The French Dispatches - Part Onze

In Part 10 of the "trip to France" blogs, we lucked out and caught one of the only trains from Bordeaux back to Paris during a major transit strike, and we wandered our old stomping grounds, the Marais neighborhood.

Posing with the Olympic Rings at the Hotel de Ville, Paris' city hall.

The Summer Olympics will be here in 2024

Neither of us slept amazingly well from Tuesday to Wednesday at the Hotel Saint Louis Marais; it was in a quiet area of town, but the quiet didn't extend to inside our room, as the faucet within the shower dripped all night (we closed the door and turned up the white noise machine, but still).  The mattress was also harder than we're used to, and after almost a week away, we were missing our bed something fierce.  Eventually, we started our day in earnest, taking showers and getting dressed, rolling out the door around 9am.

I also had a pre-breakfast snack of roasted chicken Lay's,

which I fell in love with when we visited in 2018.

This would be our last day in France for this adventure, and we had plans to spend the morning and early afternoon hours of it in the Louvre.  First, though, it was time for a better breakfast!  Chris found a local boulangerie around the corner, and we headed their way. We knew from the line of locals that we'd found a great spot, and we weren't disappointed.

Gorgeous loaves for sale

Pastry glamour shots!

This was our final pain au chocolat of the trip,

and it was by far the best.  Look at the lamination!

Second breakfast sorted, it was back into the cold to stroll to the Louvre.  While the strike had ended and most metro lines were running like normal once more, we wanted to start our day by walking along the bank of the Seine River, which we hadn't had a chance to do quite yet (at least in this part of town).  As we strolled, we compared notes on what had changed since our trip in 2018, and unfortunately, this was the major difference:

Poor Notre Dame - such a huge loss.

If you want to see more "before the fire" pictures, here's my 2018 blog about our visit there.

Another Notre Dame shot - the towers survived, but the spire and surrounding area collapsed

This whole area of the church is totally gone.

During our stroll, we passed the Hotel de Ville, Paris' city hall, and we wandered over to take some shots:

Doesn't your city hall look like this?

The Hotel de Ville has always been city hall, which is rather unique

for gorgeous, historic buildings in Paris (most of them started as royal palaces).

The building dates from the late 1600s, although the location has been used since the 1300s.

The Pont des Arts, a scenic bridge crossing the Seine -

that's the Institut de France across the bridge.

After trekking for around a mile, we made it to the famous courtyard entrance to the Louvre, including I. M. Pei's glass pyramid.

Honestly, although it was cold, the weather for our walk was incredible.

Look at that sky!

We arrived just a few moments after our ticketed 10am entry (we actually got the tickets for free by using the website The Cultivist - we had a complimentary six month subscription with our Capital One card - if you're a member, check it out), and upon reaching a staff member, we were redirected through a smaller, side entrance.  Quickly gaining access to the museum, we ditched our coats, grabbed a map, and waded in.

Just one of the entrance lines - remember, February is LOW season

We're in!  Looking up through the glass pyramid

Although I normally have a plan of attack wherever we go, and it's almost always overkill (to some degree), you really need an agenda when it comes to the Louvre.  There's so much art - the museum's collections range from ancient artifacts like Egyptian mummies to paintings to everything else - that it can easily be overwhelming.  The buildings that display the collections are also incredible - they served as the royal palace before one of the Louis got tired of Paris and built Versailles - and they're massive; it's easy to get tired and lost, which we did many, many times.

On our 2018 trip to Paris, we spent a few hours in the Louvre one evening, and we managed to hit several of the highlights, including the Big Dog herself, the Mona Lisa (more important to me was seeing Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, which was super cool).  For this visit, we wanted to focus on some of the areas we'd missed before, including the Louvre's foundations and the royal apartments.  

The huge, ornate, gorgeous Louvre buildings we see today were built in the late 1500s to mid 1600s, but their foundations are several centuries older.  Back in the 1100s, a new city wall was being built for Paris, and it included a fortress on the area the museum now occupies.  When the area was turned into a museum, the medieval origins of the building were preserved, and you can still visit them today, way down in the basement.

The flooring is essentially where the moat used to be,

and you walk past the stone walls and guard towers

A plan of the Louvre and Tuileries Garden, showing how the area has changed over the years

We also visited the royal apartments and viewed many items once owned by Marie Antoinette.  Walking through the galleries and looking at just this small sample of wares on display, it was easy to understand the rage common folk had toward the aristocracy of the time, and why the revolts that occurred were so violent.

Just one set of antique china

I mean, where do you even start - the floor, the walls, the chair, the harp?

Harp close-up

A beautiful ceiling

We somehow wandered into an exhibit of antique scientific instruments, which was super cool:

Functional AND beautiful!

Initially, we planned to have lunch at the Cafe Marly (made reservations and everything), but as we got ready to leave, we read the signs saying there was no re-entry once you departed.  Dang it!  We ate at the museum cafe instead, which was about as delicious as you might expect (ah, museum food, the great equalizer across cultures).  Hunger abated for the moment, it was time to push on, this time to sculpture!

Peeking through an upstairs window at the main courtyard

By this point, it was close to 1pm, and we were getting seriously burned out.  Although we were visiting at the least crowded time of the year, the Louvre still felt packed with people, and we were just done wandering through the corridors, being jostled as we attempted to look at priceless works of art.  Gathering our coats, we bid au revoir to the palace and headed down the road a bit.

Somehow during this stretch, we found ourselves right next to the famous

Jeanne d'Arc statue, and we asked her for some help getting to our next destination

I also realized, as we were standing on this corner, that this is the tunnel

everyone in the Tour de France comes bolting out of during the

last race stage, before they turn and head up the Champs Elysees.

I've only seen it on tv like 8,000 times.

Originally, we figured we'd be leaving the Louvre for a long, leisurely lunch and would thus spend most of the early afternoon revitalized and touring the museum.  When this didn't happen, and we crapped out by 1:30 or so, we realized we needed to adjust our next reservation, for a 3:30pm high tea at the Restaurant Le Dali inside the Hotel Meurice.  We first attempted to cancel, but in being told that we'd still be charged whether we cancelled or came (something about the pastry chef making just the right amount of scones each day...), we opted to reschedule for their final seating of the day at 5:30pm.  That left us a good amount of time to metro back to the hotel, do some packing (the flight home the next morning was on the early side), rest and recover, and then change into our nicer evening clothes before heading back to this side of town.

Arriving back a few moments before our rescheduled reservation, we were seated promptly and really enjoyed our tea experience.  The aforementioned scones and other treats were delicious (as was the tea), and the ambiance of the room was peaceful and lovely.  Since our dinner reservation wasn't until 8pm, we took our time, savoring all of our treats and soaking up the atmosphere.

I don't know that the Hotel Meurice was affiliated with Dali in any special way,

or if they just chose to name one of their restaurants after him.

What I do know is that this allows me to bust out this link to my favorite Dali piece

and the accompanying quote about it:

"I do not understand why, when I ask for a grilled lobster in a restaurant,

I am never served a cooked telephone."

God bless this maniac.

The little timer they gave us to ensure our tea was perfectly brewed

The painted fabric ceiling

Me: "This isn't weird enough to really be Dali."

Chris: "That guy doesn't have arms..."

We had plenty of time to play with portrait mode on the phone

Eventually, we were ready to head out - the restaurant's dinner service was about to start, and we were one of the last tables left (not the last, though) to settle up.  Our dinner destination, Laserre, was just about a mile away, and since we had a full hour to kill, we decided to walk there rather than take the metro.  Although part of it was closed for renovation, we took the Champs Elysees!

Looking northwest, toward the Arc de Triomphe

We found Laserre, but since it still wasn't quite 8pm yet, we headed a few doors down for an apertif at a cute little bar we just passed.

Probably my last glass of real champagne for a while...le sigh!

Time for dinner!

Heading into Laserre, we were welcomed promptly, divested of our coats and scarves, and packed into a tiny elevator to take the trip up to the main floor.  Our table came with a modified loveseat in the main dining room, and we decided to go with the four-course tasting menu option - this was our last night in France (for now!), and we wanted to really enjoy it (fun fact - Chris' menu had prices, mine did not - do with that what you will).  

We really enjoyed our meal here - the waitstaff was attentive and warm, and they made us feel like guests in their home, rather than just another set of customers.  The food (and accompanying wine) were amazing - everything was cooked perfectly and tasted incredible.  

Our amuse course

With all of our courses complete, we settled the bill, smashed back into the tiny elevator, and traveled back downstairs.  Reclaiming our coats, it was time to metro back to the hotel for one more night - we'd head home tomorrow!

The metro station near Laserre - I've heard of that guy!

Au revoir!

Amy

PS - Steps today were off the chain - 23,268, good for around 11.5 miles!  We did walk to the Louvre, all around the Louvre, between tea and dinner, etc, so it make sense, but dang, that's a lot!

PPS - And on her last day at daycare, Zoe hit the greens:

They had a cute video that went with this, too

"Quit taking pictures!  Hit me the ball!"