Photo by Geraldine Kaylor, The Travel Oyster
From Sparkly-Eyed to Sparkles in the Eye in the City of Bright
Your taste of life in Paris and France
ParlerParis.com
Monday, January 3, 2010 • Paris, France
   
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Dear Parler Paris Reader,
The end of 2010 was one of those enigmatic moments with a visit to theCaracalla Spa in Baden-Baden about an hour's drive from Strasbourg. Through the snow-covered fields we trekked by car across the River Rhine and into Germany for the warm waters and soothing treatments at the spa.
It wasn't my first time to Baden-Baden, but it was to Caracalla, having previously opted for the thermal baths at the Friedrichsbad Roman Irish Bath which opened in 1877 and has been one of Europe’s top thermal spas ever since. It's luxurious, it's nude bathing and it's mixed company.
Caracalla was not at all like that. It was a straightforward, no thrills, Disneyland-in-hot-water experience. The lines to enter at the turnstiles were backed-up all the way down the grand staircase. Upon paying and entering, no towels, robes or slippers were bestowed upon us -- only a locker key and a 'goodbye and good luck.' Luckily, my daughter insisted we be prepared with bathing suits and if not for that, we would not have been able to enter at all.
Without going into too much detail, just imagine a waterpark, indoor under a glass roof, and outdoor, too, with large pools of bubbling warm water, a few auxiliary rooms for steaming, aroma therapy and the likes, filled with buzzing bathing-suit-clad Germans having a relaxing afternoon with their entire family. Yes, lots of kids were taking part of the therapeutic waters with their parents. The lockers and changing rooms were lined up row after row with no separation for gender and not a single accoutrements for luxury.
At the massage and treatment rooms, we were the only ones there except for the massage therapists, in spite of the hoards outside. We booked a massage and then something they call the "Cloud 7" -- a scrubdown with coconut (or your choice of fresh pineapple, algae, evening primrose oil, goat butter, ginger-lime, banana and cocoa), wrapped "en papillote" (in a kind of parchment-like paper/plastic), then immersed lying on a floating bed in a jet-laden pool of warm water while day-glo colors filled the room and changed every few seconds from blue to violet to green to orange to pink, etc. for a total of 25 minutes. Get the picture? It was the closest thing to the natural womb one can imagine and I wanted to stay there forever. It made the entire excursion worth it!
Heading back to Paris on Friday, we detoured through Metz to visit the newCentre Pompidou inaugurated on May 12, 2010. Designed by architects Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, it is a branch of the Pompidou Arts Center built on the site of the Roman amphitheater of Divodurum Medriomaticum (ancestor of present-day Metz) and features temporary exhibitions from the National Museum of Modern Art, the largest European collection of 20th and 21st century arts. It is the largest temporary exhibition space outside Paris and its roof structure is one of the largest and most complex built, inspired by a Chinese hat found in Paris by the architect.
The lobby is not yet heated, so it currently feels more like an igloo than a museum, but the terrace restaurant was a perfect place to have lunch before returning to Paris in time for New Year's Eve.
While many Parisians were partying on the Champs-Elysées, I stayed in with close friends for a buffet of traditional "Saint Sylvestre" (new year's eve) fare -- foie gras, smoked salmon, roast chicken and a "tarte aux fruits" that looked more like a Georgia O'Keeffe painting than a pie, but good enough to eat. (The jokes that ensued were almost as good as the dessert itself!)
By midnight, we had downed enough champagne and eaten enough foie gras to be totally sated and start off 2011 with fewer brain cells.
Geraldine Calisti Kaylor's photo of the empty bottles of champagne on a Paris sidewalk somehow really sums it all up after a New Year celebration in the City of Light. She's sure to post the photo in her travel blog, The Travel Oyster (be sure to sign up for it), but she was kind enough to grant us permission to run it first.
Geraldine and her husband arrived from their home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, early the morning of January 1st to a very quiet Paris, so quiet that they were able to park themselves and their luggage in the middle of rue de Rivoli and take photos with not one car in sight. Not to miss a single minute of their first day of the next two months here, we took the opportunity of the late closing (open till 10 p.m. particularly on January 1st) of the "Bulgari, 125 ans de magnificence italienne" (Bulgari 125 years of Italian splendor) exhibit at the Grand Palais.
Bulgari opened its first shop on the Via Sistina in Rome in 1884 and has become the premier jeweler in the world working with gemstones of color. More than 500 precious objects arranged in chronological order show the path that the goldsmith has followed beginning with creations in silver and diamond jewelry in the first half of the twentieth century to a more eclectic style inspired by the pop art of the 70s, bold patterns of the 80s and 90s, and finally the spectacular creations of the 2000s. In addition, there are drawings, photographs, film and original pieces from private collections never viewed in public, including a collection of vintage Bulgari and the private collection of actress Elizabeth Taylor -- the most stunning of all. (That woman sure has taste!)
From a sparkly-eyed New Year's Eve to sparkles in the eye on New Year's day, 2011 seems to have started off in a scintillating way. Let's just hope the brilliant, bubbling times continue all through the year in the City of Light, or should I say "City of Bright?"
A la prochaine...Happy New Year!
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
(photo by Michael Honegger)
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P.S. For those of you in Paris, don’t forget that we are celebrating Les Galettes des Rois at the Parler Parlor French-English Conversation Group on January 8th (scroll down to learn more or visithttp://www.parlerparlor.com and also mark your calendar for 1/11/11 when we meet for Parler Paris Apres Midi to meet other readers like yourselves: parlerparis/apresmidi.html.
