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Steps
steps up to Sacre Coeur and MontmartreParis, a city of art, architecture, beauty and more art
So when I decided I wanted to go back to Paris after 35 years all I wanted to see was the famous graveyard Pere Lachaise and of course a trip to the Louvre to view the Mona Lisa. After all I had been there several times and knew all about the city, so I thought. Boy was I wrong and luckily Folker booked the trip for eight full days. Due to the unforeseen ash cloud of Iceland’s volcano Eyjafjallajokull we were “forced” to stay a full two weeks. Two wonderful weeks that is. We truly explored the city, and even were in areas where tourists seldom venture out to. What was vividly in my memory of Paris were the steps going up to Montmartre and its beautiful church Sacre Coeur. Going up those steps is certainly a workout but we saw people actually using them as an exercise field. While I remembered the steps Folker’s memory focused on the many people from all over the world sitting in front of the church overlooking the city. They sat there just like they did 35 years ago, drinking wine or beer, eating
Paris
Paris view from Sacre Coeur their picnic consisting mostly of cheese and bread, smoking, making music, or watching others making music ~ simply just hanging out. The atmosphere is still the same and I imagine it will be like that forever. The Place Tertre which lies just behind Sacre Coeur still is the meeting place of the many artists that for centuries use this square to show their arts and hassle the tourist to get their business by painting them. Like the tourists on the steps of Sacre Coeur not much has changed here, but changed are the faces of the artists that now are mainly of Asian descent. The nice warm temperatures caused for a busy hustle and bustle in the cafes and restaurants around the square.
I quickly realized that I was wrong, I did want to see more, the majestic Notre Dame and its famous gargoyles, the bridges over the Seine, Place de la Concorde, the Tulleries, and the different neighborhoods like La Marais, Quartier Latin, St.Germain de Pres to name just a few. The beautiful architecture everywhere, the street lights, the Pantheon and the many fountains throughout the city plus who would want not want to stroll down the Champs
The Kiss
Visitor at Oscar Wilde's gravesite leaving a kiss Elysee? And while talking about Paris one cannot forget the many beautiful street cafes, where one just sits to be seen and do some people watching. I loved to walk through the gardens and parks and take a rest in one of the cafes, the weather was perfect with sunshine every day and we were treated with temperatures in the 60’s going up to the 70’s. Springtime in Paris, what could be nicer?
The cities’ biggest graveyard Pere Lachaise is unbelievable, unbelievable huge, unbelievable crowded, unbelievable famous, and unbelievable beautiful. Tourists come here to visit the gravesites of well known people like Chopin, Corot, Pissarro, Bizet, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison as well as Moliere, or the Lalique and Debussy family. Each of those still have their fans that come and bring flowers, notes and gifts but only Jim Morrison’s grave is behind fences. Oscar Wilde’s statue is covered with lipstick kisses and notes. All are certainly most interesting. We spent the whole day there only leaving when the bell rang indicating it was time to leave the dead and return the place to peaceful quietness. When speaking of resting places for the dead
Bones
Bones display at the Catacombs one can not forget the Catacombs. While originally dug to mine material for the housing in the booming city, the tunnels now house millions of bones. In 1786 when the cities’ graveyards were starting to be overcrowded bones were transported to the Catacombs.
The transport took place at night accompanied by priests chanting the burial service. At the Catacombs the bones are compiled in areas indicating the different cemeteries where they came from but not individual. The bones of the notorious Cimetiere des Innocents were the first ones that arrived here but all the bones are now artistically displayed. The Catacombs while very interesting are not a place for the squeamish as one descends narrow steps and then follows long narrow tunnels until the sense of what eternity might be like sets in. Passing by the millions of sculls, tibia, fibula and ulna gives you an idea how fragile life is.
On my list of things to see and do was taking pictures from the tower of Notre Dame ~ a picture of the city they way the gargoyles see it. This picture taking turned out much more difficult than expected and it took me several tries but what
Quasimodo's dudes
Gargoyles high above Paris a glorious feeling it was being up there overlooking Paris in all its glory especially when the bells start ringing. That alone is worth to climb the spiral stairway of 387 stone steps that lead you to the bell that was tolled by Victor Hugo’s fictional character named Quasimodo. The area around Notre Dame is one of the most touristy ones with souvenir shops one after the other yet still worth visiting. We were very excited to get tickets to an organ recital at this beautiful cathedral with its enormous organ, but it turned out to be an awful modern inspired pain of pedal pushing experience. While trying to be polite and sit through this we finally couldn’t take it anymore and left. So much for listening to such amazing pieces of music like Bach’s Toccata we had expected.
The different neighborhoods of Paris were giving me more than enough old architecture to last for awhile. I need to see something old once in a while and there is plenty of old stuff in this city. There is the Latin Quarter where you can find the Sorbonne, Paris’ famous university. The Latin Quarter got its name from the fact
that back in the days the language of students was Latin. Today the area is still filled with students though no Latin can be heard anymore. One can find plenty of cool stores and restaurants but also lots of tourists. St. Germain is less touristy and the restaurants and bars are filled rather with locals than tourists though surely you can find them there as well. The boutiques and shops are one in a kind and this neighborhood is the best for one of Paris’ best pastimes the famous “people watching”. And then there is the Jardin du Luxembourg a beautiful park inspired by Marie de Medici where you can find Parisian’s stroll in the beautiful sunshine on a spring day, have a picnic during the weekends in the summer or just take a break after work. The northern boundary is dominated by the Palais du Luxembourg, an impressive palace which now houses the Senate. Speaking of gardens one certainly has to mention the Tulleries which stretch from the Place de la Concorde to the Louvre.
Here, too people stream after work, to meet with friends, mothers and babysitters stroll here with the little ones, and tourists enjoy a snack,
a drink or an ice-cream in one of the many café’s. When arriving at the Louvre, Paris’ most famous museum one can have a look of the Champs Elysee all the way to the Arc de Triomphe.
Speaking of the Louvre, wow what can I say about the Louvre? It is not only huge, it reaches on intimidating. We spent about nine hours there and barely scratched the surface. Of course we saw the famous Mona Lisa, which is not only tiny but behind glass and guarded by three security guards. Much less attention is given to Michelangelo’s other pieces that the Louvre also houses, and the many, many other artifacts. I feel some people just come to see the Mona Lisa and maybe the Venus de Milo which also is in the Louvre. . We got a good overview and feel pretty good about how we spent our time but enjoyed the Musee D’Orsay more mainly because there are many more pieces by the 18th and 19th century European painters that we like. It is also much smaller and one does not only get the feeling to have seen it in its entirety but one actually can. The
Musee D’Orsay is housed in a former train station while the Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the 12th century and became the residential palace of Charles V in the 14th century.
The Eiffeltower, one of Paris’ most recognized symbols is a massive iron structure that stands 1065 feet tall still draws millions of tourists to its site. It is seen all over the city but the best view one can get across the tower from the Les Ombres restaurant on the fifth floor in the Musee du Quai Brandy. The most impressive view comes with a price to match but the Eiffeltower looks so much nicer from here than close up where all the rust is showing and one has to be shuffled around by the many tourists trying to get a ticket to go up the tower. I admit the view from the top can be breath taking.
As an opera fan a visit to Opera Garnier is a must. While it would have been grand to see a performance in this stunning building the tour through it was a worthy substitution. Located at the Grand Boulevards it was once part of the place where
the elite of Paris strolled to be seen, shopped and dined and of course attended a performance at the opera. If you close your eyes you might still see the scenes from a bygone time as depicted in one the many paintings by Impressionists. The architecture of the Palais Garnier, commissioned by Napoleon III in 1861, is absolutely stunning. The building is named after its architect Charles Garnier and to this day remains the most perfect venue for the opera. Unfortunately most opera performances are taking place at the new opera which is quite simple and critics say that the acoustic is the only nice thing about the building.
While remembering the French people to be most unfriendly, this time we experienced a different attitude. It might have been the fact that we did try to honor the native language when ordering food or purchasing items. At our little breakfast café where we ate the first eight days we received apologies from the French for not speaking any English. We found the service great where when entering a restaurant one of the waiters came to the door and led you to a table (there are no hostesses in
Studying Paris style
Sorbonne students at the Pantheon regular restaurants). We had great food and great wine mostly house wines which both tasted so good after a day of walking through the city. Walking was our way of transportation next to riding the Metro which to our surprise was extremely easy to navigate. In no time we knew which line we had to take and where we had to change stations. However should you think taking the Metro does not involve any walking you are mistaken. Some stations seem unending with long tunnels going which ever way, rolling walkways, steps up and down and some more tunnels to overcome before finally reaching the platform. There one gets rewarded with a train in 2-5 minute intervals depending on the time of day. Surprising also was the fact that at all times of the day and night one could see all kinds of people, young single girls, older people and business men and women riding the subway and nobody ever seemed worried or tense. While we did see beggars mostly in areas where a lot of tourists can be seen they were not bothersome just quietly sat there holding out a cup for people to drop some Euros. One of
Life is good
More street musicians the most beautiful things you can experience in European cities are the many musicians that try to make a living using their skills and Paris is no different. We found a group of eight young musicians playing symphonic music, we found a Russian band, we saw single saxophone or violin players, heard an amazing American singer who charmed the women standing on one of the bridges and lots if other artists trying to make some money. While I usually really appreciate such artists and find most of them were amazing, the one that played in the gangway from the Metro to our hotel did not fall into this category. She was not even close to making any sounds that could be considered music. The funny thing is that she even had notes she seemingly followed however all she did was produce scratching sounds that were painful to the ears.
When talking about Paris one cannot forget to mention the public bathrooms. In recent times the city had those horrible places where one had to do their business standing up and most of them had this intensive odor, so bad that one would only use those facilities in desperate need.
Arc de Triomphe
Champs Elysee traffic with Arc de Triomphe in the distance Today those structures are a thing of the past and are replaced by modern bathrooms that come with sinks, a self cleaning system and are even free to use. A great improvement for sure. The bathrooms in the restaurants and bars are a different story all together. You can find high class bathrooms with perfume, toilet paper decorated with hearts or poems written on them, beautiful sinks and tiles but also there are dingy stalls with the bare necessities. Often times the restrooms were not divided into places for men and women, or the men’s bathroom was so close to the ones for the women that one could see right into them. Europeans don’t seem to have a problem with that. At a café on the Champs Elyssee we found a restroom where the men and women were separated but the only indication was the intense blue and pink color on the walls.
Noticeable also was the extreme fashion Parisian’s display. One could barely find people wearing sneakers, women wear high heel at almost all times while men wear leather shoes. Athletic shoes are for use of ~ the name gives it away ~ sports activities only. Both men
Fashion
Window display at Au Printemps and women were dressed in stylish trench coats, short colorful leather jackets and of course scarves of all sorts. We found also that French people or at least Parisian’s are not fat and not even a bit overweight, searching for a reason why, we decided it must be the walking as it surely can’t be the diet. Starting the morning with chocolate croissants, having wine with every meal, eating four course meals late at night is usually not the recipe for being skinny but most of the people we saw in Paris fell into that category and were good looking. Sad to say that the only obese people we found were Americans.
The French or Parisian fashion comes with a price tag though; at the famous department store Au Printemps one can find cheap looking little dresses for as much as $3000. A price justified only by the fact it was created by a famous designer. One can not help but wonder if the person purchasing a dress at such an amount will have mercy on the poor beggar sitting outside of the store. The Galleries Lafayette housed in a beautiful building with a dome worthy of a palace for
ceiling
The Dome skylight at the department store Galeries Lafayette royalty is not much different though one can find a few things that can be purchased without a bad conscience. After all this is a once in life kind of experience, right? Going shopping in Paris can max out your credit card faster than you can say oh la la. Of course not only the fashion is expensive, everything else is also ~ but visiting Paris is soooo worth it.
Due to the volcano and its ashes we got five extra days in Paris and we were not upset. Five extra days to take in the beauty of this city, five extra days to photograph it’s beauty, five extra days to enjoy French wine, French bread and cheese. Being stuck in Paris, not a bad thing especially if one has an American Express card. Sure, we had to change hotels twice before it all was said and done, but that is certainly not something to complain about. Given those extra days we made a trip to Versailles and Giverny where Monet made his home after being tired of living in Paris. Versailles while certainly beautiful disappointed me because I expected huge flower beds within the gardens but found none.
Water lillies
Pond with waterlillies at Monet's Home in Giverny Giverny however made up for it. Monet’s gardens were the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. Touring the property one can see the objects of Monet’s paintings. To think that we saw those same water lilies that now are depicted in a painting admired by millions of people it’s pretty amazing. Despite the many other visitors in the gardens one can imagine the painter sitting there at the pond with his easel, paint and paintbrushes creating a masterpiece on canvas. What a beautiful site, so beautiful indeed that the thought crosses the mind to want to stay there. However at six o’clock the garden’s, the house which is still in its original condition and has the very same furniture that Claude Monet used and the museum close and the last bus leaves the town. With that Giverny returns into the quiet little idyllic village and once again belongs to the people that call this beautiful place their home.
Going back to Paris in a train, that we in America can only dream off, we spent the last evening of our wonderful time at the place that was a vivid memory for both of us before coming back and
now will be even more so, Montmartre. One last look of Paris from this beautiful spot above the city and a plane in the sky indicating that indeed there was hope we would be able to fly out the next day. A truly fitting end.
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Folker
non-member comment
You made me feel Paris
Thank you for the story. Reading it made me feel Paris. Great memories.