Odds and Ends...and The End

In about 11 hours, we'll be on the plane home. It's been a wonderful trip, full of people I love, places I love, beautiful art and delicious food. I'm so glad we came.

Here is a round up of a few photos, some poached from Bora/Kate, that didn't make it into earlier posts.

Lo and I on the castle ramparts in Ghent

Bora's beautiful shot of Notre Dame. The blooming trees (and tulips) made everything extra picturesque.

Nerd alert!

Kate and I in the garden/park behind Notre Dame

One of our several trips to Berthillon :)

A quiet moment in the Orangerie

Thinking about The Thinker at the Rodin Museum

One of my favorite small pieces by Rodin

Bora and Wes are so small...and the, erm, sculpture is so big.

Over here, the bell of Easter brings the chocolate to the children...or something like that.

During one of our many small breaks between activities to sit and consult the map about what to do next and how to get there.

Also poached from Bora, a lovely shot of the Seine at night.

Sigh. I wish this had come out better, as there was no postcard at the gift shop. The Holy Family, by Rembrandt. The light was amazing.

A big treat for me - a Vermeer at the Louvre.

Don't walk down this street!

We bought some stationery products from the proprietor of this little shop in the Marais. There were elaborately decorated letters and envelopes addressed to him covering the walls. I told him in French that I thought the letters were charming and asked if I could take a picture. He said of course, and then told me I could write to him too and be up on the wall.

Last meal in Paris: L'as du Falafel in our little apartment, schlepped back by Loretta and me on the metro. Delish.

...and the final macaron taste test. Also good, but perhaps Pierre Herme was tops.

Au Revoir, Paris!

We came back to Belgium yesterday, and had a nice day today saying goodbye to our friends, having a very Flemish lunch in town, and shopping for chocolate and little gifts to bring home to our families. It's been fun to post and do a little reflecting on our trip here on the blog - thanks for reading along!

Wandering Around Paris

Today, we joked, was our "catch up" day. Lo and I elected not to trek out to Versailles with the group, and stayed in our little apartment this morning for a while, doing laundry and reading. (We first wandered all around the neighborhood looking for an open patisserie, but no dice. In fact, the lady I asked said pas du tout, most emphatically. Good thing we had yogurt and muesli to tide us over.)

When we finally headed out, we had a loose agenda of stopping by a little shop in the Marais where I had seen a gift I wanted to purchase when we were all there a few days ago. Slightly sidetracked by a bright pink (and David Lebovitz recommended) crepe stand, we made it to the shop. The proprietor recognized us from a few days ago and even asked where the rest of the group was. Charming.

We headed farther into the neighborhood to find the Jewish museum for a special exhibit on Chagall and the Bible that I'd seen advertised in the metro, of all places, and we were so glad that we went. It truly was as simple as this: one of the 20th century's most accomplished artists was commissioned to do a series of many illustrations (over 100) of the Hebrew bible. We saw his drawings, watercolors, etchings and paintings that evolved as he worked on the project over many years. I can't recall ever buying the book from a museum exhibit but today I broke down and did.

Abraham's Hand is Stayed, Isaac is Spared

We wandered to the metro, hopped on, and walked around a bit looking for a "secret" garden that I'd read about in the New York Times travel section. Surprisingly, when we found it, it was peaceful, leafy, and full of ponds and waterfalls instead of other NYT-reading Americans. We read for a while, then slept.

When we woke up, we were hungry. Problem: we had skipped lunch, but it was too early for dinner. We had a place picked out, so we headed over to at least make sure it would be open.

crossing the Seine on the way to the restaurant

When we got there, the proprietor was just leaving on his way to buy bread for the night, but told us he'd be back in 25 minutes. After a bit more wandering, we were finally seated - the first ones in the restaurant, and, it turned out, the only ones there for almost the whole two hours we dined. In fact, when we first sat down, I heard him on the phone, talking to the chef, I presumed, since he was saying things like "I have two people already here!". Then about 20 minutes later while we were trying to go slowly with the house sangria and the delicious bread, a young man on a moto came in, shook hands with the proprietor, and went to work in the back. Our chef had arrived.

Lo took pictures of dinner but I don't have them yet - it was a truly memorable meal. Probably a typical dinner out for a Parisian at a restaurant of this sort, but we thought it was great. My highlight was trying foie gras for the first time, which I wasn't sure I'd like - morally or taste-wise. It was served as a thin slab, cold at first, placed on my steak from a separate plate by the waiter, and then softer and more melty (and delicious) as it was warmed by the meat. We opted for the cheese course instead of dessert and felt very...full.

Then we wandered along home, past the hordes of folks still waiting to go up the Eiffel tower's elevators (but no line for the stairs!), the tour buses with bored drivers waiting for their groups, the families of all ethnic persuasions playing in the park, the men hawking their cheap souvenirs to tourists. One guy made us laugh - noticing Lo's t-shirt, he kept saying "Hey Disneyland, over here! What you want, Disneyland? You buy something, Disneyland? Why not? You need it", and so on. Poor guy. Little does he know that Lo is just about the last person that would buy a tiny, light-up Eiffel tower.

But the real thing, back-lit by the setting sun, on a warm night in the Paris springtime, is pretty beautiful.

Art, Sculpture, Ice Cream, Bi Bim Bap, Art

That pretty much sums up the day. We started in the Musee de l'Orangerie, which houses the famous installation of Monet's Water Lilies. We stayed there a long time, as everyone was suitably impressed, even moved, by both the huge canvases themselves as well as the dedication of an 80 year old, nearly blind man working for 12 years on this final, epic effort.






Then we wandered downstairs, where there was a model of the apartment of the art collector whose collection comprises the museum. I was going to do a little trick and say it was a shot of the interior of the place we're staying and then pull back to show you the scale...but I know you wouldn't fall for that.



After the Orangerie, we picnicked in the Tuileries gardens and then walked over to the Rodin Museum. It was nice to visit my favorite Rodin in the gardens there:

...and to rest for a while in the tranquil gardens out behind the museum. We all took a chair and just relaxed for a little while.



Next destination was to head back to Berthillon for our ice cream of the day. :) It was, once again, perfect. My salted butter caramel and Grand Marnier double scoop was so good, and others in the group got wild strawberry, blueberry, coconut, dark chocolate, mandarine....I can't remember what else. We headed home along the Seine, enjoying the late afternoon sunlight and looking around us at the endless parade of interesting people and shops. In order to pass the time, I've been giving Anna and now Kayla little photo scavenger hunt assignments and it's going pretty well. I'll publish the list of all the things she found near the end of our trip. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to buy some necessary items, one of which Kate proudly carried all the way home.

After a Bora-made dinner of bi bim bop at our apartment, the grown-ups headed back out to the Louvre, which was open late tonight. We visited some of our favorites from the other day, then rushed over to another wing to see the two Vermeers they have, right before closing. As we rushed, we realized with a bit of awe how much we'd missed - entire rooms and wings we hadn't even entered...yet. We keep saying we'll come back, and we might make it back before we leave, perhaps. But one of the great things about visiting a place like Paris is that before it's time to head home, you can already start compiling the list of things to do next time.

Lots of Stair Climbing Means We Deserve Lots of Delicious Food, Right?

Street flower shop, Ile St. Louis

Because today we climbed around 1000 stairs, and we also ate some pretty yummy stuff.

We set out to do a walking tour a la Rick Steves, but were quickly side-tracked by our decision to climb to the top of the Notre Dame tour for some amazing views of the city. It was worth the 405 steps (Anna counted), for sure.

Kate, on the walk to Notre Dame, listening (and singing softly along to), Les Mis. Something she and I have been doing together for about 12 years or so.

It was super awkward when we ran into these two lovebirds near the top of the tower. Get a room, geez.

After climbing down and walking around the little park near Notre Dame, we momentarily skipped lunch in order to partake of Berthillon ice cream cones, a locally made, exceptionally delicious treat. Everyone declared their particular choice the best they'd ever had.

Then, real lunch. Crepes taken back to the park, and little free public wi-fi, with the shouts of schoolchildren in the air and the wind blowing flower petals on us in little gusts. We visited the Crypt of Notre Dame after lunch, which is actually not creepy at all but rather a visual lesson in the city's thousands of years of history. Kate and I have a new plan of attack at these types of major attractions: she gets a brochure/guide in Spanish and I get one in English. Then, we take turns, the person with the Spanish guide reading out loud their best attempt at translating on the spot. As Kate said at one point, "We're having fun and learning too!" A girl after my own heart, for sure.

We split up after that, and Loretta, Kate and I stopped to see Sainte Chappelle. I hardly feel like posting photos, since they are so poor compared to the jaw-dropping effect of being in a room with all that 13th century stained glass.

Here's another notable quote from today, this time from Lo, who is pictured below seated while waiting for the security line at Ste. Chappelle. She's a very seasoned traveler with tired feet, and she takes every opportunity to rest them. Pretty smart, I guess.

Anyway there was a sign posted warning us that we must leave behind any sharp objects before entering. To which Loretta said, "I hope they don't make me leave behind my wit!"

After a rest, dinner was at one of the best, if not the best, falafel places in Paris, L'As du Falafel.

Perfect. A lounge in the park and then a trip up to Montmartre to see the sun go down and the city light up for the night capped off a pretty lovely day.

One small p.s. - not one, but two Parisians complemented my French today. I was, um, pretty happy about that.