Paris: The Second Day

The second day in Paris, Alex and I got on the RER train line and went outside the city, to Versailles, where we spent a good chunk of the day touring the palace and grounds of Louis the Fourteenth. We visited the Hall of Mirrors and walked the gardens until the early afternoon. We then returned to the city to visit the Musee d'Orsay, the art museum of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionist groups. After spending a few hours seeing some of the most famous painting of Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne and the like, we went back into the Montmartre area for dinner. After a very nice dinner, I ventured up to Sacré-Cœur, the basilica in Montmarte which sits on the hill and overlooks the entire city. It was a full day of sights and very enjoyable!

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Versailles:

The palace of Versailles was built by King Louis the Thirteenth as a hunting chateau outside the city of Paris in 1624. It was expanded by Louis the Fourteenth into one of the largest palaces in Europe, well adorned with gold and lavish architecture.  It was the ultimate symbol of opulence for Louis XIV, who fancied himself "The Sun King" and whose ambitious foreign policy plunged Europe into several bloody conflicts, including the Franco-Dutch War, The War of the Grand Alliance, and The War of Spanish Succession. Louis XIV officially moved his court out to Versailles from Paris in 1682, and from this point on, until the French Revolution, it would serve as the seat of the monarchy in France.

Louis XIV

The Golden Gated entrance to Versailles 

The Gardens of Versailles

The royal family was forced to evacuate the palace in October 1789 as the citizens of Paris, specifically the women, marched on Versailles, angered and made desperate by a scarcity of food. This famous "Women's March" compelled the monarch, Louis XVI, and his family to return to Paris and is marked as one of the significant events of the onset of the French Revolution. The property of Versailles was officially confiscated by the Assemblée nationale constituante in June of 1791 as Louis lost more and more power. He was guillotined with his wife, Marie Antoinette, on January 21st, 1793.  

The Hall of Mirrors

The Hall of Mirrors is quite possibly the most famous feature of the Palace of Versailles, as it has held particular significance in European history. In a twist of irony, the Hall of Mirrors is the birthplace of the Second German Empire. In the wake of a French defeat by the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian war, the Prussian king, Wilhelm the First, was declared Emperor of Germany in the Hall of Mirrors, establishing the Second Reich on January 18, 1871. The French, humiliated by such a stinging political insult following a crushing military defeat, eventually got even, however. The French Premier, Clemenceau, chose the Hall of Mirrors as the location for the final signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War One, putting into effect the punitive measures that would wreck Germany in the aftermath of the Great War, in the very room where the German empire had been born.

Alex and I wandered around the gardens and palace all morning, and by lunch time we were very hungry. There were a few tea rooms, cafes, and restaurants on the grounds, but every place we looked at was far too overpriced. Luckily, our friend Josh, who had been to Versailles before, had told us about a baked potato cart that he had found there for cheap. We searched all over the extensive gardens and lakes area, but could not find this elusive cart. Finally, as we were about to give up and pay for some overpriced sandwiches, we found his cart, and a delicious baked potato topped with beef stew-- just six euro! Not too bad.

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   Musee d'Orsay: 

That afternoon, I went to the Musee d'Orsay to see the best collection of Impressionism and Post Impressionist Art in the world. This past semester, I took a course on European art at the turn of the century, so this included a lot of the artwork housed in the Musee d'Orsay. Artists such as Manet, Monet, Pissaro, Caillebotte, Gauguin, Cezanne, Degas and Van Gogh are featured in the museum along with art movements like pointillism, impressionism, post-impressionism, nabis, and art nouveau.

Some of the most famous and best works that I saw:

 Olympia, 1863 by Manet

 The Magpie, 1868 by Monet

The Floor Scrapers, 1875 by Caillebotte

View from the balcony of Musee d'Orsay

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Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur:

That night, we dined well in a restaurant in Montmartre, with some of the best wine I have ever tried. I had escargot des burgogne and sole, along with a very nice pear dish for dessert. I liked the snails, they were cooked in a garlic butter sauce which helped mask any kind of "garden" taste they might have had. The sole was delicious and the pear tart was a good way to round it off. 

The Montmartre District is on the hill overlooking the rest of the city. It has perennially been famous for its artistic and savant-like feel. It was the stomping grounds of such bohemians as Earnest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oscar Wilde, Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, and Picasso. It still maintains this feel, as you walk its streets at night and pass people in the cafes and out in the streets, drinking, playing instruments, singing, and enjoying the evening. 

The feature image of the area is the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, which dominates the hill and looks out over Paris. At night, it is lit up and people sit on the large sweeping steps, drinking bottles of wine and enjoying the view. 

Statue of Joan of Arc, at the Sacré-Cœur

Vive La France!

The River Seine, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance

I have returned from Paris now, and am back with the O'Deas in Glenageary after a few exhilarating and exhausting days in the capital of France. I could hardly fit all my adventures of the last few days into just one post, so bear with me as I post my pictures and stories in increments over the course of the next day or so.

Alex and I flew out from Dublin on Tuesday morning, very early and got into Beauvais Airport, north of the city in the late morning. That first day, we walked alot through the city, along the quays of the Seine, through the main streets of the city centre, and got lunch at a cafe near the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. I had croque monsieur a hot ham and cheese style dish, with dijon mustard and french fried potatoes on the side. It was very good, and sitting out on the street of this cafe, with a carafe of Bordeaux, it really sank in that I was in Paris. 

That day, as we walked along the Seine and up through the city, we saw such sights as the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame Cathedral. We went in and toured Notre Dame before making our way to the Metro line-- Paris's underground tram system-- and going to find our hostel in Montmartre. We found a very nice cafe for dinner that night for a pretty reasonable price (in Parisian standards anyway) called Le Cepage. I had some very nice duck and Crème brûlée for dessert. It was a great first day in the city, even with my lack of French I was able to get by, and having Alex with me, who knows enough French, we did fine.

The Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe, located in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle stands as the monument honoring the sacrifices of those who fought and died during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras of France. The monument was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 after his overwhelming victory at Austerlitz against the Russians and Austrians. It was not finished until 1836 however, under King Louis-Philippe, and stands as a symbol of national pride for Republican France.  

Notre Dame

The Cathedral of Notre Dame, rising up from the Île de la Cité has towered over Paris since Medieval times. Construction of the famous cathedral began in the year 1160 under the supervision of Archbishop Maurice de Sully and was continually built-on to and improved until the mid 1300s. Dedicated to the Virgin Mother, the church also serves as the archdiocese of Paris and is still an active Roman Catholic church, despite the constant influx of tourists and sightseers. The beautiful architecture of the building stands as one of the best examples of French High Gothic style- the most famous elements of the cathedral being the western facade, the flying buttresses on the eastern side, and the ornate imagery in the sculptures and gargoyles along the outside of entire building.

Note the flying buttresses (left, below) and the famous western facade (directly left). 

Notre Dame translates into "Our Lady,"
named for the Virgin Mother Mary

      

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Our Hostel, in Montmartre

Canard- Duck, my meal the first night in Paris, served with some

delicious cucumber quiche and roasted potatoes.

And for dessert, a delicious Crème brûlée

On to the Continent!

These past few days, I've had the privilege of being able to show Alex around my adopted city, and it is so neat to be able to show someone else Dublin, now that I know it fairly well. On Sunday, we got up early to go into the city for a Latin High Mass, sung at St Kevin's church in South Dublin. It was beautiful, the service being completely sung by the men's choir and carried out in the most traditional sense-- my knees were sore from kneeling by the end of it.

From there, I took him up to Howth Head, where we had a lunch of buckets of fresh steamed mussels and boiled potatoes along the wharf. We hiked a bit around the head for the afternoon, then went back down to meet Bill and Freda for a pre-dinner pint at the Magpie, in Dalkey. There, we got to sample the new experiment down and Bill's favourite craft beer pub--- cask ale. This English Style Ale is made by a local micro-brewery and served at basement temperature, as the traditional pubs in the English Midlands still do. It was very good, but it took a bit to grow on you. We had dinner with the O'Deas back at the house, and they seemed to warm up to Alex quite well.

This morning, Bill, Alex, Musha and I went for a dawn "stretch of the legs" up on Killiney Hill. The views on the hill are incredible, especially early in the morning when the sun is shining. It is the best spot to get a full view of the city of Dublin and the entire bay, stretching from Howth Head in the north, down to the mouth of the Liffey, on to Dalkey Island and all the way to Bray Head in the south. The Sugarloaf Mountain can also be seen from the summit of the hill, as the Wicklow Mountains fall away to the south and west.

The rest of the day, Alex and I spent in Dublin. We went on a tour of Kilmainon Gaol, the old detention centre of the British rule, where rebels from 6 risings, from the Rebellion of 1798 on, have been held. We saw the cells of Padraic Pearse, Sir Fitzgerald, Robert Emmett, Thomas Francis Meagher, Eamon de Valera, and Charles Stewart Parnell. All these patriots, and more, were held in the jail at one time or another, and in the back stone yard is the site where the leaders of the infamous 1916 Easter Rising were executed by firing squad.

From there, we went to Beshoff's for a meal of fish and chips- fresh caught haddock. We spent time in St Stephen's Green, at the General Post Office, and Trinity College. We also stopped in at a number of the more authentic shops as Alex shopped for some nice tweeds, sweaters, and caps. Tonight, we celebrated Freda's birthday with the O'Deas, eating a great meal by Bill of chicken, chickory, and baked Alaska for dessert.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I will be off for Paris and France! I am a bit nervous-- I am no great French speaker (I know none) but hopefully Alex's French will be better than mine, and we will find our way. We fly out in the morning, and I am looking forward to a few good days down there!

Dublin Streets

St Kevin's Church, where Alex and I attended Mass on Sunday

Our statue of Molly Malone, in Downtown Dublin, and the Statue of Cu Chulainn, in the General Post Office

Killiney Beach and Bray Head, South of Dublin

Trinity Green

Kilmainham Gaol- the infamous imperialist prison

 Kilmainham Gaol may look familiar, it was used in over 70 movies including Daniel Day Lewis's In the Name of the Father, and Michael Collins. Inmates were held in these cells, including such famous patriots as Eamon de Valera, Robert Emmett, Charles Stewart Parnell, etc.


Below is the stone breakers' yard where the leaders of '16 were executed, including James Connolly, who had to be tied to a chair, having been injured in the fighting, to be propped up to receive his execution.

Bloomsday in Dublin

June 16th is known as Bloomsday in Ireland, a literary holiday celebrating James Joyce and his novel Ulysses. The novel follows a day in the life of a young man in and around Dublin, June 16th 1904, and the holiday is named such after the character in the book, Leopold Bloom. To celebrate, Joyce fans re-enact the scenes documented in the novel, swimming in the Forty-Foot at dawn, eating a breakfast of hearts and kidneys, and visiting the various pubs listed in the book. As I was sitting at a cafe in north Dublin, near the Joyce Centre on Friday, a parade of fifty old fashioned bicycles came past ringing their bells and singing. On Saturday, I went down to the Forty Foot to watch them swim in period swimwear- men's one piece swimming suits and women in bloomers.

Following that, I met Alex Skufca-- a friend from college-- in the city. He flew in for a few days to visit and so I took him out for a traditional Irish breakfast including black and white pudding, mushrooms, a poached egg, fry bread, rashers, sausages and tea. He was not ready for such a meaty, heavy breakfast, but he loved it.

We went back to Glenageary and the O'Deas, where Freda insisted on feeding us again-- more rashers and tea, and then we all went down to Dun Laoghaire and Glasthule for the festivities of Bloomsday!

There were people all through the streets of Dalkey, Glasthule and Dun Laoghaire dressed as if it was the turn of the 19th century. Women wore great hats and dresses, and the men were decked out in white straw skimmers, bow ties and red and white pin striped suits. There was singing up and down the streets- all the songs from the novel- and people sat outside the cafes and restaurants eating Bloomsday fair and drinking wine.

The literary festival was going on in Dalkey, in conjunction with Bloomsday, and readings of Ulysses were held in the local parks and down along the sea walks. It was very good timing that saw me here in Dublin for this eccentric and famous celebration. It was quite the sight to see!

Joyce enthusiasts bike through Dublin on Friday in preparation to Bloomsday

Ulysses readings were held in every major park in Dublin, including St Stephen's Green

Joycean fan reads Ulysses in front of the James Joyce Centre in North Dublin

The man himself- a statue of James Joyce on Earl Street

Dun Laoghaire People's Park on Bloomsday

The James Joyce Martello Tower, near the Forty Foot Swimming Point

Caviston's Eatery, along the street of Glasthule, where patrons sat

to drink their wine and sing Joycean songs