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Paris 2012 |
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I have been to Paris numerous times before, but never really felt like I had time to wander around and explore on my own since I was always with other people. Activities ranged from sappy pseudo-romantic stuff like going up the Eiffel Tower at dusk with a bloke (no, mercifully no proposal was forthcoming) via visiting an exhibition on pirates at the Maritime Museum to spending a day at Euro Disneyland along with watching musicals (well, French spectacles) in the evenings, shopping raids at FNAC and a trip to Versailles. The tipping point for me was a business trip last year where I only caught glimpses of central Paris from the window of a taxi as we drove from a southern suburb back to the Gare du Nord along the Seine and through the bustle of the city. Wanting to get out of Cologne for carnival this year, I decided to hop on a Thalys and finally spend one or two days just wandering about Paris on my own. And wander I did:
From the Gare du Nord, where my beloved Thalys trains arrive (what a difference indeed to Thai Snailways!), I first went to my hotel which happened to be around the corner from the old opera, the gorgeous Palais Garnier, where a certain phantom was supposed to live. From here I first wandered east to the Place de la Republique where I saw the French version of Mel Brooks' musical "Young Frankenstein", which hasn't made it anywhere else in Europe and where I could just about catch the very last performance at the lovely ancient Theatre Dejazet, a crumbly small theatre in the style of a typical Parisian music hall. After the show I took the metro to the Place de l'Etoile for a long walk along Champs Elysees. As you can see I started in broad daylight and it was pitch-dark by the time I reached the Place de la Concorde :)
The real big walk started next morning though as I walked from the hotel past the opera to the Louvre and crossed the Seine on Pont Neuf to get to the Ile de la Cite and my beloved Notre Dame:
I don't know what it is about this church, but it definitely has a very special atmosphere and on this early Monday morning it wasn't half as crowded as usual - mercifully. And the morning sun from the east lit the gorgeous windows in a way that I could even try to take photos of them without being allowed to use a flash:
I had first planned to go up the tower and hang out with Quasimodo and his gargoyles, but the queue was long at 10am already, it cost 8.50 Euro to go up and the top (from which I hoped to have a great view) was closed till the afternoon. So instead I just headed on to the left bank of the Seine, the famous "Rive Gauche" onto which I have never been able to set foot before.
One particular wish of mine had been to see the Jardins du Luxembourg, where people in every book and every film set in Paris seem to stroll. It wasn't too pretty in February, but still very nice to see and the sun was warm enough to just spend half an hour sitting and taking a rest, before I wandered on, along the Boulevard Saint-Germain where the Parisian literary elite used to hang around places like the Cafe de Flore and the Deux Magots (both of which, not surprisingly, are now overpriced tourist traps).
I also passed the church Saint Sulpice that draws the fans of Dan Brown's conspiracy novels like a honey pot draws flies now, the Musee d'Orsay (closed on Mondays, not that I had planned to visit) and the pretty Pont Alexandre III. that connects Champs ElysÂes to Invalides with its monumental dome under which the great Napoleon I. has been laid to rest.
No Paris photo report is complete without the fella above right of course. I crossed the Seine on the Pont d'Alma where the gilded torch above the tunnel entrance has been set up as a memorial to Lady Diana who came to grief here in 1996. Finally I wandered up super-posh Avenue Montaigne with its designer shops back to Champs Elysees and my hotel, where I collapsed for an afternoon nap.
The evening was spent at the Palais des Sports outside the city by the Porte de Versailles, where I saw the latest French spectacle, "Adam et Eve - la seconde chance" by Pascal Obispo (who just so happened to sit in front of me!) and which was just as crazy and fun as the other shows that the French have come up with and that have little to do with the musicals we know from London and Broadway (where else do you see aerial acrobatics or one of the female leads perform a pole dancing number?).
Next morning I started on another wander, this one taking me up Montmartre first, which was also just a 15-20 Minute walk away from my perfectly located hotel:
Above is pretty Sacre Coeur in the morning sun and the Place du Tertre, Montmartre's biggest tourist trap in the quiet morning hour before it gets crowded with second-rate artists ripping tourists off. And below is the (not quite that awesome) view from Montmartre over the roofs of Paris:
Now I have to admit to cheating and actually took the metro from Montmartre to the Place de la Bastille, from where I walked to the Place des Vosges, which must be the prettiest square of Paris:
Victor Hugo used to live here and his house is now a free (small) museum, so I decided to go and take a look how the great man lived. He certainly had a lovely view over the Place des Vosges!
The last leg of my long march took me through the Marais to the Hotel de Ville and past the ugly Centre Pompidou to Les Halles, where I stocked up on stuff at FNAC before finally returning to my hotel to pick up my baggage and head on to the Gare du Nord. While all the walking left me with sore legs for the rest of the week, it certainly was worth it as I feel like I now got a far better sense of the city after exploring it all on foot and in my own time.
