Northern Suburbs tour - Part 2

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no Paris, not Wahroonga!
this time we are off to the northern suburbs again, but this time to St Denis. Which is more or less the end of metro line 13, so a change required at Montparnasse Bienvenue - a rather long walk, incl. a travelator it is so far. This is the home of the Basilique/Cathedral de St Denis, which had become the traditional burial place for the French kings, going back to about the 11th cent. or so. It is well worth paying the extra 7E for the crypt etc (the cathedral is after all free) to see all the relics and funeral memorials for the kings and queens. There is some comment about one of the queens having her entrails bag around her neck in the marble effigy - as you do - royalty were apparently eviscerated (look it up) before being buried etc - oops, sorry, were you having breakfast?? The cathedral itself is almost the birthplace of the Gothic cathedral in style they say and one can see how similar Notre Dame is to it generally.

Wandered around town afterwards - lots of Africans etc out her on the edge of the Badlands so to speak - so lots of "call Africa and Asia cheap" telephone places, places to fix phones, or to unlock them for 5E - or 20E in the case of an Iphone. Apartments weren't too badly priced - you could buy a 2brm aptmt for 225,000 (c. 330K AUD - so maybe Sydney is worse off). Wandered to the edge of town and the canal and there is a path alongside which apparently you can virtually follow all the way to wherever it goes in the centre of Paris. This took me along to near the Stade de France where the World Cup was staged, and all big sports games and concerts etc. There was a sign indicating that the famous Christofle glass/silver ware works was across the river.

This generally took me down to the next lowest Metro station on the line, and from there I went back on line 13. I was considering going to Montparnasse to get something to eat, as I have not really had a look around there - but decided to get off at Champs Elysees Clemenceau and explore the S side of the Ch.Elys. First I did a short detour to the Pont Alexandre and the gold statues on top of the pylons and past les Petit et Grand Palais - bit antique show on there for a week. There seemed to be a number of restos there in this location accdg to Rough - and it was Sunday and a lot of places might be closed further out. When I ate at Villa Spicy the other night that was on the N side of the Ch. Elys. There are a number of Alain Ducasse restos or spin offs on the S side which tend to cost you around 200E or so - bit outa my league.

The Rough Guide has a rec. for La Maison de l'Aubrac - a meat lovers paradise so if you are a vego turn off now. It is in Rue Marbeuf which sounds v similar of "boeuf" the Fr. word for beef of course. Anyway as it was pretty busy had to sit at the bar but the rather busy barman was my waiter and was quite nice. For starters a salade perigordine (Perigord is famous for foie gras)- which was some foie gras (which I have never had) and magret de canard - like cured duck, all on top of some green beans and salad. The foie gras (goose liver pate) - 16E- was very rich indeed - whether the geese are still force fed or what but you would not be able to eat too much of this rich creamy substance. The slices of duck could be mistaken for wind-dried ham or such. Enjoyed with a glass of red from Languedoc. Then rather than simply having steak I had two skewers of beef (24E), served with some salad and fried chopped potatoes and a small boat of bearnaise. No way am I having un cafe - so decided to have the 3x sorbet selection - 9E. One was strawberries with balsamic vinegar (trad. Italian way of serving with icing sugar as well), a nice acid lemon and the other was a watermelony flavour. In between a glass of another red, Cotes de Rosillon - Domaine Sarda-Malet 2008 "Le Sarda" for 6E - I had to ask the barman whether it was red - it was, and said I knew Australian wines, not French ones - and he said words to the effect that a lot of French don't know either! Total bill - 56E (about 77$) incl. 15% service so was reasonable.

There are some pretty fancy shops around Ch. Elys. - up the road from the restaurant a fancy means leather shop - mens shoes in funky greens and grey/blues @ 1150E, gloves from 320E. So home James via the ever reliable Metro and that long change at Montparnasse again.

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Photos

St Denis Basilique
aka Cathedral -last home of most French royalty

royal toes in the crypt
@ Basilique St Denis

St Denis Royal pups
seemed to be on almost every marble funeral thingy

the beheading of St Denis
this illustrates the legend that he picked up his head and walked 5km to St Denis!

St Denis doggy do's
and don'ts - self-explanatory I think

a certain tall French President
have you guessed who it is yet?

Metro entry at Clemenceau
on Champs Elysees

Pizza Pino on Champs Elysees
a typical grand establishment

Comments

[Huddo]

On march.
Hi Mike, Just back from Adelaide. Great! Stories there, and yummy food. De Gaulle statue superb! Watched Day of the Jackal again recently. Beautiful photo's as always. Love Huddo and girls.