Paris: Always a good idea!

...... And what the heck, it is only money!

Paris has a certain charm, atmosphere, and yes a buzz!

You feel it in the sidewalk cafés, the little gardens that they integrate everywhere, the art that hits you in the eye at every turn and then, the language... So easy to pick up, but so hard to master.

 

Art, architecture, beauty and the language.

 

We spent a sunny afternoon travelling through leafy suburbs by boat including passing throughout four double locks that climb 24 metres. The St Denis canal takes you from the Seine in Central Paris, to the boundary of Paris, and beyond if you have time.

Another afternoon we walked thru the Luxemburg Gardens, and stoped to watch a game of Pétanque, while consuming a couple of pastries. Pétanque is a form of boules where players throw hollow metal balls. We have watched it a number of times over the years and the passion for the game shows no signs of diminishing.

The French once fretted that Amercian culture and the English language would weeken them, but things French remain strong.

 

In addition to the visible good including this water-fountain in a park, there are the strong and weak minorities. The little patisserie in the 1st arrondissement "Jewish area" was overtly Jewish. The old lady sleeping and begging with her dog reminded me of Ralph McTell's classic; "The Streets of London"...

" Have you seen the old girl ....

Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?

.... She just keeps right on walking

Carrying her home in two carrier bags."

We have seen many people begging in the streets of Lisbon, Madrid, Bordeaux, Paris and Vilinus.

 

We found a new gem close to our hotel in Paris; Saint-Eustache. A chapel has been on the site since Les Halles was a walled town close to Paris, but the cathedral didn't appear until the 16th Century; photo left top. (The famous Basilica of the Sacré Cœur from Museum d'Orsay is left bottom.)

The church has a Gothic structure with Renaissance detail. The church follows a ground plan similar to that of the Notre-Dame Cathedral with a nave of five bays and a choir aisle with 24 chapels. It is somewhat shorter and narrower, which highlights the similar height of the nave. (length at 105m, but its interior is 33.45m high to the vaulting). From the outside the flying buttresses are prominent features.

The organ in the sanctuary is the largest pipe organ in France, boasting some 8,000 pipes. We were fortunate that a young and obviously very talented organist was practicing with a tutor when we visited. The sound is immense! I believe that there are frequent organ and choral recitals and concerts.

A number of areas show the need for maintenance. After a day of showers the north aisle had water on the floor and signs of a leaking ceiling. Maybe this cathedral will have to await completion of the significant work we saw at Saint Chapelle and at Chartres.

The most impressive chapel in the cathedral contains the tomb of a politician, not a religious figure. A tomb designed by Le Brun holds the body of Jean Baptiste Colbert, French minister of Finance to King Louis XIV in the 16th century.

This was my forth visit to the Louvre spread over a 40 year period. As an attraction it has evolved over time, and any art lover will have an enjoyable day, or more! However as a top attraction it must accommodate more than art lovers. So here are my tips for first timers.

We made the mistake of not booking on line in advance, so although we arrived 45min after opening, we had a 2hr queue in the rain. (Pre-booked including package tours have a priority line; they probably have another 4 attractions to 'tick off' in the day.)

At lunch we had a 50min queue to buy lunch; at Museum d'Orsay on a "free day" a meals was quickly obtained.

We didn't expect to get close to the Mona Lisa, or Venus; they have become a cult thing.. But there is so much quality art to see, it doesn't matter.

We visited the Islamic art section. It is a newer section, top class and was not as crowded.

 

Venus de Milo; not too bad for a girl who needs a hand! The outdoor statue gallery (left, top) and a collection of French imperial clocks.

 

 

The Musée d'Orsay (our favourite Paris museum) is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay (railway station) and opened as a museum in 1986. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh.

The first time I visited Paris (1974), this collection was held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume.

The station is a riveted steel beam structure; the rivets blend beautifully into the new structure.

 

The Sainte-Chapelle or 'Holy Chapel', in the courtyard of the royal palace on the Île de la Cité (now part of a later administrative complex known as La Conciergerie), was built to house Louis IX's collection of relics of Christ, which included the Crown of Thorns, the Image of Edessa and some thirty other items. Louis purchased his Passion relics from Baldwin II, the Latin emperor at Constantinople, for the sum of 135,000 livres, though this money was actually paid to the Venetians, to whom the relics had been pawned. The relics arrived in Paris in August 1239 from Venice.

The relics were stored in a large and elaborate silver chest, the Grand-Chasse, on which Louis spent a further 100,000 livres. The entire chapel, by contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build and glaze.

In 1246, fragments of the True Cross and the Holy Lance were added to Louis' collection, along with other relics. The chapel was consecrated on 26 April 1248 and Louis' relics were moved to their new home with great ceremony.

Unfortunately many of the relics were destroyed during the French Revilution.