Tag: paris

Paris 4

Paris 4, January 2026

Our final day in this lovely part of a lovely city (sad face). The rain we experienced yesterday morning had blown over and though it was cloudy and more was forecast, we entered the day with hope for a walk before heading to Gare du Nord for the train back to London and on to St Leonards.

After breakfasting in the hotel, packing up and farewelling our small but perfectly formed room we headed out the door for our final stroll up and down the hill that is Montmartre. There are so many different options to take, narrow cobbled streets and steep steps are everywhere, there is almost no need to repeat a previous walk. I just love a steep narrow cobbled street, or any combination of two of those things, especially when nestled in between tall houses that have seen a lot more history than I have.

Our main objective today was to visit the Musée de Montmartre. On the second floor is a recreation of the studio and home of the artist Suzanne Valadon, who lived in the building with her husband and son from 1912.

Valadon was well known in Montmartre, as a model (for Renoir among others), a muse, a lover and eventually as the great artist she was.

We didn’t know too much about her life or art until I read a Substack essay just before we came here. After a tough childhood in the late 1890s, from early life in rural France to desperate poverty in Paris, she lived an amazing and full life. Starting as an acrobat and street performer and then artist’s model when Montmartre was almost the centre of the artistic world, with so many (today anyway) well known artists living in this small enclave. Artists like Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec (who named her Suzanne), Van Gough, Degas, Utrillo (her husband) and Picasso all lived in the area at the same time.

We were interested to see some of her work.

We arrived at the museum a little early and were bemused at the couple of people waiting outside to go in, especially after the size of the queue at the LVF On Monday which had hundreds of people. I preferred this one to be fair.

The museum was OK, there wasn’t a lot to see that particularly interested me until we got to the Valadon rooms. These few small rooms have been designed to represent what life was like for her one hundred or so years ago.

Her paintings adorn some of the walls in this tiny apartment.

The studio was fabulous, with wonderful light and deep shadows. I love looking at how creative people work(ed), it’s slightly less interesting now, with so much work done on computers; often with ginormous monitors. Perhaps I should recreate a classic ‘creative’ space and that would inspire me to be a better writer, photographer or something else. Maybe not, I’m not so big on clutter.

Then, merde!

It was time to collect our bags and walk back down the hill of Montmartre to get the metro to Gare du Nord, the Eurostar to St Pancras, the Northern Line Tube to London Bridge and the train back to St Leonards and home.

I LOVED Montmartre 🙂

Paris 3

Paris 3, January 2026

As expected, the day dawned with rain outside the window, not too heavy but not too light either. Enough to dampen the sound of the street outside our first-floor window waking up and obscure the window of the yet to be open record shop opposite. There was no pre-breakfast walk this morning, or even a particular rush to get out of the door.

We had tickets booked for 11am at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs to visit the ‘100 years of art deco’ exhibition. We walked in the rain to the nearby Abbesses Metro station, taking in cobbled streets of Montmartre we hadn’t set on before.  The seats on the platform of Abbesses station, and some of the others we had seen on the green line, were very chic. So Paris, some might say. The Metro has been very easy to use, other than the very narrow barriers making life difficult for someone with a wide backpack – like me.

We arrived before the museum opened and sheltered for a while over coffee in a Starbucks over the road. Their coffee is still too milky for my more austere taste. With a couple of minutes before opening, we crossed back over and joined the short, but growing queue.

The exhibition was interesting, I was hoping for more architecture, and it was quite small, the focus being more on art deco era jewellery and homeware rather than buildings. The clue was in the name of the museum ‘decorative arts’. I enjoyed it nonetheless, especially the travel posters, some of which would look great on my wall.

The museum was next door to the much better known Louvre. Last time I was in in Paris we queued for ages to get in and it was very busy. I think it’s even busier now, but not on a rainy Tuesday in March.  While there were a few people about, and there has been plenty of selective photography and cropping in the edit, I was surprised (pleasantly) how deserted it all was at not far off midday. Pro tip; go to Paris in the rain.

We had no intention of going into the Louvre, we’ve both been before, and nor did we have any intention of going into Notre-Dame either, though that was our next destination.

Walking along an almost deserted Seine riverbank in the rain was very enjoyable, Paris, as so many people have said, is a beautiful city. As it wasn’t bombed in the Second World War, the city wasn’t subjected to the random building work that has plagued London ever since. Central Paris has largely retained its mid-1800s Hausmann design to great effect.

The rain started to fall more heavily as we walked over Pont Neuf to Île de la Cité, one of two islands in the River Seine and the location of Notre-Dame. In need of a wee, a sit down, a drink and some lunch we found a café to take shelter in just off the main square by that most famous cathedral.

We both had French onion soup (or onion soup as they call it in France), loaded with cheese and bread – perfect wet weather food and delicious. Sometimes the tourist places deliver exactly what you want.

The weather hadn’t improved while we ate so we decided to cross back to the ‘mainland’, walk through the Latin Quarter to the Pantheon and then get the Metro back to the hotel.

I had fond memories of the Latin Quarter from 2012 but was disappointed today. It was possibly the weather, possibly tiredness, but it seemed to be less interesting than I recalled.

The Pantheon was great under a dark grey sky.

On the way back to the hotel we had one of those classic train moments that just never seem to actually happen in real life. At S̬vres РBabylone station Eleanor had got on the train and I waited to allow an old couple to get on first; they took so long the doors closed and I was left standing on the platform!

Luckily, there is decent mobile connectivity on the Metro so we arranged to meet at the station where we needed to change lines. We both found it quite amusing, fortunately.

After an afternoon rest we walked around Montmartre, I had a date with a record shop which was loosely on the way to where we planned to go for dinner ( It wasn’t really). It was a great shop with a good collection of second-hand records and a friendly vibe; I bought a couple of LPs as I couldn’t help myself, I will go back next time we stay here and spend a bit more time.

We’d found a vegan restaurant online and while we were the only customers during the time we were there the food and wine were fantastic; another great evening meal.  Amusingly, Tuesday night seemed to be local running club night on the hills and steps of Montmartre; as we ate our food, we watched groups and individual runners pounding up the hill to Sacre Coeur and back down again. We decided to join them in a slow walk after our meal. There are plenty if hills to walk off that lovely dinner.

Sacre Coeur was magnificent all lit up with white spotlights and the zipping and zapping of the runners, many with headlights, made for an enjoyable time on the top of the hill.

Walking back towards our hotel we spotted the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

Another fabulous, albeit wet, day in this fabulous city.

Paris 2

Paris, January 2026
First things first. The French, or at least the Parisians, do say ‘Voilà’, and they seem to say it a lot. I liked that. Secondly, all those stories about Parisians being rude to tourists, particularly the English, are, of course, complete pants, admittedly, these seem to be old stories. Everyone was very friendly.


We stayed in a hotel named after the writer Marcel Aymé. To be perfectly honest, prior to Eleanor booking the hotel I’d never heard of him. He was a prolific writer, though English translations are rare. He was born in Burgundy in 1902, moving to Paris in 1923 where he discovered a love and talent for writing, publishing his first novel in 1926. He lived most of his life in Montmartre. His most famous short story is Le passe-muraille or “The Walker-Through-Walls”. He died in 1967. He was also very cool.


We had a lot planned for today, the only day of the three days we have in Paris where rain isn’t forecast, so walking these lovely historic streets was in order. We started early, squeezing 40 minutes around Montmartre before breakfast in the hotel. The sculpture of ‘The walker through walls’ just round the corner was our first stop.


We had a lovely walk around the area. We/I should do more morning-before-breakfast walks when on holiday; it was so peaceful and as everyone who does photography knows, the light at the beginning and end of the day is usually the best.


One of the things I like about Montmartre, a location typical to the ones we try to stay in, is the mix of residential and tourist places. Seeing the residents going about their early morning, kids to school, walking to the station, grabbing coffee and breakfast on the way, just enhances the feel of a place. It’s as close to living somewhere as can be experienced in a few days.


We also got a great view towards the Eifel Tower, something that was impossible with the low cloud last night. I get an absolute thrill out of seeing such iconic things. I know it’s a cliché to love the view of the tower over Parisian rooftops, but hey. It’s fucking cool.


Way back when we first discussed coming to Paris, we timed the trip so we could see the Gerhard Richter exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation (LVF). We used the metro to get as close to the gallery as possible, though were surprised to find that the map’s recommended way took us through a bit of forest.


I was expecting to be walking through something open and grassy, like a London royal park. It was a little creepy walking through straggly trees not really knowing where we were going; especially to something as fancy as the LVF; which is an amazing building, and coming from the direction we did, completely out of place.


Gerhard Richter was born in Germany in 1932 and has been called ‘the world’s best living painter’. He is constantly changing, moving through a wide range of abstract styles over his career and this exhibition was vast, with so many impressive works, some of them huge; like ‘The Stroke (on red)’. Up close, this 20-metre long painting made from tiny individual brush strokes is stunning. It must have taken weeks to paint.


He had a period of very clinical, clean and brightly coloured works as well a ‘grey’ period.


I took a lot of photos in the exhibition; Richter was prolific and an artistic shapeshifter and with such a variety of work there was a lot I liked and a lot that didn’t appeal at all. I particularly liked his photo-realistic paintings, both from an early and late in his career.


I can’t say it was my favourite work, but a special mention has to go to his 1983 work ‘Candle’ which is best known as the cover of Sonic Youth’s 1988 album ‘Daydream Nation’, one of my favourite records.


We left the LVF after a tasty lunch in the (expensive) restaurant and walked to the Arc de Triumph. We’d both been up it before so decided to keep on going down towards the river Seine and the Eiffel Tower.


There is nothing I can say that will add to the many thousands (millions?) of references made to this wonderful piece of late 19th century engineering. It is impressive, I and the hundreds of people queuing to make their way up to the viewing platform, will attest to that.


We took a slow meander back to a metro station before heading back to the hotel. It had been a good day.

Paris 1

Paris, January 2026
Ah Paris, how much do I love thee? Quite a lot, it seems. We’d planned this trip a few months ago when Eleanor spotted that there was a Gerhard Richter exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation that coincided with the 13th anniversary of our first date. I can’t believe we’ve been together that long; the time has passed in a blur.

We’d been talking about visiting Paris for ages. We’ve both been before, but not since we’ve been together. I have a bit of a fascination with the 1968 student uprisings, and the many others that have taken place here, as well as the city’s long association with art and writing. And, well, it’s just a cool place to visit. Mid‑January seemed like a decent time to go too, as I’m not really a peak‑tourist‑season kind of guy.

We decided to stay in Montmartre, one of the old centres with fantastic steep, narrow cobbled streets – always a favourite of mine, as well as its historic artistic links. Eleanor found a great hotel named after the writer Marcel Aymé; more on him in the next post.

We took the Eurostar from St Pancras (I wish it would run from Stratford International – it was supposed to, as it’s only 15 minutes from home) at a reasonable time in the morning, arriving in Paris in the early afternoon. As I’d booked early enough, the Economy Plus option wasn’t much more than basic economy, and I’m sure we easily ate and drank the difference. Eurostar terminates at Gare du Nord, and it’s not the station I remember; it was clean, not madly busy, and much easier to navigate than I expected. Paris was the first European city I visited on my 2012 travels, and I felt much more confident than I did back then. Perhaps it was just confidence that made things seem easier? Anyway, we used the Metro and found our hotel with no hassle at all.


The ‘fantastic, steep cobbled streets’ didn’t disappoint. It’s Sunday and there are quite a few tourists about, especially at the top of the ‘Mont’, where the fabulous Sacré‑Cœur Basilica (Sacred Heart) towers over its surroundings.


We had a gentle (as gentle as is possible on steep cobbled streets) stroll with no plan in mind other than absorbing the atmosphere and spotting places we might want to check out when it’s less busy.


Surrounded by eating establishments mainly frequented by tourists, the former abbey square, the Place du Tertre, was opened to the public as Montmartre’s village square in 1635. From the late 18th century, it became a renowned hangout for painters and other artists, with many famous names setting up their easels here over the years. Many of the major figures in the French and European art world in the late 1800s and early 1900s lived or worked around here: Picasso, Dalí, Renoir, Degas, Valadon (more on her later), van Gogh, and Matisse among the big names. You can still get your portrait painted here, even on a rainy Sunday afternoon.


As expected, the area around Sacré‑Cœur and the steps down from the church entrance was very busy, even on a damp Sunday afternoon. We had no intention of going into the church on this trip, so we just stopped to take the obligatory photo from the top of the steps, looking south over the city of Paris. Which reminds me: I was geographically discombobulated on this trip. Eleanor may say that this is my usual state, but it’s embedded in my head that the view over the city is to the north, and this really messed me up the whole time we were away.


We walked down the steps and on to Boulevard de Clichy, where we passed the famous Moulin Rouge. I knew that historically this was Paris’s red‑light district, and part of the reason it attracted so many bohemian and artistic types in its heyday a hundred or so years ago. I’d walked past the Moulin Rouge when I was here in 2012. What I wasn’t expecting was that it’s still very much the red‑light district: sex shop after strip club after sex shop all along Boulevard de Clichy, all brightly lit in the early evening gloom.


As the light disappeared we headed back up the hill and stopped for a negroni (then another) in a small bar that seemed the least touristy – though of course there is no such thing in this corner of Paris. We’ve really got into negronis recently, moving on from our previous favourite, the Old Fashioned. These were good ones; hence staying for a second.


Later that evening we had a fabulous meal at Le Maître, a small modern French restaurant that we’d booked a while back. The food was very good, as was the vibe of the place. We always research and book one meal before leaving home – not always on the first night, but tonight was our 13th anniversary, and a special meal to celebrate was in order.

It wasn’t raining when we wobbled out of the restaurant with full bellies, so we took a slow walk back to the hotel; taking in a few more of those lovely cobbled streets. Roll on tomorrow!

Being nothing

Day 193, Sunday 15 July 2012, Paris

Today is the last full day in Paris, so I made the best use of the time and did sod all for the entire morning. After a huge amount of procrastination I did book myself some accommodation in Barcelona for three nights from tomorrow, hopefully it is not too bad. Everything is so damn expensive – Ok I will try and not go on about that any more, must be getting boring.

The rest of the morning was spent running between showers to the laundrette, editing photos and reading an Economist magazine I found in said laundrette, nice to read some decent current affairs, I am so out of touch with what is going on in the real world, outside of brief checks of NZ news on line.

In the middle of the afternoon we set off for Montparnasse and the cemetery there. It was an easy ride on the train, now I am getting used to working out the signs and lines it is almost time to go! After a showery start to the day the sun finally came out and was beating down on Cimetiere de Montparnesse when we arrived. We had kinda not done any proper research and assumed that this was where Jim Morrison (of The Doors) was buried, but that was an incorrect assumption ! However there are numerous other well known personages here, some with remarkably unadorned grave stones. The poet Samuel Beckett was one of these, and the sun was at such an angle a photo was not worth the pixels it would have used. My favourite was the incredibly phallic looking piece dedicated to James Dumont d’Urville who was (one of ?) the first to map the south island of New Zealand in the 1820’s in this ship Astrolabe.

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We also saw Serge Gainsbourg – adorned in fag ends.

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And Jean Paul Sarte and Simone De Beauvour

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There were a couple of headstones that I really liked, my favourite being this large fish!

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I was also quite taken by the variety of crosses on the doors of the sepulchres and posted a selection prior to this post.

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We left the cemetery when it closed at 6:00 and went and found a cafe to sit and drink beer in until we met for dinner with Jean and Ettiene, the sons of Emily’s French friends. Both spoke perfect English (of course) and have been to and love New Zealand it was a good evening.

Two days in Paris and two links to old favourite New Zealand record label Flying Nun bands.

John Paul Sartre Experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMDH__herJA&feature=relmfu

 

 

 

Death and the Maiden

Day 192, Saturday 14 July 2012 – Paris – Bastille Day

The morning was all about planning, made difficult through lack of a good guide book, hopeless internet, a lack of knowledge about where I can go for a few days and the fact it is peak season in Europe and everything is really expensive !

Add to this the fact I am feeling rather vague at the moment and I have no idea where I want to go or what I want to do next. I think going to my cousins place in Spain for some down time is a good thing. Recharge the holidaying batteries, read up on Europe and get a good list of things to see and places to go. I know I want to see everything, but I am not sure what everything is – and I have no idea how much “everything” will cost.

After hours of internet faffing and indecision I have decided to fly to Barcelona and spend a few days there before heading south. Flying was not my first choice, but given intermittent internet (which stopped completely soon after I booked the flight – and I have no accommodation!) trying to find a land option was getting complex, the train to Marseilles was more expensive than the basic flight – adding bags pushed the flight cost up of course.

Once the internet was dead we headed our separate ways for the day, Emily to return to Gallarie Lafayette and the shopping district, hoping things were going to be open on a public holiday weekend, and I was going to enjoy a brief splash of sunshine and walk around the Latin Quarter. We went our separate ways at the St Michel station and I wandered off down the left bank of the Seine, overlooking Notre Dame.

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All along the bank there are these long green lock ups across the tops of the walls, they contain little pop-up stalls, mainly selling old books and magazines, prints of paintings and some tourist knick knacks. They are quite cool.

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At some random point I headed away from the river towards St Nicholas du Chardonnet where I popped in for a brief look. This church is not marked on the (rather vague) tourist map I am using, so is obviously not overly important to the history of France or Paris. But I enjoyed my visit all the same, each chamber had a small statue and a large painting on an opposing wall. The paintings varied in age from the 1500 to the 1800’s and were by artists completely unknown to me, what I found quite remarkable was the wonderful condition of these ancient works. Great pipe organ as well.

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I also really like the wicker chairs, high side for sitting and low side for kneeling to pray. These are very common in the churches in Paris, so much better than those horrible wooden pews.

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I wandered on up some reasonably deserted side streets, till I came across the centre of the Latin Quarter, which was fairly busy with tourists, most of which seemed to be French, the area is a small next of cobble stone streets packed with cafes, bistros, tabacs and restaurants.

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I was getting peckish and had my stomach set on some pizza until I wandered by this maison – in the house were the poet Paul Verlaine passed away in 1896 – and Ernest Hemingway lived from 1921 – 1925. If you are of a certain age and musical taste, you of course have THAT chorus in your head right now ! I had to stop for a small vin rouge and a bowl of onion soup, both of which were average. but I did avoid a passing rain shower.

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After lunch and with the sun out again I headed over to the Pantheon for a look around.

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The Pantheon was designed by Soufflot under the instructions of King Louis XV and completed in 1791, In the crypt it now holds the remains of some of France’s more famous name’s Hugo, Curie, Moulin, Zola

Voltaire

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and Rousseau.

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The building is massive and the main hall way is very impressive.

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As it is Bastille Day (France’s national day) there was a military band out the front of the Pantheon playing some modern pop tunes to the appreciation of the crowd. I snapped this shot as I walked away and then found the guys and girl removing their helmets, moved to the front of the band and some synchronised dancing for a couple of seconds, a mix of line dance/disco. One of them was glowing red, it was hilarious. Join the army !

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After the light relief of disco dancing soldiers I meandered back to the hotel round the corner and dozed and blogged for a few hours – while waiting for the internet to come back to life and Emily to return from shopping. The internet did not come back to life until the next day, but Emily did return from shopping.

We took a walk down to the Seine at St Michel, pass the Sorbonne, which was glowing in the early evening sunlight. We stopped for dinner at Tabac De Le Sorbonne again but the experience was a real let down compared to last time, the waiter was obviously trying to set the example for how rude a Parisian waiter could be.

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The sunset over the Seine was very cool – not up to Karekare beach standards of course, but then Karekare does not have Notre Dame either !

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We watched some young guys tumbling in the square at St Michel.

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Wandering the back streets of St Michel we stopped at this cafe for a coffee and drink.

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This is now my most favourite of coffees, cafe noisette, espresso with a dash of milk, lovely.

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The Verlaines – Death and the maiden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeuy8PD0bFM

Mona madness !

Day 191, Friday 13 July 2012 – Paris

Again it was another big day planned, there is so much to see and do in central Paris, even in a week I will only barely touch I want I want to see and some of those visits will only be short as well. Today we had three things to cover, Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs-Elysees and the Louvre, an iconic (and big) list.

After a bit confusion in the Gare D’ Nord (again) we did find the right train to take us to the Arc de Triomphe (AdT). It was a wee bit wet when we left, which was great as it seemed to have put off the worst of the seething masses and we had a relatively pain free hike to the top of the Arc. The views over the city were just awesome.

Over the Avenue des Champs-Elysees

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The Eiffel Tower (obviously)

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Sacre Cour

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We also had a good view down on to that most famous of Parisian roundabouts. I have no idea how cars get out, or why they would choose to go in, there were not many cars when we were there, but you can see the chaos – can you spot the cyclist in the middle ?

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After AdT we took a walk down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees (ACE), which has to be one of the worlds more famous streets. It is a couple of kilometres long and seems to have all the major brand name stores, including a few low-brow ones as well !
The whole of ACE is covered in pedestrian barriers, assuming in preparation for the formalities and parties happening during Bastille Day tomorrow. Sadly most of Place de la Concorde is closed off to the public and seating and army vehicles have surrounded it.

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We stopped for lunch in a cafe in Jardin des Tuileries, just outside of the Louvre. It was an entertaining meal, the waiters were constantly arguing, I think over tips as one of them pulled out a wad of cash and thrust into the hand of one of the others – ah the French !

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The queue for the massive art gallery that is the Louvre was surprisingly small, under thirty minutes, which was fabbo as we missed the rain entirely during the wait. We entered the museum through the glass pyramid and the ticket counters and entrance point for the three main wings are all underground.

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We started off with the ancient Egyptian collection and then worked our way around through the various painting and sculpture collections.

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I loved this beautiful little wood carving, gorgeous.

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The biggest tourist attraction at the Louvre has to be the Mona Lisa, as everyone who has seen it has said, it is surprisingly small. I could not be bothered fighting my way through the hoards to see it.

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I am not big on painting, especially the classical, romantic and renaissance periods. My tastes tend to be from the impressionists onward, so the art collections at the Louvre, amazing as they are, were not studied at length. Though there were of course, many pieces I did like, especially this one by Luis de Morales from 1565.

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One of the things that did impress me about the museum was the ornateness, detail and beauty just contained in the room construction, of course most of the rooms were bare gallery, but some were stunning to look at.

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And of course there are the Napoleon III apartments, he must really have suffered !

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I also quite liked this piece from Henri Bellechose from 1415 (man that is a long time ago!)

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And I really liked these too, but forgot to write the atist details down, they are some of the very few paintings behind glass.

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And minute compared to these bad boys.

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It was drizzling again when we left the Louvre and started a slow walk back to the hotel, my feet were knackered after another few hours of tromping around and I was looking forward to shoes off and a lie down…

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Looking over the Pont des Arts to the Institute de France.

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We crossed the Pont Des Arts over the Seine, with its thousands of padlocks that young (and I guess not so young) lovers leave on the wire.

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Walked along the side of the Seine, looking at the house boats, I liked these letter boxes on the river bank for the houseboats.

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Pont Neuf

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Dinner was trusty old bread, cheese and wine in the hotel room, it was raining again and my feet went out on strike !

I would loved to have spent more time in the Louvre, but it is a huge day…

“Cheeseburger”

Day 190, Thursday 12 July 2012 – Paris

I have been having a minor financial crisis for the past few day, well less of a crisis – more of a financial niggle in the back of mind.
I am stuck in that weird place where my money is in one country and I am in another and I have limited access to cash. I have not replaced the NZ ATM card I lost in Laos – not through lack of desire to replace, but through lack of desire to jump through hoops to get it, so do not have direct access to my bank account.

I have been relying on foreign currency travel cards to get by, but my UK pound card ran out of funds while I was on the Coast Path Run which came as a real surprise, I transferred some money over (thank God for Internet banking), but have forgotten the travel card web site log in so cannot check as to why I ran out of funds so soon. I have also set up an English bank account but have not been able to transfer funds into it as I need to ring the bank in NZ to set up an overseas transfer account as it cannot be done on line. So very soon I am going to run out of easily accessible cash, it is time to ring the bank in NZ. Pity I cannot find my NZ sim card…

In the end I borrowed my friend Emily’s recently acquired French pre-pay mobile to call the bank in NZ. I started with the travel card company and got as far as being asked my secure code before the phone ran out of credit – Merde ! But it did poke some brain cells into life and I remembered my login for the travel card site. I did discover that I have been screwed on bank fees which I will take u with the bank, but I had bought less pounds than I thought so, whew, nothing untoward had happened to my cash.

The plan for the day was an ambitious one that involved one heck of a lot of walking and some rides on the Metro, Paris’ version of the London Underground. The Metro is way more complex than London, with a lot more lines to choose from. We chose to take the Metro to the furthest point for the day and meander some of the way on foot, as this really is the best way to see a city.

Well, we ended up just taking the Metro to Gare de Nord and walking to Sacre Coure (SC) from there as it was not too far and Gare de Nord is the most confusing station in the whole world (that I have been too anyway!) SC is one of the older churches in Paris and sits on a hill above the River Seine, I am not clear on the history of it as I frustratingly do not seem to have internet access at the moment. SC is split into three viewing areas, the main chapel, which is free – but no photography and the dome and crypt, both of which are charged for but you can take photos. We visited all three, awesome !

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Peace out !

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If I was thinking of buying a hand bag, an old church would definitely be my first stop…

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The chapel was very cool, some great statuary and frescoes a wonderfully lit space, but the highlight was definitely the dome. There are three hundred steps to the top, which obviously keeps the worst of the tourist hoards out, the steps are up a winding narrow spiral staircase, and the wear marks in the stone show how many people have been this way.

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The views from the top are magnafique !

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The crypt was pretty cool as well, but quite dim (of course), it wasn’t as crypty as I expected, and a lot of the memorials were to soldiers fallen in the wars of the last century. I did love this statue though.

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From SC it is a short hop to Montmartre, I wasn’t quite so thrilled with the place, it is very cute, lovely cobble stone streets, but packed with tourists and very much catered to the tour bus crowd.

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We did visit the Abbey St Pierre de Montmarte a Benedictine abbey started in 1147. There was also quite an interesting photo exhibition next door from a Japanese photographer whose name alludes me now, but they did have a Panasonic GX1 which I drooled on for a bit…

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We scarpered from Montmarte fairly smartish and headed down hill towards the Montmarte Cemetry, one of the two ‘big name’ cemeteries in Paris. I loved this bit of art on the way down the hill.

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The streets here are just lovely and if I had to live in Paris (and had loads of money) this is where I would live.

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We had a wander around looking for Edgar Dega’s grave but couldn’t find it. It is incredibly complex mass of tombs and crypts, some immensely complex and detailed and others plain. It was very interesting to say the least and I am really looking forward to visiting the Montparnasse Cemetery in a few days time.

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Yo !

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After the cemetery we walked on down past the Moulin Rouge and caught the Metro to the shopping district and Gallerie Lafayette.

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Metro station.

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After some faffing we stopped for a hot chocolate at Angeline’s in the Gallerie Lafayette, the cafe has been around for over a hundred years and the hot chocolate is a must have item, it was delicious, unlike my photo of it which was out of focus…

We dropped in to see one of Emily’s Parisian friends at his office on Avenue De Opera – with an awesome view !

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And then took a slow walk down some more back streets, I just love how deserted Paris is when you got away from where the tour guides suggest, these streets are one back from the hell of the main roads. The buildings are fantastic, and of course I just love the bicycles !

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to Place Vendome where we drooled over the (beyond) big name shops, drooled some more on the two Lambos parked outside the Paris Ritz – where Princess Di spent her last evening.

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We visited the Madelleine which did allow some photography inside, again, like SC earlier in the day, stunning examples of statuary and frescoes.

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And then wandered back up to the Printemps department store in the shopping district to admire the fantastic domed roof of the restaurant.

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and from there caught the Metro back to St Michel. It had been drizzling all afternoon and was raining quite hard when we got out of the station so we stopped for a vin at a cafe and then dinner at Tabac de la Sorbonne. Emily ordered her meal, a bottle of wine and a bottle of water in rapid fire French, when the waiter looked at me all I could manage was “Cheeseburger”, not even please- complete brain freeze. Fortunately this was seen as quite amusing by all, at least the waiter had a sense of humour!

The cheeseburger was very nice, the service excellent and the wine great – a rare tip was left.

I tried ringing the bank in New Zealand again tonight, this time to activate transfering moneey overseas – ie to where I am. The recorded message said a wait of four to five minutes, at three Euro a minute for the call – I hung up…

Deux soupe d’oignon s’il vous plait

Day 189, Wednesday 11 July 2012 – Paris

Earlier start to breakfast today, coffee wasn’t any better, damnit ! had a bit of a planning session morning and a visit to the local laundromat. While the washing was on we went to a cafe round the corner and had a great espresso and I spent an hour preparing yesterdays blog post. The internet in the hotel is sporadic and even when it is working it hopelessly slow – at least it is free I guess.

We headed off for a late lunch up Boulevard St Germain where I had a great onion soup and a Stella Artois, while people watching near the Seine. I loved how some of the buildings are sagging in the middle – a bit like me.

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Notre Dame from the Seine

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After lunch we checked out the Bastille.

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And then Place de Vosges

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With its homage to Victor Hugo.

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We then wandered the streets back towards Notre Dame.

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How is this for a location for a basketball court !

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The queue for Notre Dame was ridiculous..

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So we headed off from there to the smaller queues at La Conciergerie and Sainte Chappelle. Both part of the historic Palais de la Cite, now the Palace of Justice.

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La Conciergerie started off in the 6th century but most of what can be seen is from the 14th when King Charles V left for a more secure location and left the palace in charge of a concierge who was given power to run the palace and the nearby prison. Numerous prisoners of state were kept there until the revolutionary period of the 1700’s when it used by the various revolutionary council factions to house their opponents during trial and up to execution day. The most famous being Queen Marie-Antoinette and Robespierrie himself who was part committee that set up law of suspects which led to the “reign of terror” that swept Paris in the 1750’s.

I loved the vaulted ceilings in the Hall of men at arms, originally started in 1302.

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After the dubious charms of La Conciergerie we joined another short queue for Sainte Chapelle. A chapel built under the wishes of King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) between 1242 and 1248 to house the relics of the passion of Christ.

The entry is via the lower chapel.

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The upper chapel, houses the great shrine, which contains the relics of the passion of Christ, including the crown of thorns.

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Even the floor was ornate.

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The interior of the building is stunning, it is constantly under minor renovation but the stained glass is all original and amazing to look at, a bit too far to photograph under low light, but I highly recommend a visit to the chapel.

Dinner was bread, ham cheese and wine – oh and another bottle of my new favourite beer, Punk IPA.

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