El Tango de Roxanne
(As performed in the movie, Moulin Rouge!)
First there is desire
Then... passion!
Then... suspicion!
Jealousy! Anger! Betrayal!
Where love is for the highest bidder,
There can be no trust!
Without trust,
There is no love!
Jealousy.
Yes, jealousy...
Will drive you... mad!
Roxanne
You don't have to put on that red light
Walk the streets for money
You don't care if it's wrong or if it is right
Roxanne
You don't have to wear that dress tonight
Roxanne
You don't have to sell your body to the night
His eyes upon your face
His hand upon your hand
His lips caress your skin
It's more than I can stand
(Roxanne)
Why does my heart cry?
(Roxanne)
Feelings I can't fight
You're free to leave me, but just don't decieve me
And please believe me when I say I love you
Yo que te quiero tanto, quй voy ha hacer
Me dejaste, me dejaste
En un tango
En el alma se me fue
Se me fue el corazon
Ya no tengo ganas de vivir
Porque no te puedo convencer
Que no te vendas Roxanne
(Roxanne)
Why does my heart cry?
(Roxanne)
Feelings I can't fight
(Roxanne)
You don't have to put on that red light
Roxanne
You don't have to put on that dress tonight
(Roxanne)
(Roxanne)
As I wrote last week, Dave and I went to Paris for a long weekend to mark my fiftieth birthday, just getting back yesterday. Of course we had a fabulous time and of course we would enjoy each other's company wherever we ended up, but since we tried to pack as much sightseeing into this jaunt as possible, I reckon this post ought to be an evaluation of the trip itself and not a mushy enumeration of all the ways in which I felt loved and celebrated (although that is true as well).
This was a rather last minute trip, and with everyone who has been to Paris making "must see/do" recommendations to both me and Dave (and having been to Paris myself when I was a kid of eighteen, I had a few "must see this times" of my own), I decided to have as much planned as possible; decided to prebuy whatever I could in order to anchor our days. To begin with, I booked what seemed like a good deal through Expedia, with direct flights to Paris from Toronto and a hotel reservation at the Louvre Montana - a centrally located boutique hotel; and having been given a superior room, it was more comfortable and more convenient than I could have predicted (so many Paris hotel reviews on Expedia complained of tiny rooms or uncomfortable beds and pillows that I have no regrets paying a little more for space and comfort; this hotel was absolutely perfect). I had also prepaid for a private car from the airport to the hotel through Expedia, and this was probably a mistake: when we left arrivals and saw all of the drivers standing around with people's names on signs and iPads, we were soon disappointed to see that we were not among them. We waited a while and then Dave went over to the airport's customer service desk, as indicated on our reservation, to have them call the car service (the customer service rep sighed heavily but complied), and in the end, a driver showed up over an hour after we had landed, saying that he didn't know what had happened to our original driver but that he had been sent following the call - this was not an auspicious start after a tiring eight hour overnight flight, and as I don't think I saved anything by prepaying for the ride, I wouldn't put myself in this position again; the airport was teeming with flat-rate drivers.
We got to the hotel but couldn't check in yet, so we left our bags and made the short walk to the Big Bus Ticket Shop in order to pick up the Paris Passes we had prebought. When we arrived, the agent wanted to make sure we understood what we had purchased: the three day passes (which cost €168 each) would indeed give us three days on the Metro and three days in which to visit various attractions, but (and this is listed nowhere that I could find on their website) the Paris Museum Pass portion of the package is only sold as a two or four day option, three doesn't exist, and she wanted to make sure we understood that we had only two days in which to see all the museums on our list (and we had three full days planned out, with museums stretched over each). Talked into upgrading to four days, first Dave had to call some office the agent dialled up for him to cancel our original passes, and then we bought four day passes at €198 each - not a big increase, but I do wonder if it was worth that much to us in the end. I calculated that we would have spent €217.40 each on the metro and the museums and attractions we eventually visited, but some (like Les Caves du Louvres wine tasting at €30 each) we wouldn't have bothered with if we were paying out of pocket. On the other hand, we could skip the ticket lines at most places (and there's value in that, definitely) and we were prompted to have a few more experiences than we might have otherwise. Probably a wash overall. We left the ticket office on foot for Montmartre.
Kennedy and I recently watched the first season of Baskets and were properly amused by Zach Galifianakis trying to pathetically recreate a memory of a romantic Paris picnic. So when we arrived early, and hungry, for our planned Montmartre walking tour, Dave and I popped into a grocery store for baguettes and fixings for a picnic of our own. It was damp and blowy, but we ate outside, dammit.
After the picnic, we met up with our guide Vincent for a Discover Walks tour of the area. This is a technically "free" event, with a tip of €12 recommended for the guide, and Vincent was charming and informative and led us from Picasso's atelier to the apartment where famous Parisian chanteuse Dalida killed herself; from the Moulin Rouge to the steps of the Sacré-Cœur. I completely recommend this walking tour and Vincent's company was worth more than the suggested tip.
We went back to the hotel to freshen up at this point, because as the picture at the top attests, we returned to the Moulin Rouge for dinner and a show. This was a big extravagance to me - we chose the Mistinguette menu option at €185 each - but since that's about what my parents sent me in birthday cash, I thought of this evening as their present to me. Ultimately, this was and wasn't worth the expense, but I don't regret experiencing it; I have since read reviews that give it either two or five stars, there is no middle ground, and I agree with them all. First of all, when you arrive, you are herded between red velvet ropes into various lines. When it starts moving, you are forced to check your coat (for a non-optional €2 after shelling out almost three hundred bucks for dinner; tacky), and then whisked into the dining room, where Dave and I were seated at a rectangular table for six, facing each other, with another couple soon seated to our left and to our right. Looking around, we noted that there are no tables for two in the restaurant (but some in higher levels where people came later for just the show). During dinner, a man and a woman lounge act sang bland songs with all the bored and overworn showmanship of Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi in Burt Wonderstone, and Dave and I kept exchanging bemused glances. Dinner itself was fine - not mind-blowing, and served in haste - and then it was time for the show (and I suppose to prevent distracting glassware noises, all food and bar service stops). Showgirls come out and sing and dance, and then in the next number, the showgirls are topless, beads criss-crossing their breastbones. I don't know why we weren't expecting that, but throughout the evening, some girls would be topless, others in costumes with tops (sometimes a mix within the same songs), and while it wasn't exactly scandalous, it's not like the seminudity added to the glamour or anything. One act saw the catwalk of the stage retract and an enormous tank of water rise from the floor. Inside were several swimming pythons and one performer sleptwalked out as though in a trance and then fell into the water. She was amazing in her underwater spins and acrobatics, gently grabbing snakes to intertwine with herself, but the fact that she was topless added nothing to the act (for me anyway; as a Mom, I kept wondering how she explains her job to her family, lol). Interspersed with the showgirls (and fully clothed showboys) were acts by male acrobats - balancing and juggling - and one man used El Tango de Roxanne in the background as he balanced on his bald head on a wine carafe (aha! and thus we arrive at this week's song choice) leading me to assume that this kind of strongman act has always been a part of a Moulin Rouge show. Honestly, the best routine of the evening came at the end when all the girls came out in traditional Cancan costumes and finally did the dance we had been expecting all along. As strange as the overall experience was, seeing the Cancan in the actual Moulin Rouge was worth the price of admission (even if my enjoyment level dropped as I joined the crowds of people retrieving their checked coats afterwards.) As tired as we should have been after a really overlong show, after the crowdedness and warmth of the theatre, Dave and I had a wonderful walk back to the hotel, marvelling at the Christmas lights and window displays along the way.
Friday morning we woke refreshed and headed for Versailles (this is outside the zone covered by the Metro passes, but is only €7 return by the RER train). I didn't make it to the palace back in 1986 and had always regretted not seeing the gardens and the Hall of Mirrors. Having seen them now, I don't know if they're a must see, but of course, only a person who has been there can decide if it was worth their while. Since it's winter, the fountains weren't turned on (so that's definitely less spectacular than a visit during the summer) but as the server in the cafe told us that we were lucky to have avoided all the crowds of the high season, we couldn't say we would have rather been there in the summer. (And yet, we only ate in the palace's cafe to get out of the snow.)
After lunch, and since we would need to be on the train system again anyway, we decided to head out to the Père Lachaise cemetery at the direct opposite end of Paris. I didn't make it there either as a teenager, but it was Dave who was most keen to go. We easily found Oscar Wilde's grave (and I was able to tell Dave beforehand to expect the Art Nouveau statue on his grave to have had its penis stolen), and after some confusing GPS directions from Dave's phone, we made it to Jim Morrison's grave as well.
Travelling back to the city centre in the rain afterwards, we decided to head for the Louvre. The now-(in)famous glass pyramids out front weren't there when I was last in Paris in 1986, and neither was the concourse of underground shopping mall. I think the pyramids are beautiful (especially from underneath), the stores are tacky, and none of it really belongs at the Louvre. We walked as much of the museum as we were up for, making sure to see the Mona Lisa (Dave agrees that it's more alluring in person than in prints) and the Venus de Milo (also breathtaking). Also a little tacky are the frequent signs directing visitors to only these two exhibits.
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| Kennedy gave me this book to bring to Paris just to take a picture like this. I felt like the jerk I look like, lol. |
Leaving the museum, we then headed to Les Caves du Louvres for the "guided tour and wine tasting" included with our Paris Passes. We arrived just before it officially closed, so the attendant gave us an iPad for a self-guided tour through the wine-making area, and we were not rushed at all by the sommelier at the wine bar (this area was not about to close). He gave us three generous tasting samples of various wines, along with information about each, and when the experience was done, Dave and I both left with a complimentary bottle of wine. We then stopped at Le Corner Café for dinner and had a lovely meal beside the window, watching people on the patio smoking with one hand while eating cheese and bread with other; watching all of Paris and their little dogs walk by along the sidewalk. It was probably ten when we returned to the hotel - hardly party animals.
The next day, my actual birthday, started off right with sweet and crispy pain au chocolat and a cafe au lait along Rue de Rivoli, around the corner from our hotel. We crossed the Pont Neuf to the Île de la Cité, and entered Sainte-Chapelle just as the sun was streaming through the stained glass arches over the altar. The colours are just incredible, and impossible to capture by camera.
Then off to Notre-Dame. When we picked up our Paris Passes, the attendant advised us to use the "je file" app to reserve a time to climb the towers and that turned out to be excellent advice - after walking around the church itself, when we went to the entrance to the tower, we couldn't believe the length of the line. But after flashing my reservation, Dave and I were put to the front. After a lot of winding stairs, we made it to the top and Dave was blown away by the view. I was dismayed by the ugly chain link grating that now obscures the skyline at the top (it was wide open in 1986), but Dave was able to take some great and iconic-looking pictures through the gaps.
Next stop was the Berthillon ice cream shop (recommended by more than one source as the "best ice cream in the world") and it didn't disappoint. I loved my Gianduja a l'orange (pralined chocolate with candied orange bits) and Dave scarfed down his Caramel au beurre salé (salted butter caramel). Just enough energy to cross back across the bridges to the Latin Quarter.
I had never heard of Shakespeare and Company before my first trip to Paris, but after having devoured all that Hemingway wrote in my twenties, this was a stop I didn't want to miss this time. Dave and I bought a couple of books (he actually found a European-exclusive release of Planet of the Apes with a "vintage-style" 3-D cover), and when they asked if we wanted them stamped with the company's logo, I also asked them to stamp the copy of A Moveable Feast I had brought along with me (the cashier did this reluctantly, and I guess that wasn't an entirely reasonable request I made; they're there to sell books, including the one I happened to have with me.)
We then walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, which, again, was lovely but would be lovelier if the trees were in leaf and the fountains turned on, and had a good lunch at a cafe. We then continued walking until we got to the Catacombs (another longtime regret of mine because I didn't know about it before my first trip). This exhibit isn't included in the Paris Pass, and we had to join a rather long line. Dave immediately attempted to buy skip-the-line tickets from the Catacomb's own website, but couldn't get them for the same day. After waiting for nearly half an hour (and the line not moving very quickly), the woman behind us said that she was able to just buy a ticket from headout, and she was off to skip the line. Dave soon followed suit. The only, slight, drawback: Despite it saying right on the eticket that it doesn't need to be printed out, the attendant at the door directed us to a tobacco shop down the street (tricky to get to to as it's on the other side of a busy street that is barricaded to pedestrian crossing; we crossed anyway) in order to receive hard tickets in exchange for our etickets. No matter, we made it back long before our abandoned place in the lineup approached the entrance and we enjoyed (inasmuch as that's an appropriate descriptor) our walk through the artful arrangement of six million displaced skeletons.
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| On facebook I tagged this, "Krista contemplating mortality upon the occasion of her fiftieth birthday". |
To backtrack, when we decided to go to Paris, a friend of Dave's who lived for a while in the city - Costa even met his wife there - sent Dave several lists of recommendations. Number one on his list of recommendations for a birthday dinner was the Jules Verne restaurant on the second level of the Eiffel Tower. When I looked into it, I was shocked to see that dinner would be €190-230 for each of us, with a wine pairing experience a further €95-120 each. This was before I saw the prices for the Moulin Rouge, or anywhere else, and I thought it was crazy. Dave thought it was a crazy but reasonable once-in-a-lifetime experience, and when he went to book it, was disappointed to discover that the entire weekend was full. Costa's number two recommendation was a restaurant called La Coupole, so Dave booked there instead. I have to admit that I got excited about the idea of having dinner up the Eiffel Tower, so when Dave sent me the link to where we'd actually be going on my birthday (and I noted that it ranks #1752 of 17746 Parisian restaurants on tripadvisor), I was more disappointed that Dave was slavishly following the recommendation of a friend than open to the idea of something different. In the end it was a fine restaurant, if again a little crowded and rushed like at the Moulin Rouge, and the food was good and the company was excellent and I had a beautiful Baked Alaska for my birthday dessert (without dropping a grand on one meal; I know I would have regretted that in the end).
After dinner, and simply because it was nearby and included with our Paris Passes, we went to the top of the Montparnasse Tower. We thought this huge black glass building sort of looked out of place against the rest of the beautiful skyline, and as we later learned on the Big Bus tour, Parisians say that the best part about going up to the Observation Deck of the Montparnasse Tower is that it's the only place in Paris from which you can't see the Montparnasse Tower. The view was outstanding, however, and we were there at the right time to see the Eiffel Tower do its hourly five minute light show. Such a perfect day.
The next morning was cold and rainy, and we decided to make use of our one day Hop-on-hop-off Big Bus Tour. As I said, the main office was right around the corner from our hotel, so we started there and took the bus to the Musée d'Orsay. This is such a beautiful museum - the building itself, but also the Manets, the Monets, the Renoirs, and Rodins. Dave was enchanted by the Van Gogh collection, and especially since it features the only self-portrait not housed at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam which Dave had visited and loved back in October.
We got back on the bus, and as it was raining harder, we decided to stay on for a whole loop and listen to the tour - seeing everything from the Arc de Triomphe (which we could have visited and rode the elevator to the top of with our passes; Dave wasn't interested and I was okay with that) to the Opera House (which was a five minute walk from our hotel, and which we passed many times without entering; you can't see everything in four days.) The rain had stopped when we got back to the beginning, so we walked through the Tuileries Gardens to the Orangerie, just so I could see the space dedicated to Monet's Water Lilies that I had read about this year in Ross King's Mad Enchantment. Loved it.
From there it was a short walk to the Rodin Museum, which I loved inside and out; probably my favourite of the museums this time, and right across the street from there is the Dome Des Invalides and the site of Napoleon's tomb. We didn't think we cared much about seeing Napoleon's final resting place, but it was close by and our sightseeing was nearly over and we walked over - and were glad we did! Nothing we read about the dome or the marble casket or the reverence with which the French regard their fallen Emperor could have prepared us for this awe-inspiring space. I'd add a picture but there's simply no capturing the scale.
And to backtrack again: On the day we were flying out, as Dave was leaving for a last half day of work, I started reading my Paris guidebook and assembling a rough itinerary. Just as he was going out, I said excitedly, "Um, did you know there is a second restaurant at the Eiffel Tower? One with open reservations for this weekend?" Dave was not unexcited to learn that the 58 Tour Eiffel could be booked for our last dinner in Paris (at a third of the prices at the Jules Verne), and we made our reservation. So on our final night, we rode the elevator up to the first floor of the Eiffel Tower and had what turned out to be a wonderful meal. Once again I was surprised by how closely together the tables were placed, but at least we were at a table to ourselves. The service was friendly and attentive (the prix fixe dinner was to include two glasses of wine, but our waiter kept our glasses filled throughout) and the view was incomparable. After dinner we were free to remain on the observation deck as long as we liked, and as it was finally done raining for the day, we had our fill of the view.
And lastly, because it was nearby and included with our Paris Passes, we headed to the pier for a Seine River cruise on the Bateux Parisiens. We sat on the open deck as we cruised away from the Eiffel Tower, bracing against the chill as we travelled the length of the city centre towards the spires of Notre-Dame. When we reached the end of the route and began to turn back, Dave and I went down to the heated interior (soon joined by nearly everyone else) and enjoyed the rest of the cruise in contented and tired comfort.
Back to the hotel, another comfortable sleep, and the next morning, my prepaid driver was on time to take us back to the airport and on to home.
Ultimately, I don't know if the Paris Pass is a very good deal; but it did make some things easier. Other than prepaying for a driver who didn't show up at the airport on time, we had much luck and I regret none of the things we did see and don't regret the fact that we couldn't see everything. What a blessed life I lead that I could have an experience like this, and share my life with this amazing guy here:
