Home from Paris

Our Novotel hotel at Terminal 1 in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport, couldn’t be handier for the airport; it’s actually part of the airport buildings and a very short walk to the shuttle train to Terminal 2. However it still took us a whole hour to queue through security and passport control and then our flight was delayed by an hour! Never mind, we were quick off the flight at Glasgow and were soon home and reunited with Tom and Floof, who were pleased to see us and took us straight to their food bowls. This was completely unnecessary because Angela had fed them in the morning, but I think it makes them feel secure if we do our duty and feed them when we have been away. Much unpacking and laundry was done. In the evening we decided to watch a film. We used what I now think of as the “Josh method” first successfully used by us last week, which is to choose the first film on Netflix which catches our eye instead of spending ages searching. This time we quickly chose “The Woman in Cabin 10” which was a run of the mill and yet fairly enjoyable thriller, with a stellar cast led by Kiera Knightley and Guy Pearce. It was set on a super yacht, a bit like my favourite tv programme Below Decks, but with less sex and more murder! 

Canal Saint Martin

We decided to revisit St Germain this morning so took a metro directly from Arc-de-Triomphe to Saint-Paul and then walked to Ile Saint-Louis. It started to rain just as we were passing a wee café, La Lutétia, so we popped inside and enjoyed coffee and tartines while watching people walking past under their umbrellas. By the time we were ready to continue our walk the rain had stopped and the sky was blue again. We went along past Notre Dame to Shakespeare and Company, fortuitously joining the fast growing queue about ten minutes before it opened at midday, which meant that we got straight in. The doorman put the chain across just behind us so we felt very lucky. It was nice to be back and we looked at the art books as well as going upstairs to the second hand section. We continued nostalgically along the Rue de Buci and  across the Pont Neuf where we jumped in a metro train to La Villette. We went for a gorgeous autumnal walk from the Bassin de la Villette along the Canal Saint-Martin. It was quite pretty in an urban way, with locks and high pedestrian bridges at intervals along it. Lots of people were out for a Sunday walk along the canal. We stopped for a quick coffee at a busy wee café, then continued along until the canal literally disappeared into a tunnel beneath Paris and could be seen no more. It apparently goes underground until it emerges at Bastille shortly before it joins the Seine. We walked the short distance to Place de République and took the metro to somewhere about half way along the Champs-Elysées. Then we strolled along in the evening sunlight towards our hotel, stopping for a really delicious dinner at Café L’Etoile 1903 just round the corner from the Arc de Triomphe. It was decorated in fin de siècle gilt adorned style and the waiters were very friendly, like most (perhaps all, I can’t be absolutely sure) of the Parisian waiters whom I have encountered over the years. Their fearsome reputation seems to me unwarranted. After collecting our cases we travelled by RER train to Charles de Gaulle Airport. And as a wee end of holiday bonus we were given an upgraded room at the Novotel! Our room is on the top floor, smart and spacious, and after all our walking around Paris today it was great to put our feet up and relax. 

Bois de Boulogne

This morning it was raining so we headed for a museum that we haven’t been to before, which is quite near our hotel, the Musée Marmottan Monet. We visited a temporary exhibition of paintings of people sleeping by a variety of artists, which was mildly interesting, and then went downstairs to the permanent collection to pay our respects to Claude Monet. Some of his work is magnificent, some of it not so much. I really liked La Barque, a little boat on water that looked full of pondweed, with a leafy branch over it. And I liked Impression, Sunrise, which Monet painted from his window in Le Havre with its blood red sun rising through a blue haze, a couple of little boats in the foreground. It’s apparently where the term Impressionism got its name. 
We then emerged into gratifyingly dry and sunny weather and walked the short distance to the Bois de Boulogne. 
It was lunchtime so we made our way to the nearest restaurant, the Chalet des Îles. In 1852, the Bois de Boulogne was ceded by Napoleon III to the city of Paris and major work on its redevelopment began the following year under the direction of Baron Haussmann. As part of these plans, a lake was created with two islands connected by a bridge. Meanwhile Empress Eugénie decided that she really liked a chalet that she saw in Bern, in Switzerland. So the Emperor had the whole chalet dismantled and transported by train and rebuilt on the large island on the lake! It is now a restaurant, and to get to it we took a wee ferry across the water. The restaurant was smart with a wood burning stove, and was busy with families. One family was celebrating a birthday and we noticed that some of them were singing Joyeux Anniversaire and others were singing Happy Birthday! We had a delicious lunch, although James’ duck was so rare that he remarked that our niece Jenny, who is a vet, could still have revived it! Or as he put it, “got it back on the wing!” which I thought was very funny. Then we took the tiny ferry back and going for a lengthy walk around the Bois de Boulogne past the Longchamps Racecourse and along woodland paths, which looked absolutely beautiful in the autumn sunshine. Birds were singing in the woods, there were lots of herons at one end of the lake, as well as swans and ducks on its banks. From time to time we could see the Eiffel Tower peeking over the tops of the trees. James expertly navigated us out of the north of the park and back to the 17ième arrondissement for dinner in the Café Armance. 

Carnavalet Museum

We had “formule petit déjeuner” at a café near the hotel before heading to the Louvre by metro. As we drew into each station there was spooky Halloween music played along with the station announcement which I enjoyed! We had bought our Louvre tickets in advance so were able to walk straight in, but I was disappointed that the “Écoles du Nord” section, which includes Northern Renaissance art, was closed off. I asked why and it’s due to staff shortages. However it was not advertised as closed on their website, so I’m going to send a stiff email of complaint. We looked around the French medieval and 16th and 17th century artists, however when I decided that it was time for a nice coffee at Angelina’s, we found that it is closed for refurbishment. Oh dear oh dear! It was time to cut our losses and we walked a couple of kilometres to the Marais, where we went to the Carnavalet Museum on the Rue de Sevigny. When we were on our revolutionary walking tour in June, our guide had pointed out (through a window) the statue of Louis XIV in full Roman regalia which is in the courtyard of the museum, but we couldn’t go in because it was closed that day. So this was a good opportunity to take a closer look at Louis, and to have a look round the rest of the museum which is about the history of Paris. It was really interesting, set in a couple of the many “hôtels” of the district, which were the mansions of the well-off inhabitants of the area. One of these was Madame de Sevigny, who held literary salons there in the 17th century. There were many rooms from other “hôtels” carefully reconstructed in the museum to preserve them. There were also a lot of paintings and maps of Paris as it evolved and expanded through the centuries, which James particularly enjoyed. On the top floor was a section on the French Revolution, which I have been learning about this year, so that was worth a look. And there’s more to see, but we both felt that we had seen enough for one day. 
It was very pleasant to revisit the Place des Vosges, now very autumnal compared to the hot day when we visited it in June. Later we had a lovely dinner near the hotel. 

Bob Dylan at the Palais de Congrès

How exciting it was to wake up to bright blue skies in Paris this morning! James planned for us to take advantage of the good weather by going for a big walk, and that’s just what we did. After a delicious breakfast at the very popular La Pompadour bakery of coffee and tartines with butter and jam, we headed towards Montmartre which we approached from the north; it only took about half an hour. We arrived at the Place du Tertre which is just as busy as ever at the end of October, and had drinks sitting outside Au Cadet de Gascogne. It was lovely and warm in the sunshine. We were just across from the Clairon des Chasseurs where we had a brilliant lunch with Heather and Ewan in June, but it just didn’t feel right to go there without them! We walked to the Galeries Lafayette where we had lunch and bought some tasty treats as souvenirs. Onwards to the Tuileries Gardens via Avenue de l’Opéra. The gardens were pleasantly busy, and we enjoyed seeing the autumn colours on the trees. 
In the evening we went to the main event of our trip; Bob Dylan at the Palais de Congrès. It’s a spacious and comfortable venue where the seating is tiered so we got an excellent view of the stage from Row Q. Mind you the people away at the back must have felt very far away from the action because there is no balcony so it just stretches back and back. As with the Cat Stevens concert our phones were locked in pouches so that we couldn’t take photos. I had received an email asking us to be in our seats by 7.30 p.m. because the concert would start promptly at 8. As we waited obediently in our seats, we noticed that much of the predominantly French audience were still filing in and slowly finding their seats as the minutes ticked by. With Gallic insouciance they were clearly in no hurry. At 8 p.m. on the dot the lights went off and Bob Dylan and his band started playing. There was quiet chaos and consternation in the aisles as the stragglers struggled to find their seats in the dark, which of course was now much more difficult. Bob Dylan started a bit hesitantly, turned more towards his band than the audience. He seemed to relax as the concert went on, and I enjoyed the songs, a few of which I recognised but many of which I had never heard, which isn’t surprising as I don’t know his music very well. Also it was very hard to make out the words, and the songs didn’t sound the way they were recorded. For example the second song was It Ain’t Me Babe which of course I do know, and although I thought I recognised some of the lyrics, the tune sounded so unfamiliar that it wasn’t until James confirmed it to me later that I was sure that it was supposed to be the same song! There was much playing of the harmonica. Bob didn’t speak to the audience at all, not even a Bonjour Paris, and as soon as he finished a song he pressed on with the next one. At the end when he left the stage (without a word of farewell!) the audience applauded wildly but the house lights came on after a few minutes, there was no encore. What did I think of the concert? Well it was exactly as I expected really, and although I wouldn’t rush to see him again I’m glad that I had the experience. 

Bonjour Paris

We are in Paris. We fancied seeing Bob Dylan but he was sold out in Glasgow so we looked around to see where he’s touring and decided that a wee jaunt back to Paris would be fun. We spent a fair proportion of the day travelling and arrived at the Hôtel Regent’s Garden at about 4 p.m. We are in the 17ième arrondissement for a change, not far from the Arc de Triomphe, and after checking in to our hotel, we went for a walk to check out the neighbourhood. There are plenty of cafés and restaurants, and we are a short walk from the Palais de Congrès, where Bob Dylan will be playing tomorrow evening; the main reason for us choosing this area of Paris. We had pre-dinner drinks in the friendly wee Café Armance, on whose menu is written the eponymous Armance’s motto, “Ici, on pèle, on cuit, on monte au beurre, on rôtit, on arrose, on boit, on respire, on aime, on vit quoi...” How very French. 
By this time it had started raining and it was dark, so we headed back to the hotel and had a good dinner in the restaurant next door, which was called Môm, then back to our cosy room with flowers in its window box. 

Bosch and Bruegel

Yesterday I met up with my dear school friends, the self-styled Ladies who lunch. We had our usual friendly and supportive catch up. Out of the five of us, two have grandchildren and one has two grandchildren in the way. Not twins, an expected baby from each of two different offspring! On the way home I ran into Christine from next door, who has been very ill recently but has recovered; it’s nice to see her looking so well. 
Today I had my fifth session of Northern Renaissance Art; Bosch and Bruegel. They are different yet similar. It was very interesting. I would love to go to Madrid to see lots of Bosch paintings (the Spanish Royal family collected a lot of them so they are now in the Museo del Prado) and to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna to see lots of Bruegel paintings (collected by the Austrian branch of the Habsburg Royal family in the 16th and 17th centuries.) Maybe one day!