Digital Johnny, Real Johnny

My Paris Trip: Episode III: Museums, Churches and Monuments

Today is Sunday. I wanted to go shopping for some more work attire, but everything is closed. EVERYTHING. So, I'll spend my day blogging and doing laundry. Ain't Paris romantic?

The day after we went to the Louvre(Saturday, July 2), Joy woke up early and went to the "farmer's market" a couple metro stops away to get some provisions. Turns out it was an "Arab market" where local north africans sold goods, produce and meat... Joy scored us a "muslim chicken" and a lot of nice fresh veggies. When she finally got home, we headed to the fabulous Musée d'Orsay, located just across the river from the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre. See pictures 139-182.

The Orsay was designed for the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900 and was originally intended to be a major Paris railroad terminus, but as you can see, it must have quickly become too small for booming early 20th century Paris. It houses some of the most important and famous impressionist works, and has a wonderful collection of art nouveau and sculpture. While I really like Monet, Degas, Cézanne and Renoir, Van Gough and Gaugin are by far my favorite painters, so I was very excited to see them (again).

Van Gough - I wish the picture was better so you could see the strong brush strokes

Gaugin dug Polynesian women... and painting them is what finally made him famous

After that, we went to the world famous Notre-Dame cathedral, located on an island in the middle of the Seine called Ile de la Cité. See pictures 186-205. It's very big and very beautiful inside and outside, but I happen to think the view from the back is the most impressive.

Me at the Square Jean XXIII behind Notre-Dame; probably my second favorite place in Paris for beauty

My favorite metro station, Cité, is the only metro stop on the Ile de la Cité>.

After that, we headed back to our neighborhood to check out Sacré Coeur, the large white basilica that sits atop Montmartre and can be seen from most high places in the city. It's very pretty, but you're not allowed to take pictures inside (but I did anyway) and the outside is so crowded with people that it's not that nice a place to visit. Also, after a long day of walking around museums and other sites, the (beautiful) stairs can be quite a pain.

Sacre Coeur - I guess people were waiting for sunset but it was only 8:30pm and the sun doesn't set until almost 10pm

The beginning of my street; I live about 3 blocks down

That night we hung out with my neighbor/landlady's son, Vincent, and his friend Steve. Joy did an amazing job with the muslim chicken and I made zucchini (what else?). We also drank a lof of wine so Joy crashed out early, but I stayed up late chatting with the guys and drinking. It was fun, but I was NOT feeling too great the next day...

1) $paginate_current_page = 1; $paginate_sections = array( 0 , 1); $paginate_top_section = $paginate_sections[$paginate_current_page-1]+1; $paginate_bottom_section = $paginate_sections[$paginate_current_page]; } else { $paginate_top_section = 1; $paginate_bottom_section = 1; } $paginate_self = '&' . $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] . '&'; $paginate_self = preg_replace("/&page=[^&]*&/", "&", $paginate_self); $paginate_self = substr($paginate_self, 1, strlen($paginate_self) - 1); if($paginate_self == '&') $paginate_self = ''; else $paginate_self = htmlentities($paginate_self); $paginate_self = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "?${paginate_self}page"; ?> Posted by Kristina at July 10, 2005 01:27 AM