Today we tackled the Metro

Our plans for today included our first trip on the Metro, it’s not as scary as you might think!!!!

After a breakfast of cheese and croissants we were off and running, well walking really but with a definite spring in our step. First a quick stop at our local internet café to check on news from home and send a few emails, then we headed on foot towards the Boulevard de Sebastapol where the road crosses the River Seine onto the Islé De La Cité. Before crossing this busy road onto the bridge there were buildings and monuments that had to be photographed and of course those beautiful Parisian doors that I have been snapping ad hoc!

Michael outside our friendly Internet Café

Yet another Paris door

The Tour St Jaques

 The first thing we spotted just before the river on our left was a tall highly decorated tower, that we mistook for a church. This is the Tour St Jacques in the square of the same name. Carvings of Saintly figures and mythical and real animals covered it from top to foot and it stood out brilliantly against the blue sky. Oh yes I forgot to mention we started the day with a brilliant blue sky and sun, what a day! You wouldn’t be dead for quids! On our right and directly opposite the bridge was another knock out sight, a tall column with four black sphinx at its base and a golden angel at its tip holding what looked like two golden wreathes in outstretched hands. I think this is the Edouard Fontainé Column. Looking to our right along the Siene we could see on the skyline a dome and on closer inspection a little further on the distinctive silhouette of the Eiffel Tower, a photo was necessary, just in case we don’t actually get to see the Tower at closer range. At least we can say we’ve seen it!

The Edouard Fontainé Column

The Column is topped with a Golden angel

Across the road to the river’s edge we looked over to an old building with two round fairytale-like towers at its centre, facing us. The building is a mix of architectural styles ranging from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, but what faced us just looked ancient, it is The Conciergerie, Palais de la Cité. We had made ourselves a schedule for today and a visit inside this wasn’t included, but that’s because we didn’t know it existed!  There was a queue of only 8 or 10 people. We discussed it briefly and decided that the queue for Notre Dame would probably be really long and we would both be content just to see the outside of it anyway and viewing inside this building could be time better spent than standing in the Notre Dame queue. Decision made, we paid the entrance fee and in we went. Apparently this building was the first residence of the kings of France in Paris. It later became a prison, described as death’s waiting room during the Revolution. Marie Antoinette was incarcerated here and there is a recreation of her cell on view. There is also a very impressive display of many of the movies, costumes and sets that have been made within these walls.

Looking along the river to the Eiffel Tower

The fairytale-like towers of the Conciergerie

Inside the Conciergerie

Film costume for Joan of Arc worn by Ingrid Bergman

We moved on outside into the Boulevade du Palais, along the walls to large black iron fence and gated area richly decorated in gold, there was a queue that doubled back on itself, this was, I believe part of the Palace of Justice and Sainte Chappelle, We could see the spire of Sainte Chappelle above the  Palace roofs. We kept moving towards Notre Dame, passing restaurants and sma;;er sandwhich bars along the way. Time for lunch! Today we had French fast food, the Formule menu (the French equivalent of a meal deal!) was 7 Euros 90 and consisted of a baguette of your choice, a desert of your choice and coffee.

The first sight of Notre Dame is breathtaking, having seen photos and films it is of course, easily recognisable and as expected the crowds were enormous, we’d already decided not to go in, by now the sun had gone and the air was a little chilly. We walked around the outside taking photos and oohing and ahhing as some familiar gargoyles glared down at us from on high. The front facade has three arched entrances, with the queue being channelled through the centre one. The saints, kings and other figures that are represented on this front façade are beyond belief, animals, workers, children and others support or watch over the more important statues. We walked right around the whole perimeter, there is something new on every inch of it! Always looking up, there are, among the gargoyles, spires of black with vertigris figures beside them depicting little tableaux of a religious bent.

First sighting of Notre Dame

One of the doorways into Nortre Dame, not open for tourist entry

Creatures of all sorts adorn the outside of the church

One of the more famous creatures that look down upon the  crowds below

After many photos and a change of batteries for the camera, we left the Ile De La Cite for the left bank and St Michelle, here we caught the Metro for Peré la Chaise with a change at Reaumur Sebastopol, to visit the Cimetiere Du Peré la Chaise, the largest cemetery in Paris and probably one of the most famous in the world. There are many famous people buried here. The family crypts are like little outhouses, some highly decorated. Many have wrought iron doors, through which you can sometimes see stained glass windows on their back walls. There are also some very large mausoleums. Modern graves nestle among ancient ones, it is still a working cemetery. We chose a few famous graves we would like to see and set out to track them down with the aid of our guide map collected at the entrance.

Entrance to the Metro at St Michel

Jim Morrison's grave

Family tombs, like little out-houses

 Jim Morrison was the first on our list. It was not an easy map to follow, but the crowd gathered at his grave eventually led us to it! The grave is covered in all manner of offerings, flowers and candles mostly. There is a tree nearby that has inscriptions and messages to him scribbled or carved all over it. Next we tracked down Edith Piaf’s grave, a family grave, also hard to find, it is quite new looking and well kept, of black stone, granite, I think but maybe marble. There is a crucifix on top and a small urn for flowers inscribed in gold with her initials. On the way to Piaf’s grave we passed the path leading to it and found ourselves in a part of the cemetery that had monuments to victims of the Holocaust there were many, honouring people who lost their lives at the different death camps. The last grave we sought was that of the artist/sculptor, Modigliani, also found when we spotted a guide talking to some people in what we thought was the general area of his burial. The grave was mossy in places and had remnants of flowers and a paper maché bust vaguely in the sculptor’s style, it was quite moving, it stood in the shelter of a large bush that obscured it from the path.

There were many monuments dedicated to victims of the Holocaust

Edith Piaf's family grave

Artist Modigliani's resting place.

It was getting cold as we made our way from deep inside the cemetery to a gate and out onto the street, maybe 200metres from where we had entered, which was directly opposite the Metro entrance. We had been walking all day and with the encroaching cold my hips had started to nag! It was a slow walk to the Metro and once inside we had stairs to descend. The station we returned to was Sentier which is near our local shops and then just a short walk to our flat. We called at the supermarket for some supplies for dinner, then home. Another full day and around 300 photographs!!!!

Off to see the Fashion Houses

After the nightly “Studying of the Maps” we had decided today’s foray into the streets of Paris would take us to either Avenue Montaigne and Rue du Faubourg St Honore where we would find the ‘Palaces’ of the top couturiers of Paris or to the intersections of Boulevard Haussmann, Rue Lafeyette and Rue de La Chaussée D’Antin, where these same designers have retail outlets in the Galleries La Fayette. The Galleries La Fayette won out as it sports a domed glass roof in its central area that is a sight to behold. It is also close to Place Des Victoires, where the new aspiring design houses are clustered.

As seems to be our modis operandi, we set out on foot with only a vague plan for the day, apart from the direction we would head towards. It just seems that there is always something to take our interest off in a completely different direction and today it seemed was no exception!

With our trusty “The Paris Mapguide” (published by Penguin) we found our way to Rue Montmatre which terminates at Boulevard Monmatre, a large busy thoroughfare, which would lead us to the three way intersection where Galleries La Fayette is situated. We were waylaid in Bd. Montmatre by an enticing little ‘passage’ it was not terribly wide but looked very interesting. It was reminiscent of Melbourne’s Block Arcade only obviously much older. Called Passage des Panoramas it housed all sorts of amazing little shops. We were charmed by the very serious stamp dealers and philatelists, I was astounded that several of the French stamp collections were black and white engravings. They offered stamps for the budget collector as well as the serious investors. Michael was like a pig in muck!

One of the charming little shops in the "passage"

Michael checking out a Stamp dealer's shop.

A view along the "passage"

This off shoot is being renovated, no shops but some of the premises seem occupied, maybe with design businesses? 

 Seating in front of one of the restaurants.

This was a quirky little shop that sold toys from the 50's and carnival type toys, bought up from old warehouses, memories of childhood!

Tiles on the floor, being restored, though not particularly matching, all added to the charm of the place.

 There were also dealers of post cards and all sorts of collectibles as well as some interesting little restaurants and a smattering of jewellery and crafted clothing and accessory shops. We followed the arcade down almost to its end where there was a branch leading off to the side. Along here it appeared to be empty and undergoing renovation, there were some shops that appeared to be housing some sort of business but it was all very sedate, maybe they were just establishing. The sign at the end of this section read Galerie Saint Marc, which, I think is the street near its end. We walked back through to where we’d entered and out onto Bd. Montmatre to resume our quest to visit the Fashion houses.

Of course there were lots of stops on the way for photos. The doors of Paris are particularly intriguing and I just had to photograph every second or third one! Then there are the dogs of Paris, all shapes and sizes and breeds. One of the stamp dealers in the ‘passage’ we’d just left had a little dog curled up in his bed on the desk, Michael went in to make a purchase and didn’t even notice him!

I have fallen in love with the doors of Paris.....

and have probably taken enough photos to publish a book!!! These doors usually lead to the apartments above the shop fronts.

In one of the stamp shops, a little dog lay quietly in his basket on the dealer's table.

Making our way to Boulevard Haussman and along until we found where the three streets met, we did finally make it to Galleries La Fayette.

Both stores are a part of Galeries Lafayette

 It was overheated and crowded but all the big names were represented on the ground level: Channel; Gucci; Prada; Dior; Louis Vuitton; Cartier and many more, we mostly only looked and of course I snapped photos. The Parisians it seems, take their dogs everywhere, even shopping and no-one bats an eyelid. The Galleries was so over heated and there were  so many people all looking for post- Christmas bargains, but even 30% off a lot of Euros is still a lot of Euros. We made our way to the centre of the building to look up at the famous glass roof and the highly decorated floors above, we decided not to venture to the upper levels as the crowds and the stuffiness caused by the overheating were beginning to take a toll, so once again we headed outside. Ah, fresh air, and it’s almost warm outside today, 7 degrees, that’s a welcome change to 0C or 1C which is what it has been. Now we had to navigate our way to Place Des Victoires and the up and coming young guns.

A classic Chanel jacket suit with me reflected in the window!!!!!!

Chanel bag

Louis Vuitton

The glass dome, partially obscured by Christmas decorations

Ceiling and upper levels

the ceiling under the upper levels, decorated with rich carving

Even the dogs go shopping in Paris!!!

We were both in need of a toilet, they are not very easy to find in Paris, even in the big shopping complexes like Galleries La Fayette or Les Halles, unless you know what you are looking for. We sort of stumbled across the first public toilet we’d come across on the street. It was one of those automatic, self-cleaning affairs, we pressed the button to open the door, no response! Better read the directions, which were written in French, English and German, dull red=occupied; green=vacant; blue=self-cleaning underway and bright red=out of order. Ok, got it! Blue was showing ever so lightly on the ring around the button. We waited, and waited, until we decided there had been enough time to clean the bloody thing by hand with a tooth brush! It was obviously out of order, we moved on. Along the way we looked into restaurant windows to see if we could spot signs of a toilet, it was by now close to lunch time and we decided we could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. We could not spot any, I remembered something someone had told me about if you need a toilet anywhere in the world, find a Mc Donalds restaurant. I had vowed that we wouldn’t go to Mc D’s or any other multi-National chain while overseas, but this was an emergency and there was one just up ahead, we were back on Bd. Montmatre, we made for the golden arches. It was packed to the rafters, no loos on the ground floor, so up the stairs, wall to wall people and a huge queue for the loos. No, we couldn’t wait, so headed off again. We were on the opposite side of the road than we’d been on the way down earlier in the day and soon drew close to where we’d discovered the first ‘passage’ and there was a corresponding one on this side of the road, called Passage Jouffroy, the decision was unanimous we headed in to have a look in there as well. The shops in here were equally as interesting but quite different in what they were offering. Jewellery, specialist toy shops, a shop that specialised in walking sticks with carved handles, a framer/art gallery, photographic gallery that sold prints by renowned photographers, an art bookseller and the place we chose for lunch, La Tour Des Delices, we checked first to make sure it had a loo! It did and the food was good as well. Double bonus!!!

The Passage Jouffroy

The soup was very substantial

Desert and tea, with sugar sticks.

A sugar stick

The cafe where we had lunch

The deserts were divine

Michael's desert, apple tart with a cheesecake topping.

The soup was rich and satisfying, full of chunks of vegetables. We had desert too, for me a citron and raspberry tart of exquisite flavour and Michael had pommés tart with a fromagé topping, very very nice!!  Sated now and feeling a little more comfortable and a little less desperate we hit the road once again, to track down the up and coming designers. We found what I thought was probably one of these young designers along the way. It was a milliners, I took a photo of the window display, then peering through the glass doors at what was obviously an atelier as well as a showroom, we were greeted by a very French and stylishly hip woman who opened the door and invited us in I explained that I taught textiles to teenagers and they had been making fascinators. “Oh, oui!” she understood. I asked if I could take photos , “Mmm, non.” she said with some reluctance. I assured her I understood, “But you must look inside and go downstairs, where there is, how you say, flowers and feathers, we sell too. You choose what pieces you like and we put it together.”

The front window of the milliner's atelier.

This place was a real working millinery concern with a showroom to the right as we entered, then as we moved further in there were shelves full of hoods of every colour, these are the felt basis for hat making. Other shelves held a rainbow of crossgrain tapes also a basic in hat making there was rolls of printed or embroidered cinamay, an open weave moldable ‘fabric’ used by milliners. Through a work room and down the stairs into a store room that had shelf after shelf with cards displaying the contents. Flowers, feathers, single leafs all sorts of colour and texture and, behind all the shelves there was another workroom from where drifted the unmistakable aroma of glue. One of the workers came out and was obviously surprised to see us down here, she was in the process of asking why we there (very nicely) when her boss, the lady who had invited us in appeared and began to show us different pieces and explain some of the things they used. It was a very interesting experience, one we would have missed if we had decided to utilise the metro!

Eventually we did get to Place Des Victories. We reached it via a little cobbled area called Place Des Petits-Perés, it was sort of a little square dominated by a church and surrounded by shops with religious statues above a few trendy shops and beautiful apartment type buildings, it was only a short walk from here to our destination.

The church in Place des Petits-Perés

one of the trendy shops facing the church across the square

The cobbled square

Religious statue over one of the shops

Little purple berries in a planter in the square

 We spotted the large statue of Louie XIV in the centre of this large circular area. It was surrounded by temporary barriers fencing off work around the road surrounding the statue. The ‘up and coming’ designer shops around this area proved a little disappointing, I guess I had expected cutting edge design, something really different, instead it was young designer brands, like Kenzo, Maje and Hartford, nothing really exciting. We headed for home, it was around 3.30, we soon found our way back to Rue Montorgeuille, our local shopping strip which is apparently the remnants of the original markets that were Les Halles. We made some purchases for dinner and then home. Another long, but satisfying day, the highlights were not the top or the new designers, but rather finding the ‘passages’ and their intriguing occupants and our visit to the milliners shop!

The statue of Louis XIV in the Centre of the area.

We spent a lot of time looking up.....

Faces look down at you from almost every building in Paris

Kenzo's elegant shop window

Yohji Yammamoto