2013 BRUSSELS

(5) PARIS*BRUSSELS
AUGUST 10-18, 2013

August 10
Paris
Today is going to be a very busy day. Lots of places to go. First order of the day is to get a day pass for the Metro and go all the way to La Défense, a major business district of Paris which also contains the area's tallest high-rises.

Next stop is the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, which stands in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle (Place de l'Étoile) at the western end of the Champs-Élysée with twelve radiating avenues. It honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, and beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. Then on to the Tour Eiffel.

Lunchtime so I decided to hop the Metro to go to Belleville where I first tasted Vietnamese food decades ago. Had delicious cha gio and grilled pork and rice. Yummy!

Time to check out Père-Lachaise. Took a picture of the map to guide me through the cemetery. The columbarium originally was the place where Maria Callas' ashes were but after it was stolen then recovered, her ashes were scattered in the Aegean Sea.

Maria Callas; Vincenzo Bellini; Gioachino Rossini

Georges Bizet; Frédéric Chopin; Abélard and Héloïse

Édith Piaf; Jim Morrison; Simone Signoret & Yves Montand

Amedeo Modigliani; Honoré Balzac; Sarah Bernhardt

Oscar Wilde; Eugene Delacroix

Back to the hotel to rest my tired feet and then to the bars for some cocktails before going to dinner at the Au Bistrot de la Place in Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine . Started with foie gras de canard maison, then magret de canard mariné au cèpes purée maison with a glass of red wine. Great dinner again.

August 11
Paris
Another busy day of sightseeing. First I went to the nearby Place des Vosges, originally Place Royale, which was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612 on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles and its gardens. It was inaugurated in 1612 with a grand carrousel to celebrate the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. At a tournament at the Tournelles, Henri II was wounded and died. Some famous residents were Victor Hugo, Cardinal Richilieu, Théophile Gautier.

Crossed the Pont d'Arcole to the Île de la Cité, the heart of Paris, to view the Notre Dame Cathedral. If you listen carefully you might hear Quasimodo ringing the bells.

Crossed over to the Rive Gauche and walked on Boulevard St Germain then to the Place de la Sorbonne which houses part or all of several higher education and research institutions.

From the Sorbonne a short walk to the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg, created beginning in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France, for a new residence she constructed, the Luxembourg Palace. The original model of the Statue of Liberty can be found here.

Next is the Panthéon, originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens like Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Marie Curie and Alexandre Dumas. In 1851, physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the earth by his experiment conducted in the Panthéon, by constructing a 67 meter Foucault pendulum beneath the central dome. The original pendulum is in the Musée des Arts et Métiers, and a copy is now displayed at the Panthéon.

Time for lunch and to one of my favorite bistros in Paris: Les Deux Magots, a café in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, famous as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual élite of the city such as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, Bertolt Brecht and moi. I had Salade Périgourdine: salade verte, haricots verts, foie gras, magret fumé; glass of vin rouge: Languedoc-La Clape, Chateau Rouquette "Esprit Terroir".

Had I more time I would have eaten also at these two other restaurants, Café de Flore and Brasserie Lipp, where I've eaten during my past visits.

The Musée d'Orsay, a former train station and now a modern art museum, is next.

Crossed the Pont des Arts or Passerelle des Arts, a pedestrian bridge with the Palais du Louvre at one end and the Institut de France at the other, was first built by Napoleon I but the current bridge was constructed between 1981 and 1984. It has hundreds of lovers' padlocks and a beautiful view of the Île de la Cité.

Had a pleasant walk through the Jardin des Tuilleries, created by Queen Catherine de' Medici when she decided to move from her residence at the chateau of Tournelles after her husband Henri II died, to the Louvre Palace, along with her son, the new King, François II. She built the Palais des Tuileries and was used by succeeding monarchs until 23 May 1871, during the suppression of the Paris Commune, 12 men under the orders of Jules Bergeret, the former chief military commander of the Commune, set the Tuileries on fire which thoroughly gutted the palace. Also passed by the Musée de l'Orangerie, most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet. Saw Le Baiser, one of four Rodins in the Tuileries.

At the end of the Tuileries is the Place de la Concorde with the Obelisk exalting the reign of Rameses II. During the French Revolution, a guillotine was erected in the square and among the famous people guillotined there were Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Robespierre. To the east are the Tuileries and to the west the Champs-Élysées.

Walking northward on Rue Royale I passed by the Hotel Crillon (the U.S. Embassy to the left on the Champs-Élysées) and went to the l'Eglise de la Madeleine which was consecrated as a church in 1842.

Walking along the Boulevard des Italiens I reached the Palais Garnier, built from 1861 to 1875 as the Opéra de Paris but often referred to as the Opéra Garnier, in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier. It was the primary home of the Paris Opera and the Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when the Opéra Bastille opened. Now Palais Garnier is the home of the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris.

Time to sit down at the Café de la Paix and enjoy a Cappucino Glacé and their famous gateau l'Opéra Classique. The Café de la Paix opened June 30, 1862, to serve the Grand-Hôtel de la Paix and its proximity to the Opéra attracted many famous clients, including Jules Massenet, Émile Zola, and Guy de Maupassant. During the Belle Époque, visitors to the Café included Sergei Diaghilev, and the Prince of Wales and future King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII. On August 22, 1975, the Café was declared a historic site by the French government.

Browsed at shops near Place Vendôme.

On my way back to the hotel I passed by the Roue de Paris, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and the Louvre.

Time for a couple of drinks at the Marais bars before picking up my luggage and taking ...

... the high speed Thalys back to Brussels.

August 12
Brussels
Had to take it easy the next two days since I really walked a lot in Paris. Well, what can one do but relax and have some chocolate croissants and coffee for breakfast, workout a little bit; have some cheese and pate or jambon or smoked salmon on a baguette; nap a little then go out to town; have a drink at one of the bars near Grand Place; go to dinner and then meet my friends at Daric for more Belgian beers before calling it a day. Aaaaah! C'est la vie...

August 13
Sophie's Party
Going to a party tonight. Sophie's friends and relatives will be there and she's cooking adobo!
Sophie and Helene; Alice, Paola, Michael; Paola and Alice

August 14
This weekend is Floraliëntime in Brussels. They have started work on decorating the Grand Place with flowers.

August 15
Relaxing day today. Dinner at Le Marmiton at the Galerie de la Reine. Had a Pernod and water for aperitif.

Ordered from the Menu Sympa et Océan which consisted of: Cassolette de Moules "Marmiton"; Carbonnade de Boeuf a la Gueze; and Coupe Mikado (vanilla ice cream and mousse au chocolat). Had a glass of vin rouge.