Friday, July 2, 2010

EuroTour 2010, Day 3, Paris

Our second day in Paris and our bodies are simply not adjusting to the time.  Only a few hours of sleep for each of us.  This will not do.  Fortunately, the complimentary breakfast downstairs includes coffee.

Déjeuner pour nous.

Today we have some rock solid plans.  A walk over to Notre Dame, then the Metro to the catacombs. Then... improvisation.

I find that the ferris wheel forces me to take its picture whenever I see it.  Odd, considering I will not ride one.

I think you might know that the iPhone 4 has a camera that faces you, mainly designed for video chatting.  Well, yours truly noticed today that it can also be utilized for self portraits.  Specifically, self-portraits in front of things.  Things you want to show yourself in front of.  Proof.  A motif for the 2010 blog has been born.

Barbie and Sean, walking along the Seine.  Notre Dame sits on the island in the middle of the Seine to their right.

There it is, the most famous cathedral in Paris.  It is definitely more impressive to me now that I have seen a show on cable TV about how it was engineered.  Unfortunately, the sun is right behind it and I cannot get the picture I desire.

Notre Dame avec soleil.  

A side view, showing the cantilevers and such that allow such a massively tall ceiling.  The line to get in was such that we skipped going inside.

Descending into the Paris Metro the first time this trip.  Riding the Metro, as you might recall from last year's visit, is among my favorite things to do in Paris.

Sean and Lon on their first Metro ride.  It is over 90 degrees and humid above ground, and for some reason it is equally hot and sweaty below.  Their first Metro experience is not, how you say, wonderful.
Exiting the Metro, Lon is reminded of the pain in his soul from missing the third Twilight movie.  We will find a place for him to see it.  Probably Roma.

We arrived at the catacombs.  

The catacombs of Paris began as stone mines; a series of tunnels dug into the ground to support the city's expansion over the centuries.  During this expansion, burial practices in Paris became a major issue.  It is not easy for me to make this long story short, but basically cemeteries within Paris were filled to the brim and unless you were rich your bones were destined to be buried, then unearthed and moved around after there was nothing left but bone.  This literally went on for more than 500 years, which began polluting the wells which supported the city.  In the late 1700's someone suggested taking all the bones of the poor (they were not buried in coffins as that was expensive) and putting them into the empty stone mines. 

Barbie, around 100 feet below the streets of Paris.  After walking down stair after stair, walking through passageway after passageway, I admit that I was beginning to thing we had been ripped off.

Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la Mort" (Stop, this is the empire of Death.)  This might get interesting.

We were speechless.  The stacks of bones literally go on forever.


You look closer, and it is hard to conceive that these bones are real and that they could have belonged to someone who lived anytime from the 1200's to the 1700's.

A closer look.  They were quite small.  I would say that this skull is 3/4 the size of a normal skull today.

This is no trick.  These are not props.  This is no haunted house.  These are human remains, buried in a practical and respectful manner.  These stacks of bones go on for, literally, a mile or two.  There is no definite number, but estimates for the total buried are more than 5 million.

I took maybe a hundred pictures down there.  It was simply mind blowing.  But how many pics of bones am I really going to include on The Waste?  Anyone who is particularly fascinated by this topic is free to ask to see more.  

We arose to the surface, up a seriously long and tiring circular staircase. and hopped onto the Metro.  Barbie wanted to show Sean & Lon our favorite church in Paris. 

We took the Metro to Gare du Nord.  This is a train station.  As always, train stations in Europe are buildings that rival museums.  While airports... functional at best.

We arrived at Montmartre, ready to visit the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, but we were hungry.  Lunchtime.

Crepe fromage et jambon.  It is becoming clear that whether it is a crepe or a croque madame, any lunch I eat in Paris going to be a variation on ham and cheese.

There it is, Sacré Cœur.  Jeff and Barbara Howard's favorite church in Paris.

Of course, the view from the church is even better than the view of the church.  

This mount next to Paris, originally named, Mons Martis (Mount of Mars) and then Christianized as Montmartre, (Mountain of the Martyr), offers some of the best views in Paris.

I took this picture in a mildly futile attempt to get a shot of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre.

However, look how the crop came out.  Not bad, I must say.  No blue sky?  Fix it with sepia.  

There we go.  I am not at all afraid to call that a very good picture.  See, playing with crops and colors in Photoshop Mobile on the iPhone is not at all a Colossal Waste of time.

One last view of the Sacre Coeur.

Time to race back to the hotel for a nap so that we can be fresh for tonight's wedding-related event: cocktail party at the groom's cousin's apartment.

Now, it turns out that this apartment on the Left Bank once belonged to one of Napoleon's top generals.  We are in for a treat.

Us, in the most posh Parisian apartment we will ever see.  Probably most posh we will ever see in any city.  

The meal was catered, served on trays.  This means that it did not even occur to me to take pictures of the duck l'orange that was being served, of which I ate several pounds.  It was wonderfully presented and absolutely delicious.  Sorry.  I should have snapped a pic just once, but sometimes food tastes so good that there is no time to waste getting it into your mouth.

A small room in the apartment.  Maybe a study?  


The library.  (I absolutely refuse to tell a Clue related joke here.)  I will tell you that it is a simply gorgeous home, and I suggest that we do not have words in American English to describe this level of class because America simply does not have this level of class.  I mean, the way that the mega-rich in Manhattan live looks simply pedestrian in comparison.


Our street, Rue Cambon.  The Castille Hotel is ahead to the right.

One might think that we would call it a night.  One would be wrong.  We did take a late nap, you know. And hopefully we can meet up with Sean & Lon.

Damn ferris wheel, making me take its picture again.  The tyranny this wheel holds over me.

The gate in front of the Louvre, at night.

The Louvre.  You know, when I first came to Paris ten years ago, I loved the glass pyramid.  Now, I appreciate the architecture of the buildings around it far more than I did before, and I am now willing to join the pyramid hating Parisians.  (Who have probably all accepted the pyramid and forgotten the controversy surrounding it.)

Using the iPhone 4's forward facing camera again.  Fun, fun, fun.

We were about to head back to the hotel, when Barbie tried calling Sean & Lon one last time.  Eureka!  They are a minute or two away from us.

Barbie and her boys, as she calls them.

A closer look at this piece of modernism surrounded by the Renaissance.

How often do you get a candid of your wife smiling like that?

They have installed reflecting pools around the pyramid.  At night it makes everything even more beautiful.  As you look at that amazing building reflected in the water, try to not forget that some of the greatest artworks ever created by human beings rest inside.

I have not been doing too many foot pics so far.  This seemed like a good opportunity to make that up to you.  By the way, that is the pyramid's reflection in the calm waters of the pool.


The walk home took us by Place du Vendome again.  I really need to get her just after sundown someday.

Time for bed.

1 comment:

  1. That apartment- she is astoundingly classy. I live in shame, sitting here up to my neck in McDonalds and false pride.

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