Paris, Day 3

9 December, 13

It is really hard for our family to get out the door for anything. It is especially difficult when we are on vacation. Normally we can’t leave until about 11AM. That is sinful, I know, but it’s just reality.

We got into the island part of Paris, with plans to see St. Chappelle and Notre Dame. I am reading Hunchback of Notre Dame right now, so I was very interested to pick up any historical clues. Victor Hugo actually goes into great detail about Paris and how it evolved. Paris started on the two islands in the middle of the Seine. Hugo quotes Sauval, “The isle of the Cite is like a great ship foundered in the sand and breasting the middle of the water of the Seine.” Paris outgrew her bounds and formed two more parts to the whole—Universite and the Ville. “In the Cite abounded churches, in the Ville palaces, in the Universite, colleges.” (Hugo) Universite occupied the left bank of the river. This is where artists came to congregate, and how we came to know this section as the Left Bank. The Louvre is in the Ville section of town. It was Louis’ palace before completing Versailles. He left some of his art collection behind, which began the museum.

Our first stop was St. Chappelle. This is the home to the oldest stained glass in France.

I am sorry, but there is no way to give justice to the beauty of this building. The pictures aren't big or vibrant enough. Words cannot speak to the incredible colors emanating from every pane. The stories that each window tells is fascinating. I was reminded of my childhood at Wesley United Methodist Church. I used to love to look at all the stained glass, in lieu of listening to the sermon. My friend Don Fuller makes stained glass lamps and art. Maybe he could explain the intricate process of cutting each pane of glass and carefully placing it within the lead caming to form a magnificent mosaic. Who could design such a thing? It was incredible. 

They are restoring the glass right now, so they had a video showing the process. WOW! People did this stuff 800 years ago.

After we left St. Chappelle, we head over to Notre Dame. Victor Hugo talks about how it dominated the Paris skyline, and I can see how. It is awe-inspiring to walk up to this huge building. Your eye cannot take in all the detail. The longer you look, the more figures you see cut into the walls. I can't get my arms around what it must have cost in Time, Talent and Treasure to build something so grand. We just don't do that anymore. The closest example I can think of is putting a man on the moon. That only took 10 years, though.

The inside of the cathedral is just as grand in scope and scale as the outside. I found it interesting to look into each of the little side chapels along the exterior walls. You might find a relic or some famous painting or a rack of coat hangers. Evidently the only thing they didn't think of was storage. Typical architects.

Coming straight from St. Chappelle, which was awash in light and color, Notre Dame was almost like a cave in comparison, dark and monastic. St. Chappelle lifted our spirits. Notre Dame felt like a heavy weight on our shoulders. Everyone in the cathedral maintained silence, speaking in a barely audible whisper. Notre Dame has some spectacular Rose windows, but the light was not coming through them. I have visited cathedrals in several countries, and Notre Dame is by far the darkest and dreariest of them all. That shouldn't take away from its beauty or grandeur. It is just an observation.

The girls had been begging for ice cream the whole trip, so we finally relented and bought some very overpriced glace. 

Then we grabbed a taxi and headed toward Elizabeth's Mecca--Chanel. Coco Chanel is Elizabeth's idol. She wrote a biography of her for school a couple of years ago and actually enjoyed doing the research. We stepped into the main door and took pictures at the actual stairs Coco would use to display her latest works. Elizabeth was walking on air. The rest of us played along.

After our little dream time at Chanel, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, where Susan had reserved a ride to the top. Our girls have become quite good photographers, and we have some amazing shots. Katherine has an app on her I-Pad that gives her a myriad of choices for filters and photo styles. She is really good at capturing a moment. Elizabeth has actually had training with a high quality camera and professional photographer, when we traveled to Nicaragua with Stop Hunger Now. The only challenge with Elizabeth is to get her to take a picture of something or somebody besides herself. We hung out on top of the Eiffel for about an hour, soaking in the beautiful City of Lights.

 After we descended the tower, we took a boat cruise on the Seine. That was something of a letdown. We were all tired, so sitting for an hour was a good thing. The ride was pretty boring, though, because the tour guide spoke very poor English. I actually had trouble determining if she was speaking English or French, so I read The Hunchback of Notre Dame on my phone instead. That suited me just fine.

We took the Metro back to Abbesses and found a nice little restaurant that served a fabulous meal to some hungry and tired travelers. It was a full day, but it was a great day.

Paris Day 2

8 December, 13

Today we visited the Louvre and Cirque de Soleil. There are over 35,000 items on display in the Louvre, so you really should devote at least a day just to visit every floor. They have piles of sculpture and artwork around every corner. The problem with that is Art Fatigue. At some point, you can't appreciate the next masterpiece. Stalin said one death was a tragedy. A million deaths was just a statistic. Maybe art is the same way.

The funniest section to me was the room housing “Mona Lisa”. I have seen it twice now. The first time was 18 years ago, during my honeymoon. I was underwhelmed by the experience. It seemed much smaller than it should have been, and it was shrouded inside several layers of protective glass. Now, it is center stage, on a wall all by itself, in a very big room. There is a lot of art hanging on the room’s other walls, but they are just there to take up space. It’s all about “Mona Lisa”. I am still not the biggest fan, but what do I know?

I was again drawn to the sculptures. It is amazing to me how someone can make marble look soft and flowing, like the curves of a robe or gown. Every fiber of my being struggled against reaching out and touching the statues, just to confirm they weren’t real. Venus de Milo is the most famous, but my favorite was Emperor Trajan. He looked so imperious and powerful. Trajan is called one of the Five Good Emperors. He was a great military commander and transitioned well into his role as emperor.

It is almost sacrilege to say this, but the Louvre was just something to do in the morning, while we waited for the really big event of the day. We had tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil. Nothing beats a good circus. Susan and I have been dying to go see one of their shows for years. We watched several youtube videos with the girls to help them understand what was in store. This performance is called “Kooza”. I thought it was going to be about those things that keep your beer cold, but it was just a lot of really cool acrobatics instead. Turns out the word is Sanskrit for "magic box", which explains the whole Jack in the Box intro. 

We were not disappointed. The show was amazing. Katherine was about to pee her pants, because she was so sure that somebody was going to die. I was about to pee my pants, because I wanted to get picked for one of their stunts. Elizabeth and Susan were about to pee their pants, because they didn’t go before the show started.

After the show we ate a great dinner in a restaurant in our neighborhood, just off the Abessess subway stop. We walked home, and evidently all of us got our second wind, because we were rustlin’ and tustlin’ for another hour or so, laughing and playing around, before we finally all got into bed. 

It was a great day.

Paris Day 1

7 December 2013

Today was a full day. We got a typical Askins late start this morning, because we had an equally typical Askins late finish last night. We finally went to sleep about 1:30AM, I got out of bed about 10:30AM. There are no windows in our Paris flat, so it’s hard to get any natural cues to wake up.

Susan found the apartment on CityCozy.com. Cozy is the word. That place took tiny to a new level. You could eat breakfast, eschew last night's dinner (the first "S"), shower, shave and sleep in one spot. We rested standing up, zombie style. That's the downside. The upside was it was only 90€/night and was in the middle of Montmartre, about 200 meters from a Metro stop and 500 meters from some incredible edibles in the Abessess area of Montmartre. SCORE! Really it was cool looking and hip. But not hips, because it wasn't that big. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Katherine has been dying to order 4 croissants. This is the direct result of studying French in Spain, so score one for the terrible parents, who wanted their kids to learn another language and experience different cultures. She and I left together on a hunt for breakfast. We took a left on our street and then a quick right up some stairs that emptied us onto a busy little street full of bakeries, delis and restaurants in the Abessess section of Montmartre. Both of us were like kids in a candy store. We bought food at three different shops, and Katherine did all the ordering. At the bakers’, she ordered croissants, pain du raisin, pain du pomme, and something chocalat. We got a café au lait at another stop and fresh squeezed jus orange at a third place. Tres magnifique!

After a great little breakfast in our flat, we all headed out to Musee d’Orsay. 

This is the red-headed stepchild to the Louvre, which gets all the press. I have to say, however, that I was very impressed with the place. It is a converted rail station, and is beautiful in its own right. They house an incredible collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, with such heavyweights as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Cessanne. The Impressionists are my favorite artists. Their art is like eye-candy. It is awe-inspiring to stand in front of an original piece and to discern the brush strokes of the master. You can literally get within about 12 inches of the painting. One thing that was interesting to me was the amount of work many of these artists did together. Paris was an artists’ hotbed for a long time. I’m not sure where that place is now, but one day we’ll have a big museum dedicated to it.

We also visited Musée de l'Orangerie Les Nymphéas, which houses Monet’s magnum opus, Water Lilies. He donated these huge panels to celebrate victory over Germany in World War I. They are set in two adjoining ovular rooms that reminded him of the symbol for infinity. The effect is the feeling of being immersed in the pond amongst the willows and water lilies. The panels are immense, measuring 2 meters by 4 meters each. To make it even more incredible, Monet had double cataracts. He was almost blind. He was totally immersed in his passion, and we are the fortunate beneficiaries.

My favorite pieces of art are the sculptures. Sculpture, to me, is the art form that most closely resembles the work of God. In Genesis, it says,

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

The Hebrew word for “created” is akin to fashioned or formed. God was the original sculptor.

Rodin, Degas and Bourdelle all had some impressive pieces. The best of show was Hercules by Bourdelle. He is wedged between two rocks, pulling back a huge bow. Every muscle is in tension. The shape of his face and the snarl on his lips are like an arrow, poised for flight. I did not like Rodin as much, because he seemed to overemphasize the limbs, making his works look out of proportion. But what do I know? I just read a nice article talking about Rodin.

It seems he would purposefully manipulate the anatomy of a body, to give the impression of movement. Very fascinating stuff. I grew to appreciate sculpture by listening to Willard Jacobs talk about the pieces he had made. Watching him craft busts of my niece and my daughter were incredible. He would literally build up the head from the skull outward, adding layers of clay muscle and tissue. The technical aspect of art is just as interesting as the creative side. It's really the only part of art that I can grasp, since I have no natural talent for it. 

Susan knew so much about each painter from teaching the pre-school art program at Sandhills Classical Christian School. I am continually amazed at her depth and breadth of knowledge. She kept chiming in little facts about the artists and paintings.

After we finished Orangerie, we walked along the Champs Élysées all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. We were all a little googly-eyed by all the stores and lights. 

The girls have been talking about the Eiffel Tower for weeks, and they finally got a good look at it from the Arc. Every hour, it starts twinkling for about 5 minutes, and we got to watch that from the Arc as well.

We finally headed home and hunted down the first restaurant we could find. We exited the Pigalle Metro stop, which is closest to our flat. It is also smack dab in the middle of the Sex in the City district. There is a venue for every stripe. We did find a bar that looked okay and ended up having an incredible meal. Everything works out.

It was an enchanted day.