The French Dispatches - Part Deux
Did you read Part 1 already?
In the last blog, we arrived in Paris, checked into the Hotel Le Six, ate delicious crepes, and visited the Eiffel Tower. Not a bad evening!
I *think* you're going to like this post...heehee!
Although we were tired and the bed was comfy (it's amazing how things like this matter SO much more than they used to), we only slept okay on Thursday night; mostly, this was due to being in an unfamiliar spot and the time change, but the 7:30am wakeup courtesy of the man next door yelling at his kids (in French!) didn't really help. Once they thundered down to breakfast, we relaxed, taking our time to make coffee and tea in our room, showering, and generally getting ready to start the day. After taking in breakfast ourselves, it was time to hit the streets for some sightseeing!
A view from our window -
Montparnasse is a busy area of town, but our street was quiet
Looking down the Rue Stanislas
Our room was on the third floor -
while that meant we didn't often take the stairs up to the room,
we did take them on the way down, and they were quite lovely.
You could look out this window down into the glass-topped atrium below.
That's a working antique (very tiny) elevator shaft on the right.
There was also a larger, more modern elevator to use for luggage, etc.
We hoofed it to the Notre Dame des Champs metro station, then rode to the Invalides area of town. Today would be a cultural day on the left bank, and we already had tickets for both the Rodin and Army Museums.
Our designated metro station for this adventure -
for our first few days in Paris, it was mainly this gray color, as clouds filled up the sky.
It was pretty cold, too - lows in the mid 30s and highs in the low 50s.
Inside the metro - I just love the tile work, much of which has been there since
its initial construction in the late 1890s (it's been cleaned a few times since then).
Today, media companies swap out ads inside the antique borders you see above.
Once we emerged from the metro in the Invalides neighborhood of the left bank, we had a short walk to the Rodin Museum, and it was through an area full of large, well kept buildings. It wasn't until we were passed by two motorcades and saw certain streets cordoned off (and guarded by folks with machine guns) that we realized we were in the middle of a government sector of town, including the locations of several embassies.
One such motorcade
Pretty buildings in this area of town
As we were walking through this area, we noticed another building with a high security entrance, but we were used to that by now. What caught our eye was the bevy of box trucks outside, loading in racks and racks of garment bags; we had somehow wandered past the headquarters of Yves Saint Laurent.
This is only half of the building - the street wasn't wide enough for a full shot
On our last visit to France in 2018, we didn't budget enough time to really experience the Rodin Museum, and since we both enjoy his work, it was high on the list of priorities for this trip. We planned to spend the entire morning there, and we're really glad we did. The museum is housed inside an old hotel, which Rodin bought in the late 1800s; he turned it into his studio and home, and once he passed, it transitioned into a museum for his collections. Rodin was extremely prolific during his life, and since all of his work was already on site, the museum is absolutely spoiled for options on what to put on display for visitors. Because sculpting large-scale in bronze or marble is time consuming and expensive, Rodin would start his pieces with conceptual drawings, moving to smaller models in terra cotta, porcelain, or other materials, and once he was satisfied, he'd dive into making the final products. It was really neat to look at all of these pieces and witness the progression from thought to drawing to small scale models and then to the huge works we know and love, seeing how he'd tweak things or make adjustments as he went. I don't think I've ever been to a museum that focused so exclusively on one artist and his process, and it was a cool experience.
Some of the smaller models for larger pieces.
Also, remember how I said the building was an old hotel?
It is appropriately grand inside, and I took just as many shots of the
floors, ceilings, and walls as I did of the pieces on display.
Mwah! The Kiss
Also, see the model for The Three Shades behind Chris
Now, THAT'S a fireplace.
Peeking out the windows at the garden
A grand hotel should have a grand staircase.
Since we were here on a Friday, we shared the museum with several
high school groups, all sketching and hearing lectures about the art.
Paris Fashion Week had just ended when we arrived,
and Dior held its show inside the garden at the musee.
I figured the models were stomping up and down a runway amongst the plants
but no, the Dior people constructed an entire new building on site,
only for it to be dismantled a few weeks later.
I know that guy!
In addition to having tons of works of art inside the house/hotel, the museum also featured a lovely garden (it was a bit bare and gray this time of the year) where more sculptures were on display.
The Three Shades
The Rodin Museum and Army Museum are literally across the street
from one another, so we could see Napoleon watching us whilst we wandered the garden.
The sun peeking out just a bit, to shine on the statue of Balzac
Balzac from the other side, with the Army Museum peeking over
By around 11:30, we were done visiting with Rodin, and since it was still chilly, gray, and a bit misty, we figured sitting inside, eating things warm and toasty for lunch was next on the agenda. Borrowing the museum's WiFi, we found a cute little bistro around the corner; decision made, we headed to Le Bistro de Gaspard! We ordered all sorts of things - escargot and onion soup to start (they don't call it French onion soup in France) and beef tartar and a croque monsieur for our mains, as well as a few glasses of wine each - and everything was fair (the onion soup, the tartar) to good (the escargot, the croque, and the wine).
Give me all your snails
(and some bread to dip in the herby garlic butter afterward, s'il vous plait)!
Instead of trying their desserts at the bistro, we elected to wander a bit more to a local patisserie around the corner, the Patisserie Duquesne. Purchasing some sweets and hot drinks, we took up space on their patio and enjoyed our treats.
From their patio, we could see both the Tour Eiffel and the Tour Montparnasse, which was close to the Hotel Le Six. The Montparnasse Tower is a relatively recent addition to the Paris skyline (finished in 1973), and it's the only true skyscraper in the more historic parts of the city. It caused quite the kerfuffle when it was being constructed, as it's this huge black monolith, and at the time, people hated it with a passion. It's pretty well accepted now, and it's an easy way to find that area of town (hey, people hated the Eiffel Tower at first, too).
To our right, Tour Eiffel (at least the very top bit)
To our left, Tour Montparnasse
It was starting to get close to our 2pm entrance time at the Army Museum, so we relinquished our patio seats (not a lot of competition for those right now, as you can see above) and began wandering back. On the way, we saw this little guy:
We saw a lot of small cars in Paris, but this little blue baby takes the cake.
For reference, that's a FIAT next to it, so it's teeny tiny.
We have just as many pictures from the Musee de l'Armee as we do from the Musee Rodin, so we'll pick up here on the next blog.
Au revoir!
Amy
PS - Time for Zoe pictures!
Singing to everyone at daycare
Time for some love!
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