Paris! Worth the wait

If there's one thing I love about travelling on my own (sorry Donkey, but I'm not sure how handy you'd be in, say, a knife fight!...) is that I have to get outside my comfort zone!!! And for me, that's catching the Metro ... it's one thing I've always managed to avoid in the past, but today (Saturday) I decided it's time to face my unfounded & quite frankly, ridiculous, fear of catching the Metro!! I think it stems back to that movie, Paris je t'aime ... there's a scene with Steve Buscemi & this couple in the Metro and it all goes wrong ... anyway, the short story is, I caught the Metro today! (yay for me ... wild applause from the crowd ... hey! I have a plastic donkey as a travelling companion...) Clearly I have lived to tell the tale. And the Palais Garnier (the Paris Opera house) was my destination.

Designed by, and named after (one of the few structures in Paris to be so) Charles Garnier, they started building this impressive Opera House in 1861. It took about 14 years to be completed. There is even a separate entry on the West side of the building for the Emperor, designed so that his carriage could drive straight in without being seen by the public - this elaborate entrance (in practical design only, the actual aesthetic of this wing is incredibly bare, "behind the scenes" so to speak) was to avoid any assassination attempts. Ironically, the Emperor never actually came to the building!

Our tour guide at the stairs of the Emperor's Entrance

The rest of the Opera is AMAZING! Ornate to the MAX! This was Garnier's intention ... in those days, everyone expected the building to be pretty bland because, well, all the action happened on the stage! C'mon!! Garnier wanted to bring some of that action to the people too, so he created a building that encouraged "peacocking". People, women in particular, were finding themselves leaving their seats at interval to be "seen" by fellow Opera goers, rather than staying in their boxes (which were specifically designed to accommodate the voluminous female garments of the day) - they wanted to be able to view the beauty of the artwork, but also be admired too! (our tour guide was very informative!).

Everything's curved to create the illusion of movement!

One of the Boxes

The Grand Gallery (you can rent this space out for 50,000 Euro a night (and that's JUST the space!)

Marc Chagall's ceiling

And while it's called the Opera House, the majority of performances are Ballets - it's always been that way, apparently. The Ballet School was housed on the premises for many years - but it's now in a new purpose-built building in one of Paris's suburbs. Palais Garnier is still the home of Ballet tho. We actually got to watch one of the ballet dancers practicing while we were checking out the the stage and ceiling (there are actually two ceilings - the original and the one we see today, which was commissioned by Georges Pompidou, while he was Minister for the Arts, and painted (for free) by Marc Chagall in the 1960's. There is a plastic covering over the original, and a special air conditioning system which protects it - so at any time, a new government could decide they didn't like the Chagall (which is in 26 panels) & have the old ceiling reinstated).

Marc Chagall's self-portrait - next to the top right
of the Eiffel Tower (no pokey little corner for him!!)

Swan Lake

The original ceiling

This reminded me of a production of The Mikado I did at Uni!

And yes, there is a large pool of water under the building, but no it's not an actual lake (it's part of what was once the Seine); the chandelier never fell, but one of its counter-weights did and landed on an unfortunate woman in Box #5, seat 13; and the "Phantom" was an employee who was disfigured at birth and his living quarters were under the building ... sorry to burst any bubbles!

While I was so close, I thought I'd drop into Galleries Lafayette and Printemps ... HUGE mistake! They're having a mid-season sale ... Oh My God. It was INSANE!! I loved it!!!! I was hoping some of the ludicrous amount of wealth walking the floors would rub off on me ... I'll keep trying!!!

So, anyway, with all good intentions of catching the Metro home again ... one wrong turn leads to another and I ended up at a wonderful little Gallery of old ... Gallerie Vivienne ... much more my pace of shopping. Sane. More of that beautiful architecture and decoration ...

And then, I discovered a wonderful little bakery ... Le Moulin de la Vierge (Mill of the Virgin) ... where they still use wood-fired ovens & organic flour to bake all their bread.

... then I was so far from my Metro station, I walked home (it was only about 4kms)! ... some of the things I got to see ...

I love this ... a "modern" pharmacy in such an Art Deco building!

Well, I've made it to Paris - safe & sound. Very uneventful flight over with Malaysian Airlines - which is what we want! But gosh it's long!!! First time I've done it in one hit like that - 25 hours in the end. Thankfully the flight from KL to Paris wasn't full, so I had a spare seat next to me & actually managed to get a couple of solid hours of sleep. That still didn't seem to help my brain function any better once my first coffee & chocolate croissant wore off tho ... but I did manage to have a wander around my new neighbourhood. VERY eclectic. Tres Brunswick/Fitzroy/Footscray all rolled into one... and I managed to find one of Paris's only Gluten Free bakeries not far from my apartment! (Thankfully far enough that I won't be visiting every day ... I will be charged for extra luggage if I'm not careful! mmmm ... pastries ...). Stocked up on supplies on the way back to my new abode, crashed at about 4:00pm, woke up about 6:00pm & dragged my sorry ass out of bed to cook myself a little dinner (I know better these days than to try and tackle a restaurant the first night I'm in a new country half-way round the world!) and back to bed for an amazingly good night's sleep (double glazing is a god send!).

Now, you may find me saying "we" every now and then as I write ... that's because I had a stowaway in my handbag ... Donkey! (I will apologise now to those who have no idea what I'm talking about ... but it's Dani's Donkey, and where in the world is he?!?! It's a bit of an "in" joke from work, but his last trip abroad was to New York with Ms Beth Peake! He is one well-traveled donkey, that's for sure). So my diminutive travel companion and I are inseparable! Dan, he's fine & having a ball - just want you to know he's safe. He's not coping very well with the humidity here tho!!! WHO KNEW?!?! It's about 23 degrees, but really muggy - around 85%. My hair is starting to look like his!

Donkey, admiring the view from our apartment

One good nights sleep under my belt, but with a slightly groggy head still, I ventured out for my second day in Paris. Amazingly enough, I didn't get too lost ... just enough to figure out where a few great places to go back to were and get some points of reference. So, the walking begins ... about 13kms today, which isn't too bad for me. First stop for Donkey & I was the Place de la Republique; one of Paris's largest squares & a site dating back to the 14th Century. Like so many public places, a competition was held back in the mid 1800's to see what was to become of the space - and it has changed little since its inception (but I note that it's just undergone a 20 Million Euro upgrade recently ... apparently?!?!). The impressive fountain, being the focal point, depicts Marianne (heroine of the French Revolution) with her friends Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Donkey was impressed ... then down to Place de l'Hotel de Ville (City hall), a spot of lunch, and some window shopping along the Rue de Rivoli...

One of my many "finds" along the way...

It's not just Donkey in the photos!

Then I spent the afternoon with Giorgio, Louis, Yves, Jimmy, and of course Coco at Place Vendome (originally, the land was bought by an architect back in the early 1700's - the same guy who designed most of Versailles - but before he could build anything on the site he lost all his money, so it went to the King, then when a new king came to power, ironically the architect was hired to design the square that we now know! I love these stories!) The big column in the middle was erected by Napoleon, then as with so many things all over Europe, where recycling has been BIG for centuries, it was pulled down & the bronze was melted & re-used to make a different statue on the Pont Neuf. But then a couple of decades later they rebuilt the whole thing again, but this time dressed the Napoleon statue on the top in more "modern attire".

Oh, and as an aside, I have learnt from past experiences with Gypsies ... they can try all they like these days with their clever "oh, you have dropped a gold ring ... it's not yours?! ... it is good fortune, good luck for you then ... keep it ... some money for food?" tricks all they like, I ain't fallin for any of it! Funny how they never want to take the ring to a pawn shop ...

Place Vendome

This evening was the first (of now three) cooking class. Ten complete strangers, from all over the world, got together for a few hours to create a 3-course French feast of: an awesome pumpkin soup with a goats cheese creme; duck breast with fig sauce, Gratin Dauphinois (those yummy thinly cut potatoes cooked in cream & cheese in the oven); and poached pears with chocolate sauce and a shortbread cookie (trust me, it sounds a lot more posh in French!) ... then we all got to sit and eat our labours with a yummy glass of wine ... yum!!!! So yum that I have signed up to do two more classes - the French Pastries, and the Macaron classes ... but they're not until my second last day in Paris, so those updates will have to wait I'm afraid, my foodie friends.

All very proud of our efforts!

I made that!

And that brings me to today!! So much done already ... and don't my feet know it! I think I might be getting old ... shh, don't tell anyone!

First stop today was the local Farmer's Market ... I love going to these things! We are very lucky in Australia to have so much variety in our fresh produce (gotta tell you tho, they're not big on GM food here, and the way it all tastes like it's meant to, you can really tell!!!) ... but it just isn't quite the same as an open-air market over here. Seafood is big. As are mushrooms. And pretty much EVERY part of a pig you can think of, they sell at the market (no photos). Also, I wasn't too surprised to see rabbit available - we have that at home too - but the ones that were still fluffy kinda freaked me out a little!!!! (don't worry, no photos of that either, which is actually a pity, because they were next to pheasant, pigeon, and some other birds I didn't recognise but have incredibly dark meat).

More walking, through the Marais ... kinda like going from Venus to Mars ... Brunswick to Toorak ... there seems to be this invisible line you cross and BOOM! You've gone from eclectic to UBER chic. The stores change, the fashion people are wearing changes (out are the jeans & t-shirts, in are the designer suits and tailored leather jackets). Thankfully, both environments feel like home to me, so I didn't care that I was in jeans & my giraffe t-shirt ... I'm always cool ... who doesn't know that?!?! (serious chortling going on here...)

Discovered that the Picasso Museum is closed for renovation, so change of direction and over to Pompidou Centre for the afternoon ... Donkey's happy ...

This is the first time I've been to the Pompidou. I know some people aren't a fan, but I really enjoyed it! One of the floors (the 5th) is closed for a new exhibit being installed, but there was still plenty to be seen. Modern art fascinates me. How some people can call painting a massive bit of canvas blue "art" amazes me. Whatever! Each to their own I guess... but some of it really is unbelievable. The minds that create some of this stuff ... what were they on/smoking?!?! A few of our favourites are below. There was also a Roy Lichtenstein exhibition on - apparently the first in Paris - so that was a bonus. What a fascinating artist he is! (sorry, no photos were allowed of that one)