Once a year, on a weekend in September, Paris, and many other European cities, opens up traditionally closed buildings for a few hours, for free, to be toured by citizens and tourists alike. It's done to celebrate the awesome heritage that exists in Europe. It's a great opportunity to see the inside of buildings that are rarely open.
We had a long debate about which ones to try to visit, given that lines would be long. After consulting on Fodors, and since we have previously been inside the Hotel du Ville, we chose Le Senat at Luxembourg Palace and headed there first thing in the morning. We kept Hotel de Bourvallois (Ministere de Justice) and Hotel de Toulose (Banque de France) on the list for the afternoon.
We grabbed the Metro to Rennes and walked a few blocks to the Palace. Once close, a guard directed us to the correct line to enter. There were about 100-150 people ahead of us. It opened at 930am. I think we got in line by 945am and were walking in by 10am. Not bad.
There were brochures in English that helped make sense of what we were seeing. These are the offices of the French Senate. A few rooms and hallways looked like any other government office but with pretty chandeliers or gilt sconces or other touches to remind you that the place was a real palace. But the great majority of rooms were incredibly ornate and sumptuous as befitting a palace. It was beautiful, interesting, crowded and we were glad to have the opportunity of touring it. I can't find my brochure but we took lots of pictures, of course.
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| 20+ security officers came through halting our progress. |
We exited the Palace and toured two additional office spaces. These were much less elaborate.
We decided against touring the Luxembourg gardens as the lines had grown significantly. Instead, we visited the Marie Curie Museum which was open early for the Journees de Patrimoine. As we walked there, we grabbed sandwiches and drinks which we ate in front of the museum, just before it started raining really hard. Good timing!
The buildings just across from the museum were strikingly beautiful. I also loved this awning which reminded me of the ones at the Metro entrances.
The Marie Curie Museum was very interesting. It is housed in her former laboratory and tells the story of her career in great detail. Once we figured out how to follow the signs, it was quite enjoyable and inspiring.
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| Her lab |
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| Her office |
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| Her back porch overlooking the sweet garden |
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| Pretty garden |
Parc Monceau was gorgeous. It wasn't massive but had a little hill with different types of vegetation, a little forest, some paths, and just general gorgeousness. I'd love to live nearby.
We visited the Musee Nissim de Camondo in 2012 with my niece and loved it. It's a gorgeous mansion with a thoughtful collection and a sad history. The Count Moise de Camondo, a prominent banker and collector, built the mansion and collected the objects after he separated from his wife. He lived there with his son and daughter. His intent was to give the business, the home and collection to his son, Nissim, but he was a pilot and was killed in WWI. Moise died in 1935. His daughter, Beatrice, and her husband and two children, were killed in Auswitz. Tragic.
The mansion is on Parc Monceau and has great views from all windows.
We walked about looking for the Metro and stumbled across Lenotre and of course, had pastries and ice cream. Delicieux!
In 2015, we hadn't made a reservation for our last dinner in Paris and the place we chose proved to be only OK. This year, determined to rectify that, we decided to reserve at Le Ange 20 in the Marais. The reviews were universally positive.
It was easy to get there via Metro. We really got our money's worth out of the Navigo Decouverte passes!
We arrived at 730pm to a 1/2 full restaurant. It's a tiny place, the tables very close together, as befits a true Parisian bistro. We were sat in between two couples from California, who were basically neighbors back home. They were all very nice. The ones on my right didn't have a reservation and had promised to eat quickly so the table could be turned over to a party of 10. The wife was a Rolling Stones fan so they were off the next day to see them in Switzerland. The other couple were lovely and we chatted with them throughout our meals. She inspired me to continue struggling to learn French.
The waiter was efficient. The menu was in French and English. The restaurant filled up with Americans. It was loud and very not-French. The food was quite good. They brought the bill without us asking for it. We've traveled to Europe at least once a year since 1998 and this was the first time we'd been presented with a bill before we asked for it. I don't even remember the waiter asking if we wanted desert or coffee. I was not pleased.
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| My prawns entree |
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| Chicken gizzards and duck breast |
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| Cod fillet |
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| Rabbit loin |
We walked through the Marais, browsing in windows, stopping at Amorino for ice cream, then finally taking the bus back to the Orsay stop. Paris by night is just beautiful.
We said "bonne nuit" and "au revoir" and "a plus tard" to the Ladies of the Orsay.
The next morning, we took the RER from the Orsay to St. Michel de Notre Dame to CDG for our 1010am flight back to Houston. It was really very easy. A few hours later, we were back in the US.
I had the most difficult adjustment to being back home of any of our trips to Paris. After a couple of months of moaning about my #postparisdepression and seeing my hair colored blue as the "outward manifestation of my inner turmoil," :) husband agreed to another trip to France in 2018. Yay!
Takeaways:
1. The Journees de Patrimoine is a great program; take advantage if you're in Europe during these days.
2. The Museum pass is so worth it to us.
3. Paris has really pretty parks. It's wonderful that the city keeps up the public spaces so well.
4. We never expect to be given our bill before we ask for it in Europe. It was quite disconcerting and unpleasant to have it happen at L'Ange 20.
5. I love Paris!
6. The RER is a very easy and affordable way to get to CDG, particularly if your apartment or hotel is on the right line already.
7. #postparisdepression is real and I had it bad. Thankfully, we have our next trip planned because the only treatment is another trip to Paris!
Thanks for reading my memories of our lovely time in beautiful France.
Next: Mexico City for The Killers in April 2018 and Provence and Paris in September 2018.
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