Point Zero

I never imagined blogging my adventures would be so time consuming, but if I had stopped to think about it, I probably could have guessed.  I'm a photographer, so I take A LOT of photos.  And I'm a perfectionist, so I agonize over the photos I've taken.  And I'd like to say that it's because I'm a bit of a creative genius in Photoshop, but I spend an inordinate amount of time in the digital darkroom; playing, tweaking, converting, masking and tinkering until I'm either bored or satisfied and then I move on to the next photo.  To say that I've got a backlog of thousands of photos is an understatement.  

Sadly though, my flurry of photographic output has faltered - my camera is broken.  We were traipsing about the Pompidou, and I suddenly noticed a dagger-shaped, over-exposed  strip running through my photos.  Urg.  Not good.  But not unexpected either.  I discovered that I have nearly 30,000 shutter clicks on this camera, and the shutter is just now getting arthritic.  Not bad, really, but the timing could have been better.  The good news is that I might be able to catch up on editing and story-telling until I'm armed and dangerous again.

You might be wondering why it's so hard to stay caught up.  Well, I'll tell you.  Twice now, we've had visitors from home and both times they were here for one week.  While they're here, I spend the entire time wandering around the city with our guests, camera in tow.  We leave the apartment in the morning and don't return until late in the evening unless we're having dinner at home and then I'm busy in the kitchen.  The memory cards stack up and before I know it, I've got thousands of photos to sort, edit, process, finish and then write about.  And I was already behind when they got here!  It's a tough life, I know!

I'm not sure what prompted me to launch into an explanation of my seemingly lackadaisical posting style, but I suspect a small measure of guilt has something to do with it.  What I really want to tell you about is the week I spent with my brother and sister-in-law.  It was their first time to Paris and we had a blast touring the city and squeezing in as much as we could in their time here.

Dennis and Beth arrived on a Saturday.  We met them at the airport then took the train/metro back to our apartment.  We let them relax for about 5 minutes before we dragged them out the door and off to see the sights.  We thought they might experience the dreaded, sudden-onset jet-lag and crash while out wandering, so we kept our plans loose and flexible.  That's where Point Zero comes in.  Our first stop was Notre Dame cathedral.

My very first photo of the day was of Point Zero.  This compass rose marker, set in the pavement in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, marks the official center of Paris and it is the point from which all distances to and from Paris on national highways are measured.

All toes point to point zero

It was very cold and the skies were gray, so I didn't take a photo of Notre Dame at a distance.  I have other better photos than I would have gotten on this day anyway, but I did notice something; when I'm with a small group of people, I get to talking and I'm not seeing.  If I'm not seeing I'm not photographing.  So my photo journal is a bit choppy, but that's okay.  In looking at these photos now, I'm intrigued at what caught my eye and made me stop talking long enough to make a photograph!

 We had to wait in a security line before we could enter the cathedral:

This was less like a line and more like a loosely-formed column of people all moving in the same direction

Notre Dame facade - The Kings Gallery- 28 Statues of the Kings of Judah and Israel

The Central Portal depicting the Last Judgment

Portal of Saint Anne - Jamb sculptures of Saint Paul, King David, Bathsheba and Another King

Many cathedrals are very dark inside and on a gray day, they are even darker.  Notre Dame is no exception.  I took this photo with a fairly long shutter speed and since I don't have a tripod here, I have to find a makeshift horizontal surface or use the floor for a timed exposure.  Still, I manage to get a few photos inside:

The beauty and grandeur of Notre Dame Cathedral

 By now you know I'm drawn to the candles, and partly because where there's candles there's light!

We took a side trip into the Treasury:

Beautiful Stained Glass in the passageway

Joan of Arc

Sculpture detail

The Treasury Ceiling - ornate and colorful

Saint Denis and Dennis

While the inside of the cathedral is dark and mysterious and filled with whispers, the square  of the west facade is filled with light, laughter and amusement:

We don't know who he is or why he was wearing this mask...

but he was having fun and enjoyed being photographed!

From Notre Dame, we headed to the Pont Neuf - the New Bridge - which it isn't as it is the oldest standing bridge across the Seine.  It connects the Left Bank to Ile de la Cite and the Right Bank.

The many faces of Pont Neuf

A bastion on the Pont Neuf

Bastion and Face detail

Not all was gray and dreary on the stone-clad quais:

Primroses and Pansies!

By now, I was sure Dennis and Beth would be craving a hot meal and a warm bed, but no!  Here we are consulting a map for our next stop:

At the tip of Ile de la Cite - and planning our next stop

Can you tell it was cold?!

 And because a day doesn't go by without some interesting scene in the City of Lights:

Try as he might, Little Doggie could not get his person to keep up

The Carnavalet Museum

Wow!  I guess the shorter and more frequent posts didn't work out so well.  We had house guests for a week and then I had some heavy duty work to do.  Despite the fact that it feels like I'm here to play, I do have work and it gets in the way of the fun Parisian stuff.  Ah well.  All play and no work would make me dull, right?

Our walk through the Marais was leading us to the Carnavalet Museum.  The Carnavalet is a museum for and about Paris, focusing on The Revolution but including Louis XIV-period rooms all the way through the belle epoch.

The museum opened in 1880 in the Hotel Carnavalet, a mansion built by the President of the Parliament of Paris in the mid 1500's and was later purchased by the widow of Francois de Kernevenoy who was later known as Carnavalet.  By the late 20th century, the museum was bursting at the seams so the mansion next door was purchased and the two became one museum.  Our visit to the Carnavalet was a bit helter skelter and half the museum was closed that day, but we had an interesting visit nonetheless.  The first room we entered was filled with antique shop signs.  There were hundreds of them hanging from the walls and ceiling.

This was my favorite!

Le Chat Noir

Next we wandered through the mansion where we saw the luxury of the Louis (XIV, XV and XVI that is).  There are a lot of furnished rooms that let you get a feel for the opulent life of the kings and nobles before the Revolution.  Some of the rooms have been moved from the mansions at Place de Vosges.  There was a lot of flowery wallpaper, carved wood, massive fireplaces , ornate chandeliers, brightly colored walls with embellishments, and amazing parquet floors that rolled and groaned beneath our feet.

A chandelier in an opulent room

Another chandelier, another point of view

Detail of bright yellow room with ornate wall decor

We saw maps and scale models of historic Paris and a few paintings and busts.  But the things that caught my attention more than anything were the windows.   I love the old windows!  They were multi-paned and had colored glass and you could tell a lot of the panes were old because the glass was wavy and had bubbles in it!  There were also many different designs. 

Window with round leaded glass panes

You can really see the color in the panes in this one - plus a nice view of the courtyard!

Another design and more of the courtyard

 

A set of doors with a floral motif

 

When we finished perusing the interior, we headed to the courtyard.  There is a beautiful portico between two wings with a formal garden on each side:

Portico between wings

From the portico, looking into the garden

Garden detail

Impeccably landscaped and well-manicured!

We really enjoyed the Carnavalet Museum, but like almost everything else, we'd like to go back and see the part we missed!

As we exited the museum, we were treated to a typical Parisian street scene:

The band was lively and had attracted quite a crowd.  We watched them for a bit, then wandered off deeper into the Marais accompanied by the usual city sounds and a little music.

Le Marais

So...where were we?

Ah, yes, leaving Place de la Bastille and headed down Rue Saint Antoine into the heart of Le Marais and the fancy schmancy houses of the old nobility.  Le Marais is an historic and aristocratic district, mostly because the King of Naples and Sicily who also happened to be the brother of King Louis IX of France built a home near Rue de Sévigné.  So he started it.  Not to be outdone, then King Charles V built a mansion for his and his son's Royal Court.  Then all the French Nobles had to keep up with the Charles' and Le Marais became the French nobility's favorite place of residence.  They built their mansions around and near Place Royale which is now Place des Vosges.  And for a reason unbeknownst to me, these mansions are called hôtels.  Le Marais is home to a bunch of outstanding architectural mansions like the Hôtel de Sully (who must really be important because there's a wing of the Louvre named for them) and the Hôtel Carnavalet (not nearly as important because it is now a free museum and part of the reason for our outing!).  The mansions that survived the revolution have been converted to museums, libraries and national institutions.

The streets are still somewhat narrow in Le Marais and the area is known for having more pre-Revolutionary lanes than anywhere else in Paris.  It looks the way much of the city did until the mid-1800s when Napolean was all about wide boulevards and creating a modern Paris.  Le Marais was spared a big Haussmann-type boulevard because The Great War (WWI) got in the way.  The lack of big boulevards makes this part of Paris unique and interesting, but harder to photograph!  It's very hard to get far away enough without obstructions to capture the breadth and height of the big mansions and churches.

Our first stop was the Hôtel de Sully.  To capture this image, I had to cross the street and shimmy into a narrow spot between a restaurant table, the door to the restaurant and a potted tree! 

Hôtel de Sully - now a bookshop and offices

You enter Hôtel de Sully through the arched doorway and pass into a courtyard:

Passage to inner courtyard - notice the ceiling!

Inner courtyard

The inner courtyard is like an elegant, private driveway.  It separates the mansion from the noisy and busy street and with all the paving stones, it is carriage-friendly. There are a lot of sculptures here too:

Inner courtyard wall sculptures

There is a passageway at the back of the inner courtyard that leads to the more peaceful back courtyard:

The back courtyard - a more serene garden setting

The building at the back of the back courtyard is an Orangerie (greenhouse) and provided fruits and vegetables throughout the winter.  Through the passageway on the far right, you can enter the Place de Vosges - the Sullys were really bumping elbows with the King's family.

From the back courtyard, looking towards the passageway that connects the inner and back courtyards and the main house

The Place des Vosges is a wonderful little park area now and in the center of the park is a statue of Louis XIII:

Louis XIII admiring the Place that Daddy built

The park is surrounded by nine houses on each side and arcades line the sidewalks:

Beneath the arcades are cafes, galleries and restaurants

The revolution ended the aristocratic era of Place Royale, and it was renamed Place des Vosges - the first district to pay taxes and therefore earned naming rights.  In the 19th century, Le Marais became a working-class neighborhood.  Victor Hugo lived on the square, at Number 6:

Number 6 - Victor Hugo lived here

It was there that Victor Hugo wrote Les Misérables.  You can tour his home and see displays of  souvenirs, drawings and books from his childhood until he was exiled (between 1852 and 1870).  We didn't go in so we'll have to come back!

While we were there, a horse-drawn carriage with a bride and groom arrived - they came to Place des Vosges for photographs:

Love the shoes!

The bride and groom created quite a stir!  I don't know how many of the folks in Place des Vosges were tourists (like us!) or locals (like the bride and groom), but people stopped what they were doing and gathered around to watch them, even following them into the park to watch them being photographed. 

We decided to leave the bride and groom and the crowds that followed them and make our way out of Place des Vosges.  On the way out, we spied these two:

Pet him!  No, YOU pet him!

They were really cute - curious and so wanting to approach the horse but also very afraid to do so.  They got a little closer, but then turned away and ran.  Perhaps the dog's reaction (between the horse's legs) didn't inspire confidence!

Next up ... the Carnavalet Museum.  Stay tuned!

Place de la Bastille

First, an important announcement.

I have come to a momentous realization and decision; my blog posts are too long!  My thinking has been in a box for too long.  I thought it would make more sense if my posts were chronological and depicted the events as they happened, but the reality is that we do a lot of stuff in one day, so my posts are too long and take too much time in one sitting to finish them and so I either don't start them because I don't have enough time to finish them or I don't finish them because I ran out of time.  It also occurred to me that posts that are more topic centric might be easier to handle on both ends; for me to write and for you to read.  So henceforth, my posts will be willy nilly date-wise and more content oriented.  I guess that means that instead of being about the entire Sunday walk or visit to this place or that entire adventure, the posts will be shorter and focused on a part of the adventure.  And there will be more of them.  That's a good thing, right?

On to the fun stuff.

There are many areas in Paris that we've never been and our weekend outings are an attempt to remedy this.  So even though the day was cold and dreary and tut tut looks like rain, we decided the Place de la Bastille would be the starting point of a walk through Le Marais (more on that later!).

We also read somewhere that the Bastille Metro station had wonderful murals on the walls depicting the French Revolution, so we rode the metro to Place de la Bastille.  As we exited the station, we were nearly run-over by this guy:

Yes, it's blurry.  It was dark and he was moving fast - it was a grab it or miss it shot!

We had no idea that our near miss was a hint to what was topside.  

We also saw this:

Bastille Metro Station, Line 5

Now, I'm no expert on French Revolution Murals, but these don't look like French Revolution Murals.  In fact, it looks very much like a very long hallway in any number of Metro stations, dotted with advertisements.  Where are the murals?

What we have since learned is that metro stations that link metro lines together do so in a spidery fashion and the hallways and tunnels for one line don't automatically connect with the hallways and tunnels of another line.  What we failed to notice is that the murals are on LINE 1 of the Metro, not LINE 5, and since we didn't know that we wandered the tunnels of Line 5 looking for murals that weren't there, completely ignoring the signs to Line 1 because we didn't want to take the Line 1 train.  Hurmpf.  We will go back to see the murals, and we will take Line 1 to see them!  On this day though, we missed them.

The Place de la Bastille is where the Bastille prison used to be until it was stormed by the locals on July 14, 1789 (which is considered the start of the French Revolution) and by November of that year, the prison was dismantled/demolished and the cut stones were used to build the Pont de la Concorde (who knew!?).  The Place de la Bastille is now the home of the Bastille Opera,

The very modern L'Opéra Bastille, built to share classical music with the masses

  The Colonne de Juillet (July Column),

The Colonne de Juillet in the center of the Place de la Bastille, built to commemorate the Revolution of 1830

and on the north side of the Place de la Bastille is a large open area that is a huge hangout for skateboarders, scooterers and rollerbladers,

skateboarders practicing their moves

lacing up for a skate about town

rockin' the freestyle

 

There was a lot of activity in and around the Place;  there were groups of rollerbladers gearing up for a group skate with guides wearing yellow shirts and we also discovered another, even bigger than ours street market on Boulevard Richard Lenoir.  We started to check it out, but by the time we crossed all of the necessary streets to get there, we realized they were shutting down for the day.  So, a street market and metro murals for another day.  The candy vendor was not shutting down though;

Nougat

sweets and sours

 

eggs, sweets and sours    eggs???

We decided against having candy for lunch, so we headed down Rue San Antoine toward Le Marais.  By now you've probably guessed that our itineraries are pretty loose and we're easily sidetracked.  Under normal travel circumstances that isn't the case; we have places to go and things to see and do and we don't have time to be side-tracked.  But because it seems like we have all the time in the world to see Paris, being side-tracked is now half the adventure.  And maybe that mindset alone is partly to blame for why we didn't have candy for lunch, but we had pastries for lunch.  At any rate, we had only set out for Le Marais a scant 5 minutes before we were distracted by some awesome purple awnings on a nondescript shop down  a side street.  It demanded a closer look.  As we got closer, we saw that it was a patisserie and chocolaterie.  Yum!   This definitely demands an ever closer look!

Lovely purple awnings invite a closer look

I have no idea who or what Lenôtre is or why they have a fabulous shop here, but I was awed by the beauty of these treats.  It even gives me pause to recognize that statement - beautiful treats.  Since when do I appreciate the beauty of treats?  When was the last time I marveled at the artistic presentation of cakes and pastries and tarts?  This is something new, for sure because we don't have such beautiful treats in the U.S. and if we do, I have no idea where they're hiding.  Even the bakeries have mostly disappeared and given way to the generic bakeries of Vons and Costco.  I can say that beautiful treats is not the goal of the generic bakery - mass production is.  And the mass-produced treats that look half-way pretty don't taste nearly as good as they look.  But here in Paris, there are still bakeries on every corner and there are chefs who are fiercely proud of their culinary creations and beautiful pastries and they adorn the windows of their shops with their delectable delights.  And they truly are wondrous to see:

Beautiful cakes and pastries in intricate shapes

Love the crown jewel look of the mango cake!

There were some savory delights as well - the colors and shapes turn ordinary vegetables into works of art

Along with a tres cher presentation comes a tres cher price tag!

Looking at these pastries, I was truly amazed at the art work involved;  the mix of shapes, colors and textures, with a perfectly placed vanilla bean here or a scant dusting of sugar there creates an artful feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds.

We were initially content to just photograph the pastries through the display windows. but as we were about to walk away, Ron decided we shouldn't leave without checking out the inside, so we entered this palace of decadence.  The sights and aromas were truly beautiful, but alas, no photos allowed!  We ogled all of the treats and then decided we needed something with which to compare our other treat outings and it is lunch time and we're hungry so what the heck (that's a sound justification, no?).  We made our purchase for take-away and then left in search of a bench or place to sit whilst we indulged. 

Our schnazzy bag (we are acquiring quite a collection of these!)

A lovely box for an eclair - it wasn't all that schnazzy so we didn't keep it

The eclair with an edible chocolate label

A fabulous Crêpe Suzette - without the flambé but with an incredible orange cream filling

The verdict?  The eclair was good and the Crêpe Suzette was wonderful.  It was not a typical Crêpe Suzette, and I would love to know what exactly the orange cream filling was.  I've google-seached some already, but it's not too important because I can guess and while I may not be able to replicate it exactly, I sincerely doubt I can make something awful.  I wonder how many experiments until I get it just right?  I'm sure it will be a tasty  adventure.  Kitchen experiments, here I come!

Oh...and about Lenôtre.  Once again, I'm Dooney & Burked.  If you know anything about chefs and pastries and such, you know about Lenôtre. Here's the primer:

Lenôtre is Gaston Lenôtre who was a French pastry chef and caterer.  Lenôtre opened the first chain of upscale bakeries in Paris and a bakery-café in the first French shopping mall, and he started the first professional French re-training chef school. He also wrote nine recipe books.

I've already admitted to living under a rock (and boyo that rock is getting heavy).  But living in and experiencing Paris in a way we never have before, I am slowly but surely getting out from under that rock.

Home Again, Home Again

Dancing a Jig!

We left France on April 11th for a short visit back to the U.S.  We had a bunch of stuff to do, so here's a breakdown:

Taxes - Uncle Sam doesn't care where you are, the due date is the same.  We complied!

Applied for Visas - Ron was pre-approved but I was not.  We had to apply, in person, at the Consulate in Los Angeles.  We both had an appointment on April 13th - we came prepared with a mountain of paperwork: birth certificates, marriage certificates, bank statements, police clearance letters, applications, proof of insurance, passport-size photos, etc. etc. etc.   To my surprise and relief, we both had our Visas in hand exactly one week later!  So my dear France, I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me! (name that movie quote?!?!?!)

I don't know why we needed passport photos since they took their own photo with a snazzy point and shoot camera and that's the photo they used on our Visas.  As you can see, I was appropriately dressed and prepared: 

Yay!  Now I can stay!

This wasn't an all play stay, we both had work to do.  Ron had engineering stuff and a wedding to photograph, I had a bunch of photo stuff as well; portrait sessions, a corporate event and a wedding.  We were very busy!

Of course, we took time to visit family and friends - so many people to see, so little time!

We also spent about 5 days at our vacation home - this was not a vacation either!  We had a lot of storm damage to clean up in the form of fallen trees.  Fortunately there was no major structural damage, but the chainsaws and log splitter got a major workout.

This huge oak branch fell onto our deck, narrowly missing both a bedroom window and sliding glass door.

This was the scene all over our property.  Some trees completely uprooted, others just snapped!

Chris worked his backside off!  Lots of broken trees to cut down!

Keith and Rosie helped out too - all those logs had to be split!

Despite all the noise we made with chain saws and log splitters and tractors and trucks, the wild turkeys were hanging about.  It was mating season and the male was doing his best to entice the females.  

I feel pretty and witty and bright

An interesting side note:  We left Paris on the 11th, arrived in SoCal on the 11th then drove up to our vacation home on the 15th.  When I woke up on the 16th, for a brief moment I had no idea where I was!  It is very strange having three places to call home and to have slept in all three of them in one week.  

There was one other important thing we did while visiting the U.S. - we went to all of our favorite restaurants; La Isla, Original House of Pancakes, Lettuce, Wok and Roll and Farmer Boys! 

Ron's visit was shorter than mine - he headed back to Paris on April 25th.  I had more portrait and corporate work to do, so I headed back almost 2 weeks later, on May 6th. 

It was wonderful being home but I found myself strangely conflicted.  I wanted to be in all three places at one time!  I didn't want to leave our vacation home and I missed Paris!  Every time I got in the car to go somewhere, I found myself wishing I could just walk there or take the Metro and I missed a fresh baguette every day!  It is amazing that in only a few short months, we have come to love and appreciate the Parisian life and to think of Paris as home too.