(26th October) I’m up late tonight as I’m trying to make it a habit of switching our washing on at 11:30pm to cash in on the lower rates for electricity. We’ve been getting ready for our move over the month and I just discovered how to read the meter for electricity. In the past the electric company have been making estimates for our usage, but since I gave them an accurate reading we have been shocked at just how much more we consume. So now I’m trying to do the big stuff when it is being charged at a lower rate. Fun stuff aye?
Last Tuesday evening, Logan; an old friend from high-school years; came to stay with Bodra and I. On Wednesday I showed him around all the fabulous sights of Reading (a couple of pubs, the high street and the river) and on Thursday our trio escaped to Paris! We caught the Eurostar from St Pancras Station in London- a mostly efficient and relatively comfortable journey, but I really wish they would make the tunnel more picturesque. Surely the tunnel walls could be a good environment to set up some kind of hypno-therapeutic projection- subliminal images of Eiffel Tower trinkets perhaps, to boost the Algerians peddling profits?
There is a spider racing along the edge of the carpet by the wall near me. I spied it earlier this evening whilst we were watching ‘Dexter’. They are such industrious creatures… but I really do hope it won’t intrude our room tonight as we sleep. It is said you will swallow a spider at least once in your life during your sleep, although I don’t have any fear of being the victim as Bodra is the one who always has his mouth wide open. Being a bigger person I guess his nostrils are ineffective in drawing enough oxygen to keep him going at night. I would put the spider outside, if only that meant not having it in close proximity to my skin. It is getting colder too and I wouldn’t want the spider catching a cold.
Once at Gare du Nord, Bodra and Logan tackled sussing out getting to the correct Metro station, which involved a really, really long walk on multiple levels, through many ticket-checking-gates and up and down many flights of stairs. Luckily the station wasn’t terribly crowded so it wasn’t too stressful of a transition. Of course, whilst waiting for the boys to suss our metro tickets, I was approached by one of those gypsy women so commonly found in these European cities. She asked if I spoke English and then held up a paper with a hand-written paragraph. I smiled politely and shook my head, then made my eyes hard as I cut her off with “Not interested.” Bodra and I recently watched a documentary about Romanian Gypsy’s and as harsh as this may seem I truly have no sympathy. It is a vile way of bringing a family up, and there are always other options. I won’t ever affirm blatant begging as a possible choice. Busking on the other hand- definitely! Everyone can do something to entertain another human being.
After a smooth ride on the metro we were at Pigalle station and soon found our hotel- Victor Masse. We checked in then squeezed into an anorexic lift to get to our room on the sixth floor- top floor! The lift only went as far as the fifth, so we endured a little bit of luggage-dragging again. Our room proved to be very basic but clean, with three teeny single beds lined up against one wall, and a fair sized bathroom with suspect-coloured water. From our windows which we could fully open out, we could see across roof tops and down into the alley behind the hotel.
We set-off to explore the Montmartre (Mount of Martyrs) area, passing cafes, bars and parlours. I noticed a sign saying ‘Butte Montmartre’ so I thought we should follow that. Shortly after we learnt that butte means hill. We made our pilgrimage, climbing up dozens of steps (we didn’t notice the funiculaire) but it was worth the work-out as we had reached the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. A lady was singing “I Dreamed a Dream” nearby (not Susan Boyle), with a modest crowd around her. Hundreds of tourists enjoying the views of Paris from the highest point of the city. The basilica is fairly new- built between 1875 and 1919- and is dedicated to the sacred heart of Christ. We wandered into the basilica (yay for free activities) and were amused by the monitors who were sternly telling disobedient tourists to delete their photos of the interior of the basilica and then firmly instructing them to get out. I didn’t dare to take any pictures, this seemed sacrilegious anyway as we were in a holy place and in the presence of nuns.
We continued strolling through the lanes of the old village for a while, soon buzzing over a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in the distance, then passing the small church of St-Pierre, one of the oldest in Paris having been consecrated in 1147. BUT this is not one of those ABC tours! Just near the church is the Place du Tertre, the summit square. Street artists were set-up around the perimeter of the square with their paintings of celebrities (Angelina Jolie appeared to be a favourite) and Parisian scenery on display. Some artists were working on portraits and caricatures of paying tourists.
The rest of our walk took in views of the northwards town St-Denis, past the oldest surviving cabaret in Paris the Lapin Agile/ Agile Rabbit (where artists such as Picasso and Modigliani once went for entertainment- we weren’t all that interested in French songs, poetry and comedy so didn’t take in a show) and the Montmarte vineyard. We began to descend down rue Lepic, passing a restaurant with a massive windmill as it’s symbol. Mills have a place in Montmarte as they were used to grind flour for making bread, or gypsum for the famous plaster of Paris.
It began to drizzle a bit so we it seemed opportune to think about our tummies, finally relenting to pizza at an Italian restaurant. Logan was pretty disatisfied as for some strange reason his pizza came with an egg on the top. But the Peroni beer was cold and tasty.
We made our way down to Place Blanche and the Moulin Rouge was lit up with crowds hanging about outside. At £80 for dinner and a show we didn’t really feel the desire to tick that glitzy activity off, so instead we found a wine shop where Logan bought a cheap bottle of red wine- Bordeaux maybe. We settled ourselves on a park bench on the Boulevard de Clichy and drank out of plastic cups whilst people watching and chatting. Classy!
(Written on the 4th of November) On Friday morning we breakfasted on bread and pastry- baguette, pain au chocolat and apricot. Then we hopped on the Metro towards the 20th arrondissement where Cimetière du Père-Lachaise is located, the largest cemetery (44 hectares) in the city of Paris. This may seem a relatively morbid activity for a tourist, however, the cemetery holds the corpses of numerous famous people from history and the arts. Mostly famous to Parisians, like Héloïse and Pierre Abélard, sweethearts whose love was not accepted and so they were separated only to be reunited in death. Oscar Wilde lies there too, as does Jim Morrison, whom we visited. The cemetery was very peaceful, with lots of walkways and alleys lined with trees, tombs and cenotaphs, some incredibly ostentatious. Stray cats wandered around the area too and I enjoyed a cuddle with a ginger cat.
We continued our journey of the dead by heading back to the Metro and riding over to Denfert-Rochereau station in the 14th arrondissement, where Les Catacombes can be found. There weren’t too many people about and once we finally figured our where the entry was located, a sign on the door stopped us dead in our tracks. The catacombs had been temporarily closed. Apparently someone had entered the catacombs from an archaic tunnel and tipped over numerous stacks of human bones, scattering them so that the path through the tunnels was deemed impassible. They are still closed today. Boo!
As we were nearby, we thought we would stroll over to l’Observatoire, a centre for research in astronomy, but this also turned out to be closed for the day. It just wasn’t our luck! So our next plan was to head for the Luxembourg gardens which thankfully was prepared for our visit. We entered through the relatively small Jardin du Marco Polo which we had mistaken for our destination, but it was still very pleasing with it’s fountain and chest-nut trees.
Luxembourg gardens is a 23-hectare park, backdrop to the Palais du Luxembourg which houses the upper house of French parliament. Logan, Bodra and I wandered through the park, spotting statues of animals, mythological scenes and historically famous French people. The palace has a large pond in front of it, with dozens of people sitting on chairs around the perimeter, reading newspapers and chatting. It would be an ideal place to catch some sun, but for us the skies were concrete-coloured and cloudy.
From the gardens we headed over to the Latin Quarter of Paris, where we found Le Panthéon and were accosted by very willful mute petitioners attempting to raise funds for the deaf. Not far away from Le Panthéon we glanced another view of the Eiffel Tower as we looked down Rue Soufflot. We passed outdoor booksellers as we crossed the Seine river and entered Île de la Cité, where Paris was founded. Soon we stood before the medieval cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris. It took nearly two centuries of construction (from 1160 -1345) before the cathedral was complete. We had a quick peek into the cathedral and then began the hunt for dinner.
Quickly appeased at an Indian restaurant, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. As we queued up we noticed a sign appear telling us that they weren’t selling tickets for the top deck anymore. We hoped this would be a temporary situation so we stayed in the queue and soon rode the lift to the second platform. It was a perfectly timed visit for the tower as we got to see Paris by daylight, and then having queued again for top floor tickets and then the lift, once we had reached the top floor the night sky had settled and all the city lights were on. It’s fantastic having the contrast between day and night, but monuments such as the Arc du Triomphe really do look far more spectacular when lit up.
We didn’t use the stairs at all on the Tower, having spent the majority of the day wandering around. Once we had returned to the ground we found the area had been transformed. The tower was now illuminated and a light-show played out, flashing green, blue, pink, purple lights and beaming search-lights from the tip. Loud, pumping music was being blasted and suddenly we were surrounded by Algerian men shaking Eiffel tower trinkets. It felt like we had entered a festival but they were just trying to sell us souvenirs.
On Saturday morning Bodra and I got on a train and headed out to Epinay-sur-Seine to visit Bodra’s Step-Grandmother, Marie Louise. We walked past homes which appeared to be the inspiration for fairy tales.
Marie-Louise invited us into her home, an apartment in a large block. The surfaces of her living room had piles of books and papers, all easy-to-hand. We settled into lounge-chairs and chatted for over an hour. Marie-Louise told us about her time in England, showing us a calendar her friend had sent her with photographs of various villages. Bodra and I are now encouraged to visit Cheltenham one day. Marie-Louise also told us about her country home in Maignelay, which she hopes to sell as it is rather derelict now.
Bodra and I returned to Paris city centre, and headed for Clichy where Bodra had read about a vegetarian restaurant called “Joy In Food”. Sadly for us the proprietors appear to be lazy hippies as it wasn’t open. So instead we went for a fairly long ramble down all sorts of streets, past open-air food markets and finally giving in to Lebanese. Vegetarian mezze plate is always a welcome meal!
Back to Victor Masse to reconnect with Logan. For the afternoon’s entertainment we decided to take in Paris’s aquatic life at CineAqua which was open until 8pm. The blurb in the lonely planet had described it as ‘phenomenal’ and ‘ambitious’ and I was hoping to see a cuttlefish or leafy sea-dragon again, my highlights from the aquarium in Lisbon. So we caught the Metro over to Trocadéro, to discover that the aquarium was closed! Drat!! But nevermind, we enjoyed more views of the Eiffel Tower from the Palais de Chaillot.
We strolled back along the Seine river, and stumbled upon the Photoquai photo festival- an outdoor photography exhibition. I was particularly moved by Gohar Dashti’s portrayal of a newly married couple in Iran. Daniela Edburg also had an imaginative idea of a candyfloss-like-cloud attack.
Dinner was on our minds again so we headed to St Germain, going past Les Invalides which holds the tomb of Emperor Napoléon. To entertain ourselves along the way we purchased beer and a vinegary-wine from a convenience store and drank along the way. We finally settled for Capracotta, Italian! Bodra introduced Logan to Penne Arabiatta and I enjoyed my mushroom pasta dish. Logan chose a fairly yummy wine for us- a Chianti Classico, 2006 Poggio Ai Mori by San Donatino.
The next morning we wandered over to the Arc de Triomphe, and then returned to CineAqua for a look at the fishies… they had a few species of very vibrant weenie tropical fish but nothing of any special note, definitely not worthy of the adjectives ‘ambitious’ or ‘phenomenal’. Our tummies were really grumbly as we had sadly discovered that supermarkets remained closed on Sunday, indeed, many shops and restaurants appeared to either open much later on in the day or not open at all. We stopped at one cafe along the way but were deeply unimpressed by their extravagant prices for simple crepes and coffee.
We passed the Flame of Liberty, marking the area where Princess Diana died. Someone (Laurent Thiers) had scrawled a message asking for the monument to be removed as it was a symbol of the Illuminati. We caught the Metro over to Opéra station, as the Musée du Parfum Fragonard was nearby, but of course, this was closed! So instead we miserably found ourselves at the American Dream restaurant, garish with it’s zillions of neon-lit signs, cheezy ’80’s glam rock videos and far from decent meal. But it filled the hole.
We plodded back to Pigalle and had a last wander around Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and the surrounding area. The afternoon sun had come out so we sat on steps below Sacré-Cœur and I wrote postcards whilst the fullas enjoyed their cool beer.
So, very happy to have ticked off Paris now. I may return one day- I’d like to do a tour with the impetus of trying to spot as many of the Space Invaders that have been placed around the city, and preferably visiting again in another season. We’d also like to explore other areas of France too, it would be wonderful to go to Maignelay and see Marie-Louise’s country house, and also to see the Agoust Sabot Tomb in Mourmelon-le-Grand. Bodra would like to go across the Millau Bridge which is one of the highest bridges in the world and can leave a driver feeling like they are travelling through the clouds. I’d also like to see the Paleolithic cave paintings in the Lascaux caves. & then we’ve always wanted to do a cycling or walking tour through the countryside too!
Recent Comments