Paris
A Quick Trip to an Iconic City
As the 80th anniversary of D-Day approached, the beaches and military sites along the Normandy coast got more and more crowded. An impending visit by the Bidens tightened security. It is strange how often I am somehow impacted by the Bidens’ travel plans. Several times, I have had to circumvent Temporary Flight Restrictions based on presidential visits. I bought tickets for the Tokyo Olympics before they were delayed, then spectators were completely barred from attending. Co-Sport, the company who had a monopoly on the sale of U.S. tickets “generously” refunded almost 80% of the cost of the tickets. Somehow, Jill Biden was still able to attend. Now, Joe Biden, who probably thinks he was actually a participant in the D-Day landings, attended ceremonies I am pretty sure I would have appreciated more. They were closing even the highway that led to the Normandy coast! We thought it best to vacate prior to the lock downs.
One problem with “moving day” on trips like this is that there is a fairly long window between when you must check out of your departure room and when you may check into your arrival room. There is always the logistical question of what to do with your bags during the intervening time. In this case, we had a rental car where they could be stored. So we left mid-morning on Wednesday, with a plan to arrive at our Paris AirBnB at about 3:00 p.m., the earliest we could check in. We might have explored a Paris site or two on Wednesday afternoon but we had to return the car by 5:30. Then I would have to work the logistics of getting the car returned and myself back to the room. We decided it would be best to do any Wednesday sight seeing en route.
I found a cathedral that looked interesting in the town of Rouen, the central city of Normandy. The Notre Dame Cathedral of Rouen is an imposing structure, and the second largest cathedral in France. Like many of the famous European cathedrals, it has gothic architecture and “bones.” The cathedral sustained heavy damage from allied bombing in late June of 1944. Miraculously, a stained glass window dating cerca A.D. 1230 survived intact. Of course, many parts of the cathedral were updated or built onto between the 12th century and the allied bombing, and other parts were refurbished afterward. Renovations continue even now. The cathedral houses several sarcafegi. It is the burial site of a couple of the Rollos, dukes and bishops of Normandy, and the heart of Richard I the Lionheart. (Remember, those early English kings were Normans). We spent about an hour and a half visiting this church. It was well worth the stop.
We then headed to Meudon, a suburb just outside Paris with rail lines heading into the city. I needed to refuel the car, I didn’t know exactly where the car rental return location was, or how bad Paris area traffic might make those logistics. I dropped Stephanie, the children, and the baggage off at the room, and then successfully returned the car, before hiking 2 miles up a fairly steep hill back to the AirBnB. By the time I had done all this, it was after six, so we just ate dinner and called it an early (9:30) night. (Continued)
Wednesday morning, we headed out to Versailles, the Bourbon kings’ official palace. This massive estate at one point spanned over 20,000 acres. It was so massive, and so busy with state affairs that the Louis built sub-palaces a couple of kilometers away where they could have some privacy, either as a respite from state affairs and visitors, or to rendezvous with mistresses and/or the wives of noblemen away from the presence of their husbands. These out-palaces are called the Estates of Trianon, and require upgrades to your primary Versailles entry tickets, which we purchased. A separate company operates the royal gardens. This can also be added to your ticket, but different rules apply to the discounted age group tickets that aren’t clearly posted on the website. Caveat emptor!
We completely underestimated the amount of walking required to explore Versailles. Most of the reviewers I read suggested Versailles could be seen adequately in about three hours. This is a gross underestimate if you plan to see all portions of the main palace, let alone the gardens and Estates of Trianon. Some day I will learn the lesson that most tourists spend less time at historical or culturally significant places than I do. An audio tour is available for download onto your phone. It is broken up into several sections. Most tourists just just walk through the state apartments and leave, to get through in 2-3 hours. That area was extremely busy, with less traffic in other parts of the palace, and less still in the gardens and Estates of Trianon. As was the case in many of our French destinations, there was much jostling for views of artifacts and selfie positions, with people not ashamed to physically move you, rest an arm on one of your body parts, or otherwise waft armpit odors in the faces of your smaller statured companions.
I have a hunch most tourists don’t understand how little of the furniture and accouterments on display at Versailles were original. Of course, the vast majority of finery held by the crown or even most members of the upper aristocracy was either destroyed, confiscated, or sold off for revenue during the French Revolution. The staff has done their best to replace these items with period appropriate furnishings when possible. They also do a nice job of pointing out the rare artifact that does actually have a provenance tied to use in the palace or at least by the royal family.
If given the choice, I prefer to visit medieval palaces and strongholds, like Doune. In the same way you can have too much sugar, the richness of the baroque and rococo styles of the Bourbon era monarchs in France and Spain overload my senses with “foofiness.” I am glad I visited Versailles, but in some ways, it helps me understand why the French populace wanted to chop the heads off of the absolutist regimes who extracted so much just to spend it on things that were so superficial. I have never been an advocate of excessive taxation, but if government is going to have a large footprint, I would rather see it do big things with the revenue. If we must have big governments, let them vanquish Nazis, land on the moon, create transcontinental railroads, or built a canal that creates a shortcut around a whole continent. Versailles just seems like the epitome of government largesse at the hands of an absolute monarchy at the expense of a strained populace. There is some irony in the fact that hoards of tourists traipse through this ridiculously opulent place everyday, taking selfies without really understanding the nuances of what they’re looking at.
I forgot to turn my hiking tracker on for much of the day at Versailles, but I know we walked several miles. I had run nearly four very undulating miles that morning. By late afternoon I was pooped. We grabbed a bite to eat on the roundabout closest to our apartment and called it a day. This left us with just one day to explore greater Paris. I mapped out a route that took us to the important highlights. One major exception was Notre Dame. We opted to view the cathedral only at a distance from the Eiffel Tower, since it was still closed as a result of the fire clear back in 2019. (Continued)
Knowing we would walk a lot on Friday, I opted not to run. We let the kids sleep in a bit, as the long late spring days in Northern Europe were taking their toll. It stays light well after 10:00 p.m. and it is light by 5:00. In France, most restaurants don’t even begin serving dinner before 7:00 p.m., and it usually takes well over an hour to order and eat. Most nights, it was past 9:30 before we got back to the room. Sometimes getting kids up for an early start was just not in the cards. I worked on my travel reports and waited for them to wake.
We took the train into town toward the Arc de Triomphe. You can climb the Arc, but we opted to walk around the outside, then walk the Champs d’Elysees. I noticed American flags paired with French ones all along, and I was moved by the outpouring of gratitude in honor of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing… until I learned when much of the street was closed off that this, too, was primarily in place for yet another Biden visit. The fountains and obelisk at the Seine end of the Champs d’Elysees were closed off. We saw construction in many places in preparation for the Olympic Games, some seven weeks off. The road closures did allow a few nice shots from the middle of the Champs Elysees.
We headed next to the Eiffel Tower, with the idea we would just walk around it and take some photos from a distance. We had several hours left, though, and only the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre yet to see. I decided before we ever got to France that we would just head to the Louvre from 6:00-9:00 p.m. during the once monthly free hours, since I wasn’t sure how much Louvreing the kids could handle. We had a dilemma, then. Should we try to go see the outside of the Notre Dame, or pay the stiff price for the Eiffel Tower elevator tickets. Caleb really wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower. Stephanie agreed that a Notre Dame visit would be of limited value if we couldn’t enter it, anyway. I shelled out the €81, and up we went. The lines were significant, but we had plenty of time to enjoy the pinnacle of the tower, and the lower observation decks, which are still really high and offer great views of Paris. I am glad Caleb talked us into this indulgence. We got a lot of great pictures and it was a fun diversion.
By the time we waited through all of the elevator lines and spent the time we wanted on the Eiffel Tower, we had just enough time to Uber over to the Tuileries Garden and walk through it en route to the Louvre. We just grazed the garden, though we were able to see a bit more when walking out of the museum on the way back to the train. Then we saw the line to get into the Louvre. It seemed to be moving fairly well, but it was pretty long. We took our position at the back and walked toward the ticket taker. We were asked once if we were there for “6:00.” I replied that we were. Apparently, the security official was asking if we had a 6:00 reservation, because once we got to the ticket taker, she sent us all the way back to the end of a now even longer line on the other side of the museum. I didn’t understand why a ticket was needed if entry was free, but apparently, it is to sort the planners from those just winging it.
At this point, I just about gave up hope on getting into the Louvre, and decided it was time for a long shot. I had read somewhere that the Louvre had alternate entry points where lines were often much shorter. I found one of those and gave that a go. Unfortunately, these too were only available to those holding a reserved entry. I decided to punt. We were all tired and hungry. We went to the food court at the shopping center that housed the alternate entry point and had a sandwich in hopes that by the time we ate, the free line might recede to a more manageable level. We rechecked a bit later. It was just as long. I was feeling refreshed by this point and figured that as long as I was in Paris, and I might as well do my time and see what parts of the Louvre I could in the remaining time.
I did get to see Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, some other DaVincis, works by several other Italian, French, and British painters, as well as several very nice Rafaels. Although I still am not a huge art guy, I have developed an affinity for Rafael’s work, which to me seems to have better use of light and depth than even the other Renaissance masters. We saw several ancient Roman sculptures as well, before the Louvre staff began herding us all out cattle style beginning about 30 minutes before the actual closure. I dragged my feet and “mooed” a little bit, hoping they would not pull out electric prods to get rid of me. I thought of the massive herds of selfie snappers swarming the Mona Lisa, and understood why staff at such a hoity-toity museum might look at tourists visiting during the free hour as somewhat less than human.
We were tired again, and had experienced enough Parisien hospitality to be ready for our departure from France. I stayed up late to ready my things for an early departure via bus for the Netherlands Saturday morning.
