Changes in town since summer

While we were back in the US this summer several things had changed in town. The church that had been undergoing major renovations had the scaffolding removed which had been in place since before our arrival in October 2020. 

In recent weeks even the barrier in front of the church was also removed.

The garden planted at one end of Place du Jaude had continued to grow and fill in. Now that has been removed.

Christmas decor including a giant tree is now up in Place du Jaude and also the ferris wheel has arrived. The energy issues may curtail some of it. Our town has announced that the Christmas stuff will begin one week later than usual and end completely on January 1 to save energy. This limits it to only about 3 weeks based on my calculation. It was far longer last year. For such a short time period, perhaps the large ferris wheel will not make an appearance. Only time will tell.

The new apartment building across the street had added a few floors

The full structure of the apartment building is complete. It won't be any taller than this. This "before" photo was taken before June 2021. They had removed a lot of trees and were in the midst of the archeology dig. The sycamores lining the street had been sharply pruned the previous fall and they were slow to leaf out so the view was pretty good.

This photo was taken October 25,2022. There will be 53 apartments in it, starting at 30 square meters (a little over 300 square feet). They are now working on the interior of the polyclinique

Paris 2

Near our hotel was the monument marking the location of the old Bastille. Having become a prison, considered the symbol of monarchical despotism, the old Bastille was stormed by the citizens during the French Revolution in 1789.

It was completely demolished by 1806. This site is now the Place de la Bastille.

There was a metro station right near the hotel ( actually several in easy walking distance) including one at Place de la Bastille. We made good use of the metro system when we weren't walking around Paris.

We really wanted to visit Montmartre and the Sacré Coeur Basilica. Montmarte is a charming village within the city of Paris. You can find lots of artists and bistros and fabulous views of Paris. Sacré Coeur was constructed at the end of the 19th century. Because it is situated atop a hill, you can hike up a lot of steps or buy a ticket for the funicular. Much easier! We really don't have any pictures. There were so many people at this site we could barely move let alone enjoy the area. It turned out that there was an enormous wine festival on this site on the day we tried to visit. Having faced the reality that visiting this site today was a mistake, we escaped back down the hill. Yikes! The Absesses metro station beneath Montmartre is the deepest station underground. There are about 181steps in a spiral staircase. The 181steps down isn't too bad, but the steps up can be a challenge. Apparently there is an elevator somewhere, however. We didn't see it.

Just some of the hot drinks during our Paris visit; L to R: cappuccino, hot chocolate and a café crème. The 4th member of our group had an expresso (décaffeiné). We enjoyed a lot of coffees, etc., just chatting and people watching.

Timed tickets? Really? I know some tourist sites started this prior to the pandemic, but it seems to become practically mandatory everywhere in Paris. When B and I visited Paris 10 years ago, you could rough out what you wanted to do on your visit but you just arrived at whatever museum or location and purchased your ticket on the spot. Not so now. Nearly every venue required pre-purchased timed tickets. There are skip-the-line tickets but you still have to purchase timed entry tickets. Some locations did sell tickets on arrival, but lines were very long and there was no guarantee. Maybe it sounds like a good system in terms of purchasing your tickets, but it doesn't allow for last minute changes and the venues haven't created an adequate system outside of the venue itself to handle the crowds.

 We tried to purchase tickets "on the spot" at Sainte Chapelle but they only sell them if there are any tickets left after all the timed ticket owners enter the venue. We waited in line a long time and realized we would be waiting a very long time. Consecrated in 1248, the Sainte Chapelle was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his precious collections of Christian relics, including Christ's crown of thorns, acquired by Saint Louis. The stained glass windows are beautiful but with no guarantee of entry, we decided to try to enter La Conciergerie. That went better! We got in.

La Conciergerie is originally part of the royal palace, la Palais de la Cité (construction began in 10th century), which also included Sainte Chapelle. These two are practically next door to each other. In the 14th century, prison cells were added in the lower parts of the building.  2780 prisoners, including Queen Marie Antoinette, were held here before eventually being executed. You can view a cell similar to what the Queen endured. The Concergerie draws less of a crowd so we were able to purchase "on the spot" entrance tickets without too much of a wait. Beneath the secular vaults of La Conciergerie, an artist named Théo Mercier was installing a sand art display. The Exhibition, meant to evoke sleepers guarded by their faithful dogs, wasn't technically open quite yet, but we could watch a little and look at what had been completed. It was fascinating!

My sister-in-law had read about a street artist known as Ememem. This artist fills divots and potholes with multicolor tile mosaics- sort of a French Banksy. It was impossible to find a list of actual locations for this street art so we didn't really think we'd see any. We were wrong! In the area of the Concergerie, etc., we located two artworks.

These two were done together.

Our group of four headed off to see the post-fire situation at Notre Dame Cathedral. There is a tall solid fence surrounding the entire site but you can see what's above the fence. A "hotel" of sorts has been constructed adjacent to the Cathedral as living quarters and office space, etc., for the workers who are re-constructing the cathedral.

The entire remaining exterior of the Cathedral has been cleaned and much work has already been completed. It is anticipated that the Cathedral will be finished and re-opened by 2024 just 5 years after the massive fire that destroyed the roof and toppled the spire. Much of the oak ( maybe not all?) has been harvested within France- very old, very large trees. Notre Dame sits on an island in the Seine River.

On the left is the offices/crew quarters, etc. The building is a huge contrast to the beautiful architecture of the Cathedral.

You can see the solid beige fencing surround the Cathedral in this shot but only when you are right next to it do you realize how tall it is since so much of the Cathedral towers over the fence.

There are drawings to interpret what you are seeing during reconstruction.

A cute alley.

Beautiful artwork on the security screening on the Bank of France.

Paris 1

Recently we met my brother and his wife in Paris! We enjoyed the city for 6 days and then we all traveled to our place ( more central France) for a few more days of visiting and sight-seeing. I am writing several posts about our time together. The Parisian activities discussed in our posts are in no particular order.

A pastry purchased at Maison Landemaine : a passion fruit tart. Pretty and yummy! The box said they also have a location in Tokyo. 

While none of our group wanted to go up inside of the Eiffel Tower, we still wanted to take in the iconic structure. It just so happens that the Eiffel Tower is in the midst of  the 20th campaign to clean, strip rust and apply rest preventer to some areas, and re-paint. They focus on different areas with each renovation. It looked quite a bit different from what I had remembered. In recent decades it was painted in a range of brownish shades to "be in harmony with the Parisian cityscape," but this time it is being painted in a golden shade before the 2024 Paris Olympics. It was also painted like this at the beginning of the 20th century. The cost of this renovation before the Olympics is said to be around $60 million. 

Early one morning we visited Cimetière du Père Lachaise (Pere Lachaise Cemetery). It covers 93 acres and has 4000 trees. It was a lovely fall day and it was one of the few places we visited without hoards of other visitors. Also, entrance to the cemetery is free and does not require timed tickets to enter. 

A little history: The cemetery is named for Francois d'Aix de La Chaise (known as Père La Chaise) who was the priest confessor of King Louis IV. In 1804 space in Paris for burials was becoming very hard to find. Cemeteries were constructed on the outskirts of the city and this was one of them. There were 3 types of burials planned: mass graves, time-limited concessions and more prestigious monuments in a wooded area. By the close of 1804 only 13 graves existed at Père Lachaise. In 1817 someone must have thought the cemetery needed a boost. So, Molière's grave was located to Père Lachaise Cemetery. By 1830 there were 33,000 graves so it sounds like the plan worked. The Cemetery was expanded multiple times beginning in 1824. 

People continue to be entombed here, though there are very strict rules about that. You have to have lived in Paris or died in Paris.  There is always a waiting list. In more recent times there is a 30 year lease on a gravesite so if not renewed, the remains are removed, boxed, tagged and moved to  Aux Morts Ossuary (a special building still inside Père Lachaise). There are a lot of famous politicians, writers, actors, singers, scientists and nobles buried here. Paris officials say that around 1 million people are buried here (2-3 million if you count the remains in the Ossuary.)

We arrived very early on a Sunday morning.

Many tombs are designed like a telephone booth- just enough room to enter, kneel and pray.

A very interesting gravesite monument.

Gravesite of Frederic Chopin, Polish composer, died 1849.

Gravesite of Jim Morrison, American singer, died 1971.

Gravesite of Molière, French playwright, died 1673.

Other gravesites of famous persons to be found here include Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and so many more. The leaves were taking on their fall colors.

One tombstone contained the following: " La mémoire est le miroir où nous regardons les absents." Roughly translated it means the memory is the mirror where we look at the absent.

Over 3.5 million people visit this cemetery annually and is the most visited cemetery in the world.

One of our many coffee breaks! 

Paris 3

Our trip out to Versailles involved taking the metro and a train. It's a 50 minute train trip. We opted for joining a small guided tour of the essential parts of the Palace. There are additional tours you can take. You could probably spend several days here taking lots of separate tours.

We met our group at this statue of Louis XIV.

When B and I visited in 2012 we'd been warned about the enormous crowds but we lucked out and the crowds were small. On this visit, it was early when our tour began so the crowds weren't an issue. Later in the tour there were many more people but it still wasn't too crowded. Many people have told us that when they visited Versailles they endured a sea of wall to wall people.

 

A little history: Versailles began its life as a hunting pavilion built by Louis XIII in 1629. Then it became a stone chateau when it was transformed and extended by Louis XIV over 50 years. In 1789, the French revolution forced Louis XVI to leave Versailles for Paris and it was never again a royal residence. In 1837, under King Louis Phillipe, it became the Museum of History in France and housed new collections of paintings and sculptures. In the early 20th century, Versailles was restored to the appearance it had when it was a royal residence.  It now includes 2300 rooms and is 63,154 sq meters.

The Royal Chapel

This was the last building built by Louis XIV.

Disclaimer: I have tried my best to put the portraits, statues, ceiling murals, etc., in the correct rooms, but if I have mistakes, sorry about that! Each and every wall, ceiling and room was incredibly ornate. Many were amazing and beautiful- especially the ceiling murals. 

The rooms we visited were basically 3 long hallways in the shape of a U.  At the bottom of the U is the famous Hall of Mirrors. 

Hercules Salon

Rebecca at the Well, 16th century, marble walls.

The Apotheosis of Hercules. It took three years to paint (1733-1736). The most epic of all ceiling murals at Versailles.

Venus Salon

This room is the main entrance to the King's state apartment and functioned as a sort of lobby.

The ornateness (is that a word?) of everything is mind boggling.

This is a statue of Louis VIX in antique attire.

Diana Salon

This room also served as a lobby during the reign of Louis XIV. Ceiling depicts Diana and hunting scenes.

Mars Salon

In Louis XIV's time, the Mars Room marked the actual start of the King's apartment. It served as a guard room. The room's military function is underlined by the portrayal of Mars, the Roman god of war.

The center panel illustrates Mars on a chariot pulled by wolves.

Just one of many, many chandeliers. Our guide pointed out that the next largest budget item after food was candles. The guide also mentioned that they would often have to stop functions, plays, etc., to replace all of the candles. Maybe that's the origin of intermissions.

Mercury Salon

The Mercury Room functioned as a state room, because Louis XIV actually slept in his private apartments. That being said, up to 1701, the room hosted the King's getting-up and going-to-bed ceremonies, which were observed by the public.

Apollo Salon

The Apollo room, dedicated to the Roman god of the sun, with whom Louis XIV identified, served as a throne room. Here is where the king would hold his regular audiences. During evening gatherings at the apartment, the room became a ballroom. Portrait of Louis XVI. The original was a gift to his nephew or grandson, but he liked it so much he had a couple of copies made. This one is actually a copy. The original hangs in the Louvre. 

War Salon

The War Room depicts Louis XIV as a victorious king. It is immediately adjacent to the Hall of Mirrors and is a counterpart to the Peace Room, situated at the opposite end of the former.

Hall of Mirrors

The Hall of Mirrors replaced a large terrace overlooking the garden in 1679 when it was considered too exposed to inclement weather. Its seventeen arches decorated with mirrors face seventeen arched windows, creating a commingling of the interior and exterior. The Hall of Mirrors was a place for both social events and demonstrating the political might of Louis XIV. Most of the mirrors are original. The ceiling was painted between 1681 and 1684.

Council Chamber

Here is where the major political decisions were made. The king would meet here with his ministers. It is also where he received certain audiences. The room's décor dates from Louis XV's time. We were told Benjamin Franklin spent time here.

The King's South Chamber

King Louis XIV died here in 1715. This was also where the court members and visitors were invited to watch as the King got up in the morning and went to bed at night.

Queen's Chamber

Coronation Chamber

This painting depicts Napolean placing a crown onto the head of Emporess Josephine.

Another portrait, this one of Marie Antoinette.

Two outdoor shots at Versailles. We had gorgeous weather, though it was a bit chilly first thing in the morning.

We also visited Grand Trianon.

As Versailles got "too crowded" with people, Louis XIV built a succession of smaller palaces with less folks around. This is the corner of the room known as the Bedroom of the Queen of the Belgians.

Trianon had its own hall of mirrors. 

The Trianon gardens.