It was freezing cold, it was windy, it was overcast, I had a cold and felt pretty miserable the entire time, but I fell in love with this city.
Paris is open. It has wide stretches of grass, huge, grand boulevards, and big stately buildings. It has space that London does not, well, not in my opinion anyway. It seems to be less cluttered, less fiddly, more refined and streamlined and elegant really.
On Friday (after arriving on the Eurostar which was a painless experience), I went to Point Zero, which is where all distances are measured from in Paris, and visited Notre Dame. Now, granted I haven't seen inside Westminster Abbey yet, but ND blew me away. Its front facade isn't any more impressive than many others I’ve seen, but when you get inside, the place is cavernous! It smelt of incense and was hushed and gloomy. Unfortunately, there were many talking tourists about, so not quite the location of contemplation you'd expect, but beautiful in a grungy and well loved sort of way.
As I was determined to take this trip a lot slower than my Amsterdam experience – and as I still had the remnants of the plague – I pottered around taking pictures, and down a side street bought got a Croq Monsieur - why did no one tell me they were so yummy before this? Two pieces of bread - ham between and cheese melted on top and I'd love to know what the cheese was. But it distracted me from the impressive church… how easily I am led! :)
I stumbled onto the flower market, which was beautiful and so peaceful. I always seem to end up in the flower markets of places I visit – they tend to draw me like a loadstone. I just find them so heavenly. Maybe I should try becoming a Gardener later in life…
With a desire to extend my Parisian experience, I stopped off at a cafe for tea (with a cloth tea bag), people watching, and a lemon meringue pie that was an accident of my appalling French...I was trying to order the Lemon Tart!
Next, on the advice of my Lonely Planet guide, I went through the Palais de la Justice (Law Courts) to the Church of Sainte-Chapelle, a small gothic church touted to be incredible. There were two levels to this. Downstairs was a bit of a let down as it seemed very dark, and very commercial, as there was a shop selling medieval paraphernalia, but the ceiling was pretty. Mind you, I LUSTED after the medieval wall hangings they had for sale there. Talk about avarice! If I had had a spare 400 Euro, I’d have bought one of the replica tapestries they had so fast you'd think I was speedy Gonzalez! Upstairs – well, magnificent is the only word I can use to describe it. You climb up a very narrow spiral staircase into another world. It was literally breath taking and everyone came to the top stopped dead in their tracks with gasps of awe and ‘Oh’s of surprise for the amazing stained glass windows. Have a look at the website above - it really is very impressive!
After a suitably decent interval of taking in such magnificence, I moved onto the Conciergerie, which is the remains of a 14th centaury palace. It was cavernous and had the trademark medieval sweeping ceilings and huge fireplaces, so beautiful and ageless but achingly empty. It was used as a prison in the revolution and was where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned.
From there, I walked to Pont Neuf bridge, which has quite amusing stone heads along it, and gives some lovely views of the Seine.
Then it was onto the Musee du Louvre… wow. It is humongous! I saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Card-Sharper and lots of Egyptian stuff and then I was stuffed! Someone told me that if you looked at every item in the Louvre for 30 seconds, you’d be there for three months. I can believe it. I have never been in a place as big as that. And yet, I can honestly say that I would go back, time and again, to see more. It was never dull or boring. I wish I had had more energy, or more time, to really assimilate some of the artwork. What ever your passion, whichever century or style, I’m sure you could find it there and then some.
On the way out, I passed under the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (a mini-version of the other) and then wandered through the Jardin des Tuileries, a lovely and spacious (28 ha) formal garden, to the Place de la Concord, with it’s gorgeous fountains and Egyptian obelisk and then decided that bed was a priority.
The Metro wasn’t as hard to work out as I feared, but it was strange to be in a square train again after the round tube ones. I eventually found my hotel… way out in the sticks. My room this time was tiny, but the single bed was very comfortable, so I didn’t mind a bit.
On Saturday I visited the Eiffel Tower, first winding my way through the Jardins du Trocadero to the Place de Varsovie to take the obligatory picture of the tower and me! J It was really cold though, and I didn’t think standing out in the wind would be good for my health, so I skipped going up. I can do that at a later date.
Another spacious formal garden later, and I found the perfect café to be Parisian in. It was called La TourviIle and reminded me ever so much of Gigi. I sat outside (under heat-lamps) and drank hot chocolate (which wasn’t sweet!) and had some heavenly French food. Yum.
Around the corner was the Musee Rodin, where I saw The Thinker and Hells Gate and had tea in the café. I was taking it easy ok? … Honestly, it was the most tranquil museum I’ve been to – mostly outdoors, with a lot of Rodin’s artwork situated in the formal gardens. The hotel in which he used to live and work is part of the museum and is quite lovely in its own right.
From there, I waked to the Musee d’Orsay: Monet, Renoir, Manet, Whistler, Van Gogh and Klimt… wow. They allow you to take photos if you didn’t use a flash, and I took so many photos it really isn’t funny. I seem to have become an art lover without any intention of doing so what so ever. If you'd asked me if I liked going to art galleries this time last year, I'd have given you a resounding 'NO' although I've been to a few in Australia. Now... well, I'm a convert. I freely admit that paintings can be truly beautiful and that the craft involved is truly awe inspiring. Maybe I just grew up or something. Horrible thought! But I can appreciate the artistry now. And I was yet again overwhelmed by the incredible paintings.
Then I walked over the Seine and up through the Jardin des Tuileries (where I finally recognised that the trees I’d been walking past were chestnut trees!), over the Place de la Concord and up the Champs Elysees. The CE is far wider than it looks in pictures. Yet more gardens line the bottom half but the top is dedicated to high-end stores. In that respect it’s very like Oxford Street only wider. And there were many, many more people on the CE. It was exhausting just fighting my way through them. At the top is the Arc de Triomphe. I had intended to climb it but got interrupted; a parade of civil protection officers (like our SES or so I assume) blocked off the road and the swarms of curious tourists were treated to a marching band and flag ceremony. I eventually got to the Arc and climbed the enumerable steps to the top – my calves were not happy and my feet were decidedly belligerent by the time I got ther. But it was worth it for the lovely, if hazy, views of Paris.
I had dinner on the Champs at the Café George V and watched the world go by, then back to the hotel for some more recuperative sleeping.
On Sunday I visited the Museum de Moyen Age at the Hotel Cluny. That was wonderful. I love medieval stuff, so I was in 7th heaven. It’s a museum housed in the remains of Gallo-Roman baths dating back to AD 200 and includes the 15th century Hotel de Cluny which has some gorgeous gargoyles!! The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries are also kept there, and they are truly amazing. They’re a collection of six Flemish tapestries, dating from 15th Century, which represent each of the five senses with a 6th wrap-up scene. Wow.
Anyway, I decided to spend my remaining time wandering around Montmartre and to pay a visit to Sacre Coeur. The ‘Best of…’ Lonely Planet guides have these lovely directed walks in them, so I did their recommended route and saw some interesting things along the way. These included Van Gogh's house, a beautiful vineyard and bohemian pub, a courtyard of portrait artists (which I annoyingly neglected to get a photo of)...and some hazy views of Paris.
It was a lovely trip, and I’m not going to talk about the return journey because Eurostar failed to live up to expectations, but it didn’t spoil Paris for me, and I will definitely be going back, and as often as I can. It is a wonderful city… and I had a lot of fun trying out my French too!!
The photos will be following later as I took rather a lot of them and It’s going to take me a while to sort out. C’est la vie!
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