Bootiful Par-ee
After a horrible night we got up and went to sort out our room.
Mum called mid-packing and swearing, to let us know dad made it back safely from the Alice with the bloody truck breaking down ONLY once.
The new room was fine so we dumped our bags and headed out to explore Par-ee!
We took the metro to the Notre Dame and walked out of the underground to such a view – the big old church with its two towers and imposing grandness, the three huge arches surounded by statues and as you move closer the arches themselves containing sculptures.
Because it was a Sunday we were lucky enough to view a service taking place. A French priest, an American priest and a black French priest (no they weren’t walking into a pub) they were all dressed in white robes covered by green sashes. Many people were sitting in the pews for the service and there were crowds of tourists walking around the inside walls.
I wandered off from the others (as Lija and I were saying, churches are sacred places no matter the religion and require a personal or individual experience). Lija said she had lit a candle for Grandpa Walton. I enjoyed looking at the stained glass windows that light up in the sun. There were individual worship areas and paintings everywhere, even the stained glass had scenes from the bible. The crypt was silent and spooky. There were plaques commemorating priests long gone, and the single light that shines into the otherwise dark chamber.
Below the Notre Dame over thirty years ago an old archeological crypt was discovered, with the remains of buildings from hundreds of years ago. The entrance was just in front of the church and it was interesting to see how much the land has risen over time.
We grabbed fresh crepes, mine with chocolate and banana, on our way walking across the Seine and up to the Louvre. We had watched the Da Vinci Code on the way in the bus, but it’s more beautiful than I remember it from last time. Nicole our Busabout guide told us a back entrance that not many people know about, and consequently skip the queues of people lining up in front of the pyramids. If you walk towards the gardens at the opposite end of the square, there are steps going down on either side. We had to walk through the shopping strip and voila, no lines!
We took pics in front of the ‘chalice and womb’ pyramids 🙂 and then spent about two hours wandering around. I enjoy the sculptures because I admire the work and talent is takes to create such a detailed piece of 3D art. Now, usually I’m fairly mature, and can handle naked sculptures of men and women, but we saw the funniest sculpture. Four large naked men were standing facing outwards in a circle, each one looking down compaing their penises which were all bent and out of whack. Te he! We couldn’t help but laugh at how silly it looked!
More than the sculptures and naked penises, and a lot more than artifacts and objects, I love the paintings. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa, but it now has its own free-standing wall in the middle of the room with a Y shaped viewing area to shuffle people in a line and verge off on the closest side to stand, snap and move on. Of course all the little Asian tourists are taking photos from every angle with all the family members, but we were the only ones who knew it wasn’t actually the original Mona Lisa, which is currently in New York being repaired from camera damage.
We wandered up the Av de Opera which of course brought us to the Opera House. We were so hungry we stopped for lunch at Le Brioche Doree which is like a franchise patisserie. From there we made our way along to Le Eiffel de Tower for our night bike tour of Paris, with Fat Tire Bike Tours. We had to meet at the south leg of the Tower and walk back to the shop to pick up the bikes, mine was called Claude. They were Californian beach cruisers and our guide was Maggie.
Lija, Lis and I were up front most of the time and we either stuck to the bus/bike/taxi lane of the sidewalk. It was pretty cruisey, and Maggie would just call out instructions. We actually had a large group of about 20, and had to have one of the guys at the back wearing an orange vest so we could tell how far behind everyone was. The bikes had really wide handle bars but were really fun to ride – we really did ‘cruise’ around on them.
We covered much of the ground as during the day, but Maggie had some interesting commentary and other places to note along the way – and it was just so much fun to ride around the Louvre all lit up at night, felt like you owned the world.
But the first place we went was the Notre Dame. Maggie told us it had been cleaned especially for the millenium, because of the soot from coal fires the only way to remove the grime was new laser technology. But the spire was too delicate to handle so it remains black while the rest gleans clean. If it wasn’t for Victor Hugo’s best seller about the Hunchback of Notre Dame the church was going to be eradicated.
From there we rode around to the old Citee on an island with no cars or public transport, but the best ice cream ever. It’s made fresh every day with different flavours. I can vouche for it cos I had nougat and caramel and it was damn good.
We stopped to have a look at the police HQs, parliament and what used to be the old prison, where Marie Antoinette and her children were held for some years. Her son Louie was also held, but rumours circulated that because he was in solitary confinement – they didn’t want him to get out and try to reclaim the position of royalty – that he was swapped for a skinny beggar boy who died in the prision while he escaped just to emerge later in history. Many people came forward over the years claiming to be the young prince, and were well looked after, some even gaining strong support. But new technology recently allowed a DNA sample of the boy who died in the prison – his heart was cut out and kept, to be compared with that of Marie Antoinette’s. It was proved to be the 12 year old prince Louie.
From there we did our ride along the Seine to the Louvre – a great site to see twenty bikes circling the great glass pyramid all lit up. We rode back out along the river to the dock where we had to line up all the bikes together and tie them up, while we cruised along the river for an hour. First back down to the Dame, then back up past the Eiffel, past the mini statue of liberty and the golden flame rededicated to Princess Di above the tunnel which was the fate of her death. Actually, Maggie said she once had a tourist come up to her and ask ‘So why was Pavaroti chasing after Princess Di?’ C’mon people, it’s papparazzi not Pavaroti, who I must say rest in peace, because the great man passed away several days ago.
It was quite a chilli ride but we kept warm by zipping our jackets to our chins and tieing our hoodies tightly while sipping on cheap red wine. Meh, kept me warmish. We also had quite a sight when two drunk guys on the island did a little dance, dropped their dacks and turned around and flashed the whole boat. THe rugby world cup is on at the moment and everyone is going nuts. Beer is up to 12Euros a pint in some places. Everyone is trying to cash in. There’s a giant inflatable rugby ball in the middle of the Eiffel. At night it’s lit up in green and gold – Aussies and Scots have both won games, the Scots are out everywhere proudly showing off their kilts. Every hour for fifteen minutes the Tower lights up and sparkles, how bootiful!
Tags: Travel
marzipan_mad
Leave a Reply