Health care in France is pretty decent, based on my small experience with it. Yes, I came down with a case of the flu and was sick in bed during the trip. It was so disappointing to have gotten sick, so my lesson from here on out is to get an annual flu shot from here on out. I won’t get into just how ill I was, but it was so bad that Kevin worked with the hotel concierge to get a doctor to pay me a bedside visit. I required three prescriptions and recovered in as many days.
So after losing Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, by the time Saturday came around, we were raring to go, albeit at a slower pace at first. We began the day leisurely and strolled down to La Louvre Musee de la Mode et du Textile, where we took in the amazing Christian Lacroix exhibition. Lacroix intensely studied the museum’s collections of costumes and accessories and turned out his very own personal vision of the history of fashion with his own haute-couture creations. It was a unique way to take in a history of fashion and to take in the work of one of the greatest names in French fashion.
The Musee de la Mode et du Textile is a part of Les Arts Decoratifs. So we managed to get part way through this massive museum. A highlight for us was the Art Deco section. There, the museum showed examples ranging from how steel tubing revolutionized furniture manufacturing and styling to the staging of three rooms belonging to the home of Jeanne Lanvin, founder of the eponymous fashion house. The three rooms, including her bathroom complete with fixtures, were breathtaking.
By this time we were both flagging, but especially me. It was hard getting back into the fast-paced schedule we were maintaining before getting sick. We went to the restaurant at the museum, and for the first and only time during our trip, we were snubbed by the snobby service. We actually got up and left and found a Greek Mediterranean restaurant that specialized in pizza. That got my appetite going a bit, and we had an enjoyable meal at this crowded joint near La Louvre.
More than my appetite for food seemed to be returning. It was time to shop and to find the flagship location of one of my favorite designer companies, Kenzo. Kenzo is a brand that is not easily available in the United States, whether you’re shopping for their m
en’s or women’s collections. Kenzo also produces items for the home, as well as fragrances for both women and men. We found their boutique emporium and enjoyed perusing their collections. After some shopping we headed to the top floor of the building for yet another fun experience at Kong, an ultra stylish bar with a very modern interior. The restaurant is in a glass-domed room. The sky outside was very changeable and from our vantage point, we could observe a frontal system move directly through Paris as dusk fell. It was cool and eerie all at the same time. The sky changed so rapidly as a rainstorm moved through that it felt as though we were flying.
We walked back up Rue de Rivoli to the hotel and relaxed for a bit so that we’d have some stamina to head out for the evening.
Saturday night we kept things low key and took ourselves out for a great walk, meandering through the decorative arts district in the 6th and 7th arrondissements. Eventually we wound up at a brasserie in the 7th where they were playing disco music videos on flat-screened televisions. An American couple came in to the brasserie and was seated next to us. They came in for some mulled wine to warm up. We struck up a conversation and had a nice time chatting. It turned out they were from Pennsylvania, not too far from where Kevin grew up in Philadelphia. We always appreciated running into other friendly Americans during the trip. After a lengthy and very relaxed paced dinner, we walked down St. Germain and strolled past shops, just marveling at the beauty of one of Paris’ great boulevards. We were going to take a walk through the Tuileries to the hotel, but we forgot that they close the park at night. So we had to walk clear around the Tuileries, which proved to be a good thing because that’s how we found L’Orangerie, at long last! We promised ourselves that we’d be back for an official visit the next day.
Sunday was a typically quiet day in Paris. We began the day with a walk from our hotel, down the Champs Elysees to just inside the 16th arrondissement where we found the Musee Galliera. This mus
eum is in an Italianate mansion that has been converted into a fashion museum. Here we saw a current exhibit on fashion from the Roaring ‘20s. I found this exhibit to be inspiring on multiple levels, and even wrote my latest Metro column based upon one of the ways the exhibit touched me. It was great to see early pieces of Chanel and Lanvin at the exhibit, and it was great to see that the clothes were made for women with curves and with maturity. It’s a far cry from how fashion is presented today.
After enjoying ourselves at the museum, we walked back into the 8th arrondissement and found one of our favorite places that we had been to back in February. L’Avenue is on fashionable avenue Montaigne. Chic whether during day or evening, we found the daytime setting to be more relaxed and bright versus the club-like atmosphere that pulsates through the place at night. It’s a great people watching spot and we highly recommend it. Oh, and the food is good, too!
From lunch we walked back down the bustling Champs Elysees and crossed Place de la Concorde and headed into the Tuileries where we waited in line to enter L’Orangerie. Monet’s Waterlilies are on display here in a mind-blowing display. Split into two adjoining rooms, each of the eight expansive paintings cover their own 
wall space. It’s a monumental way to appreciate what Monet explored in his paintings of his gardens in Giverny. Anyone who appreciates color will be awed by the way he explored the effects of light at different times of the day and seasons. Simply magnificent. Also at L’Orangerie was an exhibit about the collections of Jean Walter, a French architect, and Paul Guillaume, a merchant and art critic. Apparently,
Guillaume passed away and his widow ended up marrying Walter. Their massive collection was on display here and featured works from Monet, Picasso, Rousseau, Laurencin, Matisse, Soutine, amongst others. The collection was staggering, and we were exhausted by the time we finished reviewing the exhibit.
We decided to take ourselves to the tres chic Hotel Costes for a drink. The hotel is located right around the corner from our hotel and boy is it low-key. Even our hotel concierge suggested that the bar at Hotel Costes is more of an ‘in’ spot than Buddha Bar, located at the Hotel de Crillon. So we parked ourselves at an available table and drank some very pricey drinks while soaking up the atmosphere. The bar is very dark, cool music is piped in, and people look around at each other wondering what everyone’s story is.
Tuesday was New Year’s Eve day and we had a full day in store, no pun intended. We began at a Paris institution (thanks to a reminder that came from my friend Leslie back in California) by the name of Angelina’s. Famous for their chocolate chaud, we took a seat near the front windows and prepared ourselves for decadence. Kevin, who never eats chocolate, even ordered the chocolat chaud as part of his petit dejeuner. For breakfast, the chocolat chaud (or coffee or tea – but why bother?) is accompanied by a selection of four small pastries and your choice of fresh squeezed juice. Everything was lovely, but the star attraction is the chocolat chaud, served in a pitcher with a full three cups’ worth of enjoyment complete with homemade whipping cream served on the side to cut the sweetness of the molten confection. The salon is done in the style of the Belle Époque. It’s a simple example of how Parisians partake of small luxuries.
Small luxuries were the order of the morning as we toured Hermes, and other emporiums of Rue du Faubourg and around la Madeleine. Kevin and I treated each other to mementos of our time in Paris.
We walked from there over to the Garnier Opera House where we took a guided tour. This amazing structure represents a major shift in the development of Paris and is a showcase for purposeful and intentional 
design. The two-hour tour took us into the auditorium itself and we got to watch one of the male ballet dancers practice while snapping up photos of Marc Chagall’s painted dome and other parts of the interior. I did manage to get one good shot of the dancer, too! The foyer of the Garnier Opera is intended to evoke the grand salons of Versailles and does not disappoint. Our English-speaking guide was chock-full of great information and we highly recommend this tour.
We had a chance to meet up with a friend of Kevin’s whose mother resides in Paris. We crawled into a bar until they kicked us out. Of all the places we could have gone to early on New Year’s Eve, we picked the one place that was actually closing. But we had a great conversation, and walked around the streets between la Madeleine and les Grand Magasins.
Monday night was New Year’s Eve and we went to Joe Allen’s for dinner. They offered a prix fixe menu, especially common at restaurants on New Year’s Eve, but they also offered their regular a la carte menu. We walked from our hotel down Rue Etienne Marcel to the area of Les Halles where the place is located. It would be our second visit there this trip and the friendly staff made us feel at home, so much so that my order did not come out right, just like home! So maybe that was just a bit too close to home, but we did have a good time. After dinner, we walked to le Marais, crawled into a bar a few minutes before midnight and counted down the last moments of the year.
Rain began to fall as 2008 started and as we began to head back to our hotel. We debated whether to take le Metro or to walk. The rain stopped, so we opted to walk. It seemed as we approached the area of La Louvre, we were walking against foot traffic, a sure sign that the crowds who gathered along the Champs Elysees had broken up and were heading back east. The crowd was quite riled up so we were very happy to pass through the Westin’s gates. Home at last.
New Year’s Day in Paris was mostly silent. The weather was not very pleasant, but at least it wasn’t raining. We took our chances of heading to Montmarte and to Sacre Coeur for views of Paris. Aside from the skies being overcast, we didn’t quite get a sense that the views from there are quite as good as the guide books would suggest. So after walking up the steps to the top of Montmarte, and then after walking up more steps to reach Sacre Coeur, we reached not just the hulking yet unimpressive church but we reached an absolute sea of humanity. It seemed as though every other tourist who happened to be awake in town had the same idea as us. We quickly walked through the church (an unwelcoming sign demanded silence and no photos), and made a beeline for the funiculaire to get us back down the hill.
Fortunately, at the foot of the funiculaire, we found a salon de tea. Inside we found friendly, smiling faces and more, yummy chocolat chaud. Served similarly as it is at Angelina’s I thought we stumbled into a little bit of heaven. After we enjoyed our pastries and drinks, we headed to the nearest Metro station. We were not interested in the crowds or the general atmosphere. So we thought we’d traipse through le Marais, hoping that something would be open. Wow, were we wrong. The place was absolutely shuttered. So we just walked the quiet streets and began all ready to reminisce about the wonderful trip we’ve had.
Back at la Madeleine, we saw an awesome exhibit on the works of Soutine, whose works we had seen earlier at L’Orangerie. This was a comprehensive collection and we were struck by how many of his works had been collected for this exhibition. His use of color and shapes, and his secretive use of Hebrew letters were awe inspiring.
Later that evening, we did venture back to le Marais for one final French meal at a sweet traditional French restaurant right in Place des Vosges, one of my most favorite spots in all of Paris. Kevin had a very clear duck stew and I enjoyed a leg of lamb. Our trip was winding down, and while we were contemplating our return home, we sure did have a memorable trip.
