PARIS VACATION
PRECISION
PARIS A WORLD MARQUE GOING ON FOR CENTURIES NOW
INFLUENCE
By PETER THOMAS BUSCH
P
aris has a lot of life stories for visitors to learn about while meandering the cobble stone streets preserved over the centuries after so many centuries before them.
Time has been captured so much everywhere you tend to want to imagine blood spilled from the 1789 Revolution’s guillotine still between the cobble stones.
A century later, the dark caustic soot from the factory coal furnaces began to stain the walls of brick buildings as the steel girders of the Eiffel Tower gradually came together to dominate the skyline, one custom steel beam at a time, to become an everlasting symbol of industry replacing agriculture to take hold of economies worldwide.
Visitors to Paris who only have a couple of days in the city will find enough history to fill the hours along the Seine River, near the Place de Concorde.
I spent my first day in Paris working off the jet lag by just kind of meandering through the cobble stone streets with the end goal of being at the Eiffel Tower before sunset.
I had arrived in Paris in the morning. And this first day trip the same afternoon seemed like a good idea at first. I did enjoy myself, looking around, but several hours dissolved walking that length of streets. And I was at times a bit mesmerized by the city without the use of the Metro.
Some parts of Paris are under the old street system in which the avenues run diagonally and sometimes without any direction at all, rather than in an orderly parallel grid that one can travel from east to west and south to north to finish at a particular destination at a certain time. This diagonal pattern can be quite time consuming and unproductive if you are trying to get to a destination, since at the beginning of the street you think you are walking toward a place of interest, but by the end of the street you have actually incrementally moved away from the site at the same time you are approaching the site. Taking the Metro would have been a much better idea.
This method of experiencing Paris though did allow me the opportunity to witness Parisian life by window shopping and people watching and stopping in at a grocery store to buy something to drink and also stopping to snack on a baguette while watching Parisians, oddly three people one after another, deposit empty wine bottles in a seemingly bottomless recycling depository built in a space between the sidewalk and the street normally left for bicycle racks and newspaper boxes.
The French love their wine, and here where I stood was a permanent immoveable recycling box built into the city street for the empty wine bottle.
I accidently came across the Sacre Couer Basilica, which when I purposefully looked for the icon a few days later, I noticed that the historical site stands out in the Paris skyline as much as the Eiffel Tower.
I did reach the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower before the end of the day, and the time just so happened to be during the Golden Hour when the sun is just at the right angle to make the Eiffel Tower look golden and the gold laden statues and buildings just a bit more golden bright than normal.
Thousands of people were gathered around the Eiffel Tower and the steps leading up to the Palace de Chaillot on a weekend. I went back another day during the week, this time using the Metro to get there. The area was again crowded with thousands of visitors, although of a slightly less density than on the weekend.
The first museum I attended in Paris was the Louvre, on the Right Bank of the Seine. The Louvre Museum is at one end of a long promenade that begins with the Tuileries Gardens and extends through the Place de la Concorde to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Visitors can spend a good part of the day just walking from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe, casually enjoying the gardens and the vibrant Parisian life along the Siene. This walk seems reasonable at first, but time passes more quickly than the distance.
Visitors can also use the Metro to get to the Louvre and then space jump again to the Arc de Triomphe and then again to the Eiffel Tower on the Metro. Indeed, most of the iconic attractions in Paris are on the Metro line, which is beneficial to understand from the very first stop on arrival at the airport.
The Place de la Concorde is a wonderful center for the city with the Eiffel Tower visible to the left and the Arc de Triomphe visible at the end of the tree lined grand concourse.
I arrived in the early morning at the Louvre to find a short quickly moving que of visitors. Once inside the Louvre, visitors can purchase tickets, check bags and even have a quick snack at a coffee shop inside the Louvre before starting their visit inside one of the galleries. I built an entire day around my visit to the Louvre.
Entrance fees to the museums and monuments were somewhat reasonable in comparison to admission fees charged in other cities. The tickets also make for nice souvenirs with specific museum designs on the face of the ticket, and all the same size tickets so as to make a nice matching set for insatiable collectors and hoarders of tacky tourist nick knacks by the end of the visit to Paris.
Paris has cleverly coordinated the museums. The Louvre exhibits everything up to 1850. Then artwork post 1850 is showcased at the D’Orsay Museum just on the other side of the Seine on the Left Bank. And while the D’Orsay Museum does have a few art pieces by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, the largest number of his pieces are at the Rodin Museum just a few Parisian city blocks away from the D’Orsay.
Visitors can spend several hours – perhaps as many as five hours in the Louvre until your feet and legs give way while wondering the five levels. You can take coffee and lunch breaks at the cafeterias inside the Louvre and then head back into the galleries.
I enjoyed the Greek Antiquities, the sculptures of Europe and the paintings of Northern Europe, Italy and France.
I particularly enjoyed viewing the sculpture of Venus de Milo, the painting Liberty Leading the People and the paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in the hall showcasing the Mona Lisa. The display of French sculptures is also a beautiful showcase of national pride in an open courtyard as opposed to hiding them a bit in a walled gallery.
I had viewed the Mona Lisa many years ago, and I did want a second look at her, although I went into the gallery partly to witness first-hand the fanatical crowds taking selfies in front of the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece completed in 1517. The French Republic has owned the Mona Lisa since 1797.
I looked out into the courtyard from inside the Louvre after mid-day and witnessed a lineup about an hour long that did not seem to be moving at all.
I had a pint of beer and a relaxing moment of contemplation at a restaurant just outside the Louvre during happy hour – taking a moment out of the end of the day to absorb the experience of long walks through the hallways of art history.
The longest lineup that I experienced was at the Versailles Palace, as several of the largest tour buses ever made shuttle hundreds and thousands of people at one time to and from the site throughout the day. The Palace hosts 10 million visits per year with about 28,000 visits per day, and about 5,000 people in the line-up at any one time.
Versailles lets in about 100 visitors at one time, but the hallways were still overcrowded, particularly the Hall of Mirrors with the crystal chandeliers. The Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I was signed in the Hall of Mirrors in 1919.
I had successfully taken the Metro from my stay at a private apartment in Saint Denis all the way to Versailles. I had imagined that the palace was on an estate off into the landscape, but the former royal residence is within walking distance of the town of Versailles. The town has grocery stores and retail shops as well as restaurants and an open food market in the morning. Paris has a number of open public markets.
Versailles is particularly famous for being the last residence of royalty before the French Revolution ended the divine right of kings and queens. The revolutionaries installed a democratic government in the form of a republic. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were taken from the palace to the guillotine as the First Republic was formed to end monarchical rule in France.
Inside Versailles, visitors can walk the palace corridors and mill about the public halls, as well as go inside the private chambers within the palace.
Visitors have a choice whether to purchase a ticket just for the palace or for the palace and the gardens. The Versailles Gardens are an elaborate diversion from the museum crowds. Visitors can stop for a snack at a small cafeteria under a treed canopy to the side of the gardens. Restaurants in treed areas near venues are common sights in Paris.
The Estate of Marie Antoinette adjoins the Versailles Gardens. People can access the estate for free as a public park that features the famous, large rectangular artificial lake beside which people are free to picnic. People can also rent small row boats to go out and relax on the water. Versailles Garden visitors can enter the estate, but they must hold on to their tickets for reentry into the Gardens.
I did some window shopping on the way back to the train station. I purchased a small kitchen chopping block, a small rolling pin and a tasting spoon all made of ash wood, and a bar of sandalwood soap, all made in Denmark.
I set an entire next day aside for the Rodin Museum and the Museum D’Orsay.
The Rodin Museum was wonderful, displaying many of the most famous bronzes and marble creations of the French sculptor. The museum has just two floors, but the building is also surrounded by a courtyard and garden featuring many of Rodin’s sculptures. A bronze of the Gates of Hell is displayed outside, as is a bronze of Balzac and a Monument to Victor Hugo.
The museum has set aside a gallery room for sculptor Camille Claudel. Initially one of Rodin’s muses, Claudel became somewhat successful developing her own style, particularly miniature sculptures, although she was never held to the same critical acclaim and commercial success as Rodin.
The museum is rather small on two floors, but each small gallery room has over a dozen art pieces. The outdoor sculpture garden has over a dozen pieces as well. Museums around the world have purchased Rodin pieces, but here in Paris, where the sculptor worked, a large collection is on display.
I took a short break for lunch at the Rodin Museum garden café before heading to the Museum D’Orsay in the afternoon.
The Museum D’Orsay had a relatively short 30 minute line-up. The huge museum with a French collection that begins where the Louvre ends – about 1850 to 1914 – is housed inside a former railway station. The museum maintained the Beaux-Arts architectural masterpiece with the open air vaulted ceiling and the giant clock windows overlooking Paris.
Visitors enter and leave small adjoining gallery rooms that each exhibit several art pieces. Each of the first two levels have several small gallery rooms that adjoin an open gallery space with sculpture gardens on the main floor and also on the second floor.
Galleries on the fifth floor exhibit the impressionist artwork of Cezanne, Degas, Monet and Renoir, as well as the post-Impressionists work of Bernard and Van Gogh. Similarly to Rodin sculptures, art pieces by these artists have been zealously acquired by other museums around the world, such as the Chicago Art Institute. But viewing these artworks in the context of a visit to Paris takes on special meaning.
This wonderful rich collection requires several hours to appreciate. The number of pieces and rooms with different art influences can be overwhelming if taken in too quickly.
I would have preferred to spend the entire day at D’Orsay, but I had left the visit to the afternoon.
I was also physically exhausted after several days meandering around the streets of Paris and spending several hours in each museum. I decided to have a more relaxing next day, particularly with the difficulty in travelling that was required to reach the Pere Lachaise Cemetery located slightly away from the other Paris points of interest. I had to make four transfers on the metro. The Pere Lachaise station though exited at the cemetery’s side entrance.
Visitors require a map of the cemetery, even if you know which tombs to visit. The entire 150 acres is organized in several distinct sections with multiple intertwining pathways. If you cannot get a map, there is a sign just inside one of the gates with a map and a numbered list of prominent burials. The numbered burials are in black circles on the map (not to be confused with the numbered sections of the cemetery). I took a photo with my iPhone of the map and then another photo of the numbered list of burials. By cross referencing the two images, I was able to find the grave sites of French singer Edith Piaf (1915 – 1963), Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Polish composer Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), French novelist Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) and American singer, song writer Jim Morrison (1943-1971).
If you like a day full of somber contemplative moments, the Pere Lachaise Cemetery is a place of such thoughts with thousands of ornate tombs as well as more modest burials.
Oscar Wilde’s tomb is protected by a glass barrier. Jim Morrison’s grave site, crammed in between several burials, has been given up on after being vandalized several times over the years.
I spent a few hours at Pere Lachaise. I then did some shopping in the nearby retail stores. I bought an éclair for 3.50 € that didn’t seem worth that much, although the sweet snack full of cream carried me over until dinner. I stopped in a grocery store to buy a bottle of French red wine and a small wheel of cheese for a dinner appetizer.
The French Bourgelais and Cabernet Sauvignon wine are very good even from a small corner grocer. The prices are obviously much cheaper in Paris without the import duties and local sales taxes charged in North America. By the way, prices in Paris are as marked without a sales tax added on at the cashier, which often makes for easy transactions of round figures such as 25 € ending up as 25 €, as opposed to 25 € plus sales tax.
I went twice to each of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre Gardens and the Notre Dame Cathedral during my visit, partly visiting a second time to more thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere without the hectic need to check off the tourist attraction before the end of the trip.
The Notre Dame Cathedral has a metro station just across the bridge. Although visitors cannot enter the Cathedral because of the famous 2019 fire, visitors can walk around the Cathedral. As well, like several of the monuments and museums, Notre Dame is surrounded by a vibrant district of restaurants and cafes, and retail stores. And quite often in Paris, another tourist site, ah, I mean, historical monument is nearby.
I had breakfast just off the main site on a side street. I ordered a mushroom omelet, which came with a garden salad. I enjoyed the bustling atmosphere although obviously driven by a constant stream of tourists coming and going to the site as a tour bus stop was just off to the side, with tour buses coming and going every ten minutes or so. The restaurant breakfast was a bit more expensive, but a nice change from the baguette sandwiches I had bought from a shop in Saint Denis as I was leaving for Paris the first few days.
I noticed that Paris has at least one franchise Patisserie, Paul’s. Paul’s can be found at the Metro Stations as well as in some of the public gardens. There was one small Paul’s park vendor near a fountain on the way to the Place de la Concorde. The Paul’s at the Gard de Nord had a combination special that included a baguette sandwich, a pastry and a drink.
Notre Dame is on an island in the Seine. Visitors can spend several hours walking in the area and along the Seine at street level, and also along the river level. Couples and groups of friends picnic along the river edge with picnic baskets of food and open bottles of wine interspersed reasonably apart to allow for some private conversations.
The Siene River begins northwest of Dijon, and then runs through Paris to the English Channel, maintaining an integral part of life in Paris. The Siene River corridor also has a multi-use trail that people use for running and cycling, although the river level path is occasionally abruptly interrupted by a staircase to the street level. Large sightseeing tourist boats are continually passing by on the Seine.
Visitors can walk at street level and also walk at the river level under many of the 37 bridges joining the Left Bank and the Right Bank within Paris.
In the late afternoon, I ended up at the Arc de Triomphe, again. I meandered up and down the Champs Elysees as well as a number of nearby side streets. This tourist area overflows into a number of nearby city blocks with restaurants and retail stores, perhaps for tourists looking for that perfect Parisian gift to take home and for one last Parisian meal at a French bistro.
I wondered around a bit before deciding on a bistro to enjoy the French cuisine. I had roast beef with sauce at the General Café. The entree came with a small garden salad and French fries. I also ordered a large pint of white beer.
I then meandered around a bit more doing window shopping and more waiting for the Golden Hour to hit the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc De Triomphe is surrounded by a several lanes of a traffic circle, but visitors can take a short underground passageway that leads to the center of the monument. Similarly, to the Eiffel Tower, which is now surrounded by a glass barrier, visitors can purchase tickets to go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and enjoy the panoramic views of Paris. The Eiffel Tower sells tickets for three different levels of viewing platforms with an elevator that takes people to the very top of the Tower.
Paris seems a bit overrun by tourists, although the city is so well set up for a large number of temporary visitors, and the places are so grand, that Paris is to France what Paris is to the world.
Parisians like their sweet cakes and pastries, and almost seem insulted if you do not order a desert and coffee after a meal. I got in this habit as I have a sweet tooth anyway. The pastry shops wrap the cakes in just enough packaging, using a thin decorative pastry paper, and then twisting and tying the paper ends to make a paper box the shape of the pastry.
I gradually unwrapped my deserts while thinking of the poor starving Parisians on the eve of the French Revolution when Maria Antoinette uttered those words, ‘Let them eat cake.’ The desserts are a bit pricey, but proportionately delicious, although I found purchasing a small cookie inside a metro station a bit expensive at 1.80 €.
Visitors from North America to Europe must consider purchasing an electricity converter because of the difference in electrical currents for small appliances. I managed to charge up the iPhone battery and Mac Airbook battery by just using a small adapter that fit over the charging cable plugs.
However, I did have to buy different adaptors. The adaptor I purchased before leaving for Paris did not fit in the electrical outlet. I then had to shop for the correct adaptor in Paris with my very limited French. I of course initially purchased the wrong adaptor at an electronics store, not knowing any better as the product was concealed in packaging, before finding the correct adapter from an illegal street vendor at the Saint Denis train station.
Apparently the full-time electrician had a day off when the apartment building was built.
Parisians are very friendly and accommodating, almost embracing the tourist industry after not having much choice about the intrusion for decades.
Parisians are also open to offering assistance, although you have to ask for help. I asked for help inside the metro stations and trains, at the museums and monuments over a dozen times, and I always received some advice, sometimes just a nod or a shake of the head, and sometimes someone who spoke English would volunteer advice after overhearing the conversation taking place in broken French and broken English.
Official metro help staff within the metro are often within sight. And again, at least one metro staff that speaks English is nearby.
Apart from metro travelers having to open the train doors themselves, the other glitch is that sometimes the ticket carousels will beep you through, but the panel gates will not flip open as they more often than not do. The panel gates should open with just a light push if you have properly scanned your metro pass. If they do not open, then try scanning your pass again.
And, as in all your travels, have a combination of payment methods, especially some Euro cash on hand for when card payments are not accepted. I had enough euros in pocket to cover most expenses, and then a major credit card to round out the charges and for emergency cash advances, should the need ever have arisen.
In the evening in Paris, after dinner back at my accommodation, I was able to use the free Wi-Fi and watch movies with my Netflix subscription, which allowed access to French Netflix, a few moments relaxing with French cheese, wine and deserts that taste much better and are less expensive from a grocery store in Paris than from a North American supermarket.
