LAST DAY: Art Appreciation and Saying Au Revoir

Quote of the day: "Ooooh that was strong, I should NOT have shot that." EM upon gulping down a VERY strong Parisian cappuccino after linner.

VM: Our last day in Paris was dedicated to the arts (clearly at my request, but I thought it was only fair as it balanced out our day of American consumerism at Disney!) We slept in on Friday morning and once we arose, we got our luggage ready as we had a very early departure scheduled for Saturday. We then headed out to our local bakery for morning breakfast fare. We knew it was going to be a good dog day when the first thing we encountered were two pups playing in our courtyard like kids.

Cute Parisian pups out for playtime.

Can't wait to see our own pups.

As I mentioned before, our apartment building, which in the 16^th century was a convent that housed wayward visitors trying to get into Paris, has a wonderful Melrose Place-type cobblestone courtyard in the center. Each bottom floor apartment features a little patio with hedges/plants delineating each space. It is charming and we can picture how in the summer, everyone spends their evenings hanging outdoors.

The two dogs had been let out of their master’s ground floor apartment for “playtime” and they were toooooo cute.

We had a late morning breakfast picking up a croque monsieur for Emma (an amazing French ham & cheese sandwich), a quiche fromage (cheese quiche) for me and a croissant for HM. JM breakfasted with an éclair (breakfast of champions!)

JM decided The Thinker looked like he was
"taking a poop." A Griswold moment
without a doubt.

Feeling satisfied, we then tackled the Metro again to make our way to the Rodin Museum. Rodin, of course, is a famed artist, primarily known for his sculptures, who worked and lived in Paris. We were familiar with his most famous works, The Thinker, and The Kiss, but also spent some time exploring the gorgeous gardens of his once-home (which is currently under renovation so it was closed and hidden under scaffolding) to see his other works.

We all ultimately decided Rodin must’ve been a teeny bit whacked. The subjects of his sculptures were often very dark, exploring themes surrounding hell and damnation. Once we saw the sculpture of the dad eating his dead kids, we decided it was time to go!

Girls relaxing in Rodin's gardens plus Rodin's The Kiss.

The Orsay Museum is housed in an old
train station.

Afterwards, we made our way on foot to the Orsay Museum which is about 1.5 miles from the Rodin home and is housed in a beautiful old train station.

The Orsay is particularly known for its permanent collection of impressionist works.  Among others, it houses some very famous pieces from Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gaugin, Degas and Mamet. While I’m not going to lie and say the family was dying to make this stop as this was definitely something I wanted to do, I think everyone found something they could relate to.

EM studied Monet in art class. Shout-out to
Mrs. Loret!

EM got to see one of Monet’s most famous works in his “water lilies” series that she had studied and replicated in art class. HM was fascinated by the Van Gogh self-portrait and JM liked seeing “Starry Night.” The latter caused controversy between JM and HM as she insisted this wasn’t the REAL Starry Night. Turns out there are two works by Van Gogh known as Starry Night. There is the REALLY famous one that is housed in Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in NYC and the one we saw.

Van Gogh self-portrait housed at the Orsay.

The first "Starry Night Over The Rhone" painted in 1888 is housed at the Orsay.
It is much more serene than the better known Starry Night.

The next "Starry Night" painted in 1889 is a bit more intense and housed in NYC.
Reference pic from Google.

And me, well, I liked seeing them all, especially the Degas ballerina sculpture - "Small Dancer Aged 14." Degas' ballerinas are some of my favorites and I’d seen some before in NYC, but am still fascinated by their beauty.

A Degas ballerina, one of VM's favorite
pieces in the Orsay.

From the Orsay, it was just a short walk to the Louvre so we decided to at least SEE the famous pyramid entrance even though we still didn’t want to tackle the crowds (which are crazy) at this museum.

JM and his girls: Louvre edition.

By now, our linner stomachs were talking so we made our way by Metro to our last area of the city we had decided to visit – Montmartre.  Montmartre is an artsy part of Paris, perched on steep hills above the city.  It is where Monet, Mamet, Renoir and the gang hung out and worked.

We knew we were heading to something a little different when we got off the Metro and were met with a spiral staircase decorated with beautiful Impressionist mosaics along the walls. What we didn’t realize is that the staircase kept going and going and going. 90 steps in all to make it to the top!

And this was just the start. 

We took some time to first check out a tiled mural named Le mur des je t’aime (I love you wall) that says “I love you” 311 times in 250 different languages. It is such a simple yet powerful piece.  We all loved it.

The I love you wall in Montmarte is in a small park. Photo creds: HM.

Montmarte is one hill after another.

We had consulted Trip Advisor for a good lunch spot and started making our way to Chez Plumeau by climbing, climbing and then climbing some more. Montmartre reminded us of San Francisco, it has a similar vibe and all the crazy stairs!

The French know how to do crepes!

Our hilltop linner spot was perfect.

We finally found our lunch spot and were so glad we did.  Our final linner of our ‘cation was delish. We enjoyed eating outdoors and JM even had steak tartar.  We ended our meal with yummy Parisian crepes. And of course, JM and I polished off our final bottle of French Bordeaux. It is no doubt that while California wines are good, we have found the Italian and French reds to be outstanding. Maybe it’s the setting and the fact that we are relaxed, but JM and I have LOVED the wine culture.

Fortified after our linner, we set off to explore the area. Along the way, we visited the main square that bustled with artists peddling their wares. The girls each bought themselves Paris-inspired artwork for their rooms.

We then trekked upwards again to the highest point in Montmartre that is where the Sacre-Coeur Basilica (Sacred Heart) is located. It is a beautiful Catholic church considered “young” as it was built in the early 1900s. It was really stunning and the view of Paris from this vantage point was really great.

JM and his girls: Montmartre edition.

Built in 1914, the Sacre-Coeur Basilica sits atop of Paris.

The inside of the Basilica is magnificent.

JM & EM supervising Corporal LeBeau as he drew.

The real Corporal LeBeau.
Maybe it was just the beret that caused the resemblance.

Because the girls needed a potty pit stop, we stopped at a local café/bar for a drink. Here, the girls were seduced by one of the MANY local portrait painters. They negotiated their price for a charcoal painting of both of them. 

Since I had refreshing French champagne to sip upon, I was more than happy to watch as the artist made his attempt. I kept chuckling as he reminded JM and I of Corporal LeBeau from Hogan’s Heroes probably more due to his beret than his looks.  And his drawing talent was probably about the same as Corporal LeBeau, although he did seem very sincere in this attempt. Ultimately, we’re not sure whom he was drawing, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t HM and EM. Made for a good laugh.

JM starts looking dubious.

Not sure who LeBeau was painting, but it wasn't the McCarty girls.

By this point, it was close to 8:30pm and we decided it was time to wrap things up. As EM & JM had not been able to see the Eiffel Tower at night, we hailed a taxi to make one last stop on our way.

The Lord was smiling down upon us as we got yet another SUPER NICE Parisian taxi driver who spoke excellent English. He explained that there was a marathon going on at the Tower and that trying to get there would be crazy, but that he was going to take us to another vantage point so we could see the “sparkles” that happen only every hour on the hour, starting at 9pm. They are beautiful and only last for 5 minutes.

True to his word, he got us there just in the nick of time and we were able to end our Parisian experience and incredible ‘cation on a high note with the incredible sparkling Eiffel Tower as our backdrop.

Beautiful final stop on our 2015 'cation. 

It is hard to believe that this journey that has been literally years in the making has come and gone! It is amazing that with all the with all the trains, planes & automobiles (and even boats) that we took, everything worked out perfectly and that all our rental apartments made us feel right at home.

And I’m so happy that we waited until the girls were old enough to appreciate it and remember it. While I know at times they might’ve been overwhelmed with all the history and “educational” moments, I think overall they were able to have an appreciation for new cultures and all that it entails – navigating new languages, trying new foods, being open to new experiences and trying on someone else’s “normal.”

We feel so blessed to have had this incredible opportunity to visit these marvelous countries and are so grateful to friends and family who gave us wonderful recommendations along the way.  Can’t wait to start planning the next one….

Au revoir to 'cation 2015! Photo creds: HM & the selfie stick.