Exploring the Fifth...

On Wednesday, I met up with three new friends to go explore the fifth arrondissement. We started along the Seine and walked through a garden filled with modern art sculptures. 

Lindsay, Lindsey, and Miranda in the modern art garden along the Seine

We made our way to the Jardin des Plantes, which is a big botanical garden with several greenhouses from the 1930s. Also here are three natural-history museums and the Menagerie, one of the world's oldest zoos. 

Jardin des Plantes

a pink greenhouse!

We next headed to see La Grande Mosquee de Paris, built in the 1920s. Just around the corner was the Arenes de Lutece, an old roman amphitheater were a group of old men were playing a game of boules. Of course after all this walking, we had to stop for pastries.

French men playing boules in the Roman amphitheater 

Versailles

Front gate of the Chateau

We decided to take a trip out to Versailles because we both wanted to go see Marie Antoinette's mansion, the Petit Trianon. It sits about a mile behind the Chateau, and she also built a farm nearby, the Hameau. We went to see this first, which was nice because there was almost nobody else there.

Hameau (Hamlet)

Behind the Petit Trianon

We walked back to the main gardens to go to the palace. 

Walking up to the chateau

Fountain behind the chateau

Once back to the chateau, we went inside to tour the rooms.

Ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors

Musee d'Orsay, Musee Rodin, and the Arc de Triomphe

These past few days have been busy, the good kind of busy, but as a result I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. So I'll start where I left off. Mom and I started Tuesday at the Mussee d'Orsay. The museum was originally built as a train station, so the building itself is overwhelming. We saw lots of Monet, Renoir, and my new favorite, Pissarro. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures.

We headed next to the Musee Rodin. The museum is in an old mansion where Rodin once lived. The gardens are filled with some of his most famous works, like the Thinker and the Gates of Hell. I wasn't expecting to like this museum as much, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.

In front of Rodin's old mansion, now the museum

The Thinker

After the museum, we stopped in the gardens to sit for a bit. This was a great time for people-watching, something Mom and I are very good at. Then we headed to the Champs-Elysees to climb the Arc de Triomphe. It was a very windy day and unfortunately a bit overcast, but we still enjoyed a great view of the city. 

View from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Another day in Paris

I have already fallen behind on my blogs, but this is my attempt to make up for lost time. Monday, mom and I saw quite a bit of Paris. We bought a 2 day museum pass, so we tried to see as much as we could. We stared at the Conciergerie, which was built as a palace then laster used as a prison during the French Revolution. It is famous for holding Marie Antoinette during her final days before her death. He headed down towards Notre-Dame next, stopping for a tomato and cheese panini along the way of course. It was another sunny day so seeing the light come through the rose windows inside of the cathedral was really incredible.

Notre-Dame

Chandeliers inside Notre-Dame

We headed back to the Sainte-Chapelle which is right next to the Conciergerie. We tried to go earlier before Notre-Dame, but for some reason it was closed. It turned out working great for us, because we showed up right when it re-opened and were able to be first in line, which meant we saw the top floor of the chapel before the crowd arrived. When we visited Paris several years ago with our family, this was my favorite place. It was just as amazing as I remembered, but maybe I was able to appreciate it more this time. 

Sainte-Chapelle

Each stain glass window tells a story through its pictures. We had fun walking around the room trying to read the stories. Some of the windows have been restored recently, and there is a huge difference in the ones that have been cleaned.

We walked farther down the Seine River and crossed over Pont des Arts, a famous bridge for tourists and also for local Parisians. It has been fun being here in the off-season because we have seen so few other tourists. It might make us stand out a little more, but we feel like we are getting a vert true taste of this city.

River Seine

After crossing the bridge, we strolled through the Tuileries gardens. It was getting colder but no one seemed to care, everyone was enjoying the day. We still had much left on our schedule, so we kept walking through the garden towards the Musee d'Orsay. 

Jardin des Tuileries

The Musee d'Orangerie was gorgeous. Even though mom and I had read about it, it was more than we expected. It used to be a winter greenhouse for the Tuileries' citrus tress, so it it a birght building with many windows. Monet's famous Water Lilies (Nympheas) are here, which are displayed across the walls in an oval room. We saw other several other paintings by Renoir, which mom really enjoyed since Renoir is her favorite.We both really liked this place. 

Musee d'Orangerie- Monet's Water Lilies

When we finished up at the Orangerie, we headed out of the gardens to Place de la Concorde. Of course it was time for our afternoon pastry, so we picked up a Grand Marnier crepe and waffle to eat as we watched the sun began to set. Place de la Concorde is famous for the 75-foot Egyptian Obelisk in the middle of the square. It also marks the beginning of the famous Champs-Elysees.  

Champs-Elysees

We have one more stop before our day is over: Centre Pompidou. This place is by far the most unique looking building in Paris, and at night it was a very exciting place to be. It is famous for its unusual architecture and also its modern art museum. The building itself is huge and is home to a large library, restaurant and cafe, cinema, and several modern studios and galleries. Mom and I however had a bit of a  different reason for going. First, we wanted to scope out where I will be living with my host family for the semester. We took the metro to my stop, which is right at the corner of the Centre Pompidou. The place was all lit up and busy with people coming and going. My little street faces the Pompidou building, so I will be staying right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. The other reason we wanted to go was to ride the escalator to the top of the building. Those of you who have seen the Pompidou know that the escalators are on the outside of the building, enclosed in glass-like tubes. It was great to see the city all lit-up at night. We reached the top right at 6pm, so when I pulled out my camera to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower, all of its light started blinking. This light show has been called the "electric shimmy", which is exactly what it looked like. 

View from the top of Centre Pompidou

The view from the top was really neat- a great way to end our day.

Mom at the top!

La Dimanche

Sunday was a day of walking. In the morning, we walked from our flat to a nearby market, Marche Aligre, which is one of Paris's best and busiest local markets. The street was closed off to cars, and there were floods of people crowding each booth to buy any and every kind of fruit and vegetable. Flower booths were mixed in all throughout the market, some of the best I've ever seen. There was also a covered part of the market, where people stood in long lines to order meats and cheeses. The smells and sounds made us hungry, so of course we had to stop at a boulangerie and order some pizza. We walked to a park and sat on a bench to eat, watching kids play soccer and families just enjoying the afternoon.

We headed next to Montmartre. We started at Place des Abesses and slowly worked our way up the hill. We were coming from behind the Sacré-Cœur, so the streets were a little more quiet. Once reaching the top of the hill, we found all the people. We had fun walking around and watching the street artists. 

Walking through the street artists

We walked around to the front of the Sacré-Cœur. We were thankful that the sun was out because it not only made for a great day, but once inside the church the sun shone through the stained-glass windows, giving a bright light to the place. 

Front of the Sacre-Coeur 

On top of the hill

Montmarte was crowded with patisseries, boulangeries, crêperies and many street vendors selling treats of all kinds. So we decided it was time we had our first crepe. Chocolate of course. It's dangerous how many I could have eaten, thank goodness the line was too long to go back for more. After seeing much of Montmartre, we headed back down the hill. 

We took the metro to Place de la Republique and walked down Canal St. Martin as the sun was setting before we went to dinner. We had heard of a bistro famous for their chocolate mousse, so of course that's where we went. It was a real fun place, our waiter was friendly and brought us two huge plates of his favorite fish dishes since when we asked him what he liked best. When we ordered the mousse au chocolat, he brought out a giant (seriously giant) bowl of chocolate goodness. To say the least, it was a very fun night at a very French bistro. 

Canal St. Martin

L’Opéra Garnier et L’Église Madeleine

We started day two at the Opéra Garnier, home of the Phantom of the Opera. On our way to the metro, we realized there is a huge church at the end of our street, Eglise Saint Ambrose. There is a little park in front of the church with a Christmas tree still standing in the middle of the park. It was a fun discovery. Once off the metro, we were blown away by the size of the Opera as we walked up.

steps leading to the back of the Opera Garnier

We were even more impressed once inside, it was amazing. We took a guided tour, which paid off because our guide, Gwen, was awesome. One of the most enthusiastic people I've ever come across, she was also persistent of getting us into the auditorium even though it was closed for a rehearsal, and I am so glad we made it inside.

ceiling of the Opera auditorium 

After spending a few hours exploring the Opera (and looking for the Phantom), we walked down Rue Royale to L’Église Madeleine. The front of the church looks very similar to the Roman Pantheon.

L’Église Madeleine

The church is situated in the middle of Place de la Madeleine, a very exciting part of the city. After looking around inside, we sat down to rest and listen to the organ practice as mass was about to begin. When we walked outside, we had a great view of Place de la Concorde and the Obelisk, and with the Palais Bourbon behind.

Concorde and Palais Bourbon

We left Place de la Madeleine late in the evening and walked around the area nearby. A few streets and squares are still decorated for Christmas, which was fun to see at nighttime. We stopped in a few stores, but soon got hungry so headed back to find dinner. It was a great day of seeing different parts of Paris and also exploring some historic places.

In Paris at last!

My first day in Paris could not have been better. Mom and I arrived at 9am (2am Dallas time) and took a taxi to our flat. Jonathan, a very friendly neighbor, helped carry our bags to the third floor and show us to our place, where Brigitte, our landlady, later met us. Our trip could not have been any easier. After settling in, we set off to find the cell phone store. It was about a 45 minute walk, and I'm still amazed we actually found the store. The entire way there we were distracted by too many beautiful churches to count, lit courtyards and parks, busy sidewalk cafes, delicious smelling boulangeries and pattiseries, winding cobblestone roads lined with exciting shops of all kinds- the list could go on and on. We stopped at Place des Vosges, one of Paris's prettiest squares, almost by accident. We walked through the park and around the square, which was all lit by this time because the sun had set. We finally reached the cell phone store and had no trouble buying my phone. We headed back towards our flat and stopped at a market to buy dinner. And best of all, we experienced our first patisserie of the trip, ordering a baguette, chocolate croissants and chocolate pastries. The lady who owns the shop was so friendly and so very French- I have a feeling we will be visiting her shop again.

Thank you so much to all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers- so far we have had a wonderful time. I love this city so much already and know the next four months are going to be some of the best!