First-Time Paris

Walking around Paris, you will hit something of historic, cultural, or aesthetic significance every few feet. My favorite museums were the Musée D’Orsay and Centre Pompidou. Both display wonderful works of art housed in architecturally interesting buildings. Other highlights included watching the Paris Marathon along the Seine, eating Berthillon ice cream (arguably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted), enjoying a drink at a café on the Champs Elysées, eating chocolate banana crepes from street vendors, and finally figuring out the arrondissements.

Quick Tips:

• Pick up a Paris Pratique Par Arrondissement from a tabac. This indispensable map book includes every street in Paris in an index that will point you to the map page organized by arrondissement. In addition, the French often use these maps, so you’ll look less like a tourist than if you have a full-sized Paris map open.
• Common-sense tip: Always try and speak French (even if broken French) when speaking to someone. They will often answer you in English. I found Parisiens overall to be extremely helpful and nice when starting a conversation this way.
• If visiting multiple museums in a day or over a period of days, check out the Paris Museum Pass. You will often save money, and certainly time, as you won’t need to wait in what can be long entrance lines. These can be used at 60 sites, including Centre Pompidou, Musée du Louvre, Musée D’Orsay, and Musée Rodin.
• If walking around the back of the Rodin Museum, be careful of birds above. I had the fortune to be pooped on by a bird flying overhead. If you, too, have this experience, know that there are bathrooms available just behind the museum’s building.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking is definitely the best way to get around. The métro system is invaluable for jumping around the city, and very easy to navigate.

My Paris friends had made a reservation at this Italian eatery on my first night in town. A wonderful choice! The moment we walked in, we were greeted warmly by the owner. After ordering the house wine, we set to the difficult task of deciding what to order; there were so many wonderful options.

The salads are large enough to be shared, as we did. We ordered an arugula salad with shaved parmesan, and another salad with fresh vegetables. Both were delicious.

The pizza was recommended as some of the best you’ll find in Paris. But I decided on pasta with goat cheese, zucchini, and tapenade in an olive-oil cream sauce. If your mouth isn’t watering from reading this, it will be when you smell and taste the entrée. I tasted my friend’s pizza, and the recommendation was well earned. The portions are well sized, enough to satiate, but not oversized.

We were also privy to a local experience. A weekend regular was a famous cabaret singer in Paris. She broke into a French song while we were eating. The owner provided her with background accompaniment from the restaurant’s stereo. The local diners joined her in song. When she was through with her set, she came over to our table and started asking about us in French. When she found out we were American, she told us about her visit to the U.S.

If you are in the Montmartre area, stop in for some wonderful eats accompanied by a terrific house wine.

After a full day of walking around the city and skipping lunch, we were tired and hungry. We looked at a bunch of menus and decided on this French eatery. We were the only diners at the time, as we arrived before the normal European dining hour, so we had our pick of tables. We chose one in the front of the restaurant by the window, where we could enjoy the view as well as the décor. The interior is designed in warm, deep reds. Framed black-and-white caricatures hang on the wall. A bar sits in the back of the restaurant.

We all decided to order from the discounted prix-fixe menu, which included an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. I started off with a green salad with warm goat cheese croustades. While the presentation was fairly basic, the salad was still satisfying. The Boeuf Bourguignon, my entrée, was wonderfully hearty and full flavored. As we found at all the restaurants we tried in Paris, the house wine was a wonderful choice.

I was wholly satisfied with my meal to this point, and the desserts did not upset this. In fact, I had difficulty deciding between the warm molten chocolate cake and profiteroles, two of my favorite desserts. My mood was more suited for the cake, and it was the best part of the meal.

With the pleasant service, tasty food, and warm décor, I highly recommend this restaurant. Just bring the good company with you.

On my first day, I visited Notre Dame with a couple of friends who were living in Paris. We decided to join the queue waiting to climb up to the cathedral’s towers, which afford an unobstructed view of the city. The line was not terribly long; however, we were waiting an extremely long time to be allowed entry. My friends informed me that the wait was unusual and that the line normally moves much faster. We were granted some entertainment during our wait. A street performer in a mask was amusing the crowd by sneaking up on unsuspecting pedestrians and surprising them. He would casually take their hand or put his arm around them and wait for the reaction once his victims realized that they were with a complete stranger. There was much laughter and good spirits as the queue waited in the cold to enter the tower.

The spiral stairway is extremely narrow and could cause problems for claustrophobics. On the way up, there are three landings where one can rest if necessary. The views, as well as the carved decorations (e.g., gargoyles), are definitely worth the climb. You can also enter the bell tower to take a peek at the bell made famous by Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

You can pick up a brochure, available in multiple languages, on the way up that discusses the history of the church and serves as a guide for what to see when visiting the towers.

The following day, friends of mine decided to attend Sunday mass at Notre Dame. I joined them as mass was in session to hear the beautiful voices coming from the four female choir singers. Visitors were allowed to walk around the perimeter inside the church while the service was occurring. At the candle-lighting stations, there was a photo of the late Pope, whose burial had taken place two days earlier. There was a very commercial element to the church that included souvenir booths at either side of the entrance, as well as machines located throughout the church selling Notre Dame medallions.

This church is as impressive for its architecture and its ornate carvings as for its cultural influences. Notre Dame is a must for the first-time visitor.

After all I had heard and read about the Musée d’Orsay, I was eager to visit when the museum opened to enjoy it without all the crowds. While enjoying my pain au chocolat, I waited on the line to enter until the doors opened. I had decided to buy a Paris Museum Pass for the day because I planned on stuffing in three museum visits. When I was allowed entry, I found out I needed to go back outside and around the corner to a kiosk to purchase the pass. Once purchased, I was able to gain entry from a different entrance where there was no line.

When entering through any of the doors, you will need to pass by a security guard and metal detector. The ground level consists of a long hallway with rooms off either side of the nave. There is sculpture displayed along the hallway, and the art in each of the rooms is organized by period and medium.

On the ground floor, you will find the Pre-Impressionist works. At a few of the pieces, artists had set up easels to paint their own version. Be sure to pick up a map of the museum - otherwise you may miss some of the rooms that do not have entrances immediately off the main hallway.

From the ground floor, take the escalator in the back of the museum to the fifth floor. Up here, you can view Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pieces. To my delight, works by Seurat, Rousseau, and Monet are housed here. After seeing prints of Van Gogh’s Noon: Rest from Work hanging in so many college dorm rooms back in my university days, I was impressed by the original painting.

The museum is designed to direct you to the second floor next. The art displayed here can be categorized into Académisme, Naturalism, Symbolism, and Art Nouveau. Along the second floor, you will find some Rodin sculptures to whet your appetite for the Musée Rodin.

The building is a converted train station, Gare d’Orsay, which allows for the open design of the museum. The building retains its original clock above the entrance. On the way out of the building, make sure to take a good look at the glass-paneled wall on which the clock hangs. When I visited, there was a temporary installation, Christain Boltanski’s Le Théâtre d’ombre (The Shadow Theatre). This piece consisted of paper figures, blowing in the wind caused by fans, backlit by lights, seen through the glass wall (see photo).

This was my favorite of all the museums, both for its open and light-filled design and for the collections housed here. Don’t try to visit on Mondays, as the museum is closed, but do try to find time for a visit.

Musée d’Orsay’s website: www.musee-orsay.fr