Did you know that a ‘real’ croissant (ie made with pure butter) is not curved? It is straight! If a croissant is curved it means it is made with margarine instead! Such was the knowledge imparted to us by Sophie over breakfast the next morning as Carolyn ate her fresh (straight) croissant and I munched my chocolate-custard-almond-pastry-wonder-thingee (did I mention the food this weekend was EXCEPTIONALLY good??).
We’d planned to spend this morning in the Musee d’Orsay – the museum of art collections from 1848-1914, which was another place I had not been to previously. We walked through the Tuileries garden and along the banks of the Seine to get there, from which we got a good view of the Louvre museum and up the Seine to the Grand Palais – a very impressive building. I agree with Sophie that I prefer the art in the Musee d’Orsay to that in the Louvre. The key artists there are Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and Renoir. The museum is in an old railway station and the building itself is gorgeous. Before we knew it we’d spent 3hrs there, and still hadn’t seen anywhere near everything. I would highly recommend it as a place to spend many enjoyable hours! We’d made sandwiches which we had for a picnic lunch on the roof terrace, from which we had the opposite view to yesterday – looking over the Seine towards the Sacre Coeur on its hill. Being rigorous, we sped up the last part of our art tour and left the museum by 2pm, feeling that we’d had a wonderful cultural and art immersion experience.
From the Musee d’Orsay we walked down the banks of the Seine to Ile de la Cite in the middle of the river where the Notre Dame cathedral is. Last time I was here there was scaffolding on the outside, and I think at least one of the Rose windows was obstructed. This time there was no scaffolding…but there certainly was a crowd! I guess that’s to be expected. It’s still an amazingly impressive building, both inside and out.
We came across a jazz band from New York playing on one of the bridges from Ile de la Cite – they’d set up in the centre of the bridge, and the crowd that formed around them successfully blocked the whole route . There was a saxophonist (playing 2 different old saxes), a guitarist (both of these sang), double bassist and drummer…all about 50-70years old? They were fantastic! We stayed for 2-3 songs, singing along to “Swing low, sweet chariot” and so on…and were very tempted to buy their CDs. It was Carolyn’s favourite type of jazz. I love the open-air music that you come across in Europe like that.
It was just starting to rain as we again headed for the metro to take us to our next stop…Angelina’s on Rue de Rivoli. Yes, Melissa, we HAD to go there for the hot chocolate (for a lengthier description see my entry on Paris weekend from 2004). Suffice it to say this hot chocolate is soooooo memorable and rich and good that we all had it, despite it costing around $13NZ per person. Just the thing for tired and hungry girls on a rainy day! There was quite a queue for the tea room too, testimony to its fame and popularity. Poor Carolyn had had a headache for the last wee while though, and was starting to develop a fever. But good on her – she was determined to still ‘do’ Paris, and some paracetemol kept the fever at bay for a bit…
We had a bit of time browsing the many very touristy shops of Rue de Rivoli before going to the evening service at Soph’s church – ’72 rue de Sevres’ – the address and the name of the church are one and the same. It’s not often that I know every single song in a French church service, but ALL of these were English ones translated. It’s really interesting seeing how the translations of songs work out – it’s the sense of the words more than literal translations, and while ‘Open the eyes of my heart’ I think is better in English, I prefer the French version of ‘Blessed be your name’, ie ‘Beni soit ton nom’.
The weather turned really cold while we were in church so that when we left around 7pm, we were shivering in the street! So much for summer! We decided the best plan was to head to the Odeon region and find a WARM restaurant where we could have some HOT food. A determined and friendly waiter convinced us to dine at a Moroccan restaurant (very much a family-run business) which was really enjoyable, and also delicious. HUGE meals – we were fuelled to go for hours afterwards! It was a good thing too, because it was Carolyn’s last evening in Paris, and therefore her last chance to see things lit at night. Around 11pm we finished our meal (yep, French sense of timing), did a quick trip home to get into warmer clothes, and then took the metro to the steps of the Palais which afford a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower. We got there just before midnight, just in time for the lights which flash up and down the tower for about 10minutes on the hour. We took a quick walk down to stand right underneath the tower, then the metro to the Arc de Triomphe to see that and the Champs-Elysees illuminated too, before getting the last metro home (1.15am!!!!!!!!!). All three of us were very happy to get to bed!
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