Barney & Lauri's Burgundy & Beyond Adventure

We’d only visited Paris 24 years ago for two days when the kids were young and for a while we’d been hoping to revisit the capital of our new home country and most visited city in the world. According to some sources, Paris had 44 Million visitors in 2022! With nothing on our calendar, this slow paced time of year seemed like the right time for us.

Last Monday we got up early, walked 20 minutes to our Dijon train station, took the TGV, and 1.5 hrs later we had traveled the distance of 350 km and were in the center of Paris. The TGV is the French high speed rail system connecting the larger French cities and adjacent countries. Running on conventional steel railroad tracks, we were amazed how comfortable and quiet we were cruising along at up to 320 km/h (200 mph).

This blog site doesn’t seem to let me post videos. Bummer, as I would have liked to give you an impression of the speed and smoothness of the ride.

Stepping out of the TGV in Gare de Lyon (Paris’ main railroad station) we knew we were in a BIG city. It reminded me of Grand Central Station in NY. We each purchased a 10 ride Metro pass, took the 1-Line to the Place de la Concorde, and then the 8-Line to the Ecole Militaire station. Another 5 minute walk and we dropped off our luggage at our hotel in the Eiffel district, ready to start a day of Paris sightseeing at 10 AM. Here are a few impressions from our first day:

We strolled through the Opera district, and with rain showers in the sky, went into the big old classic department stores of Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, where we marveled over the abundance of elegant and chic goods displayed and the architecture of the buildings.

Our first museum visit was the Musee de l’Orangerie, located in the Jardin des Tuileries, between the Place de la Concorde and the Seine. This museum is an art gallery famous for exhibiting Monet’s impressionistic water lilies paintings, which are displayed in two specially designed rooms. These two pictures are off the internet, as there were way too many visitors in the rooms to take decent pictures.

Late afternoon we checked into our hotel and were stunned to discover that our comfortable hotel room offered a view of the Eiffel Tower. After a nice dinner in a small restaurant 5 minutes from our hotel, where the manager kept on joking with me about me introducing myself as “Bernard”, pronounced in proper French fashion, we laid on the bed and marveled at the sparking delight outside our window.

Lauri had a full day planned for Tuesday. We started out with a 15 minute walk to the Hotel de Invalides. This is not only the place to honor French veterans and the place of a military museum, it is mostly visited for the resting place of France’s most famous leader: Napoleon Bonaparte.

We were almost the only ones in the church. Here, as in a lot of other places, we just wondered how busy this place must be during tourist season.

Across the road we were at the museum of France’s most famous sculptor: Auguste Rodin. Besides marveling over the sculptures like “The Thinker”, here you could see the planning and creative processes involved. There were so many Rodin objects on display, – besides the Rodin sculptures and paintings on display at other sites, one could only imagine how busy and creatively driven this artist must have been.

In the sculpture garden, we were reminded that it was “Haute Couture Fashion Week”. Dior had their annual catwalk hall for their fashion show still up from the night before and open to the public. Lauri couldn’t help but take a visit.

Heading to the Musee d’Orsay, we literally squeezed into a small cafe opposite the Education Ministry of France. The place was packed with French business people on lunch break. A small table within elbow reach of the guests at the adjacent table had just become available. Despite the crowd and perceived time constrain of the customers, the atmosphere was civil, cozy, and the service for two different “Plat du jours”, was friendly, polite and swift. Rested and filled by a good lunch, we were ready for the famous museum in the old train station, and despite it being a workday in January, this place was full of tourists!

We had visited the Musee d’Orsay 24 years ago, yet for both of us, – and we did take our own routes through the museum, the 3.5 hrs we spend in there, went by way too fast. Here are a couple impressions:

From the Musee d’Orsay we walked back along the Seine, stopped at a cafe for a drink, and then all the way back to our hotel. After a simple dinner at a nearby pizza place, we were exhausted from a full day in Paris. Our tired legs, fed and overloaded heads from all the new impressions, told us that we’re not used to such big city buzz and that we’re not 30 anymore.

Wednesday morning we took the train out of the city center to Versailles, the famous “homestead” of the Sun-King Louis XIV. It was also the home of Louis XV up to the unfortunate Louis XVI, too, and of course, the bigger than life French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The palace, which grew over the centuries out of a small hunting lodge, is simply enormous. In these large, long halls, the numerous oversized paintings appear regular poster size. Covering 2,000 acres, the gardens are equally vast.

On the way back we had a sandwich on the train and got off at Port de l’Alma next to the Seine in the city center. After a cup of tea at a cafe, we promenaded down the Avenue Montaigne to get a vibe of French fashion, strolling from one designer flagship store to the next. It was hard to get Lauri away from the Dior windows, though I have to admit that the “Rose Head Flower” decorations of the window displays were creative and beautiful.

We went into the close by Petit Palais, another great art museum, yet by then I had reached my fill of looking at paintings, sculptures etc, which likely explains why I didn’t take any pictures… We had both had our fill of museums, but the entrance was free, and so we decided on a quick visit.

The Grand Palais across the street was closed due to renovations. Speaking of which, we noticed several sites that were being cleaned up in preparations for this summer’s Olympics in Paris. With 44 Million annual visitors plus the Olympics in the summer, one can only imagine how packed and strained this city will be. Just thinking about the metro system, which was already a squeeze during rush hour traffic, how will it handle coming July? To show the gravity of this anticipated onslaught, the city canceled hosting the finish of the 2024 Tour de France. Something unheard off, as it has finished on the Champs-Elysees uninterrupted since 1975! This year the riders will sprint to their final finish in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais.

And yes, we were right next to the Champs-Elysses and so spent some time looking at stores along this grand avenue, before walking back, across the Seine, towards our hotel.

After refreshing at the hotel, we went out for a drink and a typical French dinner, and all of that made for another very full and memorable day in the City of Lights. Cheers!

Our TGV didn’t leave until 08:22 PM on Thursday, so we left our luggage at the hotel and headed into the city for one last day of sightseeing. Will the rebuilding of Paris’ 2017 fire devastated grand cathedral Notre Dame really be finished for the 2024 Olympics as originally planned? Here is a look from last week:

The latest I could find, is that the roof will almost be finished and most of the scaffolding off the new spire in time for the Olympics, that the opening of the church for services is scheduled for December 2024 and that the entire rennovation process will be completed in 2028. There are a lot of great articles, illustrations and videos available that cover this monumental renovation, that has 1,000 daily workers on site and has 500 artisans and a total of 250 different contractors involved in the project.

With all the Parisian buzz about Napoleon, I was glad to rediscover the statue of one of my favourite European leaders next to the renovation site: Charlemagne.

Just 5 minutes west of Notre Dame, we tried to find the entrance to Sainte Chapelle between all the barriers and security staff around this city block housing the Department of Justice. Despite being an overcast day in the morning, this “Chapelle” with its blue stained glass windows didn’t disappoint and is always worth the visit. It’s origin goes back to Charlemagne in 800 AD.

Walking out of the Chapelle we walked into the cellar and old meeting hall of the Palais de Cite, before crossing the Seine to the Hotel de Ville (town hall).

From there we walked by the interesting 70’s Centre Pompidou building to the Marais district, with its numerous smaller shops and narrower roads. Wish I’d taken more pictures of the elaborate displays of the many patisseries, or the numerous, fancy and small fashion/clothing stores. I recall counting like 6 upscale men’s suit stores, mostly adjacent each other and all within a couple of street blocks. The same for women’s dresses or coiffeurs (hair salons), demonstrating apparently sufficient business for so much competition next door.

Arriving at the Place des Vosges we were ready to sit down for lunch at a cafe under the arcades. Though still in the city center, here in the Marais, the big city feel made way for a more normal, warmer and personal neighborhood feel.

The afternoon we spent, – yes, with more walking through the city before heading back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head back via TGV to Dijon.

Grand elegance is a very fitting term to describe Paris. The 18th century rebuilding of Paris by Haussmann on the instruction of Napoleon III was a visionary stroke of genius. From the grand avenues, plazas, parks, and symmetrical location of grand buildings and monuments, to the ornate light posts, all of this in the beautiful, classic Haussmannian style, together with the artisanal touch and fashion chic displayed in the countless stores and cafes, make Paris unique in a league of its own.

Sure will be back. A bientot!