Paris: Le Jour Long

Paris

May 13-May 22, 2012

Wednesday, May 15

After Tuesday's dramatic downpour, I checked the weather and experienced increasing panic as I saw raincloud after raincloud on the horizon for the forecastable future. The one (partly) sunny day projected was the next day, so with panic-smashing determination I decided to see all of the outdoor sights in Paris in one glorious day.

This was my longest day in Europe.


Luxembourg Gardens

I began at the Jardin de Luxembourg in the posh 6ème, which came highly recommended by my fellow graduate students, who had recently stayed nearby. Like the Tuilleries, this was a classic French garden with a large pool and fountain in the center (surrounded by chairs), rows of well-groomed trees dotted with statues, and very short grass. There was also a large palace-like structure, and recreational facilities such as a tennis court. It seemed like local Parisians made good use of the park (I even saw a large group doing tai chi.)

I'm not sure if these fils were waiting to play or waiting to go home...

   
My plan was to follow the advice of my grad student friends yet further by eating macaroons from the peerless Pierre Hermé (they are true gourmands so they know) while sitting in the park. I wandered back and forth looking for the address I had written down from the internet, asked several people (in French :) ), and finally gave up (I had a schedule to keep!). Fortunately the surrounding area was picturesque Paris.

This seemed a photo-friendly representative of the many newsstands scattered about the city.

Place des Vosges

Next stop (after a short metro ride) was the elegant Place des Vosges in the Right Bank's 4ème, a green square surrounded by shops overhung by some of the most expensive apartments in Paris. Though any plebeian can hang out in style for free. 

Notice anything strange about this statue? I found out later that it was needed for support. Still, an odd choice...

I also walked around the surrounding area, heading on foot to a more famous Parisian gathering space.

Notre Dame

I approached Notre Dame from the rear. And in the cathedral's shadow I found a little park. And in that little park I found an alien disk toy exactly resembling the one in the strange eyeball-themed park near my apartment. This is a disk that you can sit on, and that rotates a full 360 degrees, such that if you lie down on it and have someone spin you around you can get very dizzy. Besides the one near my house and this one in Paris, I've never seen another. Of course, I sat down to play for a minute.

As forecasted, it was only a partly sunny day...

Notre Dame itself, on the Ile de la Cité, features giant ornately carved doorways where saints in relief inspire holiness. I made it quickly through the line and up to and through these doorways, before turning around and deciding I should return for this inside stuff on one of my plentiful rainy days (I had no idea at the time what a boon it had been to get in so quickly). 

The holy draw the eye to the morally and physically higher realms they inhabit.

Before mounting the cathedral, I checked out the boisterous festival in the square in front of Notre Dame. I never did quite figure out what it was about, but it featured a large assembly square of people making bread, and, in the back corner, a colorful music and dance performance. 

After a brief wait in line, I mounted the stairs to the top of Notre Dame for the famed views of Paris.

You can see some of the tents from the festival in this one, along with the Bateaux Mouches and Tour Eiffel.

 

The more modern financial district in the distance, juxtaposed against the 18th and 19th century architecture that pervades much of Paris.

Much of the building's architecture was at eye-level from the walkway.

Gargoyle! To scare away evil spirits...and drain water.

The figure in the far distance is purportedly a self portrait the architect did in his own honor.

Can you imagine Quasimodo ringing this bell? Incidentally, apparently Victor Hugo's story played a large role in renewing public interest in Notre Dame, inspiring funding for restorations and helping to make it the landmark it is today.

Sacre Coeur in the distance, near where I was staying at this time.

The view on the way down.

I then left Notre Dame behind to continue my tour of all-necessary-outdoor-Parisian-sights, first procuring a quick pick-me-up via a café crème at a little café.

Now, I had places to go and things to see while there was still rain-free sky, so I asked if I could have the café to go. The waiter said sure and brought it to me in a plastic cup that was so hot from the coffee it was practically melting in my hands (which fortunately stand up well to heat), and had no lid. I don't know for what this cup was intended, but it spoke volumes about the demand for take-away coffee in Paris. I enjoyed café au lait in a scalding plastic cup many times to follow.

Strolling Along the Seine

It was time for the quintessential Parisian outdoor activity: strolling along the tree and book stand-lined Seine. At this point I might have been listening to La Vie en Rose (I downloaded a few French songs for my ipod in a hurry before my flight out), a favorite that never failed to make me feel Paris more deeply. There were so many fun books and postcards! I took pictures of many, purchased a select few.

I love these women.

This one reminds me of paintings by Anne Blair Brown, who was represented in the gallery I worked for the summer after college.

 

I was walking along the left bank abut Ile de la cité, so I wandered back onto the west side of the island, where more of the festival was happening--apparently it was a festival to bread that also involved low-risk bicycle tricks.

Then I wandered along the Seine some more...

Walked over briefly to the Place Saint-Michel, which is very nearby...

Walked back to the edge of the Seine...

  

And found a shop selling little dishes that reminded me of those I used to play with at Mamama's house.

Along with other things.

So that's what the devil's wife looks like...

Rented bikes! (More on these later.)

Hipsters! (More on these later too.)

The Left Bank

Strolling along the left bank of the Seine led naturally (via my guidebook-enabled planning) to exploring some of the sights of the Left Bank. 

First I returned to Place Saint-Michel, marked by a large fountain and often a crowd gathered around a street performance.

 

 

I stayed for a few minutes to watch some fairly impressive acrobatics/break dancing.

 

 

Then I went to buy some lunch ingredients to eat by the Seine, as per the recommendation of the same graduate students who had sent me on the (sadly unsuccessful) quest for macaroons that morning. So off I went from Place Saint-Michel along the Boulevard Saint-Germain to the corner where I could find the bread shop and cheese shop (separate shops, of course) that they had recommended. I also picked up some cherries for good measure (like the previous day's apricots--stunning in both presentation and price). 

 

This has nothing to do with my lunch, but is fun.

Then it was off through the charming streets of the Left Bank to find my way back to the river.

Paris has a system by which you can rent bicycles that are stationed around the city (shown right) and then drop them off when you're done with them. Since my return this summer they've begun installing this system (here called Hubway) in Boston. There are some bikes that look just like this a block from me.

You can see the Seine book stands in the center.

When I returned to the Seine I was right back in the center of the city. 

Patrons of this restaurant enjoy the view of Notre Dame just pictured.

Lunch by the Seine

Crossing another bridge to the center island, I saw with some mystification that it was covered with locks that people had written on.

Later, on a bike tour, I learned that these were Love Padlocks, popular on bridges in France because of an Italian book and movie. The idea is that if you write your name and your lover's on a lock and then affix it to a bridge (or other spot), your love will last as long as the lock remains. 

The view form the Love Lock bridge.

In many places you can climb down from walking by the Seine at street level, to walk by it at Seine level. The empty bench on the right is where I ate my lunch.

The river felt different from this vantage point.

You can just make out the locks on the bridge.

I knew the gourmet graduate students had impeccable taste!

Institute du Monde Arabe

From there I continued walking from the 6ème to the 5ème, loosely following a walking tour through the Left Bank outlined in my already travel worn Let's Go Paris.

A revolutionary doorway.

Let's Go recommended a place I never would have known to look for, the Institute du Monde Arabe (Institute of the Arab World), citing its unusual architecture and free, lineless access to an incredible view of the city.

I couldn't find a way into this thing...not for lack of trying.

Inside the institute was a bookstore, restaurant, offices, and right in the center, a glass elevator up to the top. It was a pretty nice view.

That big monument look familiar yet?

I could also look into (though not access) the upper floors of the building. The entire place pretty much felt like this:

  
Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air

I'm not quite sure why I took the next picture, because I went to the open air sculpture museum the first time en route to Jardin des Plantes (the next guidebook destination), without realizing that that was where I was.

I did notice this sculpture though. As I approached it intriguingly looked like evocative this:

And then when I went around for a closer view, it looked like this:

There was also this, which for some reason looks to me like it should be battling Luke for Jabba the Hutt's entertainment...

Jardin des Plantes

The Garden of Plants was a free garden adjacent a museum that was already closed. The garden had flowers:

And information about yellow plants:

And sculptures:

Including this sort of creepy one:

And a section with roses:

And the most whimsical carousal I've ever seen:

Would you pick the giraffes, tortoise or ostrich?

Or perhaps you prefer those of the prehistoric persuasion?

Latin Quarter

Next on the agenda was winding my way through the Latin Quarter. 

This Kerouac-inspired film was advertised prolifically throughout the city

This brought me to the Rue Mouffetard, famous for its food market, shops and raclette restaurants. I hadn't looked this up yet, but I'd be moving hostels to this very street the following day. (Mouffetard is also featured in the photo at the beginning of this post.)

Apparently even Parisian's know that New York has the best Pizza.

From Mouffetard I made my way to the area near the Sorbonne. There's not a lot to see of the university that's publicly accessible, but I probably saw some students, and I could say I'd been there.

This is the Pantheon Crypt, which I visited on another day. It's incredible how many state buildings are a simulacrum of Roman architecture. It pales in comparison, though, to the real Pantheon, which I saw later. 

Luxembourg Garden, Take 2

I can't recall precisely why I decided to return to the Jardin du Luxembourg. It might have been that I felt I had rushed it in the morning, or that it hadn't been sunny enough, or I might have discovered that I missed a fountain that sounded pretty special from the book's description. In any event, once I passed through the Sorbonne campus I was pretty close to this garden again, so back I went.

The garden is on the right.

The first thing I did was find the Fontaine des Medicis, which I had missed before and which Let's Go described as: "One of the loveliest spots in the Jardin...a vine-covered grotto complete with a murky fish pond and Baroque fountain sculptures."

I wandered around the rest of the garden a bit more, to make sure I had had my fill.

And while I was there, happened upon some kind of photo shoot taking advantage of the late afternoon sun.

Is he doing some variety of advanced push-up?

I think this little girl was drawn to the pouffy tiered concoction almost as much as I was.

Latin Quarter, continued

By the time I was on the other side of the garden, I wasn't far from bohemian writer hangout Saint-Germain Des Près. Onward!

Saint Germain des Près is considered the center of the French existentialist movement, and its now famous Deux Maggots was a popular spot among the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, Hemingway, Camus, and Picasso. Now it's a popular hangout among tourists and possibly some French people.

The Marais and Isle Saint-Louis

After Saint Germain des Près, I hopped on the metro and crossed from the left to the right bank to see one more area of the city and eat my second gourmet graduate student-inspired meal.

The Marais (so named because it used to be a marsh) is a happening area popular with young French hipsters who enjoy being fashionable, counter-culture art and eating felafel (which is apparently very popular across Paris).

Sitting in cafes, of course, is a Parisian universal.

From the Marais I walked over to Isle Saint-Louis, a smaller island right next to Isle de la Cité. Saint-Louis is primarily ice cream shops and restaurants, one of which my graduate student friends highly recommended. It was absolutely delightful--possibly my best meal in Paris (and I wrote as much--in French--on the receipt :) ).

While I was eating the sun finished setting, providing a lovely nighttime view of the Seine as I crossed back over to find another metro station. There was just one thing left to do....

The Eiffel Tower

By the time the metro got me to the Eiffel Tower, it was past 11pm, so I traversed the (fairly long and not-so-safe feeling) distance between the metro stop and the tower as quickly as possible, to make it before it closed.

You go underneath the tower to get up.

One advantage of visiting Paris's most popular attraction near midnight was that the line wasn't too long, though there were actually two lines, one for the elevator ride up one of the legs, to where the "base" of the tower begins,

And one for the ride up the tower itself.

Still a few people there at midnight...

Once I made it to the top, I took in the night lights at my leisure. It's hard to capture night scenes on camera, but I did my best:

I took this while waiting for the elevator to get back down. It's one of the only pictures from the trip with me in it. In the center you can see the Arc de Triumph, where I ended the previous night. 

At the top of the tower, they have a diorama to commemorate Thomas Edison's visit.

Even the view from the "base" of the tower is quite striking, and you can lean right over the railing into it.

Rather than wait in line for the second elevator ride from "base" to ground level, I decided to walk it. (What's a few more steps after countless miles?)

Once at the bottom, knowing that I had made it, I took the time to snap a few photos of the entire tower from below.

At this point, past 1am in a not-so-safe after dark area, on my way to a particularly unsafe-after-dark area, probably past when the metro was running, I did something I almost never think to do: I took a cab. There were a few idling near the tower, and I hailed one assertively. And so my last highlight of the day was speaking in French to the kind gentleman driving, my longest French conversation on the trip up until then.

This was a long day. Hours before it was over, before I even made it to the Eiffel Tower, the seams of my pants were literally bruising the insides of my legs from the amount of walking I had done in them over the past two days. But I pushed through. And I ended where the most memorable day of my family vacation to Paris ended 16 years ago--on the top of the Eiffel Tower after midnight.