Live and Learn

During a visit to Paris in 2017 we strolled through parts of the Montmartre neighborhood, the "village" on the hill in Paris' 18th arrondissement famous for the artists that used to frequent it in the late 1800's and early 1900's (Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc, etc.), the French can-can at cabarets like the Moulin Rouge, and the Sacre-Coeur church. We thought it was worth revisiting, and having had some success in the past with guided walking tours, we decided to go that route and see if we could learn some new things. We booked with one of the "free" tour companies (well, "free" only if you don't give your guide a gratuity when the tour is done) that stated in their website that they capped bookings at 6 per tour. The small group aspect sounded good to us, so you can imagine our disappointment on Tuesday morning when we showed up at the appointed meeting place and people kept coming, and coming, and coming. Apparently, they weren't as restrictive with the numbers as they had led us to believe. As it turned out, there were multiple walking tour companies with groups meeting at that same location at the same time, so we switched to a group that had less than the 20+ attendees of our original group. 

Our guide was congenial and amusing, but after all was said and done, we wished we'd just pulled up a walking tour itinerary on-line and done our own thing. So many of the walking tour groups kept bumping into each other at the same points of interest that we started feeling a bit hemmed in. Live and learn. 

The Wall of Je T'aime (the I Love You wall), created in 2000. "I love you" is written
311 times in 250 languages. It was a filming location for the Netflix series
 "Emily in Paris", which probably accounts for some of the crowd at the site.
 (Lon and I tried watching the show, but found it cringeworthy and
 couldn't even get through the first episode. Oh, well, what do we know?)

The lemmings of Montmartre.

Of the thirty or so windmills that used to be on Montmartre, this
windmill and another that comprise the "Moulin de la Galette" are
the sole remaining windmills (not counting the red windmill
atop the Moulin Rouge).

You, too, can view the can-can if you are willing to shell out
100+ euro per ticket.

There's no escaping the crowds at Sacre Coeur.

Sharing the Paris view with hundreds of our closest friends. 
Apparently this was a "light" day, as the line to enter the 
Basilica of the Sacred Heart wasn't all that long. Still, we decided
against the climb to the top of the dome--just getting up the hill
was enough climbing for one day.

Tuesday night was rest-and-recover time, and Wednesday was mostly a day for Lon to address some of the paint touch-ups needed on the exterior of the boat, and for me to wash clothes and modify a new shower curtain. But all work and no play is never a good idea, so we rewarded ourselves with an early evening movie (the latest "Guardians of the Galaxy") at the 27-screen multiplex in the Forum des Halles underground mall in the center of Paris. We're always thrilled to find films in English, and we usually find ourselves in a mostly empty theater. Not this time. The theater was relatively small--probably less than 100 seats--but every seat was filled. 

The Louvre-Rivoli metro station, where we got off to go to
 the movie, has to be the most beautiful in Paris. The subdued
 lighting and colors, and replicas of art found in the Louvre, are a stark
 contrast to the usual white subway tile and dirty floors.

After the movie we walked to the Seine to catch twilight. As usual,
the walls by the river were full of people enjoying the evening. We'd
 hoped to see the evening light show at the Eiffel Tower, but it was
 still too bright at 10 p.m., and we weren't willing to stay out until 11 p.m.
 to catch the next opportunity.

Thursday unexpectedly turned into a work day as well, but we found time before dinner for a walk on a portion of the Coulee Verte Rene-Dumont, a 4.7-kilometer elevated park built on top of an old railway line. It runs from just east of the Place de la Bastille out to the wooded area of the Bois de Vincennes. Completed in the early 90's, it apparently provided the inspiration for New York City's "High Line" park. It's a beautiful place, seemingly unknown to tourists and probably many Parisiens aside from those in the neighborhood.

Some areas had sun and flowers, others were
more lushly green and shady. It was awesome to
get above the traffic.

We loved this apartment building adjacent to the 
elevated park. The pattern of the brick and the 
windows was stunning.

On Friday morning we went back to another site we'd found on a previous visit to Paris, the Palais Royal. Former residence of Cardinal Richelieu, we'd walked by it last September and vowed to return when we had more time. We'd seen the interesting black and white columns in the courtyard and thought there would be some of the interior of the building to explore, but as it turned out, the courtyard and the gardens were the only things open to the public. 

The courtyard and the columns are still striking, and there was a lot
of photographic posing going on.

View of the Palace from the end of the garden.

We could have gone inside the building had we felt like shopping,
as there were a number of stores off the arcade that overlooked the 
courtyard. However, I decided that I did not need a 795-euro pair
of ankle busters.

And then we just walked to see what we could see between the Palais Royal and the Arsenal.

We came across Florida in Paris . . . but no palm trees.

The Galerie Vivienne, a covered passageway built in 1823.
It now houses a number of luxury shops.

The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Victoires, constructed
by Louis XIII in thanks to the Virgin Mary for his 
military victories. Originally an abbey church, after the
Revolution it was the seat of the stock exchange, and then
became a church again after Napoleon came to power.

The interior of the church has an astounding 37,000+
marble plaques expressing thanks. They cover
numerous walls and pillars.

An amazing church in the vicinity of the Forum shopping center where we'd seen our Wednesday movie was Saint-Eustache. Construction of the present church began in 1532 and continued for about 100 years. It struck us as very cathedral-like in size, but for all of that it is simply a parish church. 

Lon in the interior of Saint-Eustache provides some 
sense of the size of the church. A large-scale restoration
 project of the paint on the side chapels is ongoing.
This side was complete and the colors were stunning.

One exterior facade.

Interior areas that have yet to be restored.

And just before we got to the metro station that would take us back to the Bastille, we came across the free-standing Tour Saint-Jacques. It is the last remaining vestige of the former 16th-century church Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie (Saint James of the Butchers) that was demolished in 1797 during the French Revolution. The church had been one that welcomed those on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and for that reason it is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The 300-steps to get to the top of the tower were
calling our name, but as we'd already walked quite a
bit, it was easy to convince ourselves that the 12 euros
(each) to do the climb was a bit much.

We have a visitor joining us next week. My friend Mecki from New York City is visiting family in Germany and is taking the train to Paris on Monday to stay with us for a few days. We're looking forward to it!