Dour, 電通-controlled, family-centric Belgian Neocolonialism, enthusiastically jaded observations, support for state-owned neoliberalist media and occasional rants from the twisted mind of a privileged middle-class expatriate atheist Crypto Jew and とてもくだらないひと projecting some leftist ideals with my ridicule of Tucker Carlson, all while taking America's blood money and cashing out that pension and TSP (from The Blogs Formerly Known As Sponge Bear and Kaminoge 物語)
*see disclaimer below
The onset of summer kicked off on a very upward note with the arrival in Guangzhou 广州 of our daughter, here to spend a month with us following the completion of her second year at university:
The girl has been needlessly starving herself in order to ensure her feline roommate can continue to enjoy the organic free-range gourmet chicken cat food he has become accustomed to eating, so my wife and I have been making sure Amber's daily caloric intake will allow her to survive long after returning to school for the fall quarter:
The girl had been barely in China long enough to recover from the nearly thirteen hour-long flight from Seattle before she was whisked off on another lengthy plane trip. Her visit coincided with our first R&R travel (one of two authorized for this tour). Instead of returning to the States or traveling elsewhere in the region, the itinerary whipped up by this frustrated travel agent had the three of us returning to Europe for the first time since 2018. Our first stop would be Paris, reached via a China Southern Airlines flight that left Guangzhou in the very early hours of a Friday morning that had us arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport shortly before 0800 local time Friday there. The dreaded 12½ hour flight in economy class ended up being pleasantly bearable thanks to my being offered an upgrade to have an entire row for myself at a reasonable price, so I ended up occupying three seats. Not enough to fully stretch out my long frame, but sufficient to allow me to actually get some rest on an aircraft. It should be noted for the record that my wife and daughter were both given the opportunity to similarly upgrade but declined, though Amber did take advantage of the suddenly empty seat beside her.
This would be the first trip to Paris for the girls, and the first for me during which I would be conscious of my existence, having apparently visited the French capital at a time when I was still in diapers. The plan was to take public transport from the airport into the city. However the RER train line to our terminal was out of action, and it wasn't clear which bus we were supposed to use in its stead. As a result a one hour-long taxi ride later deposited us in front our Parisian accommodations. It was still too early to check in at the Novotel Suites Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, so we left our bags there and went across the street to Au Maréchal Brune for our first brush with Parisian café culture.
The brasserie was decked out in the flags of the countries taking part in the World Cup, which would be a common decorative theme throughout our stay (the same was true in our hotel's lobby). Amber and Shu-E both sensibly had a croque madame, while I for some odd reason ordered the non-French carbonara:
Following lunch and with time to still kill before we could see what our home for the next five nights would look like, we took our first ride on the Paris Metro to visit Notre Dame, the city's iconic Gothic cathedral. This masterpiece began its life in 1163 and was finished for the most part by the early 14th century. It received extensive damage during the French revolution, and what you see today is largely the result of renovations completed by 1864. Or you would've seen today had it not been for the disastrous fire in 2019. Remarkably, most of the restoration work has been completed and the cathedral reopened to the public in December 2024 (though work inside is still ongoing).
Pro tip: admission is free, but it's nonetheless advisable to book a timed entry online. There was a long line of ticketless people standing outside in the 30°C-plus heat waiting to go inside, whereas we strolled right in after showing our QR code tickets:
As a result of the post-fire restoration work, everything inside (including those elements that weren't damaged in the inferno) had been thoroughly cleaned:
The original Rooster of Notre Dame, which stood atop the cathedral's spire and was thought to have been lost to the fire. A new cock has since been installed on the roof:
A depiction of St. George slaying the dragon. My daughter pointed out the beast more resembled a giant salamander:
A statue of Charlemagne (looking like a character from Pirates of the Caribbean) standing in one of the few shaded spots in the plaza outside the cathedral. Western Europe has been suffering from an unrelenting heat wave, and Paris was no exception during our stay, much to Shu-E's chagrin. At least we had seemingly avoided the worst of the heat and our room was air-conditioned:
One thing I had been warned about from a colleague who had previously been posted in Paris was the pickpockets. As we hadn't yet checked in I had been toting my backpack on the visit to Notre Dame. While transferring metro lines on the way back to the hotel someone walked up beside me and told me my bag was open. Sure enough the middle pocket had been unzipped, and a smaller interior pocket opened. Fortunately the only items in that pocket were low denomination Chinese yuan bills so there was at least one sorely disappointed pickpocket in Paris that evening. For the rest of our trip I made sure to leave the backpack behind in the room and all valuables in the safe, and the rest of our Parisian sojourn passed withot incident. I was simultaneously impressed with the dexterous skill of the wannabe thief and incredulous at the seeming inability of my wife to notice anything had happened even though she had been walking behind me almost the entire way.
After finally completing the check-in process, we proceeded to get some rest in our room before venturing out in the early evening for dinner. Shu-E had identified via Google Maps a possible eatery, and the Brasserie le Square turned out to be a great choice, from its very welcoming owner to the dining options on the menu. My high school-level French combined with my memory struggles make it difficult to recall what exactly I had other than it was a beef dish of some sorts (washed down with a La Marguerite craft beer):
Our daughter enjoyed an apple pie for dessert whilc checking to see how her cat was faring in the kennel back in the States:
The following day was the Fourth of July, the 250th celebration of the independence of the United States. With the disaster that resulted from the politicization of the celebrations going on in the U.S. (this from someone who remembers how enjoyable was the Bicentennial in 1976), it was good to be abroad during this time. And seeing as how the American Revolution would've ended in failure had it not been for the assistance given by the French, Paris seemed to be an appropriate place to be for an American expatriate.
We started our first full day in the French capital by visiting the Musée de Louvre (don't forget to book in advance online!). The Louvre became one of the most famous museums in the world following the French Revolution after its original incarnation as a royal palace ended in 1682, when Louis IV chose the Palace of Versailles as his royal household. We entered at I.M. Pei's Great Pyramid, erected in 1989:
With more than 35,000 artworks on display and 8 million annual visitors, a visit to the Louvre needs to be carefully planned. We ended up spending too much time seeing the Egyptian Antiquities, considering that we went to the old Egyptian Museum in Cairo, although as someone of half-British parentage it was oddly reassuring to learn the French were just as good at looting treasures from ancient civilizations:
We then moved on to the Greek and Roman Antiquities. Artemis, goddess of the hunt, known as the "Diana of Versailles", the first significant antiquity to enter the royal collection in 1556:
Boy strangling a goose, which once adorned a Roman villa:
The Venus de Milo, which in comparison to another certain famous work of art in the Louvre's collection wasn't too difficult to photograph up close:
My gaze was drawn to this painting, part of the Annunciation triptych by Carlo Braccesco, admittedly because the gentleman on the right is seemingly unaware he has been stabbed in the head and heart:
This is as close as we got to the Mona Lisa. I didn't feel like joining the throng to get a closer look at da Vinci's masterpiece as it's already so familiar:
Pandemoniumby John Martin (1841). Based on Milton's Paradise Lost, this painting could serve as the cover art for a heavy metal album:
Some other works which caught my attention:
As stated earlier the Louvre is huge, and should be approached carefully regarding what to see there. Had I been posted at the embassy in Paris I probably would have visited on several occasions to expore more of the collection, but after around 2½ hours and with our stomachs growling it was time for the three of us to move on:
One of the many stereotypes I'd heard over the years about Paris and its residents concerns the so-called indifference and rudeness of some servers in the city's eateries. If this image has any basis in reality it
certainly wasn't our experience. At the gastropub Le Royal the server was efficiently polite and the food (onion soup and beef bourguignon for me) delicious. One thing it couldn't be described was cheap, but that was the case most everywhere we ate:
Following lunch it was left to Amber to decide where to go next, and despite all the art we had seen that morning, she expressed an interest in visiting the Musée Marmottan Monet. Shu-E, not a connoisseur of Western Impressionism, opted to find a shaded seat near a statue of Jean de la Fontaine while my daughter and I went off to see the museum nearby:
The museum is housed in a former hunting lodge and is home to the largest Claude Monet collection in the world. An 1873 portrait of the artist by Auguste Renoir:
The mansion itself is interesting to explore. The upstairs includes several paintings by the female impressionist Berthe Morisot. Bergère Couchée (1891):
Le Jardin À Bougival (1884):
A temporary exhibit focused on Giovanni Segantini. The Two Mothers (1889):
Sur le balcon (1892):
Pâturages de printemps (1896):
Alpine Meadows (1893-1894):
Though I enjoyed Segantini's pastoral depictions of the life in the Alps, the lack of air conditioning in the old building was starting to affect me. Fortunately the Monet collection was located in the basement in a suitably climate-controlled environment, thereby aiding in the appreciation and enjoyment:
We concluded our visit with some much-neeed refreshments in the outdoor garden:
While my daughter and I were appreciating Monet, my wife was organizing an evening excursion. We would return after dinner to the Louvre, this time to board one of those ubiquitous open-air tourist buses seen the world over to join an evening tour of central Paris:
Crossing the Seine:
Passing by the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris:
Our seats on the open upper deck provided views of building facade features that would be difficult to notice at street level:
For most of the tour we were serenaded by carloads of Morrocans noisily celebrating their country's 3-0 victory over Canada and advancement into the quarter-finals, where they would face...France. We had moved on from Paris when the Morrocans were subsequently beaten 2-0 by Les Blues so I do not have any first-hand knowledge of what transpired on the central Parisian streets following the match:
Arc de Triomphe:
I don't need to point out what this is now, do I?:
The tour ended back at the Louvre, where we were greeted with the sight of a balloon on fire. What looked initially like a disaster unfolding in front of our eyes turned out to be the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics cauldron:
Sunday morning, and trying to keep cool on the poorly ventilated Paris Metro trains:
This day would be the highlight of our visit to Paris as we waited outside the Gare du Nord train station:
The occasion was not to go sightseeing but rather to meet up with Jeff, one of my closest friends since our high school days of yore, and his charming wife Barbara. The two made the effort to travel to Paris to see us via the Eurostar train from their home in Leuven in Belgium. The last time we had seen each other in person was back in the spring of 2018 when I visited the pair in Ljubljana, though we keep in touch on a semi-regular basis via email. So we had a lot to catch up on in the eight years since, which we did while walking and stopping at several cafes on what turned into a coffee crawl:
