Paris Holiday Trip

Introduction

From the 18th – 22nd of October Mum, Dad, Verity and I went on a family trip to Paris. This was a very big step for everyone but particularly for me. This holiday had been shelved for the past five years due to a variety of different problems including COVID.  One of the main reasons why it had been delayed so long was because of my depression and anxiety. The holiday was supposed to be for my 21st birthday but I did not feel well enough to go. I am very proud of myself as I see this as a big achievement. It was also lovely as I got to spend time with Verity as I really miss her, although I also enjoyed time with my parents as well. Love you M and D thank you so much for this!! I have not written for a while on the blog so I thought that this might be a good way to start again by writing about what my family and I did on holiday.

It’s very lovely to be writing about a really wonderful trip we had recently! I had never been to Paris, (Rowan had been on a school trip, and Mum and Dad had been a couple of times before). Paris is always depicted as being so beautiful, artistic and magical in films, books and music, so I was excited that my first time there lived up to what I had seen and hoped for!  

Travel

 Lottie and Frankie (our two dogs) went into kennels on Sunday 17th of October. This was quite hard for us (particularly Mum and Dad) as this is the longest we have left them. On Monday 18th of October at 7:00am a taxi came for us to take us to Manchester airport. This part of the journey went very smoothly and the driver was very friendly. We arrived at the airport at about 8:45. We checked in and then went through security. This did not go as easily as they were only operating one of the machines to check hand luggage, so it took a long time for us to get through. However, we did manage to have a drink before we boarded our flight to Paris.

The flight was quite short, only about one hour 20 minutes. I slept through most of this as I had not slept well the night before - though I did stay awake until after take off. I love take off! Hurry up and invent environmentally friendly airport travel - there are so many places I want to go to!

We then went in a taxi to our hotel the Petit Chomel (where we were staying). It was about 3’o clock and I was still very tired so I went to the hotel room I would be sharing with Verity and had a nap. Verity arrived a couple of hours later, I was very excited (love you big sis).

At 7 o’clock we went to the restaurant next door for dinner. It was called Les Botanistes.  The waitress was very nice and had a lovely accent. She spoke very good English and seemed interested in us. I had duck with a celery mash. This may sound not very nice, but it tasted divine - might be something to do with the amount of butter that went into it!  Even Mum, who hates cooked celery, tried a bit and said it was lovely. I was very excited to see the dessert menu - I love desserts.  They’re one of my many food weaknesses! I had a chocolate fondant with ice cream: this happens to be one of my favourite desserts. It was very rich and decadent! I was still very tired so while everyone else had a tea or coffee, I went back to the hotel to bed.

Verity will explain about how her travel went below.  From what I can tell, it went a lot more smoothly - both ways - than mine, Mum or Dad’s.

Verity travel

I was very lucky to be able to get on the swish Eurostar and belt my way under the Channel! It was very exciting arriving in Paris Gare du’Nord and meeting my old flatmate Juliette, who I stayed with for two days before meeting Mum, Dad and Row. Juliette made sure I had a wonderful time: she took me all around the beautiful, cobbled district of the Marais, and we also went to Pere Lachaise cemetery (where Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison are buried), which was really fascinating! We made it to Piaf’s grave but got quite lost amidst all the French gothic headstones and family houses!

On Monday I hopped on a bus to cross the city to meet the family, who were staying on the South side of the river in St-Germain-des-Pres. It felt quite magical to drive through Paris, see all the architecture, cross the river and pass by the Notre Dame.

Tuesday

Verity and I woke up the next day at about 8:00. We had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, with croissants, French baguettes, cheese and fruit salad.

 We decided that we would take the Metro to Montmartre, which is an attractive village right in the centre of Paris at the highest point. Several famous artists from the 19th and 20th century lived near there. These included Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, and Vincent Van Gogh.

There are two famous churches at the summit of Montmartre, one was Saint Pierre de Montmartre which was first constructed in the 1100s.  The other church was the one we visited: the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur. It was built after the Franco - Prussian war ended in 1870 as a reaction to more than a century of war and violence in France. Construction for it began in 1874 and it was completed in 1914. It had a scheduled consecration for the 17th of October 1914 but World War One caused a suspension of it. The consecration finally happened on the 16th of October 1919. The church is very beautiful to look at with several white domes. We went inside and had a look at the exquisite stained-glass windows. I’ve always loved looking at stained glass windows as the colours are so pretty when the light shines through them.

After looking inside, Verity, Dad and I decided to climb the steps to the highest dome while Mum stayed outside. I was a bit worried about the climb, but I thought I would give it a try.

I said to Verity, “Do you dare me?” and she said,

“Yeah I dare you,” with a smirk on her face.

There are 290 spiraling steps to the top which were a bit of a killer and needed a couple of short breaks. By the time we reached the top my heart was having a party all to itself! After a lengthy pause, I began to take in the magnificent panoramic view of Paris. I even managed to take several pictures; however they might be a bit blurry as the sun was very bright!

After about fifteen minutes we decided to go back down and find Mum. I was very nervous about this as the steps are very steep and spirally, Some were barely bigger than cheese wedges (I’m exaggerating). I had to be really careful of where to put my feet. My legs and ankles had turned to jelly by the time we reached the bottom and found Mum. I was very proud of myself for doing it though.

We decided to find a cafe and Verity guided us to Les Deux Moulins café which was not far from Sacre Coeur. Les Deux Moulins is the café that Amelie works in, in the film ‘Amelie’. There is shrine and a sign to her in the restaurant. We only had a drink there as nobody was hungry.

Mum and Dad thought that we could do a River cruise but the next one wasn’t for a little while, so we decided to take more of a look around. We went to see the building Vincent Van Gogh lived in and then went to see the outside of the Moulin Rouge. I love the film Moulin Rouge, in fact in February Verity and I have tickets to see it on the West End!! Slowly we walked to the Ile de la Cite in the middle of the Seine to buy tickets  for the river cruise, but the next time slot was fully booked so we had to wait again - an hour and fifteen minutes. We killed the time by meandering around a nice public garden right at the top end of the island.

We then went on the river cruise which had a tour guide who spoke in both French and English. The river cruise started opposite Le Louvre Art Gallery and Museum which is huge. The river cruise guide said that it’s so big that if you only looked at each painting for three seconds it would still take you months to look round the whole museum. I loved looking at the famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower as we sailed along. It was a very interesting talk as well.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at the Restaurant La Petite Chaise. I had escargots (snails) in garlic butter (everything tastes better with butter (!) though I actually really like snails…) for my starter. For my main course I had a hamburger but it wasn’t an ordinary one as it had no bread bun and was instead layers of meat and cheese with an egg on the top. It was wonderful to look at. By the time I finished it I was beginning to feel a little bit full… but not quite! I decided I wouldn’t have something chocolatey for pudding, which is what I would normally  have from the dessert menu. There’s a joke in my family that my autobiography should be called

 ‘I Would Like the Chocolate One!’

 This is because normally I study the dessert menu for ages before always choosing something with chocolate in it for my dessert. Mum, Dad and Verity were surprised when I chose to have a nutty frozen dessert which I really enjoyed. 

Verity thoughts on Tuesday

It was an amazingly warm October day in Paris (23 degrees!) and we had a really gorgeous day walking round sun- dappled Montmartre. Montmartre put on a right show of artistic bohemian energy with all the cafes, paintings displayed out on the streets, and little motorcycles and battery driven stand up scooters pootling up and down the roads. The river cruise was really interesting, covering so much of Paris’ history- and it’s always fascinating to see a city in a different way. So many capital cities are built around a river, and it’s intriguing to think about the people so long ago who settled; knowing that being by a river was a means to thriving life - much like today.

Wednesday

The next morning, we had tickets booked in advance for Le Louvre so after a reasonably early breakfast we took the bus to the museum. Even though we had prebooked there was still a very long queue.

I really enjoyed going around the art gallery although I have to say I do find them quite tiring as you are on your feet for a long time and do a lot of just standing.

Fun fact:

The reason why standing is more tiring than walking at times is because of how weight support is distributed in each position. This means that most of the weight is supported by the legs when you’re standing still but when you’re walking around, the weight is more evenly distributed to other parts of the body.

Back to Le Louvre! First, we looked at some Greek mythology sculptures and then we went and looked at the Napoleon III rooms. My favourite was the living room - see pictures below. I said to mum,

 “I want our living room designed like this!”

 She laughed and said, “I think it’s a bit too glitzy!”

There is a corridor in Le Louvre which is about 450 metres long and seems never ending. We saw several famous paintings including one of the most famous paintings in the world - the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. 

The Mona Lisa is painted on oil wood and is actually quite small measuring 77cm by 53cm. There was a very long queue to get a closer look at it so I only looked at it from a distance. I have to say I actually found the painting opposite more interesting. It was called the Wedding Feast of Cana by Paolo Caliari and depicts Jesus performing the miracle of turning water into wine. It’s measurements are huge- over six metres high and  almost 10 metres wide. It was completed around 1563.

Another painting I liked was the Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault. This painting was completed in the year 1819. It depicts a group of people who are victims of a shipwreck floating on a raft and they have to resort to extreme measures such as cannibalism to survive. The painter chose to show the darkest moment , where there are bodies everywhere. However, there is hint of hope as you can see a ship in the far distance sailing towards them. This is the ship that saved the survivors. I like the idea behind this as it brings a really important figurative message, ‘It’s always darkest before the dawn’.

We also looked at some Egyptian antiquities such as a reconstruction of the tomb of Akhethotep . He was a high official of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The funeral chapel structure that was on display measures 16 metres wide and over 6 metres high.

I was feeling quite tired so Verity and I decided  to go back to the hotel room while Mum and Dad went for a walk. We got to the room and I had a lie down before it was time for dinner.

Verity and I love crepes (they’re Verity’s favourite food!) so we decided to go to a creperie for dinner. Mum asked the person on reception which places he would recommend, and he recommended Le Creperie Josselin. At the creperie for my main course I had a crepe called Maraichere which was filled with egg, bacon, cheese and cream. Oh my gosh SOOO gooood! Then for my dessert crepe I had a Martiniquaise which was filled with banana chocolate, coconut ice cream and rum. Absolute ultra  Yummo!

Verity thoughts on Wednesday

The Louvre was such an exciting, hustly bustly Museum to look around - and only seemed to get bigger and bigger the more you walked round it!  I think we most enjoyed seeing Napoleon III’s rooms, as they were such a symbol of a glitzy period of time in France, and Rowan was also incredibly at home in them (she has expensive taste!) The crepe/galettes we had in the evening were 10’s across the board - fig jam and goats cheese on a buckwheat base is a true, delectably fried circle of joy!

Thursday

On Thursday after breakfast, we decided to go to the Catacombs in Paris. We had booked in advance for a 12:15 slot so before we went there, we had a look round a graveyard close by. This is Montparnasse – another place where famous people reside.  I’ll say that French graveyards are a lot more upmarket than English ones.

We then went for a booking at the Catacombs.  We paid for an audio guide as well. To access the Catacombs, you have to descend 131 spiral steps. I’ll say that these steps were a lot easier to manage than the steps at Sacre Coeur as there were half the amount and they were nowhere near as steep.

The construction of the Catacombs of Paris began in the late 18th century. The site had once been a limestone quarry although it had been abandoned for many years   The reason why they were created was because the Paris’s other graveyards were becoming too overcrowded which was causing disease and the land to decay.  Charles Axel Guillaumot, an inspector at the Department of General Quarry Inspection was chosen to begin preparation for the site and to organize the bone transfers.

The first transfers occurred from 1785 to 1785. The transferring took place at night to avoid reactions from the Church and the public of Paris. The bones were dumped into quarry wells and piled into the galleries by the workers. This process went on during the beginning of the French revolution until 1814. It was then resumed in the year 1840. The Catacombs were open to the public from quite an early time. We were surprised by how short a period they had been in use. It was very eerie looking at the skulls. Just thinking about the fact that these were once people. I kept wondering who they were and what they did? The information had told us that a lot of the bones showed signs of malnutrition and disease.

After climbing up 113 steps we decided to take a break and had a coffee at a café before visiting the Eugene Delacroix Museum. As I mentioned before, some of his work is displayed in Le Louvre. He had produced over 9000 works in his lifetime. I remember dad told me about a painting depicting a Greek mythology setting. It was of a beautiful woman holding a swan by the throat. At first glance I thought how horrible but then dad told me that the swan was Zeus and he was trying to seduce the woman under false pretences. I thought it was very #Metoo.

Delacroix was also very fond of the story of Romeo and Juliet and depicts scenes from it in some of his work. He also painted the walls for the Church of Saint Surplice which we visited afterwards. It was interesting as some of his early drafts were in the gallery, so it was good to look at the finished product in the church. We then slowly meandered back to our hotel stopping at shops for Verity to buy presents for people.

For our final dinner in Paris we went to a recommended restaurant called Brasserie Vagenende. It has a beautifully constructed interior with lots of mirrors and lights.  For my starter I decided to have snails again. I don’t wish to compare restaurants but I think I enjoyed these snails more than the ones at Tuesday nights, although they were harder to work with as they were still in their shells.  I had to use a surgical implement to get them to come out! For my main course I had steak tartar and fries which I really enjoyed. For dessert I had profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce and ice cream which was pure heaven. I really really enjoyed our final night in Paris.

Verity’s thoughts on Thursday

We had a really jam-packed, interesting day on Thursday. The Catacombs were fascinating.  On first thought I expected them to be a morbid spook-fest, but they were so interestingly presented, as they displayed and discussed two formative events of Parisian history. The Delacroix Museum was lovely to go around, and after that we popped into this amazing little shop opposite which sold herbs and spices from round the world.  They were all displayed in little glass jars, like a posh perfumery, and we all enjoyed smelling them and being incredibly touristy - much like the rest of the holiday really!

We all had a lovely time at our final meal, Rowan was incredibly happy throughout her three courses - a joy to see!

Friday

Now we’re onto the final day of the Kirk family holiday, sob. Mine, Mum and Dad’s flight was at 9:15 in the evening so we had practically a whole day before we had to be at the airport. Verity also didn’t have to leave until early evening.

We had our last breakfast at the hotel. I was thinking I’m really going to miss this place. We then went to a garden - Le Jardin du Luxembourg - for a little while and had a nice walk around.  It was very pretty.

Then we went to the Shakespeare and Company book store. This was founded by George Whitman in the year 1951 and  is considered to be one of the most famous bookshops in the world. The building was constructed in the early 17th century and was originally a monastery. George Whitman used to say in jest that he was the sole surviving monk of the monastery. This is what George Whitman has said about the store.

  “I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations.” 

I liked looking around the store although I didn’t buy anything there and we didn’t stay very long as it was quite busy.

We then noticed that Notre Dame was across the Seine  from the bookstore and decided to take a closer look at it. We couldn’t go inside as it was closed for repairs after the fire in 2019, but we sat and admired its frontage.  Notre Dame de Paris is considered to one of the most famous cathedrals in the world. I first heard of it watching the Disney movie, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’.  [As a little girl I always really enjoyed the film.]  The church was built on the site of two church ruins. The idea of building the current church occurred in 1160 by Maurice de Sully and the foundation stone was laid in 1163 by Pope Alexander III. It took almost two hundred years before the cathedral was fully constructed. It is magnificent to look at even if you’re just looking from the outside. It is hopefully going to be reopened by 2024 just in time for the summer Olympics.

We then went to look at L’Arc de Triomphe.  This was inspired by the Roman arch of Titus. It’s about 50 m high, 45 m long and 22 m wide.  Napoleon I came up with the idea for it in 1806.  However, it was not completed until the reign of King Louis-Phillipe. He inaugurated it in 1836 and dedicated it to the armies of the Revolution and the French Empire. The Flame of Remembrance is rekindled every day at 18:30. We were all feeling a little tired from walking around so we didn’t climb up to the top.

The day before, I suggested to the family that we go for afternoon tea somewhere for the last few hours of our holiday together. Mum asked Benjamin on our hotel reception for recommendations. He immediately suggested Cafe Angelina's, in fact Mum said his eyes lit up while he was talking about the hot chocolate that they served there! We didn’t have to wait very long before we were seated at a table. The layout of the café was very pretty, it even had a little shop. I had a Mont Blanc patisserie which is Angelina’s signature pastry. It is a meringue covered with a layer of light whipped cream and then coated in chestnut vermicelli. Its shape was inspired by the trending female hairstyle at the time: a sleek short bob. It was very rich but tasted delicious, I had it with the recommended hot chocolate which was pure perfection. I kept badgering Mum to buy a tub of the hot chocolate mixing powder and she did after we finished the meal. I have set myself a challenge to make a French patisserie for the final week of the great British  Bake Off in three weeks.

Then we went back to the hotel and said goodbye to Verity who was going back to London by Eurostar. We didn’t get home until half past midnight after our flight was late taking off and it was a very tiring evening. I felt very sad that the holiday was over as I really enjoyed it and I have fond memories of it.  Paris, je t’aime!!

Verity’s thoughts on Friday

We had a lovely last breakfast, went for a stroll around the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg and then pottered up towards the Seine. I had been told by lots of people to visit Shakespeare and Co, and it was really lovely to see that Paris seems to have lots of independent bookstores. Shakespeare and Co was laid out really beautifully, with these gorgeous stairs with quotes written up them, and wallpaper covered with French authors. They also had a store cat, who was slinking around the book shelves soliciting strokes and praise.

Notre Dame is so impressive up close, even surrounded by lots of cranes. An art exhibition has been commissioned to wrap around the front of it, displaying children’s drawings of their dream Notre Dame. Some of them were so beautiful and imaginative, and it was sweetly hopeful having them displayed whilst the church is being renovated.

L’Arc de Triomphe is very impressive, and some of the stores along the Champs Elysée are done in the beautiful old fashioned Parisian architecture. Rowan was in ecstasy at our trip to Angelina’s.  I think that if she could, she’d go there weekly.

It was strange to have the Eurostar sweep me back home, I ate my final jambon et fromage baguette on the train and presented my flatmates with lots of Parisian goodies when I returned. I feel very lucky to have had the experience :)