For those of you following our Instagram account, you can see we have been quite busy this week in Paris.  Paris has a long history along with its homeland of France.  I took some time this week to learn more about France and Paris in particular.  The sites we saw were rich in the history of a very proud people.  We were blessed to be able to see so much of what was preserved and built upon over so many years.  The streets literally show the life of Parisiens.  We walked, we sat, we saw, and we listened.  This is what we experienced and learned.

The streets in the 6th arrondissement (i.e. Paris district or neighborhood) are cozy and conducive to walking.  The Seine River is only blocks from where we stayed in a small, light filled hotel room with a balcony  on the seventh floor. 

Each street bustles at all times of the day and house small, some would say cute, little shops.  Unlike much of the U.S., shops and commercial areas are dedicated to maybe one or two needs.  This is in contrast to places like Target or Walmart which service a wide variety of needs all within its walls. With the multi-functional nature of the streets, motorcycles and bikes are just as common as compact cars.  Most cafes invite guests with the allure of terrace seating out on the street.  Serving bier (beer), vin (wine), cafe (coffee/espresso), or aperitifs (pre-dinner cocktails) is quite common at most cafes.  Stopping in off the street at most hours of day or night can offer you the experience you desire.  On warm days many cafes open their full-length windows like shutters to bring the inside to the out.  But, outside of day to day life on the streets of Paris, there are some very special places that we visited that display French history more symbolically.

Sainte-Chapelle

Nothing really compares to Sainte-Chapelle in my remembrance.  I always thought it was a church with beautiful stained-glass windows.  What I didn’t know was that it would be such a small room and only really built for the King of France.  In comparison to churches I’ve seen in Europe and South America, I was expecting something expansive and open to those of the faith it represents.  But, I was wrong.

I wasn’t wrong, though, in the understanding that it would be beautiful.  Each window in the main chamber is dawned with stained glass scenes from multiple books of the Christian Bible.  The room moves through the Bible clockwise and with scenes in chronological order from bottom to top.  The colors shone through the glass highlighting the most-notable colors of red, blue, and purple.  Each wall that held up the windows of Biblical scenes had art of their own.  They had etchings of flowing detail and mounted paintings of additional scenes.  Throughout the room were sculptures of each of the 12 disciples.

The main chamber was accompanied by a lower room down a spiral staircase.  This room was for the nobles and staff that waited on the King.  It had its own art and sculptures to honor the God Almighty.  It was smaller in every way and didn’t have as many stained-glass windows.  As it stands today it houses a gift shop and displays historical relics of the time.

The Louvre

Museums are hit or miss for me.  Some display too little information about the history and others just display too little of what I like.  But, the Louvre is the museum of all museums.  We visited starting mid-day.  With five floors of art, sculptures, and history, it has more than a day’s worth of sights and experiences.  We enter through the iconic Pyramid to drop down into a corridor of an overwhelming amount of people speaking all languages.  Children and the elderly alike are perusing through maps of the vast museum as they eat or drink from the various cafes available within the corridor’s outer walls.  The sun shone brightly the day we went bringing a warmer, borderline heat, from the all-glass pyramid above.  But, this was only the beginning.

The Louvre is famously known for housing the Mona Lisa.  As you may have guessed, getting close to her was a waiting game.  Though being bigger than life in history, her face is small on the canvas, so getting close requires sitting in a queue.  So, this is the best I could do with my level of patience on this day.

On each floor there are blocks of rooms devoted to certain regions or times in history.  We saw certain pottery works which dated back to the 3000’s B.C.  We saw Egyptian artifacts that displayed how advanced they were for their time in history.  We saw the pinkish hue of stone from sculptures of Greek origin.  We even saw the unique works of Oceania.  Unsurprisingly, there were many pieces from French origin.  So much of the art throughout Europe, exposed through the Louvre’s showcases, either showed the wealth of royals or the devotion to religion.  And, in many cases, it was both.  Britta and I even spoke about how many paintings or sculptures of the Virgin Mary from the Christian faith were displayed in the Louvre.  Experiencing the Louvre has highlighted how foundational religion was in Europe during history.

Versailles

Though outside of inner Paris, Versailles has profound significance to the history of France.  King Louis XIV moved out to Versailles and built a masterpiece of a palace to display the daily royal court rituals. The buildings that make up the palace fail to compare in size to that of the gardens.  I was in awe of how large and manicured the gardens were with their lavish and gold embellished water features.

As for the palace itself, it is hard to believe that it was a home.  Each room had a profound purpose and was commissioned by the King in decoration.  Gold was abundant and each piece of furniture was one of a kind.  The Versailles Palace is home to the famed Hall of Mirrors.  The room was majestic and elongated by the mirrors themselves and the crystal chandeliers.  However, this room was not the most expansive or impressive in my opinion.  The Hall of Battles was massive in size with skylights that brought the somewhat dusty light in from above where walls with nothing but paintings were hung.  Clockwise throughout the hall were depictions of the famous battles in French history.  Between and among each masterpiece were stone busts of famous soldiers and leaders of each time.  You literally walk through history as you go.

The lives of the royals at Versailles were quite public as many monarchies were in history.  But, here I learned that even the waking up and going to bed activity was public at the time.  There were literally waking up and going to bed ceremonies each night which was very public to members of the royal court. The bedrooms of the king and queen were separate but virtually identical in arrangement.  The queen’s bedroom was also where 19 different nobles were publicly born.  Literally everything was public.

Eating & Drinking

Ever eaten a bacon cheeseburger with a knife and fork?  I have.  Eating in Paris is very different from that of the U.S.  Even the most informal of restaurants require a form of etiquette.  Everything is eaten with a knife and fork except for bread.  No wonder this city was basically built on bread.  We had the opportunity to try lots of different French cuisine this week and I tried my best to learn the ways of French eating & drinking.

Steak, Frites, & Crème Brûlée

One thing I had had before and craved since was Steak and Frites.  Frites are French fries (yes, in France) and are commonly served with the option of ketchup, mayo, mustard, or, my personal favorite, bearnaise sauce.  The steak is traditionally thin but cooked to the temperature you desire.  We found a place in the neighborhood of Montmartre which had a great review of the dish.  It did not disappoint.  And, not only did the Steak and Frites with a glass of wine hit the spot, so did the Crème Brûlée.  It is a dessert common in France and comes with a distinct sound as well.  It has a bruléed cream topping over a rich custard sitting in a single serve dish.  The crack of breaking the burnt top is a sound of preceding deliciously smooth custard.  It was out of this world.

Espresso

Coffee is everywhere in Paris.  Each cafe has a menu of classic coffee or espresso drinks and a large machine to procure them.  Though Starbucks is still around, the drinks in French cafes are more quaint in size.  Getting an espresso (either single or double) is like going to a bar in the U.S. for a cold beer after work.  You can go to the bar and order an espresso and pay less than if you were to sit down in a seat not feet away from where you stand.  It is also common to have croissants close by, so I found myself getting a standing espresso at the bar along with a croissant in the morning.

You can still get your more American familiar lattes and chai’s in some places, but the sizes are just smaller.  Cafe Lattes are pretty common but come in a small coffee cup about the size of half a coffee mug in the U.S.  Getting flavoring is not as common, but sucre (sugar) is always at the bar or at an arm’s length from the server or bartender.

Crepes

Crepes are delicious.  I had probably only had maybe one or two crepes before coming to Paris.  They are commonly either savory or sweet depending on what you put in them.  I love the savory ones.  I got a classic ham, egg, and cheese one at a gluten-free creperie not far from our hotel.  I loved it.

Pastries

When most people think of France they think of bread, cheese, and pastries.  So many shops displayed some of the most elegant pastries and baguettes.  The thing that struck me the most was how dedicated the French Patisseries are to their craft and the elegance.  Each pastry was so carefully decorated and placed in the glass showcases.  It didn’t matter where you went in the city, the pastries were carefully created.

Britta’s favorite is the strawberry tart.  I can’t blame here either because the tart is so pleasing on the eyes with a striking red and so pleasing on the palette with such a creamy custard and salacious crunch through the strawberry and crust.

I tried a chocolate eclair.  I liked it okay, but wasn’t impressed.  I was more impressed with the brioche suisse.  It was such a good balance of savory and sweet.  It was one step-up in my mind from a pan au chocolat, which is more common place in French patisserie.  It adds chocolate to a croissant which is pretty great the way it is.

Classique Sandwich

One thing Britta told me in my time in Paris that sticks with me the most is that “only in France would one slice of ham and one slice of cheese be enough for a sandwich”.  She is so right; a simple (classique) sandwich in Paris is up-leveled by a great baguette.  We spent a couple of hours of our time in Paris sitting in the Luxembourg Gardens eating a simple ham and cheese sandwich.  This experience rivals that of a Steak and Frites.

With a quality baguette from a bakery only blocks from the Gardens, the sandwich made the experience that much better.  We watched birds gather sticks and other materials for building their spring nests while slowly working our way through a sandwich.  The steel chairs provided by the Luxembourg Gardens made for a great rest from the miles of walking we experienced during our time in Paris.  But, the sandwich itself was worth the sit.

Recap

Transportation/Misc Budget

• Metro & Train, Museum Tickets, Laundry = $100-$200/wk

Food & Drink*

• Small Lunches , Big Dinners, Espresso, Wine, Aperitifs, and Groceries = $700-$800/wk

Miles Walked

• 52 miles over 8 days

Next Up!

• Amsterdam

*For food, we are trying to find a balance between trying new foods and experiences and staying on budget overall for our longer term trip. Since France is a more expensive country, we aimed our total food and drink budget at around $100 per day. You can, of course, go much higher or much lower than that budget. When we move to lower cost countries, our daily food and drink budget will decrease as well. 

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