our apartment.

We think we may visit Paris again in the future, as there is so much to see and do, but that will have to wait until after several other trips that are being considered.

Salud.