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Italy Travel Update Issue #9, June 10, 2003

Now for the news of the Paris trip. I had decided to visit Paris when I found out that my friend, Jacqueline Harmon-Butler, a travel writer, was going to be in Paris in early June with some of her travel writing companions (see www.wildwritingwomen.com for more information on Jacqueline, her writing and that of the Wild Writing Women group).

My sister had an extra time-share week that she couldn't use, so I was hoping that I'd be able to get an exchange place in or near downtown Paris for that week, thereby saving money on hotels and restaurants. Unfortunately, due to the popularity of Paris and with it being the beginning of the high season, the time-share exchange didn't happen.

However, I had found a really inexpensive two-star hotel on the edge of the Marais, The Hotel du Loiret (we're talking about $53 US at the then-current exchange rates), for most of my stay. I spent the first night in a different hotel, which was just in case the time-share had come through. I lucked out on the hotel -- the reason it is so cheap is that it is a 7-story building with no elevator, hence the potential for having to walk a lot of stairs.

Fortunately, my room was just on the third floor (European counting, so in US terms that's the 4th floor), and fairly spacious with a double bed. The bathroom was tiny, but at least the shower was big enough to turn around in.

Due to the potential time share considerations, I arrived in Paris several days before Jacqueline and company. I had also learned that another San Francisco friend, Cathleen Daly, an artist, was going to be in Paris for some of the time I was there, and staying very near my hotel. So before they all arrived, I was determined to get some of my museum touring done.

I decided to go to the Louvre on Sunday, having read about reduced admissions and knowing that the Louvre was one of the priciest museums to enter in Paris. Luck was with me once again, as it turned out that the first Sunday of every month the museum admission is completely free. I have gotten there shortly after opening and had followed a guidebook's advice to use a side entry (Porte Lion), not the main pyramid entry. Double advantage: no lines and I entered the museum in what would have been my first destination, the Italian paintings. More specifically, I was just a couple of rooms away from the Mona Lisa, so I got to see her before the crowds got too big, and before security arrived in force to control the traffic flow and enforce the no photos rule. (See photo at right!)

The Louvre is humongous, and that is no exaggeration. I was there for the entire day, taking rest breaks occasionally, eating my fruit I had brought with me for lunch, trying to ignore the crowds and just do my own thing. After 8 hours in the place, I probably saw less than one quarter of the artwork in there. I focused in on the things I loved best, the Italian paintings, a special exhibition of Da Vinci sketches, sculptures, the medieval Louvre (best place to go on a hot day to cool off, it's the old foundations and dungeons), and then examined my guidebook and the Louvre map to find other things of interest, such as the crown jewels, Napoleon's apartments. It was all magnificent, and I am glad I finally got to explore the Louvre (this was my third time in Paris).

There was an intermittent transport strike going on most of the week I was there, resulting in delayed metro trains, closures of museums either in sympathy or for some other unknown reason, and increased traffic in the city. It worked to my advantage for the Musee d'Orsay, as that museum opened up late and closed early, and only opened up the top and bottom floors, but let everyone in free because of these inconveniences. Hah, another expensive museum fee averted, and as I really just wanted to see all the Impressionist works (which were mostly on the top floor, a few on the bottom, some in between in an open area), I was very psyched.

It also seems that as long as you don't use a flash, you can take as many pictures of the pictures as you want, in most of the museums. I snapped photos of my favorite works as I worked my way through the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre. Digital cameras are wonderful.

Other days in Paris I visited other, smaller museums I hadn't previously seen, visited churches I particularly enjoyed -- St. Etienne du Mont in the Latin Quarter (right near the Pantheon) is by far my favorite church, with a beautifully carved rood screen and wood pulpit, medium-sized, bright and airy. I changed my plans several times to accommodate museums that were unexpectedly closed for renovations or because of the transport strike. It all seemed to work out somehow, and my days were full.

When Jacqueline and Cathleen arrived in town, I joined up with them for dinners, drinks, wandering around after meals at night. Cathleen and I made the trip to Giverny, to visit Monet's house and gardens there. It seemed to take a lot of effort, as there were fewer trains and buses running due to the strike, but we made it there and it was worth the effort. The gardens were in full bloom, water lilies floating gently in the pond, and lots of other tourists around.

I took advantage of the variety of ethnic restaurants available in Paris, dining on Chinese, Mexican and Tunisian cuisines as well as typical French. I usually bought fruit and fig bars, sometimes cheese and bread, at supermarkets for my lunches, so that I could eat at convenient parks or museums on my daily travels (and save money, for Paris was expensive compared to Italy). I never got around to having any French fries, but that was mere chance, not by design.

Breakfast became my favorite meal, once I found a bar where I could get a hot chocolate and a croissant for 3 Euro... it so happened that this place, a block from my hotel, had a very cute barman, Jean Jacques. He spoke very little English, I spoke virtually no French but could understand some if it was spoken slowly and clearly, but that was irrelevant. We managed to communicate well enough, and when we went out for a drink on my last night in Paris, he brought along a French-English dictionary which helped us when our limited language skills and gestures failed. It was an interesting, and for me, a unique experience.

Needless to say, I am now inspired to learn some French, even though I really should be focusing on my Italian. I've noticed that Rob (my Bergamo friend with whom I'm staying for the next month or so) has a set of CDs and a book on learning French. Hmmmm.

The weather in Paris probably couldn't have been much better. There were a couple of overnight rainstorms, most of which ended before I was leaving for the day. One after dinner downpour that was actually beneficial in lowering the humidity and heat, early in the trip. It always cooled down at night, making for pleasant before and after dinner strolling. I usually spent the hottest parts of the day, which weren't too hot by New York summer standards, in cool museums or churches. Most days there were clouds coming and going, usually decreasing as the day wore on towards evening.

So it was a wonderful and magical trip, and as always, leaving Paris makes me want to go back and spend more time there. Oh, and by the way, regardless of the economy, the war and the US government's position on France, there were more American tourists in Paris than I have so far encountered in Italy.

Now I need to settle down and try to find some form of employment for the summer, so that I can afford to meet up with my sister and her girlfriend in southern Spain for a week at the beginning of November. The continuing decline of the dollar is really messing up my budgeting.

I hope you're all doing well and that you all have some summer fun planned, be it near or far from home, with friends or family.

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