Paris, Ghent & Amsterdam photos

Here are links to the photos I took on my trip. They are divided into three albums due to the large numbers:

Paris: https://flic.kr/s/aHskypjf8A

Ghent: https://www.flickr.com/gp/pc_photo/3uL10K

Amsterdam: https://flic.kr/s/aHskywdS8L

Keukenhoff

Our last day of the trip (my how time flies) was an afternoon trip to Keukenhof gardens to view the tulips. Since we had the morning free, I decided to take a relaxing morning stroll to the Amsterdam Flower Market. Many stalls were set up with various flowers, and a lot of bulbs and other strange looking seeds. There were also a lot of cheese shops where I finally found some delicious Dutch cheese in a decent manageable size to take home.
The bus trip to Keukenhoff took a couple of hours. We had been worried about potential rain in the forecast. The day ended up being sunny and beautiful. The first thing you see when approaching Keukenhoff is the fields of flowers that are grown for the bulb sales market. This year their spring had been quite cold, so the fields were not all in bloom but the ones we did see were magnificent. At the garden, we had an hour tour with a guide before some free time. She explained about how the garden is redesigned every year. There is a historical plot where the tulips are very short and close to the ground (and retain their scent). Everywhere we went was another spectacular display of beautiful bulb flowers. One area is called the Walk of Fame, where the tulips are all named after famous people. In one building is the displays of modern tulips. Here, all the flowers have really long stems, most of them are extremely uniform in colour and pattern. Some of them almost look like silk flowers, they were so perfect. There are also artistic displays in the center of the building. The far end of the garden is a mill where you can get a good view of the flower fields. On the way back to the main entrance, I passed the Inspiration garden, where they had set up many little vignettes, Delft pottery, sculptures, "Golden Age Amsterdam', beach and surfing, all surrounded by beautiful flowers. At one point, I just stopped taking pictures because there was just too much and I couldn't begin to capture it all.
In the evening, we were heading to Zwolle to see the DNB perform in an all Hans van Manen program. He is a choreographer better known to work with Nederlands Dance Theatre, one of my favourite companies. We had dinner at the theatre, our final wonderful meal of the trip. In this theatre, as at the Concertgebouw, the ticket cost includes a beverage at intermission. They served wine as well as soft drinks and juice. So civilized. We were thrilled to see our new friend Martin performing in Adagio Hammerklavier and again to see Michaela in the final piece.
Tomorrow, everyone heads off in different directions. A small group are going with Katherine to Berlin and Dresden, one person was heading to Provence, the rest of us going home. I definitely will be looking forward to joining Katherine on another of her trips soon.

DNB class

Yesterday started with a visit back to the Opera & Ballet house to watch a class and tour backstage. A volunteer led the way. We started with cookies and coffee or tea. The class started at 11a and was a small group because most of the dancers had the day off. The ones who were there were performing that night in the new Opera + Ballet commission of Romeo & Juliet. We were lucky to see Vito Mazzeo formerly of SFB, recently relocated here. James Stout and Erica Horwood are two Canadians with the company and they were both in class. We sat at the very front of the room, so close we could touch them. When they were doing their grand allegro, the dancers ended their runs at our feet! After the tour, we went to the wig shop where the head of the department explained about how they make wigs (mostly for the Opera). Apparently long grey hair is the most expensive to buy. We also walked through the costume department, and back stage where they were setting up for the evening's show. After the tour, I went to visit Rembrandt House, an interesting look at home life during his time, with a wonderful exhibit of his nude drawings and etchings. I decided to take a different route back to the hotel via Rembrandtsplein. There is a large statue of the artist with smaller life size statues of the figures in the Night Watch painting. I rested for the remainder of the afternoon. We had a group dinner planned for the evening. Katherine surprised us with a guest-Martin ten Kortenaar, a young Canadian dancer who we had seen at the Saturday performance (and who Katherine had pointed out to me. He was delightful, well spoken and regaled us with stories of how he got into dance and life as a dancer. The food was excellent as well!

Van Gogh museum

On Sunday I  started at the Van Gogh museum, this being one of the most popular attractions. I was able to get in with minimal waiting. The museum is well organized in telling the story of Van Gogh and his art. They have the advantage of his large output of painting and frequent letter writing. There were several works that I had never seen. I had a light lunch at the café, and noted the man sitting at the next table looked rather like Van Gogh's self portraits.
After lunch, I walked to the nearby Diamond museum, which is a commercial enterprise but had a nice demo of the mining and cutting process plus reproductions of famous diamonds. At the 'factory' next door, you could watch them polish and set the diamonds and then you are funnelled through shops where you can buy jewelry for thousands of dollars. I spent a few minutes in the garden at the Rijksmuseum, and because the weather was so good, a lot of people were out getting sun. The Van Loon museum was next on the agenda. This is a house owned by the family that ran the Dutch East Indies company so were very wealthy. They had a special exhibit of family fashion inside. The house was gorgeous and beautifully furnished with a lovely garden and coach house. In the evening, a group of us were going to the Concertgebouw to hear Mitsuko Uchida. We met to take the tram to a restaurant nearby called Solo eaten en drinken. Everyone loved their meal and we were conveniently kitty corner from the hall. The Concertgebouw is a shoebox style so the orchestra seating is flat. The piano was on a high raised platform. She entered from above and walked down the stairs to reach the stage. It was a really remarkable performance. We were in awe of her playing and the acoustics in the space. At intermission, we discovered that the ticket includes a drink! How clever!

Rijksmuseum & canals

I'm getting a little behind in my posts. On our first full day in Amsterdam, we started with a tour of the Rijksmuseum. They had recently (3 years ago) completed a full renovation. Our wonderful guide showed us a work by a Dutch artist showing a typical Street of his day that also told us about the class structure of the city. We walked up the stairs through the beautiful great hall, with beautifully restored paintings and mosaics, to the 3 of 4 Vermeers on display (the 4th is in Delft to celebrate discovery of the street it was painted of), and  of course the Night Watch. With its location at the end of the long hall, the center of the painting looks like it has a spotlight on it, even up close the effect of light is remarkable. From here we were on our own to explore. There are lots of beautiful still lifes and portraits that you would expect to find in a museum of Dutch art. There are also meticulously constructed doll houses, and the special collections area is a veritable treasure trove of surprising things-musical instruments, including some beautifully decorated pianos, jewelry, Delft-ware pottery, keys and locks! Every time you turn a corner down there, you never know what you're going to see! After the Rijksmuseum, I walked to Central Station to pick up my discount card (pre-purchased at home) and got on a canal tour. This was about an hour exploring the harbour and the various canals with their fancy houses. After the canal tour, I caught a tram back to the hotel and rested before we headed out to the ballet in the evening. The program was all Balanchine. They acquitted them selves quite nicely, although there was a sense of fatigue in the company. Katherine pointed out a young Canadian dancer among the group. The opera house is a modern building and not particularly memorable but there are beautiful views from the balconies of the canals.

Three countries in one day

On Friday, we headed out of Paris early to make our way to Amsterdam by bus. Our route will take us to Ghent where we will stop for lunch and a tour. The bus is huge and very comfortable! After we leave Paris morning traffic we have smooth driving for a couple of hours before taking a break at a highway rest stop. Wow! This place is huge, clean, filled with food options and a really nice convenience store. Our rest stops seem rather shabby in comparison. As soon as we hit the Belgian border (noted only by a small sign) the language changes to Dutch which is the language of northern Belgium. Ghent is a medieval city directly on our way. The bus is too big to get to the center of town, so we stop at a water taxi stand for a quick open boat ride into town. The water taxi driver is quite amusing with his route info and clear disdain for the wealthy classes. There are very few cars in the old town and it makes it quite calm. I had a delicious fried shrimp and Belgian fries lunch (although the shrimp were in the form of croquettes) across from the medieval old castle spectacularly plopped in the center of town. After lunch, just as it started to rain we got a walking tour of the town from another wonderful guide. He explained about the castle, the main bridge, the various old guild house buildings and the three towers-the Belfry, St Bavo's cathedral and St Nicolas church. The cathedral is where the van Eyck brothers' Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece is located. Our guide first took us to a smaller reproduction to explain the various bits and pieces before we went to look at the real thing. A good half of it is in restoration but the main part that we saw was fully restored. The rendering of the various fabrics is stunning. After our tour, we all headed to a nearby chocolate shop to get hot chocolate (we were all pretty cold and wet at this point) and make our way back to the water taxi stand and then bus. From here it's a straight shot to Amsterdam! We arrive around 8p. Our hotel is on a narrow little street and is utterly charming. My room is small but clean and bright. I grabbed a take away calzone from an Italian shop around the corner and enjoyed a quiet evening.

Museums & magical dinner location

Today I had planned to be museum day, and the weather made that a perfect plan. It was cold and rained off and on all day. My first stop was Musee D'Orsay. Even without the art this building is special. I could just hang out in the main central sculpture hall all day. They have a special exhibition of Henri Rousseau, which was only vaguely interesting to me. I walked through the galleries of art deco and art nouveau furniture, pre-Impressionist art, making my way up to the 5th floor galleries of Impressionists. I feel like they rearranged this place since I was last here. At the top floor, the area around the giant clock face has definitely changed. I recall a narrow walk way and railing. For some security reason, the entry to the galleries is closed so there are a lot of people milling about. Eventually they open up the doors and there are all the greats. What makes this visit so wonderful is having had the visit to Monet's house and garden and the Caillabotte exhibit yesterday, the Palais Garnier the day before, and seeing works that reference those things here. I planned to have lunch here and a couple of tour folks come by at the same time for coffee!
After lunch, I walk to the Musee Rodin. I know this place was recently renovated. They have rearranged the rooms, in addition to repairs, and also gave the whole place a feel of what it might have been like when Rodin was living and working here, with the pedestals and a new paint colour highlighting the sculptures. It's raining so not the best way to view the garden but seeing the pieces with rain drops on them has a certain poignant quality. The third museum is Musee du Quai-Branly, under the Eiffel Tower, which collects indigenous art. The pieces are grouped geographically and many of them are quite beautiful. It would be easier to understand if there were more English language signs (or if I'd bought the audio tour, which is available in English). There is a lovely garden at the entrance. Since there are hours to kill before dinner, I head back to the hotel for a rest. Dinner is actually back at the Quai-Branly's restaurant, Les Ombres. It's supposed to have a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower!
I'm joined for dinner by Katherine our tour leader and Annie from Texas. Our table is straight in front of the Tower! They have a patio which would be terrific in warmer weather. The view of the entire North side of Paris is incredible. We can see Sacre Coeur from here. The food and service are really good as well! After the sun sets around 8:30 the Tower is lit up. Dusk here is very long compared to LA. At 9p we get the show of sparkly lights on the Tower. It's just magical, such a simple idea but so brilliant. Great way to end a wonderful stay in Paris!

Giverny

Today the group went on a bus trip to Giverny, Monets home and garden located in Normandy.
As we are leaving the city, we pass by the Arc de Triomphe and I have a hard time believing that this massive thing will fit inside the stage at Palais Garnier, which we were told yesterday! We also pass by La Defense. Once we're out of Paris it's all countryside (they don't seem to do suburbs here). Our lunch break is at Moulin de Fourge. There are people painting en plein air as we arrive at this lovely picturesque old mill, currently an Inn. Lunch was delicious, including a wonderful apple galette, typical of the area. When we get to Giverny our visit starts at the museum, currently hosting a show of Calliabotte. I know him for the floor scrapers, but am surprised by his wonderful flower paintings. Apparently he spent a great deal of time on his garden and even had a hot house full of orchids. The highlight of the show for me is a four panel door painted to look like you were looking into the orchid greenhouse. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and really put this art in context of the impressionist movement, Monet and the academic art that preceded it. After the museum we headed to the garden and home. The cherry trees are in full glorious bloom! The flowers at the pond are mostly bulbs, forsythia, flowering bushes, and other early spring bloomers. The water lilies are months yet to come. In the main garden, the lawn is littered with tulips and hyacinths, adding their scent to the air. In the home, I recognize a repro of a Calliabotte chrysanthemum painting that we had just seen and learned that was swapped between the artists! The studio is filled with art of all kinds, many repros of work by other impressionists. Most of us favoured the large yellow dining room and beautiful huge blue kitchen. Just as we are boarding the bus, it starts to rain! On our way back into Paris, our route takes us past the Tour Eiffel, the mini Liberty statue, Pont de l'Alma with the Liberty flame (and also the tunnel where Princess Diana died). Musee d'Orsay is a little further down, Conciergerie and Ile de la Cite, a wonderful mini city tour! Our bus stops in front of a crepe shop and about half of us decide this would be a perfect dinner spot. My evening ended with a marron glace, Chantilly creme crepe.

Food tour & back stage at the Opera Garnier

This morning I had a leisurely start with a food tour of the Marais starting about 10 min walk from the hotel. I didn't quite know what to expect but found my fellow tour mates to be a couple in their late 50s/early 60s and a grandma with her 8th grader grandson. It ended up being a great group with the various ages really contributing to a lively atmosphere. The 8th grader definitely kept up with the adults! We started at an award winning bakery with fresh baguette, croissant traditionel and sweet gougere. Our guide, Claire, is originally from Ireland but has been in Paris for several years and works in pastry and other aspects of the food biz. She turned out to be charming and wonderfully knowledgeable about the history, processes and backgrounds of the foods we ate. From the bakery we stopped at a spice shop with a sniffing bar, a charcuterie, a tiny jambon maker, cheese shop, and a wine bar where we had a table to try some of the wares she'd picked up. Claire carried all kinds of things in her bag to help us on our tour, like trays and knives. We drank 3 wines with our cheeses, terrines, and pates. After a nice lunch, we walked back towards the bakery to find a small artisan chocolate shop across the street from our initial bakery! We tried chocolates of course, but also jellied fruit and caramels and each item was better than I thought it was possible to be. If I'd known how ridiculously good French fruit jellies were, I'd have bought some at Patrick Roger. There not even the same universe as the lousy versions we have here. And the caramels just melt smoothly in your mouth, no sticking to teeth.
After a brief stop at the hotel, I headed towards the Opera, making a stop to check out an old covered market called Galerie Vivienne. The place is a wee bit run down but the shops are wonderful, very artistic, very French, beautiful displays. From the market, it took about 15 minutes to walk to the Opera. After taking some pics, I strolled the area, stopping at a clothing store with a sale (bought some stuff) and Galerie Lafayette to check out the beautiful dome. Unfortunately, the booths inside were all traditional multi-national brands and no longer so special. They have a new food court where I bought a mascarpone eclair. I had heard that these were the recent 'new' thing in Paris pastry. This food hall is a great place to go if you want to try out a bunch of patisseries and chocolatiers all at once.
Before our tour, I went to the Opera gift shop where I ran into several of my fellow tour mates.
The tour started downstairs at the back of the Opera. We went through the back up to the main entry and to the main level. Our guide explained all about the way the building was designed to showcase the new bourgeoisie before they even got to their seats to create an experience of going to the theatre. He identified the source of each of the many types of marble. We saw the different foyers where patrons would kill time during the hour long intermissions of the time (because it took ages for men to manually raise and lower the sets). We saw the theatre interior with its beautiful Chagall dome. From there, backstage in the wings, the stage large enough to hold the Arc de Triomphe, behind the fire curtain to the beautiful Foyer de Danse where dancers used to 'entertain' wealthy patrons, downstairs to see the pool under the building (where the Phantom may lurk?), and way down to the original giant wooden spools used to lift and lower the sets manually. On our way out, we passed several dancers heading in to get ready for the evening's performance.
Dinner was a small group of 4 of us at a neighbourhood place.

St Germain and more POB

This morning I took the Metro to Ste Chappelle. I had tried to visit this church on Ile de la Cite last time I visited Paris, but there was an international summit of some kind and it was closed. There was no line this morning, although the church was already pretty packed when I got there. This place is famous for the quantity of stained glass. It had just been cleaned last year and the glass really glowed! The pieces tell the story of the Bible from Genesis through the Resurrection. Truly a remarkable artistic achievement for the time (12th c).
After checking out Notre Dame (from the outside) I walked to the other side of the river to search for a couple of chocolate shops and patisserie. The first one I came to is Patrick Roger. There is a giant carved chocolate gorilla in the window! Inside, the overwhelming scent of chocolate hits you. The shop has pre set boxes as well as loose pieces. I asked the shop girl to select some loose chocolates for me. The next stop was Gerard Mulot for macarons, although they have all kinds of baked goods. I selected 6 to go (although I shouldn't have bought so many, they don't stay fresh long). From there I headed for Le Comptoir du Relais, which is a hotel and bistro run by a well-known (in Paris) chef Yves Chamdebord. The place opens at noon for lunch and I was early. By the time they started seating us, there was a small line. I chose the Coquilles St Jacques appetizer and a beef stew (daube de boeuf) with carrots for a main. Both were simply prepared but ridiculously flavourful. The chef kept popping in and out of the place. After lunch I headed for Jardin du Luxembourg to find a seat to have a macaron. The weather was sunny but slightly chilly, forsythia were blooming along with other early spring flowers and the citizens were out taking in some sun. From the garden I strolled back to the river via some random streets, window shopping along the way. I stopped at the Rochoux chocolate shop but the shop girl was too busy chatting with another customer so I did not add to my chocolate horde (thank goodness). I ended up across the river from the Louvre so I decided to stroll into the courtyard and check out the pyramid. There is a lot of construction going on in here! From the Louvre, a quick Metro ride took me back to our hotel. After a quick pit stop to drop off my tote, I went to check out the Merci shop. It's a rather peculiar collection of gardening &plant  gear, hipster clothing, miscellaneous home goods and a small skin care boutique. One thing I find in the Paris clothing stores-none of the clothes look like any thing I would wear in LA, although some are quite stylish. Also pricey.
Tonight the group is heading to the Palais Garnier to see POB in a mixed rep with dinner at the onsite restaurant before. The food is quite decent although the chicken is over cooked. We have fantastic seats about 10 rows back and just right of center. We're close enough to see the performers faces! The program includes a Ratmansky, Robbins, Balanchine and Peck. All are done to piano music (one with a violin, another with two pianos). I particularly enjoyed the Robbins and Peck although each piece serves to highlight the beauty of the POB dancers in a more pure unadorned way that isn't possible in a fancy story ballet.

R&J at POB

Today was our intro to the hotel breakfast buffet. Excellent! They had something for everyone - yogurt and fruit, cereal, cold cuts and cheese, hot foods, even rice for Asian guests.
Today the morning is free. I decided to stick to the neighbourhood and headed to the Musee Picasso. Turns out it's free first Sunday for all museums! The museum is featuring sculptures and has been recently renovated. The house is as much reason to visit as the art, truly a beautiful place which showcases Picasso's art surprisingly well. I enjoy his sculptures more than his paintings so this show was a treat. I figured I'd take advantage of free day to check out two other local museums both located in houses. Musee Cognac-Jay is the personal collection of 18th c art by M Cognac. This house is small and cramped but the collection is well organized by theme. The Musee Carnavalet is located in one of the most spectacular homes. The courtyard itself is worth a visit! The collection represents the history of art in Paris although many rooms were closed so I got only a selection of eras. The sign galleries were fantastic, with many signs geared towards illiterate customers so were visually inventive. There is a breathtaking art deco room (about to close for renovation), as well as some beautiful portraits of people who look like could be your neighbour (aside from the wigs and fancy clothes). For lunch I hunted down a Breton cafe Steven recommended called Breizh cafe. After a little confusion over the reservation only dining room vs the vent à porter room with some crates serving as counter seats, I had a delicious buckwheat galette (what we would call a crepe) with cheese, ham, mushrooms washed down with a glass of hard cider. Very refreshing.
After lunch, the group is meeting for our first official outing, a performance of R & J by Paris Opera Ballet at Opera Bastille. The leads are Dorothee Gilbert (long time etoile) and newcomer Hugo Marchand (his debut). The choreography is by Nureyev and rarely seen outside this company. The dancing is quite extensive, the balcony scene did not include a balcony and there were sly touches of humour scattered among the senseless tragedy of this timeless story. Marchand did a great job, although stumbled a bit in his partnering. Gilbert was brilliant. The death scene was incredibly moving, almost brought me to tears. The theatre was completely packed and a little chaotic.
Dinner tonight is at Brasserie Bofinger, a well known Alsatian restaurant with beautiful marquetry panels and a stained glass dome in the main room. We had a delicious meal of seafood soup, salmon and a chocolate lava cake.

Paris, voila!

After 11 hours in the air and a little  nervousness about connecting in Newark, I arrived in Paris ready to join a group of fellow ballet nuts on our epic trip with Tours en l'air! We aren't gathering officially as a group until tomorrow but our leader, Katherine, suggested we meet at the bar of our hotel for drinks at 6p so I've got the day to kill. I didn't get much sleep on the red eye flight (due to two men chatting in Spanish all night...grr) so I was a little woozy getting off the plane. Customs & immigration was a piece of cake and then finding the RER was pretty easy once I understood that the station is in Terminal 3. All the service people I've had to deal with were much friendlier and open to English speakers than the last time I was in Paris (maybe 6, 7 years ago). Our hotel is in the Marais, one of my favourite neighbourhoods with a great local culture. We will not have a problem finding good bistros to dine in when we are on our own. After checking in and getting the lay of the land, I decided to take a stroll and find some food to combat my jet lag. I had lunch at a tiny little corner bistro called La Vache Acrobat. I had a delicious veggie puree soup and slightly over done beef (more medium well than medium) with really good potatoes. After lunch, I walked down to Place de la Bastille to check out the arts and crafts market. I found the wares pretty similar to what you might find at an art fair in your community-funky jewelry, so-so paintings, interesting functional pieces, etc. I walked back to the hotel via Blvd Beaumarchais looking in shop windows. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was really feeling the lack of sleep so I decided it would be a good idea to relax in the hotel and read a bit. At 6p, the crowd had gathered in the lobby. It was fun to see how many different places people were from. The group is predominantly white older women many traveling with friends or alone. Most of us walk to dinner at a nearby bistro Katherine recommended. I had the rotisserie pork with mashed potatoes, followed by a pear tart, quite good and very reasonably priced. The service was great for handling a rather large group. I enjoyed getting to know some of the other ladies.
Tomorrow we have Nureyev's R&J at the Opera Bastille. Tonight's challenge is getting a good night's sleep.