Breathe in the Beauty

Monet’s garden with the iconic water lilies and bridge

A treat of a few days in Paris

When you can’t remember the last time you were in Paris it has been too long.

At the conclusion of our Dream Couples Golf & Wine Tour to France Kevin and I decided to tack on four extra nights to do things you can only do in Paris.

Thanks to David Zoe, a world-class traveler who frequently globe trots across oceans and continents, we learned about Hyatt Paris Madeleine. It is a perfectly located 5-star hotel in the 8th arrondissement, and even in walking distance to Notre-Dame.

You only had to resist temptation (or not) passing by all the ultra posh shops on Rue Saint-Honoré. One couple that stayed on the extra days, Fritz and Kathy Herget, took advantage of lots of sightseeing, including a visit the the luxurious Louis Vuitton boutique. Need I say more?

My two strongest desires were to revisit Musée d’Orsay on the Left Bank of the Seine and Giverny, the home and gardens of Monet. It was very fortuitous that our tickets for Notre-Dame were for 12noon on a Sunday and from there Kevin and I could walk across a very short bridge, to an attractive café, indulge in some liquid refreshment. For monsieur, it was his favorite vodka and tonic. For me, it was a Kir Royale.

Musée d’Orsay on the Left Bank of the Seine

From there we headed toward the former Beaux-Arts railway station that now housed works by all the major impressionists, including a few I would focus on: Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Kevin and I threaded our way through the thick crowds and admired some jewels of the collection.

The home and gardens of Monet

Another deep desire was to go to Giverny. Kevin had rented a car so he could avail of an invitation to play golf at Morfontaine. I often tell people it is harder to get on than Augusta. He wound up playing all 27 holes with a very congenial member. I was glad to play there myself years ago, which led to a story called Ferry Tale. It’s in my first book — A Summer in Ireland — published in 2013.

Myself, Kathy and Fritz set off to Giverny with Kevin as our chauffeur. He got us there very efficiently, even navigating around the Arc de Triumph, which is a scary proposition.

 It was wonderful to see again the iconic Monet titled Woman with a Parasol at the Musée d’Orsay prior to heading to Monet’s gardens. The subject of the 1875 painting was Monet’s first wife, Camille and their son, Jean, on a breezy summer stroll near their home in Argenteuil, France. It is a picture I savored on another visit and I even bought a book in French to have a keepsake of this particular work that so captivated me.

Oh, to be bathed in beauty and wander around Monet’s house and gardens, even if it was with hordes of other people. The famous pale pink house was full of Japanese woodblock prints. He lived daily with his collection of over 200 works by Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige, which inspired him profoundly. My adventurous friends and I were able cross over the famous arched green footbridge we have seen many times in the Monet water lilies paintings.

The Musée Jacquemart-André

One more unexpected museum visit, fortuitously in walking distance to our hotel, was the Musée Jacquemart-André, located in a lavish 19th century mansion. It features some of Paris’s finest private art, including masterworks from the Italian Renaissance (Botticelli, Mantegna, Bellini, Uccello), 17th-century Flemish and Dutch paintings (Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Frans Hals), and 18th-century French decorative arts and paintings (Fragonard, Boucher, Chardin). The collection was amassed by Édouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart.

I was stunned to learn that Nélie Jacquemart, rose from humble beginnings to build a successful career as a society portraitist, specializing in painting influential military and political leaders of her day, including her future husband!

I learned about the museum from another couple on our Golf & Wine Tour, Nancy and Steve Engstrom, who stayed extra days in Paris too. They told me about the Tintoretto exhibition which took me into the world of the Venetian school. His self portrait, painted at the age of about 70 in c.1588 is in the permanent collection of the Louvre. It was there that Édouard Manet studied and copied it, declaring the painting, “one of the most beautiful in the world.”

After the massive museums with throngs of people, I was really grateful to be in a more intimate space and a calmer environment.

Along with fluffy omelettes, exceptional wine and food, the camaraderie of a few of our G&W Tour couples and being immersed in Paris (while the Pope was giving a Mass nearby at the Place de la Concorde) made this short stay in the City of Light absolutely unforgettable.

Hmmm…If we do another Golf & Wine Tour to France I’ll be back sooner!