Paris Pot Pourri

We can always tell when it's almost the end of our holiday, not just by looking at the calendar, but also by acknowledging that neither of us wants to write another blog (ever!!).  In light of this, I present the following photos taken during the past few days, as we visited (in order): Saint-Germain, Montmartre, (Including the cemetery) the Paris Opera House and Galeries Lafayette department store. 

Cafe de Flore - wonderful old cafe, great for people-watching.  Traditionally "old school" style.

Debauve & Gallais is the oldest chocolate shop in Paris, opened originally as a pharmacy, at a time when chocolate was considered therapeutic (it still is, by some....).  We bought four tiny chocolates - they were utterly delicious and unlike any chocolate we've ever eaten before.

Photos below were taken in Montmartre, an area of Paris unlike others, in that it has a village-like atmosphere.  Traditionally it is an area inhabited by more Bohemian types - artists and such.  Some know the area as the location of the famous Sacre Coeur Cathedral, from which you can see a fantastic panoramic view of Paris.

The Montmarte cemetery is particularly gloomy - we've chosen to include a photo of a sunny section of the graveyard, rather than the alternative.  It's well-known as the location of many famous graves (philosophers, artists of all kinds and such), but the whole area is not well-tended and even on the bright day we visited, we came away feeling as though it wasn't much to see.  Usually we do find cemeteries quite interesting in their own way.  Not this one.

Photos below were taken today in the splendid Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House).  It has doubtless the most magnificent interior of any building in Paris.

Lastly, the below photo was taken in Galeries Lafayette - an upmarket department store opened in 1912.  Wikipedia records that in 2009 Galeries Lafayette recorded earnings of over one billion euro (AUD$1,458,236,743).  As you can see from the photo, it's a magnificent store, even just to walk around longingly in. 

Paris - But Wait, There's More!

Altogether we're spending ten days in Paris and at first I was worried that we would run out of things to do, but I need not have been concerned.  The problem will be to find enough time to do everything we want to do.

Yesterday was Sunday and despite lots of things being closed, there was plenty to keep us busy.  I think last night was the most tired I've ever been, while travelling. It's important to have a plan for the day, because otherwise you find yourself double-backing and wasting time and energy.  Keep going in one direction, as best you can anyway. 

After a late breakfast in our rented apartment, we walked to Notre Dame.  Although we have no religious interest in visiting that cathedral, I was keen to hear the choir and organ and knew this might be my only chance.  I was not disappointed.  We arrived just a few minutes before the music began and really did find it stirring and emotional to be in that great church on a day of prayer, where there was a choir and literally several hundred people singing in unison to the accompaniment of the echoing organ pipes.  The cathedral can accommodate 6000 worshippers, although it wasn't absolutely full today.

It was time for elevenses after that, so we made our way to Korcarz bakery, an institution in the Jewish area of Paris since 1946 - you can find it in Rue Rosiers.  We visited there last time we were in Paris and we were pleased to be able to fit in a visit again. It's not glamorous, it's homely; the coffee is very good and the pastries delicious - the chocolate shneck (snail) is warm from the oven.  The lovely ladies who work there are friendly and smiley and they are thrilled that we've made a point of coming to their bakery all the way from Melbourne, Australia.

Next, we crossed back over the river to visit the Shoah (Holocaust) Memorial, which was well-worth doing and very interesting indeed.  In 1995 French President Jacques Chirac finally acknowledged France having been complicit with the Nazis in the systematic rounding-up and subsequent transport to extermination camps of French Jews during the Second World War.  The Mémorial de la Shoah displays archived documents and articles in relation to this shameful period of French history.  The museum is free to visit and it was pleasing to see a lot of people taking the opportunity to discover what was hidden for far too long by the government here.

The magnificent two kilometre Champs-Élysées designer shopping strip was next on our agenda, although only to join the thousands of people strolling the area at a leisurely pace, in gorgeous Parisian sunshine.  Our true destination was really the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the street.  Last time in Paris we didn't climb to the top, but this time decided it might be the last time we have a chance, so we should do it!  Given that the day was so clear and bright, the photographic opportunity was hard to overlook.

Paris - the Next Few Days

We're being lazy, I know, not blogging each day and just wrapping everything together in a post or two.  To be perfectly honest, we're so tired at the end of each day that it's all we can do to download our photos to our iPads (for safety sake, in case our cameras go missing, or something happens to the cards) before falling almost deliriously exhausted into bed and sleep - restful, wonderful sleep before the next day and more exploring begins! 

On Friday we were booked into a "Parisian Market Experience" tour with a young woman who's actually a food journalist in Paris - it was quite good, but we probably could have done it on our own.  We were guided around an open-air market and offered vast quantities of crisp baguettes, cheeses and sliced meats before rounding off the tour with a visit to a local bar for a glass of wine and fond farewell.  

It was then on to an old favourite, the Musee D'Orsay, where we spent many happy hours on a previous trip to Paris, and again on this occasion. The museum building itself is stunning, having at one time been a major rail station in Paris, and is now converted into one of the finest art museums in Europe. 

Now, gratuitously included, is one of my absolute favourite paintings by Eduard Manet.

Having seen some interesting glimpses of the Marais district on Thursday, we decided to revisit that delightful area again on Saturday, starting with a quick stop-in at the Uniqlo store.  Of course we have Uniqlo at home in Melbourne and we've been to their store in Tokyo (amazing!!) but the brand new Paris store is housed in a fascinating mid-19th century former foundry - the designers have retained the original foundry's massive 35 metre red brick chimney and the underground machinery is still visible through a glass floor. It was worth visiting for the site alone, regardless of the merchandise.

We then trawled through some very interesting vintage-wear shops.  Check out the photos below, paying particular attention to the number of men's tweed hats, the amount of denim and the tartan range!!

Following that we went on to the Les Halles district (1st arrondissement) to explore the magnificent shopping avenue of Montorgueil, which is a wide cobblestoned pedestrian-only zone of some 500 metres where you can wander freely, looking at some really interesting shops, outdoor cafes and (as is our wont) sampling fabulous pastries. We had seen something somewhere mentioning a patisserie called Stohrer, the oldest patisserie in Paris, and there we ate two of the best pastries we will probably ever eat in our lives. Never to be forgotten, that's for sure.

In the evening we did a river cruise along the Seine which was very relaxing and most importantly dropped us off at our final destination for the day - the Eiffel Tower, where we had a 10:30pm booking for a ride up the elevator to see Paris by night from the second level of that grand old structure.

The yellow "tennis ball" is an advertisement for the tennis tournament currently under way at Roland Garros. 😉

OK, that's enough for one blog post in anyone's language - we had a busy day today, too, but will post about it maybe tomorrow.

Paris - the First Two Days

We arrived on Wednesday evening and haven't stopped moving since then.  Our rental apartment in the Latin Quarter is exactly as advertised (which is always comforting) - three rooms, well appointed, and even two outside areas to sit and contemplate how lucky we feel to be in Paris, again.  Last time we were here for a fairly quick visit of five days,  so it's good to be more relaxed this time.  Having said that, we pre-organised lots of things to do and have hit the ground running.

Wednesday evening after having a quick tour of the apartment, we immediately locked the door behind us and went to sit in an outdoor bar for wine, cheese and charcuterie.  After a couple of hours of soaking up some warmth (it had been very cold in Copenhagen, but we arrived to high 20s here), we followed our wine and cheese with a wander down the gorgeous Mouffetard, lined with small restaurants and lively outdoor cafes, indulging in a couple of traditional crepes with Nutella and sliced banana.  Crazy.  We rolled home and fell asleep within minutes, ready for our first real day in Paris.

Yesterday was Day One. A visit to the ever-spectacular Notre Dame Cathedral (and a side-trip to the utterly superb stained glass windows of the two-level Sainte Chapelle) was followed by a very sobering experience.  While tens of thousands of tourists are crawling through the cathedral, tucked away behind it is the Mémorial des Martyres de la Déportation - a tribute to the 200,000 Jewish people (a huge proportion of them children) deported to concentration camps from Vichy France.  It is an underground memorial, stark and haunting, a place for tears and quiet contemplation, reminding us of one of the darkest episodes in human history.  

Above are photos of Notre Dame, including one of the magnificent rose windows.

Photos cannot do justice to the magnificence of the stained glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle chapel.  Coming up the stairs from the ground floor to the upper level totally took our breath away.

Below are two photos from the memorial to the Jews deported to Auschwitz and other camps during the Second World War. In the second photo can be seen 200,000 glass beads lining the walls of a section of the memorial.

In the afternoon we did a walking tour of the Marais district.  It's an area which fell out of favour during the 1960s when no-one was interested in living there, and is now seriously hot real estate property that's impossible to buy into.  The tour was run by a company called Paris Walks - appealingly, you don't have to book and the tours are on a rotation schedule throughout the week, so if it's Thursday afternoon, it's the Marais.  Inexpensive at €12, English-only and filled with humour and anecdotes about the area.  We might do another one of the Latin Quarter on Sunday.

We rested briefly at home after that, in preparation for our very special evening out - dinner at Le Train Bleu.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves, now.