Paris avec nos Amis

Paris avec nos Amis

 There is Paris, . . . there is Paris in the springtime, . . . and then, there is Paris with friends: ça, c'est le meilleur!

On Friday, after a morning of riding the tide of tourists through the Louvre and a quiet afternoon reading in a sunny park, watching mothers chatting while their kids ran around the cherry trees, we met up with our good friends, Timothy Endicott and his wife, Annalise. What a special two days we had together! Timothy and Annalise had spent a month in Paris in 2023, so it was fun having them introduce us to some of their favourite areas and especially restaurants, or 'restos' as they say here. Over the two days we managed to knock off 1 boat ride, 2 jardins, 3 churches, 4 bus rides, over 30,000 steps, and almost an equal number of calories. But first, a recap of Friday.

Although not our first visit to the famed Louvre museum, Friday`s visit brought to mind recent concerns expressed by President Macron about the renovations needed to accommodate the growing number of tourists. The 'pyramid' built in 1989 to create a reception area for the 4 million annual visitors is now deemed insufficient for the nearly 9 million who visit each year. We might have guessed that all 9 million were there Friday morning. Nevertheless, we went with the flow - which was slow - and managed not to sink in the undertow. Rather, our tour of the Ancient Greek sculptures raised our boat of spirits, and we disembarked with a greater appreciation of the Greek's mastery of the human form. Even with a thousand worshippers gathered round her, Venus of Milo can't help but cause the viewer to catch their breath, skip a heart beat, or otherwise express their admiration. Venus wasn't alone in this regard, as Catherine was confronted with her own crowd of admiring teenagers, who cried out 'Your eyes! Your eyes! You have beautiful eyes!' (Catherine here notes that it was extremely disconcerting!)

Who deserves the pedestal - you choose!

Personally, I was as much taken by the structures that housed the museum. Under the galleries are the blocks making up the base of the towers of the original castle (begun in 1190). Below is one of the rooms of Anne of Austria that have been recently restored to house some of the Greek and Roman sculptures.

Obviously, Catherine had drawn the crowds elsewhere!

Afternoon in another park: Jardin Catherine Labouré 

Friday night`s resto - seafood to die for (especially if you are Catherine and allergic)

Saturday was another gloriously sunny day. We started with a viennoiserie (think pain au chocolat) and grabbed a bus down to the Eiffel tower, where we boarded a boat (along with several hundred other tourists) and cruised the Seine, catching all the sights along the way. At first I was delighted that Parisians were friendly enough to wave at us from the banks and bridges - finally, I felt connected with the locals - until I realized that it was tourists waving at tourists. Oh, well.

After disembarking, we retraced our steps (our wake?) and made our way up stream by foot, finally catching a bus that took us to St. Germaine des Pres, where we lunched at Les Deux Magots (which fortunately is in no way related to fly offspring). Anyone who was anyone lunched here when they were someone (including Sartre and de Beauvoir), but now it's just blokes like us who try to get a whiff of the sweat off the red leather seats from all that existential thinking that went on. One thing we learned here was that half of what you are paying for is the right to sit and do whatever you like for just about as long as you like; witness the woman beside us who sat and read 'On War', which would certainly have kept her there until Easter, given the number of times she looked up to see if anyone was noticing.

On exiting the restaurant we found ourselves facing the very ancient-looking St. Germain des Pres church, which has a long and difficult-to-follow history, with Romanesque beginnings (founded in 558 by Childebert I), a great deal being destroyed during the Revolution. It was restored in the second half of the 19th century to look Medieval, and that work was given a further restoration a few years back.  The result was fascinating, and Catherine excitedly explained biblical scenes and the theological significance of their placement. 

One note of special interest to us was a plaque commemorating the consecration of Francois de Laval as the first bishop of New France in the Chapel of the Virgin (no longer there) at St. Germain des Pres in 1658. 

After a brief nap in the small park beside the church, we bussed back to Montparnasse, where we picked up ready-made sandwiches at our favourite local boulangerie, to be eaten in the Jardin de Luxembourg.

Sunday morning found us up and early, making our way on foot to a little café on the Eastern border of the Jardin de Luxembourg where we once again gobbled up viennoiseries. We then scurried down toward the Seine and crossed onto the Ile de la Cité in time to join the crowds in Notre Dame. After a little time touring about, the four of us found choice seats to attend the mass, accompanied by the masses. Following the mass, we crossed back to the left bank and went close enough to the famous Shakespeare and Company to produce the picture below. I refuse to stand in line to enter an English bookstore in Paris, regardless as to whose name is in the title.

We next made our way to the Jardin des Plantes, the same Jardin des Plantes Catherine and I had visited on Thursday. It continued to provide a stunning backdrop for pictures like the one below.

Annalise then led us to a lovely restaurant in the Latin Quarter nearby where we had our dejeuner for the day before heading off by bus and long walk to St. Eustace Church, which is on the other side of the river (if you are following, you'll know that means the right bank) near Les Halles. Here we took in an organ recital featuring Widor's 6th Symphony. St. Eustace has the largest organ in France; however, it didn`t manage to keep us awake through all five movements. Other interesting items to note included a triptych by Keith Haring, given by the artist to France and placed in St Eustache to honour the church's dedication to helping people with AIDS (of which Haring died). Nearby was also a painting by Peter Paul Rubens of ample-women fame, though this painting, being of the road to Emmaeus, was sadly lacking in ample women.

For Robbie

That evening we took in a local Auvergne restaurant, the specialty of the house being aligot, a glutinous mix of mashed potatoes and a soft melted Auvergne fromage poured onto your plate hot off the stove from a ridiculous height.  Sounds disgusting, but you must deguster it.

It was a wonderful weekend, and amazing as the sites were, best of all was the time spent together with Timothy and Annalise, long talks over une coupe de champagne and some French cheeses on everything from new magnolia trees to Augustine, eternity, and time.

Monday was spent more prosaically, chiefly doing laundry which seems to be done by French washing machines at as leisurely a pace as the French eat lunch. We did fit in a late afternoon visit to the Louvre, slowly, as Cath had banged up her foot. After two visits, we have now covered most of antiquity. With 38,000 pieces on display and over 700,000 square feet of exhibition space, it may require more than the three weeks we have remaining, but I sense that Catherine is determined to make a go of it - at her usual church and museum pace (which is in stark contrast to her speed of light evening saunter speed). We followed the experience by resting in the Tuileries and gazing at statues before heading home.

The Richelieu Wing of the Louvre from the Tuileries

Looking west from the Tuileries to the Place de Concorde and Arc de Triomphe beyond

How to get your wife home with an injured foot when the Metro`s down

Tomorrow we are off to Chartres. We'll be sure to tell you all about it upon our return.