PARIS & REIMS fall 2019

Spontaneity, patience, savoring the moment, sharing in other’s passions, and enjoying great food--all keys to successful, happy traveling. 

DAY 1 Thursday September 26, 2019

This morning Ryan and I set out on a Kari-venture (experiences which are augmented thanks to my presence ;) just kidding ) After dropping Gracie off at the pet sitter’s home, we started our early drive to Paris.  Thankfully, it’s only about a 4.5hr drive from our home. We opted to pay the tolls as it was about an hour faster route for us and cost about 20€. 

Ryan and I alternated naps in the car as we drove through the French countryside. I really love the sense of calm and familiarity that comes over me as we pass into France from Germany. There is a certain ease that one experiences when the language barrier is collapsed. I can read French and understand enough to get around. German, on the other hand,  is still a very foreign and mysterious language to me. 

I loved seeing the white sheep grazing the the fields. The picturesque countryside of France is gratifying and satisfying. I feel so lucky and blessed to have adventures like these. 

On a whim, I noticed our route to Paris would take us through a city called Reims. 

Now if you’ve taken any European or French history class then you know Reims is not only an esteemed city, but one abounding in history, architecture, and art. I knew we had to make a pit stop. 

We only stopped for 2 hours, but that gave us enough time to see the Reims cathedral of Notre Dame and wander the streets for exquisite architecture viewing. We even stumbled across a fun street with painted cobble stones!! 

The Reims cathedral is spectacular. From May through September they do a light show on the cathedral that we just happened to miss the cut off date for, but it was astonishing all the same.

We learned that the large organ inside is not working and the cathedral would like to have it restored to become a working organ once more. The cost to repair it? 1 million dollars!  On top of the organ was a statue of Christ between two angels. It was particularly touching for me to see an image of Christ like this one. So often he is on the cross in cathedrals, which I understand is an important representation to Christians and Christianity, but for me he is the living, breathing, resurrected Savior. When I envision Him, this is how I see Him. 

The stained glass windows and sculptures were entertaining to try and decode. I can’t help but wonder how pictorially literate people were in the 1200s. Did they look at all the statues and the windows and recognize the biblical stories or religious references? Much of the art was certainly foreign to me until I found a plaque describing the specific scenes.  

It was also a stirring experience to stand in a cathedral where so many historical figures/kings were coronated. We were able to be in the cathedral where Louis XIV was crowned and then go stay on the grounds of his former palace gardens.

A little note about sanitaires. Throughout major French cities there are self-cleaning toilets that have been installed. They are actually quite convient and nice. I learned, however, that some travelers have been caught inside the toilets during a cleaning cycle.... ooops. Mainly this has happened to small children that aren’t detected by the machine. So, if taking your kids, go with them inside the sanitaires or they might get stuck inside and get a shower they weren’t planning on.

We got back on the road and kept on towards Paris.

We opted to go CAMPING for our Paris adventure because it was significantly cheaper (though still not cheap) than any hotel, Airbnb, or bnb we could find. 

We were quite pleased and impressed with the quaint campsite. We brought our own tent to our pitch, though there are tents and cabins you can rent for various prices. 

We stayed at Huttopia, Versailles. Although it was camping, there are flushing toilets, showers, private sink rooms for getting ready for the day or going to bed, a heated pool, ping pong tables, a restaurant, WiFi in the lodge, a playground, and it’s gated and locked with a code. We were certainly excited to Glamp! 

We opted to take a bit of time to get our tent set up and eat our delicious road trip snacks we had packed while we watched an episode of Big Bang Theory. 

Then we headed to the train station, bought our Navigo Decouverte passes and headed in to Paris!! I love being here.

We wanted to go to an Ice Bar and L’Atelier des lumières, but the ice bar ended up being much more expensive than we anticipated and the atelier closed early. We will make it to the Atelier another day this week. 

So, we opted for some spontaneous plans once more. We walked around the Eiffel Tower and walked along the Seine River. I enjoyed seeing people from all around the world and so many different fashion styles. We then walked over to the Trocadéro gardens and chatted with a lovely artist from Albania who was selling quite impressive street art. 

I love being able to talk with craftsmen about their passions and how they’ve generated their ideas. When you care about what other people care about, real connections are made and life has more fulfillment. 

We aimed to visit a few “free” sites a little off the beaten path. So, next we walked down to the Statue of Liberty from National Treasure, all the while trying our best at Nicolas Cage impersonations. 

It was kind of cute to see a baby-sizes Statue of Liberty compared to our one in New York. 

We sat by the riverside and chatted a bit, enjoyed watching a French man play fetch with his dog, missed Gracie, rehydrated, and planned our next move. 

Sunset was on the horizon, and I knew I wanted to see the light show on the Eiffel Tower. I also knew Ryan just had to see the madness that is the 80 billion lane round about surrounding L’Arc de Triomphe (okay so it’s only 8 lanes...) 

We got tickets and went atop L’Arc de Triomphe just as the sun was setting. 

Watching the cars, mopeds, motorcycles, and trucks dart around the round about, we decided people are like bees and evolution hasn’t really done that much for us. We still blitz about like crazed creatures. We saw several almost crashes. 

I would highly recommend climbing the stairs for L’Arc de Triomphe over the Eiffel Tower. It’s cheaper, you still get an awesome view of the city, and you get to see the light show if you go up in the evening. At this point Ryan and I were quite famished. We also didn’t want to fork out a bunch of money for dinner... (if you haven’t caught on by now we were trying to travel affordably to Paris.)

With a quick google search, and Ryan voicing his desire to have a real French crêpe, we made our way off of L’Arc de Triomphe and down the street to grab some grub. We found a delicious crêperie called crepes and greens.

The owner of the restaurant was quite delightful as he explained the different types of crepes and the meticulous process he goes through to make them. Everything was organic and the dark chocolate drizzle on our dessert crepes was made in house. 

We got back on the RER and headed back to our cozy campsite. (We watched some more Big Bang Theory on the train back to our campsite) After doing so much walking it feels great to take off your shoes! We had foot massages each night to recoup our little feets from all the walking!

DAY 2 Friday September 27, 2019 

Well, some days just don’t go according to plan. 

We rode the metro and RER to Disneyland and when we arrived we leaned half the rides in the park were closed due to mechanical failures. What?!? It also took us quite a long time to actually get in to the park because so few ticket windows were open.  All in all we were only able to ride 3 rides which was quite a let down, but it was still a neat experience to be in Disneyland Paris. 

I enjoyed the castle light show and firework show. It’s fun to hear Disney songs in French. The employees were also extremely polite and friendly, which hasn’t been the norm for customer service in Europe. 

It’s not so fun to wait in line for hours for only a few rides, but we made the best of it. At one point we stood in line for a ride for over an hour and then were shuffled out right before we reached the ride because of mechanical failures! Ugh. (They offered to give us fast passes at city hall but at this point the park was almost closing and we wouldn't have time to use them anyway)

We enjoyed playing heads up and seeing all the imagination that has gone into designing the park. It was also kind of fun to hear Buzz Lightyear speak French :)

Plus, the Ratatouille ride is super cool.

DAY 3 Saturday September 28, 2019

Went to Paris. Got murdered by a chestnut!!

We started our morning stopping in at a fantastic French pastry shop called pâtissier delangle by our campsite and then drove to the temple. My favorite part of today was participating at the Paris, France temple. The temple is absolutely beautiful inside and out. I loved all the flowers throughout the temple. I can tell they mean a lot to the French people. It was also enjoyable to listen to the session in French. I understood about 90% and was so grateful for the skill Heavenly Father has blessed me with in learning languages. I have missed the temple these last 6 months as we have been far away from it. I am excited for the Frankfurt to reopen so that one will be closer to us.

After leaving the temple we headed to the train station into Paris. As we walked into the station I was certain some devious child had suddenly thrown a rock at my face!! My glasses came completely off my face and I looked around to catch my attacker. Who was it? A blasted chestnut!! It had fallen from a tree and hit me right in the face knocking off my glasses and splitting open! Watch out... there's lots of murderous nuts out there.

We rode into Paris and headed to la musée fragonard, a free perfume museum. We had about 30 minutes before the tour started and so we made the maddest dash to get some kebab from a stand about 10 minutes away. Ryan was certain we had just enough time to snag ourselves some dinner so running through the streets we went. At one point Ryan brushed an older French lady and she began to chew him out! (But Ryan didn’t see it... he was already gone) 

Ugh, why do the streets smell like pee! Men just pee everywhere.

Once our tour of the perfume museum started it was actually really cool!

We learned about the process of making perfume through distilling, and how some flowers cannot be distilled so they have to use a device called a headspace to extract the essence. It is quite a complex process to make perfume! Our guide told us how they used to have to soak flowers in pig lard for up to a month at a time, changing the flowers every week so that the perfume could be made. It was a very time consuming process and made perfume expensive. We also learned that Fragonard (the brand and factory we were touring) does not spend money on exporting or advertising so they do not have to extensively mark up their perfume prices as do other perfumes (up to 80% mark up!!)

It was enlightening for me to learn about the histories of perfume. Ever since ancient times perfumes have been used, though their purposes have been changed. The ancient Greeks used oils thinking to protect themselves from the sun. The word perfume comes from the Latin which means to send the smoke to the Gods/sky as a way of communicating. But the Greeks used porous ceramic containers, which absorbed the scent from the oils, so the oils only lasted a couple days with their smell. The romans were really the first ones to perfect the art of bottling perfumes in glass so that they lasted longer. 

We then learned about what it takes to be a professional perfumer. You must have a very good nose and the ability to pair scents in an artistic way. They showed us a set up of bottles laid out in an organ-like fashion. They explained it was a perfumer’s organ. An “instrument” they use, each bottle containing a specific essence that perfumers will smell to put together scents.  I loved learning about how each perfume consists of different layers of scents. There are top notes, which are fresh scents that usually last 2-3 hours. It is the first thing you smell when you test a perfume. These are usually citric and aromatic scents such as lemon, orange, rosemary, thyme, etc. Then there are the middle notes that come into play as the top notes have faded away. These last 6-8 hours. There are 4 kinds: floral, fruity, spicy, and green notes. Finally there are the base notes that last up to 24 hours that  are sweet, woody, and oriental. Each of these 3 layers make up the olfactory pyramid and are components of quality crafted perfumes. 

There are 3 enemies to perfume: light, heat, and humidity. So the worst place to keep your perfume is on the bathroom counter! It’s better to store your perfume in a wardrobe or a nightstand drawer, in a dark, dry place. 

People in the medieval ages believed that perfumes would keep away the plague and diseases. Especially the nobles would wear elaborate perfume containers to try and protect themselves from diseases. It was not an effective method, but people believed and did this until the end of the 18th century. 

Perfume bottles also became very elaborate and ornate. They were often passed down as family heirlooms through generations. People would have bottles made and then have them filled with their favorite scents. Our guide showed us little bottles that were filled with salts that had been soaked in essence that she informed us would be carried by ladies in the 18th century. They would put these bottles in their bosom or under their skirt and the bottles were used to revive women when they fainted from their corsets being too tight! Of course, women would occasionally pretend to faint so that their crush would have to retrieve their salt bottle from their bosom or under their skirt to engage in some flirting!!

Women and men would flirt, too, by putting black beauty marks on their faces to cover up blemishes. Wearing a beauty mark was a way of communicating with the opposite sex. Depending on where the beauty mark was placed it could communicate things like, “I’m shy, i’m single, i’m married, i’m passionate, and so on.” 

After Fragonard we really wanted to go to the atelier des lumières but tickets were sold out. sad. So we went back to our campsite to relax the rest of the evening...only while we were waiting for our train we got chatting with a fashion designer from the Philippines who was sitting next to us and we missed our train... 

so, we waited another 30 min for the next one and got back to our campsite. It wasn’t too bad because we met nice people. 

While we were waiting several people got off trains and approached me to ask directions. Ryan responded, “Geez why does everybody seem to pick you out as the person to ask for directions?” Apparently I looked French enough ;) 

Overall we really loved staying at Huttopia at our campsite. Even though it rained almost the whole time, we stayed completely dry in our tent. The showering facilities are also really great, clean, and have privacy. The lodge had WiFi, there was a pool (which we didn’t end up using cause it was raining), and the staff were polite, friendly and helpful. We were a short 10 minute walk from the train station Porchelafontaine. We also didn’t realize we had to have an adapter to use the electricity at our campsite 🤦‍♀️

Luckily, the front desk had an adapter for our German extension chord. We had to pay a 50€ deposit to use the chord but this was completely refunded when we checked out and returned the adapter. 

DAY 4 September 29, 2019 

For our last day in Paris, we made a visit to show off the beautiful parisien monuments to Ryan, ride some scooters, and visit Sainte Chapelle. We visited Place de La Concorde, Jardin Des Tuilieries, and Le Louvre.

The first time I came to Paris, we were not able to see Sainte Chapelle. I can’t remember if it was closed or we just ran out of time, but I’ve always wanted to see it since I wasn’t able to in 2011. It did not disappoint. After we enjoyed some morning strolling around the louvre and place de la Concorde, snacking on our packed pop tarts and cliff bars,  we took the metro over to Sainte Chapelle. 

Buy tickets in advance on your phone to skip the line- its really easy and not any more expensive. 

I immediately lost my breath as we stepped into the chapel. Around the chapel, the stained glass windows depict the history of man in the Bible from Genesis through the crucifixion of Christ. The rose window depicts the end of the world--the apocalypse--with Jesus as the judge at the center.  

Since the 10th century the area surrounding the chapel has been the seat of royal power, and now functions as the palace of justice. (Hence why there’s quite a bit of security around the building). Sainte Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1258 to house the relics of Christ, most famously the crown of thorns. These relics had belonged to emperors in Constantinople in the 4th century. 

The cost of the relic the crown of thorns cost the Catholic Church more than the building of Sainte Chapelle itself. I’d be intrigued to read about the authenticity of these relics... maybe I’ll go research that later. 

There are statues of the 12 apostles as “the pillars of the church” symbolically around in the nave. 5 of these statues are original dating from 1240 to 1260.

Sainte Chapelle became the Jerusalem of Christianity during the 1200s. It houses 1,113 biblical scenes in 15 stained glass windows. Today Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergie are the only visible remains of the oldest palace of the kings of France.

We only had an hour or two left before we had to hit the road to drive home. We decided to snatch a couple of lime electric scooters and they were a blast! It was raining, but we darted through the French streets like crazy mice in a maze! It’s a little frightening to ride scooters through the streets of Paris, but also so much fun. At one point I braked too quickly, not really thinking about the road being slick. My scooter went out from under me and I quickly stumbled to a stop--amazingly all on my feet. Where did that coordination come from?!? I was more careful, slowly braking the next time I had to stop. 

We took our scooters up to Sacré Coeur, which meant we didn’t have to trek up the hill or tons of stairs. Yeah! It was hilarious to ride the scooters over the cobblestone streets at times. Definitely the smoothest ride of my life...not. 

Sacre Cœur was gorgeous as always.

We peered out over Paris as we prepared to say goodbye! We stumbled upon a few more delightful surprises, like a pirate shop full of gummy candies, and some fun pastry shops at the base of the stairs.

We snatched up one last crepe at the base of MontMartre, and hoped back on the metro to return to our car and drive home. 

I’m so grateful for a chance to be in Paris again. There are still sights to see and mysteries to explore, as I suppose is much the very nature of Paris itself. A city full of mysteries, surprises, and new adventures around every corner. 

This was a funny sign in one of the restrooms indicating men to the left, women to the right.

Think the French know a thing or two?

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Since this was my second visit to Paris, and I had already seen most of the major monuments and museums during my last visit, this time I really wanted to do less rushing around the city, trying to see everything, and focus more on enjoying the experience of Paris in the fall.

During our 3.5 day stay in Paris here’s a list of the things we did:

• Stopped in Reims and saw Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims

• Explored Reims streets and wandered

• Checked in to our campsite at Huttopia Versailles got our tent set up, went to the train station and got our Navigo Decourte passes.

• Visited La Tour Eiffel Walked along La Seine river

• Went to visit the Trocadero Gardens (sadly, this area is all under construction as Paris is preparing for the Olympics in 2024. This entire area is being turned into a €72 million garden that will connect the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero Gardens)

• Visited the Statue of Liberty

• Climbed L’Arc de Triomphe and watched the light show on the Eiffel Tower I would highly suggest not climbing the Eiffel Tower and climbing L’Arc De Triomphe in the evening instead. See the Eiffel Tower light up every hour on the hour and still get a great view over Paris for half the price.

• Had a delicious dinner at Crepes and Greens

• Disneyland Paris ticket discounts for military members as well as tips and tricks.

• Pasteries at Boulangerie Delangle

• Attended the Paris France TempleLa Musée de Parfum Fragonarde Free museum - very cool

• Galeries de Lafayette

• Opéra National de Paris we couldn’t go inside because Fashion week was going on and there was an event, but it was fun to see and… we ended up missing our train at one point because we got caught up chatting with a sweet designer from the Philippines.

• Sainte Chapelle. The app doesn’t work very well, but do get the €3 audio guide or read the free brochure

• Notre Dame - so sad to see! You can’t go inside still from the fire damage

• Rode electric scooters

• Sacre Coeur

• And of course, we ate lots of Crepes & Macarons