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| Paris France - Day One, WW | |
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| | Paris France - Day One, WW | | | |
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Paris France - Day One, WW
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| Walk / Tour | 11.33 Miles |
236 AEG |
| | Walk / Tour | 11.33 Miles | | | |
| 236 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | FRANCE WITH COUSINS. Previous to this day, my first cousin Wendy and I had been to Bassing to surprisingly meet more 8th cousins and a couple 7c1x. It was a joyous afternoon. My cousins were great as anytime I would turn the camera phone their way they would wave and smile. I wish my fellow hikers would do that. Thus, we now have the Romain wave which we practiced with my 1c1x on our trip through Zion and the area around Page.
I am just going to go over some highlights, even though the whole experience was a highlight for us  . I'll go into more detail in the photo set. Oh ya, our first day in Paris started bright and early. Even though the mileage shows 5.37, it is unofficial as I more or less drew it out on MapDEX. Per my watch we did 25,271 steps (11.33 miles). We had good weather, bad weather and of course, the occasional rain. We took the RER and Metro to get to our first stop, a request of mine, The Bistro Romain. One of the brokers I worked for brot me a napkin from there in the 90s. I had it with me. The Bistro wasn't open yet, but our cousin Jean-Luc, persuaded the worker inside to let us in for a look around. He must have explained the story and the person gave us menus and momentos. It is an Italian restaurant. You see, Romain is said as Roma in France, and they believe the name comes from the Roman soldiers from way back in the day.
Next we took the Metro to the area of the Basilica, however, we got on the wrong one and had to go down and catch the right Metro, finally arriving a couple blocks from Sacré-Cœur. We would be walking up several layers of 222 stairs, stopping to admire the views and the fountain. I had been to Paris a couple times in the 70s and Sacré Cœur Basilica is always a stop on a tour. We didn't go inside as the line was too long. We walked around checking on all the action in the square near the Basilica and down a narrow road with some street art of the famous artists of the Montmartre including Monet, Picasso and Lautrec.
We decided at the last moment to catch the Promotrain and take it down the hill to Moulin Rouge. That was an interesting ride with people waving at you. Jean-Luc's wife was saying "bon jour" as we passed folks on the street. It was a trip and certainly not very comfortable on the cobblestone. From the Rouge our next stop was the Church of the Holy Trinity which is under construction until 2027. The budget for the operation amounts to 25 million euros. Like so many cathedrals, it was outstanding and like many of our stops, it wouldn't be for long as Jean-Luc and Louise, who had both worked in Paris, kept us moving to our next POI.
The Galeries Lafayette was something I had seen in pictures and videos about Paris but I wasn't expecting to see it. I think they took us here as the Opera House was closed. Well we were awe struck. Galeries Lafayette is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. In 2019, they recorded earnings of over five billion euros. And then there was the glass dome  , the suspended glass walkway from the third floor and we continued up and outside the 8th floor next to the dome with incredible views of the Paris skyline. We inhaled our gasping breath and headed back down to walk around the exterior of The Palais Garnier, also known as L'Opéra Garnier, a historic 1,979-seat opera house at the Place de l'Opéra.
Before lunch at the historic Bouillon Chartier Grands Boulevards (no reservation required), we went to a perfume store so Louise could pick up a bottle for a gift. There was quite the line at the restaurant but Louise went around its side to ask to use the toilette, and lo and behold, we got a table within a few minutes. I've heard that trick works well in Paris  . I had a lovely French duck (it didn't speak English) leg and of course, we had a bottle of wine. Apparently this really energized our guides as Wendy and I had to walk very fast to keep up; but then again, maybe that was the coffee.
We walked through the incredible 1836 covered Passage Jouffroy and 1800 covered Passage of the Panoramas (first public place in the capital equipped with gas lighting in 1817). We walked by the Palais Brongniart that used to house the Paris Stock Exchange and passed by the beautiful 1830 Square Louvois that we had driven by on the Promotrain. As we were walking and gawking, a guard at this pillared opening said it was free to come into this building. Of course, Wendy and I have no idea what it is but Jean-Luc and Louise said for us to go in. It was The Richelieu site, the cradle of the National Library of France for 275 years (1721-1996), now the BnF Museum. Well like everything we would see this day, it was a surprise and astonishing.
Before going through the glass-domed 1823 Galerie Vivienne passage, we saw the huge bronze Louis XIV Statue on Place des Victoires. The passage gave elegant Parisians (or us in this case  ) a chance to shop out of the rain, have tea, and/or dine after visiting their favorite tailor or cobbler; and still does that two centuries later. Next up was a walk through and around The Palais-Royal, a former French royal palace of the Duke of d'Orleans (the LouisS) and opposite the Louvre. It is now now the seat of the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d'État and the Constitutional Council. The interior courtyards have two interesting areas: the beautiful and colorful Jardin (garden) du Palais Royal (The Alley of Colette), originally started (planted) in 1629 ). I've been amazed at all the spring flora I've seen in France during the Fall. The second interesting area was the Galerie d'Orlean with "Photo-Souvenir - Les Deux Plateaux" which consists of short columns of various sizes arranged across the courtyard and doesn't really seem to fit the aura of a French royal courtyard.
On our way to the famous Louvre, we stopped at a corner that had a mirrored facade of a building that hid construction. The mirrors reflected some of the Louvre buildings. Louise and I walked up to it and I showed her how I do selfies. She wasn't quite sure what I was up to. Neither of us speaks each other's spoken language but sign language seemed to work. After a bit of a detour (wasn't sure where they were going to go in the Louvre), we entered through the Richelieu Wing to observe a glass-roofed courtyard known as Cour Marly filled with French sculptures from the 17th and 18th centuries which were commissioned by Louis XIV and Louis XV.
Next up was to walk out into the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace via the large glass and metal pyramid, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon). From here your eye is drawn to the The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a triumphal arch with red marble columns which is on the site of the former Tuileries Palace (destroyed in 1871). The top is a bronze chariot drawn by four bronze horses abreast and rode by the allegory of Peace with two gold statues on each side. We did a clockwise route around the interior of the courtyard by several amazing Pavillions and made our way through to the other courtyard under Pavillion Sully to the Louvre's Cour Carrée.
We passed under/throught the Aile Sud archway entrance that takes you on the Pont des Arts Bridge of Love over the Seine and with a view of the 1643 domed Institute de France (as of 1795) which since 1806 has housed the five French academies. We hung a left and headed to the Pont Neuf Bridge, passing by The Monnaie de Paris, national monetary institution of France to the Pont Neuf bridge and circled the bronze equestrian statue of Henry IV. He never got to see it as he was assasinated.
We then went down to the Seine River and boarded the Les Vedettes de Pont Neuf boat for a one hour tour  . The guide spoke 3 languages fluently. I gave him a $2 bill and he was thrilled as he said, "do you know hard it is to get one of these?" I had heard the Europeans like the $2 bills so I got a bunch before I left USA.
Needless to say, in spite of the spat of rain at the beginning, it was an incredible sunset cruise to the Eiffel Tower, turn around and to Notre Dame and turn around back to the dock. We were lucky to get some incredible light for part of the cruise and a rainbow plus the lit Eiffel Tower! And put it this way, they don't call Paris the City of Light (La Ville-Lumière) for nothing. You would think we were done since it was dark BUT, on the way to catch the Metro/RER, we got to see a lit a medieval Roman Catholic church Church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois.
Epilogue: I did hours and hours of research of all the places we got to see. We didn't know before we went as we left it to Jean-Luc who I met via email around Feb 2020 via my other USA Romain 2nd cousins, who had traveled across the pond to Lorraine in Oct 2019. Jean-Luc spoke pretty good English and of course, we used google translate and sign language a lot. The next day we went back into Paris and even got to ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
We would have an authentic six course dinner with them at their home outside of Paris near the river Marne. We would finish our time in France with a morning trip to Versailles. I have only finished the videos from the first of 3 days in France and, of course, they include interpretive information.
These links are just for Paris - Day One (or as Jean-Luc said to us "Paris by feet"):
Paris Day One [ youtube video ] including Metro ride and Romain Bistro and Sacre-Coeur, Montmartre
Paris Day One [ youtube video ] including Trinity Church, Galeria Lafayette, outside Opera House, BnF National Library/Museum
Paris Day One [ youtube video ] including Royal Palace and Gardens
Paris Day One [ youtube video ] The Louvre Courtyards
Seine River Sunset Cruise - [ youtube video ] and [ youtube video ]
I have been to Paris back in the 70s but I didn't remember a lot. I so appreciated this visit; especially with Jean-Luc as our guide. As they say, it's a whole other world. The food and wine was divine. I'm hoping to bring the rest of my family so they can continue the relationship with our French cousins. MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all! |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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