What began as a long-anticipated 12-day French river cruise from Paris to Nice via Lyon, Avignon, Arles (home of Van Gogh), Burgundy and Provence turned into a memorable long Paris weekend for intrepid travelers Bonnie and Steve Traiman.
“Since our honeymoon in Mexico almost 56 years ago, every trip has had an adventure,” Bonnie told Paradise News.
Sponsored by OLLI – the Osher Lifelong Living Experience hosted by Eckerd College, the original land and sea adventure was cut short. An accident to the MS Provence on the eve of the cruise sent it into drydock and canceled the river trip that was to end in Nice.
The very positive result was a three-day Paris visit that allowed the Traimans — on their third trip to the “city of light” – to see some long-anticipated sights. These included the historic Paris Opera Garnier, the Museé Jacquemart André with a special Mary Cassatt exhibit, and a memorable dinner show at the fabled Moulin Rouge nightclub.
Our trip was made even more memorable due to our guides. Traveling with us from Tampa was Dr. John Schloder, former director of the Museum of Fina Arts, professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, and longtime OLLI guest lecturer who set the trip up with sessions on Parlez Voux Touriste?, Burgundy and Provence.
In Paris we had the great fortune with local host and guide Christophe Léger. Born in Madagascar, he said, “This inoculated me with the traveling virus, since I lived in six different countries on four different continents.
I have enjoyed and learned from all of them. I have been back in France – my beautiful country – for some years now, where I can fully let go my passions for history, arts and food, working the past eight years as a guide for Grand Circle Tours.”
After arrival in Paris, we had a very nice bus tour hosted by a very knowledgeable local guide who took us all around to see many of the historic landmarks. Included were brief stops at the Eiffel Tower overlook and the Champs-Elysées. We went past the Tuileries Gardens, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Sacre Coeur, the Paris Opera Garnier, under the Arc de Triomphe, and saw many other museums including the Museé de l’Orangerie, home to Monet’s famed Water Lilies.
“City of Light’
Paris occupies 432 square miles (six more than San Francisco). In central Paris, the Rive Droite (Right Bank)—the shore to the right as you face downriver—is north of the Seine, while the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) is south of the river. Thirty-two bridges link the Right and Left banks, some providing access to the two small islands at the heart of the city.
This city center, called Ile de la Cité, is the birthplace of Paris and includes the sites of Notre Dame and Ile St. Louis, a moat-guarded isle with 17th-century mansions. Between 1860 and 1870 Baron Haussmann forever changed the look of Paris by creating the legendary boulevards including St. Michel, St. Germain, Haussmann, Sebastopol, Magenta, Voltaire, and Strasbourg.
The “main street” on the Right Bank is the Champs-Elysées, beginning at the Arc de Triomphe and running to the Place de la Concorde. Haussmann also created Avenue de l’Opera and the 12 avenues that radiate star-like from the Arc de Triomphe, giving it its original name of Place de l’Etoile (renamed Place Charles de Gaulle following the general’s death). Today it is often referred to as Place Charles de Gaulle Etoile.
Haussmann cleared Ile de la Cité of its medieval buildings, transforming it into a showcase for Notre Dame. Finally, he laid out the two elegant parks on the western and southeastern fringes of the city: Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes. Paris has been divided since 1860 into 20 arrondissements (districts), which spiral out from the center of the city like a clockwise snail. Each district has its own city hall and mayor, police station,and main post office.
The first two nights, our lovely boutique Millenium Hotel Paris Opera was in the 9th arrondissement, a short walk or fast Metro (subway ride) to our key visits. We were at the Paris Crowne Plaza Hotel the last night at the Place de la République in the 10th arrondissement, home to the classic statue of Marianne, the longtime symbol of France.
Opera Palais Garnier
At the request of Emperor Napoleon III in 1861, noted architect Charles Garnier was commissioned to build a “new opera house” in the Haussmanian Paris of the late Second Empire, inaugurated under the Third Republic on January 5, 1871. The edifice bedazzled contemporaries with the opulence and eclecticism of Garnier’s bold architectural and decorative schemes. His masterpiece instantly became the model for the Italian-style theater – functional and flamboyant at the same time.
It is also notable as the setting for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s classic “Phantom of the Opera” with the Phantom’s Private Box one of the audio tour stops. The classic 8-ton, 340-light, bronze and crystal center chandelier still hangs over the orchestra seating section in the horseshoe-shaped auditorium.It hangs just below a masterful 240-meter-wide circular painting by Chagall with themes from the history of opera music — 14 great composers and their star-crossed lovers.
The Palais Garnier is considered one of the world’s most beautiful performing arts theaters, now mostly dedicated to Ballet as the home of the famed Ballet des Paris, with most opera at the “new” Opera House that opened in 1937. After crossing the entrance rotunda you see the lavish 30-meter-high nave of multicolored marble over the Grande Escalier (two-sided staircase) that leads to the Foyers and various levels of the Auditorium. We were able to walk into a private box overlooking the stage, which was being set up for ballet performance that evening, with an orchestra rehearsal in progress.
Mosaics with shimmering colors on a gold background cover the ceiling of the Avant-Foyer; at the end of the cool, bright Salon du Glacier rotunda, Clairin painted the round of bacchantes and fauns on the ceilings, with tapestry cartoons of various refreshments, hunting and fishing scenes completed the decorations. On either side of the Glacier are the Salons de la Lune (moon) and du Soleil (sun) with circular ceiling paintings. Garnier’s lavish use of bright gold furnishings and sculptures is evident throughout the interior. The Blblioteque Museé de la Opera preserves three centuries of theater memories, and the Galerie de la Orchestra Grand Vestibule gives a last look at Palais Garnier with an audiovisual display of the theater history.
Museé Jacquemart André
On Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement is the historic mansion home of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart. The devoted couple, married only 13 years, traveled the globe and put together a magnificent collection of art that Nélie continued after his death in 1895 until she passed away in 1912. Following his wishes, she deeded the house and collection to the Institut de France as a museum for all to share.
The guided audio tour takes visitors through the mansion house with its sumptuously decorated rooms, state rooms, a monumental double twisting staircase, winter garden filled with plants and private apartments.
The Grands Salons are decorated with 18th century French paintings by Fragonard, Boucher, Vigée Le Brun, Nattier and Chardin. The Library has 17th century Flemish and Dutch paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Ruysdael; the Smoking Room boasts 18th century English masters Reynolds, Hoppner and Lawrence; the first floor offers 15th century Italian sculptures and paintings by Uccello, Mantegna, Botticelli and Bellini.
A special bonus was a guest exhibit by noted American impressionist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), including several of her most famous images of young children, and mothers with their children highlighted by The Little Girl in the Blue Armchair. Befriended by Edgar Degas, she was the only American artist invited to hold exhibitions in Paris with the notable impressionists and was one of the foremost figures of the avant-garde impressionist movement.
Moulin Rouge & Walking Tour
Saturday night was our farewell dinner at a nice local Paris restaurant, a bittersweet affair as all of us shared the sadness of hearing about the end of an all-to-short trip due to the boat accident.
Our last day in Paris began with a three-hour walking tour through the historic Le Marais district, guided by Christophe Léger. We started at our Place de la République, where a heavy police presence was due to a planned protest. It was one of more than 3,000 demonstrations that occur every year in Paris – most very peaceful — we were told by a friendly police sergeant.
Included were Templar Square, with a monument dedicated to the original home of the fabled Knights Templar, known as the defenders of pilgrims in the Holy Land; Elie Wiesel Park with a memorial sign to some of the 13,000 French Jewish children under age five rounded up by Vichy (collaborator) French police for deportation to Nazi death camps; Marque de la Rouge Childres (market of the red children), the oldest open-air food and drink market in France; and the famous Jewish Falafel stands with long lines waiting for the eat-it-on-the-go favorite. A bonus was a great street band performing authentic New Orleans jazz.
Sunday night was our highlight visit to the historic Moulin Rouge, for more than 129 years made famous by painter Toulouse-Lautrec and his notable La Goulet. The two-hour show was preceded by a very nice three-course dinner with a bottle of champagne, with a great three-piece band and male and female singers. The band provided a full variety of dance music from the ‘50s through the ‘90’s that had us on the floor many times.
The fast-paced show itself features the 60 mostly bare-breasted Dorris can-can girls and dancers, more than 1,000 costumes of feathers, rhinestones and sequins, and excellent international variety acts. Certainly the most intriguing act was a single can-can girl swimming and embracing with a half-dozen over 6-foot-long boa constrictors!
We were seated with my back to one of the side-stage runways, so every time the girls entered or exited, I was swatted by swinging feathers. It certainly was a night to treasure among our many trip memories.
Overall, we made the most of a bad situation with wonderful visits to landmarks we had not seen earlier, and will always remember our third trip to Paris, our “city of light.” PN
Article by Steve Traiman