France: Paris: L'Île de la Cité

L'Île de la Cité (City Island) is a tiny island in the middle of the Seine, and the oldest part of Paris.  The city is named after one of the Celtic tribes that first inhabited this area in the 3rd century BC, the Parisii.  The island settlement was strategically located: it was easily defensible and was at a convenient river crossing on the route between southern and northern Gaul.  Over the centuries, the city was developed by the Romans, Franks, and Capetians, and today the ancient buildings testify to the Medieval period of the city's history.  Remains of the earliest buildings can still be found in an architectural excavation, in front of the iconic Notre-Dame cathedral. 

The island is located between the Louvre, on the Right Bank, and the Latin Quarter on the Left.  Connecting the western tip of the island to both shores is the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), which ironically is the oldest bridge in Paris.  In 1578 however, it was the newest bridge in the city, and over the centuries has been immortalized in one of the most famous in Paris.  Personally, I remember it from the Bourne Identity, where Jason Bourne sets up a meeting with Conklin from the CIA. 

 

The Passarelle des Arts bridge, see from the Quai du Louvre.  Pont Neuf is the 2nd bridge in the picture, with l'Île de la Cité behind it. 

As in many other European cities, it's tradition for couples getting married to lock a monogrammed lock to a bridge and toss the key into the river.  What do they do if they get divorced, cut the lock off? (Cynical, I know, but I'm sure this problem has come up before).  Passarelle des Arts, with the Pont Neuf and l'Île de la Cité in the background. 

I think this building was part of the Palais de Justice, where the Paris courts are located.  The island is also the location of the infamous Conciergerie prison - a beautiful name for a sinister looking prison- fortress, in use from 1391 to 1914.  This was the main prison during the Revolution, where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution.  

 

The Palais de Justice (more Tricouleurs!).

My favorite surprise during my trip to Paris was discovering the magnificent Sainte-Chapelle, a jewel of Gothic architecture and stained-glass craftsmanship.  According to my guide book, "ethereal and magical, it has been hailed as one of the greatest architectural masterpieces in the Western world".  So why haven't I heard of it before?  In my opinion, this is the greatest treasure in Paris, much more worth visiting than the nearby Notre-Dame cathedral. 

 

 The exterior of Sainte-Chapelle.  It's not obvious where it is, and the entrance is tucked around the corner, so make sure you mark it on your map.

The interior is mind-blowing.  In the Middle Ages, it was likened to the "gateway of heaven", and from the perspective of a person in the Middle Ages, this would have been the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.  It seems almost impossible that there is that much glass in the walls, without the building falling down (especially for one so old).  I can only imagine what it would look like on a sunny day, the chapel glowing like a kaleidoscope with the colored light streaming in from all sides.  The ceiling is 50 ft. high, and studded with stars. 

Sainte-Chapelle, the upper chapel.  You enter through the much less grand lower chapel used by servants and officials, and take a winding, narrow staircase up to the upper chapel, the preserve of the royal family and their courtiers. 

 

The 15 giant windows tell the story of the Bible from Genesis, through the Crucifixion and the Apocalypse, over 1000 scenes in all. 

Intricate medieval statuary and paintings.

King Louis IX (later Saint Louis), who commissioned the chapel in the 13th century, had it built to house what is believed to be Christ's crown of thorns and a fragment of the True Cross (now in the treasury of the Notre-Dame cathedral).  He paid more for the purchase of these holiest of relics from the Emperor of Constantinople than he did for the entire chapel, if you can believe it.  Incredibly, the chapel was used as a warehouse after it was damaged in the Revolution, but was renovated a century later.  Today it is a popular venue for classical music concerts, because of its acoustics and the incredible ambiance. 

Random shot - the Metro Cité stop.  I love how decorative many of the metro signs are.

The most famous sight in Île de la Cité is one of the best-known churches in the world, Notre-Dame cathedral.  Built on the site of a Roman temple, the cathédrale epitomizes the Gothic architecture period.  Commissioned in 1159, it took 200 years to build and has borne witness to many pivotal events in the nation's history since then.  Kings and Emperors were crowned here (and in Napoleon's case, he crowned himself).  During the Revolution, when the Church was abolished, the cathedral was desecrated and renamed the Temple of Reason.  The famous gargoyles were in fact added in the 18th century Neo-gothic period.  Today they appear almost comical in their grotesque expressions.  A good movie to watch before visiting: Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Or, if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can read the original book by Victor Hugo, who also lived in Paris.

Notre-Dame Cathedral, west facade.  I stupidly forgot to walk around back to see the flying buttresses, which span an incredible 50 ft.  This allowed the architects to use such large windows, by taking pressure off the walls.  You can be sure I will add some photos of them the next time I visit Paris. 

Gargoyles!

Portal of the Virgin, surrounded by 13th century statues of saints and kings (in very good condition).

The interior is very dark, despite the many stained-glass windows.  It's quite a large church, and the soaring ceiling and long shadows give it a solemn and ancient character. 

The South Rose Window, 43 ft high.

As we were leaving the cathedral on November 11th, dignitaries and military personnel were arriving for the Armistice Day service:

France: Paris: Places de repère

Places de repère, or "Landmarks", is a post on a mish-mash of important sites in Paris.  Keep reading for pictures and stories from the Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Coeur, the Catabombes and Galleries Lafayette.

No visit to Paris is complete without a trip to the Eiffel Tower. Although it was only meant as a temporary addition to the city's skyline for the 1889 Universal Exhibition and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Revolution, has now become the most famous landmark in Paris.  We visited twice, during the day and at night, when for 5 minutes every hour, on the hour, the tower sparkles with thousands of lights. 

 

The Tour d'Eiffel, seen from Trocadéro.

Underneath the Tour d'Eiffel.

The best place to start is from the Trocadéro gardens, accessible from the Trocadero metro stop.  This is a perfect place to have a picnic in Paris, watching the beautiful tower with a baguette, cheese and a bottle of wine on the grassy hill.  

View from Trocadéro.

Tour Eiffel, from the Jardins du Trocadéro. 

 

The Trocadéro fountains. 

 

 

The Trocadéro fountains, and the Palais de Chaillot.  Designed for the 1937 Paris Exhibition in the Neoclassical style, it contains 3 museums and a theatre.

Woman, by Georges Braque, in the Jardins du Trocadéro.

From the Jardins du Trocadéro, you cross the Avenue des Nations Unis (United Nations Ave.) and the Seine, over the Pont d'Iena to the Eiffel tower.

The Tour Eiffel and the Pont d'Iena, over the Seine.

If you think this is a lot of shots of the Eiffel Tower, you should know these were selected from over 300 pictures I took of it!  The problem with objects like this that are very geometrically complex is that it's hard to get a balanced photograph.  

 

Photo from the same location at night.

This structure is one of the most beautiful examples of 19th century engineering - it's a lot to take in!  The 324 meter tower was the tallest building in the world for 42 years, until the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931.  You can pay 18 € to take the elevator to the top, or about 3€ to walk 360 steps to the first level up (shown in the photo above).  There's a restaurant and a post office, with what must be amazing views of the city. 

Some more pictures from underneath the tower.

Looking towards Trocadéro.

View from the end of the Champs de Mars.

Yes, there are other photos in this post other than the Eiffel Tower!  Another famous landmark in Paris is Sacré-Coeur, the basilica consecrated in 1919 that has a great view of the city from the top of Montmartre.  At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, two Parisian businessmen vowed to finance the construction of a basilica if France should "be spared from assault".  Despite the Seige of Paris, construction of this massive (although generally considered to be not very graceful) church began in 1875.  I personally agree with the general opinion - the church itself isn't very beautiful but the views (on a clear day) are good.  Unfortunately for us, we went on a foggy morning, but it was still a pretty cool view.  This was also our first encounter with the aggressive peddlers of Paris, who take advantage of the narrow staircase up to the church  to harass you into buying their cheap bracelets or counterfeit purses.  I've only ever seen this in France, Spain and Italy.  They actually came up to us and started putting bracelets on our wrists to get us to buy them as we were walking up the stairs.  They were waiting on both sides of the staircase to catch you on your way up.  Others had their illegal fake purses spread out on a white sheet in front of the church, a common sight by the major landmarks.  Fortunately, we found a back way down the hill through the garden and managed to avoid them - I wish you could just visit these beautiful places in peace - especially since it's a church.

Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Heart) basilica, at the top of the long stairway.  You may recognize this scene from Amélie - the must-see movie before a trip to Paris.

View from the Sacré-Coeur.

On the Sunday morning at 10 am, we got in line to see the famous Catacombes of Paris.  We didn't realize it would take over 2 hours to get in!  It was definitely a cool place to visit, but if you have only a limited time in Paris I'd visit something else rather than wait in line for so long.  The catacombs were originally quarry tunnels, begun during the Roman times.  In fact, there are 186 miles of tunnels under much of the city of Paris, and occasionally entire city blocks would come crashing down when the tunnel underneath caved in.  The Romans buried their dead outside the city walls, but the Christians of the Middle Ages favored burial in a cemetery next to a church.  As the city grew and centuries passed, this led to an overcrowding problem in the city's cemeteries.  The poorer people were buried in mass graves, and after a sufficient amount of time had passed for only the skeletons to remain, they were unearthed, moved into an ossuary pit, and the mass grave was re-used.  In the 18th century, the cemeteries of Paris were severely overcrowded and insanitary, so thousands of corpses and skeletons were tossed down into the abandoned tunnels.  A few decades later, the skeletons were arranged into their present appearance and the catacombes were opened as a small tourist attraction, inspired by the catacombs of Rome.  There are over 6 million people buried in the catacombes.  There are several famous people who's now-anonymous skeletons are in the catacombes, including revolutionary leader Robespierre, as entire cemeteries were emptied into the tunnels.  

 The first 1.5 km of the catacombes are the old mining tunnels.  It makes you nervous walking through them because you expect the ossuary to start at any minute.

Street signs in the tunnels tell you which street is above ground.  The catacombs were used by the French Resistance in WWII, so this may have helped them orient themselves.

 The entrance to the ossuary: "Stop! This is the empire of death."

Most of the bones are femurs and skulls, sometimes arranged in an almost artistic fashion.  It did feel strange walking through galleries with bones piled high on both sides - you start to think about who these people were and that this is all that's left of them, hundreds of years later.  They probably had no idea this is where they would end up, in a tourist attraction.  They have no name anymore, all that is left of them is skull and bones. This is a good place to reflect on the meaning of life and what happens to us after we die.  In the end, we will all end up like this (well, perhaps not in a tourist site visited by a 250,000 people a year). 

Femurs and skulls piled up to the ceiling. 

"Where is Death?  Always future or past.  Barely is she present, that already she is no more."

Stones marking the origin of the bones and the date they were removed.  "Remains from the Cemetery of the Innocents, deposited in April 1786".

 On a happier note - Shopping!!!!  If you want to go shopping in Paris, the best place to start are the Galleries Lafayette on blvd Haussmann.  This is the most famous department store in France, and spans several stories in 2 attached buildings.  If you're looking for haute couture, most of the major fashion houses are near the Arc de Triomphe, on rue du Faubourg St. - Honoré.  My friends went home a day before I did, so I spent an afternoon window shopping and looking for a dress for the Science Formal in November, one of the highlights of an engineer's experience at Queen's.  I didn't find a dress in the Galleries Lafayette or in the Marais neighborhood, but I did have a lot of fun looking around.

The central atrium of the Galleries Lafayette, all ready for Christmas.  

 

I loved the ceiling!

Facade of the Galleries Lafayette on blvd Haussmann.

The Galleries Lafayette are completely different from the Bay or Sears style of department store.  There are 7 stories I think, and the men's section is in the building next door.  Each floor has a theme, handbags, high fashion, accessories, "normal people clothes", shoes, etc.  Each designer has its own little area and employees.  There are only ever 2-3 samples of each item on the rack - they will go get you what size you need, and each one usually has its own change room.  There was a line-up to get into the Longchamp handbag shop (these bags have become part of the female Queen's student uniform).  It was fun to walk through the haute couture section -  fun to look at but definitely not on a student budget!  The normal clothes section had similar labels to what we have back home.  No big-box Gaps or Old Navys though, mainly smaller labels.  There was even an entire floor dedicated to women ages 16-26.  It was a very classy place to walk around, they even had a "champagne bar" where you could sip some bubbly with a wonderful view of the central atrium, shown below.  They also have another location in Paris, and one in Lyon as well.

Forget about a clearance section!  In France, sales are usually restricted to 3 weeks in January - February, and in July.  At the big mall in Lyon, La Part Dieu, they even opened on Sundays during the sale (usually everything is closed in France).  Every store had a sale on, and the discounts were pretty big, 25%-60% off usually.  If you're going to go sale shopping, however, it's best to go on a Tuesday morning or something, because the crowds were insane!  I guess it's a good system if you are a shopaholic, because you can limit yourself to these sale periods twice a year.  Lots of people told me shopping in France would be completely different before I left, but when I needed to find a new pair of jeans, guess where I went: the Gap!  There are a lot of stores we don't have back home, and lots more smaller labels rather than the same ones you see in every mall in Canada.  However, style-wise, people in Lyon dress very similar to back home, perhaps a bit less "indie".  Then again, it's hard to judge from living in the fashion island that is Queen's.  Surprisingly, athletic-wear as street-wear is a lot more common here than back home.

Using the Gap as a ruler, clothes in France are more expensive than back home, as are most things other than cheese and wine.  This is compounded by the fact that there is a 20% sales tax. However, it is already included in the advertised and ticketed price, so it makes doing the math a lot easier.  I think they should adapt this approach in Canada, but perhaps it would be detrimental to the economy because people would spend less.   At least back home in Alberta, the tax rate is 5%, a nice easy number to calculate in your head.  I think I'll wait until I go back home for anything other than staples like jeans - pay less tax and have a lighter suitcase!