Not many food pics today and the text will describe the reasons. I know some of you might be disappointed?
Lana wanted to start some of her shopping today. Check this ceiling from one of the subway stations. Some of the subway stations are very arty. Also, the trains run quite often. Good for us impatient types!
Lana and I took the subway to "Le Bon Marche" the oldest department store in Paris and it is huge! Lana says "great shopping" and "weird to see American designers in the store." She did buy a Paul Smith shirt and a Ralph Lauren belt so she is a happy girl!
Window display at Hermes. Very funky and arty and colourful and weird. Some of the window displays are unbelievable in Paris!
OK, normally us tourists take pics of unusual sites. In this case, this is just a normal apartment on a corner in Paris. It represents hundreds of apartments in terms of architecture and height. See how it conforms to the street.
We met our friends at the Epicerie which is across the street from Le Bon Marche. This is a food emporium where you can buy so many unusual food products, wine and other goods PLUS purchase lunch to go. We bought a baguette, pate, cheese, salad, water and some goodies (choquettes = delicious and decadent). We went to a park near the Epicerie, found a park bench under the trees and like other Parisiennes enjoyed the decent weather and had a good chat and lunch. Slight breeze and definitely need to wear pants today. More shopping in store, walking the streets of Paris and visiting various stores that we found interesting. All very much fun and interesting.
Boulangerie "Poilane" - one of the most famous bakeries in Paris and Urban Fare flies in their bread twice a week to sell at expensive prices. Please see this unique bread keeper; glass, wood and a cloth cover. Price 249 Euro!
Bread with grapes created on the top. One of an interesting array of artistic bread displays. I think you eat them? :-)
We got into the subway around 4:30 pm to get back to the hotel room, get changed, find dinner and then make it to the Paris Opera House for our opera tonight. We decided to stop at Place d'Italie as my cellphone pay-as-you-go card was now completely empty. No more internet, email or text. We did get assistance again at the Bouygues store and then advised to head to a Tabak store and buy another 20 Euro card. I had to wait for the fellow to be available again (20 minutes) as the instructions for updating the cellphone are in French. Finally, got it completed but now running late. Our original plan was to have a nice Paris Bistro dinner.... We stopped at Petit Jules on the corner across from the mall for a Paris style fast food meal. Lana had a cheese hot dog and I had a croque monsieur and pain de chocolate. Vacuumed it down and then quickly walked to our hotel (15 minutes). Back into the #6 Subway and then connected with the #7 subway to take us to the Opera subway stop.
The Paris Opera (Palais Garnier) was built in the 1860s and is 1,979 seat capacity. It is very much a symbol of Paris. Described as the most famous opera house in the world. We bought tickets many weeks ago online and lucked out that they had a production when we were in Paris. This is a real highlight of our European holiday for me anyway. I got into loving opera a number of years ago so this is a real pinnacle of opera. We arrived at the Opera subway stop and almost immediately into the Palais Garnier. We finally located where we would provide our computer copy and receive our tickets. Hmmmm, no record of our tickets! Finally, the fellow said to see another man and he then went to the first fellow. The guy said no worry as we will get our tickets as our voucher had seat numbers. We waited for more than 10 minutes as I became more worried. The opera begins at 7:30 and it is now 7:20 pm and no fellow and no tickets. Finally, he showed up and said to follow him. Still no tickets. He takes us past the queues and then to the orchestra section. Somehow two real tickets show up and an older couple is escorted from what are our seats. We learn that somehow the company that sold us the tickets sold more tickets, but that couple had a voucher with no seat numbers. We think the guy gave away our seats to that couple and then realized his error. Oh well, we were seated before the production began and I had a chance to take some pictures.
Wow, the Paris Opera House almost cannot be described in words. Elegant, opulent, ornate, beautiful, classy, historical, artistic and incredible workmanship in everything. The stage is opened at the end and it is enormous - very wide and very deep. Never seen anything like that in terms of scale. Oh yeah, the opera is a Richard Strauss (German) "Capriccio" with no intermission. We learn over the 2 1/2 hours that these old seats begin to numb the butt.
Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House)
Ceiling over the seating section inside of the Opera House.
We are seated in the orchestra section middle and about 12 rows back so great seats! See the beautiful tiers and of course being an Opera House it is shaped like a circle.
Ceiling in the lobby. Wow, this place is incredible. Not sure what it cost to build this opera house, but it must have cost an incredible amount of money during its building.
The details of various fixtures around the inside of the Opera House.
Encore! Encore! Most of the cast taking their standing room applause.
More details....
We both very much enjoyed this opera production. The soprano was the star of the show. Her dress during the last act was unbelievably beautiful, colourful and flowing behind her. The sound dynamics were excellent, the opera orchestra very competent and each of the singers were top notch. The set design was simple yet functional. The ending was very emotional. Something that I hadn't thought of in advance was the subtext to be read was in French and the opera was sung in German. Oh well, I figured out some of the French words and it was pretty clear what the opera was about. Of course, unrequited love, jealousy, whimsy - all the usual occurrences of life. The tickets were very expensive, but this was perhaps a once in a lifetime occurrence and we savoured the experience. For certain, many of the older attendees were very dressed up in suits or beautiful dresses. Standing ovation and a few curtain calls.
Back into the subway and connection at Place d'Italie. A warmish night and plenty of people around the hotel. Needed to do some problem-solving to get my cellphone hotspot to work, thus allowing me to do the blog and update the Picasa photo album. Tomorrow, is our last full day in Paris. :-(
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