The Last of Paris 2025

Our friends Forest and Ginger reached out to us while on their recent trip to europe. Conveniently they would overlap with our last week in Paris. We enjoyed giving them the lay of the land and spending time with them as well. Ginger is also a Philadelphia Eagles football fan so we combined forces to watch the game and root them on to the Super Bowl. It was a weird experience watching an American football game start at 9pm on a Sunday evening in a bar full of fellow English speakers in Paris. I met people from Toronto, D.C., Philly and even West Africa. Most of the Commanders fans left at halftime though...

Forest, Ginger, Brian, Lucy

The Game

We're always up for dinner out!

~Brian

Louvre Couture

I spent my last day in Paris ditching Brian and going to peek at a new exhibition at the Louvre. 

https://www.louvre.fr/en/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions/louvre-couture

It was an interesting visit. It started with a first for me - seeing a would-be guest denied access to the Louvre. I glimpsed her in the security line ahead of me and wondered what was going on. She was wearing what looked like a cheap wedding dress, white gloves, a thick white and gray wig, a short veil, white face paint, and weird plastic jewelry. When I reached her group and while the guard was saying no, she was throwing odd hand gestures. Perhaps she was dressed as an anime or manga character? She was Asian, with a group of 7 people, and they were struggling to understand why they couldn't enter. The guard just kept telling them the outfit was not acceptable in the Louvre.

I whisked past quickly, so no photo was taken of the getup. And then popped into the new exhibit. It was a bit on the odd side, too. It felt a little contrived. The exhibit was timed to coincide with Paris Fashion Week. It was also in the Richelieu Wing, which is generally the less crowded area. They may have been trying to shift crowds over there to ease the pressure on the Denon Wing (while the escalators were shut down for service). 

The conceit of the exhibit is that it was inserted into existing exhibit rooms, and showcased inspiration designers (may) have taken from existing art? So tapestry coats on mannequins were displayed by wall tapestries. Several bejeweled gowns were displayed by Catholic reliquaries, with a particular Dolce & Gabbana dress with the Virgin Mary printed on the front nestled in with altarpieces. The Napoleon III Apartments, with their over-the-top decor housed similarly styled red and gold gowns, silver garments, and other pieces. Some of the pairings made sense. Many felt like a stretch. But I suppose when your collection is as vast as the Louvre's, you get a bit creative in your visuals.

Matching the Draperies?

This Dior dress was lovely, but the headless dinner party theme was confusing.

~Lucy

January

Goodness, January 21 already and somehow I've forgotten to blog for weeks. It's been an odd time. It's quieted down in Paris post-holidays. It's gray and foggy and the Seine is running high and fast. We have no set schedule. We get croissants in the morning, go for walks, read books, visit cultural sites. I have been following a yoga practice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs73lvN0l8A). The days flow by.

We have had visitors. Robert and Eli came from Munich for several days and we greatly enjoyed seeing them. Claire came from Chamonix and stayed. Both visits have been excuses to return to see Notre Dame. The crowds have gone from wildly overwhelming to merely packed, and it is still fascinating to see all the changes. 

There have of course been unusual and exciting times. Saturday we were evacuated from the La Motte-Piquet-Grenelle metro station by very efficient and loud employees, then herded away from the neighborhood by a large number of police and military. Apparently there was a bomb threat to the McDonalds above the station. No idea why. 

Earlier we thought there was a street fair in our neighborhood and went to take a look. It turned out to be a protest for "Frexit". Not something we support, tho we have no vote in the matter. But damn they had the bounciest music!  

We saw a cavalcade of horses in the Bastille neighborhood, then caught up with them again on the Left Bank. They may have been out for Le Pen's funeral, or for the state visit of the President of Angola at Invalides. There was a lot going on that day. Paris is a very happening place.

We're feeling very separate from the news of the US, and that's probably good for our health. I deactivated my Facebook account for the month. I may go back, I may not. I do miss the connection with family and friends, and texts are not sufficient. Or I shall find workarounds. Brian hasn't used Facebook since 2016. We are also reevaluating our media consumption and sources in light of the new world order. Lots of changes to be made. But hoping for health and happiness in the new year, however they come about.

Cousins Robert and Eli

Niece Claire, at Notre Dame.

At the Legion of Honor Museum - free and pretty! 

The French are in for Dry January, with a huge selection of non-alcoholic wines. 

Back to the Louvre, of course.

To pay for the restoration and get with the times, Notre Dame has now installed credit card readers for the prayer candles.  

Our random horsey parade.

(Sound on for the cloppity clop)

~Lucy

The Louvre, Art History and Musings on Christianity (NSFW?)

I am not a Christian. I was not raised in the Christian faith. However, I live in a world deeply influenced by Christianity. I’ve seen fit to do the reading, and I was trained as an anthropologist where topics of ritual and worship are big parts of the curriculum. 

I’ve observed that museums and churches are absolutely packed of items supposedly touched by Jesus Christ. There are pieces of the true cross, the crown of thorns, and of course there’s the shroud. The full crown of thorns was just ceremonially returned to Notre Dame, following its reopening.

But it feels like there is a missing piece to all this. Namely: his foreskin. Jesus, being raised a Jew, had a bris eight days after his birth. The Feast of the Circumcision is celebrated on January 1, what the rest of us call New Year’s Day. So, theoretically, there is still an actual piece – not something touched by, not something transubstantiated into – but an actual piece of Jesus out there somewhere. DNA and all! 

My burning question is: why isn’t anybody out there hunting for it? The quest for the Holy Grail, merely a cup from which Jesus drank, is part of great literature (and cinema. It’s the best of the Indiana Jones movies). Why is there no Dan Brown book about this? Or Mark Twain? Why hasn’t that ridiculous artifact-stealing and terrorist-supporting Museum of the Bible spent their untaxed dollars on searching it out?

I know my head is a weird place. Welcome in! I blame the Louvre:

 

Hanging in the Louvre, Raising the Questions

~Lucy

Eiffel Tower

We visited the Eiffel Tower in January during our friend Rachel’s visit, and learned that the top portion is closed every January for maintenance. Since Brian had never been to the top, I figured we would pop up for a return visit. Of course, being winter in Paris, it was gray and cloudy. The wind kicked up significantly, which buffeted the tower and elevator as we reached the pinnacle. But it was still fascinating to see the views, and marvel at the engineering of the structure.

We took the elevator back down to the second level, but we were feeling energetic so we opted for the stairs the rest of the way down. We hadn’t had much of a sunset, but the dark was offset by the atmospheric tower lighting. I hadn’t visited the first level before and the holiday lights were lovely, and Pere Noel had a real beard and very fashionable suit. Tres chic! There is even an event space which I am sure has been used for weddings (very chapel-like) but that evening was set up for a candlelight concert. Who knew?

 

~Lucy

 

The sun briefly appeared and shone on Invalides

Lucy close to the edge

Eiffel's "apartment" I spared you the wax versions of Edison and Eiffel

The christmas globe on the 1st floor

The elevator has a mock driver showing how they used to be operated 

View from below

Light show in the garden

Wide angle lenses are fun

What it looks and sounds like on the hour at night, it was a bit windy out.

Notre Dame de Paris

One reason returning to Paris was so attractive this winter was to see the things we missed last year. There were so many construction closures of venues being prepped for the Olympics, there were places we weren't able to see. And of course, there is Notre Dame. Brian, having first visited Paris in the autumn of 2019, had never been inside it. My last visit to Notre Dame was in December 2012, when I entered in the dark of night and sat my atheist self through half a mass.

 

But the post-fire reconstruction is (mostly) complete and the church has been reconsecrated and reopened to the public, as of December 7^th 2024. I was eager to get inside and see it, so I hit refresh each morning on the website for visiting. There is a free ticketed entry, tho of course with an optional donation, but it is only available for a limited number of people and only two calendar days out. I found three spots available on Tuesday, but very early in the morning. Due to our late train back from Strasbourg, that was not attractive. One spot opened Wednesday, but 30 minutes out. We couldn’t get there in that time frame. Finally, on Thursday a 2pm spot opened. Then it was taken before I managed to fill in our contact information. One more refresh and a 2:30pm spot showed up. I managed to snag it.

 

On the way there we were hit by rain, then hail, then high winds, and finally gorgeous blue skies. Winter in France. But that was lucky, because the stained-glass windows showed their full beauty with the sun (brief as it was). The rest of the church was honestly unsettling.

 

All the news outlets have published photos of the interior and its white stone walls and vaulted ceilings. As I said before, I was last there at night. But previous daytime visits were still in darkness, thanks to the aging and staining of the stone. The whiteness is visually jarring. But the other senses are equally jangled. Old (Catholic) churches have a certain scent: a bit of lingering incense, damp wool, stone dust, wood polish. Notre Dame has none of these (yet) and smells like nothing. The reconstruction upgraded the HVAC system, so there is also the faint hissing of the airflow adding to the auditory experience. 

 

All in all, the beauty of the structure is offset with a feeling of alienness. But I expect it will be broken in again soon. The pipe organ will be played, the censer swung, the tourist bodies will crowd in, and the new car smell will dissipate.

 ~Lucy

One of the many chapels

One of the famous rose windows

The reflection on the wall opposite

An overwhelmed couple

So many people trying to take photos

So bright

Not a great photo of the memorial to the firefighters, donors and builders

Lots of people, still really bright

Lucy said, "what's that up there?"

We both said, "WTF?"

And there you go

Paris J'Adore

Here we are, back again. Ready for more adventures! 

Obviously, greetings from Paris! We arrived on Sunday. We took a direct flight from Seattle, where we had two layover nights. Seattle was lovely, if only for a brief time. I got to check in with a friend, and three cousins, and see a Second City comedy show – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Sweater. I would say the skits were decent, but the improv was terrible. About what I expected. Seattle gardens in “winter” are so lovely. I do miss that greenery in Alaska.

This was our first time flying Air France, and this way of coming over, breaking up our trip so as not to fly 2 or 3 flights in one day. All told, a very comfortable journey. We left midday in Seattle and arrived early morning here. Unfortunately, this does seem to have translated to severe jet lag. My body is very confused and my sleep cycle is a mess. But…it doesn’t really matter? We’re not on the clock to do anything in particular. We’re trying to get in to Notre Dame, which re-opened on the 7th. But they are only allowing ticketing two days ahead of time, and they don’t tell you when things are full until you’ve already been sitting in the virtual queue for about 30 minutes. We’ll get in there eventually…

 

It’s been cloudy and gray and damp every day since we arrived. That probably doesn’t help with the jet lag. Sunshine seems to be better for that. We have still managed some nice walks. We have visited the Galleries Lafayette to see the Christmas decorations, since they tend to go big. Last year they had an amazing 4-story tree, but with a really bizarre giant elf stuck to one side of it. This year the tree and décor are more pastel, and celebrating the 130^th anniversary of the store. The interior didn’t wow us (plus, the stench of perfume is overwhelming in there) but the outside window displays were wonderful. Then we spent over an hour browsing the Galleries Lafayette Maison – the home store. No stink, and lots of goodies and gadgets and gourmet food. The spice area and the wine cave were fun to walk through. And so much foie gras! Quite the emporium. We will not dream of sugarplums, but rather induction cooktops and fancy decanters. 

Creative windows at Galleries Lafayette.

Oddly, this character looks like my godson R!

Massive Pot

Our Holiday Decor

~Lucy

Wrapping Up Paris

 We did so much. We ate so much. We saw so many delightful things. I perhaps wrote too little. Here's a smattering of things I failed to tell you about.

At the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie 

Weird collection, but fun - MEP.

The holiday lights on Rue Cler.

Place Vendome Christmas Lights

Louis Vuitton went big on holiday lights.

Crevettes L'Amour. Aka weird art.

Rachel and I missed out on the Sacre Coeur dome due to snow. Brian and I went for it.

Good views, but the balustrade is very low. I'm surprised there aren't more "accidents" here. Someone set a murder mystery here.

A tiny slip, a small push.....

A rainbow over the Tuileries.

Just before our departure, the scaffolding came off the Notre Dame steeple.

~Lucy

Vanessa in Paris

....and who is Vanessa, I hear you cry? My cousin. In the completely Lucy "big tent" version of family. Vanessa is my (late) stepfather's biological first cousin Gunter's daughter. This is made a little more confusing because my stepfather Hank was adopted, and did not meet his bio family until later in life. This is even more understandable as they are in Germany, and he was born shortly after his bio mom immigrated to the U.S. 

I've previously met Vanessa, and visited her in Munich eleven years ago (!!), so I was thrilled when she was able to take the train over and spend a weekend with us. She had also never been to Paris before, so much running around to see the sights was done. 

Of our four guests, three spoke a lot more French than us, and three were vegetarian (with some flexibility). We now know a lot more about good vegetarian restaurants in Paris, and we suckered Vanessa into eating escargot, which she liked.

What a lovely time. 

Eiffel, of course.

A view from the Seine.

Bistro dining, avec escargots.

Relaxing coffee shops.

Outside the Pompidou

True words.

Reveling in the Paris-ness of it all.

~Lucy