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(This was a Road Scholar trip from
Nice to Paris with an emphasis on art. Pre-COVID we had taken one
from Paris to Normandy and enjoyed it - when we finally were able to
travel again, we wanted to do the second half! This
section of the trip log
includes leaving Lyon, visiting Beaune and Dijon and a few days in
Paris. You can enlarge any picture in this narrative by
clicking on it - it
will open in a separate window and in many cases, show detail you can't
see in the smaller version. Many more pictures are here.)
Wednesday afternoon May 11  This afternoon was a travel time - we initially headed
south on
the Rhône, past the confluence and then
turned north up the Saône, leaving Lyon. The first
picture on the
left is taken as we rounded the
confluence (marked by the orange and gray buoys): the museum is in the
center of the picture; the Rhône to the right where we can see
the Pont Raymond Barre and the Sôane to the left where the bridge
is the Pont Ferroviaire de la Mulatière (a railroad bridge that runs
next to the highway bridge). Heading north on the left side we
pass a couple of interesting buildings: the green Euronews
headquarters, opened in 2015, is made from perforated aluminum that
allows light and air into the building. The same
architects, Jakob and MacFarlane, are responsible for the "orange cube"
a little further up, still on the Presqu'île side of the river.
This is an office building, completed in 2011, and also covered with
perforated, thermo-laquered aluminum screens. Finally, as we
continue North, we get a beautiful view of the "other" side of the
Basilica of Notre Dame on the left shore - the golden Virgin Mary
statue really stands out in the sun!     The
bridges on this side of the city are quite low and so the captain
closed up the sun deck for our protection! He was right - there
were a few that made me wonder if we'd get under them! The
picture on the right is of the Abbey of Île Barbe (island of the
barbarians) at the north end of
Lyon. It was founded in the 5th century, then looted several
times and changed hands several others. All that is left of that
compound today is the Norman Church
that dates to the early 12th century. Most of the island is
private but there is a public portion that is developed for recreation,
including playground equipment and clay courts for pétanque, a game
similar to boules. We continued up the Saône to Macon, which is
where we docked for the night, preparing for our field trips to Beaune
and Dijon tomorrow.Thursday May 12   John
elected to stay onboard again today and catch up on some rest.
The rest of us boarded the bus and went off to Beaune. The first
thing we noticed in the town were the glazed, patterned tiles on the
roofs. Many buildings had different colors and patterns but it
was especially noticable at the hospice. On the left is the
outside entrance to the Hostel-Dieu (aka Hospices de Beaune) that was
founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy
with two guiding principles: charity and care. This building
continually served as a hospital until 1971, then continued as a
retirement home until 1984. The mission continues even
today but in a new, much updated facility. The picture to the
right is inside the courtyard and the colors and patterns of the roof
tiles really stand out here!The hospital's association with wine began when a wealthy and devout winemaker donated some of his vineyards back in the 15th century. Today the hospice vineyards cover about 150 acres and its famous annual Wine Auction helps to finance the upgrading of the hospital and the maintenance of its cultural heritage.   Entering
the hospice itself we first went into the Salle des Pôvres or the
Paupers' Room, pictured at the left. Those patient beds line the
walls, but even the poorest of patients got good care. There is a
curtain on each side of the bed so that the attending nurse or doctor
could treat a patient in privacy. The ceiling of this room is
fascinating - the beams are painted with an intricate design and they
are supported at each side by a wooden holder painted as the head
of a snake with teeth and the beams are coming out of its mouth! It's
hard to
discern this in the picture but if you click to enlarge it, it helps a
little. At the far end of the "Poor Room" is the chapel - the
stained glass window to the right is one of the pieces of art housed
there.The work of the hospital continues on the other side of the courtyard. Pictured below are the hostel kitchen (set up as it would have looked in earlier years) and a well-equipped lab. We also saw the pharmacy with many types of scales and labelled containers of various herbs, extracts and infusions that were used in the treatment. Works of art are exhibited throughout the hospital - in private patient rooms, hallways and various other rooms. At the far end of the courtyard are a series of rooms containing special works of art. One of the largest and most impressive is shown at the right below: a polyptych of The Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden.      After
a little time to look at the art and to visit the gift shop, we
returned to the bus and set off to Dijon. Much of the scenery,
though lovely, was pretty repetitious. But I did grab a photo (to
the left) of
this large vineyard in which an old cemetery in the middle of it has
been preserved. As we came into Dijon, our first stop
was Jardin Darcy, a beautiful city park created in 1880, where we
spread out and had the picnic
lunches that had been prepared for us by the staff on the
riverboat.   Just across the street from the park was
Porte Guillaume - a mini arch
of triumph that serves as an endpoint of Rue de la Liberté, a major
pedestrian "mall." This gate was first built into an old 12th
century wall between 1786-88. During the revolution (1791) it
became known as the Arc de la Liberté. It was renamed in the 19th
century after the abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Bénigne, Guillaume de
Volpiano.
Our guide,
Sarah, took us all the way down the street to
the museum, giving us a history lesson and also letting us notice
places we may want to stop during free time as we walked back to the
bus.  Down
one of the side streets, we passed St. Michael's
Church, a 15th
century church, built on the site of a much older small chapel, that
combines both Renaissance and Gothic architecture. It houses
numerous works of art from the 16th and 17th centuries, including 4
paintings by Franz Kraus, a German painter. To the right is the
church of Notre Dame of Dijon. Its construction began around
1220, again, on the site of a much older chapel. It was restored
in the mid-1800's. The square clock faces the front of the church
(to the left in this picture) and sits on a bell tower that has a long
history. [You probably need to enlarge the picture to see the
parts of the tower. In the photos section there is a closer view
of just the bell tower.] The Jacquemart (an automaton that rings the
hour)
was brought from Belgium by Duke Philip II of Burgundy in 1382. A
second one, a woman named Jacqueline, was added in 1651. In 1714,
a child was added to sound the half hours and in 1884 a second child
began to strike the quarter hours!  The Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy was
constructed, in its present form, from the 14th through the 18th
century and now houses the Dijon City Hall as well as the Musée des
Beaux Arts. At left is a view of one section of the courtyard
and, at the right, the entrance to the museum. More views of the
palace and some of the contents of the galleries are found in the photos section. I only include two paintings
here because these are the ones that remind me of our earlier trip to
France: a Monet painting of Étretat (left below) where we walked
along the beach and then compared different artists' paintings of the
same scene; and a Boudin painting of Honfleur Harbor (center below) -
again, a scene we saw many impressions of when we spent time there in
2019. On the right below is one of the plaques on the "Dijon Owl
Trail" that marks attractions throughout the city. The
original Dijon Owl appeared on the side of Notre Dame in the early 16th
century. The legend is that if you touch the owl with your left
hand and make a wish, it will be granted. Since then, the owl has
become the symbol of the city and the mascot of many local teams!   A few more sites of Dijon as I walked back to the bus are shown below. It started to sprinkle almost as soon as we left the museum so we didn't dawdle much, though many in our group stopped to shop! I escaped the rain in the entrances to some of the little courtyards for apartments, like those we saw in Lyon - the one on the left below has an interesting staircase. I also noted the carousel (remember these are in almost every French town) that was created for the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. And finally, the fountain and sculpture in Place Francois Rude by sculptor Noel-Jules Girard in 1904. This is "The Vendangeur" (aka Le Bareuzai) - a winegrower treading his grapes (to become a rich Burgundy, no doubt). This "place" also serves as a marketplace with many vendors.    Friday May 13
Of
course the iconic site of
Montmartre is the imposing Sacre Coeur Basilica; fortunately we took
the funicular up to that level and didn't have to hike all of the
stairs! (In the picture notice the top of the ubiquitous carousel
in the
lower left.) Since we had already been in the basilica, we didn't
go through it again, but enjoyed the
nice weather and the scenery - the cityscape of Paris, the ever-present
"locks of love" on the fence (the European equivalent of carving
initials on trees) and the buskers. This afternoon we listened to
a
lovely young
Ukranian woman, Kateryna Tarkova, who was playing many types of music
on her
bandura (and we brought home a CD). In the picture overlooking
the city, if you click to
enlarge it, you may be able to see the Pompidou Center near the middle
(orange and blue decor), the dome of the Panthéon over to the right
and, still-under-reconstruction from the fire several years ago,
Notre Dame between the two.
The
wine tasting was more
successful, however. Caroline On
the way to the hotel, the bus took us by the Place de République where
the statue of Marianne represents France (at the right) . She has
an olive branch in her right hand and in her left, the Declaration of
the Rights of Man. She is also surrounded by 3 statues
representing liberty, equality and fraternity, the values of the French
Republic. The final, bronze, version was erected in 1883. We next faced the chaos of
checking in at Les Jardins du Marais.
We are learning during this
trip about the serious labor shortage everywhere. The hospitality
industry was hurt badly by the covid-19 epidemic when most travel came
to a halt. Now that tourist areas are reopening they are having a
hard time restaffing.
We were plenty worn out and appreciative of the hotel room - plenty of space, comfortable beds, good temperature control - and a good night's sleep! Saturday May 14
The other paintings I want to feature here are first (on the left) a well-known work by Edward Manet, 1862, "Luncheon on the Grass." That one is in the Musée d'Orsay and not on display at the Picasso Museum. However, I liked Picasso's "take" on the Manet painting so wanted to include it here for comparison! "Le Déjeuner sur L'herbe d'après Manet" (1960). This afternoon we had free time
and we wandered down to the "Jewish Quarter" along Rue de Rosiers
since my
We went back to the hotel, I put my leftover lunch in
the fridge, and we had a little nap. The
weather was much too nice to go to another indoor activity so we walked
down to the Place des Vosges (left below) where it seemed half of Paris had
the same
idea! This is the oldest planned park in Paris (1612). It
is divided into quarters with a fountain in each one and a statue of
Louis XIII on horseback in the center. The original bronze one
was from 1619 but was melted down during the revolution and eventually
replaced with the current statue in 1825. There is a large
sandbox for kids
in one section, lots of interesting people to watch (like the man who
played with his crystal ball - in the right photo - and groups of teens who were playing
football) and various shops and galleries all around the cloisters of
the Place.
Definitely a good afternoon for a walk and relaxation! I had my leftover lunch for supper in the hotel courtyard and John stopped next door in a bistro (Les Petites Canailles) for ravioli and truffles. We were both happy campers! Sunday May 15
In any case, we loved the Orangerie again. The main floor is Monet's Water Lilies murals (one shown on the left) and downstairs is a wonderful impressionist collection! I took many more photos but I wanted to include a few of my favorites here. Below are Rousseau's "Les Pêcheurs à la Ligna" (Fishermen in a line) - I love the plane flying overhead; "Arbre Couché" (Sleeping tree) by Chaïm Soutine; and Pissarro's "Spring" from the Four Seasons collection. (The other seasons are in the larger photos section.)
As
we left L'Orangerie, we took the Metro up to the Opera station and
US-bound members of the group stopped first at a nearby pharmacy to
complete our covid-19 tests for flying home the next day. We all
passed!!
Below you can see what I mean by "gaudy" in the left picture of one of the rooms - lots of gold trim. In the center is the very nice atrium, seen looking down from the second floor. On the right side of the atrium you can see part of one of the twin spiral staircases that charmed the public when it was opened. Finally, the right hand picture shows a fresco of Henry III being received in Venice by Doge Contarini, created by Giambattista Tiepolo circa 1745. It is one of the more unusual offerings on display - others can be seen on the Museum's web site and several more in my photo section.
This evening we had the whole
group together for dinner at the Grand Cafe
Capucines. It was a nice ending to the trip as we got to talk about
what we liked best and where we were heading next. We had
to be up fairly early to get the shuttle to the airport.
Monday May 16 -  We had
time to find some breakfast after we got checked in and located our
gate. We again had Premium Select seats, this time in the
bulkhead (first row) and so had even more leg room. They are
still not particularly comfortable for sleeping, but we managed to
doze.  These last two are my "being bored
in the airport" photos but I did enjoy the 3D mural. We arrived
on time at MSP around 1 PM. John took a short nap at Katie's then
we drove
home that afternoon. It was still light but we were pretty tired
due to the time change so mostly left things in the car and unpacked
the next morning! A very fun trip and it makes me want to start planning the next one. Click here to
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