Daniel...and Giverny

What fun to have more visitors!  Daniel and Sefi arrived for a quick 2 1/2 day visit.  Paris was their last leg of a 2-month journey:  Guatemala, Mexico, San Mateo, New York and finally Paris.  They were pretty tired after so much traveling, but they pushed and squeezed in as much as possible.

Sefi, Daniel and me with Notre Dame in the background.  You can also see many love locks on the bridge.

 Daniel and Sefi at Les Invalides

 Sacre Coeur (Montmartre)  That's me on the left in the turquoise coat.

 Daniel, me and Miles at the Eiffel Tower

So after we bid them "adieu", we welcomed our next set of visitors, Pat and Pekka Sinervo from Toronto.  The three of us went to Versailles one day.  Unfortunately, Miles was working with a colleague on research and couldn't join us.  I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures of Versailles.  But the next day, with Miles AND the camera in tow, we ventured out to Giverny, Claude Monet's home and gardens. We were so lucky that Pat and Pekka had rented a car which made the 1 1/2 hour trip very easy.

And what a day we had!  The season at Giverny ends Nov. 1 so we just squeezed it in before it closed.  No doubt the spring/summer has a more sumptuous amount of flowers and colors, but we saw plenty of fall beauty:  lush green fields, trees with orange/red/yellow/amber leaves a blue sky...it's no wonder that Monet chose this spot to live and paint.  It was quite a contrast with bustling Paris and we just relaxed and enjoyed meandering through the garden, visiting his charming and modest house and also visiting the new Giverny Museum of Impressionism.

Enough words!  Here's a sample of what we saw:

 Haystacks in a field

 Pretty fall flowers

 Bamboo along the creek

 Fall colors and lily pads

Lily pads and weeping willow

 Reflected Japanese bridge

 Rowboat in the lake

 Swirling dahlia

Monet's living room/studio

Not a bad motor scooter cover!  Monet-inspired umbrellas!

 Pekka, me, Pat and Miles enjoyed our coffee and hot chocolate in the garden of a cafe where Monet would often sit with friends

Vincennes...and Adam!

One of our next adventures led us to Parc de Vincennes on the east side of the city.  This park is actually bigger than the Bois de Bologne and there's a lot to explore.

Miles and I walked around the pretty lake with a small monument.  There were lots of swans, ducks, strolling paths and boaters.

Bois de Vincennes lake

Pretty trees

Boaters

We liked the way this swan was looking for food

After wandering around for a few hours, we left the park and on the way to the metro, passed the immense 14th century Chateau de Vincennes. 

 Tower at the Chateau

  It was closed, but we enjoyed walking around the perimeter.

 An immense moat

Cathedral

Evidence of 14th and 17th century construction

Adam arrived for a visit on the 13th.  (We were so sorry Dana could not join us due to her mother's serious health condition.)

We returned to Vincennes and this time, we visited the Parc Floral, a large public park and botanical garden.  It was already off season so many of the pavilions were closed, but there was a lot to see outside on a sunny day.

Adam and us in the Parc Floral

 One of the many walking paths in the park

A stone fountain

 View of the lily pond

Bonsai exhibit 

Bonsai Japanese maple

 Dahlia in a huge dahlia grove

You can't say you've been to Paris if you don't go to the Eiffel Tower,  so off we went. 

 Typical tourists!  Miles and Adam standing 
at the Place du Trocadero

  

The next day it was off to the Musee Arts et Metiers (Industrial Design).  Even the metro station there is interesting:  it was re-designed about 10 years ago to look like a Jules Verne submarine.

 Arts et Metiers metro station

What a collection!  The extensive museum (from 1794) presents seven different collections : Scientific Instruments, Materials, Energy, Mechanics, Construction, Communication and Transportation.

 

 Me and the model of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty

 Scientific measuring device--18th century

 Steam-powered bat plane built around 1895

between 1892 and 1897. And while it looks more like something out of a steampunk dream than a real working airplane, Avion III is no sculpture; this steam-powered aircraft really flew - See more at: http://www.coolstuffinparis.com/avion_iii_musee_des_arts_et_metiers.php#sthash.POegYPoI.dpuf

On our last day with Adam, we went on a guided walking tour of Montmartre.  The focus was on lesser-known areas rather than the really touristy places.

 Windmill above a popular restaurant

View of Sacre Coeur from a side street

 Behind the Sacre Coeur from a quiet park

And this is so typical:  as we were leaving our Indian lunch around Blvd. St. Denis, we spotted this beautiful arch.  I had to consult with Google to find out it was one of two arches built before the grand Arc de Triomphe, symbolically marking the entrances into 17th-century Paris at the sites of the old toll-gates.

 Arch de St. Denis

So, "Au revoir" to Adam and an early "Bonjour" to Daniel and Sefi who arrive on the 20th!

Parks, Squares, Markets...

It's such a pleasure to wake up with no particular plans, just find a place on the map to visit and GO.  We have purchased a 2-month metro pass so we feel free to just go anywhere (within Paris) and go again if it is good.

One of my wanderings landed me at the Jardin les Plantes which is the main botanical garden in Paris.  There's lots to see, but what caught my eye were 4 wooden statues with animal heads.

 Jardin les Plantes sculptures

Another day we picked a park on the map in an area we were less familiar with.  Not far from Montmartre was Parc Clichy-Batignolles.  There are 2 parks, really.  One is new and still under construction and we saw interesting buildings.  The second one is nearby and more classic.

 

Modern apartment house near new Parc Clichy-Batignolles

 Classic Parc Clichy-Batignolles

We then walked to Montmartre to catch the metro at Abbesses.  It has the distinction of being the deepest metro at 36 metres (118 feet) below ground.  Access to the platforms is usually by elevators, but they can be accessed by decorated stairs. Paris is quite flat generally and Montmartre is the biggest hill. We saw a charming wall in Place des Abbesses called Le Mur des Je t'aime.  There are over 311 written declarations of "I love you" in 250 different languages (notice Hebrew near the middle of the picture).

 Le Mur des Je t'aime

 
And now for something completely different:

La Défense is a major business district of the Paris Metropolitan Area.  We were impressed by the modern skyscrapers and public art.

 This skyscraper reminded us of Starship Enterprise from Star Trek

Modern art sculpture in La Defense

And what is Paris without the open air farmer's markets?  We hit the mother lode with Marche Richard Lenoir.  Considered the largest outdoor market in Paris, this market has essentially everything you could want - food, flowers, housewares, clothes and even sea urchins.

Flowers at Marche Richard Lenoir

 Fresh fruit

Miles enjoying a cheese quiche at the market

Bonjour from Paris!

After less than a week here, we are finally getting settled into our routine.  Which is really no routine except to wake up and have a blast exploring this amazing city.

Our tiny (32m) yet comfortable apt., is located on a very busy (cafes/souvenir shops) street in the Latin Quarter right near Blvd. St. Michel.  Notre Dame Cathedral is a 1-minute walk away.  How perfect is this?  Noisy, yes (thank goodness for double-paned windows), but so central.  We just go out the door and voila!  We are in the midst of busy Paris.

Our little street--rue de la Huchette

(Our apt. door is to the right of the pink neon light)

 Notre Dame--right around the corner

During our 2 months here, Miles will be giving one general lecture, a three 3-hour lecture mini graduate course at École des Mines (Mining School) and will work on joint research with his colleague at the Center of Materials in Evry outside of Paris.  He will not be going to the center everyday and will work from home some days, giving more time to hang out with me and play tourist.

Besides just roaming around the many neighborhoods near by, we visited something different:  les viaduc des arts.  The city took an old viaduct and converted the top into a pedestrian promenade.  We walked for a few kilometers along a very pretty tree-lined path called the Promenade Plantée. 

Promenade Plantée

 

Below the path on the street, are a series of old vaults converted into exhibition spaces and into a series of craftmen's workshops and galleries: cabinetmakers, musical-instrument makers, fashion designers, textile restorers, and other businesses related to the arts.

Chair maker

We decided this year, instead of going to a synagogue, to spend Yom Kippur in our own reflective way:

On Erev YK, we went onto YouTube and listened to Barbra Streisand sing Aveinu Malkaynu and a couple other cantors sing Kol Nidre—beautiful.  Then we listened to 2 sermons by two American rabbis who spoke about different topics for Yom Kippur and gave us a lot to think about.  One sermon emphasized the Jewish desire to choose to live life as opposed to just living.  It also introduced the notion that wives like to feel special and that everyday a man comes home to enjoy being with his wife he is tacitly saying to her that he is choosing her, again and again.  The other sermon emphasized our ability to not be a victim of our lives by making changes that positively influence our futures and significantly impact the world. 

We fasted, and on the day journeyed by metro in the direction of Bois de Bologne.   While in a transit station, we heard somebody playing “Jerusalem of Gold”.  “Huh?”, we thought.  An Israeli song in the metro on Yom Kippur?  We went to investigate and found 10 musicians (Russians) who not only played that song, but klezmer and other Russian melodies.  It really put a smile on our faces to think it was Yom Kippur, listening to Jewish music in (anti-Semitic?) Paris.  Wonderful!  It made us feel part of the tribe.

Russian musicians in the metro station

We then went to Bois de Bologne, a huge park on the west side of the city (similar in style to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco) and wandered around, thinking of the rabbis' sermons. 

la Grande Cascade (Bois de Bologne)

Model boats on lac Superieur

Always have a Plan B:  The next day, we started out on the train (1 hour) to Foutainebleau-Avon for a nature hike in the forest.  We had heard about huge boulders and gorges worth seeing.  Well, once we got off the train, it started raining and by the time we walked to the tourist office (1/2 hour) and found out where the start of the hiking trail was located.  Since the rain continued, we decided on Plan B:  visit the Fountainebleau Chateau.  Not a bad 2nd choice!  With over 1500 rooms at the heart of 130 acres of parkland and gardens, Fontainebleau is the only royal and imperial château to have been continuously inhabited for seven centuries and has the largest collection of original chateau furniture in France.

The inner courtyard of Fontainebleau with teeny Miles on the balcony

The King's reception room

Once we left the chateau, the rain had stopped so we wandered around part of the vast gardens.  

 The Diana statue

The canal and endless walkways