Detailed Photo Review of Paris and London Trip in June 2019

[deladane]

We asked one of the employees to point us in the right direction towards the Queen’s Hamlet, so she pointed out this gazebo in the distance and said it was out that way.

 

 

We started walking and hoped for the best, but there was very limited signage so we just crossed our fingers that we were going the right way.  We saw this building peaking through the trees and took that as a good sign that we were on the right path.

 

 

The gazebo is called the Temple of Love and is about halfway between the Petit Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet.

 

 

 

After that, we had no idea where to go so we just kept walking towards where we saw that other building.  It would have been very helpful if they had a sign somewhere out here on the trail with arrows pointing the right way to go.

 

[deladane]

We continued walking until we saw this:

 

 

Yay! We found it!  So now let’s talk about a little bit of history.  The Queen’s Hamlet was built by Marie Antoinette as a place she could go to escape the extravagance in the main palace.  She preferred being out in the country and kept this area as a working farm and garden.  Being out there felt like we were in the middle of the French countryside, and you would never know that such a grand palace was located nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

There were tons of coy fish in the pond

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

When we got back to the Petit Trianon, we asked someone for directions toward the Grand Trianon.

 

 

Unfortunately, their directions weren’t helpful at all and we ended up at the intersection we were at an hour earlier that led us to the Petit Trianon in the first place, meaning we had just retraced our steps from before which was not what we wanted to do.  At that point, we just didn’t have enough energy to keep wandering around and we gave up.  In the end, we never did find how to get to the Grand Trianon on foot, and that is somewhat disappointing because I think we would have enjoyed seeing it.  If I were to do this day over again, the only thing I would change is that after we left the area near the café, I would have used the little train to drive us out to the Grand Trianon.  It was a 30 minute walk to get up that way and we didn’t even get to see what we thought we’d be seeing.  It might have been worth spending a few euro to conserve our energy and ensure we actually got to the right place.  Oh well, you live and you learn!  Now we have a good reason to come back here again some day!

 

After a 30 minute walk, we arrived back at the main palace just in time for the 2:30pm fountain show.

 

 

You can tell it is much more crowded now than it was when we were here at 11am, but there is plenty of space to spread out because the gardens are just so enormous.

 

The Latona Fountain looked beautiful in the afternoon sun!  What a great ending to our time at Versailles!

 

[deladane]

It was now a little after 2:30pm, so we walked over to the far right side of the palace to find the exit of the garden, then walked through an archway to get back to the main courtyard outside the front entrance to Versailles.  When we first arrived this morning, hardly anyone was here.  Now, there were literally thousands of people standing in a long line that snaked back and forth, up and down the length of the plaza.  I was so curious what time those people would finally get into the building because that line must have taken hours! 

 

We exited Versailles through the main front gate and walked up the long street towards the train station.  The RER C runs about every 20 minutes so we didn’t bother looking up the schedule and just decided to take whatever train left next.  When we got to the station, the sign on the schedule board listed each individual stop that the train would make, and then which platform to stand on for a train going to that stop.  There is a fork in the line for this train, but I am fairly positive that all trains go through Central Paris and stop at the Invalides stop, so we were able to take the next departing train which would leave in 12 minutes.  It was still relatively early in the afternoon, so while the train was more crowded than it was at 7:30am, there were always at least a few seats available even when new people boarded at stations down the line.  We found seats on the upper level so we could enjoy the views as we rode through suburban Paris.

 

These trains do not have air conditioning, but you can roll down the window a few inches to get a breeze.  Unfortunately, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees F, there was no breeze that could make this train feel comfortable!  We were already overheated from all of our walking in the sun all day, and even though it felt good to sit down for the train ride, it was so hot that we really couldn’t relax.  I brought portable powered fans that plugged into our USB power bricks, but they only worked for a few minutes and then got overheated and stopped spinning!  As we approached the Invalides stop, we went downstairs to stand near the doors, and that’s when we realized our mistake.  Remember, heat rises!  It must have been at least 15 degrees cooler on the lower level of the train and we would have been much more comfortable sitting down there, even if it meant not having a good view out the windows.  Oops!

 

We retraced our steps to exit the RER station into the tunnel towards the metro station, and re-swiped our tickets for free entry to the metro for the short ride back to our hotel.  We spent an hour or two getting showered and dressed, and then relaxing and catching up on emails and social media.  DH’s company has a few employees based in both Paris and London, so our plan for tonight was to meet up with one of his coworkers for dinner.  We requested a casual restaurant with French food that was near our hotel, so his coworker suggested Le Strogoff, a trendy restaurant specializing in ceviche and tartare dishes, located on Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle (which is the same road as Grands Boulevards where our hotel is located, just with a different name). 

 

When we arrived at the restaurant at 7:30pm, we realized we would again be faced with the dilemma of sitting outside where there was a slight breeze but lots of smokers, or sitting inside where the air was clean but it was very hot.  The restaurant was fairly small, and most of the tables were located in the front on a patio and on the sidewalk.  There were already several parties seated outside and all of them were smoking, so we opted to sit inside.  When we walked inside, there was no one in there!

 

 

We seated ourselves and waited for DH’s coworker to arrive.  We ended up spending over 4 hours at this restaurant!  It was an interesting cultural experience in that we were the only non-locals eating here so it was not touristy at all.  We had been sitting and talking with DH’s coworker for quite a while and the waiter never came over to take our order until the coworker flagged him down.  It wasn’t that it was bad service, it was that the waiters leave you to chat with your friends and you are expected to let them know when you need something.  There was no pressure to order anything and no rush to turn over the table.  We were there during happy hour, so we ordered several rounds of carafes of white wine for €10 each.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but it’s a safe bet that even inexpensive house wine in France is going to be good!  After over an hour of chatting, we realized we should probably order dinner. 

 

I ordered the salmon ceviche with fries, and it was wonderful!  The menu was all in French so I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d get, but it was topped with a scoop of passion fruit sorbet which melted down into the dish creating a wonderful and refreshing sauce.  It was the perfect dish for an extremely hot summer night!

 

 

DH ordered the beef tartare and he said it was really good too.

 

 

We would have never found this place if DH’s coworker hadn’t recommended it, but the food was delicious, the wine was plentiful, and the vibe was relaxed but trendy at the same time.  Another wonderful end to an unforgettable day in France!

 

Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 27,404,  Miles: 12.15,  Flights of Stairs: 13 

[pd7277]

7 hours ago, deladane said:

Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 27,404,  Miles: 12.15,  Flights of Stairs: 13 

 

I'm exhausted just reading about it! 

[deladane]

16 hours ago, pd7277 said:

 

I'm exhausted just reading about it! 

 

I read so many posts on Trip Advisor saying that you will walk more than 10 miles a day in Paris and I thought they were exaggerating.  Nope!  We didn't even go out of our way to make it happen, we just walked from place to place or within the museums/attractions and we averaged over 10 miles and over 20,000 steps every day of this trip!  My feet were so sore but that didn't stop us... we had things to see!  The best thing we did was take 2 pairs of sneakers so we could alternate every day so neither of us ended up with any blisters.

 

[Walt fan]

Your planning is just on another level and continues to amaze me.  I cannot believe the opulence of Versailles.  How can something like that be built? And the gardens and miles and miles of walking.  Whew.  All I could think of was Alice in Wonderland.  And how I would be hopelessly lost.  What a day to add to your bucket list.

[deladane]

11 hours ago, Walt fan said:

Your planning is just on another level and continues to amaze me.  I cannot believe the opulence of Versailles.  How can something like that be built? And the gardens and miles and miles of walking.  Whew.  All I could think of was Alice in Wonderland.  And how I would be hopelessly lost.  What a day to add to your bucket list.

 

The good thing about the gardens is you can't really get lost completely.  They are structured so the paths line up either parallel, perpendicular, or diagonal to the great lawn.  They all seemed to intersect somewhere so if you walk long enough in 1 direction, you will find either a major fountain or the great lawn to get your bearings 🙂  Unfortunately, if you are looking for a specific fountain, then it feels like you are in a corn maze and can get a little frustrating haha

 

Thanks again for your kind words!

 

[deladane]

 

Wednesday, June 26, 2019 ~ Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay, Pantheon, Lido Cabaret Show

 

Today was our last full day in Paris, and we still had a bunch of things we wanted to do.  When we first started talking about what we wanted to do and see in Paris, DH suggested we should go to the Catacombs.  These are a series of underground tunnels built in the late 1700’s to hold the bones of 6 million Parisians when the cemeteries were overcrowded.  The tunnels themselves already existed in the far outskirts of Paris as mines for the stone used in the construction of the buildings.  As the city grew in population, the existing cemeteries were overflowing with bodies, so they decided to relocate all of the bones to these underground mines.  They placed the bones in an organized pattern, creating works of art that can be seen today as a tourist attraction. 

 

Because the tunnels are narrow, only 200 people are allowed inside at a time.  There is a walk-up line, but the wait can be several hours long so we decided to buy our tickets in advance from the website instead.  They release tickets a month at a time, about 2 or 3 months in advance, so starting in mid-March, I checked the website every few days until the June dates were released.  Luckily, it didn’t take too long and on April 5, I saw that they added the June dates to the schedule.  They sell the timed tickets in one-hour increments from 10am until 6pm, and you need to be positive of your timing because they do not allow exchanges or refunds.  It costs €29 for an adult timed-entry ticket including the audio guide, and they emailed me the tickets right away after processing my purchase online for the 10am time slot.  If you want to save some money, it only costs €13 for the walk-up tickets plus an additional €5 for the audio guide.  It is nearly twice the price to buy the timed-entry tickets, but considering I read reviews of people waiting in line for over 4 hours to enter the Catacombs, that little bit of extra money was well worth it to maximize our time visiting Paris.

 

After picking up some croissants for breakfast from Marks and Spencer, we headed over to the metro station to use the ticket machine to buy one more carnet.  We ran out of our t+ tickets and I did some math to realize we would need 5 metro rides today, so it worked out perfectly to buy one last carnet to share.  The machine had a button to translate everything into English, and it was very easy to follow the directions and use my chip credit card to pay. 

 

We took the metro down to the Denfert-Rochereau station which is located across the street from the Catacombs entrance.  There were already at least 100 people online when we arrived at 9:40am, but those people did not all have tickets already.  As has been a recurring trend in Paris, there were no signs anywhere about the right place to stand for people with 10am timed entry tickets so we were walking up and down the street in search of a clue.  We finally found an employee who told us where to stand, but it was very chaotic.  After we were in line, that man kept pointing other people with 10am time slots to stand in front of us so we had to really pay attention and make sure we didn’t get pushed further back in the line.  Since only 200 people can enter at a time, I wanted to be sure to be as far forward in the line as possible so we could enter with the first round of people.  There was no way I was allowing people who arrived later than us to get in line ahead of us!  When I bought the tickets online, 10am was the earliest time slot, and the time slots were only on the hour, but other people showed up with tickets for 9:30, 9:45, and 10:15am, so I have no idea where or how they got their tickets. 

 

At 9:45am, the line moved forward quite a bit when they allowed the people with tickets for that time to enter.  The line for people without tickets was right next to us and they didn’t let anyone inside at first, but once all of the 9:45 people entered, they let in a bunch of the people who didn’t have tickets yet.  This was making me nervous because I didn’t want 200 people to get in before us and then we would have a long wait to enter.  Finally, at 10am, we were allowed to enter with the other people with 10am tickets.  I was the 182^nd person to enter today, so we barely made it before the maximum capacity.

 

 

After the usual security check, they collected our tickets, gave us each an audio guide, and directed us to walk down the stairs to start our tour. 

 

 

The first few rooms were like a museum, explaining some of the history of the tunnels, and then we entered the tunnels to walk down to the bones.  While the tunnels extend for several miles, the portion that tourists are allowed to see is a little over 1 mile in length.  The ground is wet and slippery, so it was good that we wore sneakers and not flip flops.  They recommend to dress warmly because the temperature down there is 57 degrees F all year round, but given the extreme heat all week, we welcomed the cooler temperature and actually wished we had booked a late afternoon time slot to take even more advantage of the cold!  Haha

 

[deladane]

I didn’t want to annoy the people walking in front and behind us so I tried not to use my flash, but it was very dark down there and most of the photos came out blurry.  The ones I am about to post are the best of the lot, so my apologies for the poor quality but it’s better than nothing!

 

The audio guide was perfectly timed that if you listened to it while you slowly walked through the tunnel, each section would end right when you approached the number for the next section.

 

These codes on the walls helped the miners keep track of where they were in the maze of tunnels

 

This is probably not the best attraction for people with claustrophobia!

 

[deladane]

Right before we entered the section with the bones, they had this plaque to explain what we were about to see:

 

Stop: This is the Empire of the Dead

 

Don’t touch the skulls!

 

And then, bam!  Nothing but bones for as far as we could see!  It was morbid and beautiful and fascinating all at the same time.  You don’t necessarily need to be comfortable with seeing human remains to come to the Catacombs, but it is helpful to see photos in advance so you are prepared for what you will see.  This place definitely isn’t for everyone, but I really enjoyed the experience.  With that said, I will let the photos do the talking…

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

After that last display, there was a staircase leading back upstairs to exit the Catacombs.  We spent just under an hour there, which felt like the right amount of time to see everything and take it all in.  The audio guide was very helpful to understand the history and significance behind what we were seeing, so even if it was not included with our tickets, we would have bought it for this attraction.

 

Since you are walking over a mile underground through the tunnels, you exit somewhere different from where you entered.  Knowing this, it was hard to pre-plot directions from the Catacombs to our next destination, Musee d’Orsay.  My plan was to use the Citymapper app on the fly to locate where we were and how to get to the museum.  I had a vague idea of where we would get out of the Catacombs because it had to be within a mile or two from where we entered, and I also knew we would probably take a bus to the museum because there weren’t any metro stations nearby.  Unfortunately, this was one of those times when the Citymapper app really did not work well without a wifi source and it couldn’t find our location.  We were able to figure out which bus number we needed, but since the map couldn’t find our location, we had no idea which street we should turn on to find the bus stop. 

 

We decided to go back to where we exited the Catacombs and ask one of the employees where to go.  There was only one woman working there and she said she was pretty sure we had to go down this one street, but her directions were vague.  The whole thing was very frustrating and really made me wish we had international data on one of our phones!  In the end, we went down the street where she suggested and just kept walking for several blocks.  The next major intersection was with a road that had a few buses driving by as we approached, so we turned right to go north until we found a bus stop and luckily, the bus number we needed was on the sign at that stop.  This was definitely one of those life-isn’t-always-glamorous-when-you-are-traveling moments!

 

About 40 minutes after originally leaving the Catacombs, we were finally on the bus heading towards Musee d’Orsay.  We told the driver where we were going when we boarded to make sure we were on the correct bus, and in hopes that he would announce the stop so we’d know when to get off.  On the way, we caught a glimpse of the Montparnasse Tower.  We didn’t want to spend €25 to go to the top of this building for the observation deck, but at least we got to see it from the bus for free.

 

 

[deladane]

11 hours ago, singinalot said:

oh wow! I've never seen those catacombs before. how eery.

 

I'm really glad we had the opportunity to see it in person... definitely a memorable experience!

[Bimmer09]

Dana, thanks to one of my undercover agents, Crystal- (damn! I've blown her cover!) I am here reading along as I am (a) going to be in London in 3 weeks and (b) lived in London for a total of 14 Earth-years and (c) have never been to Paris even though I am the biggest Francophile I know. I would never ride a bicycle without wearing a beret, a blue and white hooped shirt, a fake mustache and a baguette under my arm. I even had a period when I smoked Gauloises Disque Bleu which smell like a burning mattress.

 

Keep the details and the stellar photos coming.

Norris

[deladane]

15 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

Dana, thanks to one of my undercover agents, Crystal- (damn! I've blown her cover!) I am here reading along as I am (a) going to be in London in 3 weeks and (b) lived in London for a total of 14 Earth-years and (c) have never been to Paris even though I am the biggest Francophile I know. I would never ride a bicycle without wearing a beret, a blue and white hooped shirt, a fake mustache and a baguette under my arm. I even had a period when I smoked Gauloises Disque Bleu which smell like a burning mattress.

 

Keep the details and the stellar photos coming.

Norris

 

OMG!  That is so funny... Literally one hour ago, I was thinking "I wish I could send a PM to Norris because I don't think he's found this review yet and I'd bet he would enjoy reading along!" ... And here you are!  I still need to finish writing about our last day in Paris on Wednesday, and then we travel to London on Thursday.  I will warn you that I was the ultimate tourist in my time there haha 

[ROWSE]

Fantastic review Dana!!

Thank you for taking us all along!!  Looking forward to the London part as well, as we do a British Isles cruise next May and it will be our first time there so I am in the research phase, and I know you will have some great ideas for me!

 

 

[deladane]

2 hours ago, ROWSE said:

Fantastic review Dana!!

Thank you for taking us all along!!  Looking forward to the London part as well, as we do a British Isles cruise next May and it will be our first time there so I am in the research phase, and I know you will have some great ideas for me!

 

 

 

Thank you!  This is our last day in Paris, so I'll start posting the London section soon.  Let me know if you have any questions!!

[deladane]

The bus ride took about 30 minutes, and left us off 2 blocks from the museum entrance.  I had heard the lines here can be very long and that this is one of the museums where it is recommended to arrive early in the morning before the doors open.  We just did not have enough days in Paris to arrive here that early so we took the risk that the line for museum pass holders wouldn’t be very long if we arrived around noon.  Luck was on our side because we only had to wait about 5 minutes between security and the ticket agent where we showed our museum pass!  There was a pretty long line for the ticket sales windows so had we not used the museum pass, we would have been waiting for much longer than 5 minutes.

 

One of the cool things about Musee d’Orsay is that it the building used to be Gare d’Orsay, a fancy train station built in 1898.  The main lobby is huge and I loved the sky lights and detailing on the arched ceiling.

 

 

 

 

This museum houses the world’s largest collection of impressionist paintings.  Most of the tour guides and books recommend skipping the lower levels and going straight up to the 5^th floor as that is where they display the most famous artists, so that’s just what we did.  When you first exit the elevator, there is a large café with really interesting décor.  At the far end of the café is a giant clock that is also a window.

 

 

It was such a clear day that we could see all the way out to Sacre Coeur when looking through the clock window!

 

 

On the far side of the café, there is a patio outside overlooking the Seine and the Louvre but it was locked so we couldn’t go outside and had to make due with just looking through the window.

 

 

The café was very crowded as it was prime lunch time.  I didn’t look at the menu but it must have been good for that many people to be eating there!

 

 

[deladane]

Walking through this museum was like flipping through an art history book.  Every famous impressionism painter was on display here… Cezanne, Gauguin, Monet, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Renoir, and so many more!  It was truly a feast for the eyes!

 

We started with one of our favorite paintings:  Monet’s bridge over the water lily pond.  We actually have a copy of this painting hanging in our dining room.

 

 

 

I actually did not take any other photos of the art on the 5^th floor.  I think I was just so in awe that I forgot to use my camera.  When we reached the far end of the hallway, we found one more giant clock window, but this one was in a big open space at the back of the museum store so we could take a better photo.  There was a big line of people waiting to take their photo here, but we were getting hungry and didn’t have patience for that so I just quickly snapped this photo between two other people taking their photos.  I really love how this came out though… you can see Tuleries Garden, the Ferris wheel, and Sacre Coeur in the background.

 

 

Before leaving the museum, we went down to the 2^nd floor to see the Van Gogh exhibit, and spent some time admiring his famous self portrait.

 

[deladane]

It was now 1:15pm and we were both starving, so we left the museum in search of somewhere to eat a quick lunch.  We had a fairly early dinner reservation so we didn’t want to ruin our appetites by eating something too big, but we definitely needed to eat.  I suggested we should find a location of Angelina’s for a sampler platter of yummy French desserts, but DH said we should probably eat some real food and not just a bunch of desserts for lunch.  Party pooper! 

 

We walked a few blocks up from the museum and found a whole bunch of tiny cafes.  One of them had a window facing the street with a display case of lots of sandwiches so we knew that would be perfect for us.  They had something I had been meaning to try in France: croquet monsieur.  This is basically just a baked ham and cheese sandwich, but the cheese is on the outside.  I ordered that and DH ordered a turkey sandwich on a baguette, and we got them both as take away so we could eat on the Seine.  I thought there might be some benches under the shade of a tree, but that was not to be.  Instead, we found this great underpass down on the banks of the river, under the shade of a giant staircase.  There were already a few people sitting on the curb so we found some open space and enjoyed our lunch al fresco.

 

 

After lunch, we felt recharged and ready to tackle one more activity before going back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.  We had not spent much time in the Latin Quarter yet so we decided to take a long walk through the streets of the Latin Quarter to the Pantheon.  It was seriously hot today, probably over 95 degrees F in the sun, so I’m not sure what made us think this was a good plan, but we stayed on the shaded side of the street as much as possible and it was fun to see a new part of the city.

 

 

[deladane]

On the way, we passed a location of Laduree, the famous macaron store.  We hadn’t tried one yet so we stopped in for a little snack and a break from the heat.  They had so many flavors to choose from, but of course, they were out of stock for my first choice: chocolate hazelnut.  Instead, I ordered a mint macaron and DH ordered vanilla.

 

 

 

I have never understood the hype about macarons and I usually find them to be kind of plain, bland, and dry.  After taking just one bite of a macaron from Laduree, I can officially say that I now understand the hype.  These were by far the best macarons I’ve ever tasted.  The mint flavor was refreshing, the cream was full of flavor, and the cookie was moist with a light crisp on the outside.  It was perfect.

 

After we left Laduree, we continued walking through the Latin Quarter, and saw this pretty window display at a different macaron store.

 

 

 

[deladane]

I was using my app to plot walking directions to the Pantheon, but sometimes it seemed like the app took us around to a back entrance when we could have made a more direct approach had we taken a different side street.  From the directions, it looked like we were almost at the Pantheon when we saw this:

 

 

 

There was a pretty plaza with several restaurants serving happy hour specials with outdoor sidewalk seating, and a tall building with a dome behind it.  That must be the Pantheon, right?  Nope!  It turned out that while it looked just like the photos of the Pantheon, it was actually just a building for the Paris Sorbonne University.  After we realized our mistake, we laughed because the 20-something-year-old woman who took our photo probably wondered why a couple of tourists would want a photo in front of a university! Haha

 

We kept walking another two or three blocks until we saw this… the real Pantheon building!

 

 

 

It was certainly larger than that other university building, but there is a slight resemblance between the two!   

[deladane]

The Pantheon was originally built as a church in the 1700’s, but today it serves as a mausoleum containing the remains of notable French citizens.  The building is shaped like a cross when looking down on it from above, but the most notable feature is the huge dome towering 272 feet high.

 

We entered through the front of the building, went through security, and showed the agent our museum pass to cover the cost of admission.  Honestly, we had pretty low expectations in coming here as it was just something to do to pass some time indoors and out of the heat, but we were blown away by this building.  The main floor features a huge open space with extremely high ceilings, and I loved the detailing in the marble floors and stone arches overhead.

 

 

 

Remember, always look up at the ceilings in Europe!  This was looking up at the center dome…

 

Right below the dome is a Foucault pendulum demonstrating the rotation of the Earth.

 

This “mini” replica of the Pantheon was in one of the rooms towards the back, but it wasn’t all that “mini” when compared to the height of the man standing next to it! Haha