On the Hunt for a Hunchback and a Picture!

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Woolly says – the day hadn’t started well, well to be honest the night hadn’t really ended as we had lay though it listening to the roar of the traffic, the pounding of the underground and the strains of music from a variety of venues. Luckily we were moving to different accommodation for the coming night due to a mistake on Jo’s part in our original booking otherwise we could be having to suffer again later! Bleary eyed and not feeling my brightest I put my best paw forward and hopped onto the metro for our first full day in Frances capital city, Paris.



It had been a long night and with no wifi or hot water we weren’t best pleased. Woolly seemed to have taken to the metro like a duck to water and before I knew it we were changing trains and jumping onto the A line and the centre of the city.



Woolly says – it was easy and as we arrived once more in the outside world I happily led the group towards the first stop of the day......except it didn’t look like it had the night before and there was no Hunchback waiting to greet me only a sweet French man who smiled happily at me and said ‘look in my church and then I will show you the Notre Dame’, which seemed fair to me. The church of St Eustace was completed in 1640 after a centuries worth of building due to religious wars and lack of funds. The roof towered above my head with it’s beautiful arch’s I wandered slowly past the small chapels which were much in need of cleaning having lost their sheen but beautiful none the less. Having thanked my new friend profusely in French who shook my paw and pointed me in the direction that we needed to go.



He was lovely and justifiably proud of his church, following the small fur ball we crossed roads and finally arrived on the right part of the river to cross to the most well known church.



Woolly says - Notre-Dame de Paris or "Our Lady of Paris” is the medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, it is also known for it’s hunchback. Entering into the half light within would be quite spooky but as there are another thousand people doing the same thing it rather loses it’s ambience. The darkness meant that you couldn’t make out much of the higher parts of the lofty roof space and I certainly couldn’t see the hunchback at all. The carved freezes were rather fine as was the stained glass but being the most visited cathedral did mean that trying to get pictures was a tricky job in itself.



Having admired as much as we could it was lovely to find a small café and sit quietly, we all looked at each other and Zoe said what we had all been thinking, St Eustace’s was far better inside!



Woolly says – as we strolled towards the next destination I spotted a lovely fountain with sphinx’s shooting water out of their mouths, a certain photo opportunity if ever I saw one. As we entered the courtyard of the Louvre the first thing I saw blew my socks off but looked so strange amongst the buildings surrounding it, who would build a glass pyramid in all this splendour I had to wonder!



It was the French President François Mitterrand in 1983, who decided on this strange redesign but apparently it has helped to increase ticket buyers so odd it might look but maybe only to us!



Woolly says - Originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II the building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682 Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, it is now the most visited museum in the world. Having patiently waited in the line for hours I was finally sailing down the escalators and into the depths, all very Angles and Demons I thought although how you wold find anything here was beyond me so having told Jo what I wanted to see I left it to her to get us there.



Knowing we couldn’t face a whole day of art we focussed on finding four things in particular, you’d think it would be easy!



Woolly says – having gone up stairs and then down others Jo had already asked four times the way to the Mona Lisa and we seemed to be no closer, as I trotted past huge canvas’s from Botticelli, Raphael, Rosso, and Primaticcio and many more I was starting to feel dazed at the multitude of art, suddenly Jo swerved into yet another room and as Zoe and I hurried to catch up I heard the mummers of appreciation....looks like we’ve found something although at my height it was impossible to tell what as all I could see were legs and feet!



Lifting him up to give him a view I had to giggle at his words ‘is that it!’



Woolly says – It’s much smaller than I expected somehow and well it’s a painting of a half-length portrait of a woman, it might be by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci but I’ve seen much better work of his! Everyone around me seemed happy though so what do I know and having glanced once more I looked down at Jo who seemed to be holding me quite high over all the heads and suggested we move on. Past thousands more pieces of work, scenes and portraits of so many, having failed to find any Pisscaso’s or Van Gogh we counted ourselves lucky to have found one of the only three Monet’s that is housed in the museum. We seemed to have walked miles and with the heat intensifying I suggested that cold drinks, snacks and a sit down would be a great plan.



He was right, you could spend weeks in the place and not see everything so having taken one last look at a courtyard of staues we headed to the exit.



Woolly says – twenty minutes later and we were still following the signs....did this place have an exit? Arriving in a shopping mall I felt my heart sink as Zoe started to perk up, but spotting yet another exit sign I dragged her through and back into the outside world. The Tuileries Garden was created by Catherine de Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the French Revolution, to me it looked like the ideal place to eat and people watch. Sharing our Croque Monsieur (without the Monsieur part) we rested our tired paws and feet and enjoyed the wanderings of others for a while but with so much more to see we couldn’t linger long and having wiped a piece of lettuce over my face to get rid of the cheese and crumbs I egged my team on to the concord.



His energy levels are impressive and as we tried to keep up I could only hope he would want to pause for photographs to give my feet a chance!



Woolly says – No stamina the youngsters of today! The Concorde Place was crowded with people waiting to go on the large Ferris wheel which took up much of the space and hid many of the charming features from view. The giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II is a bit difficult to hide. It is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century, the other one stayed in Egypt as it was considered too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time. In the 1990s, President François Mitterrand gave the second obelisk back to the Egyptians. The one I was now happily looking at had once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple, it looked marvellous. Past fountains and pretty street lights we went as we took the Champs Elysees in our stride.......



He might of taken it in his stride but he wasn’t walking!



Woolly says – a mere trifle...... The avenue is 1.9 kilometres (1.2 miles) long which I had forgotten to tell the girls about, as we passed more greenery before shop after shop for the wealthy presented themselves the women seemed to be flagging, I geed them on with the promise of water and a sit down but I could see our final attraction for the day and mere tiredness was not going to get them out of taking me! The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806 and boy did he make a good job of it, the carvings were incredible and the size was most impressive. Having come this far it seemed only sensible to go under the road to look a little closer.



Even with our feet burning in pain he was right and having popped up in the middle of the island on which the Arc resides it was impressive to see the intricate details up close.



Woolly says – I could see people walking about on top but thought I might be asking for one thing too much to go up there and as we sat happily admiring the wonders I got out the map to start planning for tomorrow....well I don’t want to miss anything!

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