On Wednesday the 22nd November 2023, Mel and I travelled up to London to spend the night to make it easier to catch the Eurostar early the next morning.
We had booked a room in the Goodwood Hotel on Tavistock Place which is very close to St Pancras Station.
Its only a two star hotel and at £89 for the night it is cheap for this part of London. Room was okay clen enough and with a private bathroom. Its only a place to sleep for the night after all!
We walk off into Town and visit Leicester Square Christmas Market and through into Chinatown.
We stop off in the Montagu Pyke Wetherspoon pub in Soho for dinner and drinks before going back to the hotel.
We get up at 5am and make our way to St Pancras for 530am as website states to arrive 60 to 90 minutes before departure. We are through Passport control quickly and are sitting in the Departure lounge for a while waiting to board. Once on board the Eurostar whizzes us to Paris in quick time hitting speeds of up to 186 mph.
We arrive at Gare Du Nord Station at 1001am and exit out onto Place Napoleon III and then onto Rue De Dunkerque. Its raining lightly but we don't have far to go to drop off own cases at the hotel. We cross over the road and turn left into Rue de Maubeuge and to the two star hotel Maison Du Pre. We leave our cases here as check in isn't until 2pm. We then walk back to Gare Du Nord and catch the Metro to Charles de Gaulle station and exit out to the Arc de Triomphe.
Central to Paris’s Place de l’Etoile roundabout stands the majestic Arc de Triomphe. Initially designed as a monument to Napoleon’s victorious armies (and in particular, those who fought during the Napoleonic wars), building on the monumental arch began in 1806 and completed in 1836. Inspired by the great arches found throughout antiquity, the Arc de Triomphe combines both a commemorative space with a symbolic one, and it has always played a major role in the French national republican consciousness.
The world's largest triumphal arch, the Arc de Triomphe was inspired by the Roman version build by Constantine, but is twice the size of the original model at 50 meters (164 feet) high and 45 meters (148 feet) wide. Bas-reliefs grace each pillar, including the Departure of Volunteers in 1792 and the Resistance of 1814, among others. The names of hundreds of generals and battles also decorate the Arc as a testimony to France's past military glory.
According to the Centre des Monuments Nationaux :
"Four sculpted groups adorn the abutments of the Arc de Triomphe. These masterpieces depict The Entry of Napoleon, The Departure of the Volunteers, The Conquest of Alexandria and The Battle of Austerlitz. The most famous of them, The Departure of the Volunteers, also known as La Marseillaise, was created by the Romantic sculptor François Rude in 1792. The others were crafted by two other sculptors, Antoine Etex and Jean-Pierre Cortot.
In 1921 the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was incorporated into the monument, and today the tomb’s flame is rekindled every evening at 6.30 p.m. as a symbol of the enduring nature of the commemoration and respect shown to those who have fallen in the name of France. An annual event is held here to remember the 1918 Armistice of World War I.
We were hoping to climb the steps up to the top of the arc for the views down but it wasn't open until 6pm sadly.
Edgar Brandt, a wrought iron craftsman, was selected to execute the torch, designed by architect Henri Favier: a circular bronze shield at the centre of which opened a cannon muzzle from which radiated a frieze of swords. On 11 November 1923, surrounded by a multitude of former combatants, Maginot ignited the flame for the first time. Since that moment, the flame has never been extinguished.
A daily ritual pays tribute to the Great Dead: each evening, at six-thirty, a flame is rekindled by one of the nine hundred associations of former combatants regrouped under the association La Flamme sous l’Arc de Triomphe. During the Occupation, this daily kindling rite was performed unperturbed. On 26 August 1844 at three o’clock in the afternoon, before descending triumphantly down to Champs-Elysees within liberated Paris, general Charles de Gaulle came to lay down the white-flowered Cross of Lorraine on the Tomb of the unknown Soldier. Since then, the Arc de Triomphe has provided the framework for all great national celebrations: 11 November, 8 May, and, of course, the national fete of 14 July.
We walk down the famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées where the Tour De France finishes and pass many top brand names shops and then cross the road and walk down Avenue Marceau.
We pass Saint Pierre de Chaillot Catholic Church on our right.
The parish of Saint-Pierre de Chaillot dates back to the 11th century. The historic church of the parish was entered from rue de Chaillot, with only a chapel with a brick facade opening onto avenue Marceau. That church hosted the funerals of Guy de Maupassant on 8 July 1893 and of Marcel Proust on 21 November 1922, but all that now survives of it is a statue of the Virgin Mary, the 'Vierge de Chaillot'. The present building was started in 1933 and completed in 1938.
At the end of Avenue Marceau we cross the road and walk down Avenue Du President Wilson and reach the Flame of Liberty.
The Flame of Liberty (Flamme de la Liberté) is a full-sized, gold-leaf-covered replica of the flame of the torch from the Statue of Liberty. It is located near the northern end of the Pont de l'Alma, on the Place Diana, in the 16th arrondissement.
It was offered to Paris in 1989 by the International Herald Tribune on behalf of donors who had contributed approximately $400,000 for its fabrication. It represented the culmination of that newspaper's 1987 celebration of its hundredth anniversary of publishing an English-language daily newspaper in Paris. More importantly, the Flame was a token of thanks for the restoration work on the Statue of Liberty accomplished three years earlier by two French businesses that did artisanal work on the project, namely Métalliers Champenois, which did the bronze work, and the Gohard Studios, which applied the gold leaf. While the gift to France was prompted by the centennial of the newspaper, the Flame of Liberty, more broadly, is a lasting symbol of the friendship uniting the two countries, just as the statue itself was when it was given to the United States by France.
This project was overseen by the director of the French craft unions at that time, Jacques Graindorge. He foresaw an installation of the Flame of Liberty in a public square called Place des États-Unis (United States Square) in the 16th arrondissement, but the mayor of Paris at the time, Jacques Chirac, was opposed to it. After a protracted period of negotiations, it was decided that the Flame would be placed in an open area near the intersection of l'Avenue de New-York (New York Avenue) and the Place de l'Alma. The monument was dedicated on 10 May 1989 by Chirac.
The Flame of Liberty became an unofficial memorial for Diana, Princess of Wales, after her 1997 death in the tunnel beneath the Pont de l'Alma. The flame became an attraction for tourists and followers of Diana, who fly-posted the base with commemorative material. Anthropologist Guy Lesoeurs said, "Most people who come here think this was built for her." Since 2019, the site has been officially named Place Diana.
We cross the bridge named Pont De L'Alma This slender bridge on the River Seine was named to commemorate a victory in battle over Russia. We take a picture of the Eiffel Tower beyond which is our next visit place.
Battle of Alma, (September 20, 1854), victory by the British and the French in the Crimean War that left the Russian naval base of Sevastopol vulnerable and endangered the entire Russian position in the war. It is generally considered the first battle of the Crimean War.
We walk along Avenue Rapp.
We turn right onto Rue de Monttessuy and walk towards the Eiffel Tower.
Crossing Ave de la Bourdonnais we walk onto Av. Silvestre de Sacy and into Jardin De la Tour Eiffel.
Here there are loads of unofficial street vendors selling mini Eiffel Towers and other tourist gifts.
The Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Although initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. The tower received 5,889,000 visitors in 2022.
The tower is 330 metres (1,083 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. It was the first structure in the world to surpass both the 200-metre and 300-metre mark in height. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest free-standing structure in France after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground – the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600 step climb. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift. On this top, third level is a private apartment built for Gustave Eiffel's private use. He decorated it with furniture by Jean Lachaise and invited friends such as Thomas Edison.
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Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years. It was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The city had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it should be easy to dismantle) but as the tower proved to be valuable for many innovations in the early 20th century, particularly radio telegraphy, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit, and from 1910 it also became part of the International Time Service.
Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French. The tower was closed to the public during the occupation and the lifts were not repaired until 1946. In 1940, German soldiers had to climb the tower to hoist a swastika-centered Reichskriegsflagge, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. When the Allies were nearing Paris in August 1944, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. On August, before the Germans had been driven out of Paris, the German flag was replaced with a Tricolour by two men from the French Naval Museum, who narrowly beat three men led by Lucien Sarniguet, who had lowered the Tricolour on 13 June 1940 when Paris fell to the Germans.
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower the names of 72 French scientists, engineers and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions to the building of the tower. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protest. At the beginning of the 20th century, the engravings were painted over, but they were restored in 1986–87 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company operating the tower.
We cross the 19th century Bridge named Pont D'Lena to Voie Georges Pompidou.
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 60 tons of paint every seven years to prevent it from rusting. The tower has been completely repainted at least 19 times since it was built. Lead paint was still being used as recently as 2001 when the practice was stopped out of concern for the environment.
We cross over into Jardins du Trocadero.
The main feature, called the Fountain of Warsaw, is a long basin, or water mirror, with twelve fountain creating columns of water 12 metres high; twenty four smaller fountains four metres high; and ten arches of water. At one end, facing the Seine, are twenty powerful water cannons, able to project a jet of water fifty metres. Above the long basin are two smaller basins, linked with the lower basin by cascades flanked by 32 sprays of water four meters high. These fountains are the only exposition fountains which still exist today, and still function as they once did. In 2011, the fountain's waterworks were completely renovated and a modern pumping system was installed. Sadly all the fountains in Paris are drained at this time of year, I assume to prevent damage from freezing.
The entire site was formerly the garden of the original Trocadéro Palace, laid out by Adolphe Alphand for the Exposition Universelle (1878).
The present garden has an area of 93,930 m2, and was created for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937). This was the design of Parisian architect Roger-Henri Expert. During the exposition in 1937, the pavillons of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were facing each other on opposite sides of the Jardins du Trocadéro.
The grounds will host the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Up high here is probably one of the best places for views to the Eiffel Tower.
We walk out to Trocadero and catch the Metro from the Trocadero station to Franklin D Roosevelt station so we can see more of the Champ Elysees.
We walk along the Champ Elysees.
It is 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and 70 metres (230 ft) wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. It is known for its theatres, cafés, and luxury shops, as the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, as well as for its annual Bastille Day military parade. The name is French for the Elysian Fields, the place for dead heroes in Greek mythology. It has been described as the "most beautiful avenue in the whole world".
I wanted to visit the Galleries Lafayette store to see their amazing Christmas display, we walk into Gallerie Lafayette Champs-Elysees. While this is a beautiful store and lovely Christmas tree, this isnt the one I wanted to visit. A look at the map shows its Gallerie Lafayette Haussmann which is some distance away.
Looking at the map, nothing looks that far away, but believe me it is! We walk along the Champ Elysees to Place De La Concorde.
The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring 7.6 ha (19 acres) in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
It was the site of many notable public executions, including those of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre in the course of the French Revolution, during which the square was temporarily renamed the Place de la Révolution ('Revolution Square'). It received its current name in 1795 as a gesture of reconciliation in the later years of the revolution.
The square was originally designed to be the site of an equestrian statue of King Louis XV, commissioned in 1748 by the merchants of Paris, to celebrate the recovery of King Louis XV from a serious illness. The site chosen for the statue was the large esplanade, or space between the revolving gate the Tuileries Gardens and the Cour-la-Reine, a popular lane for horseback riding at the edge of the city. At the time, the Concorde bridge and the Rue de Rivoli did not exist, and the Rue Royale was a muddy lane that descended down to a marsh beside the Seine.
The architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel made a plan for the site and the square was finished by 1772. It was in the form of an octagon, bordered by a sort of moat twenty metres wide, crossed by stone bridges, and surrounded by a stone balustrade. At the eight corners Gabriel placed stone stairways to descend into the square, which was divided into flowerbeds. In the centre of the gardens was the pedestal on which the statue stood. The statue, by Bouchardon, depicted the King on horseback as the victor of the Battle of Fontenoy, dressed as a Roman general, with a laurel wreath on his head. On the four corners of the pedestal, designed by Jean Chalgrin, are bronze statues by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, depicting the virtues of great monarchs; Force, Justice, Prudence, and Peace.
The statue was dedicated on 20 June 1763, but by this time the King had lost much of his popularity. A few days after its dedication, someone hung a placard on the statue, proclaiming: "Oh, the beautiful statue! Oh, the fine pedestal! The Virtues are under the feet, and Vice is in the saddle!"
On the north side of the square, between 1760 and 1775, Gabriel planned and built two palatial buildings with identical facades. The classical facades were inspired by those created by Charles Perrault, the royal architect, for the facade of the Louvre. They were originally intended to be occupied by embassies, but in the end the east building became a depot for the Royal furnishings, then the headquarters of the French Navy, the Hôtel de la Marine. The west building was divided into individual properties for the nobility.
The Luxor Obelisks are a pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks, over 3,000 years old, carved to stand either side of the portal of the Luxor Temple in the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1250 BC). The right-hand (western) stone, 23 metres (75 ft) high, was moved in the 1830s to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France, while the left-hand (eastern) obelisk remains in its location in Egypt.
The Luxor Obelisk in Paris was classified officially as a monument historique in 1936.
We leave the Place de la Concorde and walk up Rue Royale.
At the top of Rue Royale we reach the Church of Sainte-Marie Madeleine.
The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, or less formally, La Madeleine, is a Catholic parish church on Place de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, leading to the new Place Louis XV, the present Place de la Concorde. It was dedicated in 1764 by Louis XV, but work halted due to the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte had it redesigned in the Neoclassical style to become a monument to the glory of his armies. After his downfall in 1814 construction as a church resumed, but it was not completed until 1842. The building is surrounded on all four sides by columns in the Corinthian style. The interior is noted for its frescoes on the domed ceiling, and monumental sculptures by François Rude, Charles Marochetti and other prominent 19th-century French artists.
We tur right onto Boulevard de la Madeleine and walk along we come across a McDonalds where we decide to rest our feet and have a bite to eat as we were hungry. A big selection there compared to the British Maccy D's!
We walk on and then walk up Rue Scribe up to Palais Garnier.
The Palais Garnier also known as Opéra Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III Initially referred to as le nouvel Opéra de Paris (the new Paris Opera), it soon became known as the Palais Garnier, "in acknowledgment of its extraordinary opulence" and the architect Charles Garnier's plans and designs, which are representative of the Napoleon III style. It was the primary theatre of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new opera house, the Opéra Bastille, opened at the Place de la Bastille. The company now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet. The theatre has been a monument historique of France since 1923.
The Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica". This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and, especially, the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and the popular 1986 musical. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one that is "unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank". This opinion is far from unanimous however: the 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier once described it as "a lying art" and contended that the "Garnier movement is a décor of the grave".
We continue up Rue Scribe and reach Gallerie Lafayette Haussmann.
The Galeries Lafayette is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates a number of locations in France and other countries. It is a part of the company Groupe Galeries Lafayette and has been a member of the International Association of department stores since 1960.
Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, the flagship store, is located on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, near Opera Garnier, at the corner of Rue La Fayette, close to Chaussée d'Antin – La Fayette Paris Métro station. It is a 70,000 m2 (750,000 sq ft) fashion flagship store. A wide range of brands are available at the store to suit all budgets, from ready to wear to haute couture. The architecture of the store is art nouveau, with a remarkable dome and a panoramic view of Paris that has made it a tourist attraction of the French capital city. Galeries Lafayette in Paris hosts a popular weekly fashion show for visitors.
It's Christmas display is just wow and well worth the visit!
We make our way up the travellators to each level, on one level is a platform that reaches out to the tree for you to take selfies. Looking at the queue to do so, we decided we didn't have the time!
We make our way to the rooftop for great views across the city!
We make our way back down to earth and exit the store and walk to the Metro. Here a homeless looking guy complete with can of beer walks into me placing hands on my chest and starts touching my backpack. Fearing he was trying to open my backpack. I shout "No! Fuck Off!" and push him away!
We make our way back to Gare Du Nord and back to the hotel and check in. We have a rest after a long day so far and a lot of walking.
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| View from the Hotel Room |
After a rest and a nap, we head back to Gard Du Nord and travel to Chatelet Les Halles Metro station to visit Notre Dame. Looking back there are closer stations that would have meant less walking. Anyway we walk along Rue des Halles after eventually finding or way out of the labyrinth of Westfields that the Metro exits out into!
We walk pass the Bourse de Commerce.
The Bourse de commerce (Commodities Exchange) is a building in Paris, originally used as a place to negotiate the trade of grain and other commodities, and used to provide services to businesses by the Paris Chamber of Commerce during the latter part of the 20th century. It has its origins in a circular wheat exchange built in 1763–67, with an open-air interior court that was later capped by a wooden dome replaced in 1811 with a copper one (supported by an iron skeletal structure). In a major reconstruction in 1888–89 much of the structure was replaced, although the layout remained the same and the dome was retained albeit adding glass and a mounted canvas.
Since 2021, the building has been the Parisian exhibition site of the Pinault Collection. The dome of the building is listed as a historical monument.
We make our way down a variety of avenues and pass by Tour Saint Jacques. The only remaining part of a 16th-century church that was destroyed during the French Revolution.
We now cross Pont Notre Dame, carvings of kings, saints & a Greek god adorn this arched stone bridge, which was completed in 1914. We have views up the Seine to Pont au Change.
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| Pont au Change. |
We walk along Rue de la Cite, passing Préfecture de Police, the Police Headquarters.
We turn left and down to Notre Dame. Shame its not open to the public after its fire but they hope its open next year for the Olympics.
Notre-Dame de Paris meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Several attributes set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style, particularly its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and colourful rose windows, and the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration. Notre-Dame also stands out for its three pipe organs (one historic) and its immense church bells.
Built during medieval France, construction of the cathedral began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully and was largely completed by 1260, though it was modified in succeeding centuries. In the 1790s, during the French Revolution, Notre-Dame suffered extensive desecration; much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. In the 19th century, the coronation of Napoleon I and the funerals of many of the French Republic's presidents took place at the cathedral.
The 1831 publication of Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (in English: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) inspired interest which led to restoration between 1844 and 1864, supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. On 26 August 1944, the Liberation of Paris from German occupation was celebrated in Notre-Dame with the singing of the Magnificat. Beginning in 1963, the cathedral's façade was cleaned of centuries of soot and grime. Another cleaning and restoration project was carried out between 1991 and 2000.
The cathedral is a widely recognized symbol of the city of Paris and the French nation. In 1805, it was awarded honorary status as a minor basilica. As the cathedral of the archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame contains the cathedra of the archbishop of Paris (Laurent Ulrich).
On 15 April 2019, while Notre-Dame was undergoing renovation and restoration, its roof caught fire and burned for 15 hours. The cathedral sustained serious damage. The flèche (the timber spirelet over the crossing) was destroyed, as was most of the lead-covered wooden roof above the stone vaulted ceiling. This contaminated the site and the nearby environment with lead. After the fire, restoration proposals suggested modernizing the cathedral, but the French National Assembly rejected them, enacting a law on 29 July 2019 that required the restoration preserve the cathedral's "historic, artistic and architectural interest". The task of stabilizing the building against potential collapse was completed in November 2020, and reconstruction began in 2021. The government of France had said it hoped the reconstruction could be completed by Spring 2024, in time for the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on 14 April 2021 that the cathedral site would be formally returned to the church on 15 April 2024, and that the first Mass since the fire would be held in the cathedral nave on that day, even if the reconstruction has not been finished.
After having a sit down opposite the Notre Dame for a while we walked over to St Michel Notre Dame Metro station and caught the RER C line to Champs de Mars Tour Eiffel, to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.
These double decker trains are a great idea, maybe London could do with them. But I suspect out tunnels are too small.
As we exited the station and made our way towards the tower, I saw a young lad suddenly walking fast towards me. Fearing I may be a victim of robbery, I turned and stared at him. He stopped still and then walked off in a different direction. Was I going to be robbed? Who knows but these tourist hotspots are a robbers paradise, best to be aware of your surroundings!
We walked back to the Eiffel Tower for a lot more photos, sorry for so many!
In order to preserve the wrought iron from any natural elements, the tower was once given a coat of yellow paint. However, since 1968 the official color has been "Eiffel Tower Brown" with the top being somewhat darker than the bottom, giving the tower an ombre effect.
Every evening for the first five minutes of every hour, the tower is lit and its beacon shines over Paris. While lit up with its 20,000 bulbs, the Eiffel Tower is a sight to see! During this daily show, many onlookers revel in its beauty while trying to capture it. Posting to your story or on your own personal page is fine, but if you are attempting to do so for commercial purposes, you will have to answer to the French authorities! The tower's light display is technically an artwork protected by copyright laws.
The total weight of the Eiffel Tower is a whopping 10,100 tons! That would be the equivalent of 10 cargo ships altogether. In order to keep the hefty tower standing, the construction crew of 300 used 2.5 million rivets and over 18,000 iron parts. Each pillar is 82 feet wide and all four total 410 square feet.
On Valentine's Day in 1887, the Le Temps newspaper included the vehement opposition of over 300 Parisian artists to the Eiffel Tower. The proclamation stated, "We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate lovers of the beauty, until now intact, of Paris, hereby protest with all our might, with all our indignation, in the name of French taste gone unrecognized, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the construction, in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower.” Their rantings even included that the "gigantic black factory chimney" was so appalling that "even commercial-minded America does not want" it!
Eiffel installed a laboratory used by himself and 72 scientists to study astronomy, meteorology, aerodynamics and physiology. In 1909, Eiffel established a wind tunnel at the base of the tower to test aerodynamics, including tests done on the Wright Brothers' airplanes and Porsche vehicles.
In 1914, the tower housed a radio transmitter that jammed German radio communications and therefore impeded German advancement into Paris. French troops used the tower's wireless station to intercept enemy signals from Berlin, which is thought to have played a significant role in the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.
We walked back across Pont D'Lena to try and make it up the hill to the Trocadero in time for the on the hour when the Tower sparkles.
We made it in time, lovely to see it dazzle in the night!
We walked to the Metro Station at Trocadero onto line 9 and changed at St Lazare and onto the RER E line to Magenta and walked through to Gard du Nord and back to the hotel for the night. I grabbed a bottle of La Goudale Ambre from a corner shop and told to hide it as he can't sell alcohol after five!
Back to the hotel, beer drank and to get some sleep. Another big day tomorrow but hopefully not as hard. Todays steps= 51,338 ,Floors = 25, miles = 23.92.
Day Two. 24th November 2023
We woke up at 8am and went down for our continental breakfast at the hotel. Croissants with jam and baguettes and cheese. Seemed strange to having cheese rolls for breakfast!!
We walked through to Montmartre and walked up Rue de Steinkerque which was full of tourist souvenir shops.
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| Look back down Rue de Steinkerque. |
We climbed up the many steps towards Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre .
From the top of the steps, the views across Paris began to open, but there was still more climbing to be done yet!
We reached the Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre and it is free to enter.
The Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre (Sacred Heart of Montmartre), commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica and often simply Sacré-Cœur is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was formally approved as a national historic monument by the National Commission of Patrimony and Architecture on December 8, 2022.
Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the summit of the butte of Montmartre. From its dome two hundred meters above the Seine, the basilica overlooks the entire city of Paris and its suburbs. It is the second most popular tourist destination in the capital after the Eiffel Tower.
The basilica was first proposed by Felix Fournier, the Bishop of Nantes, in 1870 after the defeat of France and the capture of Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. He attributed the defeat of France to the moral decline of the country since the French Revolution, and proposed a new Parisian church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The basilica was designed by Paul Abadie, whose Neo-Byzantine-Romanesque plan was selected from among seventy-seven proposals. Construction began in 1875 and continued for forty years under five different architects. Completed in 1914, the basilica was formally consecrated in 1919 after
World War I.
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| "Christ in Majesty" |
Sacré-Cœur Basilica has maintained a perpetual adoration of the Holy Eucharist since 1885. The site is traditionally associated with the martrydom of Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris.
The plan to build a new Parisian church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was first proposed on September 4, 1870, by Felix Fournier, the Bishop of Nantes, following the defeat of France and the capture of Emperor Napoleon III by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. Until his death in 1877, Fournier was an active builder who completed the long-delayed restoration of Nantes Cathedral. He wrote that the defeat of France in 1870 was a divine punishment for the moral decline of the country since the French Revolution.
In January 1871, Bishop Fournier was joined by the philanthropist Alexandre Legentil, who was a follower of Frederic Ozanam, the founder of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Legentil declared that France had been justly punished for its sins by the defeat of the French Army at Sedan and the imprisonment of the Pope in Italy by Italian nationalists. He wrote, "We recognize that we were guilty and justly punished. To make honourable amends for our sins, and to obtain the infinite mercy of the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ and the pardon of our sins, as well as extraordinary aid which alone can delivery our sovereign Pontiff from captivity and reverse the misfortune of France, we promise to contribute to the erection in Paris of a sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." The influence of Legentil led to a successful fundraising campaign based entirely on private contributions.
Montmartre was selected as the site of the new basilica due to its prominent height and visibility from many parts of the city. Since the location included land belonging to the local government as well as private owners, the French parliament assisted in securing the site by declaring that the construction of the basilica was in the national interest. In July 1873, the proposal was finally brought forward and approved in the National Assembly with the official statement that "it was necessary to efface by this work of expiation the crimes which have crowned our sorrows." The ground-breaking for the new church finally took place in 1875.
Apart from its physical attributes, Montmartre or the "Hill of the Martyrs" was also chosen for its association with the early Christian church. According to tradition, it was the place where the patron saint of Paris, Saint Denis of Paris, was beheaded by the Romans. His tomb became the site of the Basilica of Saint Denis, the traditional resting place for the kings of France until the French Revolution.
In addition, Montmartre was the birthplace of the Society of Jesus, one of the largest and most influential religious orders in the history of the Catholic Church. In 1534, Ignatius of Loyola and a few of his followers made their vows in Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, one of the oldest churches in Paris.[ The church survived the Revolution although the Montmartre Abbey to which it belonged was destroyed.
A competition was held for the design of the basilica and attracted seventy-seven proposals. Architect Paul Abadie was selected, and the cornerstone finally laid on June 16, 1875.
The early construction was delayed and complicated by unstable foundations. Eighty-three wells, each thirty meters deep, had to be dug under the site and filled with rock and concrete to serve as subterranean pillars supporting the basilica. Construction costs, estimated at 7 million francs drawn entirely from private donors, were expended before any above-ground structure became visible. A provisional chapel was consecrated on March 3, 1876, and pilgrimage quickly brought in additional funding.
Not long after the foundation was completed in 1884, Abadie died and was succeeded by five other architects who made extensive modifications: Honoré Daumet (1884–1886), Jean-Charles Laisné (1886–1891), Henri-Pierre-Marie Rauline (1891–1904), Lucien Magne (1904–1916), and Jean-Louis Hulot (1916–1924).
During construction, opponents of the basilica were relentless in their effort to hinder its progress. In 1882, the walls of the church were barely above its foundations when the left-wing coalition led by Georges Clemenceau won the parliamentary election. Clemenceau immediately proposed halting the work, and the parliament blocked all further funding for the project. However, faced with enormous liabilities of twelve million francs from project cancellation, the government had to allow the construction to proceed.
In 1891, the interior of the basilica was completed, dedicated and opened for public worship. Still, in 1897, Clemenceau made another attempt to block its completion in the parliament, but his motion was overwhelmingly defeated since the cancellation of the project would require repaying thirty million francs to eight million people who had contributed to its construction.
The dome of the church was completed in 1899, and the bell tower finished in 1912. The basilica was completed in 1914 and formally dedicated in 1919 after World War I.
Criticism of the church by leftist journalists and politicians for its alleged connection with the destruction of the Paris Commune continued from the late 19th century into the 20th and 21st centuries, even though the church had been proposed before the Paris Commune took place. In 1898, Emile Zola wrote sarcastically, "France is guilty. It must do penitence. Penitence for what? For the Revolution, for a century of free speech and science, and emancipated reason... for that they built this gigantic landmark that Paris can see from all of its streets, and cannot be seen without feeling misunderstood and injured."
Shortly after the completed Statue of Liberty was transported from France to the United States, opponents of Sacré-Cœur came up with a new strategy. They proposed installing a full-size copy of the Statue of Liberty on top of Montmartre, directly in front of the basilica, which would entirely block the view of the church. This idea was eventually dropped as expensive and impractical.
A bomb was exploded inside the church in 1976.
To make their feelings about the church clear, the socialist mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë and the mayor of the 18th arrondissement Daniel Vaillant, also member of the Socialist Party, renamed the square in front of and below the church in 2004 in honor of Louise Michel, the prominent anarchist and participant in the Paris Commune.
Lionel Jospin, socialist Prime Minister between 1997 and 2002 also expressed his wish that the basilica be demolished as a symbol of "obscurantism, bad taste and reactionism."
In 2021, to avoid celebrating the church's history in the same year as the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, leftist members of the French parliament blocked a measure to declare the church a national historic monument and postponed it until 2022.
The church was finally named as a national historic monument by a unanimous vote of the National Commission of Patrimony and Architecture on December 8, 2022.This decision was immediately attacked by the leftist politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who called it "a glorification of the assassination of 32,000 Paris Communards shot in just 8 days.
The church is 85 meters long and thirty-five meters wide. It is composed of a large central rotunda, around which are placed a small nave, two transepts, and an advance-choir, which form a cross. The porch of the church has three bays, and is modelled after the porch of Périgueux Cathedral. The dominant feature is the immense elongated ovoid cupola, 83.33 meters high, surrounded by four smaller cupolas. At the north end is the campanile, or bell tower, 84 meters high, containing the "Savoyarde", the largest bell in France.
The overall style of the structure is a free interpretation of Romano-Byzantine architecture. This was an unusual architectural style at the time, and was in part a reaction against the neo-Baroque of the Palais Garnier opera house by Charles Garnier, and other buildings of the Napoleon III style. The construction was eventually handed on to a series of new architects, including Garnier himself, who was a counsellor to the architect Henri-Pierre Rauline between 1891 and 1904,
Some elements of the design, particularly the elongated domes and the structural forms of the windows on the south façade, are Neo-classical, and were added by the later architects Henri-Pierre Rauline and Lucien Magne.
The campanile, or bell tower, on the north front, houses the nineteen-ton Savoyarde bell (one of the world's heaviest), cast in 1895 in Annecy. It alludes to the attachment of Savoy to France in 1860.
We pay to walk over 300 steps up a winding staircase to the top of the dome on the Sacre Couer.
After much climbing we reach the top of the dome, Mel has a dizzy spell due to the height and takes a seat whilst I walk around the dome taking in the views across Paris.
During WWII, the church was struck by thirteen bombs in 1944, but resulted in no casualties. This gave Sacre Coeur a legendary status among the people of Paris. However, the original stained glass windows didn’t survive the bombings, so the beautiful windows you can see today were restored after the war.
The bell of Sacre's Coeur is one of the heaviest in the world, at 19 tons. It was built in Annecy in the French Alps in 1895.
The defeat of the French army during Franco-Prussian sparked a shift in Paris. The city’s socialist Communard working-class movement launched an insurrection starting in Montmartre, with an aim to separate state and church. They ruled for a very short period from March 18 to March 28 1871. When the Paris Commune government eventually fell, a local philanthropist called Alexandre Legentil campaigned for a new basilica to protect the French people, but also as a gesture to forgive the Parisians from their socialist sins. Even today, it’s still the source of great controversy.
You can spend the night there for free
Sacré-Cœur offers an unusual night adoration, a continuous chain of silent prayer. It’s been going since 1885. If you’re willing to give up an hour to pray, you’ll receive a night’s accommodation in a dormitory. Nuns will wake you up when it’s your turn, so you’ll want to get there early.
Soaring 213 metres (700 feet) high, Sacré Coeur is the second highest point in the city. It’s built on top of Montmartre hill too, which measures 130 metres (426 feet), high too – so you can expect sparkling views.
Have you ever seen Sacré Coeur looking grubby? Incredible, isn’t it, that your newly painted white walls have fingermarks all over them, yet that 100 year old cathedral is gleaming white. There’s a reason for that. Paul Abadie, the architect, selected a special stone found in the quarries of Souppes, in Seinne-et-Marne. It’s resistant and impenetrable by water. When it does rain, the stone releases a clever substance called ‘calcite’, which cleans the stone and keeps it white. Th Arc de Triomphe and Alexandre II Bridge both use the same stone too.
Before its construction in the 19th century, the top of Montmartre Hill was already a place of worship. Pagans worshipped here, and archaeologists have found evidence of gallo-roman temples dedicated to Mercure and Mars too. It probably has something to do with the hill’s height. Believers would have felt closer to the heavens – and to their gods. The first Christian chapel was built around 270 AD to honour the first bishop in Paris, St. Dennis. He had been beheaded on the hill. Legend has it that after he was decapitated, he picked up his head and started walking while reciting a sermon. The present-day St Denys-la-Chapelle stands on the site where he fell.
We make our way back down, now I begin to feel a little dizzy as I wind round and round the narrow staircase.
Back on the ground we walk on to explore more of Montmartre. I like it here, so much more sedate than the rest of Paris and no mad cyclists and moped riders trying to mow you down.
We walk on down Rue De Chevalier-de-lar-barre and on towards Place du Terte.
Near the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, during the Belle Époque, many artists lived, worked, or had studios in or around Montmartre, including Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Suzanne Valadon, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and Vincent van Gogh. Montmartre is also the setting for several hit films.
We walk into Place Du Terte, a pretty square full of artists and restaurants.
Place du Tertre was the heart of the prestigious Benedictine Montmartre Abbey, established in 1133 by King Louis VI. Montmartre Abbey thrived through the centuries and until the French revolution under the patronage of the Kings of France. Place du Tertre was opened to the public in 1635 as Montmartre village central square. From the end of the 18th century until World War One, the whole Montmartre Boheme could be seen here: painters, songwriters and poets.
Being one of the most visited squares in all of Paris, it's no surprise that competition for a space on Place du Tertre is fierce. Artists are allotted a tiny space of about 3 square feet, which must be shared between two artists on alternating days. The only kind of art allowed on the Place du Tertre are paintings (mostly of Parisian scenery), portraits, caricatures and silhouettes. Hopeful artists must apply through the town hall of the 18th Arrondissement, but they say that the waiting list is about 10 years long!!
We stop and have a hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) in Au Petit Comptoir and sit outside in the square watching the artists and a man on a hand organ with a black cat perched on his shoulders.
As we sat in the square, two Citroen 2CV's drove by, these are tours you can book to see Paris in a French icon motor.
After finishing our Chocolat Chaud we walked on down Rue Norvins.
We pass many shops but the macaroons in the Patisserie catch my eye. I'll have to try these before I go home!
We walk down Rue Norvins and into Place de Jean Baptise-Clement and then onto Rue Gabrielle where I come across Le Taverne de Montmartre. This place looks wonderful and we plan to come back later for dinner.
We walk back up the stairs and back pass Sacre Couer.
We walk down from Sacre Coeur and down to a lovely drinking fountain here.
An English philanthropist called Richard Wallace, who was a Parisian at heart, decided to do something about the situation and came up with the idea of water fountains, which he designed and financed, and in conjunction with the city of Paris, these were put in strategic places all over Paris.
France and especially Paris have been trying to get people back to using tap water, or fresh drinkable water from a fountain, in order to help save the environment rather than continually purchasing bottled water, because plastic bottles take hundreds of years to degrade and have become a global environmental issue affecting wildlife and marine life.
Just next to the water fountain is a dog park, it was enjoyable to see all the dogs playing and having fun.
We walk behind the Sacre Couer to the Square de l Turlure and here is a free toilet that was desperately needed.
We walk back to the hotel and on the way back visit a few shops and supermarkets.
After a much needed rest at the hotel we head back out about 5ish to see the outside of the Musee de Louvre.
So back to Gare du Nord and we catch the RER B line to Chatelet Les Halles and head over to the Metro line 1. But as we got there it seemed the whole of Paris was trying to get onto this line. Apparently a line was out and everyone was switching to this one. I said to Mel lets get out of here before we are crushed, so we head out and eventually get out of the Westfield labyrinth again and onto the street.
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| Christmas Tree at Westfields,Chatelet Des Halles. |
We walk a short way and arrive at the Musee de Louvre.
We have a look about the outside, we had no intention in joining queues and paying money to see the Mona Lisa.
The Louvre or the Louvre Museum iis located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement and home to some of the most canonical works of Western art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the Medieval Louvre fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to urban expansion, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function, and in 1546 Francis I converted it into the primary residence of the French Kings.
The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces.
The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed from 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon's abdication, many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic. The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.
We leave the Louvre and walk along the River Seine. I can see a funfair and hoping it is also a Christmas Market as we hadn't able to find one yet.
We enter Jardin de Tuileries and it is indeed a Christmas Market! I buy some hot chestnuts (marrons Chauds) outside and walk in.
Faux snow and all the vin chaud, if you want to visit a Christmas market in the heart of the city, then the Jardin des Tuileries Christmas Market in Paris is the largest winter fair in the French capital.
Jardin des Tuileries Christmas Market now, and you can expect to find winter favourites such as an ice skating rink, over a hundred chalets selling all manner of French cuisine foodstuffs, gifts, and wine, as well as plenty of fairground rides. In fact, 80% of the products sold are of French origin.
We stop and buy some chocolate and nuts, this a little pricey as there are at these places. But wow amazing chocolate!
We leave the Christmas Market and head into Concorde Metro station go one stop to Champ Elysees Clemenceau and switch to the Metro line 13 and travel to Place de Clichy where we alight and walk to see the Moulin Rouge.
Would have loved to see a show but at about £300 for the pair of us, we gave it a miss. Maybe we will one day.
Moulin Rouge is a cabaret in Paris, on Boulevard de Clichy, at Place Blanche, the intersection of, and terminus of Rue Blanche.
In 1889, the Moulin Rouge was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. The original venue was destroyed by fire in 1915. Moulin Rouge is southwest of Montmartre, in the Paris district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement, and has a red windmill on its roof.
Moulin Rouge is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. Originally introduced as a seductive dance by the courtesans who operated from the site, the can-can dance revue evolved into a form of entertainment of its own and led to the introduction of cabarets across Europe. Today, the Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction, offering predominantly musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. The club's decor still contains much of the romance of fin de siècle France.
We walk on, we are going to Montmartre again to see it after dark.
We walk up Rue Lepic towards Montmartre.
We walk along Rue Abbesses to reach a market there.
One of the tiniest Christmas markets in Paris is located at Place des Abbesses, a little square known for its iconic love wall and proximity to the butte of Montmartre.
Each festive period, a little market is erected in the square, encircling the carousel. Here’s your guide to the Abbesses Christmas market in Montmartre (Marché de Noël des Abbesses).
I buy some macaroons, I try one. They're okay but nothing to get too excited about!
We pass the Abbesses Metro station entrance. Abbesses is the deepest station in the Paris Métro, at 36 metres (118 feet) below ground, and is located on the western side of the butte (hill) of Montmartre. Access to the platforms is by elevator or the decorated stairs.
The station's entrance, designed by Hector Guimard (1867–1942), is one of only two remaining glass-covered "dragonfly" entrances, known as édicules (the other is located at Porte Dauphine, while a replica exists at Châtelet). Though a Guimard original, the édicule at Abbesses was originally located at Hôtel de Ville and was transferred to its current location in 1974. The entrance is technically anachronistic, since line 12 of the Paris metro was built by a competing firm, the Nord-Sud Company, which did not hire Guimard but engaged other architects to design its stations and station entrances.
We leave the market and Abbesses and head along Rue La Vieuville and back up the many steps to Montmartre.
Sacre Couer stands out lit against a black backdrop.
You may recognize Paris' Sacré Coeur basilica from movies such as French Kiss (starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline) or French film Amélie.
As we climb the stairs we stop to watch a choir singing here. We recognised the tunes but not the words. Lovely to hear though and take in the views of Paris sparkling below.
We head back through Place de Tertre and head towards La Taverne de Montmartre.
Sadly the Taverne was full and without a reservation we couldn't be guaranteed a table, so we head back to Place de Tertre.
We get a table in La Cremaillere 1900 and ordered drinks and food.
There was entertainment by means of a guitarist and singer.
We had the bœuf bourguignonne which was very nice.
We leave the restaurant and walk back to the hotel.
A bit less walking today;
Steps = 40,667 , Floors = 53 , Mikes = 18.34
Day Three: Going Home
We got up had our continental breakfast at the hotel and popped out to a G20 Supermarche to buy some French cheese to take home.
We then collected our cases and sat in the departure lounge for quite a while before we could board.
Once we were underway the driver announces we are on a longer route than usual as we are using a line that is slower and goes by Amiens.
Home now though and on reflection what great few days away in Paris. Will return one day as there is so much more to see!