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Published: September 11th 2010
me and the Louvre
taken by Pakistani PhD student (see text)It's a lovely sunny day outside so I should be out there, especially as tomorrow is supposed to be heavy showers. Given what happened the other day I am prepared for this to be at least as bad (except the other day did not really appear on my iPod forecast so I have tapped into the BBC weather which I am sure will be somewhat more reliable).
After my usual attendance at the bakery on the corner (which now I find to my horror appears to be closed on weekends) I headed off downtown. The chosen location was to finally head toward l'Ile de la Cite and Notre Dame etc. I decided to get off at St Michel and therefore walk across the bridge to reach the island that way, rather than getting off at the metro stop Cite which is right underneath so to speak. I suddenly realised how many tourists there were in Paris as there are just so many in one place down there, compared to where I have been. Yes there are lots of tourists at the Eiffel Tower but there is much more space for them to spread out. Walked across the bridge to Notre Dame
and there was a not too long queue to get in. I was a little concerned about the sign saying "no luggage" and thought I might have had to cloak my hulk of a camera bag but no such problem. Spent a while there -- not many photographs as I find that the dark ones do not come up very well on the blog. Then along the road to St Chapelle and was in the queue to buy a ticket at 5 PM. However I noticed that there was very heavy security screening and x-ray by the gendarmes and there was a sign that sharp objects would not be returned. I've realised that my "useful" Swiss Army knife was in my pack so as I have had to replace it earlier after the first one was seized at Sydney airport I decided I was simply not going to do it today. It must be the proximity to the Palais de Justice or something that makes security so high. Mind you there are a number of places where I have seen Army/commandos with submachine guns wandering around usually in groups of three (think the Eiffel and Louvre). So so much for
making a compact visit to these sites -- that will have to wait another day.
Walked around the back of the Palais de Justice to the quiet little Place Dauphine and then near the Pont Neuf there is a little park called Square du Vert Galant - which is a polite way of calling Henry IV a randy gent apparently ('vert' normally means green but it has a slight slang version here for liking the pleasures of the flesh so to speak). Then decided to walk along to the Louvre as it was Friday late-night opening and cheaper after 6 PM. The queues at the Pyramide decided me otherwise although I had an interesting chat to a Pakistani guy (Ph.D. student in US) who was trying to cram as much of Paris into 1 1/2 days as he could. I told him that spending only an hour at the Louvre be a bit short and he appeared to be a little disappointed that it was mostly only paintings (doh!). So having struck off another thing "not done" the only other real thing to do was to wander through the Tuileries and up to Concorde, the Obelisk and then down
the Champs Elysées.
On the basis of a relatively warm forecast I had gone out in my shorts but had taken a pair of trousers rolled up in my camera bag. Deciding that it was a little cool and it was getting towards dusk I found a little place at the back end of a building which was nevertheless in view of passers by (and the local gendarme who walked past and back!). Managed to whip my shorts off and slip on the trousers without being spotted. When I came around the front I realised that I had changed my trews at the tradesman's entrance of the famous LeNotre pastry school/restaurant! for further see: http://www.lenotre.fr/en/ecoles_lenotre.php
I decided that eating along Ch.Elysees would be either trashy or expensive so headed off into the side streets. This was where I found Villa Spicy - not at all sure about the name which seemed to bear no relation to the food. It was on Avenue Franklin Roosevelt I later found out from the card. They had a detoxifying menu which was a bit much and they seem to lean somewhat perhaps to the biodynamic end of the food spectrum. My organic salmon was
also on the detoxifying menu set. I ordered the menu du jour for 32E and this was a somewhat unusual tabouleh, which however was simply cracked wheat with some small prawns on top stop the prawns were an interesting change but the cracked wheat was simply cracked wheat. The dessert chosen was a crème brûlée which was somewhat unusually served in a wide open dish with some fresh raspberries on it. I cannot imagine getting fresh raspberries with it in Australia unless you were in a $30 for dessert type restaurant. As I overheard some English people saying the other night in a restaurant food,like this they do not get in London (for the price anyway) it's either ordinary or very expensive. The opening glass of white Macon Village was OK, but the glass of white Coteau du Layon was such a beautiful oily-semi sweet sort of contrast and very yum - have just done a wiki on it and find that it is semi-sweet wine from the Loire made from chenin blanc. Had a Marriages Frere Darjeeling muslin teabag in a pot for 5E rather than un cafe. Anyway the service was very swift in serving the food but
after that I seemed to be just ignored so I had to go up and insist on paying on the way out which really annoyed me.
And then wandered along the Champs towards the Arc de Triomphe - a predictable assortment of upmarket shops, mostly closed -- probably the biggest perfume shop I have ever seen (not that cheap here at all including tax)- and lots of pavement restaurants and the odd club type place. Coming up towards the Triomphe there were a number of custom modified chopper type bicycles going past. I had read that they do a run at about midnight on Friday and this was it. You will see a snap or two attached to give the general flavour.
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Melita
non-member comment
Je t'aime Paris
Michel bon jour hardly seems a week since the stress of getting you to the airport! Great photos! St Chapelle is within the Palais de Justice so security is very tight but don't miss it and get there in the day light (preferably sunny) so that the glorious lead light windows can be fully experienced. There is another entrance to the Louvre which is sometimes shorter. I think it is to the right of archway (in your photo). There are several levels of shops and a food hall but the escalators will take you down to an internal entrance. Tight security here too but they gave me my swiss army knife back on my return. au revoir Melita