Paris 2014 - Day 6, Eiffel Tower, Batobus and Champs Elysees

Today was Greg's day. His primary site was the Eiffel Tower and he wanted to cruise on the river. We checked the bus routes but there was no easy way to take the bus so we went on the Metro. Coincidently we had picked the 125th Anniversary to go visit the Tower but saw nothing there to commemorate this date. Aimee and I wanted to walk up to the first stage but Greg wanted to take the elevator to the top. We had no line up and Greg had a huge one. We left him in it with an agreement of where we would meet up later.
Aimee's not too keen on heights so the 1st stage was plenty high enough and I had done the 2nd level before and my legs were not eager to do that again, so I didn't either. 5 Euro and we had some great views and a nice breeze.

There is a major construction project going on which involves new restaurant space, glass walls, event space and a glass floor at the first level. This restricted part of our walk around but we still had great views and were able to stand on one of the finished glass floors.

Bride, groom, minister, photographer and violin player - a minimalist wedding in the gardens by the
Eiffel Tower.

The girders of the Tower create some amazing patterns aside from the stars, curves and circles that are built in intentionally.

Aimee and I walked down in time to see Greg still in line for the elevators.

Managed to get a shot where you can't see all the construction equipment and
scaffolding under the tower

Aimee and I walked into the residential area next to the Tower and bought a baguette, camembert cheese, olives and 2 small bottles of wine (the only ones with screw tops) and returned to wait for Greg.

I love this neighbourhood as it is peaceful after the crowds around the tower, obviously
affluent and you get these different partial views at each street corner.

It took him 2.5hrs, start to finish, to wait in line and then go to the top and back. Next we went to the Quai by the Tower and for 15 Euro bought a day pass on the Batobus. On the boat we ate our lunch and travelled the river, giving us a very different perspective than from the streets and bridges above.

Lunch on the boat

The boat was a great idea as we really needed to rest our legs after the climb (and we had been rough on them over the last 4 days). There was constantly changing scenery with no effort from us, aaah.

These are permanent barges with hammocks and lounge chairs and shrubbery. There were
lots of young people utilizing them

There is constant traffic of tour boats and commercial barges.

Some of the quais are lined with houseboats and live aboard barges, rafted 2
or 3 deep.

We got a really good look at all the different bridges.

After taking the boat all the way round (8  stops) we got off at the Musee  D'Orsey stop because Aimee wanted to see the Champs Elysees.

Across the bridge, past Le Grande Palais and the gardens and on to this affluent retail area where we had to go onto a side street for a decently (? sort of) priced beer. Aimee was less than impressed because every picture she had seen had been taken from the centre of the street looking up the hill at the Arche de Triomphe. So we crossed the, very busy, street and she snapped a shot, from the centre , while walking rapidly. Greg had wanted to see the car show rooms but all we were able to find was an Art Car exhibit of painted BMWs on George V Ave.

Back down to the river, back on the Batobus and this time we got off at Notre Dame to go for dinner on a street in the Latin Quarter that we had walked through yesterday.

The street had lots of restaurants, very competitive, with set menus (3 courses) at different
price points 10E, 12E, !5E etc up to 34E

I don't think Greg realized when he ordered a "large beer" that he was going
to get a litre, but he was pretty happy when it came.

Aimee had muscles in white wine and Greg and I had onion soup. Aimee and Greg had different pastas and I had turkey escalope in cream and Aimee and I had crepe chocolat for dessert. It was the 10 euro menu. Home on the bus and did half this blog before I had to go to bed because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

Paris 2014 - Day 5 Sacre Coeur

We decided to take it a little easier today. Our legs hurt after yesterdays tourist site marathon. We are continuing with our bus education. We managed 2 buses in a row utilizing the same ticket. Came across the info on line last night that as long as it is within 90 minutes the same ticket can be used for another bus ride. Again we had some very helpful Parisians help us get on and off at the right stops and getting on the right bus too. Sacre Coeur was very busy and the narrow steep streets were full of tourists and Parisians, seems the steps up to the church are a nice place to hang out.

As you can see it was a grey day today but still nice and warm.

One of the reasons its a "hang out" is the music. Half way up the steps (by the way, over 300 steps to get up there) there was a man playing a harp. It sounded beautiful in the open air. At the top of the stairs there was an very animated violin player.

Sacre Coeur is a great place to see over the city. It would have been better with a sunny clear day, it was a little hazy today, but still lovely to see across the city to Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Tour Montparnasse and, moving round the top of the hill, the Eiffel Tower......

We walked back down and actually found a very reasonable restaurant with a view of the church, for lunch.

Greg and I had quiche, though of course he had frites with his, and Aimee had
croque monsieur. Of course there was also wine and beer consumed.

Then it was back down the hill to the bus, where we met an Irish couple who were going the same way so we travelled and talked together. Unfortunately we were chatting so much we didn't notice that we were walking down a one way street and there was no way we could catch a bus going the right way. Had to do quite a bit of doubling back. We spent some time exploring the Latin Quarter, narrow, winding streets of tourist shops and restaurants.
I stopped to do a quick sketch of Notre Dame while Aimee and Greg went to check out a river boat tour. They realized my watch was an hour wrong and we had to rush to get to Ste Chapelle in time for the concert. It was lovely hearing Mozart played by a string quartet as the light coming through those magnificent stained glass windows gradually dimmed.
I recorded some of the concert and hope that below I will have been able to load up the video and that you can hear and see it.

Paris 2014, Day 4 - the ultimate tourist day

We discovered, when we went out for coffee at 8am that Parisians are not "morning people" on the weekend. Our usual café was closed, as was the one across the street and round the corner. We had to walk up to the next major street to find a place for coffee. The fish market and produce market were just setting up too.

After a bit of food shopping and banking we set out for a huge day of sight seeing as we had not made the most of our museum passes yesterday. First onto Bus Route 38 and off near the Pantheon. We got there before it opened and got in line. From the guy next to us in line we discovered that we were in line to have our photos taken for a large art project which would involve displays of portraits on the Pantheon. If you are interested the web site is aupantheon.fr . Aimee and I were game until we learned that it would involve a 3hr wait. We ducked out of the line and into the building.

The Pantheon was built as a church but the Revolution occurred shortly after it was completed and it was repurposed as a place for ceremonies honouring great men of France. Many of these great men are buried in the crypts below. It has been bounced back and forth from church, to military, to ceremonial usage over the years. We spent most of our time down in the crypts. There is something inspirational about seeing the crypts of Rousseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas and many more significant French persons. I am saddened that Marie Curie is the only woman interred there. We were told that 2 more women are being buried there this year. Beside many of the crypts there are large banners describing the lives and accomplishments of those buried there.

We spent an hour and a half in the Pantheon and didn't feel like we had rushed it. As we came out some of the photos were already being pasted on to the courtyard.

View of the Eiffel Tower from the Pantheon

We met up with Greg, who had been walking the neighbourhood, in a café, and had a coffee and a crepe to fuel our walk to the next stop.
We walked through the Latin Quarter to Notre Dame and, leaving Greg sitting in the sun, went into the Archeological Crypts underneath the plaza in front of Notre Dame. This area was excavated when the underground parking lot (which is below the excavation now) was being dug out.

The ruins uncovered included Roman baths, the original quay, house foundations and evidence that the two islands in the Seine River were actually a number of smaller islands which were joined as the city filled in the channels between them. The displays were exceptionally well done: pathways around and above the ruins with descriptions in French, Spanish and English, 3D computer graphics showing what the buildings would have looked like, descriptions and photos of old paintings and maps that show the evolution of the city and touch screen 3D interactive computer programs of the building of Notre Dame. Although not a large site we spent about an hour down there and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We met up with Greg and walked over to Ste Chapelle.  Aimee and I were able to walk right in and it is one of my favourite sites in Paris. The royal chapel is both delicate and awing. About a third is covered in scaffolding as the windows are being renovated.

The walls of the upper chapel are made almost entirely of stain glass windows.

The lower areas of the walls look like wall paper but it is all painted. I also took some pictures of the tiles on the floor with future rugs in mind. We were in the church about 45 minutes.

On the way out we saw flyers for a concert tomorrow night in Ste Chapelle. We didn't really think that there would be any seats left, but there were, so we bought 3 tickets for the 7 o'clock Mozart concert. I'll let you know tomorrow how it is.
By now we were getting hungry again, crossed the Seine and walked towards the Louvre and stopped at a restaurant opposite the book sellers on the river bank. We were revitalized by food, alcohol and conversation with a nice Swedish couple at the next table.

Aimee's "go to" meal, a Croque Madame. Basically a grilled cheese and ham sandwich
with melted cheese and a fried egg on top.

Back up and walking again we went through the Louvre courtyard, much busier than yesterday and through the Jardin des Tuilieries. I guess I have never been there in the spring, on a weekend, on a lovely, warm day. It was packed. There were people walking, picnicking on the grass and sitting on the benches and chairs.

I have read about the kids sailing wooden boats in the gardens, but had never witnessed it.

Or last stop was L'Orangerie. No pictures can be taken inside. Aimee and I viewed Monet's paintings but I have to admit that it is more peaceful and easier to focus on them with fewer people milling and talking. It can feel like a spiritual place when it is quiet. The lower galleries housed a couple of private collections and an exhibit of drawings from Musee D'Orsey. We were pretty burned out though and although I recognized that it was an excellent display, Picasso, Renoir, Degas etc, I was too tired to really enjoy it. About an hour in there. We found Greg sitting in the park and were proud of ourselves finding the right bus home. Exhausted but loved it.
On the way to the bus we passed police cars and about 100 gendarme in riot gear. Greg stopped to ask them what was going on and his translation; "providing security for Le Omolette", provided us with a laugh. On the news tonight we learned they were providing security for Sergai Lavrov, (sounds just like omelette)  the foreign minister for Russia.

Greg getting his top secret information.

Paris 2014 Day 3 - The Louvre and the hospital.

Set out early today as we wanted to get the most out of our 2 day museum passes. Took the bus down to Ile de la cite and then walked to the Louvre. Greg was doing a bus tour so we made arrangements to meet him by the Pyramid entrance.

Entrance to Le Louvre from Rue Rivoli.

I know there was a lot of controversy around the glass pyramid entrance in the centre of the courtyard but its grown on me and I now like the modern and the old together. Aimee and I were able to skip the long security line with our passes and the guard took a quick look at our purses and we were in. We picked up a map and Aimee wanted to see the Mona Lisa, the Egyptian artifacts and I wanted to show her Napoleon's apartments. It seemed like a good mix for her first visit and with the passes we can pop in again. Because I have been a number of times I decided to focus more on the building than the art work this time though it is so magnificent and extensive its not as if you can ignore the works of art.

Following the signs to the Mona Lisa

The first room we came into had some magnificent sculptures but the ceiling was
what got my attention.

The ceiling was tiled and there were stone carvings in the corners, in bands of relief and at the top of each pillar. Each pillar had a different subject intricately carved.

 

 There were more. I didn't think you'd want to see them all.

 

Now I was hooked, looking at the ceilings, floors, out the windows at the buildings before even looking at anything else.

Mosaics on one of the galleries floors, just to walk on.
 

Inlaid wood floors too

Skylights were added in the 1750s to let natural light in to display the art work better.

Aimee is somewhere in that crush in front of the Mona Lisa

The picture above is the last one I took today because at that point I got very hot and started to have chest pains. That put an end to the Louve visit. Aimee went to get help and 3 handsome young firefighters came and took my vitals and arranged an ambulance to take me to the hospital. I spent from 11:30 to 3:30 there, with blood work, an ECG, a chest X Ray and finally a clean bill of health. I don't know what happened but they assured me I did not have a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism, good news! Back at the apartment now and taking it easy, we'll see what tomorrow brings.