It´s been over a week since we arrived in France and what have we done? Our daily routine has gone something like this: A cafe au lait, pain du chocolate and of course, the required baguette and jam. We´ve been lucky enough to stay with one of our dear friends Michelle Suchet, who has arguably one of the best views in Paris 
and a great location right on the Seine. We have gone to sleep every night watching the lights sparkling on the tower and have woken up to the sounds of peppy French pop wafting in the window from the apartments next door. We would like to truly thank Michelle for her wonderful hospitality.
We had dinner with Xavier and Lauren, friends from business school. It was wonderful to see them after so long!
Since we´ve both visited Paris separately, we wanted to make sure that this time, we got to see some different faces of Paris that neither of us had seen, as well as revisit those places that we were particularly fond of. Here are some highlights.
Weekend du Patremonie
It turnd out that the first two days we spent in Paris was the annual patremonie or heritage festival. On two days of the year, famous historical sites that are normally closed the rest of the year are opened and free to the public. These sites included Jacque Chirac´s house, the Ministry of Justice, the Carnavalet Museum, which details the art and history of Paris, as well as many beautiful gardens, 
and some of the jewelery workshops in one of my favorite places, Plas Vendome where some of the most famous jewelers in Paris have a shop such as Boucheron, Cartier, Philip Patek and many others.
We saw hundreds of Parisians out and about standing in line to see the different sites or wandering in the private gardens. From talking to a few people, we got the impression that these opportunities were very popular because they gave folks a chance to explore integral parts of their city that weren´t usually open. Mostly everyone had a positive impression of this heritage weekend.
Le Maree
It´s a great little neighborhood with a bustling, vibrant shopping area. The shops here tend to boutiques and a little funkier and (I think) hipper than those on the Champs Elysees. The square itself is lined with restaurants and antique shops and is perfect for watching the world go by. I had to buy a pair of new sneakers, cause my old and trusty Adidas finally ripped beyond repair, so I found some lovely pink Nikes in a little shoe shop. Tres chic!
Festival on the Quai
Along with the heritage festival, there was also a wine festival on the quai near Notre Dame. So we walked down the quai steps surrounded by masses and masses of people. On the quai were booths from about twenty different wineries from different areas of France. For about 3 euros, we were able to buy a really great bottle of French wine, some wonderful ´Pyrenees tradicional´cheese and a baguette for a lunch facing Notre Dame. Here's a video of kids playing on a hot summer day.
On Sundays, during the morning service, Gregorian Chants are performed at Notre Dame. The deep, chanting sent shivers down my spine. The singers were both quite young, but their voices soared and swept throughout the cathedral. It was amazing. 
. Nonetheless, the experience was somewhat disturbed by the hundreds of tourists taking flash photos of the monks.
Caroussel de Louvre
Every two years, there is an exposition at the Louvre of hundreds of amazing objet´s d´art, jewelry, paintings and sculptures from some of the most well known galleries in Europe (there were two from America.) We were told that this in its own right is just as amazing as the Louvre itself..the main difference being that at the exposition, the paintings, jewelery, and sculptures are for sale. Well, they were right. The amount and quality of items on display were simply amazing. Necklaces with shimmering diamonds, beautiful furniture including painted tables with intricate carved legs, marble busts and sculptures in bronze (we saw a 13th century Shiva and Parvati that cost 300,000 euros.) All you auction lovers, this is the place to be! 
The Louvre
We´ve both been here before but went again just because one has to! Dev spent most of his time in the Egyptian section, trying to learn how to read hieroglyphics prior to our visit to Luxor later this year. He just finished reading a biography of Champollion, the archaeologist and linguist who brought back a number of artifacts from Egypt to the Louvre - he, along with Thomas Young, is credited with discovering how to read hieroglyphics and, importantly, how to pronounce them. The Rosetta Stone (not on display at the Louvre) has hieroglyphics right next to the text written in Greek and demotic. This is what allowed Champollion to understand how to pronounce the hieroglyphics. Having read the biography of Champollion, Dev is now reading a biography of Napoleon.
Musee d´Orsay
Although we´d both seen the Orsay before, we decided to go again. The Orsay, as you know, has the ¨rejects¨from the Louvre. These rejects turned out to be extremely popular and valuable, with all the Impressionists represented here, along with Art Nouveau furniture and objects d´art and much much more. After having seen the Art Nouveau in Prague, the A.N. exhibition here was really interesting and fabulous. 
Institute of the Arab World
This was another fascinating museum that traces the history of the Arab-Islamic world from its origins to present day. There were beautiful examples of tapestries, pottery, carpets, and frescoes. What I liked best were the astrolabes
. It is basically used to mark how the sky looks at a specific place at a given time. There are various dials on the face of the astrolabe including date and time and various references to different parts of the sky. Middle Age Arab astronomers used the astrolabe to find the time during the day or night, finding the time of a celestial event such as sunrise or sunset and as a handy reference of celestial positions. The gold astrolabes developed for kings or their court astronomers were beautiful and delicate pieces of art, but functional as well. I also liked the moucharabiehs of which there are 240 on the entire facade of the Institute. They respond to the light intensity of the sun and slowly close and open to vary the light intensity inside the building. The design of the moucharabiehs were delicate tracings based on a design used in Moroccan mosques.
Opera de Paris
Continuing our theme of seeing the performing arts in each country, we went to the Opera. It was a visually stunning theatre with 5 levels of seats circling the stage. The performance was of an opera by Rossini entitled ¨Italian Girl in Algiers.¨ 
We went through an number of the other sites in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre (including the fabulous Sacre Coeur), Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou and others. The night-time boatride of the Seine was wonderful although quite cold! We also went hunting for English-language bookstores, including the Shakespeare and a WH Smith store right next to the Louvre.
Some of our most interesting experiences:
- The hospitality of Michelle Suchet
- The ¨beautiful people¨ of Cafe Pompidou, on the roof of Centre Pompidou
- Gregorian chants on Sunday morning at Notre Dame
- The extremely fashionable people of Paris
- Seeing Indians everywhere selling chestnuts and umbrellas
- Tea at Angelina´s Tea Salon
Here's a couple of videos shot at Montmartre:
The cafe on top of Centre Pompidou:
The Stravinsky Fountain near Centre Pompidou:
More about moucharabiehs please. Mystified. Centre Pompidou, a favourite of mine. So what was at the Cafe Ponpidou with the "beautiful people"? Last time I was in the Pompidou open air square and tried to photograph a punk-style group, they came at me threateningly. Also bought "Paris air", an empty tin, for a tidy sum! Plus, what happened to Dev's beard?
Posted by: Kamalini | Saturday, October 02, 2004 at 09:15 AM