Mission completed

This will be my last blog about Paris, as we are leaving on Easter Saturday. So sad. The good news is that I completed my Joan of Arc mission at some risk to life and limb. It was a foggy day and Paris looked very Gothic with the white buildings, grey roofs and skeleton-like trees. I think I spooked myself because when I caught the bus way out past the Gard du Nord to find the last statue of the warrior maiden, I realized perhaps why the Michelin guide did not recommend finding it, as it was not in a very salubrious area and people stared at me in a shifty kind of way. So, hurriedly I took my last statue photo of Joan of Arc and visited the church where she stopped to pray before heading off to attack Paris to try to wrest it from the English. Unfortunately she was wounded and had to retreat. The photo shows a memorial to her above the old Porte St Honore.

After completing said mission, I felt some recreation was in order, so I wandered along the Rue St Honore looking at all the posh shops. I belatedly remembered my handbag needs and went into a lovely shop called Moynat which I had never heard of before. The nice salesman called Angelo soon enlightened me and told me all about the history of the company which was a famous 19th century travel luggage emporium to rival Louis Vuitton. He was so warm and friendly - I recommend everyone who visits Paris to seek him out - unfortunately the beautiful bag I saw was astronomically priced but it was a fun experience nevertheless! I also visited my favorite wine-shop called Lavinia for our last bottle of champagne for research purposes.

 The highlights of my last week have been to see the Conciergerie which has the largest surviving Gothic Hall in Europe and helped me to visualize The Hunchback of Notre Dame which I finally finished- it's a great book full of melodrama although somewhat depressing as almost everyone dies in the end ( whoops plot spoiler!).  Now I have started The Three Musketeers so no doubt I will now be obsessed with Richelieu and the court of Versailles! For all Harry Potter fans the next highlight was tracking down the house where Nicholas Flamel lived - he of the philosopher's stone fame. Most exciting. On Friday, Hugh kindly left work a little earlier so we could see the Louvre together. After spending time with the Mesopotamian antiquities, we hit the Italian Paintings, which are usually very crowded with Mona Lisa addicts but late on a Friday night it wasn't too bad. The art here is extraordinary - Boticelli, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio and of course many Leonardos. It is almost overwhelming. The statue of the winged victory of Samo-Thrace is so beautiful and dramatic it may well be my favourite artifact at the museum. On my last visit I found the picture by my favorite women artist Louise Moillon, who I discovered in Toulouse, which unfortunately is hung very high above another painting and is not that easy to see. Although I generally dislike people who take pictures of paintings, I include hers here as there is no postcard of her work to buy.

The weekend was devoted to Napoleon and Josephine, as we caught about three buses to Malmaison, their former country house which is very elegant and neo-classical (see Josephine's bedroom below) with a beautiful garden where Hugh saw three species of Woodpecker. That evening we caught up with some American colleagues, Alan and Elaine, for a nice meal where I discover I can still eat chocolate mousse as it has no dairy - just chocolate and eggs! Yippee! This vegan thing is no doubt good for you and indeed my stomach is getting better but it is a trifle dull. Lucky champagne is ok! But speaking of Champagne we try but fail to visit the champagne region due to a combination of tardiness and train delays! At least this gives us a reason to return to France - however I think that my research project has been very useful although all the bottles have tasted good - I mustn't be discerning enough! At the risk of sounding like an alcoholic I will just say that the last highlight of the week was visiting an absinthe bar in the 11th arrondissement which was such fun and I find I prefer absinthe to pastis or ouzo, which it slightly resembles. It is an experience almost like taking tea as absinthe is poured into a glass, a tea-strainer like object is placed over the rim and a sugar cube placed on top. Then from a big glass container rather like a samovar, cold water is added drop by drop and you can mix it to your taste and strength. The bar was very atmospheric and had excellent food as well. The photos will be found on Facebook.