Museums and Such in Paris

Trip Date: Feb 2024

When I saw that the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris was putting on a retrospective of Mark Rothko I really wanted to go- I had never been to that venue and Rothko is one of my favorite American artists. The exhibit only went from the end of 2023 until April 2024 and I already had multiple trips booked during that time and the budget was drained. But then Air France had a sale on flights booked with mileage and then Chase had a 25% transfer bonus to Air France! I found a flight from Seattle to Paris in Business class for just 41,250 miles. So I transfered 33,000 points from Chase & was awarded 8,250 more and paid $202 in taxes and fees and viola! Booked to go see Rothko and the BFF! 

The day of my trip I had a text saying my flight would be delayed 6 hours!! Luckily I use TripIt for all my travels and it alerted me that I should be qualified for compensation on any delays on a European carrier of more than 3 hours. While I hung out in the Amex Centurion Lounge and then the Delta Lounge at SeaTac I filed my claims online and included my Lyft cost since originally a friend was going to drive me to the airport. $717 ($67 for Lyft and $650 for the delay) was deposited in my bank account about 2 weeks after I got home. 

As I had taken advantage of the same sale for my return and found a 30% transfer bonus with Amex, I booked Delta One (thru Air France) for 75,000 but only had to transfer 58,000 & pay $288 for taxes and fees. So with the flight delay compensation I actually made $160! Gotta love that!

Also if you are at SeaTac and have to choose between the Amex Centurion Lounge or the Delta Lounge I will tell you that Amex has much better drinks and bartenders while Delta has better food quality. IMO. 

My Air France flight was on an older Boeing 787-9 but biz class still had a semi-private "pod", especially as I had a window seat which is a solo seat. Pro tip, when choosing a window seat pay attention to if the seat is angled the aisle or the window, facing the window gives you the max privacy, in this case it was the odd numbered rows. 

Compared to other business class, this was pretty basic. No mattress, pj's or even slippers!! There was a small amenity kit handed out after we took off and of course it was a lie-flat seat. The best part of Air France is that the Champagne flows freely (real Champagne) and the food is always great! My meal consisted of scallop ceviche, lobster salad, prime rib with demi-glace and roasted mushrooms, and a lovely Opera cake for dessert. Oh and ABK6 VSOP Single Estate Cognac. Of course!

In Paris, Forest and I had timed tickets for the Mark Rothko exhibit and arrived out in the Bois du Boulogne just a bit before our entry. From what I understand, the show was completely sold out. It was the first dedicated exhibit in France since 1999. There were 115 works from the National Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection, both in WA DC, the Tate in London, and from private collections, including Rothko's private family collection. 

First off this building, instantly recognizable as a design by Frank Gehry, is stunning! 

The exhibit was spread throughout the LV building and was organized in chronological order, starting with paintings from the 1930's including a self-portrait and other portraits. I had never seen any of his very early art so it was surprising!

In the early 40's he decided to move to abstraction and surrealism because he thought he wasn't good at figures. 

By the mid to late 40's he was fully into the multi-forms of color he is known for. 

Over the course of the 11 galleries you could really see his progression through shapes and colors. I was excited to see the entire Tate Gallery collection from its dedicated "Rothko room". I've seen these in London multiple times and the deep reds are just so striking!

But I hadn't seen the Phillips Collection's pieces so to see that collection was awesome, especially as you could really compare the works with different years, etc. 

One of the last rooms had a selection of his very dark paintings paired with sculpturist Giacometti’s tall figures. Such a fantastic combination!

I find his work very powerful; the color always feels like it is saturating my eyes & filling my head. Rothko felt that color could communicate emotions like fear, joy, and depression and I'd add wonder to that list. That is what I felt the first time I saw one of his pieces and it's what I still generally feel. I was very happy to have made it to this. 

We also had a wonderful visit to the YSL museum one morning. From 1974 to 2002 this mansion was the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent. In 2017 the haute couture HQ was reopened as a museum to give the public an opportunity to explore the designer's history and creations. 

Entering the mansion, we were invited up the beautiful staircase and into the designer's reception room where once clients were met; now filled with lots of his small sketches, photos, and paintings. From here we followed the progression into the special exhibit called Sheer: The diaphanous creations of Yves Saint Laurent which was a multi-space collection of his work exploring different ideas and examples of the theme.

The first gallery held the obvious; creations with lace, tuile, organza, and other sheer fabrics. Stunning and intricate work, also daring and revealing silhouettes including the first "see-through" blouse he created in 1968.

We continued upstairs to another gallery filled with beautiful dresses made of soft flowy fabrics. And into the dressmaking rooms where patterns were traced and transparency is showcased by the detailed stitching of these works of art.  

Pieces by other artists, such as Anne Bourse, Man Ray, and Picabia were also on exhibit throughout the mansion echoing the "sheer" theme. The final examples were some incredible wedding dresses. 

The museum, with it's collection of 5,000 garments and 15,000 accessories, most chosen personally by YSL for the museum, is meant to be mostly a rotating stage for special themed exhibits, which is great as you will always have something new to explore. There are some rooms in the mansion that seem to be permanent like the reception, a small room with a film about his life, and his studio, which was just amazing to walk through. 

The whole experience was highly enjoyable!

After all of that art, we needed culture of a different kind one afternoon. You might think that spending a day at the Hôtel de Crillon spa can't be compared to going to a museum, but this 18th-century palace, right across from the Place de la Concorde, has so much history that I beg to differ.  

While swimming in the beautiful indoor lap pool with its gold-tiled bottom you can think about how King Louis XV commissioned the building in 1758. And while relaxing is a cozy robe while sipping champagne you can image the finished palace being purchased by the Crillon family 1788. 

And while enjoying a decadent massage you can think about when the home was confiscated in 1791 during the French Revolution and was lived in by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette! 

By the way if you are looking to treat yourself I highly recommend the spa at the Crillon, a stunning Rosewood property. 

All photos of this trip to Paris here. 

Other post from this trip:

36 Hours in Luxembourg

My Birthday with Pharaohs in Egypt

Trip date: December 2022 

Last year I finally was able to visit a country that had been on my list since I was a kid; Egypt! My friends and I went for my birthday, Christmas, and New Years. It was amazing!

I flew from Seattle to London on Virgin Atlantic. Virgin had had a points transfer deal which made my Chase points worth 30% more so I booked into their Upper Class which I had never flown and was excited about. Virgin shares the Delta Lounge at SeaTac, which is really a great lounge, so I had a lovely snack paired with champagne before boarding my overnight flight. 

I always love a layflat bed when flying but I have to say that the configuration of Virgin's B787 was not good. All the "pods" face into the aisle (instead of forward) and have their back to the window. This means you are facing everyone; so weird!

Service was very good, all my food was fine (the airplane salt & pepper shakers were a cute touch), goodie bag was basic, but the jammies were great! I wouldn't choose to fly this particular metal again but that is a first world problem, I am aware. 

In London I met my friend Caitlin at our terminal for our Egyptair flight to Cairo where we would be connecting on to Luxor. As we waited to board we found out that Egyptair is a dry airline, aka no alcohol served onboard due to their Muslim ownership, but you could BYOB! So I grabbed a couple of mini bottles of wine and away we went. 

I had booked my London-Cairo-Luxor flights using miles via Amex so was also in business class. The layflat seat was very comfy and there was a ton of room! I asked the flight attendant for a glass for my wine and had a very enjoyable flight. Unfortunately Egyptair is known for being delayed and our flight was 2 hours late getting into Cairo, meaning we had missed our connection to Luxor (with our friends Forest and Thibault on it!).

Egyptair was very helpful though and not only put us up in a hotel but let us choose the Marriott which was in the airport. Since I am Marriott Gold they gave Caitlin and I a huge room with a lovely big bathroom. We ordered up some room service and caught up, forgoing any actual sleep as we had a 4am wake up call for our rebooked 6am flight. TOO EARLY!

Our 1 hour flight to Luxor was uneventful, I was even served a good breakfast and coffee in nice china in business class. We landed at Luxor airport, picked up some gin in duty free, and grabbed a taxi to meet our friends at the Embrace Hotel on the west bank. 

Dec 22nd, my birthday, and boy did we hit the ground running! We got to the hotel at about 9am and our private guide picked us up at 10am for our day in the Valley of the Kings. Hiring a private guide, we used Gaber and booked thru Yalla Travel, meant that we had an Egyptologist and a driver for 3 days to show us around and more importantly to explain the over THREE THOUSAND YEAR OLD history of what we would be seeing. 

As soon as we were on the road heading west to the Valley, Gaber was pointing out excavation sites, ruined statues, and other tombs in the hills. It was absolutely surreal! All of the area is an excavation site basically. I was thrilled!!

There are 63 tombs in the valley and 11 are open to the public, but not all on the same day. We chose to visit 4 of them, including Tutankhamun's (did you know he was buried in Luxor?).

Our first tomb was KV14 which was originally built for Queen Twosret, who was the last ruler of the 19th dynasty of Egypt. She was buried here in 1189BC. The tomb was then reused and extended by Setnakhte, the first pharaoh of the 20th dynasty. It was very unusual for a tomb to be used like this and also makes it one of the largest tombs in the valley. For an idea of the the layout of these tombs this site is fascinating! 

Next we toured KV11 which is the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses III. Setnakhte originally started this tomb but abandoned the project when they accidently broke into the tomb of Amenmesse! 

KV62 is everyone's favorite child pharoah, King Tutankhamun. Immediately upon entering you go down a set of stairs and through a small hall before entering a chamber where Tut's body is on display! This isn't the burial chamber, you continue just a bit to enter into that small but lavish room. It's just incredible that you can be that close to the 2000 year old mummy!

And finally KV6 the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses IX. The walls of the entrance here are covered completely in hieroglyphics but as you continue on the decorations aren't complete. They think that maybe the had to rush the finish when the pharaoh died.

Nothing can prepare you for walking into these tombs. The fact that the colors on the walls are still so distinct is mind blowing. It would be very easy to spend the day here but we had more to see! 

A short distance away we stopped at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, built into the base of the cliffs just outside of Luxor. It looks like a movie set!

 

Queen Hatshepsut was the wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II and reigned from 1479 BC until 1458 BC. She is remembered as one of Egypt's greatest rulers. 

This 3-level temple took 15 years to build and was like nothing else at the time. Originally there were rows of sphinxes guiding you to the 900 foot long building adorned with 22 Hathor columns. There are chapels dedicated to various gods and walls covered with reliefs of every known plant and animal in all of Egypt. It's truly a marvel.  

The entire complex was to be used as a place for people to worship Hatshepsut in her death and to remember her greatness. Unfortunately her stepson Thutmose III hated her. After her death he tried to erase her existence by removing her name from buildings, demolishing statues of her, monuments, etc. There's a lot of drama with these pharaohs! 

And all of this was before lunch!! Gaber took us to a restaurant with a nice terrace overlooking the nearby fields for some traditional Egyptian food. And then we were off again...

Next we visited Medinet Habu. There is so much history at this site! Originally Hatshepsut built this as a Temple to the god Amun in the early 18th Dynasty. 

Then Ramesses III had more construction done to make it his Mortuary Temple. It's a huge complex with courtyards, temples, storage rooms, a palace, etc. It was very cool seeing this after visiting his tomb earlier in the day.

When you visit these sites you will see security men keeping an eye on things in the ruins. They will also offer to show you areas and rooms not open to the public... for a fee. It's a good idea to keep 5 and 10 Egyptian Pounds (20-30 cents each) in your pockets for this. We were shown a few interesting spaces including the area where animal sacrifices were made. 

It was late in the day when we visited and the light was just beautiful! And we were the only people there by the time we left. Honestly, this site wasn't on our list but our guide Gaber recommended it and I'm so glad he did! It's his favorite as he grew up in the village next to it and he use to play in the ruins as a kid! Amazing!! 

We made a quick stop at the Colossi of Memnon on the way back to our hotel, which were built in 1350 BC as part of a massive temple that no longer stands. 

And then it was time to have a drink, get cleaned up, and go out for my birthday dinner! We went to Marsam which is inside a very cool hotel by the same name. The food was great, and the restaurant served wine (most don't since it's a Muslim country), and the company was even better!

Happy Birthday to me! In Egypt!!

All Luxor photos here. 

Other posts from this trip:
Day 2 & 3 in Luxor, Egypt
Four Nights on the Nile
48 Hours in Aswan, Egypt
New Year's Eve Inside Egypt's Pyramids
Exploring Cairo
48 Hours in Dubai, UAE
Emirates International First Class

Paris For Free

Trip date: September 2022

Since Covid, I had only been back to Paris for a quick 24 hours in Dec 2021. This time I was looking forward to spending a full week in the city before venturing off to other French destinations. 

But France being obsessed with strikes, did not make it easy for me to get there! They were having a one-day air traffic control strike; guess which day! Originally I had booked a business class flight on Cordor which connected in Frankfurt on Lufthansa to CDG. Cancelled. 

I was automatically rebooked in business on Delta transferring in Amsterdam. Cancelled.

I am not exaggerating when I say I spent HOURS (6 to be exact) on the phone with all three airlines trying to get a flight. Each of course said only the other could do it. I ended up having to find my own flight (it had to be in air to CDG the day before to get around the strike rules) and finally got Delta to book it. 

Seattle to Minneapolis in a middle economy seat (grrr), then MSP to CDG in DeltaOne Business, which sounds great but it was an older plane and the layout was not very good. The tvs in each "pod" face almost face each other and there is no privacy partition. Oh well, any lie flat bed is better than no lie flat and the food and service were better than expected. And the Delta Lounge at SeaTac is huge and fantastic!

This new flight got in at 7am, much earlier than my planned arrival at my friend Forest's, so another friend invited me to come over for breakfast and to take a nap and a shower. Very nice of her and a great little visit with one of her daughters and her hubby. 

Forest had a lot planned for us and luckily much of it was going to be free because I was there during Les Journées Du Patrimoine. The 3rd weekend of each September is Paris' "Heritage Days" where the city gives access to buildings and monuments that are usually closed to the public; mark your calendars! Additionally many sites and museums grant free access during this time. And of course, Paris has a lot of museums and interesting sites that are always free. Here are all the places we were able to hit up:

Institute Giacometti- The artist's studio was relocated from its original location into this stunning art deco apartment in Montparnasse. The intimate space houses some of Giacometti's work including sculpture, sketches, and books. It's a lovely spot!

Fondation Cartier- Also in Montparnasse, but in a large modern building, we explored the works of Australian contemporary artist Sally Gabori. Neither of us were familiar with her but were wowed by the colorful, large format paintings. I found it fascinating that she only started painting in 2005, at the age of eighty, and passed away in 2015 having achieved international attention and respect for her artistic ability! 

Musee Zadkine- This was the home and workshop of Russian sculpture Ossip Zadkine until he passed away in 1967. It's near the Jardin du Luxembourg, tucked back off the main street. There are about 400 pieces of his work, both inside and out in the garden. This was also an artist I wasn't familiar with and it was really nice to explore his work.

Saint Sulpice Church- We joined a free lecture on the gnomon. Built in the early 1700s, this obelisk works like a sundial and indicates the date of Easter. There is a small hole in one of the stained glass windows that the sun streams through, a line of light is cast on the meridian running along the floor and then up to the brass ball on top. It's pretty interesting! And the church itself is lovely to stroll through. 

Museum of Pixie- In Saint-Germain-des-pres there is an adorable shop called Pixie & Cie. I had read about the "toy store" years ago in Vanity Fair but had never had a chance to check it out. Upstairs is a museum of thousands of hand-made toy figurines living their best lives. Tiny apartment windows give you glimpses of their home life, others are performing in the symphony, some in the circus. There is a whole wall of figures dressed in haute couture from YSL, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel, etc. Other vignettes display beloved Parisian character Tintin as well as Asterix, Babar, and the Smurfs. The figurines range in price from $60-1000 and are intended for collectors vs children. It's all charming!

While in this area we also stumbled upon Minima Gallery which had some incredible miniature books and artwork and also Gallery Seine 55 which just happened to have a Klee, which when we asked about the owner told us the story on how he came to acquire it. You never know what you'll see while wandering in the 6th; it's a gem!

Jardin du Luxembourg Greenhouses- We arrived quite early in the morning for this rare opportunity to explore the greenhouses of the city's famed park. So early in fact that it was hard to figure out where the line was as there were only a few other people queued. But that would change as the morning went on so we were very happy to be some of the first inside.

The greenhouses have many gorgeous plants from around the world but the piece des les resistance is a house just for the collection of over 13,000 orchid plants! The gardeners are known for their ancient hybrids that they have been growing for years; the oldest plant being from 1885. It's a 137 year old orchid! This plant has survived since before WWI! It's crazy!!

The greenhouses are also the site of a conservatory orchard of 100's of varieties of apples and pears, again some of them created 100+ years ago. 

Musee Carnavalet- The Museum of the History of Paris, originally opened in 1880, use to be only in French, no subtitles of any kind. Unfortunately my French is near nonexistent so I had never been. Then the city closed the museum for 5 years giving it a major overhaul and just reopened in May of 2021. It now has not only multiple language options on almost all the pieces, but modern digital displays as well. It's an incredible collection that takes you on a chronological tour of the artifacts, sculptures, paintings, and design of Paris from 9600 BCE to the 21st century. 

The two connected mansions that house the museum also have an absolutely charming terrace where we sat after with a glass of wine and discussed the collections. I'd add this to your do-not-miss list!

Maison de Victor Hugo- In a corner of the beautiful Place de Vosges, the French writer Victor Hugo lived for about 10 years. It was in this mansion where he wrote Les Misérables. It's a beautiful home, and an interesting peek around at the writer's furnishings. I just love touring through the old haunts of famous people. Especially when it's free!

That's a lot of free stuff to see in my opinion! And this is just a taste of what Paris has to offer gratuit, there are literally hundreds of things you can explore. The city website has some excellent information even if you aren't there during Heritage Days.

All Paris photos here.

Other posts from this trip:

Paris by the Numbers 

(Michelin) Stars in Paris

36 Hours in Marseille

Exploring Corsica