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| Thou shall not pass |
We caught the train from Le Havre to Paris,
which was a very pleasant 2 hour journey.
The carriage was only half full and the seats were very comfortable and
it was nice watching the changing countryside from the window. We arrived in Paris to be greeted with 37
degree heat which was a bit of a shock to our systems. We found our hotel and spent the rest of the
day relaxing and exploring the area.
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| Oscar Wilde |
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| Oscar Wilde (see the lipstick marks) |
The following day we visited the Pere
Lachaise cemetery which is a very old and famous cemetery in Paris. Many famous people are buried there and we
saw the monument marking the grave of Oscar Wilde. The statue is covered in lipstick where girls
have kissed it and while we there, more girls were applying lipstick and
kissing notes to leave at the graveside.
Apparently this has become a Paris tradition.
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| Jim Morrison |
We also saw Jim Morrison’s grave with a tree
nearby where his fans stick chewing gum – very strange. Eugene Delacroix is also buried at this
cemetery along with Edith Piaff however we were unable to find their
graves. There are also a number of
memorials to various aeroplane crashes and also monuments to the victims of the
different concentration camps.
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| Holocaust Monument |
We moved into our apartment in the 19th
Arrondissement, which is a bobo area (bourgeois bohemian), which is the French
equivalent of hipster style. Our
apartment was on the 4th floor – 75 steps up. Michael and I needed the exercise after all
the pain au chocolats! The area was
interesting and close to 3 Metro stations.
I took the day off from sightseeing so
Michael could return to the Gustav Moreau Museum. Michael fell in love with his works on our
first visit to Paris and the museum is crammed with many of his works, some on
the walls and many others in cabinets. Michael had a lovely time exploring and
examining the artworks.
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| Gustav Moreau |
We timed our visit to Paris perfectly again
to coincide with the free museum Sunday.
We visited the Musee de l’Orangerie to once more gaze upon Monet’s Les
Nympheas. This visit meant even more, as
we had since visited his magnificent garden in Giverny from where he gained his
inspiration for these works.
Next, we headed to the Musee d’Orsay
however the queue was horrendously long, so we decided to head to the Musee
national Eugene Delacroix instead. There
was a special exhibition entitled “the most legitimate of Shakespeare’s sons”
which displayed the lithographs he had produced to illustrate various scenes
from Shakespeare. The works were very
interesting.
We also managed to squeeze in a return
visit to the wonderful Musee Rodin. It
was lovely wandering around the gardens with so many beautiful statues and we
saw the area where the Christian Dior fashion show was to be held in the middle
of the garden.
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| Musee Rodin |
Michael and I took a long walk along the
Seine, as I had read that a beach is created along the banks in the
summertime. Unfortunately, we discovered
later, that we were about one week too early.
Perhaps we shall see it next year. We did, however, see evidence of
where the bridges have had to be repaired due to the overwhelming weight of the
lovers’ locks.
As the apartment is right next to the Bassin
de la Villette (part of the larger canal network), which had mini motor boats and bars on barges, we decided to
try a barge out, aptly named the Antipode, for a drink on a wet day to watch
the world go by.
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| BOBO Bar Antipode |
In keeping with our literary theme in
various cities, we decided to visit the Maison de Victor Hugo. This was just one of the many homes that
Victor Hugo lived in over the course of his life and it has been decorated and
furnished as closely as possible to how it would have been during his
lifetime. The décor was lavish with
wallpaper not only on the walls but on the ceiling as well.
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