t La Defense....Today started off a bit hazy, and the weather forecast shows 
showers sometime in the next few days. And this weekend is the Patrimoine, when any sites are free, and some sights are open that normally are not. Last year we spent several hours of our Patrimoine days waiting in a non-moving line for the presidential palace. This year we have sort of learned the lesson – stay away from the E-rides.
So today is the day for Malmaison, the home of Josephine during and after her marriage to Napoleon. It is a complicated and long train ride (four changes) and a bus ride to get there. By the time we do, it is, of course, lunch time! So we head into the nearest bistro for a salade gourmande with foie Gras (that would be for madame), and an onglet of beef with shallots and fries (monsieur). Nice.
Then the walk down a tree-lined street to the chateau. I keep waiting to see a line of people due to the Patrimoine, none appears. In fact, there is no line, just a medium sized crowd making their way through the museum, with the added attraction of a quartet of singers in the music room. The chateau was very much different from the others we have seen, smaller in many ways, and simply furnished with more of a modern style, not much of the gaudy gold and crystal we see in the earlier royal residences. This one could actually be a home, as in fact, it was. They have many pieces of furniture, and small pieces like toiletry kits and embroidery boxes that were Josephine’s, as well as her court robe and coronation dress and train. And the tiniest shoes imaginable. The bedroom shone is her "official" bedroom, for receiving and entertaining guests, a holdover from the custom of early kings showing their favor to special guests by receiving them in their bedrooms.
Since the bus takes us back to the train, and the train is the RER at La Defense, we take a few minutes to walk around the main square of La Defense. The signature structure is an arch, of very modern design and shape, which lines up perfectly with Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs Elysee, which itself lines up perfectly with the arch of King Louis at the Place de Concorde, and, ultimately, w
ith the Palace of the Louvre.
And now that complicated train sequence must be reversed, and we are tired tourists ready for a quiet evening of unintelligible French TV -- try NCIS in French!
showers sometime in the next few days. And this weekend is the Patrimoine, when any sites are free, and some sights are open that normally are not. Last year we spent several hours of our Patrimoine days waiting in a non-moving line for the presidential palace. This year we have sort of learned the lesson – stay away from the E-rides.So today is the day for Malmaison, the home of Josephine during and after her marriage to Napoleon. It is a complicated and long train ride (four changes) and a bus ride to get there. By the time we do, it is, of course, lunch time! So we head into the nearest bistro for a salade gourmande with foie Gras (that would be for madame), and an onglet of beef with shallots and fries (monsieur). Nice.
Then the walk down a tree-lined street to the chateau. I keep waiting to see a line of people due to the Patrimoine, none appears. In fact, there is no line, just a medium sized crowd making their way through the museum, with the added attraction of a quartet of singers in the music room. The chateau was very much different from the others we have seen, smaller in many ways, and simply furnished with more of a modern style, not much of the gaudy gold and crystal we see in the earlier royal residences. This one could actually be a home, as in fact, it was. They have many pieces of furniture, and small pieces like toiletry kits and embroidery boxes that were Josephine’s, as well as her court robe and coronation dress and train. And the tiniest shoes imaginable. The bedroom shone is her "official" bedroom, for receiving and entertaining guests, a holdover from the custom of early kings showing their favor to special guests by receiving them in their bedrooms.
Since the bus takes us back to the train, and the train is the RER at La Defense, we take a few minutes to walk around the main square of La Defense. The signature structure is an arch, of very modern design and shape, which lines up perfectly with Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs Elysee, which itself lines up perfectly with the arch of King Louis at the Place de Concorde, and, ultimately, w
ith the Palace of the Louvre.And now that complicated train sequence must be reversed, and we are tired tourists ready for a quiet evening of unintelligible French TV -- try NCIS in French!
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