Adventures in Northern and Western Paris

Bonjour!
I've had a lovely penultimate full day in Paris continuing my last-minute sightseeing.  I started out today with a visit to the Auber metro station, where I'd been told Ikea has a tiny house set up with five real people living in it to show how useful their products are at maximizing small spaces.  (It's a temporary display.)  They also had a second, identical, display set up which the public could enter and check out.  It was roughly on my way to my second stop of the day, and it was pretty interesting.

This is certainly bigger than most dorm rooms I've seen!

For my second event of the day, I headed over to the 16th arrondissement, in the west of the city, to visit le Musée Marmottan Monet, which, as their name suggests, has a large collection of Monet's paintings.  They also had a temporary exhibit on of Henri Edmund Cross and the neo-impressionists, which was really interesting as well.  On the whole, I like impressionism and neo-impressionism, so I enjoyed this collection a lot.  Additionally, this museum is housed in an old mansion, so the building was very pleasant as well.

Then, I hopped onto a bus for my last adventure of the day, a visit to the café featured in the movie Amélie, which is, oddly enough, actually a real-life café and not a soundstage!  Before I got there, though, I had what was undoubtedly the scariest experience I've had in Paris: being on a bus that was driving around the six-lane rotary that rings l'Arc de Triomphe.  I don't know if any of you have ever been in a bus that fearlessly cuts through six lanes of heavy, fast-paced traffic to get to the center of a rotary before cutting back out again, but I personally found the experience terrifying--luckily the whole maneuver didn't take very long.  Anyway, finally I arrived safe and sound at le Café des Deux Moulins (the Cafe of the Two Windmills), which is right near the Montmartre district of Paris, and also in the heart of the red-light district.  (It's only a block away from Moulin Rouge.)  I met up with one of my friends there for our final visit together for a while, which was sad, but at least I had a delicious hot chocolate and crème brulée to console me.  It was a lovely day!

The nearby Moulin Rouge!  (moulin rouge=red windmill)

Les invalides, la tour Eiffel, Trocadéro, Porte Dauphine

Halloween!

So first of all, this post really has nothing to do with Halloween.  Here's the extent of my Halloween-related activities today: visited a tomb (not at all Halloween-related, but tombs sort of fit the theme), saw a little English boy in the metro wearing a black cape and red devil horns, ate some candy corn, got a Halloween card from Dad.  (Thanks Dad!)  However, the weather seemed to be celebrating by finally letting up and giving us some much needed SUN!  So I planned a nice outdoor day for myself.  (I don't have any classes on Mondays!  And tomorrow's off for Toussaint, All Saints' Day, so I don't even have much homework right now.)  Second of all, the theme of the day is war.
First, I headed over to l'hôtel des invalides, which is a really big complex.  It's part hospital, part museum, part church, and part Napoleon's tomb!  It also has this gorgeous big gilt dome, which I've kept seeing from all over Paris, so I thought it was finally time to go check it out.  Anyway, I didn't bother with the museums (all war-related) today--it was too nice out--but I did go into Napoleon's tomb--if it can really be called that.  There were some other people interred there as well, and tomb doesn't seem to go far enough--not even mausoleum--maybe memorial is more accurate.  Anyway, it's a really interesting space.  I didn't realize from the outside, but there must be several smaller domes as well, because they're there on the inside!  All beautifully gilt and painted, of course...

les invalides, seen looking south

You can also see la tour Eiffel from there!

There were lots of cannons!

the dome seen from inside the courtyard 

Another cannon!  You can see Louis XIV's sun symbol and the symbol of France, the fleur-de-lys, on it.

And all of a sudden, there was a tank!  Not from the reign of Louis XIV, I think...

the inside of the dome

Such a big tomb for such a little man!  Although he was very influential...

The floors were as beautiful as the ceilings!

the altar

Stained glass and gilt cherubs: French art in a nutshell!

more stained glass (up in the dome)

more stained glass, and Maréchal Foch's tomb, and a WWI memorial 

more floor art--the omnipresent fleur-de-lys

What a floor!

This was on the way to Napoleons' tomb.  In case of any doubt?

a scale model of the whole complex

a close up of the dome, seen looking north

Then, I wanted to see the Musée Rodin, Rodin Museum, which is right near by, because it's supposed to have a nice garden with a lot of his sculptures in it, but it was, of course closed, because today is Monday and many museums here are closed on Mondays (hence museum Wednesdays for me).  So I walked over to la tour Eiffel next, which I had been intending to do anyway.  I wasn't planning on going to the top, and I didn't, because of course the lines were enormous, but I was at the top when I was here with high school three years ago, so that's okay.  But I did enjoy wandering around les champs du Mars (that's Mars as in the Roman god of war) for a bit.  Most of the grass was off-limits (the grass in Paris apparently needs to rest in the winter) but there were some grassy places off to the sides which still had a nice view of the tower, so I camped out there and enjoyed my baguette à la mimolette.  Mimolette is a type of French cheese; it's sort of like cheddar, although I think it's a bit more mild.  But it's orange and delicious, so it works for me!  And then I sunbathed for a while there--the French say either prendre un bain du soleil or faire du lézard, litterally "to take a sun bath" and "to do make like a lizard"--such delightful ways to say you're catching some rays!  It was so nice to feel the warm sun and to have my bare feet on the grass and to smell the grass!  I love how much there is to do and see in the city, but I think on the whole I really am a country girl.

L'école militaire, the Military School, which faces the Eiffel Tower at the far end of le champ de mars. 

As far as I could tell, this was a peace monument...

LA TOUR EIFFEL!!!

my view from lunch today

My lunch today, baguette à la mimolette, enjoyed very much al fresco!

the garden, with sunbathers

closer...

The Eiffel Tower: it's not as solid as it appears from a distance!  (viewed from underneath)

I guess chrysanthemums are the traditional fall flower here, too.

Anyway, once I'd had my fill of lizarding, I continued on my journey, passing under la tour Eiffel, over the Pont Iéna, and ending up not at grandmother's house but at les jardins et la place du Trocadéro.  Now, I know from my history class that Trocadero was a battle that the French won in Spain--more precisely, the first battle won by the new French regime after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.  And according to Wikipedia's scanty article on it, the area I visited was built and modified for two Universal Expositions held in Paris, and the name is to honor that same battle.  I didn't linger too long, because there were a lot of people there, and I had run out of water and couldn't find any more!

A statue on le pont Iéna--note the artful placement of the horse's mane.

view of the Seine from Iéna, with Sacré-Coeur in the background

Trocadéro

la tour Eiffel as seen from la place du Trocadéro

a monument to WWI soldiers at Trocadéro

Maréchal Foch again, I believe

So I headed to my next destination, the Porte Dauphine metro station, not too far away, where there is still one of two remaining art-deco metro entrances.  It didn't take much time to see, but it was cool, and I could (and did) walk from there to l'Arc de triomphe, which is even prettier in the sun than in the rain, and then, exhausted, I took the metro home!

the Art-Deco metro entrance from the inside 

detail of the panels

all together now

More mums, and some foliage to boot!

More mums... note the shadow of me taking the photo!

L'arc de triomphe 

The metro, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc of Triumph--a very Parisian view!

My French Home--chez moi

I have arrived safely in Paris, and I think I'm finally getting adjusted to the time difference!  Going to bed at a normal hour and waking up before noon are still a bit difficult, but it's getting easier all the time.  I'm living in the 10th arrondissment with a lady and her grown son (he's 25).  I haven't seen much of the son, Samuel, but he seems nice, as does the lady of the house, Natalie.  She and I have chatted a bit (in French, of course), and I watched part of a movie with her, but I don't know her very well yet.  I'm sure I'll get to know her better after I've been living here a bit longer (after all, it's only been four days so far).  The apartment where we live is quite convenient to three Metro stations; Jacques Bonsergent is the closest, although Chateau d'Eau and République aren't far from here, either. Natalie says it's a safe neighborhood, and it seems nice to me.  I've walked around it a bit and found some not-too-expensive grocery stores, as well as the local post office, and of course the local Metro stations!  I think this will be a very nice place to live!

 

my building, from the outside

the view from the front window

the courtyard, as seen from my room

Place Republique, not far from me