Art And Paris

Painted by Giovanni Paolo Pannini

I tired to get a detail pic of some of this painting here.

I know, I know, the Mona Lisa is supposed to be greatest piece at the Louvre, but this was my favorite. I wish I had a better picture. Maybe if I had taken a decent camera with me to Paris instead of using my camera off my phone, you would be able to see and appreciate this amazing painting. I actually went into the gift shop at the Louvre asking if they had a print or picture of this that  could be purchased, only to find out they did not have anything. What a disappointment for me, because this is just amazing to me how he painted hundreds of little faces, each with a different expression on its face, and each body was in a different position. One of the men painted into this  even was sitting there reading a book, and when you looked at this little book he has actually painted a bit of scribbles like words across the pages. Look at the difference in the clothes, hats, and hair colors, some of the men are even balding. This thing had the most  minute details in it. I could have spent an hour or more just trying to discover all the little secrets in this.

Katie loved this one, because the little boy on the right had tears coming down his cheek, she thought it looked like someone had put a clear liquid on it, because it looked just like a real wet  watery tear.



The Lovers by Rodin

Who wouldn't love this. Through out my life I have always loved sculpture. So everything Rodin did I love.

Carmel Made From Sweetened Condensed Milk

 

 

I saw this on Facebook and it looked so easy. My husband loves Carmel so I thought I would try it out. 

 

 

Place an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in a crock pot for  8 hours on low (completely submerged in water).  Cool it down in the fridge, and you have Caramel. Talk about easy!

We warmed the carmel up for ice cream. My husband said he loved it, as he licked his fingers clean.  So I guess this will be a something we will have again.

Bring on the apples and all the apple recipes, because this caramel will go with these too.

How To Eat Like A Parisian, And Look Like One Too



Hot goat cheese salad

We shared this for dinner one night.

 

 

How do the French people stay so thin when eating croissants, baguettes, macaroons, cheese, crepes, and drinking lots of wine on a daily basis? I think I know......stairs, stairs, more stairs,  some bicycling, and add lots of walking.
 
I read an article before going to Paris that said if you wanted  look 'French' buy a baguette, then eat the end off of it as you leave the boulangerie  (bakery) while it was still warm. They weren't kidding, as we walked around  Paris we saw so many baguettes with the tops eaten off of them.

 A plate with a sliced baguette, a variety of cheeses with some dried meats would actually be a course during a meal.  Now here in the US we are told to watch our carbs, cheese is fattening, and sugar is a treat that we can have only once in awhile.



I think I live in the wrong country, because I love breads, cheese, crepes and while we were in Paris I ate and drank like them and I did not gain one pound. In fact Katie lost four pounds! So how does that happen?!


Stairs

The stairs! And all the walking we did. Every day we were climbing at least 1000 steps a day. I'm not kidding, just going in and out of the Metro's you climb a couple hundred  stairs. Every building we visited had hundred's of stairs. The elevators in Paris are only big enough for one person at a time, or two, if you like the other person. We found it faster and easier just to climb the stairs, even at our hotels, the first one, we were on the fourth floor and on the second floor at our second hotel. If you take an elevator you can sometimes have a wait. Katie only used the stairs, me..... if by chance an elevator was just sitting there waiting for me, I would use it.

 

I  loved the hot goat cheese salad we had in Paris, so when I got home I tried to remake it for my family. Turned out yummy, I changed the regular walnuts for candied pecans. I also made crepes which turned out divine. So I guess if I want to eat these wonderful foods, and not gain any weight I will have to park my car, walk more, and always take the stairs.





This is my try at the hot goat cheese salad

My homemade crepes.

Whimscal Moments In Paris

Have you seen the French movie  Amélie ?  One of the cutest, charming whimsical shows I've seen. When researching things to do and places to see while in Paris, I found a web site called The Worldwide Guide to Movies. For this particular movie it gave nine different locations in which the movie had been filmed around Paris.
 So while we were there we especially wanted to visit a couple of the locations.

Café des 2 Moulins, Montmartre, Paris

 The place that made me smile and feel giddy was the café where Amélie worked. It is Café des 2 Moulins. We sat in the exact place they filmed! Ordered drinks and took lots of pictures. The poor staff  must get so tired of all the visitors taking pictures of them and every thing there, including  the bathroom where  one scene took place. To my surprise and delight as you entered the bathroom they had a little glassed-in area where they had props and paraphernalia from the  movie. What a place to put this right?! This just tickled me.


This was the enclosed museum stuff in the bathroom.



The garden gnome was one of the cutest parts of the movie.

A view from where we sat.

 



One of my favorite parts of the movie was Amélie secretly kidnapping her fathers garden gnome out of his garden, then giving it to her neighbor who was a flight attendant. The flight attendant  would then take pictures of the gnome in different locations around the world. In the movie the dad knew his gnome was missing, but adding to his confusion he started getting letters with  pictures of his gnome in front of the Statue of Liberty, and different places. This was Amélie's way of encouraging her father to travel.

 

 Katie and I had  gone to the Latin Quarter one day, and was walking back along the West bank of the Seine when a woman approached us holding a 'Flat Stanley', and asked if we could help her get a picture. For those of you who don't know about Flat Stanley, he travels the world in envelopes, then has pictures taken of him at different locations, and then writes a little bit of a journal about his adventures. Turns out that this woman was a flight attendant herself and  was doing this for her seven year old niece. It made me think of what  Amelie did with the gnome! How funny. When she asked if I wouldn't mind holding up the little 'Flat Stanley' in front of the signs by the Notre Damn I had to giggle and say yes. I felt a little like Amélie at that moment,  it was a whimsical moment, and one   that  made my trip extra fun.



Can you see the little gnome in different parts of the world?

Look hard and you can see the little Flat Stanley dressed in blue under the signs.
 

Keys and Hotels

We had two different hotels while in Paris, one was 80 euros a night, and the other was 215 a night. We decided to spend five nights on the East side, and five on the West side. Our first hotel was in Place D'Italie.   It didn't have A/C with this room, but because of the time of year we really didn't need one, it was just plain and simple. One night in Paris while at this hotel  I  got sick to my stomach from some rich food that I had eaten earlier. Needless to say, we were rushing back to the room. As we got to our door Katie was doing her best to hurry, but the key was the old fashion metal kind that you inserted into the lock and then you had to turn it around and around two times to either lock or unlock the door.

The next morning as we were getting ready to leave I asked Katie if she still had the key, she said no you have the key, I replied no because it was she who was trying to get the door opened the night before when I was having stomach problems. Katie dumps out her purse on the bed, gives it a good shake and then says "See I don't have the key." So I dumped my purse out thinking maybe she put the key in my purse, only after shaking my purse do I look at her and reply, " I don't have the key either." Now we are looking at each other like no, Oh... So we went through our luggage, shaking our bedding, and down on the floor crawling on our hands and knees looking for the key. At this point I decided I'd better go down and talk to the front desk, as I opened the door, guess what? There was our key! In the lock! It had been there all night long, and during that night we heard people coming and going past our door. So I would have to say this was a very safe place to stay.



Twin beds. And I loved our window view.

Another view from our window.



Clean and everything worked well.
 

Our second hotel was right by the Arc De Trompre Etoile, in fact everyday we walked by it to get to and from our hotel. This room did have A/C, and the building was an actual old mansion that had been renovated into  a hotel. Katie and I felt so 'French' here. Now the key at this hotel was  a plastic card that you just touched the door key and it automatically opened, then you would have to put the card into a slot by the door that would allow the electric in the room to work. One day after sightseeing, we returned to the hotel and upon  reaching our door  we stand there looking at each other and I inform Katie she has the key, and she's like no you have the key mom. I once again dump my purse there in the hallway and no key! So I go downstairs and ask for another key card, and the guy is so sweet, "oh don't worry about it, it happens all the time."  Later that night Katie was getting something out of her purse and guess what? Yep, Katie had the  key in her purse. For the rest of the trip I was in charge of the keys, that way we never had to ask "who has the key".

 



This had a double bed. We didn't have a pick of twins or not.

More modern bathroom



Free mini bar  which was restocked daily. 



Beautiful Courtyard.
 

Locations on both hotels were the same to the Metro. Each one was clean, and everyone that worked at these hotels spoke good English and where just a sweet and helpful as ever. So I guess you have to decide how much you want to spend for rooms, because we loved all the people from both hotels, and loved spending time in each location it would be hard to decide which one we'd go back to.
 

Meet Me In Paris Under The Eiffel Tower

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On our first day in Paris we had two things we had to do:  go pick up our Paris Passes, and meet Bob under the Eiffel Tower at 4:00 p.m.  What a more perfect way to start out in Paris than going to the Eiffel Tower. Bob a friend of ours, who is an airline pilot was going to be in Paris that day and would meet us under the tower.

After getting lost for two hours and finally finding our way to the Paris Pass office, we headed for the Eiffel Tower. Upon exiting the Metro at Trocadero,  I was trying to figure out where we were when Katie comes over to me, grabs my arm trying to turn me around and excitedly saying, “Mom, mom, LOOK!” As she turned me around, there it was, the Eiffel Tower. It was ‘Love at first sight’.  I had no idea how huge it was plus I had not noticed from photos how beautiful the iron work on it was. I literally stopped in my tracks, mouth open, and then the tears started swelling up in my eyes. I couldn’t believe I was in Paris looking at the Eiffel Tower!

I asked my daughter Katie “didn’t you cry when you saw it”, she said no because she was so taken by my reaction to seeing it for the first time.

Your whole life you see pictures, watch movies of this site, but I wasn’t expecting the actual size of it. Seeing the surrounding area with the long water fountains, green grassed park areas, I was frozen and struck with awe. I couldn’t believe I was standing here in person, me! Both Katie and I just stood there trying to take in the moment “Maybe you should pinch me, because I still can’t believe I’m here,” I said.







Our tree. You can see the towers reflection in Katie's sunglasses.
 

We had a little extra time before Bob showed up so we walked over to the grassy park area, and found a tree to sit down by and lean against, and just stare up at the tower, watch the people around us. There were people having their picnics with a baguette, cheese and wine. It really is an amazing thing. 

After spending the day with Bob, walking the East bank of the Seine, going to the Norte Damn, seeing the Lovers’ Bridge with all the locks on it, having dinner at Bob’s favorite restaurant and then having desert at a crepe stand, we walked back to the Eiffel Tower after dark so we could see it all lit up and to get to watch when it sparkled. This time of evening we saw a lot of couples sitting there on the grass with a picnic, but we noticed instead of wine it was Champagne.   I asked Bob, “Because you travel all around the world as a pilot, and get to come here often, do you appreciate these moments?” And you know what he said? “Yes, I do, every time I come here and see it.” 

A few days later Katie and I went back again, wanting to go to the top of the tower when it was still light outside, but then see the lights come on while we were at the top. Our wish came true, and all in perfect timing.

Like in life itself you always want the last moment of something or the last bite to be savored. So on our last day in Paris we decided to end it at the Eiffel Tower. We sat by the fountains, listened to Edith Piaf’s music and watched as the sun set and the lights came on. Ooh La La

 

 

Meet Me in Paris

Our last night in Paris

 

"Let's not go to bed tonight, then maybe we won't have to go home tomorrow." That was how I felt and what I told Katie as we said our goodbye's to the Eiffel Tower. It was Katie's idea that we go to Paris, I wasn't so sure because I had heard that it was a dirty city, that the people were rude and the lines to get into anything where awful. But Katie wanted to go and spent her full ten days of leave there, so of course a mother can't say no.
   We had four months to prepare and get ready, so prepare I did. It had been twenty five years since I had taken a French class, so my husband bought me the Pimsleur conversational French audio set. Every day I worked on my French until I left, I also downloaded French music, watched French movies, and used YOUTUBE  to learn even more French, found and followed blogs of people who live in France, and even FB sites like 'Paris Pass', my favorite site is: http://www.thegoodlifefrance.com.
   I researched the do's and don'ts, tried to learn as much as I could so not to insult or anger anyone while on their soil.
   Now, I'm not for sure if it was all of the above things or what, but.....I LOVED PARIS! We had the best time and found the people absolutely wonderful. We had no trouble getting into places, and didn't find the city dirty at all! Maybe it was the time of year, who knows? When I travel to foreign countries I don't expect or even want them to be like America, that is the reason to go. Yes bathrooms can be VERY different, but I always carry my own packets of Kleenex just in case and you have to remember that some countries are poverty stricken, or maybe the area is hundreds of years old.  I like to camp too and I have seen and used some interesting sites here at home. When I've gone to amusement parks, professional sport games, Disneyland, etc. I have stood in lines for quite
 some time. Yet, I found most of everything in Paris just the same for wait times. So there was nothing disappointing to me.
   I wish I could actually go live in France for a few months so I could travel to see more of it. In fact my husband and I decided that every time we go to Europe we will stop in Paris for a few days, because even after ten days there I still didn't get to see everything Paris has to offer.