Jour Trois – 6 de Juillet 2015: Bienvenue à Paris

     Today was our first full day in Paris and we hit the ground running (or more accurately, walking).  Still not quite on Paris-time, we both woke up at about 1:00 am.  Normally this would be a problem, but last night the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team was playing in the World Cup Finals against Japan and it was actually on TV here in France.  When we woke up we had already missed the first 20 minutes of the game.  Normally in soccer that would not be a big deal but the U.S. managed to net 4 goals in the first 20 minutes of the game – quite the incredible start.  So that was a good start to the day.

     We both fell back asleep and woke up for real at about 7:00.  We got ourselves ready and headed out for our first adventure on the metro.  Our first trip was nice and easy, involving no transfers.  The first stop of the day was at Luxembourg Gardens or Jardin do Luxembourg.  This massive park, which used to be the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace built by Marie d’Medici for her husband King Henry IV, contains walking and running paths, playgrounds, basketball courts, futebol fields, petanque courts (like bocce ball), stages, and plenty of places to just sit and relax. We walked through a large part of the park before making our way over to a little café by the fountains in front of the palace.  We stopped and had a very Parisian breakfast of croissants and cappuccinos.

     We left the garden and started to make our way over to the Rodin Museum, but on the way we saw signs for the Church of Saint-Sulpice, so we decided to make a quick stop there.  The Church of Saint-Sulpice – and it’s fictional “Rose Line” – play a prominent role in Dan Brown’s book The DaVinci Code.  The Paris Meridian does actually run through the church, but this is only meant to measure degrees east and west from Paris and nothing more exciting than that.  The church is the second largest in Paris, behind only Notre Dame.

     We left the church and made our way to the Rodin Museum only to find out it was closed on Mondays.  So we decided we would move it to Thursday and add the Arc d’Triomphe to the agenda for today.  Our next stop then was Les Invalides, which houses both Napoleon’s tomb and the National Army Museum.  I also visited Napoleon’s Tomb when I came to Paris in high school and it was as neat as I remembered it being.  It is exactly what you would expect from a tomb built for and designed by Napoleon.  It’s in a massive building under a large golden dome.  Napoleon’s tomb is in the rotunda between the ground floor and the lower floor; he wanted it this way so that people would either need to bow down to the tomb or look up to it in reverence in order to see it.  The four wings of the buildings contain the slightly less ornate tombs of some of his best generals and a son.  Immediately behind the main rotunda area is a huge altar, with the cathedral area behind that.  The rotunda is filled with paintings and sculptures, including one of Napoleon dressed as a Roman emperor with a golden civic crown on his head.  One part of Les Invalides that I didn’t remember visiting on my last trip was the Army museum.  The museum was huge and we skipped a large portion of it (the part dedicated to medieval armor and warfare), but we did spend a significant amount of time in the part of the museum dedicated to World Wars I & II.  It was very interesting to learn about both of these wars from a non-American perspective.

     Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower.  On the way we stopped at a little patisserie where we picked up a picnic lunch of a baguette sandwich with ham and greens, pasta salad, and macaroons.  We walked over to the Champs de Mars – the large park at the foot of the Eiffel tower – to enjoy this fantastic little lunch.  After lunch we explored the Eiffel Tower but did not head up to the top.  It was right in the middle of the afternoon when we got there and the lines were just too long.  But we will try to get back some other day either right when it opens or right before it closes to see if the lines are any better.  We headed across the Seine River to the Place du Trocadero.  The Place du Trocadero includes a palace (which now houses a number of museums, a square with a fountain, and a garden.  The famous picture of Hitler examining the Eiffel Tower was taken from the Trocadero, and the UN Resolution on Human Rights was signed there after WWII.  Unfortunately, it is currently undergoing restoration, so much of the square was blocked off and the fountain wasn’t on.  But there were still great views of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine.

     From Trocadero we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe.  This was another place I had visited in high school, although our visit this time differed in two very significant ways.  First, when we visited in high school, we did not realize that there was an underground tunnel to get you from the sidewalk to the arc.  As the idiot teenagers that we were, we instead decided to run across the massive traffic roundabout that encircles the Arc.  This is not a smart plan; Amy and I decided it would be a much better idea to use the tunnel.  Amy and I also made it up to the observation deck on top of the Arc, which I had not done on my previous visit.  It was a beautiful day and the views from the top were incredible.  We could see everything – the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the modern downtown Paris, Sacre Cour and Montmartre, Les Invalides, the Seine, and the Champs Elysses.  After checking out the views from the tp, we made our way into and then below the Arc to check out the museum and the memorials.  The Arc was originally built as a monument to French militarism, but it is now the home of the French memorial to their unknown soldier and all others who have died in defense of their country.

     We left the Arc (through the tunnel again) and made our way down what is probably Paris’s most famous street – the Champs Elysees.  This wide boulevard is where France has historically held its large parades.  It is also the street De Gaulle was driven down after the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944.  It still maintains this ceremonial function (as evidenced by the bleachers being erected along both sides in preparation for the Bastille Day celebration next week), as well as being the home to block after block of high-end shops, restaurants, and hotels.  We did some window shopping, but mostly just enjoyed taking in all the sights and sounds.  We also stopped at a little bistro from a snack.  We decided to fully embrace the Paris experience and ordered some escargot.  It took a while for us to figure out how to use the utensils, but when we did finally get it, we were surprised by how tasty those little snails were.  They were cooked in a pesto-type sauce and we both really enjoyed it – it definitely pays to go outside your comfort zone.

     We took the Champs Elysees all the way down to its end at the Place de Concorde.  Along the way we passed both the Grand Palais and Petite Palais.  Because of all the bleachers and stages being set-up on the Place de Concorde, we weren’t able to get a good sense of the square itself.  We could see the top of its famous obelisk, but most of the bottom was blocked.  We left the Champs Elysees and just spent the rest of the evening walking along the Seine.  We walked past the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, and the National Institute.  We crossed onto the Ile de la cite to see Notre Dame and then continued onto Ile de St. Louis (these are the two islands in the middle of the Seine between Paris’s left and right banks).  We weren’t very hungry, so instead of dinner we just grabbed some ice cream cones to eat along our walk.  As dusk started to set in (which is like 9:30 here), we decided to hop in the metro and make our way back to our hotel.  Tomorrow we will venture outside of Paris to explore the palace and gardens at Versailles.   

Croissants and cappuccinos in the Jardin du Luxembourg for our first breakfast of the trip. 

The 17th century Palace Luxembourg, built by Marie de Medici for her husband, King Henry IV, in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

The Hotel National des Invalides - home of Napoleon's tomb, the National Army Museum, and a veterans' hospital.

Napoleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides.  Positioned according to Napoleon's own directions so that in order to look at it, one must either look down (bow) in reverence, or look up in awe.  No ego problems there at all.

Lunch - baguette sandwich, pasta salad, and macaroons - on the Champs de Mars, under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

On top of the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower behind us.

Looking out from the top of the Arc de Triomphe with the Champs Elysees stretching out on the right and Montmartre and the Sacre Coure Basilica rising in the distance, just left of center.

The Eiffel Tower from atop the Arc de Triomphe. 

Looking up at the Arc de Triomphe.

Enjoying an early evening stroll along the banks of the Seinne, with the Musee d'Orsay, National Assembly, and Eiffel Tower on the "Left Bank".

The Cathedral de Notre Dame on Ile de Cite in the heart of Paris.

Having fun riding the subway.  Here we are at the Cite metro station on Ile de la Cite (by Note Dame) on our way up to the Chateau Rouge station in Montmartre  using the Number 4 Line.