Paris, Île-de-France, France
I know people who have been to Paris who say they don’t like
the city much. I’m not sure what they missed, because I’ll never understand them.
To me the city of Paris as a whole is a massive work of art, probably the
world’s most impressively laid out and beautiful city. It is true that it
doesn’t have mountains or hills or major bodies of water beyond the River Seine
that contribute to the beauty of cities like Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, San
Francisco, Vancouver, and Barcelona. The overall layout with the grand
boulevards, beautiful and harmonious architecture, and exceptional history,
though, makes Paris the greatest city in the world in my opinion. And my third
visit to the city hasn’t changed my opinion.
The first time I was in Paris was for two full days and
three nights at the end of our Cosmos group coach tour in Europe in 1985. I
actually turned 18 in Paris and drank what may have been my first legal alcohol
in the city at the little party in the hotel corridor the folks on the tour
threw for me.
I noted to my brother the other day, “Bro, the last time we were
in Paris together was 33 years ago, a third of a century!” There’s a limited amount
you can see in two days even on an activity-packed group tour, but we went to
the Eiffel Tower, a tour around the city, a Batou Mouche boat trip on the
Seine, and an evening show somewhere near the Moulin Rouge. My mother asked
whether minors could attend (there were a couple kids younger than my brother
and me on the tour too). “Of course, they can. It’s only topless!” My brother may have been impressed by the
bare boobies from a distance, but they didn’t do anything for me.
My next time in Paris was in October/November 2003 when I
stayed for about twelve days. By then I was very interested in art history and
spent much of that time at the city’s museums. I bought some kind of a city
pass that got me into all of them for a set price, a good choice because the
weather was gray and drizzly most of the time. But I did explore the city
thoroughly and also took several daytrips out to Versailles, Fontainebleau,
Chantilly, and Chartres. It’s hard for me to believe I’ve waited 15 years to
return to the most incredible city on earth.
Back again I don’t have much of an agenda beyond
experiencing the city. I might see some museums again or hit a few new ones or
those that were closed for renovations when I was here 15 years ago. I’m also
hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law.
And seeing Paris in the sunshine
and long daylight of summer is great too. On our first day together, after
lunch Doug and I did a little walking tour of the center while Aviva went
shopping – the Luxembourg Gardens, St.-Germain and St.-Sulpice churches,
Pantheon National, and around Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Hotel De Ville, the
Louvre, and the Tuileries, but all very relaxed with no urgency to see
everything and enter every site.
By late afternoon we were ready for a pint, a real one. And it
was past five o’clock already, not that that means anything in Europe. Doug
suggested Auld Alliance, Paris’s Scottish pub whose name celebrates the
France-Scotland alliance against England. And the good thing about a British
style pub is that you can get a real pint. You wouldn’t believe how much they
charge in France for a tap beer that’s only .25 liters, not even half an
imperial pint! But at Auld Alliance the beers are manly-sized. We were a little
less than impressed with the Picon shot, an orange flavored French liquor, we
both thought we’d try in our Pelforths.
It’s apparently a French thing to try
to transform your beer into a cocktail.
The following day I met Doug and Aviva at their hotel to
take a taxi to Montmartre. I have to agree with Aviva that it’s super touristy
and kind of a cliché stereotype with Eglise Sacre Couer mobbed with people and
not really all that interesting architecturally or artistically despite its
size and Place du Tertre almost ridiculous with all the artist wannabes offering
to sketch your caricature. But the view of Paris is spectacular, and you don’t
have to wait in line for it the way you do at the Eifel Tower. It’s definitely worth
seeing if, like Doug, you haven’t been there yet.
Next off to the Viaduct Vert on the east side of town near
the Bastille and Gare du Lyon. This is supposed to be Paris’s version of New
York’s Highline Park, an above ground viaduct/former track that’s been
transformed into a raised linear park. There was a lot of hype about it a few
years ago in the travel magazines, including how it was supposed to revitalize a
neighborhood of Paris by bringing tourists there. Well, Unlike the Highline, it
didn’t seem like there were many tourists on it, but on the other hand, the
neighborhood doesn’t seem like one in need of development. From there we walked
to lunch on the Left Bank and on to the Pompidou Center, conveniently and coincidentally
open late on Saturday evenings. I hung
out in the Marais with a beer back at Auld Alliance before meeting Doug and
Aviva for dinner near the Louvre.
2025-05-22