A visit to Lascaux IV in the Dordogne region of France is a must for the artsy traveler. Here you will view the incredible paintings done by our artistically-inclined ancestors over 30,000 years ago (give or take a few centuries). The size, breadth, and sheer beauty of the paintings definitely will take your breath away.
In this post, I’m sharing my experience at Lascaux IV near the charming town of Montignac in the Dordogne region of France in October 2023.
We first visited Lascaux II in 1995 almost reluctantly. The original cave closed to visitors in 1963 after they’d been allowed to crowd through for about fifteen years. Unfortunately, bacteria from their breath was eradicating the paintings at an alarming rate.
Lascaux II
Lascaux II opened in 1984–an almost exact facsimile created to show tourists the paintings in the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery. Purists as we were back in those days, we didn’t think a facsimile could be as good as the real thing.
We were very wrong.
Lascaux II was small, cramped, and fabulous. The magnificence of the prehistoric paintings blew us away, particularly inspiring Gregg (my husband & an artist–meet him on the About page) to create several paintings related to our visit. We could hardly believe the paintings were in fact almost exact replicas of the real thing.
Lascaux III and IV
The Lascaux cave’s fame as the premier destination for prehistoric art lovers in France, or indeed all of Europe, continued to grow. In 2012, reproductions of the paintings, called Lascaux III, were taken on the road. Then, in 2016, the massive complex that now houses Lascaux IV and its accompanying museum opened to the public.
Preparing for Our Visit to Lascaux IV
We secured our reservations for the English tour weeks before leaving Canada—and a good thing. There were only three English tours available daily during the three days we were in the Dordogne. Even a month out, only a few spots remained in the time slot we wanted (11:10 am). We snapped them up, printed off our tickets, and looked forward to the ultimate prehistoric treat. We knew the paintings themselves would not have changed since we saw them in Lascaux II, but were interested to see how the Lascaux IV iteration had enhanced the experience.
Buy Tickets in Advance at https://www.lascaux.fr/en
Touring Lascaux IV
We arrive about twenty minutes before our designated time slot and park in the huge lot across from the long, low modern building housing Lascaux IV, built below the hill that houses the real Lascaux cave.
In the airy atrium, we spend the time before the tour starts browsing the gift shop and discovering a whole new level of Lascaux-themed merch. We resolve to return after the tour and make our choices.
But before leaving the gift shop, I can’t resist snapping a pic of a whole wall of prehistoric animal stuffies. Is life truly worth living without a stuffed mammoth? I think not.
The tour begins with a flurry of English-speaking people affixing headsets and audio receivers as the cheerful guide asks if we are “hearing my voice in your head?” After several minutes all thirty or so of us are kitted out and the tour begins in an elevator.
Starting Outside Lascaux IV
We zip up to the roof of the low-slung building and learn about the discovery of the Lascaux cave in 1940. A man was out with his dog Robot (yep, that was the dog’s name) and discovered the narrow entrance to the cave at the top of the wooded hill behind the building. He returned the next day with three boys. They entered the cave through a 15-metre-deep shaft and discovered cave walls covered with depictions of animals—aurochs, bison, deer, horses, and more.
Our guide plays up the drama of the discovery and then invites us to cast ourselves back 30,000 years to imagine leaving the fresh air to clamber into a dark cave. He reminds us frequently that the humans who created the paintings in Lascaux are the same as is, biologically speaking. They were Cro-Magnon, relatively recent arrived in the area which had been inhabited for several hundreds of thousands of years by their Neanderthal cousins.
Entering Lascaux IV
With a flourish, the door slides open and we troop into the narrow cave. Our guide exhorts us to proceed in total silence and with reverence for what we are about to witness. He does a good job of setting the scene.
My art sensors are on high alert.
The door slides shut behind us and we are in the first room. Arching high above us and on the walls either side are an awe-inspiring jumble of painted animals. Some overlap, and the prevailing impression is one of constant, joyous movement. Looking up in the eerie light cast by the guide’s flashlight, the animals sway and gallop across the uneven surfaces of the cave. Each bump and swell of the simulated rock has been incorporated into the bodies of the animals in exact imitation of how the animals appear in the real cave.
Description of Images
The images of animals cavorting above us are not primitive scratchings on a rock wall. This is the prehistoric Sistine Chapel. The beauty and freshness of the vividly colored animals explode in front of us. We gasp with wonder and respect. These early painters truly were artists.
Throughout the tour, the guide emphasizes that we have no idea why the long-ago artists made these paintings. The prevailing theory is that they were made because the artists wanted to make them. In other words, these cave artists were not much different from an artist in any period. They created the animals they saw outside the cave in all their kinetic glory because, well, they just kinda felt like it. Perhaps they painted during the winter when game was scarce. Being inside a relatively warm and cozy cave was better than being outside in the snow.
Who knows!
Types of Images in Lascaux
The cave contains nearly 6,000 figures, the vast majority of which are animals. One bird-headed human figure appears in a shaft that they don’t include in Lascaux IV (but show in the museum). The cave also includes various symbols whose meaning archeologists have yet to determine.
There are no images of the surrounding landscape or the local vegetation. The animals charge across the cave walls and ceiling unencumbered by gravity.
Creating the Images
The artists used three colors: red, yellow, and black made from minerals and sometimes mixed with grease. Tools used include early versions of brushes along with tubes for blowing the paint onto the rock. The museum we enter after touring the replica cave provides many more details.
Hall of the Bulls
First up is the Hall of the Bulls. The clarity, brightness and size of the many images is spectacular. Each animal looks like it was painted yesterday, which is sort of true since it’s a replica, but it’s a replica of what the real caves look like.
The Hall of the Bulls contains 130 figures, including cows, horses, aurochs, and the only bear in the cave. One of the bulls is enormous. Spanning 5.5 meters, it’s the world’s largest known prehistoric representation of an animal.
Also in the hall is the first unicorn—a representation of an animal that never existed in nature. What was the artist thinking? Why did he or she choose to paint it? We’ll never know. The guide spends a lot of time focusing on the unicorn and speculating.
Axial Gallery
We keep going through the hall to the axial gallery, a 30-meter passage dubbed the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory. My favorite is the line of small horses merrily cantering along one wall. Called the Frieze of the Small Horses, they face the direction of the entrance to the Axial gallery. Each one is different in color, size, and shape. I unfortunately did not snap a picture of the little horses later when we entered the museum.
Overhead flow more horses and bulls and cows and aurochs and even two ibexes in a joyous celebration of movement and color. Below is a photo of one of the ceilings, taken from Canva. Photography inside the replica cave is forbidden so I wasn’t able to snap my own pics.
The Nave
Five large stags follow in a row, only their heads and antlers visible as if they are swimming. Also there are two black bison facing back to back with the rump of one placed just ahead of the other to give a 3D effect. They look like they are galloping off in opposite directions.
Where Are the Reindeers?
Being inside the replica cave is somewhat claustrophobic and yet wondrous at the same time. I tried to imagine what compelled people just like me to lower themselves into a cave and use tools and pigments to cover walls with a riot of animals in motion. And what’s even more astonishing is that not one of the animals depicted is a reindeer—the most plentiful animal roaming the landscape at the time.
Why did the artists only depict the less common animals instead of the one they depended on most for food? Again, no one knows.
The population of France during the time when the paintings were created was less than 50,000 people. And yet a fair number of them must have been artists, considering the large number of painted caves in the Dordogne area, elsewhere in France, and in northern Spain. The guide tells us that all the painted caves in existence will never be discovered.
Ending the Tour
At the end of the tour, we emerge into the sunlight to the sound of running water. The guide asks us to consider the role water played in creating caves of hollowed-out rock beneath the earth.
After answering questions, the guide leads us into the museum. Here, each of the main panels in the caves is reproduced so we can study them more closely and also take pictures. As mentioned, photography is forbidden within the caves.
Exploring the Museum
The museum is very high-tech and stylish. I would like to stay longer, but it’s already one o‘clock and tummies are rumbling. After snapping pictures of my favorite parts of the cave, I check out some of the interactive stations where people are invited to try “painting” on the screen using the colors and tools available to the cave artists. It’s all very cleverly done.
Once out, we make a quick pit stop at the gift shop and load up on Lascaux-themed merch. I buy myself a Lascaux mouse pad, a fridge magnet to add to our growing collection, a stylized figurine of an auroch, and a book about Lascaux so we can read about what we’ve just seen.
Conclusion
A visit to Lascaux IV is a must if you’re traveling in the Dordogne area. It’s located close to the charming village of Montignac. Have you visited? Share your impressions and your tips for other artsy travelers in the comments.
Tour Options for the Dordogne
Here are some options for touring the Dordogne area of France. Allocate at least a week for the area. We stayed for just three days and it was not long enough!
We’ve come to beautiful little Pont-Aven in southern Brittany for six days. The works created by painters of the Pont-Aven School, most notably Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard and Paul Sérusier, has long intrigued my husband Gregg Simpson. These artists—plus many more over the past century—have found the light and landscape of this corner of Brittany inspiring. Gregg wants to find out if inspiration will also hit him. (Spoiler alert: it does!).
I’m toying with an idea for a character who comes from a provincial French town and makes her way to Paris during the Belle Époque. Why not have her come from Pont-Aven? I resolve to spend the week soaking in the atmosphere and the vistas, and learning what I can about what life was like here in the 1880s.
Tuesday, October 2
Morning in Rennes
After breakfast at our hotel in Rennes (Hôtel Anne de Bretagne—a good choice for a one-night stay), we set off to explore the medieval streets of Rennes, the capital of Brittany. The city allegedly has the greatest number of half-timbered medieval houses still standing in France—360 houses in total. We don’t think we’ll have time to see all 360, but I’m determined to see a goodly portion of them. Armed with a route I mapped out from various blog posts about Rennes and its medieval architecture, we set off.
There are few people on the streets on the fine and sunny Tuesday morning. We walk about ten minutes, retracing our steps from our post-dinner stroll the night before, then turn a corner and voilà! We come face to face with the famed Rennes medieval houses—well, a few of them at least.
Half-Timbered Houses in Rennes
They are gorgeous! Half-timbered, often painted, some crooked and leaning out into the street. It takes a very small leap of the imagination to see myself back in the 1400s so long as I keep my gaze upwards to avoid looking at the modern storefronts at ground level.
After a while, we notice that ghostly images of what we think are white ferrets fill the windows of many of the half-timbered buildings. These are the buildings that must be in the process of being preserved because instead of storefronts at the bottom, there are … ferrets. We quickly become obsessed with snapping pictures of these rather creepy guys!
En Route to Pont-Aven: A Stop in Josselin
We leave Rennes and take our time driving to Pont-Aven. According to our navigation system, it’s just two hours away, and since we can’t check into the house we rented until 4 pm, there’s no need to rush.
On our way, we stop in Josselin. I had no idea it would be as pretty as it turned out to be. I was looking on Google Maps for a good place to break our journey. A click on Josselin showed it had a château. I’m always up for checking out a château, so we set the navigation system for Josselin.
Wow! Josselin is adorable! Its half-timbered houses have been meticulously renovated and restored, many painted in bright colors.
The town is small—really more of a village, so it doesn’t take long to walk along its cobbled streets and down toward the river where stands the château. It opens in an hour, but we won’t wait to go in. In my experience, most French châteaux are pretty much empty inside, and according to the website, the château at Josselin is no exception. We opt instead to walk down by the river and snap photos in the glorious October sunshine.
Arrival in Pont-Aven
Then it’s back in the car and onwards to Pont-Aven. At 4 pm, we enter Pont-Aven, our home for the next six nights. We’ve visited the town twice before—first in 1995 when Gregg discovered its association with several of the painters he admires, and again in 2013 when we spent a night there during a short jaunt to Brittany. Both times, we loved the picturesque little town and hoped it hadn’t changed.
The navigation system wants to take us across what looks like a pedestrian plaza. We balk and opt for the long way around that ends in a very sharp turn up a very steep driveway marked privé. But the address is correct and so Gregg barrels up the road and makes a second very sharp turn into the parking area.
Although I’d seen pictures of the place on booking.com, I am not prepared for just how stunning it is, perched on a ridge with a view across the boat-choked inlet. Called Le Fusain, the house itself is large and modern with a massive kitchen, a large living/dining area, a master bedroom with attached bathroom downstairs, and two smaller bedrooms and another bathroom upstairs. It’s too big for us but we don’t mind. And it’s an incredible bargain, compared to what we paid in Paris and Amsterdam.
The person who manages the place shows us around and then leaves us to get acquainted with our new digs. We both stake out our work areas—me at the modern dining room table in the living room (left) Gregg at the large wooden table in the kitchen (right), and resolve to use a lot of our time to get stuck into some work.
First Stroll Into Pont-Aven
But first, we must check out Pont-Aven and buy food for dinner. We set off down the hill for our first of what will be several forays into exquisite little Pont-Aven. I can’t stop snapping pictures!
Eventually, we end up at the Intermarché near the edge of town, load up on provisions, and head back up the hill to our beautiful domain. That night, we enjoy a light dinner of crêpes stuffed with ham and cheese. Divine (and also so much cheaper than eating out!).
Overview of Pont-Aven
Henry Bacon, an American artist, “discovered” Pont-Aven in the 1860s. Many more artists began flocking to the area, attracted by the light and the beauty of the town and the surrounding landscape. Painters came from Scandinavia, England, and the United States, but were all called the Americans by the locals. Pont-Aven‘s reputation as a mecca for artists was cemented in 1886 when Paul Gauguin arrived. Other artists in the Impressionist and Synthetist school soon followed, including Émile Bernard and Paul Sérusier. Their work became known worldwide as the “School of Pont-Aven”. Their likenesses are painted on a wall in Pont-Aven. From left to right – Sérusier, Bernard, and Gauguin.
Check out my post on the Musée d’Orsay for some of the most famous examples of their work.
Wednesday, October 4
Pont-Aven weaves its magic spell around us and we can’t get enough of enjoying its many vistas. We set off mid-morning for our first real exploration. Pont-Aven is located at the end of a very long inlet. It’s a good 90-minute walk along a wooded sentier to get to the sea. Back in the day, the town was a popular fishing port, apparently attracting so many French sailors that locals tended to speak French rather than Breton as did most of the people in the surrounding towns and villages.
Bois d’Amour
We head first to the tourist information office and pick up a map of the area and directions to the Bois d’Amour—the Wood of Love, a delightful walk alongside the river where Paul Gauguin and Paul Sérusier first “discovered” abstraction. Well, that’s the legend, anyway. The very spot where Gauguin apparently told Sérusier how to use color vibrantly is marked with a plaque as well as the painting that Sérusier created, entitled Le Talisman.
We are entranced by the beauty of the walk as well as the almost complete absence of other people. A visit in October is just the ticket to avoid crowds. The area is very popular with holidaymakers during the summer months.
Pont-Aven is tiny and yet boasts 60 art galleries! Pretty much every shop on the four main streets that make up the town is an art gallery of some sort. Most of the art in the galleries is of the sailboat landscape variety, competently done but not that interesting.
Thursday, October 5
After a morning walk into town for coffee and croissants followed by catching up on writing (me) and doing some drawing (Gregg), we head out at 4 pm to explore the area by car. Our first goal is to find the sea! We know we’re close—we can smell it and hear the seagulls, but so far we haven’t yet seen it. That changes pretty quickly after we leave Pont-Aven and drive along beautifully winding country roads to emerge onto our first beach. It’s wide and windy and absolutely stunning. It’s also empty.
For the next two hours, we swoop and swerve along the country roads, stopping every so often to admire yet another sea view of blue ocean and rocks tortured into weird shapes.
Visit to Concarneau
At close to 6 pm, we drive into Concarneau, a relatively large town that consists of a modern portion on the mainland and then a walled old city across a bridge in the harbor. We arrive just in time to watch the merchants closing up their shops. Here’s a shot of the old town from the new town. One of the flags is a Canadian flag!
I had thought we’d eat dinner in the old town but nope. The drawbridge comes down at 6:30! We have a quick walk around and then go in search of restaurant on the street facing the harbor. We are the first people in at 7:15 and ushered upstairs to a table with a lovely view over the harbor (see below).
The server is attentive and friendly. He happily speaks English and laughs good-humoredly at our attempts to order in French. While we eat, the place fills to capacity. Ours is the only server and I watch fascinated as he deftly and efficiently attends to the many tables.
We order steak and both have too large a piece to finish. I ask the server for a box and he brings me a large plastic container into which I unselfconsciously stow our leftovers. It will make a perfect dinner the next day. I remember a time when asking for a “doggie bag” just wasn’t done in France, but fortunately all that’s changed, and a request to pack up leftovers doesn’t even elicit an eyebrow raise.
Friday, October 6
We decide to stay close to home and make a visit to the Musée Pont-Aven our priority. Good call! The museum is wonderful! After four days in Pont-Aven, I’m getting plenty of inspiration for my WIP (Work in Progress) and have decided that an American artist must play a role, preferably a female American artist. Were there any?
Musée Pont-Aven
The museum provides the answer! The oldest painting by a female artist visiting Pont-Aven was done in 1883 by Marie Luplau, a Danish artist and ardent feminist. Apparently, many women artists came to the town to paint during the period, including Emily Carr at the beginning of the 20th century. Marie’s painting is of the Bois d’Amour, where we walked the day before.
Ideas ping and pong off each other as I wander the beautifully curated displays at the museum. In the first room, I take a picture of every single frame of a short slide show about Pont-Aven in the 19th century when it first started attracting artists. Pictures of people at the time in which an historical novel is set provide a wealth of information about what people looked like, what they wore, what the houses were like, and so on.
What strikes me most is how little Pont-Aven has changed. Although now attracting thousands of tourists a year, the town has kept its original buildings and flavor so that photographs taken in the 19th century don’t look all that much different from photographs taken today. Here are just two of the many photos I snapped.
I also learn that local people wore wooden shoes—a nice detail to file away for future reference.
The museum includes works by all the main School of Pont-Aven artists, including the “Big Three”: Gauguin, Sérusier, and Bernard. Here are some highlights.
Les Porcelets by Paul Sérusier
This delightful piece beautifully combines cold blues in the background and warm yellows in the foreground and, while not abstract, definitely shows tendencies towards favoring shapes over realism. It’s a good example of the aesthetic of the Pont-Aven School in its use of simplified lines, bright colors and unusual framing that cuts off the top of the woman’s body.
La Grammaire by Paul Sérusier
This painting represents Sérusier’s interest in the sibyls, ancient prophetesses, but his version is a contemporary Pont-Aven woman. I love the simple shapes and flat planes of the piece, and also how the woman’s hand clasps the book. She looks like she’s just come in from milking the cows, so having her writing in a book like she’s a scholar is both jarring and intriguing.
Special Exhibition
We check out the special exhibition on the second floor and are blown away to discover it’s an exhibition of women artists and photographers who documented their travels in the 19th century. These were some pretty intrepid women—traveling all over the world to paint and photograph local landscapes and people. The exhibition is a great example of how, finally, artwork made by women is being showcased in major exhibitions.
Saturday, October 7
Quick Trip into Quimper
We set off mid-morning for a day trip to Quimper followed by another country drive, this time in search of prehistoric sites. Quimper is the oldest city in France and is known for its cathedral and its many beautifully preserved half-timbered houses. We arrive and park, then make our way into the delightful town. The central area is compact, with plenty of attractive houses to photograph and lots of shops selling local delicacies. We wander around, stop for a good lunch at a café overlooking the cathedral, buy Gregg more art supplies, and then set out in search of prehistory.
Menez Dregan
A thirty-minute drive takes us to the coast to a site called Menez Dregan, a paleolithic site of major importance. We are suckers for paleolithic sites (see my post about Prehistory Sites in Europe) and are astonished to discover that evidence found in the oldest layers of the rock at the site show that it was inhabited around 465,000 years B.C.
Excavations have uncovered flint tools, bones (especially from large mammals like perissodactyls, and an elephant’s tooth) and hearths, making the site one of the oldest in the world where fire is known to have been used. It’s beautifully situated. We sit on a rock and look out to sea, imagining our distant ancestors pausing in their work to gaze out at the same sea on a warm October afternoon.
Getting Lost in Brittany
We leave Menez Dregan and for the first time on the trip, our navigation system lets us down! The main road back to Pont-Aven is blocked but nobody told Madame GPS with the soothing English accent. As a result, she keeps trying to take us to the same exit over and over again. Finally, I tell Gregg to take another exit that leads in the opposite direction and try to plot a route using my phone’s Google Maps across country back to Pont-Aven. We end up driving a good hour longer than we should have, but we do eventually make it home. Fortunately, the bucolic Brittany countryside we drove through made the extra time fly by.
Sunday, October 8
Our last day in Pont-Aven is just as warm and beautiful as each of the days we’ve spent here. The weather is eerily warm for this time of year—high twenties every day. We decide to spend most of the day at our place, finishing up work and generally relaxing before setting out on another road trip the next day.
We walk down to the town and have a delicious lunch of crêpes and salad. Pont-Aven on a warm October day is hopping—the busiest we’ve seen it all week. We end the day with a final stroll down to the inlet to get rid of our garbage. Because our house is on a private road, there is no garbage pickup. As a result, we need to take our garbage down the hill and across the bridge to some public poubelles in a park. I’m not sure what people do if they have a lot of garbage! But after just under a week, we can easily transport our two bags.
And then it’s back up the hill one last time. We’ll miss this little corner of heaven in Pont-Aven. There’s even a cross on a rock alongside the little private road leading to “our” house.
En Route to La Rochelle
After saying good-bye to the manager of the house, we set off for Carnac on our way south to La Rochelle, our destination for the night. We’ve resolved on this trip to never drive more than three or four hours in a day. La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast is about four hours south of Pont-Aven and four hours north of our next destination in Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, so it’s a good choice for a break.
We’ve visited Carnac twice over the past thirty years and both times been blown away by the sheer number of stones in the famous alignments. They really are remarkable! And what were they for? No one really knows.
We park and share a picnic lunch, then check out a few of the largest stones. These days, people are not allowed into the alignments. Thirty years ago, Gregg walked up to a gate and asked a farmer if he could go in to take some pictures, and the farmer was happy to open the gate and usher him in. That wouldn’t happen now!
And finally, a rare photo of the two of us! An obliging hiker was walking by as Gregg was taking a picture of me in front of the alignments and asked if we’d like one of us together.
Touring Brittany
Brittany is a very large department, so choose an area to home base in. We’ve spent time in northern Brittany on the spectacular Côte Granite Rose and in the Gulf of Morbihan area. Here are other posts on Artsy Traveler about various areas in Brittany:
This post presents a day-by-day account of six days I spent in Paris in September 2023. During our stay, my husband Gregg Simpson mounted an exhibition of his paintings at a small ‘pop-up’ gallery on the Left Bank. While he sat the gallery, I visited my favorite museums and took a cooking class.
Overview
I’ve visited Paris many times, starting with my first visit at the age of 14 with my mom. I didn’t much like Paris then, nor was I much entranced during the next trip when I was about 20 in 1976. In those days, people were not friendly, men were constantly cat-calling, and the whole place felt a bit grubby. But fortunately, I haven’t let my earliest impressions of Paris prevent me from returning many times during the last four decades, starting with a marvelous family trip in 1994.
On each trip, I discover something new, and on each trip, I love Paris even more. I even set my fourth novel there—Love Among the Recipes—about a cookbook author who comes to Paris and rediscovers love in all its flavors.
Day 1: Arrival in Paris
We leave lovely little Ghent around 10 am for the pleasant three-hour drive to the Porte d’Ivry in the south of Paris where we will park our car for the duration of our stay in Paris.
Parking with Parclick
On our last trip to Europe in 2022, I discovered Parclick. It’s an awesome parking app that finds parking wherever you want to go. Enter the location into the app (or on the website) to view a list of all the parking lots in the area that accept Parclick customers. The prices range, from exorbitant to park in the center of any city to incredibly reasonable to park on the outskirts. And price is not the only consideration. Most European cities severely restrict vehicular traffic. This means you risk a fine if you drive into a city without a permit or fail to register your presence if you do have a permit.
Several weeks before our trip, I booked a parking place at the Comfort Hotel near Porte d’Ivry, which is just off the Périphérique—the massive ring road that circles Paris and is always, at least in our experience, plugged solid with traffic. Parking for a week costs 53 euros, which is a pretty darned good deal compared to what parking in the center of Paris would cost—and without the hassle of actually driving into Paris, which is a nightmare. We know because, unfortunately, we’ve driven into the center of Paris a few times over the years and yeah, it’s not easy.
We quickly find the Comfort Hotel thanks to our car’s excellent GPS system. After receiving a code from reception, we drive into the super-dark underground parking lot, park our car and emerge into the sunlight to call an Uber. Yes, Paris has Uber, which is a godsend (well, it starts out as a godsend –more on that later!). The Comfort Hotel is in quite an obscure location, and we have a lot of luggage. It’s unlikely we’d have easily found a taxi in the vicinity.
Uber into Paris
The Uber driver arrives and cheerfully helps load our luggage into his car and whisks us through Paris to our apartment on rue de Sèvres on the Left Bank. We chose the apartment because, although ridiculously expensive, it wasn’t quite as expensive as apartments closer to the gallery where Gregg will be exhibiting. It’s about a ten-minute Mètro or bus ride followed by a 10-minute walk to the gallery. The area is well serviced with restaurants, food shops, and some swanky department stores such as the Bon Marché.
Entry to our Apartment
We are early and so wait in front of the place until our contact arrives at 4 pm. She leads us through a long and involved gamut of locked doors and courtyards to our apartment. First, we use a fob to open the heavy outdoor gate. We then walk through a large courtyard to a set of stairs. After hauling our heavy suitcases up the stairs, we use the fob to get into one of the buildings that is part of the large, sixties-built apartment complex. We walk through that building to another set of doors that leads out to another courtyard. After crossing that courtyard, we go through a third set of doors that are fortunately open and then blip the fob again to enter our corridor. We walk down the long, darkly paneled corridor to the end and finally use the one key to open it.
Or, as we discover later, we could have just entered via the front of the building, used the fob twice and walked a quarter of the way. I still haven’t figured out why she took us in the back way.
Our Apartment on rue de Sèvres
Our apartment is modern and very spacious—almost ridiculously spacious! We have an enormous living room with two enormous couches and a dining table, a kitchen equipped with everything we could possibly need and a large entrance area that includes a desk. In addition, we have a bathroom with a bathtub (a rarity these days), a toilet room, a walk-in closet and finally a bedroom. I spend the first day getting lost, particularly in the middle of the night when searching for the toilet.
It’s certainly a comfortable place, which, considering the cost, it should be. Mind you, a hotel room that is a quarter the size costs the same, so I could say the place is a bargain. We’ve stayed in many apartments in Paris and this one ranks as the most comfortable. It is not charming, but I will take modern conveniences and a ground floor place over an 18th-century loft up five flights of twisting stairs any day.
Why Choose the Center of Paris
You can certainly find cheap rooms on the outskirts of Paris, like those at the Comfort Hotel where we parked. However, I don’t recommend doing so unless your budget is really tight. You’ll end up spending a lot of time on the Mètro to get into the center of Paris, where the vast majority of the best sightseeing is located. After your day of sightseeing, you’ll return to a neighborhood that is often dreary and devoid of the Parisian charm you’ve traveled so far to find. A few times, for various reasons, we’ve stayed near or just beyond the Périphérique and will never do so again if we can help it.
Finding the Gallery
After getting settled, we decide to walk to the gallery to meet the person who will let us in. After walking for about 5 minutes, we realize we’ll never make it in time and so get an Uber. We arrive at the gallery to meet our contact after being stuck in traffic a few times.
She leads us through the complex protocol for accessing the gallery. First, we enter a code to open the huge wooden door next to the gallery. We then use the fob to get through the next door and one of the four keys provided to get through a squat red door that leads into a passageway that looks like it hasn’t changed since the Middle Ages. I imagine people cowering under the low ceiling while citizens during the Revolution scour the area for people to send to the guillotine. I must turn on my phone flashlight to get down the passage, my head ducked. Gregg has to bend almost double.
We reach a slightly open area where yet another door awaits. This one requires a special key that must be inserted in exactly the right way, turned and then the door shoved hard. This door leads into the back of the gallery. But we’re not done yet! We must use the round key to unlock the massive metal grate protecting the window. With a great clanking and grinding, the metal grate rolls up and up, finally coming to rest with a satisfying clunk. Then and only then can we use the fourth key to open the front door of the gallery.
The gallery is gorgeous! What a relief! We rented a gallery in 2022 from the same outfit and were disappointed because although the space itself was functional, the location was not. This gallery is smack dab in the middle of gallery land. And most of the art in the galleries is modern art. Gregg’s work will look right at home.
First Meal in Paris
With the gallery keys secured and the instructions on my phone, we head out for our first meal in Paris. I booked a posh place for our first dinner—Le Christine just a few meters away from the gallery on rue Christine. The place is comfortable and full of both French people and tourists. The servers bend over backwards to give us a memorable experience.
We start with a shared appetizer—an interesting concoction of zucchini, green onions, and a bunch of other ingredients swimming in a crispy puff pastry crust. It goes down easy.
For the main course, Gregg has a fillet of cod cooked with all sorts of tastes and even a smattering of foam. I opt for the lamb with chanterelles—succulent and rich. We each have a glass of wine but decide against dessert. The prices are a bit above my comfort zone although because it’s Tuesday, we are getting a 20% discount on the main courses. Still, the bill comes to 117 Euros, which in Canadian terms isn’t that bad considering the incredible quality of the food, but it’s certainly not bargain basement.
Day 2 in Paris: Visit to the Louvre
Paris teems with eight-million-plus Parisians, who all seem to know exactly where they are going and why. Interposed with the fast-walking, forward-facing French people are plenty of tourists, eyes fixed on phones as they navigate the back streets of the Left Bank.
In the morning, we take the Métro to the gallery and I leave Gregg to wait for the shippers to deliver his boxes of paintings while I make my way across the Pont des Arts to the Louvre. Although I’ve visited many times, I decide to give it one more try. To be honest, it’s a bit of a mistake. The Louvre is over-crowded, over-hot, and over-amped. I give it the old college try but eventually have to admit defeat and leave.
Louvre Highlights
Here are two of the highlights, only scratching the surface of what’s available if you have the stamina. Most of the really famous pieces by artists such as Delacroix, David, and Ingres are so large that they can’t be photographed effectively, and I quickly lost heart, mostly because every room I entered looked like this:
The Three Muses
This Roman copy of a Greek statue of the three muses catches my eye. The three women are symbols of beauty, the arts and fertility.
St. Jerome in His Study
My attention is caught by this piece, an oil on panel painted around 1450 by Colantonio, an artist of the Naples school. He is famous for his meticulous depiction of objects–and no wonder. Check out how he renders the books and other objects to give the impression of a somewhat messy but productive office. There are even paper notes tacked to the wall. And then there’s the sad, patient look on the lion’s face. The scene has a wonderful immediacy, as if St. Jerome is at his desk writing, then breaks off to attend to the lion who has just limped in. As soon as he gets the thorn out of the lion’s paw, St. Jerome will return to his work–turning the page of the book on the desk, reaching for one of the other books to look something up, carrying on with his studies as if nothing untoward had happened.
Louvre Suggestions
If you do visit the Louvre, buy your ticket in advance and go as early as you can to avoid the crowds. Check the map provided and plan in advance which paintings and sculptures you want to see. Avoid wandering aimlessly through the Louvre—that way lies madness (along with sore feet and frayed nerves).
Also, don’t bother checking out the Mona Lisa. You’ll not get within ten yards of her and you’re in danger of getting pick-pocketed. I did actually wander into her room, but only to take a picture of the crowds!
Après Louvre
I stop for a crêpe from a street vendor and watch, fascinated, as he carefully pours the crêpe batter onto a large circular griddle, then uses a tool like a windshield wiper to spread the batter into a perfect circle. With incredible care and precision, he lifts the edges to reveal a crisp brown, then deftly flips the crêpe over and sprinkles it with cheese. Finally, he performs a complicated set of maneuvers with his flipper to create a cone-shaped crêpe that he slides into a paper and hands to me.
I eat it sitting at the edge of one of the fountains next to the Louvre pyramid while watching the tourists flow past. It’s delicious and a bargain at just 5 euros.
In the late afternoon, I treat myself to a glass of wine and a very nice slab of paté in a café very close to the gallery. The outdoor patio is bigger than most and I find a table in a corner. Unfortunately, next to me is a group of young Frenchmen who are extremely loud. Every so often, they burst into raucous laughter, making me jump. It’s a tad annoying and also unusual. In my experience, Europeans are generally much quieter in restaurants than North Americans.
As usual, the servers leave me strictly alone once they’ve brought my order, which is fine by me because they also don’t mind how long you stay. But when I do want to go, it’s almost impossible to get their attention!
I pick up Gregg at the gallery and we catch the bus along the Seine to the Grand Palais where we are to see an exhibition of art nouveau. Alas, we arrive at the Grand Palais to find it completely boarded up. I check the ticket and realize that the exhibition is sponsored by the Grand Palais but is actually being held way across town near Place de la Bastille—a good 40 minutes away by Métro. Since the exhibition closes at 8 pm and it’s already 7:30, we decide to pass. C’est la vie!
We’re not too bothered since both of us are exhausted—Gregg after spending half the day putting up his show and me slogging through the long, long galleries at the Louvre.
Day 3 in Paris: Musée d’Orsay & Vernissage
Today we’ll be hosting the vernissage at the gallery, but that’s not until the late afternoon, so after walking with Gregg to the gallery, I take myself off to the Musée d’Orsay. I’m hoping my experience will be more positive than it was at the Louvre. Fortunately, it is, and then some. There is no line-up, even for people without tickets. I waltz in and go directly to the 5th floor and have lunch. I want to be well fortified before being confronted with some of the world’s most famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings.
I decide to walk back to the gallery, arriving with a few hours to spare before the vernissage starts. Gregg and I have a late lunch/early dinner at a nearby café where I treat myself to escargots and French onion soup. Gregg chooses a robust-looking croque monsieur served with some of the best French fries I’ve eaten for a long time.
There are few things more charming than sitting at a sidewalk café in Paris and watching the world go by. I feel myself finally slowing down and just being in Paris, not worrying about schedules and to-do lists. My most pressing problem is how to get the escargot from the shell. I fumble with the tool provided and the waiter kindly comes over and shows me how to hold the clamp in my left hand, pick up the shell, then fish out the escargot with a tiny fork held in my right hand.
After our late lunch, I buy some wine and pretzels for the vernissage. It turns out to be a quiet affair. We connect with a very old friend that Gregg played music with forty years ago and whom I also knew, so that’s fun. A few associates from the various French surrealist groups also drift in and I have an interesting conversation with a woman who teaches at York University in Toronto and is also a novelist. We had hoped that because the gallery is in an area with many galleries that we’d get some foot traffic, but it wasn’t to be.
Still, the exhibition looks amazing.
Day 4 in Paris: Cooking Class at Le Cuisine Paris
I’m up bright and early to catch the bus across the Seine to the Hotel de Ville where I’m taking a three-hour cooking class with Le Cuisine Paris. Back in 2013, when we stayed in Paris for a month, I took a market class with them that I thoroughly enjoyed. This time, I’ve booked a sauce-making class.
Along with seven other people (all Americans), I troop downstairs to the basement kitchen where Chef Philippe teaches us how to make eleven sauces over the course of three hours. It’s intense, practical, and very tasty.
We start with the sweet sauces. Philippe hands me a metal bowl half full of chocolate lozenges and instructs me to whisk while he pours in hot cream. Within minutes, I have a smooth, velvety chocolate sauce that Philippe tells us can be used in a multitude of ways—for dipping, drizzling, mixing with other flavors, etc. Next up are two versions of a simple caramel sauce. We learn how to boil the sugar and what to look for (no candy thermometers here) and how to slightly darken the boiled sugar to make a more robust caramel sauce. Philippe adds some salt et voilà! The resulting salted caramel sauce is divine.
We move on to salad dressings—vinaigrettes to start and then creamy dressings. I learn about the 1-1-5 ratio—one part each vinegar and mustard to five parts oil. Philippe suggests experimenting with combinations of olive oil and sunflower oil.
Next up are creamy béchamel sauces—one with cheese and one without. We learn how to cook the flour and milk together for long enough to get rid of the floury taste and then how to vigorously whisk in the liquid.
There is a lot of whisking required in this class! I find that it takes practice to sustain a good, vigorous whisking action, and need to stop several times to rest my aching wrist. I’m not quite ready for chef school yet.
From béchamel sauces, we progress to wine sauces. The red wine sauce Philippe teaches us to make is to die for. He also makes a green peppercorn sauce that he flambés with cognac—a process I catch on video. Very dramatic!
Finally, we learn how to make a béarnaise sauce with butter, egg yolks, vinegar, tarragon and chervil. A lot of whisking is required to mix the egg yolks with the butter, but the resulting sauce is worth the effort. Philippe demonstrates how a chef whisks!
The three hours fly by and before we know it, Philippe passes out plates and hands around all the savory sauces we’ve made, adding a dollop of each to our plates. We are then invited to mop up the sauces with bread, potatoes, carrot sticks and salad.
After we’re done, Philippe gives each of us a beautifully plated dessert, drizzled with the chocolate and two caramel sauces we created at the beginning of the class.
I highly recommend taking a class at Le Cuisine Paris. The staff there are friendly and the prices are reasonable for an educational and fun cooking experience. They offer a wide range of classes—from making macarons and croissants to creating a full menu in one of their market classes.
Notre-Dame Cathedral & Shakespeare and Company
After my class, I wander across the river to the Île de la Cité and sit for a while in the bleachers set up in front of the building site that encloses Notre-Dame Cathedral. Fortunately, the façade was not affected by the fire so from some angles I can almost believe the cathedral is still intact. Hundreds of tourists are gathered on the bleachers snapping photos of the façade and generally relaxing in the glorious late September sunshine.
I walk across the bridge back to the Left Bank and visit Shakespeare and Company—the famous English bookstore that was the haunt of the likes of James Joyce and Hemingway. I buy a copy of David McClaughin’s book about American artists and writers visiting Paris in the mid-to-late 19th century—part of my research for a novel I’m thinking about setting in Paris during La Belle Époque.
Back at the gallery, I hang out with Gregg for a while and then take the bus back to our apartment. I love taking the bus in Paris. It’s so much easier than taking the Métro—less walking, often faster, and you get to see Paris instead of a dark tunnel. The Métro is great for long rides, but for short hops, the bus is my first choice every time.
Paris now uses a Navigo card rather than the iconic green tickets we’ve used for years. They were phased out at the end of 2022. I rather miss them but must admit that the new Navigo card is much more convenient. Instead of fishing in my pocket for an unused green ticket, I just whip out my Navigo card and tap it on the reader at the front of the bus or at the entrance to the Métro. I can load up the card for more trips any time I wish at a Métro station.
Day 5 in Paris: Visit to the Eiffel Tower
On Saturday morning, we take a leisurely walk to the Luxembourg Gardens, the scene of many good memories over the years. On our first visit to Paris as a family in 1994, we discovered the children’s playground at the Luxembourg Gardens. Julia loved it there, and so on our trip in 1995 when she was nine, we spent a lot of time sitting in front of the playground sipping coffees while she played. I set an important scene in the Luxembourg Gardens in Love Among the Recipes.
We check out an exhibition about Gertrude Stein and Picasso at the Musée de Luxembourg that is okay, but not particularly impressive. I snap some photos of a few of the more memorable pieces, but in truth, there aren’t many.
Afterwards, we sit a spell next to the large pool in the center of the gardens and watch the world go by. Since it’s Saturday, the park is thronged with families, people getting fit (there’s a lot of jogging in this park!), and groups doing Tai Chi under the trees. It’s all very civilized and wholesome.
I spend a relaxing afternoon back at the apartment while Gregg sits the gallery, then take the bus to the Eiffel Tower where I’ve booked a tour that I think will take me to the very tippy top.
Touring the Eiffel Tower
I arrive at the Eiffel Tower with moments to spare before the tour is to begin only to discover I’m in the wrong place. I run to where the guide is allegedly supposed to be, arriving ten minutes late to find her waiting and not at all worried. After joining her and eight other people, we set off at a brisk pace back to the base of the Eiffel Tour where we wait a good thirty minutes (at least less than the 90 minutes for people without tickets) to ride the elevator to the second stage. I ask if we’re going to the top.
No.
Oh well. I guess I misread the description.
I enjoy her commentary which I’m sure she appreciates since I’m the only one in the group who appears to speak English. The rest of the people are not listening to her which makes me pay even more attention. I’m considering setting a novel during the time of the building of the Eiffel Tower in the late 1880s so my tour is part of my research. I’ve visited the tower many times over the years, first in 1970. And it also plays an important role in Love Among the Recipes.
The view from the second stage is fine but not particularly breathtaking. In truth, spending a large part of a visit to Paris waiting to go up the Eiffel Tower is a waste of vacation time in my opinion. Go once if you’ve never gone, but try to go very early in the morning, or go after dark when the lights are twinkling. It really is a lot of fuss and a lot of waiting for what is essentially an elevator ride. Here’s a view to the south.
A Memorable Taxi Ride
After the tour, I descend to the bottom and snap lots of photos in the beautiful golden light, then go in search of a bus. I can’t find the right stop and finally admit defeat and hail a taxi. The traffic is practically gridlocked. I could probably walk it faster. The driver entertains me with a lot of voluble French commentary about the shocking state of the circulation in Paris, the bicycles, the other cars, the stupid pedestrians, etc. As the fare creeps up over 20 euros (I have a 20-euro bill clutched in my hand), I reach for my wallet. He gestures for me to put it away. Non, non, Madame. Il est vingt. He waves away the number on the meter as if to make it disappear. I gather he’s not going to charge me more than the 20 I had ready to pay him because the traffic is so bad. That’s very kind of him!
He drops me in front of the gallery, takes the twenty and wishes me a bonne soirée. I’ve yet to meet the fabled rude French people that Paris is supposed to contain in abundance. In my experience over many trips to Paris, the Parisians are almost uniformly helpful, friendly, and good-humored. They frequently like to make jokes. For example, the night before, we asked the clerk at the supermarket the way out. He shook his head and told us gravely that there was no way out, that we will have to stay all night. He then led us to the exit and efficiently scanned our items while telling us all about his brother who is moving to Calgary.
Dinner on the Left Bank
Gregg and I set out to find a place for dinner. We settle on a crowded place (all the places are crowded!) on the lively rue de Seine very close by. It’s a hopping place on a Saturday night!
Day 6 in Paris: Cluny Museum
On our last full day in Paris, I spend the morning at the recently renovated Cluny Museum. While the entrance is much more spacious and accessible, I rather miss the old version with its twisting stairwells and dark corridors.
I spend a goodly amount of time in the room housing the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They never lose their appeal for me. I really can just stare at them for hours.
The Cluny is filled with treasures from the Middle Ages—lots of stonework, woodwork, porcelain, and some paintings. My favorite painting is still there, although hidden away in a smaller room. Painted in 1445, it depicts a large family of sons and daughters dressed in attire befitting their role in life. Mom and Dad (first picture) are followed by eleven children. Two of the daughters are nuns, two of the sons are archbishops and two of the daughters wear elaborate headdresses signfiying their high status. The other boys are knights. It’s a pretty fine-looking family!
After the Cluny, I wander through the atmospheric streets near Saint Michel to reach the gallery, then spend a few hours writing and sipping coffee at a nearby café. Gregg arrives with two friends, and we catch up over drinks.
And then it’s time, finally, to take down the show! With me helping, Gregg gets packed up in record time. The walls are again bare and all that is left of the beautiful exhibition are three taped-up crates at the front of the gallery waiting for pick-up the next day. Gregg lowers the iron grating for the last time.
We catch the bus “home” and opt for an easy dinner in for our last night. Paris is wonderful, but we’re tired and ready for a new adventure.
Day 7 in Paris – Leaving
But before our new adventure can begin, we need to get ourselves out of Paris. This proves to be more of a challenge than we anticipated. We must first get ourselves and our luggage from our apartment on the rue de Sèvres to the gallery, then pick up the boxes of paintings at the gallery, then get us, our luggage and three boxes up to the shippers in the north of Paris and finally get us and our luggage and two boxes all the way back to the very south of Paris where our car is parked. Easy!
Not so much!
We intend to use Uber but it lets us down spectacularly. We attempt several times to order an Uber for the first leg to the gallery and finally must admit defeat when one driver cancels, another drives by and doesn’t stop and then cancels, and the Uber app informs us that there are no drivers. Fine. We hail a taxi. So far so good.
At the gallery on the VERY narrow Left Bank street, we leave the taxi and pile all the luggage in front of the gallery while Gregg goes in through the multiple doors to get the boxes. One of the boxes is far too big too carry and the other two contain glass and must be handled carefully. We have to have a ride; taking public transport is completely out of the question.
While Gregg negotiates the ins and outs of the gallery for the last time, I start ordering another Uber (a van this time) to take us north to the shipping place. Nope. Nada. Uber gets our hopes up multiple times only to let us down an equal number of times.
Driver not available. Try again.
Trying not to panic, I download a taxi app and struggle to enter credit card information so that we can be registered. I then use the taxi app to order a van. No dice. No vans. We are just about on the point of despair when I look down the street and what do I see? A regular taxi van with its green light on coming straight for us. I almost don’t flag him down, thinking its presence at that exact time is too good to be true. Fortunately, I come to my senses and wave frantically, only just stopping short of stepping into the street so he has to stop.
Can you take us to rue de Cardinet in the north? I say in execrable French.
Le dixseptième arrondissement?
Oui!
I actually have no idea if it’s in the 17th, but I’m desperate. Meanwhile, Gregg is saying C’est une emergency!
Fortunately, the driver, who speaks no English, agrees to take us. Perhaps he takes pity on us. I’ll never know but I wish I knew his name because I owe him a large debt of gratitude. Out he jumps and helps us load the luggage and boxes into his capacious van. Phew!
On our way to the shippers, we ask him if he would arrête pour cinq minutes while we unload the big box at the shippers and then take us to Porte d’Ivry where our voiture is parked.
Oui, Madame!
Oh joy!! We sit back, hearts pounding, and watch Paris fly by as Monsieur expertly maneuveres his van around bikes (there are a LOT of bikes in Paris) and other cars, buses, and pedestrians. We arrive at the shippers, and he helps Gregg unload, then smoothly gets us to our final destination, even checking the back seat after I’d gotten out and finding my pack that I’d left behind (the one with the computer!). Many, many mercis later and a pretty hefty tip, and we were retrieving our car and on our way to Rennes.
I don’t think I’ve ever not visited the Musée d’Orsay on any of my many trips to Paris. The museum never disappoints, no matter how many times I walk through the grand hall on the main floor and ride the escalators to view the outstanding collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art on the 5th floor.
The Musée d’Orsay is more than a must-see for me. It’s akin to a pilgrimage! It certainly ranks as one of my all-time-favorite European museums. In this post, I share my favorite pieces at the Musée d’Orsay. If you’re visiting during tourist season, make sure you reserve in advance to avoid line-ups (more on that later).
Location of the Musée d’Orsay
The map below shows the location of the Musée d’Orsay (#1) in Paris. Also shown is the location of the Louvre (#2), the Cluny (#3), the Pompidou (#4), and that of the huge apartment we stayed in on rue de Sevres on the Left Bank (#5) during our week in Paris in September 2023. Although pricey, the apartment is excellent value because of its size and central location. Compared to a typical hotel room in Paris, it’s almost a bargain (not that bargain is an appropriate word for any accommodations in the center of Paris).
The Musée d’Orsay is a converted railway station and as such, part of its attraction is the massive atrium that stretches the length of the museum and is filled with light and sculptures. Long galleries run either side of the atrium and contain mostly academic paintings from the 19th century. Some of these rooms are skippable, unless you’re a fan of the overly florid, heroic style popular during the mid-19th century. However, make sure you pop into the galleries to the left that include several masterpieces by Courbet and Millais.
Most visitors head for the far end of the atrium and take a series of escalators to the fifth floor where they find room after room of works by all the late-19th century biggies–Manet, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Morisot, and more.
In the following round-up of some of my favorite works in the Musée d’Orsay, I present works according to artist rather than the order in which you’ll encounter them while walking through the museum. All of the works mentioned are in the collection on the fifth floor.
Edouard Manet
The Musée d’Orsay includes several iconic pieces by Edouard Manet in its collection. I zeroed in on two of them as representative of my favorite aspects of his work. I like the way he flattens the planes and uses a fairly neutral palette. Even bright colors such as red and blue have gray undertones. Manet’s work always seems much more understated than the work of some of his contemporaries like Monet and especially Renoir.
Sur la Plage by Manet
Manet’s wife and brother sit on the beach—she is reading and he is staring out at the boats sailing along the English Channel. By making the sky take up a very small percentage of the painting, the focus is on the beach itself and the figures. Manet’s sketchy, fluid brushstrokes makes the scene look like a snapshot in time, as though at any moment the figures will shift position.
Dejeuner sur l’herbe by Manet
I’m not alone in loving this piece, which has been reproduced countless times and analyzed within an inch of its life. Manet painted it in 1863 and included it in the Salon des Refusés along with other artists who were excluded from the Salon (the exhibition of all the accepted painters of the day). Manet’s large painting shocked critics and the public because it represented such a marked departure from the academic tradition of only depicting mythological figures as nudes. In this painting, there is a naked woman next to two men wearing modern dress. She looks brazenly out at the viewer as if to dare them to be shocked. The work was deemed to be obscene not only because of its subject matter but because of its loose brushstrokes, contempt for the rules of perspective, and violent contrasts. Nowadays, we consider it a masterpiece, and it is certainly arresting.
Paul Gauguin
Gauguin’s paintings always make me smile. He combines bright colors in sometimes startling ways and depicts his figures and his landscapes with a flattened perspective that gives them a pleasing immediacy, as though they could easily step out of the canvas. Gauguin’s work is exhibited alongside several other painters of the Pont-Aven School. On our 2023 trip to Europe, we headed to Pont-Aven after we left Paris, mostly because Gregg is fascinated by the work that was done there by painters such as Gauguin, Bernard, and Sérusier, and wanted to be inspired by the same landscape that inspired them.
Paysage de Bretagne by Gauguin
This beautiful landscape of a typical scene in Brittany practically glows. The red and orange bushes on the mid-section contrast intensely with the blue sky and bright green foreground.
La Belle Angèle by Gauguin
Gauguin completed this portrait of Marie-Angélique Satre in 1889. He depicts the woman in traditional dress in a composition reminiscent of both Japanese prints and medieval stained-glass windows. Perhaps as a nod to his Peruvian heritage (his mother was born in Peru), Gauguin includes a Peruvian-inspired piece of pottery next to his model.
Émile Bernard
Bernard was another painter in the Pont-Aven School. Called Les Bretonnes aux ombrelles, this striking depiction of Breton women wearing traditional dress shows how Bernard, as a post-impressionist, ignored perspective, instead filling both the foreground and the background with his figures, bringing them into prominence. I’m reminded of medieval paintings where the figures take precedence over perspective.
Paul Sérusier
Another member of the Pont-Aven School, Sérusier has become one of my faves from this period. His work almost borders on abstraction and I love how he uses color.
Le champ de blé d’or et de sarrasin by Sérusier
This golden field takes up almost the entire painting, with just a bit at the top for the sky. I feel like I could walk straight into it and be instantly enveloped in a riot of flowers.
Tetrahedra by Sérusier
Painted around 1910, this piece showing floating objects in a formless space is part of a cycle of pictures by Sérusier that pushed the boundaries of Symbolism towards abstraction. Sérusier believed that geometric forms were sacred and in this painting he depicts his thinking on the origins of life and the universe. The chromatic range of colors progresses towards the light, passing from the coldest to the warmest shades. The painting is just a delight!
Vincent van Gogh
It’s never difficult to spot a painting by van Gogh in the Musée d’Orsay since there’s always a clutch of people holding cameras aloft in front it. There are several van Goghs—all fabulous—but I include here just two that I particularly love.
La Salle de danse à Arles by van Gogh
I was surprised to discover a painting by van Gogh that I’d never seen before. At first, I thought it was by Gauguin since the way the figures are depicted and the colors used remind me of his work. But nope – it’s van Gogh. What an energetic, lively piece this is! Van Gogh really captured the almost frenzied crush of people, the women wearing Arlesian headdresses, their expressions blank.
The Starry Night by van Gogh
Van Gogh painted a few versions of Arles on a starry night. This one is not quite as well known, but it’s still fabulous. Van Gogh worked by candlelight to complete a night view of Arles illuminated by gas lamps and the Great Bear constellation glittering in the sky.
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec
Although Toulouse-Lautrec hailed from a wealthy family in Albi in the southwest of France, he became famous for his gritty depictions of real Parisians, many of whom were down on their luck, lonely, and marginalized. I’m particularly intrigued by two of his pieces depicting prostitutes.
Blonde prostitute, also known as Study for the Medical Inspection by Toulouse-Lautrec
The partially-clothed model is Gabrielle, a prostitute in a Parisian brothel. She’s getting ready to be inspected for venereal disease. Her expression could be interpreted as angry or stoic in the face of what must have been a very demeaning procedure.
Woman Pulling Up Her Stocking by Toulouse-Lautrec
Toulouse-Lautrec was a frequent visitor to the brothels and was able to sketch the prostitutes in all manner of poses. This drawing shows an everyday act—pulling on stockings—under the watchful eye of the brothel’s Madame.
Maximilien Luce
This artist may not be as well known as many of the others in the collection, but this piece is a striking depiction of the violence that stalked Paris on and off throughout the 19th century. This particular scene shows the aftermath of Bloody Week (May 21 to 28, 1871) when the Paris Commune was brutally suppressed and hundreds of people were shot down in the streets.
Paul Signac
This gorgeous portrait of Signac’s wife uses very sharp contrasts between complementary colors: yellow with purple, and orange-red with green. It’s a very stylized composition that shares an affinity with Art Nouveau posters.
Berthe Morisot
I’ve long been a fan of Berthe Morisot and am delighted to discover several paintings that I hadn’t seen before on display at the Musée d’Orsay.
Les Deux Soeurs by Morisot
This painting depicts two dreamy-looking young girls just emerging from adolescence. The blossoming hydrangea symbolizes their imminent emergence into womanhood. Morisot is considered by many (myself included) to be one of the most impressionist of the Impressionists. She uses very loose brushstrokes and almost abstract backgrounds to convey a real sense of immediacy. Her paintings look so fresh and alive. I like them so much more than works by painters such as Renoir that can look too over-worked and florid.
Le Berceau by Morisot
This portrait of Morisot’s sister gazing at her newborn child is so tender and domestic. And the way Morisot conveys the sheerness of the fabric draped around the baby’s crib is incredible–again proving just how skilled (and under-appreciated) a painter she was.
Paul Cézanne
Cézanne’s works are so redolent of the south of France that I can almost feel the heat coming off the canvases. His palette of warm greens and oranges perfectly captures the landscape around Aix-en-Provence.
Montagne Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne
Here’s one of many versions of Mont Sainte-Victoire near Aix-en-Provence. It’s such a bright, cheerful painting that perfectly captures the heat and space of one of France’s most beautiful landscapes.
Rochers près des grottes au-dessus du Château-Noir by Cézanne
In 2019, Gregg and I spent some time in the area around Aix-en-Provence where CUzanne painted this piece. It perfectly captures the profusion of rocks and dense foliage. No wonder painters who came after Cézanne credit him with being the father of Cubism.
Claude Monet
One entire wall is taken up with five views of Rouen Cathedral that Monet painted at different times of day. Here are three of them.
Mary Cassatt
Cassatt joined the Impressionist group after moving to Paris from America in the 1870s. In this painting, she depicts the young girl, using very subtle white tones to stand out against the brightly colored background. While the clothing is almost sketched in, the face and hands are rendered with gorgeous precision.
Edgar Degas
Degas is most famous for his paintings of ballet dancers at the Paris Opera, and the Musée d’Orsay has several examples, including this one showing dancers practicing on stage. The figures are in various attitudes–some dancing, some stretching, one even scratching her back. Degas uses subtle tones and ethereal brushwork to convey filmy tutus and barely hinted-at expressions.
Auguste Renoir
I’m not a huge fan of most of Renoir’s work. He’s an important painter but I find his figures a little too florid. The exception is, for me, this piece called Dance at the Moulin de la Galette–perhaps his most famous work. It depicts the famous guinguette–an open-air drinking establishment with food and dancing–that was located at the foot of a former windmill on the Butte de Montmartre in Paris. The dance is attended by locals–workers, artists, regular folks. The play of light and shadow bring the painting to life, making the viewer feel like they could step in and take a turn around the dance floor.
Gustave Caillebotte
I first saw and was entranced by this painting in the Musée d’Orsay several years ago. Its subject matter is so different from the other paintings in the collection. It’s not a portrait or a landscape, but instead a depiction of three working men (The Floor Scrapers) who are busily scraping a floor in a fine Haussmann-style apartment in Paris. Critics at the time condemned the painting’s subject matter as vulgar. Few would agree with that assessment nowadays! There is something so compelling about the concentration of the men and the way in which Caillebotte uses such a limited palette to convey so many tones of browns and grays. And check out how the light spills in from the window!
Love Among the Recipes at the Musée d’Orsay
After touring the Musée d’Orsay, I couldn’t resist taking a shot of Love Among the Recipes, my fourth novel (set in Paris), in front of the great clock. The Musée d’Orsay plays a role in the novel, with one of its most important scenes taking place on the 5th floor in front of a painting by Mary Cassatt!
Practical Information
The Musée d’Orsay can sell out so buy your tickets online at least a day or two before you plan to travel to Paris (possibly more during the busy summer months). Click one of the options below to purchase your ticket.
Conclusion
If you’re an art lover, then I would suggest making the Musée d’Orsay your first choice (even above the Louvre). Its collection is smaller and much more accessible than the vast collection in the Louvre and the crowds are considerably smaller. A visit there is well worth several hours of your time on even the shortest visit to Paris.
Have you visited the Musée D’Orsay? What are some of your favorites? Share in the comments below.
I first visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 1970 and remember it as a gloomy, rather dingy place. The famous Night Watch by Rembrandt was so dark as to be virtually invisible, and I don’t recall seeing any of the amazing objets d’art, from porcelain violins to full-size doll houses, that we saw on my most recent visit.
On my trip to Amsterdam in September 2023, the newly renovated Rijksmuseum is a total delight.
It’s even more amazing than the Van Gogh Museum, although I suppose it’s not fair to compare! But the main thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need considerably more time to tour the Rijksmuseum than you will for the Van Gogh Museum.
In this post, I share my favorite pieces at the Rijksmuseum, a must-visit for Amsterdam-bound artsy travelers; make sure you reserve well in advance (more on that later).
Overview of the Rijksmuseum
The most important thing to remember about the Rijksmuseum is its marvelous scope. Yes, there are many, many paintings, including a respectable number of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, but there are also many, many rooms full of other “stuff”, from model ships to wood sculptures to doll houses. You could spend days exploring.
Location of the Rijksmuseum
The map below shows the location of the Rijksmuseum (#1) in Amsterdam’s Museumplein, easily reached from the Centrum via trams 2 or 12. Also shown is the location of the Van Gogh Museum (#2) next door, and the location of the charming apartment we stayed in on tiny Sint Nicholastraat in the lively Centrum area (#3). Called Here’s Lucy, it’s highly recommended if you’re looking for a private one-bedroom apartment and a much better deal than any hotel I’ve ever stayed at in Amsterdam. The location, not far from the Central Station and the Damrak, is pretty much perfect.
The first room we enter features art from the Middle Ages—and wow! I have a soft spot for art from this period that spans from 1100 to about 1500, and the Rijksmuseum has a superb and varied collection. Here are a few of the knockout pieces.
Wood Sculptures
The figures in this wood sculpture were created in 1475 from a hunk of oak and formed part of a large altar. It depicts the adoration of the newborn child by the Virgin, Joseph and the angels. Check out the detail and the expressions on the faces.
This amusing sculpture from around 1380 of a monk who can barely see over the edge of the pulpit is actually a medieval ink pot. The scribe dipped his pen or quill in the sleeves of the monk’s habit.
And look at this gem of a sculpture that dates from 1520 – closer to Renaissance than medieval. It’s one of three related pieces. This one depicts the celebration of Mass with Christ. Check out the bread Christ holds in his hands and also the impassive look on the servant girl’s face.
One of the reasons I like medieval art so much is because it depicts the elaborate gowns worn by both men and women, but particularly women. This wooden sculpture is one of 24 similar-sized sculptures that ringed the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, the wife of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. She died in 1465. The figures represented mourning family members and ancestors and were known as “weepers”.
Renaissance Paintings
While most of the paintings in the medieval and Renaissance rooms at the Rijksmuseum were created in the low countries, this depiction of Mary Magdalene comes from Italy and is an example of the International Gothic style. I’m quite taken by the elaborate coiffure and the beautiful way in which the red gown is rendered.
This landscape depicts an episode in the conquest of America and was painted in 1535 not long after the conquest. The painting is the first to depict Spanish soldiers subduing the people who lived in the “new world.” Jan Jansz Mostaert, the painter, created a traditional European landscape and then added a few exotic elements—a monkey, a porcupine, and some parrots— to show that the landscape was not in fact European.
Dutch Ships at the Rijksmuseum
Several rooms are devoted to displaying models of Dutch ships. They are remarkable! This model of a Dutch warship in the late 17th century was made at the same dockyards where real warships were built. It’s about one/twelfth life-size. The real ship would have had 74 guns. I am particularly taken by the elaborate decoration and the sheer size of the stern area where presumably the captain would have his quarters. I doubt conditions were quite so luxurious for the regular sailors.
Here’s another view of the many ship models in the Rijksmuseum.
Masterworks at the Rijksmuseum
Most visitors to the Rijksmuseum make a beeline for the “Hall of Honour” which includes several paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer–probably the two most famous Dutch artists.
The Night Watch by Rembrandt
The Night Watch is displayed in a temperature-controlled structure so we can’t get very close. It’s an impressive piece, for sure, and certainly much better to look at now than it was when I first saw it at the age of 14 when it was almost black. Here’s Gregg checking it out.
And here’s a close-up sans viewers. Thanks to glare, it’s almost impossible to get a decent shot, but you get the idea. There’s so much life and movement in the painting. Everyone is doing something. I like the drummer to the right and the little girl to the left of the guy with the red sash.
The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt
In this beautiful portrayal of a newly married couple, Rembrandt used thick, impasto paint and worked it with a palette knife to create a glittering and sculptural relief. There is a bittersweet quality to this painting. The man looks to be quite a bit older than his bride. While richly dressed, she looks very uncertain about what the future might hold for her.
The Milkmaid by Vermeer
The small, intimate paintings by Vermeer are a big draw at the Rijksmuseum with several groups clustered around them listening to tour guides or audio guides. I managed to sneak through and get this picture of The Milkmaid, which I’ve always had a soft spot for, perhaps because the subject is so humble and yet so exquisitely rendered. She is totally intent upon her task, unaware she will be looked at by millions for centuries to come. This painting also shows how Vermeer was a master of light. You really “get” how great Vermeer was when you compare his paintings to those of most of his contemporaries. While most are competently painted, they don’t glow like Vermeer’s paintings do. He didn’t complete many paintings in his life, but each one was a masterpiece.
The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn
This painting by Jan Asselijn is an oil on canvas from 1650. It’s reproduced on bags, mugs, tea towels and other products in the gift shop so obviously it strikes a chord with people. It depicts a swan fiercely defending its nest against a dog. In later centuries, the scuffle was interpreted as a political allegory, with the white swan symbolizing the Dutch statesman Johann de Witt who was assassinated in 1672 while protecting the country from its enemies. This meaning was attached to the painting when it became the first work to be accepted into the collection of the Nationale Kunstgalerij, the forerunner of the Rijksmuseum, in 1800. I’m guessing that the Dutch liked the image of their nation as a swan furiously defending itself.
Still Lifes at the Rijksmuseum
I’ve developed a real fondness for still life paintings—of flowers, kitchen scenes, fruit, and the like. I’m not sure why, but there’s something kind of comforting about super-realistic paintings of everyday things–and the Dutch are masters of the genre.
The Well-Stocked Kitchen by Joachim Beuckelaer
This piece by Joachim Beuckelaer painted in Antwerp in 1566 depicts Christ’s visit to Mary and Martha, although that’s hard to figure out because the action takes place in the background while in the foreground is a profusion of richly painted vegetables, fruit, meat, poultry, and pots and pans. The contrast between the foreground and the background conceals the message of the painting: do not give in to earthly temptations.
Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase by Rachel Ruysch
I’m thrilled to discover that this stiff life was painted by a female artist I’d not heard of. Her name is Rachel Ruysch and I have discovered that she was big news in her time. In fact, she was the most famous female artist of the period. Patrons loved her monumental, sumptuous flower still lifes like this one and paid big guilders to own one. Even after marrying and having ten children, Rachel Ruysch continued to not only paint, but also to sign her paintings with her own name. Now she’s an artist I want to know more about.
Later in the gift shop, I buy a stunningly illustrated book about still lifes from the Dutch Golden Age that includes quite a few of Ruysch’s paintings. Unfortunately, the text is in Dutch, but I buy it anyway so I can enjoy looking at the paintings and drawings, most of which are by women artists. It appears that still lifes—and flower paintings in particular—were popular subjects for female painters of the period.
Still Life with Gilt Cup by Willem Claesz Heda
This painting includes an astounding array of grey tonalities. Heda’s palette is subtle—pewter, silver, damask, glass, mother-of-pearl, with a few yellow and ochre accents thrown in for good measure. He specialized in near monochromatic still lifes that were known as “tonal banquet pieces.”
Still Life with Cheese by Floris Claesz van Dijck
Van Dijck really brings the subjects in his painting to life. Check out the ridges in the slabs of cheese and how the pewter plate extending over the edge of the table seems to come right out of the painting. Floris van Dijck was considered one of the pioneers of Dutch still-life painting.
Flower Still Life with a Crown Imperios Fritillary in a Stone Niche by Jacob Woutersz Vosmaer
This impressively named painting is an exceptionally large example of a still life. There’s a tactile quality to the flowers that makes them look like they are moving. And then there’s the wee mouse and the cracks in the wall—real life intruding on the luscious beauty of the flower arrangement.
Porcelain at the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum includes a lot of porcelain and china. I don’t have the energy to tour all the rooms, but my eye is caught by this tin-glazed earthenware violin. It cannot be played and was made purely as a decorative object. The violin is considered to be an absolute masterpiece of Delft earthenware—and no wonder.
Doll Houses at the Rijksmuseum
One of the rooms in the Rijksmuseum is devoted to showcasing two extraordinary dollhouses. They’re both HUGE! And the detail in the rooms is truly astonishing. Here are just a few of the interiors.
Practical Information
The Rijksmuseum can sell out so buy your tickets online at least a week before you plan to travel to Amsterdam (possibly more during the busy summer months). Most visitors appear to get the audio guide which probably enhances the viewing experience. We did not get it, preferring to discuss the pieces as we look at them. Click one of the options below to purchase your ticket.
Conclusion
The Rijksmuseum is well worth several hours of your time on even the shortest visit to Amsterdam. I would venture to say that it’s even better than the neighboring Van Gogh Museum simply because it’s a lot bigger and has a lot more to look at. But at the same time, the Rijksmuseum is not overwhelming. In my opinion, it’s a perfectly sized major museum to keep me entertained for a good two or three hours, with a wee break at some point to sample a coffee and a piece of cake in the airy cafeteria and of course to check out the gift shop.
Have you visited the Rijksmuseum? What are some of your favorites? Share in the comments below.
I remember the first time I saw the Van Gogh Museum, almost 50 years ago. Compared to the gingerbread façade of its neighbor, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum is sleek and modern, and when I first saw it in 1974, it was fringed with massively tall sunflowers. I burst out laughing. How appropriate!
On my latest trip to Amsterdam in September 2023, I didn’t see the sunflowers, but the sleek, modern building remains and still houses the world’s most extensive and lovingly presented collection of work by the Netherlands’s fave artist–Vincent van Gogh. During his lifetime, he didn’t get much love from his home country, but that oversight has been more than made up for in recent decades.
Vincent van Gogh, who barely sold a painting during his life, is big business now.
In this post, I share my favorite pieces at the Van Gogh Museum, a must-visit for Amsterdam-bound artsy travelers, although make sure you reserve well in advance (more on that later).
The map below shows the location of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam’s Museumplein, easily reached from the Centrum via trams 2 or 12. Also shown is the location of the Rijksmuseum next door, and the location of the charming apartment we stayed in on tiny Sint Nicholastraat in the lively Centrum area. Called Here’s Lucy, it’s highly recommended if you’re looking for a private one-bedroom apartment and a much better deal than any hotel I’ve ever stayed at in Amsterdam. It’s situated not far from the Central Station and the Damrak is pretty much perfect.
Message at the entrance to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
Overview of the Van Gogh Museum
As the name suggests, the Van Gogh Museum is dedicated to exhibiting and celebrating the work of Vincent van Gogh, one of the world’s most beloved artists. It opened in 1973, three years after my first visit to Amsterdam and a year before my second visit to Amsterdam at the age of 18. I remember being so excited to tour the museum in 1974 when I was already a firm van Gogh fan.
The museum is the most visited museum in the Netherlands, and one of the top most-visited museums in the world. And no wonder! The collection is organized across four floors and includes pieces from several of van Gogh’s contemporaries, including Monet, Gauguin, Pissarro and others. The intention is to show van Gogh’s work in context and according to various themes, including self-portraits, early work, landscapes, and portraits.
Van Gogh provided hundreds of paintings and drawings over the course of just one decade, from 1880 to 1890. The collection at the Van Gogh Museum shows van Gogh as an artist intent on improving himself and his art while also being deeply engaged with the artistic developments of his day.
View of the Museum
A central atrium extends from the ground floor to the fourth floor and is dominated by a staircase and projections of details from van Gogh’s paintings that change regularly. The exhibition spaces run around three sides of the building.
Self-Portraits of Van Gogh
The first room we entered featured a good collection of van Gogh’s self-portraits. I include two of my favorites. I like the contrast in how he handled the brushstrokes in these two works, and the intensity of his stare.
Self-Portrait, 1887
Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat
Van Gogh didn’t start painting seriously until he was 27 when he set to work to learn the rudiments of painting, mostly by studying the art of other artists. He was a great admirer of French 19th-century painters such as Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton who portrayed peasant life in the countryside.
Early Work
Most of van Gogh’s early work that he completed before he went to Paris and then finally to Provence use a very limited, even dreary palette. They have almost an Old Master feel to them.
Still Life with Open Bible
I particularly enjoyed a painting of his recently deceased father’s bible set next to van Gogh’s copy of La joie de vivre by Emile Zola–a ‘bible’ of modern life. The intention of the painting is to juxtapose the religious and traditional mores of his father with van Gogh’s more modern sensibilities. I was intrigued with how he rendered the open pages of the bible with rough brush strokes.
The Potato Eaters
One of van Gogh’s most famous works from his early period is The Potato Eaters. The darkness of the painting and the almost grotesque roughness of the figures exemplifies the harshness, even despair, of peasant life. Van Gogh wrote that a true peasant painting should smell of bacon, smoke, and steaming potatoes.
The Potato Eaters
Van Gogh in Paris
The gallery devoted to works that van Gogh created while living in Paris also include several works by his contemporaries, including Monet and Degas.
Nude Bathing by Degas
This nude by Degas is executed in numerous shades of pastel crayon and is one of several nudes that Degas exhibited in Paris and which van Gogh saw and greatly admired.
View Seen Through a Balcony by Gustave Caillebotte
Another work by one of van Gogh’s contemporaries is the painting of a Paris street seen through a wrought iron balcony by Gustave Caillebotte. I’ve seen several of Caillebotte’s paintings at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and like his work.
Café Table with Absinthe
And here’s a painting that van Gogh did while living in Paris. It depicts a glass of absinthe in a café. Already his palette is starting to lighten up with more pastel colors and looser brushstrokes.
Still Lifes – Red Cabbage and Garlic
I don’t associate van Gogh with still life paintings except, of course, for his flower paintings. This painting of red cabbages and onions is a revelation. I love the blue, red, and gold palette and the vibrancy of his brushstrokes. This still life is anything but still. Van Gogh was apparently intent on studying color contrasts in the painting–the complementary colors of yellow and blue reinforcing each other. He was well aware of color theory and how different color combinations work together to produce different effects and even emotions.
Portraits
Several of van Gogh’s most famous paintings are portraits of people he met and interacted with–regular people such as a bar maid, a postman, and his landlord. The Van Gogh Museum includes a few of his portraits, although not any of the super famous ones.
Woman in the Bar
This painting of a solitary woman in a Paris café is a great example of how van Gogh used regular people he encountered every day as his models. The look on her face is so relatable–staring into the middle distance, lost in her own thoughts. Is she annoyed? Pensive? Or just bored?
Van Gogh in the South of France
Van Gogh left bustling Paris for the south of France in late winter, arriving just as the trees were beginning to blossom.
The White Orchard
Here is one of three paintings he did not long after arriving in Arles. I’m entranced by the movement of the trees and the joyous freedom of the brushstrokes. It’s as if van Gogh’s been released from prison and poised on the edge of a whole new adventure, which indeed he was.
The Harvest
I felt very verklempt when I saw this painting, the very first van Gogh I ever saw and the first painting that launched me into a lifetime of loving art. I saw it at Expo 67 in Montreal when I was 11. A pretty uneventful childhood spent in Vancouver had not prepared me for modern art. I was blown away, first by The Harvest by van Gogh and then in the same exhibition at Expo 67 Lavender Mist by Jackson Pollock. It’s kinda no wonder I’ve ended up spending my life with a painter!
The Harvest makes me feel happy every time I see it. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the bands of color and texture or maybe the balancing of the complementary colors of gold and blue. It just feels totally right. I look at it and I feel glad to be in the world.
The Bedroom
How many times have I seen this iconic piece in reproductions and on mugs and mousepads, puzzles and pens? And yet seeing it in “real life” is still a thrill. There’s something so endearing about a man who paints his humble little bedroom and manages to infuse it with such warmth and loneliness. And again, it’s his use of complementary yellows and blues that makes the painting so satisfying to look at.
Sunflowers
And another iconic favorite! Composed of just three shades of yellow, this Sunflowers (he painted several versions) glows like lemons in the sun. The sunflowers are in various stages of dying and yet the painting is beguilingly cheerful.
The Yellow House
And here’s yet another study in blues and yellows! Gosh, he’s good. Van Gogh manages to capture heat shimmering against the walls of the houses in Arles. He was hoping to turn his yellow house into an artist colony but only Gauguin came, and only stayed two months. Poor Vincent led a rather solitary existence.
Japanese Influence
Van Gogh was a huge fan of Japanese art, as were many of his contemporaries, and several pieces were directly influenced by it.
Almond Blossoms
He painted this gorgeous, Japanese-print-inspired piece depicting almond blossoms against a blue sky to celebrate the birth of his nephew and namesake, Vincent–the son of his beloved brother, Theo. It’s almost abstract in its focus only on the blossoms and the sky with no other landscape elements. Van Gogh himself recognized the piece as one of his best–and he wasn’t wrong!
The Sower
And finally, here is The Sower, one of van Gogh’s smallest and yet most well-known paintings. It has so much movement and energy. I can sense the man purposefully planting his seeds, completely trusting that they will come up in the spring. In this painting, the sky is green instead of blue which casts an eerie glow over the scene, giving it an almost foreboding look, although the sower seems oblivious to anything beyond the sowing of his seeds.
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Practical Information
The Van Gogh Museum sells out many days in advance. Get your tickets online at least two weeks before you plan to travel to Amsterdam (possibly more during the busy summer months). Most visitors appear to get the audioguide which probably enhances the viewing experience. We did not, preferring to discuss the pieces as we looked at them. Every so often, you can discreetly eavesdrop on a guided tour. All of the ones I came across the morning we toured the museum were in English. Click one of the options below to purchase your ticket.
Conclusion
The Van Gogh Museum is well worth several hours of your time on even the shortest visit to Amsterdam. The only downside is that the world holds millions of van Gogh lovers and even with daily limits on visitors, a good chunk of them will be at the museum at the same time you are. It does get tiring dodging the crowds, particularly if you enjoy taking photos of the pieces like I do and also read all the captions. Most people are listening to audio guides and sometimes stand immobile for long periods in front of each painting. When several of them are congregated in front of a parituclarlty popular piece such as The Sunflowers, you’ll have to wait awhile to get your viewing turn.
But hey, it’s worth it. These are original paintings by Vincent Van Gogh! Artsy traveling doesn’t get much better. And when you’re done, you can tour no fewer than three gift shops (there may have been more) loaded to the gunnels with van Gogh schlock. On this trip I resisted, but I do own a very nice van Gogh pen that I purchased on a previous visit.
Have you visited the Van Gogh Museum? What are some of your favorites? Share in the comments below.
I highly, highly recommend spending a day at a wildlife refuge while traveling in Costa Rica. Just make sure you do your research and find a reputable one that places the animals’ best interests far above those of tourists.
We did quite a bit of searching online before selecting Proyecto Asis for our wildlife refuge day. Its numerous five-star reviews and assurances that it existed for the benefit of the animals in its care convinced us. A non-profit organization, Proyecto Asis provides a secure home to orphaned, abandoned, injured or otherwise neglected animals.
Overview of Proyecto Asis
The intention is to eventually release the animals back to the wild. Unfortunately, humans have damaged some of the animals so badly that they can never again live safely outside captivity. We learned all this during the course of the day, and it was fascinating!
Proyecto Asis is located about 45 minutes from La Fortuna in a beautiful area of farms and forests. If you’re driving, you can get there easily from La Fortuna, or you can ask Proyecto Asis to hire a driver for you (that’s what we did).
Established in 2002, Proyecto Asis is now an animal rescue center, Spanish school, and volunteer center.
Booking a Day at Proyecto Asis
We booked our day at the Proyecto Asis a few months before our visit to Costa Rica. Their website provided several options. We chose to do the sloth walk in the morning, the tour of the wildlife refuge in the afternoon, and an hour or two of volunteering at the end of the day.
I’m very glad we chose to stay for the whole day. Having that much time at the wildlife refuge gave us a good feel for the place and for the excellent work it does protecting animals. I could have happily spent another whole day there. Proyecto Asis has several programs to accommodate a range of interests, so if wildlife conservation is your thing, you’ll likely find some good options.
Getting to Proyecto Asis
Proyecto Asis has organized a transfer for us from the Tabacon Hot Springs Resort near La Fortuna. Promptly at 9:30 am, our driver Alfonso arrives to pick us up. He speaks good English and gets us to the refuge right on time. On the way, he pulls into a fruit stand and emerges holding two containers of freshly chopped papaya, pineapple, and watermelon that he presents to us.
How thoughtful! The fruit is achingly fresh and refreshing and way better than the fruit at the hotel breakfast.
Entrance to Proyecto Asis Wild Animal Rescue Center
Touring the Sloth Sanctuary
After arriving at Proyecto Asis, we are warmly greeted and our fruit stored for the day in the refrigerator. After spraying ourselves with bug repellant (in the parking lot, not in the forest, to avoid affecting the animals!), we join a family of four for a tour of the sloth sanctuary across the road. The sanctuary is home to many sloths who live in the wild. While there are informative plaques dotted around the pathways, the sanctuary is not a zoo.
Our guide Jonny shares his enthusiasm and extensive knowledge about sloths, stopping every so often during our walk to share information about the four different species of sloths. We don’t see any other wildlife, although Jonny tells us that the week before, he spotted a three-meter boa. I can’t say I’m sorry I didn’t see it too.
Seeing Sloths
Like Luis, our guide at the Arenal Night Walk (described in my post See Costa Rica in Two Packed and Perfect Weeks), Jonny carries a large telescope on a tripod. Without it, seeing any sloths at all beyond brown fur balls high in the trees will be impossible. Jonny also has a contraption to strap the iPhone to the telescope to take pictures and videos of the sloths.
A sloth hanging out in its natural habitat
Learning About Sloths
One of my favorite exhibits at the sloth sanctuary is of the massive prehistoric sloth—twenty feet high and nothing like his furry, bug-infested ancestor. This guy was anything but cute!
We learn that hundreds and hundreds of insects buzz around the sloths hanging out in the trees. Through the telescope, we can see so many that the sloths appear blurry. When a sloth does move, it is to scratch itself, which is hardly surprising.
Jonny tells us that baby sloths stay with Mama for five months. Mama then brings baby down to the ground and leaves it there to fend for itself because presumably by that time it knows how to be a sloth.
Hearing from the Guide
Here’s a clip of Jonny talking about sloths. His enthusiasm for his subject is infectious.
Our guide Jonny teaching us about sloths
In recent years, these creatures, which are actually not at all cuddly and even dangerous to get near as a result of the bugs infesting them, have become incredibly popular. Sloths are the unofficial mascot of Costa Rica. Their images are everywhere–from T-shirts to tea towels and every possible thing in between.
Unfortunately, their popularity has led to some so-called wildlife parks exploiting them to entertain tourists. However, the Costa Rican government is doing its best to crack down on questionable wildlife practices and is shutting down facilities that do not protect the animals.
The sloth walk is through very lush jungle that includes plenty of vibrant flowers. The air hums with insects and the heat and humidity are tropical but still comfortable for walking.
Beautiful tropical flowers at the sloth sanctuary
Lunch at a Soda
After the sloth walk, we walk down the road to a soda, which is a small restaurant run by locals, to enjoy food that is hearty, typical, and cheap. We both enjoy excellent meals plus pineapple drinks for about 11000 colóns, which is less than $20 USD. It is a bargain for sure.
My tasty lunch at a soda
Wildlife Refuge Tour
After lunch, we walk back to Proyecto Asis for the wildlife refuge tour. I have no idea what to expect. To my surprise and delight, the next two hours fly by during probably the most interesting and comprehensive tour I’ve ever been on for anything, anywhere (and I’ve been on my fair share of tours over the years).
Much of the appeal of the tour is due to the personality and enthusiasm of Carlos, our guide. Numerous Trip Advisor reviews mention him by name and no wonder. The man is a gifted entertainer and so passionate about communicating and educating visitors about wildlife preservation and rehabilitation.
Beautiful blue parrot greets us as we enter the wildlife sanctuary to start the tour
Learning About Rescue Animals
All the animals at the Proyecto Asis Wildlife Refuge are rescued, the vast majority from homes where, tragically, they were kept as pets. It’s so sad to hear their stories. Carlos stops at every cage and introduces the animal, tells us its story, and describes how the staff at the refuge are rehabilitating the animal back into the wild. For some, the process will take years; for others, just a few months depending on the severity of injury and trauma the animal has suffered.
A few of the animals are so damaged that they will never be able to survive in the wild. At least they will live their lives securely and be well fed, with plenty of other animals to keep them company.
Carlos talks a lot about how animals in captivity often exhibit unnatural behaviors. Here he explains why parrot “talk”!
Carlos the guide is funny and informative!
Monkeys at Proyecto Asis
The animals in the refuge vary so you never know what you’ll see. On the day we visit, we see spider monkeys and white-faced monkeys, two of the five species of monkeys in Costa Rica. Some are wild monkeys that have been hit by cars and need to recover from their injuries before being returned to the forest. These are the luckier ones. At least they know how to live in the wild.
One of the monkeys hanging out
The saddest stories are of the poor creatures who were taken from the wild as babies and then kept chained up for years until finally their owners tired of them and dumped them at the refuge. These monkeys need to learn how to be monkeys again.
Carlos spends a lot of time describing the various ways in which they retrain the monkeys, always with the intention of preparing them for the wild. While they do name the monkeys to identify them, they do not interact with them as pets. They are wild animals—or soon to be—and the respect for them is palpable and so admirable.
Here Carlos explains about monkeys and their tails.
Carlos talking about monkeys
Carlos emphasizes over and over again how they do not want to make the animals playthings of humans, that they deserve to have their own lives as free and wild creatures. All behaviors that are not found in the wild are slowly changed, usually by the animals themselves. A monkey that arrives at the refuge not knowing how to swing by its tail because it never got the chance to learn while in captivity eventually learns by watching the other monkeys.
How Monkeys Become Pets
Carlos tells us how people get monkeys to sell as pets. They go into the forest and take baby monkeys. And how do they get a baby monkey? They kill the mother because if they don’t, the mother will attack. So, two lives are ruined, and for what? It’s heartbreaking, but also heartening because facilities like the Proyecto Asis are doing incredible work.
A better life awaits this guy once he can be rehabilitated back to the wild where he belongs.
A Green Boa
While standing in front of one of monkey cages, we see this beautiful fellow slowly slithering past. He pays zero attention to us.
A snake goes on its slithery way
Tropical Birds at Proyecto Asis
In addition to the monkeys, the refuge takes care of a great variety of tropical birds, particularly toucans, macaws, and parrots. Almost all these birds were once pets. Most have come to the refuge without their tail feathers and some with broken wings, clipped wings, and worse. The birds are so damaged that rehabilitating them can take years. In fact, some of the birds will never be released.
The parrots are so spectacular
Macaws
Macaws are known to mate for life. When one dies, the other usually dies within weeks. But what self-respecting red or green macaw will mate with a hybrid? None.
We also learn that parrots are not monogamous. When a mate dies, the survivor quickly finds another mate. Interestingly, the parrots live about 40 years. The macaws with their one-mate-for-life live for about 100 years. One point for monogamy!
Carlos explains about how parrots that are separated can get depressed and then die.
A Hybrid Macaw
One of the most tragic stories is of a macaw that was bred from a red macaw and a green macaw. This combination is impossible in nature, because the two species of macaws live in different parts of Costa Rica and would never meet, never mind mate. But some horrible person did manage to mate a red one with a green one. The resulting offspring will forever live at the refuge because in the wild, it couldn’t survive in the area where the red macaws live and it couldn’t survive in the area where the green macaws live.
The hybrid is apparently worth a great deal of money because its plumage is so striking, although so, so wrong. Fortunately for the hybrid, it’s found a good home at Proyecto Asis well away from wildlife traffickers.
This hybrid was bred in captivity and will never be able to live in the wild
I love the toucans; and there are plenty at the refuge. They are so comical to watch, with their large beaks. It’s great to be able to get so close to them.
A toucan poses for a picture
Carlos never stops talking for two hours and everything he says is fascinating. I am riveted and inspired.
Volunteering at Proyecto Asis
After the wildlife tour (we also see three wild pigs, two caimans, and a morgay, which is a type of small wildcat), Carlos teaches Julia, me, and one other person from the refuge tour how to chop fruit and veggies to feed the monkeys.
Julia chops fruit for the monkeys
Again, Carlos keeps up a steady stream of commentary about how the animals are fed, how he makes sure the alpha males don’t steal every portion, etc. I learn so much!
After we chop the fruit, Carlos leads us to the monkey enclosures, and we get to watch while the monkeys eat their dinner. But only some of the monkeys! We learn that the refuge doesn’t allow guests to watch the same monkeys eat every day. Guests are rotated between the various monkey cages so that all monkeys get at least a few days a week to eat in privacy. Apparently, privacy has been identified as an important need for the monkeys, which makes sense. I wouldn’t want people watching me eat all the time either.
Conclusion
At the end of our wonderful day at Proyecto Asis, a different driver picks us up and whisks us back to La Fortuna. We ask him to drop us in the town rather than taking us to Tabacon, which is about 7 kilometers away. For several hours, we enjoy wandering around the shops and then having a meal.
Sign up for a tour of a wildlife refuge when you visit Costa Rica. You won’t be disappointed!
For our full day in Jasper after taking the two-day Rocky Mountaineer rail journey from Vancouver, we decide to take a all-day tour with Maligne Adventures to Maligne Lake that includes a stop at Maligne Canyon and a cruise on Maligne Lake.
We are blessed with a beyond-perfect day—a toasty 25C/78F degrees, clear blue skies, and spectacular views in every direction.
A Maligne Adventures bus picks us up promptly at 9:30 am and we meet our friendly driver and guide Chloe, who is from the UK. She is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide who makes sure our tour matches the perfection of the weather.
Map of the Tour
Here’s a map of the area we visited, starting with the town of Jasper (1):
After picking up about a dozen more travelers, Chloe tells us that her colleague leading another tour has just spotted a bear on a road that will require a slight detour. She wheels the bus around and heads uphill towards Patricia Lake in search of the bear. Alas, we don’t find her (she was a mum with cubs), but no matter. Chloe informs us that bear sightings are less common in August. If we really want to see bears in Jasper, we need to come in the spring.
This is the only bear we see while in the Rockies–a stuffed one in the lobby of our hotel!
Learning About Local Wildlife
As she drives, Chloe provides a lively and informative commentary, mostly about the animals in the area. She reminds us that the animals are wild, including the huge, antlered elk often seen wandering the streets of downtown Jasper. They are most definitely not tame. She tells us that one of her colleagues recently had to intervene to save a child’s life when he spied the child’s family trying to put the child onto the back of a fully grown male elk like he was some kind of Rocky Mountain pony ride. Fortunately, he was able to stop them just in time to avoid what could have been a very nasty accident. Elk have extremely sharp hooves, not to mention deadly antlers.
We saw several elk on the trip, including these two–a male by the side of the road and a female in front of the Visitor Center in the middle of Jasper.
We learn later that Parks Canada will levy fines up to $20,000 on people who get out of their cars and approach wildlife. Good call! To their credit, Parks Canada does its best to try and keep bears away from humans. All garbage cans are bear-proof (and also pretty people-proof as I discovered when trying to open one to throw something away).
Bear-proof garbage can in Jasper
Bear Parts
After stopping to look at the elk by the side of the road, Chloe hands out two rubber bear claws made from the footprints of bears. The mold on the left is the paw print of a grizzly bear (yikes!) and the one on the right is the paw print of a black bear.
Grizzly paw on the right; black bear paw on the left
Chloe tells us the rhyme to remember when it comes to surviving a bear attack:
Black fight back, brown get down, white good night.
In other words, if the bear is black, you can fight back by yelling, throwing rocks, and making yourself look big. If the bear is brown (AKA a grizzly), lie on the ground face down (and presumably pray). If you’re faced with a polar bear, you’re toast. Polar bears don’t mess around. Neither do grizzlies, but apparently a grizzly attack may just be survivable. A polar bear attack is not.
I’d just as soon not meet any bear, except maybe a baby panda. If you get between a black bear and her cubs, you could still be in a for a nasty injury. I remember walking alone along a trail in Yellowstone National Park many years ago and feeling very, very nervous thanks to the many signs warning of bears (black & grizzly) in the area. I did a lot of loud singing and, after about a mile, decided that whatever view awaited me at the end of the trail wasn’t worth dying for and so turned back.
Maligne Canyon
Our next stop is Maligne Canyon where we leave the bus to do the short circuit around a portion of the canyon. It is incredibly deep and sculpted. Every time I lean over the edge to snap a picture, I worry that I might inadvertently let go of my phone. Chloe cheerfully informs us that if we drop our phones, we’re out of luck. She’ll not be going into the canyon to retrieve them! Not that she could. The water surges through the narrow canyon, every year sculpting more of the rocky sides into abstract waves. In winter, the river freezes and travelers can take guided hikes along the icy bottom. That would be pretty cool!
Beautiful Maligne Canyon
In Search of Berries
Chloe tells us that a typical bear eats about ten pounds of berries every day when they are getting ready to hibernate. She looks for a berry to show us and manages to find only one rather shriveled one that the bear that had just gone through the area had left behind. One of the people on the tour samples it and declares it very bitter.
We also learn about juniper berries and are each given one to sniff. I can’t place the odor until Chloe tells us that gin is made from juniper berries. They are certainly delightfully pungent.
Our guide teaching us about berries and bears
Disappearing Lake
Back on the bus, we continue on our way to Maligne Lake along an in-and-out road that skirts tranquil Medicine Lake, also called the Disappearing Lake because a unique underground drainage system causes the water level of the lake to vary from season to season, so that sometimes the entire lake disappears. Over the years, attempts have been made to plug the system to keep the water in, but to no avail.
The scenery encircling us is truly remarkable—endless peaks, steep hillsides, and an area that had been devastated by wildfire. The charred remains of the forest are another stark reminder of the power of fire.
Tranquil Medicine Lake AKA Disappearing Lake
Burned forest near Medicine Lake
Maligne Lake Cruise
We arrive at Maligne Lake where we have a few minutes to pick up a sandwich at the restaurant and then wait on the dock for our boat. We settle on to a warm bench and watch the lake. The couple from New York that we ate breakfast with on the Rocky Mountaineer gets off one of the boats and waves as they pass.
The boats that ply Maligne Lake are quite small and low to the water, with bench seats fitting about 40 people (although I didn’t count!). After a short delay, we board and meet our crew—Seb the boat driver, and Dec the guide, who keeps up an entertaining and informative commentary for most of the journey.
Boarding the boat for a cruise on Maligne Lake
The views as we cross Maligne Lake are spectacular in every direction—truly one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever been on. We set off at a sedate pace so that our wake doesn’t upset the many people sharing the lake in canoes, kayaks and even on paddle boards. I don’t envy them. They are one slightly- too-high wake away from ending up in the lake and possible death from hypothermia if they don’t get out quickly enough. It’s a glacial lake, which means it is very, very, very cold.
You can canoe across Maligne Lake to Spirit Island (our destination) in about four hours. That’s a lot of canoeing. I’m happy to enjoy the 30-minute boat ride.
Seb revs the engine once he’s out of range of the small craft and we set off for Spirit Island. I don’t know what to expect, having read nothing nor even looked at any pictures of the lake prior to our tour. Julia told me this was the tour to take and so here we are. I rather like that I have no idea what’s in store.
En Route to Spirit Island
Views are breathtaking in every direction on Maligne Lake
We round a bend in the lake to see tiny Spirit Island just ahead. It is actually an isthmus rather than an island, at least most of the time. If the lake water rises, the narrow strip of land connecting the island to the mainland is submerged.
Spirit Island is sacred land to the First Nations peoples who originally hunted and lived along these shores. As a mark of respect, visitors are forbidden to step foot on the island. We will pull into shore close by for a fifteen-minute visit on the mainland overlooking the island and the view.
Dec tells us to keep our gaze fixed on Spirit Island and asks us to figure out why it is so special. I dutifully stare at the island—more of a small outcropping iced with narrow, Alpine trees than an actual island. I confess I can’t see what’s so special about it, although I dutifully shoot a short video.
Viewing Spirit Island (far left) from the boat
The Hall of the Gods
Our guide tells us to shift our gaze from Spirit Island to behold the view from the island. OMG! Aptly named the Hall of the Gods, the mountains rising imperiously at the far end of the lake are beyond breathtaking. Pictures can’t do justice to the view. This is a 3-D experience no flat photo can capture. Of course, that doesn’t stop every person on the boat from spending the next fifteen minutes on shore clicking away.
We certainly do! Here are just a few of the many pictures we snapped.
I feel like I’ve won the tourism lottery. This view will stay with me long after I leave the area. There is definitely something indefinably spiritual about it. No wonder the First Nations made the island overlooking it sacred.
On the way back across the lake, Dec shares more information about recent efforts by local First Nations people to reclaim their connection to the area. After many decades of separation from land that the government controls as part of Jasper National Park, the descendants of the original inhabitants return every year to conduct ceremonies on Spirit Island and throughout the area. Dec tells us that one of the hallmarks of their culture is to thank the natural forms we see around us every day–to say thank you to the mountains, the lake, the trees, and the bear, wolf, elk, and chipmunk. Doing so celebrates our connection with nature, and reminds us that we are not separate from it.
Take the Cruise
The Maligne Lake cruise is a must-do during a trip to Jasper, but make sure you book it well in advance. Several people on our tour had booked with Maligne Adventures after all seats on the boats (run by a different company) were already filled. Instead of taking the cruise, they went on a 90-minute hike with Chloe to Moose Lake where they hoped to see moose. Unfortunately, they did not see moose, but the hike on the brilliantly sunny day was a hit.
On the drive back to Jasper, Chloe continues to share her knowledge about the flora and fauna of the area. We pass an eagle’s nest and learn that eagles mate for life and return to the same nest year after year, repairing and adding to it to accommodate a new brood. An eagle’s nest can weigh over 1000 pounds.
An Afternoon in Jasper
Chloe drops us off in downtown Jasper and we wander around in the heat for a few hours, checking out the shops (not terribly exciting, to be honest), taking the obligatory photos with Jasper Bear statues, and grabbing dinner. We also see a female elk calmly munching the grass in front of the Visitors Center. She is not remotely bothered by the tourists snapping photos while keeping a respectful distance. Thankfully, we don’t see anyone trying to put their child on her back.
CN Locomotive from back in the day
By the time we walk the twenty minutes back to the Forest Park Hotel, we have just enough energy left for a quick dip in the pool and a soak in the hot tub. Later in the evening, we wander out to see the sunset blow up the sky above the mountains ringing Jasper.
Sunset over the Forest Park Hotel in Jasper
Accommodations in Jasper
Our accommodation at the Forest Park Hotel in Jasper was stylish and comfortable. The spacious room included a balcony with a good view over the parking lot and the mountains. Considering Jasper is ringed by mountains, it’s pretty hard not to get a view of mountains no matter where you stay. The Forest Park Hotel is a good choice when staying in Jasper, particularly if you are driving. It is a fairly stiff twenty- minute walk from the main part of Jasper.
View from the balcony of our room at the Forest Park Hotel.
Here are other accommodation options in Jasper. Note that Jasper is an extremely popular destination in the Canadian Rockies, which means that hotels regularly sell out. When Julia booked the Forest Park Hotel for us over six weeks before our trip, she got one of the last rooms. People who arrive in Jasper during the summer without booked accommodation are often obliged to drive many hours to find a place to stay. Jasper is pretty remote! So definitely plan ahead! Oh – and be prepared for some serious sticker shock. Hotels in Jasper are not budget, even the budget ones!
Although I’ve lived in Vancouver all my life, I’ve only been to Seattle, three hours to the south, a handful of times, not counting stops at the airport en route to somewhere else. It’s just never a city I think of visiting when contemplating a weekend away. Well, my loss. A weekend away in Seattle is a fantastic Artsy Traveler option for this Vancouver-based gal.
My reason for a quick visit was to see a production of the musical Six which will not be coming to Vancouver. I’d seen Six in London the year before and knew my daughter would love it, so I suggested we take a weekend trip.
Here’s how it went!
Getting to Seattle
Although Seattle is only a three-hour drive from Vancouver, that number can easily double thanks to delays at the border and horrendous traffic around Seattle. I don’t fancy risking that much time behind the wheel, so we opt to take the train.
Taking the Train
Good call! The Amtrak train from Vancouver to Seattle takes just under four hours and costs about $60 return—a bargain by any stretch. The train goes all the way to Eugene in Oregon, stopping at several towns along the way, including Bellingham, Edmonds, Tacoma, and Portland. Much of the journey is very scenic.
View from the train on the way to Seattle from Vancouver
We hop on the train in central Vancouver at 6 pm Friday evening and arrive at King Street Station in downtown Seattle at 11 pm. The seats are fairly comfortable and the views of the ocean after leaving the border at Blaine exceedingly lovely. Note that there is very little food available on board. If you’d like to eat well, pack a meal.
A taxi takes us swiftly through quiet downtown streets to the Paramount Hotel, a stone’s throw from the Paramount Theater where we’ll be seeing Six the next evening.
Staying at the Paramount Hotel in Seattle
The Paramount Hotel in Seattle is overpriced, but then so are all of the nicer downtown hotels in Seattle. Once you get over the sticker shock, it’s a good choice–comfortable with a friendly staff and an excellent breakfast. And its central location is a plus—steps from the monorail to take us to the Space Needle and Chihuly Gardens and a pleasant downhill walk to Pike’s Place Market.
The next morning, we’re up early, and after breakfast, off to find the monorail. Built in 1962 for the Seattle World’s Fair on the site of what is now Seattle Center, the monorail trundles dutifully between downtown and Seattle Center where we plan to spend the day. There’s a LOT to do there for the Artsy Traveler.
It’s a gloriously sunny day and so we decide that our first stop should be the Space Needle. I have a vague memory of visiting Seattle when I was about seven years old in 1963, the year after the Seattle World’s Fair. I do remember standing at the base of the Space Needle and looking way, way up and thinking it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. It was so ultra-modern—just like The Jetsons, which was a favorite of my brother’s and mine in those innocent times.
The Space Needle still looks pretty cool to me
Going Up the Space Needle
We arrive at Seattle Center, a 74-acre complex in the heart of the city housing top attractions such as the Space Needle, International Fountain, Chihuly Garden and Glass, Pacific Science Center, Museum of Pop Culture, and Seattle Children’s Museum. Although it’s still quite early in the day, crowds are already forming, particularly to go up the Space Needle.
We’re worried the wait may be too long, but the attendant assures us that the lines will get much longer as the day continues. He’s right, we discover later, when we descend the tower and find the line three times longer than it was when we went up. Fortunately, the line snakes past displays chronicling the building of the Space Needle and its opening on April 21, 1962.
Finally, we get to the elevator and are whisked to the top in a dizzying ascent. The attendant welcomes us and tells us about the Space Needle in an impressively timed spiel that lasts exactly 90 seconds. She does this about 25 times an hour all day long.
What’s Up Top at Seattle’s Space Needle
At the top of the Space Needle, the attraction is, well, a view, but what a view! The city of Seattle spreads below us and in the distance are the massive bulks of Mount Rainier and Mount Baker. We circle the viewing platform a few times and then head down one level to the much-vaunted glass-bottomed viewing area. It’s a little freaky to step out onto the glass and look straight down, particularly because the glass portion is rotating.
The view over Lake Union in Seattle particularly interests me. Lake Union Publishing (so named because it is located near Lake Union in Seattle) is the publisher of my first two historical novels: The Towers of Tuscanyand A Woman of Note. So I have a bit of a soft spot for it. The view from so high up is pretty darned stunning.
View of Lake Union in Seattle
Someone kindly offers to take our picture. We settle onto one of the benches thoughtfully provided around the perimeter of the viewing platform.
Julia & Carol at the top of the Space Needle overlooking a view of downtown Seattle
Downtown Seattle with Mount Rainier in the distance
We finally descend to the earth and prepare for our next attraction—and the one I’m looking forward to most—Chihuly Garden and Glass.
Visiting Chihuly Garden and Glass
Ever since my first visit to Venice back in the 1990s, I’ve adored glass art so it’s no wonder that I’m a huge fan of Dale Chihuly, who is one of the world’s foremost glass artists. In a career spanning many decades, Chihuly really has put glass art on the map. His pieces sell for thousands, even millions for the really big ones, and he’s been the mastermind behind numerous massive installations in Venice, Jerusalem, Sweden, and more.
From the moment I step into the museum, the creativity and sheer gorgeousness of Chihuly’s work entrances me. A series of beautifully curated rooms display several of his most iconic series. Each room is more jaw-dropping than the one before.
Winter Brilliance
An explosion of sharp, white stars greets us when we enter the first room. Called Winter Brilliance, the stars were commissioned by Barneys New York in 2015 for its holiday window display. A quote from Chihuly accompanies the display: Ice is one of my favorite materials to work with because of the way it interacts with light. It inspired me to create the icicle form.
Winter Brilliance
Sealife Room
The Sealife Room is dominated by the massive 15-foot Sealife Tower that takes its inspiration from the sea and Puget Sound. According to the plaque, The Towers evolved from Chihuly’s desire to present sculptures in places where ceiling structures could not withstand the weight of his Chandeliers (we see them later in the museum). This impressive piece gets even better when examined up close.
Sealife Tower
Close-up of the glass forms that make up the Sealife Tower
Around the perimeter of the Sealife room are several smaller sculptures of sea creatures. I am totally captivated by the whimsy and the detail. Chihuly truly is a master!
Here are just a few of my favorites.
Chihuly’s sealife creatures – octopus, crab, tiny octopus, and turtle
Persian Ceiling
Gasps abound and necks crane back as the crowd (which is considerable) moves into the next room to behold the Persian Ceiling. Chihuly began the pieces in the Persians series as pedestal compositions, then mounted larger forms to walls and suspended them as overhead compositions. The effect truly is immersive. I feel like I’m walking into a kaleidoscope and long to stand in the middle of the room and twirl myself, head thrown back.
Chihuly’s Persian Ceiling
Large Room Full of Glass!
I neglected to read the name of the next room because I was too busy swooning. I mean, honestly, the sheer inventiveness of the forms, the riot of color, the creative ways in which the pieces are displayed are simply breathtaking.
An endless riot of color and form
Chihuly’s Drawings
Chihuly also creates two-dimensional works that often form the basis for his 3-D glass sculptures. As the partner of a visual artist, I was fascinated by these pieces. He apparently began making these drawings after dislocating his shoulder and losing sight in his left eye. His Burned Drawings explore color and texture in new ways. He draws on heavyweight watercolor paper with acrylics, dry metallic pigment, charcoal and graphite, and even burns the paper surface with an acetylene torch.
I love the freedom of these drawings–the texture and the gestural nature of the forms. Chihuly states: Drawing really helps me to think about things. I’m able to draw and work with a lot of color and that inspires me.
Drawings by Chihuly
Ikebana and Float Boats
Just when I’m thinking the displays can’t get any more jaw-dropping, we walk into the next room to see the Ikebana and Niijima Float Boats. One of the wooden boats is filled with Ikebana elements–long, flower-like glass stems inspired by the Japanese art of Ikebana. The other contains Niijima Floats, inspired by Chihuly’s trip to the Japanese island of Niijima and by childhood memories of discovering Japanese fishing net floats along the beaches of Puget Sound (Chihuly is from the Seattle area).
The placement of the boats on a polished black floor produces pristine reflections that double the sensory pleasure of the installation. The orbs in particular look so inviting. They remind me of giant version of the marbles I played with as a child.
Ikebana boat (left) and Niijima Floats (right)
Chandeliers
The next room bristles with Chihuly’s Chandeliers. Inspired by his interest in architectural settings and how art interacts in spaces, Chihuly has mounted various installations of the Chandeliers over the years. One of the most notable was the 1995-96 project called Chihuly Over Venice during which Chihuly had thirteen Chandeliers hung at outdoor sites throughout Venice. The current room includes five installations inspired by Chihuly Over Venice. Here are two of them.
Two Chihuly Chandeliers
Macchia Forest
I’m seriously starting to suffer from the Stendhal effect as we drift into yet another room full of treasures. The variety and depth of Chihuly’s creative output is staggering. I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite room, but the dizzying display in the Macchia Forest room is a strong contender. Chihuly began the Macchia series in 1981 with the desire to use all 300 colors available to him in the hotshop (where the glass is made). The word macchia means “spot” in Italian.
While devising the series, Chihuly realized that the color in glass panes in a stained glass window look more vibrant against a cloudy sky than a blue sky. As a result, he created these pieces by adding a white layer in between – like a “cloud”. Each of the works is speckled with color, which is the result of rolling the molten glass in small shards of colored glass during the blowing process. A lip wrap of a contrasting color is then added to complete the piece. I could have stayed in the Macchia Forest all day!
Pieces in the Macchia Forest
Chihuly Films
The awesomeness of the Chihuly Garden and Glass doesn’t stop with the indoor displays. We crowd into a theater to watch five short documentaries about Chihuly’s work. It’s fascinating to find out how he oversaw his teams to produce huge installations all over the world, including Venice, Finland, and Jerusalem.
The series of five documentaries provides fascinating insights into Chihuly’s work
Glasshouse and Glasshouse Sculpture
By the time we make it to the massive atrium adorned with one of his largest works (and that’s saying something), I’m reeling. The massive glass sculpture suspended from the glass roof defies gravity and description. It is touted as the centerpiece of Chihuly Garden and Glass and is the result of Chihuly’s dream to create a glasshouse with artwork within it. The design draws inspiration from two of Chihuly’s favorite buildings: Sainte-Chappelle in Paris (no surprise there) and the Crystal Palace in London.
At 100 feet long and comprised of many individual elements, the Glasshouse Sculpture is also one of Chihuly’s largest suspended sculptures.
Into the Gardens
I realize I’m gushing in this post about our visit to Chihuly Garden and Glass, but I can’t help myself. The complex is one of the finest I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Not only is Chihuly’s work fabulous, but the way it’s displayed, with plenty of informative descriptions, is truly inspiring.
We float from the lovely air-conditioned museum into the hot garden. But who can think of heat with so much beauty all around? Plants combine with glass objects to produce a magical series of outdoor rooms, each more whimsical than the one before. I am in seventh heaven!
This is Artsy Travel at its finest.
The Garden at Chihuly Garden and Glass
I defy anyone to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass and not smile. The whole place is a celebration of pure joy.
Visit Chihuly Garden and Glass seven days a week. It’s located in Seattle Center at the base of the Space Needle and steps from the monorail station.
Lunch at Seattle Center
After enjoying the gardens, we enter a very large indoor market with several food outlets. Julia opts for okay tacos and I make the mistake of ordering the seafood special at a fish and chips place. A massive mound of french fries vies for greasy supremacy with a large hunk of deep-fried fish, several deep-fried oysters, some deep-fried prawns, and maybe even a scallop or two. All fried. Heart attack in a basket. But, to be fair, it tastes amazing. My arteries will never be the same.
A Visit to MoPOP
Thus fortified, we go to MoPOP – AKA the Museum of Popular Culture. Julia wants to see the special exhibition of the art of LAIKA, a stop-motion animation studio.
The roofs of MOPOP seen from the Space Needle
LAIKA redefined stop-motion animation with the instant classic Coraline back in 2009. Since then, LAIKA has been nominated for an Oscar five times. In the Hidden Worlds: The Films of LAIKA exhibition, we get a behind-the-scenes look at many of the company’s groundbreaking production techniques. Beautiful models plus several short films describe the techniques and make for a compelling exhibition, well worth the extra cost. I learn a lot about stop-motion animation and am impressed by the incredible patience required to make the various characters move.
LAIKA characters displayed as part of the special exhibition
Enjoying MoPOP
There’s a lot to enjoy at MoPOP, particularly for fans of popular music and genres such as science fiction and fantasy. Highlights include the massive guitar sculpture in the foyer and an exhibition of great figures in science fiction and fantasy that includes Mary Shelley.
Mary Shelley & Guitars at MoPOP
As well, there are displays about films in three genres: science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I skip the horror display, but thoroughly enjoy the science fiction and fantasy displays.
If you’re into making music, MoPOP has several sound studios in which you can practice instruments and compose your own pieces. It really is a marvelous place, worthy of several hours.
Performance of Six
The sold-out performance of Six was raucous and loud (the audience) and well-performed (the six queens). It’s an enjoyable show with excellent singing and an entertaining premise. If you haven’t seen Six and you’re a fan of energetic singing with a sprinkling of Tudor history (Six refers to the six wives of Henry VIII), then get tickets when a production comes to your area.
Paramount Theater in Seattle
Day Two in Seattle
We decide to spend the morning at Pike’s Place Market, a ten-minute walk from our hotel, and the afternoon with friends of Julia’s who take us on a drive to the beach. We could have opted to visit the Seattle Art Museum, but I’ll leave that for another trip.
Pike’s Place Market
On a hot and sunny Sunday morning, the market is hopping. We arrive around 10, just in time to join the hordes of cruise ship passengers from the three cruise ships currently docked in Seattle harbor. At times, it’s a struggle to make our way through the narrow aisles, but we enjoy checking out the many stalls.
Pike’s Place Public Market in Seattle
As an inveterate lover of souvenirs, I purchase a blue glass heart in memory of our Chihuly visit, a beautiful glass pendant, and about two pounds of soap. After picking out what I thought was a pound’s worth, the attendant tells me I’m at 14 ounces and if I get just a few more pieces, I’ll have a pound and then I can get an additional pound for free. Always a sucker for a bargain, I keep adding pieces of scented soap (patchouli, lavender, peppermint and more) until I have my two pounds. I now have enough soap to last a year but that’s okay. It’s not like I’ll ever not have a reason to use it.
On the Beach and Home Again
We spend the afternoon with Julia’s friends on a long stretch of sandy beach outside of Seattle and overlooking Puget Sound. The water is very cold and none too clean. I take a very quick dip just to say I have.
Afternoon on the beach
At 6 pm, we board the train at King Street station for the four-hour journey home. As a result of delays, the journey is more like seven hours, but I don’t mind. I still prefer the train to driving! Even if it’s not always faster, it’s much more relaxing.
Our weekend away in Seattle was packed full and fun, with the hands-down highlight being the Chihuly Garden and Glass. It’s a marvel that is well worth the price of admission–and then some.
In August of 2023, I took the famed Rocky Mountaineer train journey from Vancouver to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies with Julia, my daughter and frequent travel companion. I’ve lived in British Columbia all my life and see mountains and trees out my window every day. Would I appreciate the scenery as much as, say, someone from Texas or Oklahoma or London or even Toronto? For people from other parts of the world, the wild BC landscape is as much a novelty as the Yangtze River or African veldt would be for me.
As it turns out, this BC girl thoroughly enjoyed the two-day Rocky Mountaineer train journey from my backyard to the majestic Rocky Mountains. Awesome scenery, fabulous service, and excellent amenities combined to make the trip truly bucket-list-worthy.
This post provides a full account of the trip, from boarding in Vancouver, British Columbia, to disembarking in Jasper, Alberta. Read on to find out if a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer is an experience you too would enjoy.
Day One
Rocky Mountaineer offers three routes featuring the awe-inspiring landscapes of British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains in Alberta:
First Passage to the West: Vancouver to Banff and Lake Louise via Kamloops
Journey Through the Clouds: Vancouver to Jasper via Kamloops
Rainforest to Gold Rush: Vancouver to Jasper via Whistler and Quesnel
We chose the Journey Through the Clouds–a two-day journey from Vancouver to Jasper. Day One takes us to Kamloops in the Interior region of British Columbia, and Day Two takes us the rest of the way to Jasper in Alberta.
Arrival at the Rocky Mountaineer Station in Vancouver
At 6:30 am, we’re out front of Julia’s apartment in North Vancouver, waiting for the Uber that whisks us across the bridge to the Rocky Mountaineer station in Vancouver for the start of our two-day adventure. Attendants welcome us with cheery efficiency into the cavernous Rocky Mountaineer station flooded with early-morning light. We soon discover that cheery efficiency characterizes every moment of the service to come. Everyone who works on the train is cheery; I presume it’s a job requirement. But it feels genuine. I sense that the people who work with guests at Rocky Mountaineer truly relish their jobs.
I enjoy my first coffee of the day at the station and look around at my fellow travelers. While I spy a few families, the majority of the passengers are couples hailing from Australia, Britain and the United States, at least judging from most of the accents I hear. I know from going on several Alaskan cruises over the years that many travelers combine a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer with a cruise to Alaska and a few days’ stay in Vancouver. Although biased, considering it’s my home town, I have to say that Vancouver is worth at least a two-night stay.
A Piper Pipes Us Aboard the Rocky Mountaineer
A piper in full Scots regalia takes up his position in front of the doors leading to the train and begins to play. I do love the sound of the pipes! The cheery train manager who will accompany us to Jasper welcomes us and then asks us all to shout All Aboard. Moments later, we follow the other passengers out to the platform.
The skirl of the pipes welcomes us on board the Rocky Mountaineer
We walk a few yards down the tracks to our GoldLeaf car—a double-decker with the seating area in a domed car on the top level and the dining car below.
Boarding the Rocky Mountaineer in Vancouver
Two Levels of Service on the Rocky Mountaineer
The Rocky Mountaineer train offers two levels of service—SilverLeaf and GoldLeaf. The scenery is the same, as is the level of cheeriness from the onboard hosts, but the seats in GoldLeaf are more comfortable and the cars are two levels. The dome car on the top level affords views for miles and the dining room on the bottom level hosts two seatings for a gourmet breakfast and lunch each day. An onboard chef prepares all the food to order.
In SilverLeaf, the food is pre-prepared and reheated on board, similar to first-class plane fare, and delivered to people’s seats. Also, the SilverLeaf cars are one level and, while equipped with large windows, are not as airy and high up as the dome cars in GoldLeaf. Both are good choices, depending on your budget.
Our Onboard Seating in Rocky Mountaineer’s GoldLeaf Class
The sun streams through the fully-glassed-in dome car as we make our way to our assigned seats. There is ample leg room and all sorts of intriguing seat controls. I can choose three temperatures to warm my bottom, from mildly tingling to full-on torrid. Considering the air conditioning is cranked a little too high, I’m grateful that at least my nether regions are toasty.
There are also controls for raising the leg rest, reclining the seat without affecting the people behind (a nice touch), and even a rather lovely lumbar support. On the seat back in front of me is a hook for hanging jackets and purses. Very thoughtful.
View from our seats in the dome car
The train starts so smoothly that it’s a few seconds before I realize we’re moving. For several minutes, we shunt backwards as the train gets into position on the correct track. The train is very long, consisting of both the Vancouver-to-Jasper and Vancouver-to-Banff cars. In Kamloops, the Banff cars will be uncoupled to go on their merry way eastward, while we will begin the trek north and then east to Jasper.
First Breakfast
Our super-cheery onboard host Ryan welcomes us aboard and reads the safety information required by Transport Canada, then invites half of the passengers in the car to head down to the dining car for breakfast. We are in the first group; tomorrow, we will go second. During the two eleven-hour travel days, we will eat both breakfast and lunch (which is more like a dinner) on board, along with plenty of snacks and unlimited drinks—wine, cocktails, liqueurs, soft drinks, the lot.
We are seated opposite a retired couple from New York. The woman used to run an art gallery and so we have plenty to chat about. Breakfast is excellent. I opt for eggs scrambled with Boursin cheese and accompanied by bacon, potatoes, and greens with pomegranates. It is delicious.
We Head Out of Vancouver
The train creeps along through rail yards that are as ugly here in my home town as they are anywhere in the world. What is it with trains and cities? The tracks are always flanked by the very worst urban blight, with liberal sprinklings of rust and filth. Delightful. We assure our breakfast companions that the scenery will improve.
And it does. By the time we return to our seats, the train is gliding alongside the Fraser River with the mountains beyond butted up against massive puffs of marshmallow clouds. The sun streaming through the clear glass dome above me warms the top of my head, the verdure stretching either side of the train is a rich emerald green, and all seems very right with the world. It is remarkably pleasant, and I feel my shoulders soften and relax.
Views of the Fraser River after leaving Vancouver
The Morning Progresses
Every so often, our two hosts in the dome car—Ryan and Asia—take turns delivering informative commentary about the areas we’re passing through. I’m thrilled to discover that I can easily type on my laptop on the generously-sized tray table. My fears about the movement of the train being too jerky to allow me to do some writing while on the journey (I love to write when I travel!) are unfounded. I can type to my heart’s content from here to Jasper without missing a beat.
Writing on a laptop is as steady as on my desk at home
Over the next few hours, we penetrate deeper into the Coast mountains as we follow the Fraser River through the Fraser Valley and into the Fraser Canyon, one of the scenic highlights of the trip. I’ve driven the canyon a few times, but the only other time I took the train through was in 1967 when I was returning from Montreal with my parents after visiting Expo 67. By some weird quirk of scheduling, the westbound train traversed all of British Columbia—the most scenic part of the country by a country mile—at night, arriving in Vancouver at dawn.
Into the Fraser Canyon
So this will be the first time I see the Fraser Canyon from a train. The hosts tell us that the town of Yale has an archeological dig with artifacts dating back to 9000 BC. Impressive.
About an hour after finishing breakfast, the bar opens and I order a Mimosa and sip it while gazing out at the mountains looming high either side of us. The dome car is a huge plus of traveling in GoldLeaf. I feel like I’m floating through the landscape, looking up to see clouds and trees and mountaintops glide smoothly by.
Enjoying a Mimosa at my seat
We Pass by Hell’s Gate
The train passes by Hell’s Gate, and everyone crowds to the right side to peer down at the roiling waters. Ryan excitedly tells us about the history of the area and how Canadian explorer Simon Fraser called the area the Gates of Hell, hence the name. The canyon narrows and the water pours through in unnavigable fury.
The Fraser River swirls through Hell’s Gate
Lunch is Served
Lunch is called for us, the first group, and down we troop. The appetizer is a long board of smoked ahi tuna and several plump prawns accompanied by pickled veggies, crisp crackers, and a delicate bruschetta. For the entrée, we can choose from six options in addition to the special—chicken in Béarnaise sauce. Julia opts for that while I choose the cod loin, which is truly one of the best servings of cod loin I’ve ever tasted. A delicate sweet-citrus sauce dresses a generously thick hunk of cod perfectly cooked.
There’s a gentle rhythm to the pace of the train—not fast, not slow. It’s a steady pace that feels just right. This is not a high-speed TGV or bullet train. This is a sedate, elegant train that gets us to where we’re going at a pace that encourages us to enjoy the ride.
Heading Into the Interior of British Columbia
We pass through Lytton–a small town tragically destroyed by fire in 2021. The charred trees bear witness to the devastation caused by wildfires every year in British Columbia. We are lucky that wildfires haven’t affected this trip, but that is by no means always the case. In fact, 2023 is one of the worst years for wildfires in Canada, but not on the route we are currently traveling.
When we are close enough to a town to get cell service, I read the heartbreaking headlines about the devastating wildfires in Maui. Wildfires are increasing worldwide and they all too often win the battle against humans and human settlements. We see evidence of fires throughout the Rocky Mountaineer journey and when we spend the day in Jasper.
Near Lytton, BC, the landscape shows the devastation wrought by a wildfire in 2021
The countryside keeps changing the farther into the Interior we go—the monochrome browns and ochres and greys punctuated by burned trees like exclamation points and cut through by the blue-green Thompson River that we will follow all the way to Kamloops.
View of the Thompson River from the train
The landscape grows much drier as we enter the Interior
The mountains are rounder and more arid, the slashes of ochre and white more stark, the trees shrinking even more. At 7 pm, we pull into Kamloops, our overnight stop. We’ve been on the train for 11 hours, which sounds like a long time but has flown by.
Arrival in Kamloops
The organization is impressive. Large buses pull up as we leave the train and everyone from our coach is loaded in and taken to the Coast Hotel. They’ve divided passengers into coaches based on where they are staying. The Coast Hotel is situated high on the ridge above Kamloops in an area bristling with hotels, motels, and malls, and a plethora of chain restaurants, from McDonalds to Dairy Queen. To stretch our legs, we eschew the hotel restaurant and walk to a pub about five minutes’ away.
View over Kamloops from the balcony of our room at the Coast Hotel
Snagging the last table outside where the atmosphere is quieter, we enjoy an okay meal. Service is swift and my steak sandwich, while overdone, is edible. Half an hour later we’re back out on the street. The area is regrettably unlovely—just urban sprawl overlooking brown hills and the valley below. We walk as far as the Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone that I don’t need, then stroll back to the hotel and contemplate the pool. I always like to enjoy as many hotel amenities as I can during a stay, but I’m tired and the pool is busy. We opt instead for a quiet hour back in the room before lights-out.
Day 2 of the Rocky Mountaineer Adventure
I’m up bright and early and step out onto our balcony to the smell of smoke from a wildfire about ten miles away, as the bus driver later informs us. We have been instructed to be downstairs no later than 7:30 am to board the bus for the fifteen-minute trundle to the train station. An attendant with a clipboard makes sure we’re all accounted for and off we go.
The bus driver provides a commentary about Kamloops, a town of over 100,000 inhabitants. I remember when it wasn’t much more than an indent on the highway. Over the past several years, Kamloops has grown considerably, thanks to affordable housing, a university, the headquarters of Interior Health, a few mines and a pulp mill, making it an attractive option for people looking to escape the impossibly bleak real estate prospects on the coast. Julia has two friends who have relocated to Kamloops in the past few years.
Heading out of Kamloops
The sun is again shining and within a surprisingly short amount of time, we’re away from the dry Kamloops landscape and chugging through a greener, treed landscape skirting the North Thompson River. The views are spectacular, with mirror-bright reflections and puffy clouds. I love being up so high.
Mirror-smooth river and clear skies outside Kamloops
We are on the second shift for breakfast today and so make do with two cups of excellent coffee and a piece of coffee cake drizzled with lemon syrup. It’s a tough go, but we manage. The biggest decision of the morning will be what to choose for breakfast. The menu is the same on both days, and I’m torn. The pancakes with lemon? Or Eggs Benedict? Or…? How to choose? I opt for eggs Benedict–cooked to perfection and accompanied by fresh fruit and lots more coffee.
After breakfast, it’s back up the narrow winding staircase that leads from the dining level up to the dome level to spend another relaxing few hours during which I write a bit of this post, listen to an audiobook, work on my Novel-In-Progress, and of course, have a nap. There is something so restful about nodding off with the smooth movement of the train. In fact, I’ve never been on a train with such smooth movement.
Wildlife Spotting
Our onboard hosts are anxious for us to spot wildlife, but unfortunately, it’s slim pickings on this trip. We spot some bald eagles hanging out at the tops of trees alongside the river and see a bear swimming upstream. Unfortunately, he is too far away for a photo. The only other wildlife excitement are a few clusters of bighorn sheep on a hillside.
Views grow less frequent as the trees close in. Every so often, I go back down to the dining car level where a large outdoor viewing platform offers a different perspective. The August air is warm and breezy.
Viewing the passing landscape from the viewing platform on the lower level of the GoldLeaf car
We Approach the Rocky Mountains
The landscape fills with taller trees and increasingly larger mountains until suddenly we burst into a wide valley with a vista of the Rocky Mountains spread before us. Where before the mountains were tree covered to their summits, the tops of these mountains are bare and rocky. And these are just the foothills. The real Rockies are yet to come.
We go down for lunch, and I opt for the Sumac Ridge Sauvignon blanc from BC’s Okanagan Valley that I sampled yesterday. Clean, crisp, citrusy—exactly what a Sauvignon blanc should be. For our entrée, we both choose the special—steak with broccoli and potatoes. It’s excellent.
We are now traveling into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Although I’ve seen them before, I’m always surprised at just how big and rocky they are—very different from the blue and green mountains I see out my window at home on the coast. The Rockies thrust unapologetically into the cloud-studded sky—we’re here, we’re proud, we’re Rockies, and all you people in that train snaking through the valley down below have paid a small fortune to come see us. Welcome.
Pyramid Falls
The train slows to a crawl to allow us to take pictures of Pyramid Falls, reputedly taller than Niagara Falls. Extraordinary.
Pyramid Falls is higher than Niagara Falls
We Pass Mount Robson
An hour later, we pass massive Mount Robson—the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The mountain is located entirely within Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia, and is part of the Rainbow Range.The trees occasionally thin out enough to provide several photo ops. Apparently, clouds very often wreathe the summit, and this is the case when we pass. Even so, it’s an impressive wall of granite.
Mount Robson–the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies
The views as we come into Jasper are spectacular
Coming Into Jasper
As we near Jasper and the end of our Rocky Mountaineer adventure, the mountains are coming thick and fast, along with the iconic deep blue lakes, the first being Moose Lake. The chefs come upstairs and dole out fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. It’s a nice touch.
Warm chocolate chip cookie to welcome us to Jasper
And so, after another full day on the train, we pull into Jasper, Alberta, where the clock has jumped forward an hour to Mountain Time. Ryan reads out the coach numbers corresponding to our hotels. We are in the Forest Park Hotel, which Julia assures me is very comfortable (she’s right). We will be here for two nights.
Music to End our Journey on the Rocky Mountaineer
The sound system delivers a purely Canadian playlist—Gordon Lightfoot, Our Lady Peace, Celine Dion, k. d. lang and more—a fitting tribute to round out the trip. The only exception is John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High, played just as we pull into Jasper train station. A rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah plays as we all rise to descend from the glorious glass-domed car we’ve called home for two days to the track level where we say farewell to our hosts. Jasper Bear meets us at the station.
A safety-conscious Jasper Bear welcomes us to Jasper
The sky is starting to dim just enough to indicate that sunset is approaching. Patches of sun splash across the peaks in the distance while forested ridges loom darkly. Clouds are tinged bright white and grey and yellow, preparing to turn crimson and gold with the sunset. We hop on the bus for the five-minute drive to the Forest Park Hotel on the very edge of town. Our room is spacious and well-appointed.
Sunset view in Jasper
We decide to walk into Jasper for dinner at a pizza place. The sky stays light for several hours, and on our way back to the hotel, we spy a few elk munching grass.
Should You Go?
Is the Rocky Mountaineer trip “worth” it? That’s a good question. It’s an experience unmatched in my life, even though I’ve lived most of it within sight of mountains. I’ve driven through this landscape several times, but the driving experience can’t compare to the relaxation of sitting in the dome car tootling along at a sedate 40 to 50 miles an hour—fast enough to feel like progress is being made, but slow enough to allow for effective picture-taking.
The service is excellent, with the onboard hosts going above and beyond to deliver a memorable experience. They balance commentary with silence and deliver drinks and snacks at exactly the right rate, neither too frequently nor too seldom.
The red carpet is rolled out in front of a GoldLeaf car on the Rocky Mountaineer
The journey is not for the budget-conscious. To be blunt, it’s expensive. Very expensive. But if you’re looking for a unique way to spend two days crossing the vast reaches of British Columbia and you’re happy to shell out some big bucks, then I highly recommend the Rocky Mountaineer GoldLeaf experience.
