Grad 'Cation 2019: Day 13: Au Revoir to the City of Lights

Observation of the Day: Paris’ spring weather has a bit of an identity crisis similar to Amsterdam. When we arrived last Friday, it was 80 degrees and as we depart it is 60 degrees. The result is interesting as you see people in the city and on the Metro who are either dressed for the tundra or for the beaches!

VM & HM: Today was the last day of ‘cation and our last day in Paris. On Wednesday night, we readied our bags so we could make the most of our day and evening today. We began our day savoring our yogurts, fruit and baguette and then headed out around 9:30am. We had saved today to visit one museum we had seen before – the Musée d'Orsay -- and one we had not – the Musée de l'Orangerie. Both museums are close to each other, only a short walk across the River Seine.

Not fancy, but a nice
reminder of our beautiful,
flower-filled visit.

Before we mapped ourselves to the Orangerie, we made a side trip to visit an old Parisian jeweler named H. Gringoire (https://www.h-gringoire.fr/en). While in Giverny, I had purchased a ring from my hostess at La Reserve as she keeps a makeshift vintage market in her maison. She casually mentioned that the ring was from a Parisian jeweler but she didn’t know much about it. It wasn’t fancy, but it did seem to be solid silver. She sold it to me for 10EU (about $11) and off I went with my treasure. Upon inspection of the ring, HM & I saw the stamp for the jeweler and became intrigued to visit their store & see if they knew any of the ring’s history.

Apparently Macron was
getting ready to talk about his
reform plans after months of
"yellow vest" protests.

The store is in a nice part of Paris, and the Metro ride and short walk afterwards took us by the President’s home, the Palais Elysses, and some gorgeous high-end boutiques. Not sure if Macron was around or not, but we there was a heavy police presence around the surrounding area.

We arrived at H. Gringoire at 10am when their web site said they opened. At first, we thought this was not going to be the case, but I suspect some cameras were watching us as a young lady came to unlock the door although none of their merchandise was displayed yet. Upon explaining our mission, she promptly called up the store manager, Marina. We became fast friends when we told her we were from Florida as she apparently spends quite a bit of time in Palm Beach. Upon explaining the story of my ring, her first reaction was that it was not from their store as they work now only in gold and jewels. But when we showed her the stamp within the ring, she and the young assistant both raised their eyebrows in unison and agreed it was indeed from their store.

H. Gringoire goes way back in Paris until 1880 and Marina felt this ring definitely was way before her time with the store. That said, she was intrigued with its origin and asked the assistant to take pictures so that they could inquire its providence. I left her my email and phone so maybe someday soon we’ll know where it came from! Regardless, I love the ring and Marina said that she could most definitely say it was a steal at 10EU!

Place de la Concorde is right
in the heart of Paris.

We walked around the Place de la Concorde, an area where we had miraculously not been before in all our travels through Paris! The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the east end of the Champs Elysees.

We reached the Orangerie by around 10:30amish and were grateful we had bought our tickets online. It has been our experience over and over again that this is the way to go so you avoid havoc at the entrance of these popular places. The Orangerie is right next to the Tuileries Gardens we had visited on Monday and has a collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. But we were really there to see the Monets!

No words.

The museum has two oval galleries which house some of Monet’s most gorgeous water lilies works which he titled Les Nymphes. They are GINORMOUS and simply breathtaking. HM and I felt even more drawn to these works as we had just spent time in the gardens that inspired them! We absolutely love them. And it goes without saying that Monet was a master. His command of stroke, texture and use of color are mind-boggling.

Had to take a picture with my favorite
willows.

The Orangerie also has other incredible works from guys like Renoir, Cezanne, Gaugin and Picasso. It is interesting to see how much these contemporaries influenced each other’s work.

Fun to see school groups being inspired at the Orangerie.

And really cool to see artists at work.

D'Orsay is a in a beautiful old train station
which we reached crossing the "love locks" bridge.

Afterwards, we next took the short walk across the Pont des Arts bridge to the d’Orsay. This bridge is also known as the “love locks” bridge as for years people have been coming here to leave a lock on the Seine River. It has been an issue for the city as it compromises the bridge and it is our understanding they now take the locks off every few months. It is still fun to see.

As before, we loved seeing the great works at d’Orsay plus admiring the museum’s venue as it’s housed in a former railway station built between 1898 and 1900. It is really beautiful.

A favorite of VM's last time we visited d'Orsay,
we were excited to see she is still proudly displayed.

Degas' stunning ballerina!

Couldn't visit the Van Gogh in Amsterdam,
but still love his works!

Monet never ceases to amaze.

And Renoir is not far behind.

This is HM's favorite.

We both loved this turkey portrait by Monet,
made us think of JM out on the chicken farms.

The Florida juice growers should
make this happen in the U.S.!

Having our fill of art and the crowds, we took the Metro for two last errands – buying a suitcase because our new summer wear was taxing our bags and for some last-minute souvenirs. We also had to stop for just one more fresh-pressed orange juice. It is sooooo good.

Heading to the metro new bag in tow!

We finished organizing all our bags, freshened up and headed out for our last dinner. HM had made reservations at a restaurant she had found out about through a YouTuber she follows. It is called Monsieur Bleu and in addition to good food, has incredible vistas of our favorite – the Eiffel Tower. However, upon arrival we found out we had been trumped by none other than Jean Paul Gaultier, a famous French designer. Apparently, they were having a last-minute private event for him and the restaurant says they tried to reach us to change our reservation but had been unsuccessful.

A very apologetic and beautiful manager immediately booked us into a sister restaurant based near the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens named LouLou (https://loulou-paris.com). While at first disappointed with the unexpected change, the meal was delicious and the restaurant was beautiful. And best of all, we finished at around 9:45pm and were able to walk right out the door to the gardens to a private showing of the 10pm Eiffel Tower “sparkles.” It was a perfect ending to a perfect ‘cation.

Cheering a beautiful girl on a
beautiful journey.

We are both grateful for the opportunity to return to this beautiful city and to explore new places in France and the Netherlands. We are also grateful everything went as planned with no mishaps. While we missed not having our partners in crime, JM and EM, for this journey, it was nice to have some mommy / daughter time to explore, learn, play and best of all, laugh together. Au revoir until our next adventure!

We didn't want to go inside, but the Louvre is just as pretty
at night as during the day.

Feeling blessed.

Random Pics of the Day

We were disappointed not to meet any canine friends
again this time in our Melrose Place-like courtyard,
but this sweet gal provided our feline fix on our last day!