A slow and restful start to the day as the train to Paris did
not leave until midday, and as the Holiday Inn was so comfortable I took
advantage of the late start and the free breakfast to become fat and sassy
before grabbing a cab to the station.
Although we only spent 24 hours in Baden-Baden, they were certainly
memorable as it was a beautiful town.
But that was now behind us and with typical German efficiency,
the train to Mannheim departed right on time and 15 minutes later we were on a
new station waiting for the TGV to arrive.
This train was the world’s fastest around until the Japanese smashed all
records with their Maglev and the conductor was a little saddened when I
mentioned this to him, but he got over it quickly and proudly stated it was
still the fastest train outside of Japan.
And fast it is. One doesn’t
really appreciate just how fast it is but the monitors in the cabins were
showing some pretty incredible numbers up to 320 kph.
The train fairly flew over the border and we watched the
country side pass by while sitting in comfort sipping on the complimentary
beers. Four hours after leaving BB we
arrived at Paris Est station and after being shuffled up and down the taxi
queue we eventually found one that could accept all the baggage plus people and
headed to the Lafayette hotel in the 9th Arrondissement, a shortish
ride but just a bit too far to walk without losing a suitcase wheel on the
way. A quaint hotel, but certainly
comfortable enough. I had forgotten just
how little fun it was to watch BBC News as the only English option but have
noted it is every bit as repetitious as I recall. Just time for a short walk before an evil
gout attack took me out of the game for the rest of the evening…hence my
familiarity with the BBC. I am hoping
things improve rapidly overnight with a battery of drugs sent in the attack the
gout germs.
Arthrexin, the wonder drug, worked its magic overnight and a
sprightly traveller was on the dark streets of Paris at 0545 doing what he does
best…speed touristing.
I had decided to head north to a. find a laverie (laundromat;
as stocks of clean attire was now nil) and b. to visit the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris,
commonly known as Sacré-Cœur is
a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Being on the highest point of the city, this obviously was a
poor choice for me but I soldiered on up stairs reminiscent of Goods Island
back in the battery carrying days and, after stopping at various base camps for
atmosphere acclimatisation I eventually arrived at the top. The panorama was quite superb in the crisp morning
light, but no picture could do justice to Paris laid out below.
As seems to always be the case with this intrepid traveller,
I passed the funicular rail cars on the way down, which would have been quite
handy earlier.
Back to the hotel for an O
Group with the BD’s at which it was decided that outstanding Parisian boxes
must be ticked. I have been to Paris
quite a few times, the first while doing Exercise Longlook in 1993, so many of
the must-sees had already been done.
This time the rest had to happen, for I have no doubt there will not be
another chance. And first on that list
was a date with Mona at the Louvre.
Previously I had no time to wait in the queues because speed tourists
are not good with them, this time…patience.
And so we walked from the 9th Arrondissement to the Ist
and as Paris is a reasonably flat city found the going quick and painless. The crowd at the Louvre had obviously slept
in and therefore saved their arrival for a little later and so entry was pretty
quick. The first port of call was
definitely to see the Mona and after numerous encounters with pushy Japanese we
found our way to the barricade in front of this renowned icon of the artistic
world. Now I must stress here that I am
far from being an arty person, but it was just a must see black catter been
there that it had to be done. I had
heard how small the painting was and how underwhelming it was, but I found it a
reasonable size and very well presented. I do find it hard to justify the value
though: “Guinness World Records lists the Mona Lisa as having the
highest insurance value for a painting in history. On permanent display at The
Louvre museum in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on
December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be
around US$780 million in
2015”. Just as ludicrous as soccer player
payments I reckon!
It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne and Van Gogh. It was pretty impressive to see so many famous paintings in one place, but again, I found myself puzzled at just what it is that gets the arty people so excited. Some of the paintings were just rubbish I thought, but I guess someone raved at some time and the rest is history!
It was the seascapes I found the most interesting and Renoir and Monet seemed more in to them than most of the other ‘masters’. I liked Renoir’s Pont des Arts, and Monet’s Le Pont d’Argenteuil and Chasse Marée à l Ancre more than the landscapes, portraits and fruit bowls.
And one more had to get a look-in here,
simply because it was were done by Van Gogh ‘Starry Night over the Rhone’ and
is worth a lot of money.
From the Musee d’Orsay I backtracked to the Notre
Dame de Paris (French for Our Lady of Paris), a Gothic, Catholic cathedral on
the eastern half of the Île de la Cité. Construction began in 1163, during the reign
of Louis VII. The cathedral was
effectively complete by around 1345. Notre
Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying
buttress (arched exterior supports).
There was no sign of Quasimodo, the protagonist in the novel The
Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo, you will recall, was born with a
hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster, but he finds
sanctuary in this church and an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. So romantic!
Sights were coming thick and fast now and I
really loved walking along the path along the Seine. No other river in the world has been the
subject of such poetic fussing, frantic picture-taking, and all-around adoration.
Not far up the track was the Arc de Triomphe du
Carrousel, a triumphal arch located in the Place du Carrousel opposite the
Louvre. It was built between 1806-1808
to commemorate Napoleon's military victories of the previous year.
The next place of interest was the Hôtel de Ville
which houses the City of Paris's administration. It has been the location of the municipality
of Paris since 1357 and serves multiple functions; housing the local
administration, the Mayor of Paris (since 1977), and also serves as a venue for
large receptions.
A little further up the river, heading west is
the Luxor obelisk from the temple of Ramses II at Thebes. It is a 23 metres (75 ft) tall monolith in
pink granite and weighs approximately 230 tonnes. The Luxor Obelisk is over 3,200 years old and
was originally situated outside of Luxor Temple, where its twin remains to this
day.
It first arrived in Paris on December
21, 1833, having been shipped from Luxor via Alexandria and Cherbourg, and
three years later, on October 25, 1836, was moved to the centre of Place de la
Concorde by King Louis-Phillipe. It was
gifted to France by Muhammed Ali, Khedive of Egypt. Missing its original pyramidion (believed
stolen in the 6th century BC), the government of France added a gold-leafed
pyramid cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998.
Never one to spend too much time in one place,
the next venue to peruse was La Conciergerie, a former royal palace and prison. It is part of the larger complex known as the
Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes. Hundreds of prisoners during the French
Revolution were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the guillotine at
a number of locations around Paris.
Famous prisoners include Queen Marie
Antoinette.
Off now to the Military Museum, which I found a
little underwhelming until I got to the crypt of Napoleon Bonaparte. The remains of the emperor, inside the
sarcophagus, are protected by six concentric coffins, built from different
materials, including mahogany, ebony, and oak, all one inside the other.
On May 5th 1821, Napoleon died on
the island of St Helena, where he had been in exile since 1815. His remains rested there until October 15th
1840 when his remains were exhumed and brought to Paris, under the instructions
of Louis-Philippe, who demanded that the English return the emperor to French
soil.
Always a beacon to any traveller in Paris, The Eiffel
Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars. It was named after the engineer Alexandre
Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the
1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading
artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural
icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris
and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended
it in 2014. The tower received its 250
millionth visitor in 2010. The tower is
324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, its base is square, 125 metres (410 ft) on a side.
Having climbed the tower stairs on a previous
visit I knew I would not be repeating that act of stupidity again somy course
was set to the north towards the Arc de Triomphe.
The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, (Arch of
Triumph of the Star) is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles
de Gaulle at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.
It was built to honour 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 its iconographic
program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors
in chain mail. It set the tone for
public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages. The monument stands 50 metres (164 ft) in
height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. I made my way under the road to the base of
the Arch, only a madman would try to cross the roundabout fed by 12
intersecting roads. Ticket bought I
headed inside. I knew there would be a
climb involved but seriously, this place made the Eiffel Tower climb seem not
so bad. Admittedly there are about 700
steps at the tower against 300 here, but a very narrow spiral stair case that
seems to on forever absolutely ripped my legs apart.
In the end it was more pulling myself up by
the hand rails than climbing. I
sometimes need to remind myself I am not the buff trim athlete I was in my
youth!
But the view from the top was well worth the
climb with glorious weather making the often hazy sky clear and bright.
After seeing all there was, it was down the
stairs again, a much less laborious task this time and time to head in the
direction of the hotel. I chose to
detour a little to walk past the Moulin Rouge, a place I really wanted to see
the show at, but the price of tickets is a bit ridiculous so this was as near
as I was prepared to get.Lille next.
