Paris Christmas 2014
Day 1 – Ste Chapelle, Notre Dame, Galeries Lafayette, Tour Eiffel
Tuesday 9-Dec-14. Our Paris Christmas flight landed at CDG airport in Paris on time, we got our luggage and caught a taxi to the city. The taxi driver was nice, but the ride was really long; there was an accident coming into town. We sat under an overpass for at least 20 minutes. It made for a pretty expensive cab ride.
We checked into the Pullman Paris Eiffel Tower hotel. Our room, Room 509, was ready right away. We were delighted to see the Tour Eiffel right outside our balcony. The sky was clear blue and it was chilly, but not cold. The room also had a view of the Centre sportif Emile Anthoine — a recreational facility with a big soccer pitch. We saw all ages of kids and adults playing soccer from early morning to late evening under the lights.
As soon as we got unpacked, we decided to go site seeing. We wanted to start at Sainte-Chapelle. Our hotel gave us easy to follow directions taking the RER train (RER-C: Champs de Mars to St Michel / Notre Dame). The concierge told us that in Paris, it is not called Sainte-Chapelle, but “schapelle.” At first he didn’t understand where we wanted to go. We went for a tour of Sainte-Chapelle, bought some tapestry style souvenirs.
From there, we walked over to Notre Dame. We walked through the cathedral then walked clockwise around the perimeter. We liked the big Christmas tree and wreath; we like the new statue of St John Paul. We’d come back in a couple of days to buy some nice gifts.
We had lunch at Les Deux Palais cafe near Ste Chapelle — our waiter was really nice.
We headed over to the Hôtel de Ville. The lights in front of the city hall building were nice.
We took the nearby Métro to Galeries Lafayette. (Line 4 Chatelet to Strausbourg St Denis, then Line 9 to Chaussee d’Antin La Fayette). What a beautiful department store! The Paris Christmas decorations and display windows were marvelous! I practiced my French helping Cathie buy some clothes. We had some macaroons and champagne at the balcony snack bar, Vue sur Coupole, overlooking the atrium space. So very nice!
We wanted to go back to the hotel, but wanted to walk through the Trocadéro area on the other side of the Seine River. We took the Métro, Ligne 9, from the Chaussée d’Antin station to the Trocadéro stop. We walked around the area; we paused to watch the 7pm Tour Eiffel light show. We crossed over the Seine and walked back to our hotel.
We were very tired. It had been a long day. Our hotel recommend that we walk a few blocks East to the Le Suffren restaurant. I had been there before on a business trip and was happy to go back. It was a week night, there wasn’t alot of activity going on in the neighborhood, but when we got to the Le Suffren restaurant, it was very busy — lots of locals. The waiter was very nice and friendly. The walk to the hotel was a little further than we liked.
To top off the night we went up to the 2nd level of the Tour Eiffel. The weather was cold, but we knew that rain was coming and the night have been the best evening of the vacation. We were glad we did. We got some excellent pictures and even met some nice families from Wisconsin and Washington DC. The lines coming down off of the Tour Eiffel were slower than coming up. This was made all the easier, because the hotel is a block and a half from the hotel
Day 2 – Louvre, Orangerie, and Champs-Élysées
Wednesday, 10-Dec-2014. We slept really well. First thing we headed out to the Louvre.
We took the RER-C train from our hotel to the Musée d’Orsay station. From there, we crossed the Pont Royal bridge and walked to the Louvre entrance. There were no lines, and we walked straight in.
We saw the world famous works of art: Mona Lisa, Vénus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Les Noces de Cana/The Marriage at Cana, Le Radeau de la Méduse/The raft of Medusa, Liberté guidant le peuple/Liberty Guiding the People, Le Sacre de Napoléon/The Coronation of Napoleon, Vierge au voile/Virgin with the Veil,” painting by Raphael, “La Diseuse de bonne aventure/The Fortune Teller,” painting by Caravaggio, Le scribe accroupi/The Seated Scribe, and many more.
We had lunch at the Café Mollien and snacks at the La Boutique and Saveur & Style. We bought some nice postcards at the Librairies et Boutiques gift shop.
We left the Louvre and walked along the jardin des Tuileries to the Musée de l’Orangerie. We came to see the famous Monet water lily murals. They were huge, they took up two rooms and were beautiful. We also saw an excellent collection of painting by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Renoir. No photos allowed of the Monet’s.
We walked to the nearby Place de la Concorde, saw the famous Obelisk of Luxor, and for fun, we queued up to take a ride on the Grande Roue ferris wheel. We got some great twilight/evening pictures of the Champs-Élysées and the distant Arc de Triomphe. This was fun.
It had started raining — think hard drizzle. We started walking West along the Champs-Élysées into the Christmas Market. There were lots of people, lots of food and gift stands setup. Nice Christmas lighting and decorations. It reminded us of the Christmas Market we saw in Belgium last year, but this was bigger. We stopped to have some Champagne, but resisted getting anything to eat.
We continued walking, passing by the nice luxury shopping, and stopped at an outdoor cafe, Le George V café, for hot chocolate. The cafe was covered with a tent and had heaters. It was chilly, but comfortable (and dry!). We had a couple rounds of drinks then decided to order dinner. We were tired, and maybe a little reluctant to go back into the rain. The waiter was nice, the atmosphere on the Champs-Élysées was excellent — lots of people, lots of hussle bussle.
We finished then walked over to the Arc de Triomphe, took pictures, then took the Métro back to our hotel. (Ligne 6, Charles de Gaulle – Étoile to Bir-Hakeim stop).
Day 3 – Musée d’Orsay, Musée de Cluny, Panthéon, Seine River Cruise
Thursday, 11-Dec-2014. We slept a little later this morning. We were still trying to get timezone adjusted and we were physically tired from our first two days of walking. Today we were looking forward to seeing the Musée d’Orsay.
We took the RER-C from our hotel (Champs de Mars to Musée d’Orsay station). It was a little rainy, that was ok. We stopped at the nearby Les Deux Musées café for a light breakfast. We toured the Musée d’Orsay. We couldn’t take pictures, so we bought a good collection of postcards.
The MO features all the best impressionists: Cézanne, Degas, Delacroix, Gauguin, Ingres, Klimt, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh and even John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. A really nice collection. We spent a long time there. It was very popular with school/tour groups.
Afterwards, we went back to Les Deux Musées café for a full lunch. I had quiche. The restaurant was crowded with mostly (my opinion) with locals. The server was nice to us. I remember after lunch, I felt refreshed. I was tired.
For our next stop, we headed to the Musée national du Moyen Âge de Cluny / Musée de Cluny. I was one stop further down the RER-C line (St Michel / Notre Dame station). We like the statues of the kings and their heads. We spent alot of time going through the Voyager au Moyen Âge exhibit. The featured attraction is the Lady with the Unicorn tapestries.
We then walked over to the Panthéon. This Neoclassic mausoleum is the final resting place for many French patriots. The building was beautiful, and the interior was very solemn. There was a protest outside, and the nearby Rue Soufflot and Boulevard Saint Germain were nicely decorated with Christmas ornaments.
We walked past the Sorbonne, crossed the Seine river at Petit Pont bridge, took some twilight pictures of Notre Dame and finally made our way to the St Michel / Notre Dame station. From there we took the RER-C train back to our hotel (Champs de Mars station).
Near our hotel, we walked over to the Franprix market and the Pharmacie De Bir Hakeim S.N.C both on Boulevard de Grenelle. We booked a dinner cruise for the evening, and we took a short break before heading over to the nearby dock area.
Our dinner cruise boat was the Diamant II, run by Bateaus Parisiens. It was a short walk from our hotel. To get to the docks we walked to and under the Tour Eiffel, we crossed the street and walked down the stairway to the launch area. We got our reservations through the hotel, but we had to pay at the boat. We opted for the premium seating; we sat at a window table on the starboard side of the boat. We were total covered with glass, very clear view. We sat next to a really nice couple from Italy. The main banquet table was reserved by a big business group; the main boss sat separately with his wife in the table behind us.
We were served a really nice multicourse meal, including a premium selection of wine. There were two performers singing and playing music the whole trip. One of the singers walked from table to table. The photographers took some beautiful pictures of us. The boat went from the Tour Eiffel, all the way past the Île de la Cité and looped back. On the way back, we went South all the way down to the Statue of Liberty on the Île aux Cygnes, turned around and came back to the Tour Eiffel, our starting point. The cruise was from 8:30 to 11:00pm.
We walked back to our hotel, stopped for a quick drink. What a great day!
Day 4 – rue Saint-Honoré, Musée Carnavalet, Place des Vosge, Les Invalides
Friday, 12-Dec-2015. Woke earlier today. We want to go shopping at Hermès first thing. We took the RER-C train over to the Pont Alexandre III (Champs de Mars to Musée d’Orsay station). It was drizzling, just enough to get the umbrella out. We crossed the bridge, walk through the Place de la Concorde to rue Saint-Honoré.
We got to Hermès a few minutes before it opened. There were about 20 people in line. When it opened, we walked straight to the scarf table and a very nice, expert, sales person helped Cathie pick out some scarves. We went over to the cash register area, paid, and happily left. It was a wonderful experience.
For breakfast, we walked over to Ladurée on rue Royale near La Madeleine church. We had an excellent breakfast and bought some really nice macarons gift boxes.
Our next stop was the Musée Carnavalet. We took the Métro (L14: Madeleine->Châtelet, then L1: >Châtelet->Saint-Paul). The museum featured the history of Paris. We were surprised to learn about the fire of 1871. We also liked the boutique du bijoutier George Fouquet. There were several departments that were closed or under construction.
For lunch, we walked a couple blocks East to the Place des Vosges. This is a beautiful old courtyard area inside a block of residential / business buildings, all dating back to the 17th century, one of the oldest in Paris. There was a farm animal petting zoo exhibit setup. We stopped for lunch at the Carette Place des Vosges for lunch. We had really good club sandwiches and crêpes for desert. We had a fun and friendly waiter. It was a little cold outside, but we really liked the atmosphere.
We walked over to the nearby Place de la Bastille and saw the Colonne de Juillet — the Bastille is long gone. There’s just a big column memorial in its place.
We took the Métro to Notre Dame (L1: Bastille to Hôtel de Ville station). We had to buy a carnet of Métro tickets, but we were out of coins, so we used our chip and pin card — it worked! At Notre Dame, we bought some souvenirs for Molly and Mary.
We crossed the Peiti Pont bridge and took the RER-C train Hôtel des Invalides, Napoleon’s Tomb ( St Michel / Notre Dame to Invalides station). Les Invalides is a big beautiful Baroque style building with Napoleon’s Tomb lying in state under a giant dome. Very solemn.
From here, we walked West by the Tour Eiffel, and headed back to our hotel. By this time in the late afternoon, it was raining pretty hard.
We stayed in for dinner. It was too rainy and we were too tired. We had an excellent dinner in the hotel’s FRAME restaurant. The say they have a “Californian experience à la française.” I am not sure about that, but we had a surprisingly good dinner, served by really nice people with a fantastic view of the Tour Eiffel.
Wow what a day!
Day 5 – Au Nom de la Rose, Sacré-Cœur, Centre Pompidou
Saturday, 13-Dec-14. Rainy day. First thing, we have a request from Liz to buy some chocolate from her favorite Rose Florists store Au Nom de la Rose. There was a branch store a couple of blocks from the hotel on rue de Lourmel. We were glad to see they were open and had a nice selection of goods in stock.
After, we walked over to a neighborhood cafe, Le Bistrot de la Tour on Boulevard de Grenelle, for breakfast. It was nice, simple and quick.
Our next stop was going back to Hermès. We took our receipts from yesterday and our passport and got the proper VAT refund forms. The store had no problem working this for us.
From here, we went to up to Montmatre to see Sacré-Cœur Basilica. We took the Métro (L:12, Madeleine to Abbesses stop). From there, we had to walk a little to find the Montmartre Funicular; for the cost of a Métro ticket we rode the Funicular upto Sacré-Cœur.
The plaza in front of Sacré-Cœur had a beautiful view of Paris. We walked into the church. The chorus was singing; we sat and listened. The church was beautiful and very well maintained.
We rode back down the Funicular and walked down to Boulevard de Clichy and headed to the iconic Moulin Rogue. We took pictures; then went looking for a spot for lunch.
We stumbled upon Bistrot Cockney a couple of blocks away. It was a very nice place with lots of local people. We had a conversation with the waiter on Beaujolais; he told us that people in Paris order Brouilly. At first, I thought we were mis-pronouncing Beaujolais, but really he was referring to (I think) a vintage of Beaujolais called Brouilly. It was a rare and memorable conversation with a really fun waiter.
Our next stop is Centre Pompidou. To get there, we took the Métro (L12: Pigalle to Concorde, L1: Concorde to Chatelet). The museum featured to exhibits: Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons. The main section of the Pompidou houses the Musée National d’Art Moderne. Here, we saw Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and many others. We stopped at the cafe for a drink. Then we left the building and looked for the famous Fontaine Stravinski.
From there, we walked by the Hôtel de Ville and settled into a window seat at Le Notre Dame cafe. We had a couple of rounds of drinks and enjoyed our view of Notre Dame and the view of the people walking by. We were surprised to see the frequent number of people pausing infront of the cafe, with all of their travel luggage, trying to figure out which way to walk to their hotel. No doubt, the were coming from the RER St Michel/Notre Dame train station located below the cafe.
Because it was still raining pretty good, we decided to find one of the restaurants near our hotel. We took the RER-C train (St Michel/Notre Dame to Champs de Mars station) and walked less than a block to Restaurant Chez Ribe. No surprise, for a Saturday night the place was full. We were luck to get seated. We sat next to fellow tourists from Turino, Italy. There were Americans there on business, and lots of locals. I recommend this place, it was nice.
We walked back to the hotel, stopped for a quick drink then went to our room to pack. The next day, we are going home!
Day 6 – Fly Home
Sunday 14-Dec-14. We were packed and checked out by 9am. We took a taxi to the airport. It was much quicker because Sunday morning there was no traffic.
We checked in at CDG airport. We got into the Star Alliance Gold lounge, nice. On the airplane, we sat next to a World War II vet and his son. It was very nice to see their pride in making the trip to France. We landed mid afternoon and were home to see the kitties by 5pm. All was well.
What a wonderful trip!!