Un plein jour

Day 2 in Paris started off with a trip to the U.S. Embassy to get extra pages added to my passport (I ran out of room!) The Embassy is actually in a really nice part of Paris (near the Champs de Lysee). The people were very nice at the embassy. The whole process took about 2 hours (5 minutes of security, 5 minutes of submitting paperwork, and 1 hour and 50 minutes of waiting for them to glue the pages into my passport). After exiting the embassy, I found Elah taking a nap in the nearby park. We immediately set off for more adventures!

We started off by heading le petit palais (the little palace), which was built for the Paris exposition of 1900. They had a special exhibit there called “Paris 1900” that featured paintings, add campaigns, furniture and other material objects from turn of the century France (e.g. Moulin Rouge era France). There was a really long line, so we didn’t get into the special exhibition, but they had pieces from 1900 throughout the permanent exhibits at the museum.

We stumbled across this enormous painting of a Parisian marketplace c. 1895 by Leon Lhermitte. It is basically my dissertation in a giant painting – there are so many interesting interactions going on (people buying, vending, bartering for various goods). There is chaos and intrigue. Tres fascinant!

The interior of the building itself is a piece of artwork. They have murals on the ceilings inside and in the outer courtyard as well.

After le petit palais, Elah and I walked to the old Paris Opera house (which inspired the setting of the Phantom of the Opera).

It is an absolutely stunning building and the interior reminds me of Versailles (which I visited with my Mom, aunt, and cousin a few years ago). There were gilded instruments twinkling in the warm light and large mirrors that opened up the space. Chegal painted the mural in the Opera house (c. 1966), which somehow works with the red velvet chairs and gilt angels surrounding the stage.

 

After the Opera, we headed to the Galleries Lafayette, which is sort of like the Harrod’s of Paris? It sells high end clothing, purses, makeup etc., and has a dining hall on the very top floor. The building (like many buildings in France) is really pretty. The ceiling has a beautiful stain glass dome. 

Elah and I had fun shopping for souvenirs and taking a leisurely lunch break on the top floor (with a view of the Eiffel tower). We had a selection of prepared salads for lunch and I had some gelato for dessert. After lunch, we did a bit more shopping. I had fun in the book store – coming across some popular American books in French. For example, Frozen, the new Disney Movie, is called “The Queen of Snow” in France.   

They also had the Hunger Games. After shopping, we walked all the way back to the big isle in the middle of France to enjoy the fresh flowers. These little shops smelled so wonderful and were full of Parisians grabbing some fresh cut flowers for their homes. Then we walked to Notre Dame to Paris and got in line to climb to the top of the church.

After climbing for a good long while, we made it to an antechamber where we showed our student IDs to get free admission to the climb. Then we headed up for the second part of the climb (to the roof). The 180 degree view of Paris was STUNNING! You could see the Eifffel tower, arch de triumph, Sacred Heart church, Monteparnasse tower, the louvre, the Seine etc. We were surrounded by gargoyles and water spouts in the shape of extended sneering, laughing, and crying heads. Then, we were ready to head back downstairs, but realized that we had to ascend one more time to the very top of the bell towers (e.g. Where Quasimodo lives). We emerged out of the winding stone staircase to a 360 degree view of all of Pairs. I was dying! Then, the bells of Notre Dame began ringing – so magical! I was waiting for Quasimodo to come swinging out of the bell tower.

You might think we would have been exhausted from our adventures, but we surged on to meet Elah’s friend Justin for drink along the Bastille canal at sunset (another Parisian thing to do). It was lovely (again) to people watch and just reminisce at Yale (Justin is a Yalie as well). Wonderful conversation through and through. After a few hours, we made our way to meet Elah’s fellow law school friends at the hotel de fashion where they were having a street food fair. We tried some gourmet popcorn (we sampled a fois gras, curry, salted caramel, and rose praline flavors, settling on the latter two to purchase). The event was so crowded with young Parisians that we decided to head back toward Elah’s apartment to have dinner at La Closerie des Lilas (known by most of Elah’s friends as “that place with the bushes!”) The courtyard is enclosed by high, sculpted shrubs. Inside the courtyard there are dozens of blooming hyacinth trees that smelled beautifully. We headed inside the restaurant to get a table. The atmosphere in there was very different – rich reds, dark wood, a live piano bar, and many happy, slightly tipsy Parisians. We ended up waiting at the bar and another table for about 10 minute before grabbing a table outside. Elah and I decided to indulge and order dinner. Elah had succulent duck baked in flaky pastry dough with fingerling potatoes and dark brown sauce. I tried  a few bites. It tasted like Christmas morning. The spices were warm, evergreen-y, and absolutely WONDERUL! I actually asked Elah for a few more bites because it was that good! Lol. I ordered smoke haddock in a butter sauce with spinach and a poached egg. It was absolutely delightful – there was a nice, strong smokey flavor to the haddock and the sauce – OH THE SAUCE – I scooped every last bit of it out of the bowl with little piece of baguette. One word: BUTTER. Then, for dessert, Elah and I shared a violet icecream Sunday with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. 

The entire night was just so wonderful. We had a great time catching up with Elah's friends: Lilly, Coleen, and Jennifer. The flowers in the garden were so fragrant, the music from the piano bar tickled our ears, and the murmur of dozens of conversations was just amazing. Elah and I truly felt like we had a real Parisian experience at this place.

Around 12:30 am, we headed back to Elah’s to catch some sleep, but I wasn’t that tired since I am still used to Eastern time (6 hours behind Paris). Around 3:30 am (after watching several episodes of The New Girl), I finally fell asleep. This morning, slept in a bit and Elah and I eventually headed out to look at the Sunday market that opens up on a street near her house. The fresh produce looked AMAZING. Honestly, I wanted to buy all of the fresh produce, but we were leaving. I wish we had more markets like that in the United States!