Le sixième jour: Paris - Musee d'Orsay

On our sixth day in Paris, we decided to go back to the Musee d'Orsay. Our attempt to get inside was unsuccessful the previous day so we wanted to try our luck again. We got to the museum a little bit earlier than the day before, but we were still greeted by a sea of people who had already lined up for admission. Since it wasn't raining this time, we decided that the wait would be tolerable. And actually, we didn't really have to wait for very long. Again, the museum's security told us to go inside after they spotted us with our children. Those munchkins can sure come in handy sometimes! Here is a photo of the museum's exterior.

Once inside, we feasted our eyes on the museum's spectacular interior. The Musee d'Orsay was converted from an old train station with clock towers on two sides of the building. Alan had proclaimed that whoever did the interior design of the museum was a genius (that was before we found ourselves on sets of staircases and escalators that took you from the very top floor to the very bottom - and none of the floors in between). Here are some photos of the museum's interior.



We perused through some of the special exhibits that were located on the ground floor. We checked out the Pastels exhibit first, thinking that Jocelyn would enjoy the pieces. Unfortunately, Jocelyn wasn't too impressed by the pieces so we went into the adjacent salle to look at the Picasso / Manet exhibit. The focus of this exhibit was on Pablo Picasso's reinterpreted versions of Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner Sur l'Herbe (The Lunch on the Grass). Jocelyn is a fan of Picasso, so she enjoyed those pieces more.

By the time we were done with the Picasso / Manet exhibit, it was time for lunch. We ventured up the second floor to dine at Le Restaurant. The dining room at Le Restaurant was absolutely beautiful, with opulent fixtures that bring French palaces to mind - to my mind at least. My mother instantly fell in love with this place, and offered to treat us to an expensive lunch.


After lunch, we went back down to the ground floor to look at the statues.

Then Gabriel became quite excited when he recognized this statue of the Little Prince from his My Little Orsay picture book.

I bought the book for him about four years ago, the last time we visited the Musee d'Orsay together. Seeing this statue jogged his memory and this trip to the museum instantly became more entertaining to him. He then started to roam around the halls to see if he could recognize other pieces that were in his book. Interestingly, we left the book in Oakland so it's been at least four months since he last saw the book. And even when we were still in Oakland, he read the book less frequently as he got older. I was very surprised that he was able to recall these pieces so readily. Here are some photos of some of the other pieces that he recognized.


What was truly amazing was that he recognized Compotier, verre et pommes in Maurice Denis's Hommage à Cézanne and asked why it showed a group of gentlemen were huddling around Paul Cézanne's painting.

After an afternoon of exploring the museum, we decided it was time to leave and grab some dinner. As with our trip to the Louvre, we didn't have time to see everything. But that will just give us something to do on our next trip to Paris, oui?

Dinner at the oldest restaurant in Paris

Glenda and I had a date tonight while my in-laws looked after the kids. This was our first date since we moved to Europe and we decided to go a little bit extravagant.

We went to Le Procope, which was founded in 1686 and is the oldest restaurant in Paris, on rue de l'Ancienne Comédie for dinner. Luminaries who had dined at this restaurant in the past three centuries included Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, and Benjamin Franklin.

We arrived at this cafe at the time of our reservation punctually. We were led to a table in a dining room of red and gold decor with magnificent chandelier lights. We were given an English menu (hey, I speak some west-coast Canadian French, not Quebecois, and Glenda speaks some French of unknown geographic origin). On its menu, there are items such as calf's head stewed in 1686 style or coq au vin. The price is not excessively expensive if you don't order individual plates. The prix fixe dinners are 32€ after 19:30 hr.

Glenda and I ordered a couple glasses of champagne, some Brittany oysters, then a carafe of vin rouge and two prix fixe dinners. The salad with smoked salmon, escargots, and canard (duck) were all great. The duck was so tender that it was perhaps the best duck I have ever had (honestly).

When the bill came, it did not give me a heart attack. There are certainly haute cuisine in Paris that would cost a fortune, but the cost at Le Procope is similar to a moderately fancy night out in the Bay Area (including the babysitting cost). And this was our first night out in four months!

Le cinquième jour: Paris - (freezing) rained out!

It was raining outside today. Since Jocelyn had such a great time at Musée du Louvre yesterday, we decided to go to Musée d'Orsay today.

We arrived at approximately 11:00 hr, and all we saw was a sea of umbrellas at the plaza outside the museum. It would be miserable to wait in line with the kids in winter rain for an hour, so we changed our plan to visiting Musée Curie, where Madam Curie labored for decades, instead.

After lunch, we found our way to the Radium Institute on rue Pierre et Marie Curie, where the museum is. Our excitement from finding the museum was short-lived as there was a sign at the front entrance telling visitors that the museum was closed for its winter break. Duh! I should have known better as all academics are vacationing at this time of the year! Gabriel was so disappointed that he wept.

It was still raining and the weather was miserable. Gabriel and I decided to return to the hotel, and the rest of the gang decided to go shopping. Once we returned to the hotel, Gabriel began reading his Pocket Scientist, a Christmas gift from Glenda's cousin Eugenia, while I caught up with some physics preprints that I brought along.

Le quatrième jour: Paris - Musee du Louvre

On our fourth day, we left the warm confines of our hotel room and walked out to greet the crisp Parisian morning. Our sightseeing strategy was to go to Musee du Louvre on Monday (since Musee d'Orsay would be closed) and go to the Musee d'Orsay on Tuesday (since the Louvre would be closed).

Apparently everyone else had a similar plan since the line to get into the Louvre was ginormous. We waited in line for quite a while (man, it was cold), until one of the security guards saw our deux enfants and took pity on us. The security guard led us into the inside of the glass pyramid, from which we were able to go downstairs to purchase tickets. Once inside we had to stand in yet another long line to check in our coats and bags (Jocelyn and Gabriel's cute faces could not help us this time). By then it was time for lunch, so we went to the museum's cafe for a quick meal. At least it was a quick meal after we had waited in line to get the food and pay for everything.

After lunch, we were finally able to explore the museum. Gabriel marveled at the intricate carvings the sculptors were able to impart to their sculptures, as with this bust of Diana (the Roman goddess of the moon).

Meanwhile Jocelyn was just plain giddy when we wandered into the hall that housed the paintings from the Italian Renaissance. When I asked her why she was so drawn to the paintings from this period she answered, "Because I like the colors and the people are painted so beautifully." She also liked some of the portraits painted by French artists before the 1848 Revolution. Here are some photos of Jocelyn with some of her favorite paintings.

Gabriel wasn't nearly as impressed with the Louvre's collection as Jocelyn was, but we think that this kind of art just isn't his thing. He's more of a science/music kind of guy. Here is Gabriel with one of his favorite paintings, though I accidentally cropped off the top part of the frame in this photo.

To sum up, everyone had a fun and educational day at the Louvre. The museum is humongous, so we didn't get a chance to look at everything. But that is just an excuse for us to come back, isn't it? Our planned stop for the next day was the Musee d'Orsay, which houses works that were created after the Revolution of 1848.

Le troisième jour: Paris - more walking

Our third day in Paris turned out to be another beautiful yet cold day, so we decided to spend it visiting other "must see" sites. We started out by taking the Metro to Tour d'Eiffel. We had initially planned to take a lift up to the top to take in the views of beautiful Paris. Unfortunately our plan was thwarted - it seemed like everyone had decided to spend their winter holiday in Paris. The line to the ticket counter was so long and windy that we decided to nix the plan and just take photos from the perimeter of the tower.

It was still fairly early in the day, so we decided to take the Metro to the Montmartre district. Montmartre has long been known as being the home to many famous artists, so that alone was enough to entice Jocelyn into visiting the area. We arrived just in time for lunch so we dined at a local brasserie. Gabriel had his second croque-monsieur of the trip, while Alan chose the croque-saumon (same as the croque-monsieur, except the ham is substituted with smoked salmon) and I had the croque madame (the same as the croque-monsieur except with a fried egg on top). Jocelyn decided to have sausages and fries (sounds suspiciously like a German meal, doesn't it?) while my parents had the smoked salmon quiche (my mother is quite fond of quiche).

After a quick meal, we headed toward the Basilique Sacré-Coeur. The kids got sidetracked by a carousel that was located at the base of the Sacré Coeur, so we let them play for a while before we trekked up the stairs to the Basilique.

After a few rounds, we were able to pry the kids off the carousel. Then we had to weave our way through a massive throng of people to get to the Sacré Coeur. It seemed like there was a mob of people everywhere we decided to go. Once we made our way inside, we saw that all of our efforts were worth it. The church's interior was stunning, adorned with beautiful stained glass windows and interesting architectural details. Here is a photo of the exterior.

Since it was still fairly early in the afternoon after we had finished looking around the Sacré Coeur, we decided to go to yet another location. This time we headed to the Panthéon, which is located in the Latin Quarter. Though it was originally used as a church, it is now a burial place for the national heroes of France. Amongst those who are resting at the Panthéon (in the underground crypt) are Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Alan mentioned that a few famous scientists were buried there as well: Carnot, Pierre and Marie Currie, and Lagrange. Here are some photos of the Panthéon.

After our tour of the Panthéon, it was starting to get dark (and pretty gosh darn cold) so we decided to have some dinner before we headed back to the hotel. I must admit, the children were very good sports throughout the entire trip. We spent a lot of time walking, but they never complained about being tired. They even seemed to be genuinely interested in everything we were looking at, though most of the time they didn't really understand the full significance of what they were viewing. Despite that, they were still attentive and asked questions whenever they were puzzled. Those kids just continue to amaze me.

Le deuxième jour: Paris - La Grande Arche, Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, et marché de Noël

It was a cloudless day in Paris today, and we decided to sightsee and save the museum visits for rainy days. We began the day in the neighborhood of the hotel. There are a lot of public art in
the district of La Défense and the main attractions are the esplanade and the Grande Arche, which you see here. The Grande Arche is the newest monument on the western end of the Axe historique.

We then took the Métro to the other arche - the Arc de Triomphe. It was chilly and windy, but we hiked up the 300+ steps and went atop the monument to get a good view of Paris. It was too hazy to see really far. Gabriel became interested about Napoleon and the history of the arch while we were browsing at the displays.

We had lunch at a cafe and Gabriel fell in love with croque -monsieur instantly. We strolled along Avenue des Champs-Élysées afterwards. My in-laws had their pilgrimage to the Louis Vuitton flagship store, as did thousands of other tourists who didn't have to finance their children's future education and were eager to claim back the 20% VAT on purchases over 175€ upon their departure from Europe.

Champs-Élysées turned into a marché de Noël (Christmas market) just east of Grand Palais, The Christmas market in Karlsruhe ended on the night of Dec. 23; stalls were dismantled and there was absolutely no trace of the market's aftermath by the early hours of Dec. 24. Not so in Paris. There were still stalls selling merchandises and food on both sides of the famous avenue 2 days after Christmas! But the atmosphere was inferior to the Christmas markets we had visited in Germany. There were no people hanging around, or chatting with friends while enjoying a mug of vin chaud (hot wine; glühwein in German). There was just a single file of stalls on each side of the avenue. If the Germans were to run this Christmas market, I am sure that there would be at least two files of stalls on each side of the avenue and ample of standing room next to the hot-wine stalls. To make matter worse, the vin chaud was served in a plastic disposable cup, not an environmentally friendly ceramic mug (but then, not too many people were drinking vin chaud). There was one giant Ferris wheel at the eastern end of the market at Place de la Concorde. This giant wheel complements nicely with the light on the trees lining Champs-Élysées.


As the kids were getting hungry, we went to Quartier latin (Latin Quarter) for a prix fixe dinner at a random restaurant serving cuisine française traditionnelle. We were not too impressed by the food though, and vowed to find a better brasserie soon.

Here is a shot of Cathédrale Notre Dame that we took after dinner. More pictures of our day in Paris can be found here.

Le premier jour: le voyage vers Paris (merde!)

This was our travel day to Paris, which is only 3 hours away by direct TGV train service. Just in case we would miss the hearty German cuisine in the next seven days, we had lunch at the LOC cafe in the Karlsruhe train station before departing on the 13:30 train.

Everyone was in a jolly mood when the train arrived at the track only 3 minutes late (which is not bad for SNCF service). But a crisis broke out as soon as the train departed from the station. Seats 73 to 78 in car 15 were double-booked (so we thought). The train manager, who was a DB employee (it is a puzzle to me why the train manager on a French TGV train was a Deutsche Bahn employee) emerged on the scene and quickly sorted out the problem.

Merde! Our (by now) not-so-jolly party was holding a ticket valid for travel on December 28, not December 26. Perhaps I was so out-of-practice in traveling that I had forgotten to check the departure date when I purchased the ticket from a DB travel office nearly two months ago. So we stepped aside while the train manager was attending to other crises.

About half way between Karlsruhe and Strasbourg, France (the next stop), the train manager re-emerged. "We have to deal with the ticket here as this was issued by Deutsche Bahn" (which meant she was not going to kick us off the train and left us scrambling in Strasbourg). She asked for our Bahn Cards (which give our family a 25% discount on all DB tickets for about 60€ a year), tapped a few keys on her handheld ticket machine with her stylus, and quoted me the cost for making up the price difference for six second-class tickets traveling to Paris on December 26. Well, the additional cost was about 2€ per minute of travel. Since it was not priceless, my Mastercard took care of it. After this was settled, the printout of the receipts came to about a meter long.

"Unfortunately there are no more seats in the second-class cabin. You can stand in the bistro car..." But based on the hints that we received afterwards, we decided that taking seats 21 to 26 in the first class car would be a better option than hindering the food and drink sales in the dining car.

The Gare de l'Est station in Paris was chaotic at the time of our arrival, but we found our way to the adjacent Métro station. The queue of impatient tourists in front of the ticket counter was long. Being an impatient tourist, I went to a ticket vending machine to purchase a carnet of 10 tickets for 11,40€ (instead of 1,60€ for an individual ticket). This time, my Mastercard, which does not have a smart chip on it, did not work (so much for the "for everything else, there's Mastercard" slogan). But my German ATM card did.

To my relief, our hotel booking was for six nights beginning on December 26. At the height of the financial crisis in early November, I could get an excellent Internet-booking rate for a two bedroom suite at the Fraser Suite Hotel in La Défense for this busy tourist period. Although La Défense is outside Paris, it is the city's business district. Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Musée du Louvre are all a few Métro stops away. When we got off the Métro at the Esplanade de La Défense station, it took us a long while to find the hotel. The confusing signage did not help either: there were two signs, which were 5 meters apart and 250 meters from the hotel, directing clueless tourists to the hotel in opposite directions. Merde!

Christmas dinner

We had a lovely Christmas dinner tonight. I made the whole roasted turkey with citrus salt, recipe from Michael Chiarello via the Food Network website. I followed the recipe pretty closely, except that I omitted the rosemary. The turkey turned out pretty well - the meat was moist, with just enough citrus flavor. This is the exact same way that I prepared our Thanksgiving turkey, but Alan and the children liked it so much that wanted to have it for Christmas as well. We also had schupfnudeln (a type of German pasta), steamed broccoli and gravy. Here is a photo of everyone gathered around the dinner table, with my mother carving the turkey.

Happy holidays and we wish you all the best for the new year.

Fröhliche Weihnachten

Merry Christmas!

Shops followed their usual public holiday schedule today, which means they were closed. The gym where I work out was open (it followed its usual public holiday schedule, too). On my walk home, I stopped by a gas station and picked up a 6-pack of Hoepfner pilsner (make sure you are over 16, not 19 nor 21 in this country, before entering that site). Take note: on a holiday (or Sundays) when all grocery stores are closed, you buy beer (and wine with limited selection) at gas stations.

Jocelyn "photo shoot"

A few pics snapped a couple of days ago.

Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart

We went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. It is not too far from the Mercedes-Benz Arena where Bundsliga's Stuttgart VfB (a football, I mean soccer, club plays). Of course we took advantage of Deutsche Bahn's 28€ Länder ticket. That's right...28€ for the six of us (our family + in-laws). Although the ticket is valid only for 5 passengers traveling together, Jocelyn is less than 6 years old and she is not counted towards the limit.



The building is simply spectacular. Here are a couple more pictures:

The rightmost picture shows the Niederlassung (a branch...or simply put, one giant MB showroom).

Admission to the museum is reasonably priced: 8€ for adults and free for kids. The audio tour is included in the admission, and the lanyards on the audio gizmos were ours to keep at the end of the tour. Here you see Gabriel holding this audio gadget.

The lunch at the museum restaurant was OK. The price is reasonable (given the nice ambience), and unbeatable for kids' meals, which are 1€ each plate (spätzle or fettucini...). After lunch my in-laws spent some time strolling around the showroom. They have their eyes on a compact B-class, which is not available for the US market (although the B-class is available north of 49th parallel, MB probably figures that Americans love gas-guzzlers so much, and there is no reason to market their most gas efficient A- and B-class vehicles).

We started from the 8th floor of the museum, where some of the oldest engines and motorized vehicles are shown. On display are some old zweizylindermotor and vierzylindermotor (two-cylinder and four-cylinder engines...I love how easy it is to string words together in German, and no worry about proper hyphenation). We worked our way down to the main floor, and it was one grand tour of motor car history (sans federal bailout).


Besides the antique MBs, there were a number of more modern and interesting vehicles on display, including a non-bullet-proof Popemobile, and Princess Diana's sports coupe (which was supposedly the only time a British royalty purchased a non-British vehicle and was returned to MB shortly after the purchase due to public outcry. Hmmm..famous British brands such as Land Rover and Jaguar were recently acquired by India's Tata Motors from Ford).

Race cars are prominently featured in the museum as well. Here you see Jocelyn and Gabriel dressed up as F1 drivers standing next to Lewis Hamilton's (2008 F1 world champion) car.

We left the museum around 5PM, and headed back to Königstraße - the main shopping street right outside the main train station. Of course we did not miss the Christmas market there. After (yet another) hearty bratwurst mit brötchen meal (my sausage count since my in-laws' arrival has probably exceeded the total for the past two years already) and glühwein, we returned to Karlsruhe.

Cheerios

Can you walk into a grocery store and walk out with a box of Cheerios in Europe? Nein, not a chance unless that store happens to be one on a US base or in Iceland. You can walk out with a box of Corn Flakes, but not Cheerios. You may ask "Why not?" Here is the official explanation from General Mills, the maker of Cheerios (apparently due to marketing rights).

This is a much discussed topic among expat parents of young children in Europe. Kids from North America don't like the local variant. There are stories of some local expat parents befriending acquaintances who have access to the US facility near Heidelberg, all for getting a steady supply of Cheerios (and perhaps some friendship as a bonus).

My inlaws arrived in town two days ago, and brought with them two huge boxes of Cheerios. Gabe and Jocelyn were ecstatic.

Heidelberg

We took my parents to Heidelberg on Sunday. Everyone was excited to ride the DB train, as you can see in this photo.

We arrived at Heidelberg just in time for lunch. My parents have been on a quest to sample as much German food as possible, so we dined at a quaint-looking pub along the way. I will write a separate post that will list the contents of our meals later, but I'll just say that my father is truly a culinary adventurer! After lunch we made our way to the typical tourist spots like the Schloss and the Münster, though we didn't have time to go to the bridge on the Neckar river. Here are some photos that we took at the Schloss.

After spending the afternoon walking around the palace grounds, we took the trolley back down to town to search for a good snack. We pushed our way through the crowds at the Christmas market and decided to have some langos. Langos are oval shaped doughnuts that you can order with a choice of toppings. The vendors fry them as you order them so they're all fresh. We chose one with Nutella and one with apfelmuss (applesauce). Though the langos in Heidelberg were pretty good, I must say that they don't compare with the ones that we bought in Karlsruhe. In fact, for all the talk about Heidelberg's Christmas market being better and nicer, we still preferred the one in Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe's Christmas market is smaller, but the atmosphere just seems to be more jovial - could be because of the dense concentration of food vendors. Or the fact that the glühwein in Karlsruhe is stronger, which also helps to make people feel more festive. Here are some photos of the Christmas market in Heidelberg.

After our snack, the children rode the miniature train.

Then we battled through the crowd again as we made our way back to the Hauptbahnhof. We noticed that more and more people were pouring into town as it got darker. Undoubtedly, they were all in search of glühwein.

My parents are here!

My parents are currently in Karlsruhe to spend Christmas with us and help us ring in the New Year. They've arrived yesterday. Needless to say, the children have been thrilled to see their maternal grandparents. My parents seem to be having fun so far. My father has been trying to pick up some simple German phrases. My mother has become quite enamored of a shoe and handbag shop that's located in Karlsruhe's main shopping district.

They also had a great time strolling through Karlsruhe's Christmas market. There they sampled the local würsts and enjoyed the festive atmosphere.

Gabriel in a Streichkonzert

Gabriel's violin teacher hosted a concert for her pupils at her flat tonight. Most of her pupils are older than Gabriel and all very talented. Gabriel played two short pieces. Here is a picture of the rehearsal 20 min. before the concert (and the first time Gabriel played together with the pianist who accompanied him in his pieces). Here are the links to the videos of his performance at the concert. He was quite a showman in the Rumpelstilzchen piece.