Sunday, August 17, Josephine's Home: Malmaison

I (Kathy) had talked to Jeff about going out of Paris for one day of our visit.  I wanted to go to a garden like Versailles or Giverny.  But in the book was information for a trip to Malmaison.....The country mansion of Josephine, Napoleon's first wife.  I was already familiar with Malmaison because, as a rose lover, I knew that Josephine had grown a famous rose garden there.  She devoted part of the property to preserving old roses, and some of which would have not survived except for her patronage.  There is even an old Bourbon rose dedicated to the mansion....."Souvenier de Malmaison". 

So I was stoked to get out there.  The book said it was about 15 miles outside of Paris.  But not having a car meant we had to take the metro and a bus to get to where we caught another bus to get to the road that led to the mansion.  Quite a lot of trouble.  We went to the Bistro for breakfast, but Frank was no friendlier than usual, Maybe the service was a little quicker though.  

So we got on the subway to begin our journey.  Then we got on a bus that took us to La Defense, a huge business district with the tallest buildings that we have seen since London.  It's Sunday, so the whole place is deserted except for a few travelers.  We finally find our way to the stop for bus 258 and wait for the ride to Malmaison.

Tall buildings of La Defense through the bus window

The deserted bus stop.

Bored on the long bus ride with many stops

We finally got to our stop with the help of a little grey haired lady who was also going to Malmaison and spoke French and English (thank you, Emma).  We were walking up the road to the mansion when a little tram, decorated like a train, came by and we gladly took a lift.  Soon we were at the gates at last, paid our fee and found out that the whole place closed for lunch in a half hour!!  Bad lack of planning on our part, but we got to tour the garden at least.

Beautiful Malmaison

Panorama of Malmaison with Jeff playing Napoleon.

The rose that was named after the mansion.

Bright and lively garden beds

The refurbished rose garden

This cedar tree was planted in 1800 by Napoleon to commemorate a military victory

The garden was closing, so we got directions to the village nearby to see if we could find some lunch.  French towns pretty much close up on Sunday, so we weren't very hopeful.  But the walk was gorgeous. 

House on the road to the village

Tree lined street

The church where Josephine is buried

Old city hall

And when we got to the village, we were surprised to find the Church where Josephine and her daughter were buried, and a big old city hall building.  But still no food.  Then we met Allain. 
Jeff asked him if he knew of a restaurant that was open and he said he did, but we had to walk through town.  Such a pleasant little village, but nothing was open except bakeries.  Trusting our guide, we walked and walked until he said, "there it is".  It was an Indian restaurant.  We were skeptical, but ended up having one of the best meals of the trip......great curry!

After lunch we decided to explore the town a little bit more.  We walked back through the village and availed ourselves of some dessert.

So many ways to enter a sugar coma

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Then we went to see Josephine's tomb.

Imbedded in the walkway

This door was locked

Josephine amidst her flowers

Hanging out in the town square, nice, very nice

But we found an open door.  Most churches are open unless under repair.

Josephine's tomb

The tomb of her daughter, Hortense

After our dessert and the tour of the church, we decided to walk back to Malmaison.  We thought we were on the right road, but it turned out we were on the other side of the grounds.  After walking uphill for about a mile, we finally found the right road and got to the the mansion.  The little tram back to the bus stop was coming in 30 minutes, so I took a quick tour of the mansion and we caught the tram and got to the stop just as the bus was leaving.  We flagged down the driver and we got on the bus headed for Paris.

Napoleon's pool table

The sitting room

Bust of Napoleon

The little tram to the bus stop.

We made it home by bus and metro and had our nap and shower.  But we wanted to have a nice dinner our last night in Paris.  We walked up Commerce street, but it being Sunday in Paris, nothing was open.  Finally after walking about 5 blocks, we found an open sign and walked in.  It was amazing.....all the people who weren't on the street were in the restaurant.  It was three stories with an open roof and it was packed.  We asked for a table, waited 5 minutes and were seated upstairs. We had a delicious meal that added to our great memories of Paris, and found out later that this restaurant is one of the most difficult to get in to....usually you need reservations.  Lucky us!

Three stories filled with diners and an open roof......lovely.

Check out that smile!

The restaurant folks must have really liked us!  By the end of the meal, our name was hung on the wall

Enjoying our last meal in Paris.....almost

The next morning, we had our breakfast at the Bistro as usual before catching the shuttle to the airport.  As a last pleasant surprise, we got a smile out of Frank and even took a picture to remember him by.

Maybe the big tips softened him up....but he did smile!

Saturday, August 16--Centre Pompidou and Surroundings

We woke up on Saturday and reeeeeallly felt the walk from the day before.  We were both tired and a little sore from our adventures down the Champs-Elysees.  So we looked at the book and decided on a small area north of the Louvre and the Islands for our Saturday exploration.

But first, breakfast.  We walked down the street toward our morning Bistro, discussing whether or not we could coax a smile from Frank.  We sat in his section and ordered our usual.  He DID give a hint of a smile when Kat thanked him in French for the croissants.  "Merci Beaucoup" goes a long way toward creating good will.

Anyway, we descended into the Metro and emerged at Centre Pompidou.  The Centre was built in 1977 and got a lot of criticism for it's "inside out" architecture.  It is fronted by a huge terrace which has a giant mobile and lots of space with no apparent seating.

Finding out what trains to take

The Metro

Panorama of the terrace in front of Centre Pompidou

Such an odd building

No seating?  Use a wall

Giant Mobile

We got our bearings and strolled by the Stravinsky Fountain, one of the strangest fountains I have even seen.  It was created as homage to Stravinsky's Firebird Ballet.

Each piece was spouting water in one way or another, parts moving...like a ballet, but weird

Water spouting from her breasts

At the end of the square was the church of St. Merri.  It was closed for repairs, but this bit of art on the wall caught our eyes.

St Merri's under repair.  It was built in the 16th century but the bell has been tolling since the 1300's.....the oldest in Paris.

Copycat

We followed the directions in the book and found ourselves at the corner of Rue Berger and Rue St. Denis......the area of town know for it's red lights.  Pretty tame by Amsterdam standards.  Nobody hanging out of the window waving red scarves anyway.

On the way we saw this pretty fountain "the fountain of the innocents", placed right next to the "Red Light" area, a paradox mon amie?

A little of the red light aura.

Mr. Berger and his "Rue"

By this time we were starving and tired.  Our long walk on Friday had really taken it's toll.  We pulled over at a corner restaurant and Kat had a big delicious salad.  I ordered what I thought was a beef/cheese dish that turned out to be marinated raw beef.  I quickly decided it wasn't for me and ordered a good ole American hamburger and fries......much better.

After lunch we explored the Church of St. Eustache.  It was build from 1532 to 1640 and the 8000 pipe organ was played by Berlioz and Liszt.  When we went in, we noticed a christening was taking place so we quietly walked around marveling at the wonderful space.

St Eustache

Soaring ceiling--christening taking place.  No forced perspective here.  The people ARE dwarfed by the building.

Amazing sculptures and artwork

The organ that Liszt played, it did in fact have a list to the left!

Some of the 8000 pipes

Coming out of St. Eustache, we saw a courtyard and park with a huge sculpture by Henri Miller.  It was weird to come out of a 15th century church to such a modern piece of art.

Hard to take a picture.....people kept sitting in the hand!

We went on and saw Bourse de Commerce.  It was built in the 1700's and now is the Chamber of Commerce.  In back is a huge column.  It was built by the wife of Henry II.  Her astrologer climbed the stairs inside and went to the top to tell the future. 

Part of the Bourse and the park for Nelson Mandella

The astrologers column

At that point we found the Metro and went home.  It was nap time and boy did we need it.  Later that night, we ventured out and had a nice dinner.  Kat stuck with steak and salad, but I had to try the extra giant snails.

And of course, a nice red to go with it.

Yummmm!

The day ended with a lovely sunset reflected on the building across the street from our hotel.

You can see the top of the Eiffel Tower in this view.

A night view from our room, romantic, huh!  The Beacon does a 360 degree through the night sky!