Along Florida’s Gulf Coast

So I flew down to Florida on Monday afternoon to visit my friend Keith for the week, and got to visit several fun places around Clearwater, Sarasota, and St. Pete.

First up was a concert by Chris Botti (www.chrisbotti.com) at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Tuesday evening. Botti never ceases to amaze me with his musical talent. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he’s an amazing jazz trumpet player, who has also played in the back-up bands for the likes of Sting and Frank Sinatra. If you ever get a chance to see him live, go! I’ve been a fan of his for ages, and although I enjoy hearing him play songs off his recent CDs, I really miss hearing him perform his original songs off his earlier CDs, such as Night Sessions or Slowing Down the World. He still puts on a fantastic show, though, and the members of his band are equally talented. I just love to watch Billy Kilson on drums — he’s phenomenal.

We spent Wednesday visiting a place I’ve written about before and absolutely love, the Ringling Museum (www.ringling.org). I can never get enough of that place. From the art museum with its gallery of Peter Paul Rubens “cartoons,” to the beautifully landscaped courtyard with its scale copy of Michelangelo’s David, to the Ringling home with it’s back terrace overlooking Sarasota Bay, the entire property is enchanting. There’s also a great restaurant in the visitor’s center, where we had very nice lunch on the outside terrace, enjoying the rare, humidity-free weather. Following our visit to the Ringling, we headed over to St. Armand’s Key, where we did some window shopping around St. Armand’s Circle, a wonderful little area of shops and restaurants off the coast of Sarasota. We even then drove down past the house where I lived as a kid in Sarasota. I was happy to see that the house is still very well maintained, as is the rest of the area. Funny how the lake we lived on looked so much bigger when I was 4!

We spent another day in St. Pete, where we visited the Salvador Dali Museum (www.salvadordalimuseum.org), which I’d never been to before — sad to say, since I grew up in the Tampa Bay area. I’d never been a Dali fan before, but after seeing the range of styles in which he painted (everything from impressionism to his more well-known painting of melting watches), and after seeing how he hid so many different items and meanings in his paintings, I’m now a fan. Our tour was led by a very knowledgeable guide who’d spent quite a bit of time in Spain himself, and he really put Dali’s paintings into perspective for us. The museum is building a new facility a few blocks away along the St. Pete waterfront (just like the current building is), and I hope this means that they’ll be able to put even more of Dali’s paintings on display. I’ll definitely be going back when the new museum building opens.

The rest of the week was spent relaxing and catching up with friends. I hated to fly back up to Virginia, as it was one of the best trips to Florida that I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to get back to the Tampa Bay area again soon!

Being a tourist near home

A couple of weeks ago, I had the double pleasure of a weekend visit from my good friend Heather, followed by 6 days in central Florida, visiting sites along the Gulf Coast. What a great way to start off the month!

When Heather came down from Philly for the weekend, we spent Saturday wandering around the shops and art galleries of Old Town Alexandria. It was the first really nice weekend weather day of the spring, and Old Town was teeming with people out enjoying the good weather. We spent a lot of time in the Torpedo Factory Art Center (www.torpedofactory.org), a former torpedo factory that’s now a series of artists’ studios and galleries. The galleries feature everything from paintings to sculptures to photography to mixed media — pretty much anything you can imagine. There’s something there to suit everyone’s tastes, and the prices are reasonable. I saw several items that I would’ve liked to buy, but I need to solve my little unemployment problem first! Anyway, if you find yourself anywhere near Old Town Alexandria, I highly recommend taking the time to wander through the Torpedo Factory galleries. The place also holds a special meaning for me since two very good friends of mine held their wedding in the Torpedo Factory’s main hall several years ago.

Following our stroll through the Torpedo Factory, Heather and I stopped for a few glasses of wine on the outdoor deck of the Chart House restaurant (www.chart-house.com), which sits right on the Potomac River. While I tend to try to stay away from chain restaurants, I really like the atmosphere at this Chart House, especially on a gorgeous day when you can sit out on the deck and watch the people along the boardwalk in front of the Torpedo Factory or the people boarding and departing the various river cruise boats that dock right next to the restaurant. What I particularly like is that the staff never rushes you, and doesn’t mind if you order nothing more than a glass of wine or a beer. It’s a great place to relax and soak in the atmosphere of Old Town and the river.

Later that evening, Heather and I had dinner at my current favorite restaurant in Northern Virgina, which I’ve written about before: Evo Bistro (www.evobistro.com). Heather is a fellow Spain-lover — in fact, it was Heather and her husband who first took me to Spain — so she loved all the wonderful tapas dishes on Evo Bistro’s menu. As usual, it took a while to make up our minds which of the many great dishes we wanted to order. Heather ordered scallops, while, after much debate, I ended up ordering what I always order: beef carpaccio and patatas bravas. Yum! And then, of course, we both ordered dessert — the amazingly wonderful Key lime mousse. We had a hard time convincing our waiter, though, that we each wanted an order of the mousse; he brought us one, and when we corrected him to say we wanted two, he gave us two spoons so that we could share. We finally convinced him that we each wanted our own mousse, and he brought out a second one. It’s too good to share! We even convinced the group at the table next to us to order several, and they agreed that their Key lime mousse was fantastic.

The next day, Sunday, Heather and I headed out to the Virginia hills to visit a couple of wineries. Both wineries I’ve mentioned before in this blog: Phillip Carter (www.pcwinery.com) and Chateau O’Brien (www.chateauobrien.com). The women who conduct the wine tastings at Phillip Carter are loads of fun, and I ended up walking out with two bottles of their Chardonnay — and I usually don’t even like white wines! But their Chardonnay was excellent, and after Heather and I enjoyed a glass in the winery’s great hall, I just had to buy a few bottles. The tasting we had at Chateau O’Brien was particularly interesting since it was conducted by the actual winemaker. Usually the owner conducts the tastings in the Reserve Room, but he’d just gotten married the day before and was off with his new bride (who usually conducts the tastings in the other tasting room), leaving the winemaker to handle all the tastings that day. Congrats to Howard O’Brien Jr. and his new wife! Anyway, Heather and I enjoyed a glass of Chateau O’Brien’s apple wine (made from apples from an orchard just around the corner) out on the winery’s large terrace, overlooking the Virginia hillsides.

After visiting those two wineries, we headed back to Alexandria, where we had tickets to see Gavin DeGraw (www.gavindegraw.com) in concert that night at the legendary Birchmere Music Hall (www.birchmere.com). I love that place, and have seen so many fantastic musicians and bands there over the years. Gavin’s show was fantastic. I hadn’t been a huge fan prior to the show, but I’d heard that he puts on a great live concert, so I decided to go, and was very pleasantly surprised at the music, Gavin’s energy, and his connection with the crowd. Of course, the fact that he looked so buff in a T-shirt didn’t hurt! I’d go see him again in a heartbeat — excellent show!

So, for just two days, we managed to pack in a lot of fun — good friend, good wine, good weather, good music. It doesn’t get much better than that! Shortly after Heather left on Monday morning to drive back to Philly, I left for the airport to fly down to Florida for the next 6 days. More on that in the next post. And check back later in the month, when I’ll be going to the Vintage Virginia Wine Festival and writing about that. But now, on to Florida…

Cherry Blossoms and Wineries

Thanks to a visit from my friend Keith this past weekend, I got to play tourist in my own town of Washington, DC, which is always fun. As Keith arrived in the middle of the Cherry Blossom Festival, we had to first and foremost venture downtown to the Tidal Basin to see all the gorgeous cherry blossoms. We chose to go on Friday afternoon to avoid all the weekend crowds, and after waiting out a morning rain, we enjoyed some of the following views in the afternoon:

After spending the afternoon on the Mall, Keith and I met up that evening for dinner with several old college friends and rehashed old stories from when we all played in the Gator Marching Band together.

Saturday morning, we spent a few hours at the Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center (www.nasm.si.edu/UdvarHazy/), which is the Dulles Airport annex to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum downtown. As a pilot myself, I love the Udvar-Hazy Center because it holds some of my favorite aircraft — a Grumman Goose, the Enola Gay, an SR-71 Blackbird, and one of the space shuttles. Very cool! We happened upon a great little lecture about the Enola Gay given by a WWII pilot who’s now a docent at the museum. I would love to have had a chance to talk to the pilot after the lecture and hear about his own experiences in WWII.

After leaving the Udvar-Hazy Center, we headed west towards the mountains — and the many wonderful Virginia wineries. The weather was gorgeous, and it was a perfect day to drive around the mountains and sample some great wines. Our first stop was Oasis Winery, which, despite rumors, is open and doing great (apparently, they’ve had a disagreement with their web designer, who’s hijacked their website and posted that the winery is closed). We came away from Oasis with a bottle of their Dogwood Chardonnay. Next was the Philip Carter Winery (www.pcwinery.com), where we left with a bottle of a very interesting, unique Chambourcin. Finally we stopped at the Chateau O’Brien Winery (www.chateauobrien.com), which might be my new favorite winery. It has a beautiful terrace, two tasting rooms, and a large sitting area with a very inviting fireplace. I can definitely see more visits to Chateau O’Brien in my future. We left there with a bottle of their apple dessert wine. Depending on the winery, we tasted between 4 and 8 wines at each one; only the Philip Carter Winery gave us a bucket to dump our extra wine into, though, which I really appreciated, since I was the designated driver. As much as I love wine, I really didn’t need to drink that much, especially of the few wines I didn’t like. We eventually headed back towards DC, and had dinner at the wine bar/restaurant I’m always raving about, Evo Bistro (www.evobistro.com) in McLean. Love that place!

On Sunday morning, we headed down to Arlington National Cemetery, which was probably the most crowded I’ve ever seen it. We decided not to wait in the outrageously long line for tickets for the tram tour and instead walked all over the cemetery, seeing JFK’s grave with the eternal flame, the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers (as many times as I’ve seen it, I still think it’s one of the most impressive ceremonies in the world), and the Custis-Lee Mansion that sits at the top of the hill, overlooking the entire cemetery. If you don’t know the history of Arlington National Cemetery, it’s quite interesting. The short version is that it was the plantation of Robert E. Lee, and after he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and took over the Army of Virginia, he and his family had to flee the property, since it was right across the river from DC. The Federal government instituted a law that landowners had to pay their taxes in person — which, of course, the Lees couldn’t do without being captured — so the Feds confiscated Lee’s land when he didn’t pay his taxes in person. Then when the U.S. needed to find a location for a new national cemetery because of the high volume of Civil War deaths, an old West Point buddy of Lee’s was in charge of picking the location. He’d never forgiven Lee for being a traitor, so he chose the Lee property as the location of the new cemetery, and made the first burials in Mrs. Lee’s rose garden, right by the house, to ensure that the Lees would never again be able to live in the house, even if they somehow regained possession of it. So, ironically, the decision that Robert E. Lee made in that upstairs bedroom when he wrote his U.S. Army resignation letter resulted in the loss of his entire property and the creation of a new national cemetery. The rolling hills are a beautiful resting place for those who’ve given the ultimate sacrifice for our country. If you haven’t been to Arlington National Cemetery yet, and you make it to DC, you should make a special effort to visit there.

And with that, my tour guide duties were over, as I dropped Keith off at the airport later that afternoon. But I’m always happy to play tour guide in the DC area, so come on to DC, and let me know if you’d like me to show you around!

Disappointing Travel Buddies

As I’d mentioned in a previous post, I was supposed to go to Savannah this coming weekend with a friend. We’d planned to drive down first thing Friday morning and return on Monday, and I’d used my Hilton points to get us a reservation at the Hampton Inn right on Bay Street, walking distance to everything we’d want to do. Well, yesterday (Monday) morning, I get an email from her, backing out of the trip without any reason, and promising to call me last night (she didn’t). This is the second time she’s backed out on this exact same trip with me; last year we were going to go over Memorial Day weekend. We’d had this coming weekend’s trip planned for months, and I’d rearranged several things (to my and other people’s inconvenience) to keep this weekend open for the trip, because my friend has never been to Savannah and claims that she really, really wants to go. I wouldn’t mind so much if she’d given me a few weeks’ notice, but just 4 days’ notice? It just irks me that I rearranged my schedule to make this trip happen, and she just backed out at the last minute without even giving me a reason why. I guess I know now not to plan a third trip to Savannah with her!

It’s so difficult to find compatible people to travel with, and yet it usually all comes down to common courtesy. My favorite travel companions (you know who you are) are laid-back, easy-going, but most importantly, considerate — of their travel buddies and the other people they encounter on their travels. It’s not difficult!

OK, so that’s my rant for today. I was really looking forward to Savannah, and now I’m looking forward to 4 days of no plans instead. Maybe I should go on down to Savannah by myself, since it’s too late to get any of my other friends to take a couple of days off of work to accompany me. Then again, maybe I should save my money and the Hilton points to use for an even better trip…with a travel buddy I can actually count on!

Reflections on Paris

Well, I’ve been back from Paris for a week now, and I’m already trying to figure out a way that I can finagle other trip there soon. There are still several sights I’d like to see that I missed on this trip — Versailles, the Paris Opera House, and just wandering around more neighborhoods in the city. Yes, I definitely need to go back, the sooner the better.

A lot of people have asked me about the treatment we received from the French people, and I have to say that we experienced none of the rudeness that Parisians have been known for. Everyone we spoke with was extremely nice, almost everyone spoke English and spoke it very willingly. Luckily, I remembered quite a bit of my high school French, so I actually preferred it when someone spoke French to me, as I understood more than I expected to. I still can’t put a sentence together to save my life, but it was fun to be able to listen to people speaking French. It made me want to take a French class so that I can speak the language better when I go back.

So, I’ve been back a week, and I think I’ve finally come out of my daily pastry and nightly wine withdrawal. Time to start planning another trip. I really don’t understand why I can’t just cash in my IRAs and travel until the money runs out. I’ll be heading to Savannah at the end of the month for a long weekend, but I need to start looking at destinations for the summer or fall. Italy? Croatia? Machu Picchu? Costa Rica? I’ll get to them some day… I’m open to suggestions, so let me know where you think I should go next.

One Last Day in Paris

Paris, Day 5, March 9, 2009 — Laurie and I decided to just wander today, and after having spent most of the previous evening off of our feet, we walked and walked and walked today. We started off down the Champs Elysees, walking towards the Place de la Concorde, and had breakfast at a little crepe stand. For a standing-up-while-you-eat breakfast, my ham and cheese crepe was pretty darned good. We continued down to Avenue Winston Churchill (the French seem to like foreign names — our Metro Stop was the Franklin D. Roosevelt stop, and one of the streets along the Seine is Avenue de New York), then turned towards the river, bringing us right between the Grand Palais on one side of the street and the Petit Palais on the other. I personally liked the Petit Palais better, although the Grand Palais has a very impressive glass roof — the metal supports for the glass room actually weigh 500 tons more than the Eiffel Tower. Here’s the entrance to the Petit Palais:

Looking down Avenue Winston Churchill across the Alexander III bridge, this is the view we had of the Hotel des Invalides, burial place of Napolean:

The Alexander III bridge is absolutely gorgeous, and here’s a shot of it:

And from the bridge, there’s a really nice view of the Eiffel Tower:

After investigating the Hotel des Invalides, we walked along the Seine towards the Latin Quarter, and I bought a cute little water color for a sidewalk artist. The painting was of the facade of a little French row house, but I liked it because it wasn’t like anything else I’d seen from any of the other painters. I was really sick of seeing paintings of the exact same views of the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and the Sacre Coeur.

As soon as I paid the artist, rain drops started falling, so it was the perfect excuse for Laurie and me to duck into the Cafe des Beaux Arts and order a dessert and a Coca Cola Light (after our champagne-and-wine-fest the night before, I wasn’t yet ready for a glass of wine; that feeling didn’t last long, though). Laurie, unfortunately, had a disappointing chocolate crepe, while I had three scoops of great ice cream — vanilla, chocolate, and coffee. Mmmm.

The rain lasted about an 45 minutes, which was the perfect amount of time to enjoy our little break. When the rain stopped, we ventured out and made our way to the Luxembourg Gardens, stopping off first at the St. Germain des Pres church, which is the oldest church in Paris:

We also passed the St. Sulpice Church, famous for its two unfinished spires, but the church is undergoing renovations, and half of its facade was covered with scaffolding. This is the best photo I could get, with the fountain in the square in front of the church:

And then we reached the Luxembourg Gardens, with the imposing Palais du Luxembourg looking out over the gardens:

There are chairs all around the gardens to sit and soak in the scenery, so Laurie and I took another break and basked in the sunshine for a little while. Once we were re-energized, we set off again, this time with a much different destination in mind: the Bon Marche department store! We’d found the great little shopping area around the Bon Marche, and then spent quite a while shopping inside. We were surprised to find that the high-end department store had an entire department for sewing needs — fabric; thread; needles; kits for cross-stitch, needlepoint, and embroidery; complete finishing services; sewing boxes; etc. As an occasional needlepointer and cross-stitcher, I couldn’t leave without buying something, and probably spent too much money on an elaborate cross-stitch monogram kit (I might’ve been swayed by the fact that the sample photo on the cover of the kit featured the letter “M” as the monogram). I also bought a few Christmas presents for family members (can’t reveal yet what they are), and Laurie bought her husband a tie. I could’ve spent a whole lot more money on clothes and housewares, but I managed to maintain control and didn’t buy anything else.

We left the Bon Marche just before dusk, and wanted to find a restaurant where we could have a really good dinner before taking a 9:00 pm sightseeing cruise along the Seine. All the restaurants we tried either weren’t serving dinner yet, or had a very limited menu, so we decided to take the 8:00 sightseeing cruise instead, and find dinner afterward. Since it was our last night in Paris, we wanted to treat ourselves to a really nice dinner.

So, we jumped on the Metro and rode over to where the sightseeing boat was docked. The weather wasn’t too cold or windy, so we sat on the open top deck of the boat, and were treated to a beautiful view down the Seine towards the Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis. Once we passed Ile St. Louis and the boat turned around, however, the wind shifted, and Laurie and I sought shelter in the enclosed first deck. We still had great views, and the cruise company timed our approach perfectly so that as we passed the Eiffel Tower, it was the top of the hour, when all the tower’s “sparkly” lights go off for the first 5 minutes of the hour. Very impressive! The sightseeing cruise we took was through the Bateaux-Mouches company (www.bateaux-mouches.fr), and they were very good, giving the tour in seven different languages.

Following the sightseeing cruise, Laurie and I found the perfect restaurant for dinner: elegant, good food, amusing waiter, and a view of the Eiffel Tower from our table. Who could ask for a better last night in Paris? We finished off the evening by visiting our favorite patisserie, Laduree, on our way back to the hotel to pick up some final goodies to remember Paris by:

Then it was time to return to our hotel room, finish off our bottle of wine, and pack for our trip home in the morning. I definitely want to spend more time in Paris, and hope that I can make it back sometime soon. I’m going to hate to leave — but I will be back!

Endless Food and Champagne

Paris, Day 4, March 8, 2009 — Ah, the first rain of our trip. We awoke to a steady, drizzling rain — the kind where you feel stupid opening your umbrella, but it’s just slightly too wet to not open your umbrella. We decided to relax inside a very nice restaurant and enjoy a leisurely breakfast while waiting to see what the rain was going to do, so we chose Fouquet’s Cafe, just down the street from our hotel, on the corner of the Champs Elysees and Avenue George V. The restaurant has been named an historic landmark, and it’s supposedly popular among French and American celebrities. We had a nice window seat, and Laurie and I each ordered the Croque Monsieur, which was inarguably the best Croque Monsieur we’d had by far. It was made with chicken, Swiss cheese, and some other cheese (Chevre?) that had the most amazing taste and texture. Unfortunately, the sandwich was so huge that Laurie and I each ate only half; we could easily have gotten away with ordering just one sandwich between the two of us. After eating that Croque Monsieur, I knew I wouldn’t order another one the rest of our trip, since I couldn’t imagine any other version being able to top it. I’ll be craving another one of Fouquet’s Croque Monsieurs for quite a while, I’m sure.

Following that excellent breakfast, Laurie and I hopped on the subway and made our way back to the Ile de la Cite, where we wanted to find the archaelogical crypts near Notre Dame. We got off the subway on the Right Bank, just in front of the Hotel de Ville, which is an amazingly huge and beautiful building. Forget what Texans brag about — Paris definitely knows how to do things BIG. The Hotel de Ville now houses the city council, and the square in front was once used for public hangings, burnings, and other executions.

We crossed over to the Ile de la Cite, and easily found the entrance to the archaelogical crypts in front of Notre Dame that we’d missed a few days ago. The underground museum showed off the ancient Gallo-Roman foundations of the island, with several homes and other buildings still visible in the layers under the current square in front of Notre Dame. That kind of stuff absolutely fascinates me; I should’ve been an archaelogist. Maps showed how the layout of the island had changed over the years, with the only constant being the cathedral of Notre Dame. Very interesting.

When Laurie and I emerged from the archaelogical crypts, the rain had stopped, and it wasn’t long before the sun came out and the day ended up being the prettiest day of our trip. We decided to stroll across the bridge to Ile St. Louis and explore that island for a while, and here’s the view as we crossed the bridge (OK, so the sun wasn’t out quite yet when I took this picture).

Ile St. Louis is primarily a residential island, but the street right down the center of the island was lined with cute little shops and boutiques, so Laurie and I had quite a fun time exploring each shop. This little flower shop had all sorts of cute Easter decorations inside, and we couldn’t help buying a few painted eggs.

I also bought a beautiful paisley scarf in a little shop that sold nothing but scarves, and in a novelty shop I bought a fun cheese grater in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. Laurie made a few purchases as well. We also stopped in an incredible cheese shop that had every kind of cheese you could possibly imagine (including some pretty smelly kinds). That one street was one of the most enjoyable strolls we’d had yet.

After doing our part to help the Ile St. Louis economy, Laurie and I headed back to the hotel to freshen up, grab the bottle of champagne that we’d bought the night before, then meet my old college buddy Jerry at the Palais du Congress, where he picked us up to take us out to his house for dinner. Little did Laurie and I know what a feast we were in for. On the way, we stopped to pick up Jerry and Marie’s friend Rae, nicknamed “The Angry Bird.” Jerry said there was a story behind the nickname, but he never got around to telling us. Rae didn’t speak English, but that didn’t stop us all from managing to communicate in some pretty amusing ways.

Jerry and his wife Marie live out in the Paris suburbs almost right across the street from Orly Airport, although luckily they’re not in the flight path. Their house, an adorable little French cottage, has been in Marie’s family for three generations; her uncle lives in the cottage next door. When we arrived, Marie’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend were there to greet us as well; from what Jerry had told us on the way, it’s a “big deal” in the neighborhood when anyone from America comes for a visit. Marie’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend don’t speak English, but Marie does, so she served as translater. We arrived around 7:00 pm, the champagne cork was immediately popped, and I don’t think the champagne and wine stopped flowing until we left around 1:00 am. We had a wonderfully relaxed evening, and Marie’s cooking was better than anything we’d experienced in a restaurant up to that point (well, maybe with the exception of that Croque Monsieur at Fouquet’s that morning). We started off with a salad with lots of boiled shrimp mixed in, then a beef stew and noodles dish — it looked like beef stroganoff, but was different and very delicious — then another little salad with toast and a bacon-wrapped square of soft cheese on top. The bacon wrapped the cheese just like you’d wrap a ribbon around a gift box, and it was almost too pretty to eat. Then we had a fruit dessert with ice cream. Of course, this whole meal took about 5 hours to eat, which is the great thing about the way the French eat. Between courses, Jerry showed us a concert video of David Sanborn’s European tour, with Jerry playing trombone, and then we watched the beginning of the movie “Team America,” where Paris is demolished by puppets. You have to see the movie. After several glasses of champagne, it was particularly amusing. We also played with Jerry and Marie’s boxer, Marcel, who’s super sweet, although the same can’t be said for their other dog, Ola, a rather cranky old shih tzu. All in all, it was a wonderful evening, catching up with an old friend, making new friends, and experiencing a true, leisurely homemade French meal in a Parisian home. Definitely not your typical tourist experience.

I have to take a moment here to comment about the champagne Laurie and I had purchased last night to bring to Jerry and Marie’s. When we stopped in the little store to purchase our champagne, we also decided to buy a bottle of wine to drink back in our hotel room. We found a great bottle of red wine for only 4.50 Euros. And my tiny little glass of orange juice at breakfast yesterday morning cost 7.80 Euros. I love Paris!

Wandering the Tuilleries and Montmartre

Paris, Day 3, March 7, 2009 — Laurie and I started off our day with breakfast at Laduree (www.laduree.com/index_en.htm), probably the most amazing patisserie in Paris. They have several locations, but the one almost directly across the street from our hotel on the Champs Elysees had been tempting us since the moment we arrived. There’s a sit-down restaurant, but also a separate bakery where you can get the most amazing confections, gift-boxed in the prettiest boxes you’ve ever seen. We’d tried stopping in a few other times to get some of their famous macaroons, but the line was always too long for us to wait. This morning, however, we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast there, and it was excellent, even if my tiny glass of orange juice cost 7.80 Euros. The rest of my meal (an apple tart), though, was very reasonable. Laurie got a trio of “petite” pastries, which she also enjoyed. We’d also ordered a side of bacon, which we never received because of a shift change with our waiters, but we were so full that we didn’t mind that the bacon was missing. Laduree is such a wonderful experience that one friend of mine, who just returned from attending grad school in Paris, had told me not to bother to return to the U.S. unless and until I’d been to Laduree. She was definitely right in her not-to-miss recommendation.

After breakfast, Laurie and I walked a few blocks to the Arc de Triomphe, but our legs were too tired to climb to the top, so we then took the Metro to the Tuilleries Gardens, which were actually a bit dull and disappointing considering the time of year. Gardeners were preparing flower beds for spring flowers, but nothing was planted yet. It actually reminded me quite a bit of the National Mall in Washington, DC — just a big expanse of green to wander around. In fact, most of Paris reminds me of DC — lots of wide avenues, roundabouts, and public squares and green spaces. Then again, DC was laid out by Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant, so it’s no coincidence.

Anyway, the Tuilleries Gardens have one thing that the Mall doesn’t — little outdoor cafes where you can sit, relax with a carafe of wine (why have only one glass?), enjoy the scenery and ambiance, and watch the people walking by. The weather was quite nice, so we took about a 40-minute break to chill out with some wine.

Next, we visited the Musee de l’Orangerie, at the Place de la Concorde end of the Tuilleries, which features several of Monet’s water lilies series. These painting were huge, wall-sized paintings, and the Orangerie displays them in an oval room, with the paintings actually built into the walls so that they curve slightly — a very interesting, unusual way to display them. The French take their museum-going very seriously and are very quiet in the museums. Laurie actually got shshed when she excitedly ran into the girl who’d sat next to her on the flight to Paris. Oops!

After leaving the Orangerie, it was time to eat again, so we stopped at a restaurant that Laurie had been dying to try, based on its reputation for having the best hot chocolate in Paris: Angelina (www.groupe-bertrand.com/angelina.php). This was another very popular spot, and we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes before being seated. Although Laurie raved about the hot chocolate (I just had a sip of hers, and it was, indeed, absolutely fantastic — thick, dark and rich, with whipped cream on the side – and unlike anything masquerading as hot chocolate in the U.S.), I was a little disappointed in the menu, and wasn’t particularly impressed with what I orderd — in fact, I can’t even remember what I ordered! I’m not sure it was worth the 30-minute wait, but if you happen to wander by when there’s not a line, definitely stop in for the hot chocolate. Ironically, we’d also ordered a side of French fries, which we never received — just like our side of bacon never arrived at breakfast. We dubbed the day our “Day of Missing Side Orders.” Again, though, just like at breakfast, we were so full from the rest of our food that we were fine with the fact that the fries never came.

Next, we jumped on the Metro and rode up to Montmartre, the neighborhood surrounding the Sacre Coeur on the only major hill in Paris. I loved Montmartre immediately. The narrow, winding streets had more of an “old Europe” feeling than the wide boulevards of formal Paris, and there were lots of artists and art shops lining the streets. But the main focus of Montmartre is the Sacre Coeur, which sits at the very top of the hill. You can reach the Sacre Coeur by either a series of stairs or by a funicular, and considering how much walking Laurie and I had done the past 3 days, we opted for the funicular. We reached the top shortly before 6:30 and took a quick tour of the Sacre Coeur, which we cut short due to the fact that a mass was about to start. Here’s a shot of the Sacre Coeur. All the people sitting on the steps were waiting to watch the sun set over Paris — the view is amazing from here.

While Laurie and I waited for the sun to set so that we could see the view across Paris at night, we wandered the streets, and in a weak moment, I allowed an artist to talk me into letting him draw my portrait. It was actually a lot of fun, and reminded me of when my parents had a street artist draw my portrait in New Orleans when I was about 5 or 6. The artist (Olivier) was fun to chat with while he drew me, and he did a pretty good job, although I don’t think he got my chin right. Oh, well, it was still a lot of fun. Here’s a shot of one of the quaint little squares of shops and restaurants in Montmartre:

And here’s a view of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre. I really need to Photoshop that antenna out of the picture, but I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.

And here’s the Sacre Coeur at night. You can see it at night from just about any point in Paris, since it sits at the highest point in the city.

Laurie and I finally headed back to the hotel. Here’s one last photo from the day, of the Arc de Triomphe, from the street in front of our hotel:

Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame, the Louvre, and a Great Reunion

Paris, Day 2, March 6, 2009 — Since the sun was out this morning, Laurie and I headed off to Ile de la Cite to see the stained glass in Sainte Chapelle and then tour Notre Dame. I’ve been in plenty of beautiful old churches around Europe before, but nothing had prepared me for the amazingly beautiful stained glass in Sainte Chapelle. I can’t even begin to describe it in words, so here are a few photos:

I almost wish we hadn’t gone to Sainte Chapelle first, as Notre Dame was almost a disappointment after the spectacular stained glass at Sainte Chappelle. Don’t get me wrong, though — Notre Dame was definitely still impressive. As many times as I’ve seen photos of it, it was much larger in person than I’d imagined. You can get a sense of the scale of Notre Dame from this photo:

I have to explain what a treat it was for me to finally get to see Notre Dame in person. My freshman year of college, I was an architecture major (I still regret changing my major to advertising), and my all-time favorite college course was Architectural History. I still remember being fascinated with the concept of flying buttresses on Gothic cathedrals, and of course Notre Dame is the poster church for flying buttresses. So I finally realized one of my college dreams of seeing one of the buildings we’d studied in Architectural History. I just won’t admit to how many years ago it was that I took the class! So here are those impressive flying buttresses at last:

And here’s a detail of the steeple. I love these characters “climbing” up the side:

The inside of Notre Dame is spectacular — more stained glass (including the famous south rose window, which lives up to its hype), small chapels, and all the other neat little niches and artwork that you expect in a Gothic cathedral. Here’s a photo I took inside that I really like:

After thoroughly exploring Notre Dame inside and out — with the exception of climbing up in the tower; neither Laurie nor I wanted to wait in line in the cold outside the tower entrance — we wandered across the Seine to the Left Bank, where we met up with my old college band buddy Jerry, who’s lived in Paris since 2000. I hadn’t seen Jerry in about 20 years, so it was a real treat to get to meet up after all that time.

Now for a bit of backstory on Jerry — he’s a jazz trombonist, and has always had the laid-back attitude of a Southern California surfer boy, although he’s originally from south Florida. After years of performing at Disney World, in 2000, Jerry decided that he wanted to move to Paris, even though he’d never been to France before and didn’t speak a word of French. He bought a one-way ticket, stopping off first for a couple of weeks in Amsterdam, then finally landed in Paris. He wasn’t having much luck breaking into the music business there, and was on his last Franc and on the verge of asking his parents to send him a plane ticket back to the States when, on a whim, he took his trombone and started playing on one of the Seine bridges one evening. Along came a well-connected sax player who heard Jerry playing, took him under his wing, introduced Jerry to a bunch of great musical connections (and to Jerry’s future wife), and let Jerry live with him and his wife while Jerry got established. That could only happen to Jerry. Nine years later, Jerry’s got a great career going as an in-demand trombonist (he played in David Sanborn’s band on Sanborn’s last European tour) and he’s married to a delightful French piano player. The most surreal thing to me, though, is hearing laid-back surfer dude Jerry speaking French! There’s just something so bizarre about that.

Anyway, Laurie, Jerry, and I had a great lunch together, and Jerry invited us over to his house on Sunday night so that we could meet his wife Marie, so that’s our plan for Sunday evening. Here are Jerry and me outside the Le Depart Saint-Michel restaurant where we ate:

After saying goodbye to Jerry after lunch, Laurie and I wandered around the Latin Quarter for a while, stopping for some hot chocolate and creme brulee mid-afternoon at a dive of a bistro. I love places like that. It was obviously a local hang-out, as the few patrons in there kept looking at us like they knew we weren’t from around there. Or maybe it was the fact that Laurie and I are both redheads (we were asked several times on the trip if we were sisters). Who knows?

That evening, the Louvre was open late, so that’s where we spent the entire evening. We spent most of our time looking at the Greco-Roman antiquities, as we both really love old sculptures. We, of course, had to track down the Mona Lisa, just to say we’d seen her, but I was much more impressed with the Venus de Milo. And then there’s the Louvre itself, which, as a former palace, is a work of art in its own right. The painted ceilings were gorgeous. And we only really saw one wing! The place is absolutely huge. If (when) I get back to Paris, I want to spend an entire day wandering the Louvre.

I took this shot outside, looking through the arch in front of the Louvre towards the Place de la Concorde (the obelisk) and straight down the 2-mile-long Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe:

Laurie and I then caught the Metro back to our hotel’s neighborhood, and had dinner at the Alsace restaurant (www.restaurantalsace.com/en/index.htm), where Laurie had mussels au gratin and I had their French onion soup and a veal chop. Very good food! And, of course, more Cotes du Rhone wine. Mmmm. It was a great end to an exhausting — but extremely satisfying — day.

Landing in the Clouds

OK, I know I said I was going to blog while I was in Paris, but I was cursed with the world’s slowest Internet connection at the hotel — I tried uploading a few photos, which tied up my laptop for over an hour, to only give me an error message after all that time saying that the upload had failed. Ack! But I kept notes and will now write up my day-by-day blog, a week late. Sorry to those of you who were checking the blog while I was gone. Anyway, here goes…

Paris, Day 1, March 5, 2009 — Laurie and I had left Dulles on Wednesday night and arrived in Paris late Thursday morning. I had a window seat on the plane, and as we descended on the Charles de Gaulle airport, I kept looking out the window at nothing but clouds. In fact, I could still see nothing but clouds when the wheels suddenly touched down! Visibility was next to nothing, and the fog was so thick that I couldn’t see the top of the control tower as we taxied. I don’t think I’ve ever landed or taken off in such fog, and I had a tremendous respect for the pilots (and the air traffic controllers) for giving us a perfect landing in those conditions. Merci, guys!

After going through immigration (and getting our passports scanned, disappointingly not getting a stamp) and picking up our luggage, Laurie and I debated the best way to get to our hotel — taxi, shuttle, or train. We’d both heard that cab fare would be outrageously expensive, and while the shuttle would be a middle-ground compromise, we decided to be adventurous and take the train. Bad idea.

The train was actually very easy, clean, and efficient; it just wasn’t the way to go when hauling large, heavy luggage. Getting into Paris was fine, but we ran into trouble when we had to change from the train to the Metro, which involved going up and down various flights of stairs. I was sorely missing the U.S.’s ADA laws. At one point, I was struggling with my suitcase, overnight bag, and laptop bag, trying to get them up some stairs in the Metro station, and a very nice French gentleman — who wasn’t even going my way — stopped, picked up my suitcase, and carried it up three flights of stairs for me! I didn’t realize we needed to walk up that many flights, and at each landing I told him that he didn’t need to take the bag any further, but he insisted on helping me all the way to the top. I wanted to hug him when we reached the last step, but he just went off on his way.

Laurie and I finally made it to the hotel — agreeing that we’d return to the airport in a taxi. Our hotel was the Marriott on the Champs-Elysees, within view of the Arc de Triomphe, which was a great location. After dropping off our bags, we immediately sought food, as we were both starving. We ate at a little restaurant down the street from our hotel, where I had a very good chicken and veggies in wine sauce dish. And a Coca Cola Light!! Coke Light is far superior to the Diet Coke served in the States (I’m sure there’s some FDA-banned ingredient in Coke Light that accounts for the difference in taste), and it’s one of those simple pleasures that totally excites me whenever I get to travel to Europe.

With some food in our stomachs, we then set out to see the city, wandering up the Champs-Elysees to Avenue George V, then down to the Seine, where we walked along the river to the Trocadero, then over the bridge to the Eiffel Tower. I mean, if it’s your first time in Paris, you just have to see the Eiffel Tower first, right? Laurie and I went up to the second level and enjoyed the amazing views of Paris, where we could see the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Sacre Couer, and the beautiful gilded dome of the Hotel des Invalides.

After leaving the Eiffel Tower, we jumped on the Metro to the Musee d’Orsay, to take advantage of the fact that the museum is open late on Thursday nights. The Orsay is housed in a former train station that features a huge gilded clock inside, and has a fantastic collection of impressionist paintings — lots of Monets, Manets, and Renoirs. We spent quite a while wandering through the museum and really enjoyed it.

Since Laurie and I killed most of the evening at the Musee d’Orsay, the only thing left to do was eat some more excellent French food, and we stopped at a great little restaurant a few blocks from our hotel, where I got to feed my recent craving for beef carpaccio, and Laurie and I had our first of many great glasses of French wine.

By the time Laurie and I got back to the hotel, it was almost 10:00 pm. I’d been playing phone tag with my old college buddy Jerry, who’s lived in Paris since 2000, and had missed him yet again. He’s a jazz trombonist and had invited us to attend a fellow musician’s CD release party that night, but we weren’t able to connect that day (thanks to my cell phone not working, despite the fact that I’d called my cell phone company to make sure I had international service — thanks, AT&T), which is just as well, since Laurie and I were pretty exhausted at that point.

So, that was our first day in Paris. Here are a few photos from the day.