Les oeuvres de Monet

I don't know if I have mentioned this on my blog in the past, but one place I've been wanting to visit since before I even arrived here is Giverny, or home to the famous French impressionist, Claude Monet. I planned to go and do just that on the Monday just gone, when I realised with a sinking feeling that the cost of my train ticket there and the entrance fee to the gardens themselves actually equated to all the money I have left for this month, and tempting though it was (and it was very tempting. I almost went anyway), sensibleness won out. After all, I didn't think it was really very smart to leave myself with only €0.30 in copper coins for the remaining five days of my time here.

So that's another casualty on my bucket list, and the one I am most sad about, without question. I was really looking forward to going and I'm super disappointed that it didn't happen. But these things happen, and I know my mum was jealous that I was going, so maybe she'll come with me to do it one day in the future.

Still, I am an appreciator of Monet and impressionist works, and as it happens, a lot of Monet's most famous works live in various museums right here in Paris. I went and looked at them last week, on my first free day after exams (the only reason I didn't blog it earlier was because I had been planning to do a joint paintings/Giverny post, but as I said, it was not to be). 

I started off at the Musée Marmottan Monet, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

It's home to the largest collection of Monet works in the world as well as paintings by lots of other famous masters, including Manet, David, Gérard and Cézanne.

After that I took the metro over to Concorde, spent a while soaking up some rays in the Tuilieries and then went into the Musée de l'Orangerie which is home to Monet's Water Lilies. You're not technically supposed to take photos, but of course people have and a quick google images search will show you the impressive paintings (of which I think I counted eight, and they're all huge). In fact, one of his paintings from the water lilies series has just sold at Sotheby's in London for £31.7m.

Anway, the paintings were all very interesting to look at and hear more about. It's not quite Giverny, but it will do for now.

Vicky xx

Plus de tourisme...

Paris is, or rather, was, in the midst of a fair heatwave this weekend just gone, and with four of my five exams done and out of the way, I decided to give myself the weekend off before returning to revision for my fifth and final exam on the 18th of this month.

Saturday I spent sunbathing on our balcony (something which I am so thankful we have!) having found out too late that the Queen was at the Marché aux Fleurs, which was being named after her. 

Sunday, though, I made sure to go out, and Palais Garnier - home of the opera here in Paris, is somewhere I've been meaning to go for quite a while now.

I've never actually seen an opera myself, and I tried to get tickets to see La Boheme or Tristan and Isolde, but they were all either sold out or out of my price range, so I'll have to try again at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden when I head back to London for my final year.

That's not to stop you from going inside though - it's a beautiful building, very decadent, and I can imagine that the atmosphere on the night of a performance must really be something.

After this, I went over to Pére Lachaise cemetery, last resting place of many of the late and the great.

It's an absolute maze, inside. If you ever go, you'll definitely be wanting the help of a map - which can be found on this page - and even then, I ended up getting lost several times and several graves I was searching for eluded me entirely. 

Not all of them though. I found Chopin, Edith Piaf, Moliére and Oscar Wilde, to name but a few (and quite handily, I turned up at this last one at the same time as a British tour group, so I stuck around and got to hear a few interesting facts about the rather interesting sculpture that marks the spot).

Also, a word of advice. Don't do as muggins here did, and forget to take a bottle of water with you. The cemetery is massive, and on a hot day, you'll be wanting a drink! D'oh.

The hot weather was unusually thick, though, and so for the past few days we've been treated to lots and lots of thunder and lightening, which I happen to really like but which probably sucks for all the poor people here in Paris who are scared of thunderstorms. I don't think I've ever known such a protracted period of thundery weather - we're now on day three, although I believe it's supposed to let up tomorrow.

Still, at least the temporary lack of sunshine makes it easier to revise. It's hard to focus when all you want to do is go outside and chill (ignoring, of course, that this blog post is quite obviously an exercise in procrastination...)

Vicky xx

Un weekend avec grandmère...

This weekend, my Mum and my Aunt brought my Grandma to Paris.

It's a trip which has been in the making since Christmas, when my mum made the suggestion. Not two days later, my Gran was down the Post Office picking up a passport form! She was quite well traveled when she was younger, but is less mobile these days and so this weekend was very special for her, because she never thought she'd go abroad again, and she never thought she'd ever see Paris. 

With that in mind, me and my mum sat down with our laptops when I was at home for Easter to do some planning and with a bit of perseverance, we managed to come up with a plan that covered the 'Paris Basics' if you like, and even though I've done them all before, there's something to be said for doing them again with a person who never has and thought they never would.

Enthusiasm, as they say, is infectious.

After my TD on Friday, they all trouped into a cab and came over to my apartment. We walked down to the Jardin du Luxembourg for a stroll, and may I say, now that we are in May and experiencing some decent weather, it is looking beautiful there.

For practicality purposes, they hired a wheelchair for my Gran which we've been pushing around all weekend in quite a workout. Paris is quite a flat city, Montmartre aside, until you need to wheel someone around it. Then you notice slopes and cobbles and hills that have never existed before, kind of. (Muscles I didn't know I have are hurting). 

Anyway, after that we headed back to my apartment where I cooked Coq au Vin, which is rapidly becoming my french specialty dish, and provided pudding on the form of Tartes aux Framboises. I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before or not, but the tarts from P. Plané patisserie at 53bis Boulevard Arago in the 13e Arrondissement are to die for. If you're in Paris, it's totally worth going a little bit out of your way to buy some. If I'll miss anything about Paris after I leave, it will be those raspberry tarts.

And some other stuff. Obviously.

Saturday morning we really got exploring, despite the rain, covering the Arc de a Triomphe, Champs-Élysées,  Jardin de Tuleries (again, really coming into its own as we move further through the spring months), the Louvre and Notre Dame - the obvious stuff.

I had never actually noticed this plaque before - it's just in front of the obelisk in Place de la Concorde

I finally got round to taking a 'look-I'm-touching-the-top-of-the-pyramid' pic...

...And there was a Fête du Pain in the square outside the Cathedral, which smelt amazing.

Sunday morning we went up the Eiffel Tower - I did this all the way back in 2007 or 8, I forget the exact year, when I went on a school trip with my senior school to Futuroscope, near Poitiers, but obviously that was quite a while ago now so I'm glad I did it again while I was here.

And after a crêpe and a chocolat chaud a l'ancienne, they all headed home again, having had, I think, I nice weekend.

Next time I see my Mum, my time here in Paris will be over, which is a weird thought.

Vicky xx