Paris Day Four: Versailles, Musee d’Orsay, Notre Dame, Shakespeare and Company, Le P’tit Cafe

None of us had a good night’s sleep for our second night in Paris. One of our neighbors was talking loudly and endlessly. It sounded like he was on the telephone. I ended up moving from the bedroom in the back of the apartment (where we could all hear him) to the couch in the front which was less comfortable but, ironically given its proximity to the street, quieter.

That morning it was raining lightly but steadily. We had early reservations for the Palace of Versailles which was about an hour train ride. It makes sense that it is some distance away. One of the reasons Louis XIV built the place was to force the nobility away from their homes where they would be more dependent on him.

We navigated to Versailles without much trouble, but the palace was insanely crowded. Even by the standards of the very touristy places we chose for our trip. It was difficult to take in much information or spend much time appreciating the sights. At one point, we got separated from Amy and, looking for her, went into an area that was an incredible bottle neck: narrow and packed with people, all heading in one direction. When I tried to go in the opposite direction to look for her, the powers that be wouldn’t allow me to go that direction.

I had to activate data on my phone for the day so we could text. (She’s worth the ten dollars!) Eventually, we reconnected in the Hall of Mirrors. It’s where the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I was signed. Given the historical significance of the Hall, that was the one place I wanted to see.  So, I’m glad we went. After we left the main palace, we walked the grounds a bit, but there was a steady rain, so our outside time didn’t last long.

We made our way back into town and found a pizza place called the Pizzeria Cesar for lunch. It was convenient to the train station, had reasonable prices, and the food was decent. Also, it was out of the rain. I think all of us dozed on the way back to the city. The next stop was the Musee d’Orsay to see some Impressionists. The line for the museum was fairly long, possibly because of the rain. But Amy was able to cut some time off our wait by buying tickets online while we were waiting.

My knowledge of art is somewhere between poor and bad. For some time, I had periodically referenced Monet or Manet when vaguely talking to the kids about a French painter who had gone to live in the South Pacific. (My knowledge of this painter was a product of my reading about this history of the Pacific Islands, not any kind of artistic appreciation.) Turns out, I had it all wrong and was talking about Gaugin. Who knows how much bad information I’ve given the kids over the years. I take comfort that I’m surely not the first parent to be a vector of misinformation!

Having Harper around to explain art to me was a lot of fun. We had a good conversation about the Impressionists being a reaction to some of the overproduced, overwrought stuff like what we’d seen in Versailles. (Reminded me in my simple way of punk being a reaction to disco and some of the overproduced music of the 70s.) On the other hand, maybe those artists are a step down in a sense from the likes of Michelangelo trying to find a connection between the human and the divine. One of the plaques talked about a critic of Degas depicting women going about their ablutions characterizing the work as “little more than animals grooming themselves.”

After the Impressionists and the Neo-Impressionists, we lost steam and called it a day on the museum. We walked along the Seine and saw Notre Dame. It is under construction after the massive roof fire in 2019, so we only saw the outside. I offered up some more tenuously sourced information about Vikings taking over the Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is positioned in the Seine and how the bridges over the Seine served as fortifications that were sometimes successful in preventing the Vikings from raiding further inland. I think I was wrong about Viking occupation. (In a sense, the Ile de la Cite was Paris back in the 9^th century. If the Vikings had occupied it, I’m not sure there would have been much city left over.) But the Franks did use the bridges on the Seine as fortifications to hinder Viking raids further inland.

Not far from Notre Dame is a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company. Walking through it didn’t take long, even with the line to get in.  It’s famous for being a center of the literary community in 1950s and 1960s Paris including, prominently, members of the Beat Generation like Allen Ginsberg. The two book stores really are not very similar, but for some reason, it reminded me of the Livraria Lello in Porto. Probably nothing more than that they’re both historic, well-regarded book stores I visited in Europe.

By the time we were finished browsing at the bookstore, we were all pretty beat and ready to take a break. This threw off our plans for dinner which involved a restaurant near Shakespeare and Company. But, we are adaptable! A place called Le P’tit Bistro had good reviews and was close.

If I had to pick, this was my favorite meal of the trip. I got the impression that the person serving us was the owner. He was super friendly. We were seated in an upstairs room with several tables. The only other people in there at the time was a group of 8 or 10 which I took to be college students. They were having a good time. I had steak tartar, Harper had pasta with salmon, and Amy had something with goat cheese.

When we came home, a guy was in the street out front shouting. He seemed more or less harmless, but loud. He kept it up for several hours; but fortunately, that was outside the front of the apartment, and the bedrooms were in the back. The guy on the phone the night before was quiet and I think we all got a good night’s sleep.