Day 11: July 10th, 2016, Sunday

Day 11: July 10th, 2016, Sunday

We started later today than our usual ambitious touring plans. Janine and I were noticing that Olivia was starting to wear thin on our constant movement so we decided to not visit the Cluny museum and also drop St. Chapelle from our agenda as well. We made an impromptu stop at a Sunday morning farmer’s market near our bus stop and shopped around for souvenirs. Janine found a preserves table where she bought a couple of items, but there wasn’t much else that looked good for travel. After the farmer’s market, we hopped on a bus back to the Isle de Cite to visit the Conciergerie.

The Conciergerie

The Conciergerie was originally built as a palace until the Louvre was constructed at which point it held an administrative role and then converted into a prison. The prison is best known as the last stop before the guillotine during the French Revolution. Many famous prisoners came through here such as Georges Danton, Charlotte Corday, Robespierre, and Marie “Let them eat cake” Antoinette.”

The museum displayed various types of recreated holding cells to show that not all were equal. Those with money could get an upgrade from the drab wet dungeon floor to something with a bed and desk.

Also on display was a recreation of Marie Antoinette's spacious holding cell. The original cell was converted into a chapel in her honor during the restoration period after Napoleon. Compared to what I assumed from watching various History channel reenactments, her room was pretty nice.

I was also impressed with how well they kept the prisoner's court yard intact after so many years.

We tried to be as nimble as we could be with Olivia walking through this medieval prison, but she was in a particular mood. It is amazing how well a screaming toddler voice can carry through stone corridors. Once again, we took turns going through the small exhibits while the other entertained Olivia. It was frustrating to say the least.

Crepes and Wine Shopping

I wanted to help Janine knock off some things on her Paris must do list and one of those items included crepes. I went online and tried to look for the best crepe place nearby. I made sure to walk a fine line between pretentious and tourist crap joint. I have been to upscale creperies before and I feel that there is something lost in the ideal of this basic food when restaurants try to hard to dress it up with upscale toppings and fillings. I found a place in the Latin Quarter, some people would say this place leans closer to tourist crap joint, but their food was good and decently priced. Janine and I each ordered a ham and cheese crepe and it came with a nutella crepe as well. We waited upstairs in their dining area that looked as it probably did centuries ago and waited for our food. I enjoyed the crepes, but Janine felt that there was too much cheese to not feel disgusting afterwards. We left the joint and noticed a lot of food vendors standing out front waiting for customers, the places looked very dead. All of them, regardless of what kind of food they served (Greek, Vietnamese, Sandwiches) all had crepes.

Janine and I wondered with Olivia for a short bit looking to shop for some wine and then play the day by ear from there. As we walked to the wine shop, we saw everyone was dressed for the big Euro-cup match against Portugal. There was a lot of flag waving and random honking around us in a “yay team” way, not the “out of my way!” variety. The wine shop we visited was serviced by an older expat woman who was patient with us as we stumbled through explaining what we wanted in a wine. We are used to the Napa variety, but she quickly dismissed the wine from there saying that it was basically undrinkable. I chuckled and thought of the famed “Judgement of Paris” wine tasting where French judges rated a Cali wine best overall compared to french in blind taste test. As we were deciding, a couple came in and Janine drummed up discussion with them as I pensively starred at the wine selection. They were an American couple who sounded like they make frequent visits out to Paris, the husband sounded like a British national though. Apparently he was lucky enough to score tickets to the game tonight. We told them we would watch the game through hearing the boos and cheers of the patrons beneath our apartment. I eventually picked two wines, one was a merlot (the owner refuses to sell the Bordeaux) and a chardonnay. We packed up the wine and walked back home for a restful afternoon back at the apartment.

La Procope and the Eurocup

I would feel that I would be doing a disservice to myself if I didn't eat at the cafe where the major players of the Enlightenment, American Revolution, and French Revolution got their coffee fix. As mentioned earlier, the Cafe La Procope turned into a higher end restaurant and I didnt feel entirely comfortable walking in with shorts and a t-shirt. We walked over to the restaurant and had a nice dinner.

The restaurant was really dead. There were only a handful of patrons in this large two story restaurant. This was due to the fact everyone else in town were cramming into bars and cafes for the final Euro cup match. The food was pretty good and Olivia was relatively well behaved enough for me to enjoy my surroundings. After dinner, I explored around the restaurant taking in the history and looking at the various works hung on the wall of the cafe’s history.

Our walk home was spent watching the crowds gather for the start of the Eurocup Final. It was an eerie sight to see the streets devoid of cars as the crowds of Parisians gathered at every bar and cafe. The above photo was a common site to see.

Several cafes had so many patrons that they were overflowing into the street. The evening in our apartment was surprisingly quiet. We didn’t make a strong effort to put Olivia to sleep till later assuming that the streets would be erupting in noise. As the family was laying in bed watching Antman from the projector in the bedroom, I kept an eye on the score and saw that it was 0-0. I knew it was over during overtime when I heard a Frenchman scream “Noooooooo!” outside the window. That was the sign that France lost to Portugal. Olivia was too enamored with Paul Rudd to fall asleep, so we sent her to her own bed for the night.

Day 10: The Orsay and the Army Museum

Day 10: July 9th, 2016, Saturday

The Orsay

Our morning at the Orsay started just as the museum opened. With audio guides downloaded and ready to go, Janine and I began our tour of the art gallery. The museum itself houses works by French artists from around the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth. The museum was once a railway station that was decommissioned for a while due to its shorter platforms until the 1970s when it was reopened as an art museum.

The audio guide did a great job playing out the narrative of Paris’ artistic transformation. The tour started off with the conservative art movement going on in Paris during the Industrial Revolution. The human form in these works are portrayed in such a way that idealized that body. The human form is perfect and their situations are dramaticized. The following exhibits and pieces provide the counter argument to these works. The Daumier busts provided the early shot at conservatism in Paris during this time period.

These busts by Honore Daumier critiqued the stuffy nature of conservatism by characterizing the politicians and officials for whom the artists made the likenesses of. Made to look stuffy and pretentious, Daumier was making a statement about how art at this time was taking itself too seriously.

Other works began to depict day to day life. Jean-Francous Millet’s Gleaners is a perfect example of this.  Millet depicts a traditionally lower class group of women going through a field after a harvest to glean whatever grains are left for food. They are portrayed in sympathetic tone that would be counter to much of conservatisms art style of shying away from the commoner.

Artists during the Industrial Revolution wanted to provide a realistic view of the world around them. One that wasn’t clean and polished, but dirty and real. My favorite thought from the guide was that during the “Belle Epoch” (Beautiful Era, c1870-1914) that there was this idealism in western Europe that didn’t necessarily reflect the reality. This sentiment can be viewed in the impressionists work.

Compared to others, I do not get as much excited from viewing the works of Manet and Monet, but I do find their style intriguing. Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass provided a glimpse into this Parisian world of art and free love.

Janine and I took turns through the museum to keep Olivia company while the other toured the exhibits. At somepoint early on in the impressionists section I lost Janine and I found myself walking back and forth along the stretch of that part of the gallery looking for her. I even went down a floor believing she moved on. After 15 minutes or so of searching i found her, or more like she found me. Apparently she was in the exhibit the entire time and she tried to call my name as I passed her twice but I had my headphones in.

As we neared the end of our walk through the museum, crowds began to grow larger and larger. Coincidentally, so did my frustration. My frustration in young people taking elevators meant for strollers and the disabled. My frustration in people more interested in selfies with famous paintings rather than taking in the detail and beauty of their work. Lets also not forget the large tourist groups who crowd in front of you and nudge you out of the way after waiting for that open spot to free up. These were common frustrations for nearly every museum we visited. I think it peaked at the Van Gogh section. I’m not saying he is my favorite artist, otherwise i would have made a concerted effort to make it there earlier but the density of bodies in that small space of paintings felt similar to the Mona Lisa. We didn’t both trying to take Olivia in there because she was freaking out the amount of tourist butts she was seeing at her eye level. We tried to take turns, but Janine and I sort of gave up because any time we had a moment to enjoy a painting, someone would walk up right in front of us and take a selfie.

We finished off our tour with the sculpted works of Rodin. I found a new appreciation in his ability to tell a story through the sculpture of bronze. We left the museum after some confusion about the location of the baby changing stations (downstairs, non-stroller accessible). In addition to this, Janine had to leave the museum to go to coat check and get a diaper from the diaper bag since that was not allowed in the museum. Again, Paris not being very child friendly.

We left the museum in search of a lunch place that would be quick and nearby the Army Museum. We found a cafe a few blocks away from the the tourists places and grabbed a couple of lunches. Janine grabbed a baguette, ham and brie sandwich. I went with what looked like a breakfast sandwich with ham, egg, and cheese in between a square fluffy egg bread. Janine bought one as well for Olivia. We continued our walk to the Army Museum and found a bench off to the side of the museum and had lunch there.  I wish I could say this was great, but i was feeling sick after finishing the first one and Olivia was not touching hers. I ate one half of it and tapped out before any vomit came. I finished it with a tiramisu like pudding cup. While we ate, Olivia had fun running around the white dirt path that ran parallel to the street. We got angry several times at her for not listening to us about running into the street. After taking some time to digest that breakfast brick, we began our walk to the museum entrance.

The Army Museum

The Army Museum was originally built by Louix XIV as an army hospital for wounded veterans. In fact, part of the hospital is still in operation now. Today it serves as the final resting place for many of France’s war heroes and a museum that show cases the various wars the country has fought in. We began our visit with Napoleon’s tomb. Patrons enter the building and can look down into the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. The upper level is flanked with Napoleon’s relatives who were are also interned there. Famous Great War French General, Philippe Petain’s grave is also in this room. Napoleon’s tomb is ornate and rich in imagery that tells the life and accomplishments of the leader.

Getting down to the tomb required descending down some steps and we didn’t think it was necessary to do that with Olivia in her stroller. She was also on the verge of falling asleep and we wanted to do our best to make that happen quicker. Janine took the first turn to go down and explore around Napoleon’s tomb and then I followed after she finished. There is there eerie feeling of being near the remains of someone who had such a significant impact on France, Europe, and the world.

We left the tomb and began walking the courtyard hall towards the end in search of an elevator to take us to the entrance of the WWI exhibit. I saw that there was a special exhibit on Napoleon’s life on St. Helena's going on. I decided not to push for it since it looked mostly in French and my pay off would be looking at some of Napoleon’s possessions whilst on the island (such as a chest of drawers!). We walked the length of the building twice to no avail and decided to suck it up and carry olivia up the four flights of stairs to the top of the building.

We got to the entrance of the WWI exhibit and made an agreement that we would spend less time here compared to the WWII exhibit that follows it. We figured that the IWM in London pretty much set the gold standard. Rick Steves echoed this sentiment in his guide. The Great War exhibit was better than I expected. There were many uniforms showcased that showed the progression of military dress as the war progressed. It was good to see the original blue and red French uniforms from the start of the war. Thier bright red uniforms and cloth caps are often pointed out as evidence of how woefully unprepared the nations were in a war of shrapnel and trenches. The rest of the exhibits had some interesting artifacts and a cool diorama of a trench that wished I could take home with me back to my classroom. I was especially impressed with the way they explained the Schlieffen Plan with the help of a blank topographical map and projecting the elements onto it. I stayed a second time through the French and English version just so I could record it for my own personal research. The museum also showcased a taxi cab that was used to help transport soldiers to the Battle of the Marne from Paris. Another item of note are the masks of post war veterans scarred from battle. My Verdun guide told me that there was an exhibit about those maimed in war and what they did to cope or cover up their scars.

We began to pick up the pace a bit during the interwar period, but I realized I had to rewind and return to room when I was greeted with a giant picture of Hitler. I was interested in how the French talked about his rise to power, but I didn’t find too much information on that.  I was genuinely interested in this exhibit since I read in Rick Steves guide that this WWII exhibit tends to be a bit biased in its version of the war. Let me tell you, I did not leave disappointed! I became so wrapped in in taking pictures on the less than stellar English translations that I forgot to take photos of the artifacts themselves.

Janine and I had a lot of fun laughing at the explanations for France’s defeat and how they tended to gloss over major contributions by their allies. Their treatment for the fall of France made heavy emphasis of how well they defended the country and took out so many German ships without giving explanation as to why they fell. Mind you, I had to scour a couple of rooms to find any sort of mentioning of the Maginot line, the failed defensive line that was meant to keep the Germans at bay but was largely ignored during the Blitzkrieg. The exhibit discussed how the Maginot line was built in preparation for war and another mentioning elsewhere how Maginot line “never faltered” in its defense. Laughable since it did and there were not many crews left to defend it by that point. There was no mention about the weaknesses in their military or political leadership, nor even a scant message about how the line didn't really serve its purpose. The greatest part about this whole exploration of revisionist history was how Charles de Gaulle is seemingly championed as the hero of the war. They portray him as if he alone won the war or at least had a significant role to play. America’s role is given mention in many parts, but Paris becomes Charles time and the Yanks were there to help begrudgingly. I also questioned how they handled their portrayal of their colonial soldiers serving France beyond the superficial “for the motherland.”

Now I have to say that I get it, this is the FRENCH army museum. They want to posture themselves in a good light, but I have to give respect to London’s Imperial War Museum’s handling of history. There were several occasions in the British exhibit where they were straight forward and made mention poor decisions and actions made by the British. One such example was how they discussed that a lot of colonial soldiers died in these wars in hope to gain independence, but were not given it at the end of the war. I have a lot of respect for recognizing that failure and not trying to shy away from it. American museums could also learn from London, but the latest African American museum that opened in DC is a step in the right direction for correctly reporting on history without shying away from failure and darkness.

Despite this historiography lesson on bias that proved to be a good piece of entertainment, there were some cool artifacts from the war. One cool piece was a tiny motorcycle set in a large piece of luggage that was used by the French resistance. Another item of note was a German remote controlled tank destroyer. This little thing would be guided by an operator nearby to drive underneath an enemy tank and then self destruct underneath it.

Dinner

Olivia eventually woke up and we made our way out of the museum to figure out dinner. I was hoping to find some cool French propaganda war posters to add to my new collection, but I didn’t see anything that peeked my interest at the price I wanted. We left the exhibit and sat in a nice shaded part of the court yard by a fountain that was away from much of the foot traffic. After changing Olivia, we let her run around and chase the pigeons and play next to a fountain of a man hold his decapitated head while water shot from the top (odd choice for an army hospital). Janine and I used that as an opportunity to rest our feet and decided dinner. We were in no particular mood for any food, so we found a place Rick Steves suggested nearby.

We arrived at the cafe, after a pit stop at a drugstore for wipes. The drinks were tasty. I got a really good mojito that paired well with the warm day and open air cafe we were sitting in. The food, unfortunately, was much to be desired. Janine got the steak and fries, which were conspicuously missing from the French menu. I got a basic pasta dish to share with Olivia, which she would refuse to eat. Olivia went around greeting guests at nearby tables while we waited for our food.

After dinner, we walked over to a nearby bakery for some macaroons, something that was on Janine’s Paris bucket list next to crepes. They had an interesting setup where they head a quick service counter outside that had their popular items and the inside of the shop had a greater selection of their nicer foods. I spent my time standing in both lines hoping to be in the quicker of the two. I was about to go with the outside line until the gal in front of me revealed what an “ugly American” looked like. She was loud, demanding, and every word she said made her sound touristy. It was obvious the poor woman at the counter was having her patience tried. The woman behind saw the display going on as well and jumped into the other line indoors. Granted, I am a tourist. I dress like a tourist. I eat like a tourist. But at least I try to be conscious of what I say and how I say it. I just had no patience for that and I moved away making sure to disassociate from that woman. I finally got the macarons and an eclair for myself. The clair was alright, the filling was to liquidy for my preference and that's when I realized that I could probably get better back home. The macaroons were also ok, but I have never been one to understand their marked up price beyond the fact that they are difficult to make.

Our journey home was complicated by the fact that the Euro cup was going on at this time. We stood at a bus stop a block or so away from the Eiffel tower waiting for our ride for about 15 minutes until a woman with a stroller rolled up next to us and after looking at the sign, she told us in the most polite broken English that this stop was closed. I noticed the heavier police presence around and figured that made sense. We followed her to the next stop and she even checked on us to make sure we made it. From there, we wait another while until our original bus finally came by. Olivia was starting to get tired of waiting, so we had to give her the pacy quickly. We arrived home about 30 minutes later. Very thankful that Parisian woman helped us out.

Day 9: World War I Tour of Verdun and Argonne Battlefields

Day 9: July 8th, 2016, Friday

Morning Ride

My morning started at 6:45 at the Paris office of tourism with me making it to the tour van just in time. I thought I had plenty of time getting to the site with my Uber, but I hadn’t accounted for my penchant for waiting till the last minute to depart some place and that the map app my driver was using would send him in a weird direction. There were six of us total, the French tour guide and five Americans.

We spent the first couple of hours on the A4 ridding east towards Verdun. I sat in the back of the van catching up on my podcasts, writing down notes, and browsing reddit while the others continued with their sleep. The tour guide gave us some information during this stretch telling us about the Parisian taxis using this road to bring troops to the front line during the battle of the Marne when Germany’s von Schlieffen plan was gaining ground to the city.

We made a pit stop at a gas station/cafe in Valmy where we had a bathroom break, breakfast, and a briefing on what to expect from today’s events. Our tour guide laid out a map describing the places we will visit on our trip. The tour would include Verdun and focus on the American battle sites thereafter. Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed we would spend a majority of our time with the American battles. Not that I don’t want to recognize the honor and sacrifice of the American soldiers who sacrificed themselves, but there tends to be a skewing of history in these situations that tend to cater to the visiting country. One of my fellow tourists verbalized this to the guide saying “its a shame Americans don't get exposed to the French or British battles.” I agree with this sentiment, after teaching this to my student I realized that the American contribution, though a sacrifice, paled in comparison to France and Britain. I would later find out that he was a retired world history teacher, figures. In fact, everyone in the group barring one college student were current or retired teachers. Not surprising considering this would be more a niche tour for most. We got back into the van and continued on the road towards the town of Verdun.

As we entered the city, our guide gave us a brief history of the town prior to the war and its reconstruction thereafter. He pointed out a common theme that we would see on this trip and that was how many things face east. Notice in the above panoramic picture how that medieval turret is facing east as well as the monument of angel victory is looking towards the east. These are all symbolic of their distrust of their German neighbor. Verdun is located near the Lorraine region which had been hotly contested by Germany and France for centuries. Verdun had been planned around an planned invasion by their German neighbors to the east. Verdun held a strategic and symbolic purpose. If the Germans could advance and take the city, then they would secure the western front. It would also deliver a blow to the morale of the French as it had been viewed as the defending city to the rest of France. The war would leave 85% of the city destroyed from shelling.

We got back into the car and continued with our journey to the Verdun battlefields outside of the city proper.

Village detruit (a village destroyed)

We drove a narrow road that wound us up a hill that overlooked the city. The tour guide pointed out that this road known as the Voie Sacree (Sacred Road) was the main communication artery into the the Verdun battle that would send a constant convoy of troops and supplies to the front. As we road up the switchback road I could oversee the city and see how vulnerable this city could being in the low land. The hilly farmland turned to  forest past some trenches which were slowly being reclaimed by nature. There was a clearing up ahead and as we were turning left there was a statue of a slain lain. This was the marker of how close the Germans got to Verdun. Petain vowed that “they shall not pass” and French stopped the Germans just 5km (3 miles) outside of the city.

We drove by a museum dedicated to the battle of Verdun and pulled off at a nearby parking lot with a few winding paths through the woods. As we walked and marveled at the surreal landscape of shelled terrain slowly returning to normal, our tour guide told us that we were walking through the former village of Fleury that was destroyed from the battle. Reuters did an great write up with interactive transitioning photos to show the before and after shots of Fleury and many other villages that were destroyed by the war. We also learned that due to the 60 million shells fired throughout the battle, the French government established “Red Zones” to prevent people from inhabiting them in the future. These areas were covered in fast growing trees to further instill the fact that nobody should be living here. In a way, it is eerie to think that any forest patches i see were more than likely the sites where many people lost their lives.

Douaumont Memorial

The Douaumont Memorial sits atop a hill and is the French memorial cemetery for those who had fallen at Verdun and faces east *cough* overlooking the battlefield. The graves outside of the building are of French soldiers. There is another memorial site nearby dedicated to the North African colonist who sacrificed their lives for France which has Islamic architectural design choices. The Douaumont memorial itself, however, houses the remains of 130,00 unidentified French and German soldiers from the nearby battlefield. Whenever the remains of a soldier are unearthed they are usually checked for DNA to see if there is a way of identifying them. More often than not they are interred here. Each window represents a section of the battlefield for loved ones to come view. Inside the memorial is considered a sacred site so there were no photos allowed, but it was a quiet, dark and somber. A common theme here and amongst the memorials we would see had heavy contributions from Americans.

Fort Douaumont

Fort Douaumont was the largest and highest fort of all the defenses protecting the city of Verdun. The original fort was constructed in 1885 as a means of protecting themselves from a newly unified Germany. The fort was considered the most advanced technology leading up to the start of the war. However, after equally advanced forts in Belgium were obliterated by German artillery, these forts were stripped of most of their supplies and troops. When the Germans took control of the fort during their first assault, they entered virtually unscathed. The shocking news of the forts quick fall made this the location for a lot of fighting and became a symbol for both sides to defend and conquer. This plan ended up costing the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides.

The group was left largerly to our own with a roughly 1 hour time limit to tour the inside of the fort. We entered through the gift shop and were given handy audio/video tour guide on ipod touches. This was a clever way to show photos, videos, and interactive maps while you toured an empty fort devoid of much signage. The interior of the fort itself was cold and wet. I can only image the conditions for hundreds of troops crammed in here months at a time amidst shelling and attempted raids. One German soldiers inside the fort describe the sensation of being inside the fort during a shelling was akin to hearing a fire, dead air, and a roaring train hurtling down on your location. The fort would become the resting place for many soldiers for just from shelling, but from other tragic events such as a fire which ignited a munitions depot and burry German troops under rubble and dirt.

An interesting aspect to the fort were the additions each side made when the occupied to structure. Germans added tunnels and a well for fresh water. They converted water storage rooms into medical centers and workshops. French troops would eventually expand the tunnels made by the Germans and make the well even deeper. Walking through the fort had an eerie feeling to it, especially with the formation of many stalactites and stalagmites  forming in rooms seldomly visited by visitors.

After leaving the fort we stopped by a trench off the side of the road. The guide pointed it that this trench was probably added later in the war as a communications trench since it was narrow and reinforced with concrete. Originally, trenches were thought to be temporary, so there wasn’t much effort reinforcing them. Communication trenches tended to be more narrow and meant for the movement troops and provisions. Time and erosion has slowly been reclaiming the surrounding trenches, this one had been purposely kept in tact.

Montfaucon American Memorial

The Montfaucon Memorial sits on what was an old village prior to the war. The monument was built to honor the victory at the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that would eventually cause the Germans to retreat. The memorial itself is a tall tower with a statue sitting atop symbolizing liberty. The memorial has a tall winding spiral staircase that I wasn’t too excited about climbing, so I explored the remnants of the village behind the memorial.

Behind the memorial are the remains of the villages’ church. Germans took remnants of the church and turned it into a watch tower (left in the picture).  There were a few other German built defenses like this constructed from the stone of shelled buildings in the area. The guide told us the the American government manages and operates this site.

Lunch with Artifacts

Our lunch was at Romagne 14-18 an informal museum curated by a Dutch WWI enthusiasts who has spent most of his life living in the region collecting artifacts and displaying them for the public. At first, I thought the place was to disorganized and busy with random rusted weapons. But the place started to grow on me and I started to understand these pieces of history were arranged in such a way to tell a story of the war. The museum recreates trenches, triage areas, and bunkers. Attached to the museum is a sandwich shop where we ate lunch. The food was fresh and in generous proportions. I enjoyed eating lunch and getting to know the other teachers in the tour group talking shop and exchanging travel stories. The museum also had a gift shop with artifacts for sale varying in price. I was super tempted to bring back a rusted bayonet  for 30 euros, but my judgment got the best of me realizing that I would have to carry the hunk of metal with me throughout my trip. I may hit up Ebay when I get home.

Cimetiere Americain Meuse-Argonne

Our last major stop was the American cemetery at Meuse-Argonne. This vast cemetery is the final resting place for over 14 thousands American servicemen. The entire site is considered to be American territory and operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Our guide walked us through the chapel and explained the lists of names written on the walls flanking the entrance of the chapel. The lists contain the names of those missing in action with no known grave. The list is updated and a dot next to the name means that they had identified the soldier. After looking inside the chapel our guide allowed us to walk down the incline to the bottom of the hill and walk through the graves of the fallen soldiers. The grounds were immaculate and beautifully decorated with flowers. The walk down was eerie and I made sure to stop every once in awhile to look at the names on the headstones. On our drive home we briefly stopped by a German cemetery not too far out. Unlike the American cemetery, the land was not given to the Germans and the soldiers were given basic wood crosses as grave markers.

The ride home had the added bonus of driving through Varennes, the town where Louis XVI and his family were captured in their failed escape from Paris en route to Austria. The remainder of the ride home was relatively quiet. We drove through more villages with more monuments erected by different US states and cities.  We arrived back in Paris a few hours later. After saying goodbye to the tour group I took the opportunity to ride the Paris metro without toddler in tow and get home quicker. I grabbed a kebab from a nearby shop, but I think the language barrier got me something more similar to a Kebab grilled quesadilla. It was ok, but I don't think I would order it again. I arrived home to Janine and Olivia who had a nice day at the Orangerie.

Day 8 - 7/7 Notre Dame, Historical Paris, and the Louvre

Our morning began with an early start since we had a packed day of touring and sightseeing in Paris. We knew Notre Dame would be horrendous so we wanted to get there just as they opened to avoid a majority of the crowds. We learned that the nearest bus stop was out of service and figured that walking was the quickest way to get to the Isle de Cite where the cathedral was. Janine took a detour at an early morning farmer's market to see if there were any good souvenir items.

Notre Dame Cathedral

We began ambitious day at Notre Dame just as the cathedral was opening. We have have been warned in the past about the lines and crowds that form during the summer travel season and wanted to spare ourselves from that as much as we could. We used Rick Steve’s handy audio guide app to tour us through the cathedral. We learned from our previous travel encounters and swapped our depth over breadth strategy to make sure Janine could see more of the city. To accommodate this strategy I made sure to take notes on interesting things to look up later as opposed to hunting around or reading every single placard in the building. One anecdote though that I enjoyed were the severed heads of the kings of Judea and Israel that line the front of the church’s facade. During the French Revolution, when sentiments toward the monarchy were less than friendly, Parisian stormed the cathedral and lopped the heads off the statues of the kings whom they assumed were the likenesses of French monarchs. Unfortunately, they were not aware that they were French kings, but depictions of the kings of Judea and Israel. It was assumed the heads were forever lost until it was revealed that the heads were actually collected by a local teacher and buried nearby hoping they could be used again during calmer times. The original heads were found in 1973 (by the cousin of the French president at the time) and are now on display in the Musee de Cluny. After leaving the cathedral, we went to the Pope Jean Paul playground off to the side of the church for Olivia to play around in before moving on to our next destination. She enjoyed riding on the play equipment immensely as quite upset when we had to go.

Olivia and Janine at Notre Dame

Inside the Notre Dame cathedral

Statue of Joan of Arc in Notre Dame

Olivia enjoying the play equipment at the Pope Jean Paul park

Deportation Memorial

At the end of the Isle de Cite is the relatively new Deportation Memorial.  It was made to commemorate those who were gathered by the Nazis during their occupation of France and sent to the concentration camps. I was glad that I had the audio guide from Rick Steve to give context to this memorial since the park employee’s English was limited telling me what I couldn’t do, which included photos. Even without the context, the message portrayed through the architectural design choice told a narrative of descent, imprisonment, death, and hope. We left the memorial and made our way for an early lunch at a nearby cafe Au Vieu Paris d’Arcole a quaint old cafe with low ceilings and good food. Janine and I both had a country style chicken leg in a rich cream sauce with grilled cherry tomatoes and a side of roasted potatoes. Olivia was not shy about grabbing the tomatoes off both of our plates.

More walking tour

photo from travefranceonline.com

After lunch, we made our way off the Isle de Cite towards the left bank. We made a quick stop at a row of tourist souvenir shops to pick up a cheesy parisian beret by request to put on Olivia by my mom. We crossed through the square in front of Notre Dame and saw the huge line and were glad that we didn’t have to deal with that. After a quick stroll through Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre and the oldest tree in Paris, we strolled to the nearby Shakespeare & Co bookstore. I am not much for following famous literary minds, but this haunt played home to many American expats and struggling writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Ezra Pound.

In front of the bookstore was an ornate green drinking fountain. This and many others like it are called  “Wallace Fountains” named after the British benefactor who donated them to the city for the reconstruction of Paris after the Franco-Prussian war.  This was exciting to see partly because I have a fondness for infrastructure and its history. The other part being that I learned from a 99% Invisible podcast on fountains that these fountains were meant to deliver water to the poor and elderly, not just because water is an essential, but to avoid the evil sin of alcohol consumption. Many fountains set up during the Victorian era were done so by temperance societies.

As we continued on through the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter and passed by the myriad of Greek food restaurants, we walked up to the Saint-Michel fountain and learned about how this has become a defactor site for much of Paris’ social upheaval. The tour noted that the stone slabs used to be cobble stone, but were replaced once student protestors in the 60s pulled them from them ground and used them as ammunition against Parisian police.

We had planned to visit Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie, but we still needed visit the Louvre before it closed, so we decided to cut the Sainte Chapelle and push the Conciergerie for a later time. It didn’t help that Olivia's patience was wearing thin, so we wanted to take a break from the touring as well. As we walked past the chapel we noticed a loud commotion happening across the street in an open square. It was a group of protestors and I learned that they were from France’s communist party doing a demonstration. I vaguely remember this happening last time I was here and my tour guide mentioning that this is a common occurrence.

Communist party protestors near the Conciergerie 

We made our way to the Place Dauphine on the other side of the Isle while listening to the Sainte Chapelle commentary. The Place Dauphine provided a nice shady park for Olivia to stretch her legs and run around. After a few a short time there and a diaper change, we left the park and crossed the Pont Neuf bridge to make our way to the Louvre. At this point in the afternoon we were all getting collectively hot and tired. Before entering the Louvre, we needed to find a Starbucks for free Wifi since Janine’s audio guide updated that morning and wiped all the info she pre-downloaded the night before. So we walked the length of the palace to a Starbucks with Wifi and air conditioning. I began the slow download process while Janine ordered an Iced Mocha. After 15 minutes of downloading time, the file finally transferred and we were set to go.

The Louvre

There was some confusion trying to get into the museum. As museum pass holders, we thought we could get into the palace through a special entrance. However, we were turned away due to the stroller and told to take the main entrance. I figured it was because they only had an escalator and frowned upon stroller usage. Nevertheless, we were frustrated by the fact that there wasn’t a clear indication about how that would work since we wanted to skip standing in the long line and baking in the hot sun. Fortunately, they automatically let us walk straight through to security once they saw we had the stroller. Once we got in the underground entrance of the museum and performed an emergency diaper change, we made our way to the galleries. Janine and I had an argument about which entrance we needed to go to since there were 4 and I, of course, was wrong. Once we got in, we realized that this place was not very stroller/wheelchair friendly. I can’t really blame the old palace for being like that though. Needless to say, Janine and I did a lot of lifting up and down stair cases through the gallery. The showcase of statues and paintings were impressive. It is always a treat to fall in love again with classics that I have seen before such as the Venice de Milo.  

Any trip to the Louvre is not complete without a visit to the one, the only, Mona Lisa. With Olivia having fallen asleep early on in the museum walk through, we realized bringing her into the mob tourists would be an automatic early wake up for her, so we took turns at the painting.  Janine and I originally had an apprehension to even trying since we both have an extreme dislike for crowds, but we knew it was something we should do. I joked with Janine that we should use Olivia to reenact the scene from LOTR: Two Towers where Aragorn tosses Gimli at the Orcs to clear out the throngs of people. After each of us gently moved our way to the front and took pleasure in this work, we continued to the the Romanticism section.

Although i have a strong fondness for Baroque, I really do enjoy works from the Romanticists and Neoclassical art (1800-1850). I sat and admired David’s The Coronation of Napoleon for a long time and sat in awe of its detail and historical significance. After teaching about Napoleon I found myself having a deep appreciation for this work. It felt like taking in a nice meal and make sure I could savor it for as long as possible before moving on. The only thing that really made me move was the fact that the museum was set to close in less than 30 minutes and we had a few more works to look at by Delacroix and Gericault.

Giving my giddy nerd grin

And this is where my excitement was soured. As we were moving on to more Romantic works, Janine was approached by a docent and told that the museum closed in 15 minutes. We thought it was odd, because the museum was set to close at 6:00pm and it was only 5:30. Janine nodded and we moved on to the Romanticism room. It was a treat. I marveled at Liberty Leading the People and The Raft of the Medusa appreciating their composition, theme, and color. I was about to walk over to The Death of Sardanapalus when the same docent approached me. She told me that my wife and daughter were leaving and that I should too since the museum was not closed. I was confused by this and this confusion turned to anger as I was being escorted out of the room and to the elevator. What the hell was going on? The museum wasn’t closed for another 15 minutes and there were still crowds of people walking about, but we were specifically picked to leave. Keep in mind, there was no explanation besides “the museum was closed.” I found no point in arguing since there would be a language barrier and I figured such an argument would be fruitless given the time left. My guess for this ejection was because we had a stroller and for whatever reason they thought we should leave first since we would clog up the exits with our umbrella stroller. Listen, Janine and I are more than capable of maneuvering ourselves around crowds and staircases without the need for an early ejection. In fact, i’d gather we could manage better than a lot of individuals there without strollers. Why did we have to be penalized for having kid? This only added to our belief that Parisians may love kids, but the city’s infrastructure and planning do not reflect this notion at all. My anger only grew by the time we walked out of the museum entirely and I needed a moment to recollect my thoughts. I felt a little embarrassed having being picked out like that. It only added insult to injury that it was in one of the rooms I was looking forward to the most. I must keep an optimistic view though and remind myself that i’ll be back.

After cooling off outside and kindly telling the North African souvenir peddlers that we did not need selfie sticks or eiffel tower key chains, we decided to eat at the cafe at the floor of our apartment building. With the amount of traffic going on during rush hour the time spent on the bus was actually equivalent to us just walking back home, but having walked 18k steps (approx. 8.5 miles) that day, we were ok with just sitting on the bus. Once we arrived at the apartment, we dropped off all our stuff and made our way downstairs to cafe Les Arenes. The cafe, like most other place we visited, were very friendly and accommodating as they could be with Olivia. Unfortunately, our daughter’s tiredness could not repay their kindness and she was particularly fussy that evening. This did not combine well with our tiredness so we took turns eating while entertaining our daughter. We ordered an appetizer as Olivia’s entree that we misread and assumed was a warm grilled zucchini dish with tomato sauce that Olivia would like. Unfortunately, it was served chilled and Olivia refused to touch it. She insisted on jumping around the bar area while we at it instead, the dish was pretty good. I had the Pork Belly with risotto that was pretty tasty. As we ate, the crowd behind us grew larger since they were trying to grab a spot for the Eurocup games. Olivia really did not want to sit down for the meal and had no interest in our food and at some point her screaming forced me to consume my food much faster than I would prefer (and I eat pretty fast) and take her out for a walk. While on this walk I did my best to have a heart to heart discussion with a toddler about being nice to others and listening to mommy when she asks you to do something. I walked around the block with her and made a pit stop at the ATM before returning. Janine had finished by then and was in the process of paying the bill. We made our way upstairs and immediately put Olivia to sleep hoping she get enough rest for tomorrow.