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A few days to sample a great city



Paris





Canal de la villette



Hotels are often a place to crash. Not so in Paris being sited on a Canal in a neighbourhood.



When I travel I tend to stick to the chains for their dependability, locations, service and of course, points. Usually, the chain has lots of suburban locations that bring one to a unique range of services roughly a block or so from the subway. Interiors can be formulaic with everything you need designed down to the basics. Here it was not applied, rather a conventional room, a few stories up looking right up the canal. Water is magical wherever it is found. Calming. The real draw was the life on the canal. People fishing, playing with their balls, fine food everywhere, and small parks. It was always relaxing to return at the end of a day's touring to such a vibrant community life.



life along the canal



Paying the ball game, fishing, dining in the best places in the city there was always something going on.



Street life from the late 19th Century captured as an impression by Renoir and brought forward by a digital image on a phone.



Carousels bracket the Eiffle Tower on each side of the Seine.



musee d'orsay





Rail Station from 1889 World's Fair converted to a museum for art from 1850 to 1915, aka modern art.



Meet you by the clock.



It was a train station and they had to run on time.



Gustav eiffel's Tower





The centerpiece of the 1889 Universal Exposition, the Eiffel Tower was a steel creation intended to stand for 20 years. With the advent of radio communications it became essential to the war effort due to its height for antennas. It is now an icon, one of the leading such icons. Eiffel also helped with the Statue of Liberty and a train station in Budspest.



expositions



Ile de la Citi



Notre dame



At the time it was chance to visit a global icon, to view 850+ years of history, revolution and reverence. The building delivered on that incredibly. Then there was the fire and the whole experience was elevated to a sacred status. This place witnessed, indeed hosted the coronations, the Crusades and the Revolution before taking on its UNESCO status. That it is a living and working house of worship is profoundly important. It will return,



Ile de france



The island remains the one place in Paris where you see the true Paris. Much of Paris was destroyed in the make over of the city in which the close and narrow streets were wiped away to be replaced by Haussmann's perfect vistas.



Haussmann's paris



Paris is notable for its uniformity of its avenues and streets. Roughly from 1850 to 1870, Haussmann oversaw the leveling of the old city and rebuilding of a new one, expanded and reflecting Napoleonic airs and the beginning of the industrial era.



notre dame





Almost a thousand years of history in one place.



Now fallen in the rubble.



Imagine each brick is supporting each other, the true message of the building.



A witness to history from the Crusades, to the monarchy, to the revolution and now a fire.



It will see its church rebuilt.



ile de france



Paris as it used to be.



haussmann's paris





Urban planning takes center stage for the world.



The built equivalent of a tiara, the Opera.



If you have 10 minutes only, you come here.



since reading history and biographies i have wanted to go to versailes to see the hall



It seemed life meant to conspire the entire day. I choose to come to Paris as I would have companions as I was afraid of Paris and France hearing all those tales of snobbery. Paris strikes people leaving strong opinions. On this day there happened to be a flea market on the way to the subway. That killed the morning and we had to cross the city and catch a train to go out to the suburbs of Paris. In converting a hunting lodge to a palace, Louis XIV essentially invented the suburb. The kings who followed progressed this march to the middle class life many of us enjoy today.


Just to perk things up and play into my fears this child picked my pocket on the train. I sensed something and looked down at my wallet on the floor of the train. The wide eyes of a child looked up at me. She must have saw Santa Clause as she picked up my wallet and handed it to me. And then at the next stop she and her three companions were gone in a flash. A local told me this is a huge problem with the line Adults force the kids on at one stop, have them pick and pluck until the next stop where they grab the cash and ditch the wallets. Returning them to the owners is the best the Police can do. I worked with kids like this and it disturbed me.



Versailles





Like walt disney world, its contemporary manifestation, versailles is a life long experience. think of it as a walk in a royal park with a rather snappy palace attached.



the gates



Removed in the revolution, David Rockefeller restored them as a gift to France and the palace. These were the King's personal gates to his courtyard and entrances. Today, gated communities are all the rage, even for the middleclass.



the park



I think of Louis XIV as a suburban, middleclass, dude with time on his hands and a yard. Only, he was Royal, he was the first and no one except Walt Disney has bested him as yet. Many tried.



Inside a lightbox.



Still on the bucket list.