Paris (November 1998)
After our visits to Portugal and Spain, we headed to Paris for a week. Tim had been to Paris once before, and this was Julie's first visit. We stayed in the HÔtel Le Régent on rue Dauphine, near the Louvre and Notre Dame. Although it might have cost a little less to stay farther out of town, we planned to spend most of the week sightseeing in that part of Paris, so staying farther out would have added to our daily travel time. We were very happy with our room and our choice of location; Musée d'Orsay, Musée de l'Orangerie, Nortre Dame, Musée du Louvre, and Sainte-Chapelle were all within a 10 minute walk.

Both of us enjoy art, and so we decided to spend several days in art museums; a day in Musée du Louvre, a day in Musée d'Orsay, and several hours in Musée de l'Orangerie.

l'Orangerie was mostly closed for remodelling, but fortunately the two round Monet galleries, which house two very large Water Lily paintings (Les Grands Nymphéas), had not yet been closed. There were also a number of other works still on display, and we enjoyed our visit.
Main hall inside Musée d'Orsay
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Musée du Louvre behind it) at night
Despite our concentration on art museums, we could not leave Paris without visiting a few other sights. The Eiffel tower turnd out to be the most challenging of these. Despite the constant rain on the day we visited it, we nevertheless walked to it (getting pretty wet despite our rain jackets). We were really looking forward to viewing Paris from its top. When we finally arrived at the base, we were quite disappointed that it was closed by a strike. Neverthless, we did not let this bother us too much, since everything else had gone so well on our trip.
Tim and Julie in the rain at Eiffel Tower
The day after our Eiffel Tower excursion, we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, which afforded beautiful views of Paris. The Arc's location is more centralized than Eiffel Tower, so perhaps the views are even better, if not as expansive.
Tim and Julie in front of Arc de Triomphe Julie looking at sculpture on Arc de Triomphe
Julie on top of Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower in background
An approximately one hour train ride took us to the palace of Versailles, located southwest of Paris. Expanded by Louis XIV beggining in 1668 from his father's small huntiung lodge, Vesailles was eventually large enough to house 20,000 people. In addition to the impressive palace itself, the woods around it were particularly beautiful when we visited, with their stunning fall colors brightly sunlit.
Julie standing in front courtyard of Palace of Versailles Julie with videocamera in front courtyard of Palace of Versailles Back of side wing, Palace of Versailles Red brick building at corner of grounds, Palace of Versailles
Julie in gardens behind Palace of Versailles Tim in front of forest behind Palace of Versailles Fountains and forest behind Palace of Versailles Portrait of Julie in corner at Palace of Versailles
Our hote's location downtown allowed us many opportunities to walk along the Seine at various times of the day and night. Almost each time we did, we were rewarded by the views.
Julie on Bridge over Seine, Notre Dame in Background
Julie on bridge over Seine at sunset Sunset light on building and Seine Post-sunset glow on buildings and bridge over Seine
There is no question that extremely good French food is available in Paris restaurants. However, after a couple less-than-successful eating excursions we came to the conclusion that we should not dine in French restaurants on a very limited budget. Early in our visit, we tried to go low-budget on French food one night and ate in a creperie; the insects in the salt shaker and salad convinced us this was not a good idea. After one other (albeit less disgusting) attempt, we changed our strategy to something that was much more successful for us; patronize the local Chinese restaurant on nights when we wanted to save money and time, and eat in a French restaurant if we didn't mind spending much more money and time. This worked very well, and the people who ran the Chinese restaurant were very happy to see us the nights we ate there. Our strategy for breakfast and lunch was to buy bakery and fruits from shops on the street. This worked very well. Finally, Tim is a very big fan of Leonidas chocolates. As luck would have it, our hotel was less than a block from a Leonidas store. Before leaving Paris, we stopped by and bought several boxes of Leonidas for ourselves and a few friends.

We attended two evening concerts in Paris. The first was a delightful Soprano and harp concert of various versions of Ave Maria, held in Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle is a magnificent church, and should not be missed! The chapel was built in 1248 by Louis IX to hold what were purported to be relics of Christ. The most amazing aspect of this building are its walls, which consist of soaring, brightly colored stained glass, ascending to over 50 ft. and separted by only very narrow colums. On a sunlit day, the effect is amazing, but it is very worthwhile even when it is cloudy.

The second concert was a wonderful classical piano concert by Jean-Christophe Millot, held in St. Julien-le-Pauvre church on our final night in Paris. St. Julien-le-Pauvre is one of the oldest churces in Paris. Unlike Sainte-Chapelle, this church has a very solid, ancient feel to it. It was begun around 1200, and was later nearly destroyed, then rebuilt. During the French Revolution, it was used to house animal feed. It now belongs to the Melchite sect of the Greek Orthodox church. We arrived early enough on the chilly, cloudless, full-moon night to sit in the front row. One of our best memories of our entire trip to Europe was glimpsing the full moon pass slowly and silently across the small upper windows of this ancient church during the concert, while piano music filled the air.
Portrait of Julie wearing red scarf, in our hotel room
Up to Europe 1998