Walking Tour and City Overview
The morning was dominated by moving hostels, from Montmartre to the Latin Quarter (known as such because the resident students spoke Latin, not as any particularly ethnic neighborhood). Since the Montmarte hostel had free internet, I took advantage it until the check-out time of 10:00am, then took three different subway trains to end up at Place Monge. Navigating the narrow streets with inadequate tourist maps, the hostel was finally found and the city tour resumed.
Wandering up Rue Mouffetard, this church just to the side of the Pantheon caught my eye. There was no admission fee and no anti-photography signs and that gave incentive to exploring.
Inside, The Church of St. Etienne, the stone carvings were a visual surprise. This walkway separating the general church from the high alter was unique in all my travels.
The marble work was incredible. The price is right and it is worth the effort, if you are in the Latin Quarter, to take a look.
The pantheon is a French replicated interpretation of the edifice in Rome. Since the entry fee was 10 Euro or $15 USD and I've already seen the one in Rome I breezed right on by, making my way to the free walking tour of Paris.
The skies were still dark and foreboding but I took this picture anyway, because with tower, leafs, and classic roof lines it simply "said" Paris in Autumn to me.
The "free walking tour" of Paris met at the Fountain of St. Michael and walked across the bridge by the Notre Dame. Did you know that, at one point, the French government was going to tear down Notre Dame and build something else in it's place? The novel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was written as a defense of the building and ultimately won favor with the public, helping to save the Cathedral.
Our guide was a young writer, leading tours to help make ends meet. He was pretty funny and had a wealth of local and historical knowledge. How the "free tour" works is that there is no entrance fee, but the guide does work for tips.
We walked by many of the key landmarks in our four hour time together. One good bit of information, was that he reminded the group of the second side entrance to the Louvre, as opposed to the main one in front of the pyramid. (I will have to use this tomorrow when fighting the "free museum entrance, first Sunday of the month" crowds.)
Behind one of the many royal palaces is the Jardin Du Palais Royal that houses many outdoor modern art exhibits. Some are better than others, and this one was my favorite.
As we rounded out the tour, the lighting was perfect on the Paris Opera House. We learned that the architect of the Paris Opera House basically created the "Opera Fashion Scene" by putting two massive opposing stair cases leading guests to their seats, so that they could watch each other enter and depart. The result was an escalation of design and fashion for the main social and cultural event of the day. Prior to this design, opera houses had been designed for modest entrance and exit by patrons.
A tour of Paris wouldn't be complete without at least a look down the Le Champs Elese.
Our guide had given me a great tip, that there is free WIFI in the square outside of the museum Centre Pompidou. So I sat in the square, on the cobble stone ground, catching up on e-mails and trying to post to the blog until the cold became too dense for my fingers.
Notre Dame always looks great, especially at night. Something about the symmetry and riverbank location makes the Cathedral universally appreciated.
Looking up the River Seine, the tourist boats made their evening rounds of dinner cruises. After hearing from our guide about what a literal sesspool the river still is, the idea of eating in that close proximity just isn't appetizing. (If you happen to fall into the Seine, the doctors will immediately start you on a course of anti-biotics before any symptoms present.)
Do you remember the Mel Brookes saying, "Its good to be the King"? Well, sometimes, its good to be the self-appointed emperor as well. Paris is littered with "N" architectural references. In a passage way leaving the Louvre complex via rue de Rivoli, there are no less that sixteen "N's" carved in various forms. This grand "N" adorns the pont for the Bd de Palais.
(You can see the twin "N" in the photo above."
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