Intro
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Arrival Champs-Élysées
Notre Dame St-Eustache/Forum
des Halles
Arrival
We arrived in Paris Saturday afternoon about 3:00—after
being awake about 23 hours. We
were exhausted. We’d had a
layover in Schipol, where we’d shopped for Dutch foods and eaten simply
to keep ourselves awake.
After arriving at Charles de Gaulle, we took an Air France bus to the
Arc de Triomphe [right], which was an easy, convenient way to travel. Then
a short walk led to Patrick’s apartment, 8 Rue Balzac, just off the
Champs-Élysées.
His building has an old-fashioned, open-caged elevator that rises up
the center of the structure. You
open its double doors yourself and close them behind you before the
elevator will operate, but that can be tricky as there is only room, at
most, for three standard-sized people. Our luggage barely fit with one,
and we had to make several trips to get it all to the seventh floor.
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After dragging in
and conversing briefly with Patrick, we nearly fell into bed for a two-hour nap. Slightly
refreshed, we then dressed for dinner and went to a new trendy restaurant, Au
Coin de la Rue.
The atmosphere was futuristic, with walls that looked like
they’d been papered in tin foil [left], brushed steel table tops, neon
lights, and an open pyramid fireplace with a real wood fire.
The meal was tasty and artistically presented but maintained the French inverse
relationship between price and amount of food.
Patrick had invited a friend, Delphine, who had once worked in Atlanta
and spoke English well, and we had a good time.
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Sunday morning, Patrick took us to breakfast at Ladurée,
“Maison fondee en 1862, patissier, chocolatier, confiseur, salon de the,
restaurant,” on the Champs-Élysées. The atmosphere was 19th century, with pink and green-mint
decor, plants in an atrium, white linen tablecloths, and gilding everywhere. We
had wonderful pastries, but the best part was the hot chocolate. Not the watery stuff Americans drink, but melted chocolate
with just enough milk to make it pour.
.... Only sex is better!
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Champs-Élysées/Tuileries/Seine
After breakfast we bade adieu to Patrick, who was off to
Israel, and headed down the Champs-Élysées.
The Saturday morning street was quiet, no traffic [right], just a few
tourists seeking breakfast and occasional shopkeepers sweeping their
storefronts. Perhaps the most magical element of the morning was the
sunshine.
Our visit to Paris in 1999 had been shadowed by gray clouds every day but
one. This trip we would be fortunate to have sun—if not
necessarily warmth—every day!
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With this cheerful beginning, we walked the Champs-Élysées
hand in hand. We felt as if
the avenue had been laid out this morning especially for us!
We passed the Petit Palais, built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900,
and stopped at the Place de la Concord [left], built in 1760, to
admire the 3,200-year-old Luxor obelisk stolen from the Egyptians. Nearby
lay a plaque commemorating the 1793 beheading of Louis XVI and
Marie-Antoinette when the plaza was known as the Place de la Révolution.
(Also guillotined there were 1,117 others.)
We continued on through tall gates to the Jardin des Tuileries,
admiring statues and other modern sculpture, early blooming trees, deep
green lawns. Next we walked through the marble Arc de Triomphe du
Carrousel, built by Napoleon around 1807 as a majestic entrance to the
courtyard of the Palais des Tuileries, and approached the Louvre, queues
already forming for entry.
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Then we turned and walked along the Seine
glistening in the morning sun, the Pont Neuf, and on to Notre Dame. It was the
perfect Paris walk.
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Notre Dame
Standing in line to enter the Notre Dame
towers [right] we listened to the Palm Sunday service and choir through
outdoor speakers. After the service, a procession of clerics in white
vestments and tall mitres wielding 4-foot palm fronds, followed by
hundreds of worshippers, exited through the grand central doors.
We stood in line about an hour to enter the tower.
The climb up a narrow circular staircase to the chimeras gallery,
so-called because of the 19th century gargoyles residing
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The gargoyles sat wicked, brooding, hungry, and watchful
[left, overlooking the Seine].
Some appeared as if they were perfectly capable of waking at night and
flying aloft to terrorize the city. Later, we would buy Cameron a
statuette of the most famous, the stryga, pensively contemplating his
view.
We also visited the belfry of the south tower, where we saw “Emmanuel,
Loduvoc, Marie-Therese,” the cathedral’s largest bell, cast in the
1600s and weighing more than 13 tonnes.
On the way down from the belfry, Jan had a trip-altering mishap. He
held too tightly to a handrail and got a splinter—more accurately
described as a small stick—stuck deep in his hand. Our
story now is that he was trying to smuggle a piece of Notre Dame out of
the country.
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returned home via the subway to try to remove it. Unfortunately,
it was too deep for simple first-aid. Our
guidebook located the nearest emergency room—ironically just around the
corner from Notre Dame [right]—and off we went again.
We spent about 1 1/2 hours in the emergency room—thank goodness Jan’s
French is very good!—during which time they cut open Jan’s finger,
removed the stick, and stitched him back up. Later
we had to visit a pharmacy to pick up bandages and antiseptic that he
would use all week to nurse the wound.
One enlightening part of our unique Paris experience was the cost of
the medical care: 50 euros,
or about $45!
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St-Eustache/Forum
des Halles
After leaving the emergency room, we decided to visit St-Eustache,
a church in the Beaubourg quarter. The church itself was not nearly as
beautiful as others in Paris, but the walk there was interesting. We
enjoyed seeing the Forum des Halles,
whose construction in 1979 controversially replaced a centuries-old fruit
and vegetable market in the shadow of St-Eustache. The nearby park was also lovely, filled with children and
couples enjoying the late afternoon sun. [At right, the sculpture l'Ecoute
by Henri de Miller in front of St-Eustache.]
Next we walked to Pompidou
Center, a building remarkable for both its originality and ugliness;
why Parisians allowed it to be constructed is a mystery. (In return, they
might ask how we ended up with the Experience Music Project building in
Seattle!) We rested inside in the café with a lemonade and strolled the
inner expanse, but we didn’t visit the modern art museum and thus didn’t
have a chance to experience the outer walkways.
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We ended our day by meeting with friends Kim and Mark
Mathis, coincidentally also staying in Paris, for dinner at the adequate but
overpriced Le Castiglione Café near the Louvre. It was not only fun to trade
sightseeing notes and hear their Paris stories, but a relief to communicate
easily in English.
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