Chartres and Le Marais – How to Spend a Weekend around and in Paris

Saturday we took a train ride to Chartres. We took le Metro to le Gare Montparnasse, where we connected to a French regional train. There was great confusion at first as to where to catch the train, but we figured it out. Gare Montparnasse is large, and a very specific train line runs to Chartres, and beyond. In any event, the time we spent waiting for the train made for good people watching. The ride to Chartres took slightly more than an hour each way. On the way, we sped right past the vastness that is unmistakably Versailles. In between catching a few lazy winks, we looked out onto the French countryside dotted with small towns along the tracks. Even in wintertime, landscapes were lushly verdant. We enjoyed looking at the French countryside and the beautiful little country houses that dot the land.

The train station in Chartres is a plain ole station just like the station at Versailles. And when we got off the train, I wondered where in the hell we really were. And then off to the left in a reasonable distance, we saw the gothic monolith that is the Chartres Cathedral. Truly an ancient structure, it originally was destroyed. Then in the late 1100s, a monumental effort was made to rebuild it. Famous for its gothic beauty and for its massive collection of stained glass windows, the cathedral is mind-blowing. The craftsmanship of the carvings and of the stained glass windows is something to behold.

Exploring the church struck me in such a way that set my mind in a new way about religion and about anything influenced by it, including fashion. This might not be a newsflash to most people, but as a Jewish person who has experienced few observances of other faiths, I realized how theatrical Catholicism is. And it took coming all the way to Chartres to figure it out. Good thing. After touring the church and its grounds, we checked out the cute and very busy town before heading back to Paris.

Once back to the city, we did another very touristy and American thing. We took a quick elevator ride high above Montparnasse to the bar on the top floor of Paris’ tallest building for a drink. Montparnasse is a quite tall building built in the 1960s and is typically considered an eyesore. That’s why it’s ironically kind of neat to be in the building. This way you don’t have to look out at it. But from high above, you can look at the bustling beauty of the city below. Rather than paying the fee to enter the observatory, we paid to have a drink and sat at a window that overlooked the Eiffel Tower and the Champ de Mars, Les Invalides, le Rive Seine, and the whole city. If it’s an American way of looking at Paris, then not all things American are so terrible.

We kept up with the American theme by having dinner later on that night at American outpost Joe Allen, located in the area known as les Halles, which is on the eastern edge of the 1st and 4th arrondissments. It’s a fun atmosphere and you can comfortably speak English to the staff. It’s also a great spot if you’re craving barbeque while in Paris.

Sundays in Paris are reportedly quiet, but the reports are a farce. The vast majority of stores in most districts of the city are shuttered on Sundays, but along le Champs Elysees in the 8th arr., and in le Marais district, in the 3rd and 4th arrs., as well as in parks and museums throughout the city, Paris is afoot and out. We decided to be out in le Marais, where shops and restaurants are all open. We like the neighborhood for its charm and for the mix of its gay and Jewish cultures. No wonder why it feels like home!

From our hotel we took a meandering route on the way to le Marais, often the best way to learn about Paris’ neighborhoods on foot. We found one of the city’s fantastic shopping arcades. Although the businesses were not open, the space was breathtaking. Known as Galerie Vivienne, this sort of space was the definite precursor to the shopping mall. A bit further along we happened along a street with a bustling Sunday open-air market. It was great fun looking at all of the fresh produce, poultry, and fruits de mer.

We walked and talked for hours, meandering through the streets, eating lunch at a very popular kosher deli, whose burger specialties kept pouring out of the busy crack kitchen. Cute young men wearing kippot served, while wigged women with their tag-along children ate egg-topped hamburgers served with a heaping side of fries and eggplant spread. It was great to take in the whole vibe of the neighborhood, including walking around the historic Place des Vosges, a gorgeous park with vast buildings around each of its four sides. One of my most favorite places, it was once the residence of writer Victor Hugo.

A surprisingly fun and lengthy stop along the way in le Marais was a visit to the Musee Carnavalet, a gorgeous, sprawling museum in a former mansion. It’s fitting to find a museum dedicated to Paris’ history in its oldest neighborhood. The museum’s collection includes impressive furnishings, fine art, paintings and artifacts. Equally as gorgeous as the museum’s interior are its exterior courtyards. It’s definitely a stop worth making.

Later that evening, we returned to le Marais for dinner, taking a table at a very lively and crowded restaurant called le Gai Moulon – tres gay, for sure, and a whole lot of fun. While there, our tablemates struck up conversation with us. A really sweet couple of women, one lives in Paris, and the other in London. We totally enjoyed our dinner together and wish them well. It’s a leisurely late night walk back from le Marais, past the Centre Pompidou and eglise St. Eustache before we head back to le Westin for some restin’.

Paris – Our First Two Days

It’s been too long since having written last. So I’ll start from the beginning and catch you up with more proper and detailed posts.

Almost the entire first week of our stay in Paris was to perfection. The day we arrived we took the RER from Charles de Gaulle to le Metro’s Les Halles station, where we transferred to a number 9 train where we exited at the Tuileries Metro station. When we transferred trains, I nearly caused a debacle for Kevin, whose baggage was just a tad too wide for it to fit through the auto exit door from the station. I tried to push it through to help him, but I inadvertently bent the handle while it was extended. Fortunately when we got unpacked later, he was able to manipulate the handle and all was not lost on his newest piece of luggage.

When we arrived at the hotel it was just a tad early and our room was not yet ready. We were welcome to avail ourselves to the Club Lounge at the Westin Paris and bide our time. We were then shown our to our room and found our expected, but complimentary, upgrade to not be what we had in mind. We learned a big lesson: a suite in France is a larger room, not a sleeping and a sitting room as it is in the United States. In any event, with the hotel undergoing renovation and being fairly well booked for the holidays, we managed to secure a room more to our liking on the top floor — with two rooms! It would prove to be crucial to have these two rooms. But more on that later. The other amazing thing about the room is that it has a spacious walk in closet, and I do mean spacious. The closet can easily accommodate enough clothing for a fashionisto like me and still spare ample room for Kevin, who is decidedly less of a clotheshorse, but still came prepared to look good and to brave the elements.

Okay, so enough about the room… Let’s go out and play!

We headed out for a walk, determined not to let jet lag get the best of us. We walked around the area known as la Madeleine, a square centered with the eglise Madeleine. All around the square are gourmet food shops such as temples of taste Hediard and Fauchon, as well as smaller shops that sell caviar and salmon. To the west are the highly regarded, high-heeled and high priced boutiques of rue du Faubourg-St Honore. To the east is the area known in guide books as les Grandes Boulevardes. There we find a brasserie and sit down for our first Paris meal. Afterward, we kept on our walk, heading up to see more temples. Only this time the temples were of les Grandes Magasins of Galeries Lafayette and le Printemps.

Boulevard Haussman was crazy busy with people like you’d expect to see in San Francisco’s Union Square or on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, or on 5th Avenue in New York just before Christmas. Parisian shoppers are serious about celebrating the holiday. It’s just a myth that the holiday is no big thing. By this time, we were starting to feel the effects of traveling, so we climbed the escalators in Printemps’ home store that houses cosmetics on the main floor (they have three buildings, as does Galeries Lafayette) so that we could take in the city from the glass enclosed cafe on the roof. It’s a marvelous way to take in Paris: to get a sense of place, to get a sense of scale, and to get a sense of the splendor that can only be found in Paris.

Friday we did something quite touristy: we took a double-decker bus ride. The good thing about this notion is that you can get on and off all day long, as you like. The bad things about this concept are that the buses run infrequently, and they don’t operate in the evening. We did get around a bit until we decided to exit at the Arc de Triomphe. We bought our billets and climed to the top to see truly triumphant views of the City of Lights. Not only was it a magical experience, but it’s one that makes you marvel at the ability people had to create such architecture when it was created. Climbing is not for the faint of heart, but if you can handle all of the steps, it’s well worth the trip — up and down.

We had a nice lunch in a cafe in the 16th Arr, near the Arc and then walked down to the Trocadero area for renowned views of the Eiffel Tower. We walked because there was no bus! Of course, just was we arrived at Trocadero, there came — and went– the bus! So we ‘killed’ time at a beautiful cemetery perched atop a sloped hill and saw how a few fortunate Parisians get to spend eternity. We managed to pick up the next bus and tooled around to the Eiffel Tower and then on to Les Invalides. We wanted to see Napolean’s tomb, but because we arrived a bit late, the idea was a bust. Of course, we had to wait for the bus, so we hung out at the museum cafe to kill some more time. We do not recommend this bus idea! Nonetheless, we took the bus to Place de la Concorde and exited at Rue Royale, where we walked past gorgeous shops, including an over-the-top florist, and down St Honore to Rue de Castiglione and back to our home sweet hotel.

Friday night we took ourselves on one of our many unguided walks, found dinner, and back to look at all of the Christmas windows on Boulevard Haussman. Parisians call the act of checking out all of the windows as ‘window-licking’ and if you can see our tongues through our photographs, then you can tell that they were wagging!

Our first two days were off to a great start with gorgeous sights, gorgeous people (of course that includes Kevin and me), and the promise of more great days to come…

Paris Shops!

Someone once told me that the French do not make such a big deal out of Christmas, shopping, and gift-giving as we Americans do. But this person could not have been more incorrect as shopping amongst Parisians is akin to being a part of an all-out stampede.

Every day since we’ve been here, any shopping we’ve done has been done in the company of a throng French shoppers. Whether we’ve been to les grand magasins in the 9th Arr. or the chic boutiques along Rue Faubourg-St. Honore in the 8th and 1st Arrs., or in the many small streets that comprise Le Marais, we’ve certainly been part of huge crowds of people filtering in and out of shops, and spilling onto crowded sidewalks and streets.

But it hasn’t just been a shop-a-rama. On Saturday we took a train to Chartres so we could take in the Chartres Cathedral and its amazing stained glass windows. As a person who is highly influenced by colors, looking at the vast collection of stained glass windows provided a dose of inspiration. It’s amazing that this church, which originally was destroyed, was rebuilt to such splendor in a relatively short period of time. And it’s fascinating to see what could be constructed in medieval times like the late 1100s and early 1200s. Photos from Chartres will be posted in the next day or so.

By the way – if you’re reading this blog and want to see larger photos that are in the slide show, just click on the slide show and you can view each photo one.

Live From Paris…It’s Saturday Night!!!

It took a while to figure out how to get these photos loaded, but now that the first batch of photos are loaded into this slide show, it’s well worth it.

Obviously, we’ve been spending a lot more time exploring the beauty of Paris than we have been figuring out how to use the technology.

We’ve been enjoying our walks along Blvd Haussmann, where les grand magasins are located, such as Le Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. It’s been fun to ‘lick the windows’ as the Parisians do.

Climbing the Arc de Triomphe was, indeed, a triumph — 284 stairs to get a birdseye view of heaven on Earth.

I’ll write more later, but wanted to post something before heading back out to dejuner.

Paris, Here We Come!

We’re just about packed, thank goodness. I’ve had an enjoyable time contemplating what to pack for a two week wintertime trip to the City of Lights. Paris is a city that can bring out the romantic in just about anyone. For me, that means packing enough clothes to look and feel special without going overboard. For example, nothing that we’re doing will require formal attire; so I’ve packed no neckwear, not even a suit.

I’d describe the overall mood of what I packed as ‘sophisticated-sexy,’ with leather shirts, body-conscious knit sweater tops as highlights with beautifully colored, patterned shirts, and even a gorgeously textured and versatile sport coat, for a few dressier occasions. So I plan to be chic yet comfortable, fashionable and sexy, enjoying Paris with my partner. What on Earth could be better?

As you can tell, the trip has all ready begun. Preparing and packing is actually when the trip begins. And, if you give yourself ample time for packing, it can be a totally enjoyable experience. You can envision when you’ll wear one particular outfit, and where you will be when you get the chance to wear another, and so on. Clothes are such an obvious part of our daily lives that making selections can seem mundane. But here I found myself wowed with my selections and looking forward to chilly, rainy Paris.

More soon, from Paris!!!