Visiting Queen Arnagon
This travelogue started here. To save everyone's feeds, the details are behind the cut.
Our last day in Paris began with a breakfast trying to eat up most of our leftovers. We had bread with butter and nutella, cheese, espresso (not a leftover, but an essential ingredient), milk and yogurt. After some packing and a little light cleaning, we headed out to the southwest suburbs to find the Museum of National Antiquities. This is where the artifacts from Queen Arnagon's grave are kept. She was a Merovingian queen, and several of our friends in the SCA use her as an example to create costumes for themselves. Therefore we had to make this pilgrimage.
Luckily we had figured out the automated ticketing machines by this point, and we were able to get our tickets at our local metro stop, rather than having to buy a local ticket to get to the commuter train, and then get a ticket to the museum stop there. One train change and a longish ride later (the museum was at the last stop on the line) brought us right up to the museum's front door.
This museum has only things found in France, and only up to about 1000 CE. But the displays of all the neolithic and pre-historical stuff was really well done. Unfortunately most of the placards were only in French, so my understanding of the details of the exhibits was pretty limited. Even so, seeing the progression of the artifacts from crude antler, bone and stone tools, through the bronze and iron ages to classical antiquity and the rise of the Frankish kingdom was enlightening. Seeing the same designs repeat in stone, bronze and iron was something I hadn't really thought about before. And the artistry and beauty put in to everyday objects, when just surviving took so much effort, quite inspiring.
Queen Arnagon's artifacts were in the last section of the last room. The only textiles that were on display was the embroidery from her dress. Everything else was metal or wood. And everything was cool. We took LOTS of pictures (which this museum allowed, as long as you didn't use a flash). Many of them are blurry because of the long exposure times necessary, but they let you see most of the detail of the object. This room alone was worth the price of admission. The gift shop was disappointing for us, as they didn't have anything specifically about Arnagon's stuff, but considering what percentage of the museum she takes up, that's not surprising. We did score a couple of postcards though.
We headed back towards Paris proper and decided to try and find a restaurant in the Jewish quarter recommended by my niece, who had interned in Paris one summer while she was in college. Our train stopped near it, so off we went. We wandered around a bit, but found it right about the end of the regular lunch hour (keeping with our pattern this trip). Luckily for us they were as much a coffee shop as a cafe, and they were open all afternoon. Unfortunately they were out of the quiche I wanted to try (the closest one on the menu that day to what my niece had recommended), but the two we did get were quite good. We skipped dessert for a change, because we were going to walk to
Berthillon, the best ice cream on the planet. Or at least it was 30 years ago. It was a short walk away at the crossroads of the two major streets on Île Saint-Louis, the island just east of Notre Dame. Its fame has spread in the last 30 years apparently, as there was a line (though not a long one) waiting to get served through the window on the street. The ice cream was very good, but there is so much good ice cream around these days, I would be hard pressed to call it the best in the world. But I still think it is better than any I have had in the states.
As we walked leisurely towards Notre Dame we noticed that there were several shops and cafes along the way that advertised that they carried Berthillon ice cream. Another sign that their fame has spread. We were glad we hadn't planned on going in to Notre Dame, as the line was as long as the cathedral and it did not appear to be moving very fast. We contented ourselves with sitting in the grand stands that have been erected in the square in front of Notre Dame. There was a visitor's center as well, with big signs talking about celebrating 850 years since the cornerstone was laid. I don't know if those things will go away after this year or not, but they certainly made it harder to get a picture of the front of the whole cathedral.
After finishing our ice cream we headed back to the metro and the apartment. Even though we weren't spending the night, our landlady had kindly allowed us to keep our stuff there until 6:00 pm. We packed up the rest of our stuff, gave the apartment a quick once over, put the key back where we found it, and walked to the train station to head for the airport. We too were spending our last night near the airport to avoid travel complications before flying out. We got to the airport and, after what seemed like a very long wait, caught the shuttle bus to our hotel. It was a typical airport hotel, we could have been anywhere in the world. The one outstanding feature was the window that had two doors, each of which was double paned. This meant we didn't hear any airplanes flying right overhead, even though they were there all night long. Kudos to the hotel designers for that one.
The food available in the hotel was frozen, microwaved meals (but available 24 hours a day), so after showering we walked across the parking lot to a French equivalent of an Applebee's or suchlike. The food quality was just above that of the truck stop, but still way better than you could expect as a similar place at home. The big thing they pushed in their signage was that you would be served within 30 minutes of sitting down. But since it was the only restaurant for several hotels, they really needed to turn tables over, unlike anywhere else we ate in France.
We watched a few minutes of French TV, but we didn't find either Little House on the Prairie, NCIS or Law and Order. I guess we'll just have to come back and try again.
The saga continues here.
Our last day in Paris began with a breakfast trying to eat up most of our leftovers. We had bread with butter and nutella, cheese, espresso (not a leftover, but an essential ingredient), milk and yogurt. After some packing and a little light cleaning, we headed out to the southwest suburbs to find the Museum of National Antiquities. This is where the artifacts from Queen Arnagon's grave are kept. She was a Merovingian queen, and several of our friends in the SCA use her as an example to create costumes for themselves. Therefore we had to make this pilgrimage.
Luckily we had figured out the automated ticketing machines by this point, and we were able to get our tickets at our local metro stop, rather than having to buy a local ticket to get to the commuter train, and then get a ticket to the museum stop there. One train change and a longish ride later (the museum was at the last stop on the line) brought us right up to the museum's front door.
This museum has only things found in France, and only up to about 1000 CE. But the displays of all the neolithic and pre-historical stuff was really well done. Unfortunately most of the placards were only in French, so my understanding of the details of the exhibits was pretty limited. Even so, seeing the progression of the artifacts from crude antler, bone and stone tools, through the bronze and iron ages to classical antiquity and the rise of the Frankish kingdom was enlightening. Seeing the same designs repeat in stone, bronze and iron was something I hadn't really thought about before. And the artistry and beauty put in to everyday objects, when just surviving took so much effort, quite inspiring.
Queen Arnagon's artifacts were in the last section of the last room. The only textiles that were on display was the embroidery from her dress. Everything else was metal or wood. And everything was cool. We took LOTS of pictures (which this museum allowed, as long as you didn't use a flash). Many of them are blurry because of the long exposure times necessary, but they let you see most of the detail of the object. This room alone was worth the price of admission. The gift shop was disappointing for us, as they didn't have anything specifically about Arnagon's stuff, but considering what percentage of the museum she takes up, that's not surprising. We did score a couple of postcards though.
We headed back towards Paris proper and decided to try and find a restaurant in the Jewish quarter recommended by my niece, who had interned in Paris one summer while she was in college. Our train stopped near it, so off we went. We wandered around a bit, but found it right about the end of the regular lunch hour (keeping with our pattern this trip). Luckily for us they were as much a coffee shop as a cafe, and they were open all afternoon. Unfortunately they were out of the quiche I wanted to try (the closest one on the menu that day to what my niece had recommended), but the two we did get were quite good. We skipped dessert for a change, because we were going to walk to
Berthillon, the best ice cream on the planet. Or at least it was 30 years ago. It was a short walk away at the crossroads of the two major streets on Île Saint-Louis, the island just east of Notre Dame. Its fame has spread in the last 30 years apparently, as there was a line (though not a long one) waiting to get served through the window on the street. The ice cream was very good, but there is so much good ice cream around these days, I would be hard pressed to call it the best in the world. But I still think it is better than any I have had in the states.
As we walked leisurely towards Notre Dame we noticed that there were several shops and cafes along the way that advertised that they carried Berthillon ice cream. Another sign that their fame has spread. We were glad we hadn't planned on going in to Notre Dame, as the line was as long as the cathedral and it did not appear to be moving very fast. We contented ourselves with sitting in the grand stands that have been erected in the square in front of Notre Dame. There was a visitor's center as well, with big signs talking about celebrating 850 years since the cornerstone was laid. I don't know if those things will go away after this year or not, but they certainly made it harder to get a picture of the front of the whole cathedral.
After finishing our ice cream we headed back to the metro and the apartment. Even though we weren't spending the night, our landlady had kindly allowed us to keep our stuff there until 6:00 pm. We packed up the rest of our stuff, gave the apartment a quick once over, put the key back where we found it, and walked to the train station to head for the airport. We too were spending our last night near the airport to avoid travel complications before flying out. We got to the airport and, after what seemed like a very long wait, caught the shuttle bus to our hotel. It was a typical airport hotel, we could have been anywhere in the world. The one outstanding feature was the window that had two doors, each of which was double paned. This meant we didn't hear any airplanes flying right overhead, even though they were there all night long. Kudos to the hotel designers for that one.
The food available in the hotel was frozen, microwaved meals (but available 24 hours a day), so after showering we walked across the parking lot to a French equivalent of an Applebee's or suchlike. The food quality was just above that of the truck stop, but still way better than you could expect as a similar place at home. The big thing they pushed in their signage was that you would be served within 30 minutes of sitting down. But since it was the only restaurant for several hotels, they really needed to turn tables over, unlike anywhere else we ate in France.
We watched a few minutes of French TV, but we didn't find either Little House on the Prairie, NCIS or Law and Order. I guess we'll just have to come back and try again.
The saga continues here.