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A Few Weeks in Paris |
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A Few Weeks in Paris |
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In March of 1997 I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Netscape
office in Paris to help out with IS stuff there. Poor
Darin was quite
overwhelmed at that point, and I was there to set up a couple of
servers and generally make myself useful. I spent a little over
two weeks there, including a three-day side trip to the London
office. I returned to Paris in May after spending a week vacationing in a tiny town near Limoges. The weather was much nicer in May, but Sven and I were working so we didn't get to do much sight-seeing. We took one day and traded turns picking sights to see. That day we saw Notre Dame, Montmartre, the Cluny Museum and Saint-Chapelle.
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| France is famous for its food. I had several
memorable meals in Paris. "Le Bookiniste" was divine, and is
trés chic besides. There's a great Cuban place
in the Bastille, but I don't recall the name. My worst run-in with stereotypical French behaviour was getting thrown out of a restaurant with a group of other people. Sort of a long story, but it was a shame. Their chicken was fantastic. The best meal I had, by far, was not in Paris, but in Rochefort-en-Yvelines. The restaurant is called "Auberge de la Brazoucade". The chef comes out in his tall white hat to take your order. There are little tidbits between the courses that are magical, like a tiny mushroom soufflé baked in an egg shell. The wine list is longer than most novels. Go. It's worth the drive.
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Another personal favorite is Sacré Coeur on Montmartre. There
are numerous cool things about this place. The first is the
"funicular". It's an odd little tram that will take you from the
bottom of the hill to the top, which is otherwise a bit of a hike.
The view from the top of the hill is unequaled. On a clear day you
can just sit and see how many landmarks you can spot. The church itself is lovely. I was most impressed by the solid silver statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Just around the corner is the famous square where sundry artists sit and paint. Most of the paintings are very tacky, but a few are quite nice. Then there's Versailles. It's good to be the King!
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By the end of our sight-seeing I thought Sven would kill me if I took
him to another church. I promised that Saint-Chapelle would be the
last one. There was a picture of Saint-Chapelle's windows in one of
my guide books, and I decided that it was definitely something I wanted
to see. We had a little trouble finding the place. It's inside the Palace of Justice. Louis the 14th built it inside the Palace as a sort of power play against the Church. With the Chapel inside the Palace he could squirrel away all sorts of holy relics and such. After waiting in line and circling up a particularly claustrophobic spiral staircase we found ourselves in the main part of the chapel. Even Sven was impressed. The towering stained glass windows are breathtakingly beautiful.
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| The Gardens at Versailles |
