Versailles

On our last full day in Paris we went to Versailles.  We got under way early and slightly nervous having read about the huge crowds attracted to Versailles.  We were keen to get ahead of the tourist hordes.  The 20 kilometre train ride out to the south-west of Paris was fairly full, and on arrival we fought for position in the scrum which poured off the train and walked briskly the short distance from the station to the palace entrance.

There were a lot of people arriving, but fortunately the queues had not yet built up and we already had tickets so were soon inside.

With hundreds of others we made our way through the rooms of the palace, the king's and queen's apartments, and those of their daughters.  The palace has more than 2,000 rooms.  It was quite eye-opening to realise how public their lives were, with all sorts of hangers-on visiting them in the various rooms of their apartments, and very limited privacy.  Apparently the king was woken at some precise time, and got up, washed and shaved and dressed with the help of about one hundred assistants.

It became very congested and hot towards the end of our tour of the chambers, and we escaped outside with relief.  Behind the palace are the gardens of Versailles, covering 800 hectares and very pleasant after the crowded palace.

It is staggering to realise how much money and resource the kings must have controlled to be able to build a palace and gardens of this size.  No wonder the peasants revolted.

We walked all the way down to that lake, and then at least the same distance again, to the "Grand Trianon" and "Petit Trianon" beyond.  These are a couple of residences away from the stresses of the main palace, where Marie Antoinette and others would escape for a bit of peace and quiet.  Having worn our feet out, we treated ourselves to a ride on the little train back to the main palace.

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The Grande Arche

The Big Arch is huge!  It is a uniquely-shaped building, a hollow cube more than 100 metres on each side, located in the modern "La Defense" precinct a few kilometres from the centre of Paris, but linked to it by the fact that it lies on a straight axis which runs through the Arc de Triomphe, along the Champs Elysees, and all the way back to the Louvre.  There is a relatively small arch (19 metres tall) in the Tuileries gardens close to the Louvre, then the much larger Arc de Triomphe (50 metres), and finally the Grande Arche (110 metres), all lined up but spread over about nine kilometres.  The Grande Arche is actually built at a slight angle, to point at the Mont Parnasse tower, one of the other tallest structures in Paris.

Arc de Triomphe du Carousel

Arc de Triomphe

The metro line running straight out to La Defense is the M1, and seems to be quite new.  The train has no driver and is open inside from one end to the other with no dividers or doors between carriages.  It runs on tyres instead of rails, and all the platforms have glass walls and doors to prevent access until the train stops.

Grande Arche de la Defense

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The tomb of Napoleon

Today we visited the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte, which is beneath the golden dome of the Church of the Dome.  This is a huge chapel inspired by St Peters Basilica in Rome, and was built about 100 years before Napoleon died in 1821.  His body was transferred here about 20 years after his death.

Like many buildings in this city this chapel is is huge - here is a fish-eye panoramic view from the huge stone sarcophagus at the bottom to the underside of the dome high above.  The chapel is over 100 metres high!  The tomb is surrounded by twelve marble "Victories" looking down on it:



Ten kilos of fine gold leaf were required to re-gild the dome in 1989.

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Little Electric Cars

Below our window is a row of special parking places for "Autolib" cars, which are little electric cars which anyone can hire.  You have to join up on a website, then you can book a car online and book a car parking space to return it to, anywhere in the city.  When you park you plug the car into a special charging pillar on the footpath.  They are quite cheap to hire, and there are now several thousand of them in Paris.

Autolib electric cars

The cars are all tracked continuously by GPS so the location of every car is known.  The bodywork is plain aluminium so it's cheap to repair dings and scrapes.

Sue snapped this photo out our window in the middle of the night, when she noticed a team of men cleaning and checking the cars parked below us.

There are many tiny cars in Paris, and thousands of motor scooters from simple Vespas up to 650 cc luxury models.  The little cars must be easy to drive in the narrow streets, and can park anywhere.  We say one yesterday parked at right-angles to the kerb like a motor bike.

Smart Car

Tiny Toyota

Rainproof scooter

3-wheel scooter

Typical parking spot

 

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Musee d'Orsay

Currently waiting for dessert on fifth floor cafe at Musee d'Orsay.  Feet already tired but many paintings yet unseen.

Lunch behind the big clock face

Life-size polar bear

The Musee d'Orsay is housed in what long ago used to be a railway station, right beside the river and across from the Louvre, but is now a large gallery containing mainly the work of the impressionists.  There are many rooms of paintings, and sculpture of all sorts down the centre of the huge space inside.  Highly recommended.

We spent a long time there (not only because it was raining outside) along with thousands of others enjoying the art and crowding the restaurants and cafes.

Clock inside Musee d'Orsay

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The narrowest house in Paris

We found the narrowest house in Paris, at just over one metre wide.  It's just wide enough for a front door (the black one) on the street, and goes up three floors, squeezed between its neighbours.  They managed to fit two windows in on each floor - I think it must be tapered, and wider out the back than it is in front.  Otherwise I don't see how they would get stairs up!

It's in Rue Saint-Severin, beside the ancient church of the same name.

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Catching up

I'm finally getting around to getting this blog up to date so will be adding more to fill in the days already gone by (below).  Keen readers may wish to periodically check for any posts which have appeared below this one since they last looked.  Also there is now a link to the Google Map of where we've wandered - over there on the right of this page, under "Maps".

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Cricket at Purley Sports Club

Today we started with the under-eight's cricket match at Purley Sports Club, featuring Kieran McClintock.  It's a great community facility, including tennis courts, squash courts, a fitness club, bar, and a fine grass cricket pitch.

Kieran on the bowling attack

Sharmilla provided hot coffee and buns, and Nikhil provided advice on on his brother's bowling action.

The sun came out later in the day and it was a lot warmer, and a fair bit of cricket was played in the backyard.  As well as bowling a few overs, Sue also used the opportunity to relax in the sun with a book.

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Hello London

We stepped off the Eurostar in London and passed through the (deserted) border controls into St Pancras Station.  These high-speed trains are a great way to travel, especially compared to all the processing involved in getting on and off a plane!

Saint Pancras International Station

We deposited our bags at the station - which was more like an international flight check in - "Do your bags contain firearms or explosives?" - and set off to find a tube train to Baker Street.  After twenty minutes of trying to buy a ticket we admitted defeat and set off on foot, only to be rescued by a phone call from Mark who told me which button to press.  By the time we arrived at Baker Street he was there too, as if by magic.

While Sue shopped in "Long Tall Sally" Mark and I enjoyed a coffee on the sidewalk next door.  Long Tall Sally failed to live up to expectations, so we started the trip home to Coulsdon.  This was achieved via a pub beside the Thames, not far from Tower Bridge, where Mark explained to me what beer is, and we drank some.  Mark quite likes a Guinness.

A drink beside the Thames

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Eurostar

We are whizzing along through northern France across green rolling farmland with the occasional windfarm.    The track runs beside the A1 and we are near Roye, toward Arras.  James passed by here not long ago on his school geography trip.  The cheap seats (ours) are in car 2 facing backward.  My portable wi-fi ("Mifi") is working, allowing this blog post, but will shortly become useless as we leave France and dive beneath the English Channel.

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A tour of the Paris Opera

It's Wednesday, one week since we left New Zealand.  I'm starting to feel normal again, with some energy left to (finally) get this blog going again.  Today was tour-of-the Paris-Opera day, which started with us walking there to buy tickets at 10:15 for the english-language guided tour scheduled to start at 11:30.  Fortunately there was no queue so that was easy.  We filled in the time at nearby the Gallaries Lafayette "grand magasin".  I found my way to the roof and took a few photos looking out across the roof of the Opera.

The tour itself was great, with our very informative guide telling us a lot of the history of the opera.  It's called "Opera Garnier" rather than just The Paris Opera because there have been many Paris opera houses.  Today there are two - Opera Garnier and a new (1989) one at Bastille.  Much of the interest was in the history of the place, but if you've seen Phantom of the Opera you will recognise many aspects, including the grand staircase, and the seven-tonne chandelier in the auditorium.

Today was quite hot and sunny, and the huge gilded sculptures on the roof of the Opera looked brilliant in the sun.  We lunched extravagantly at the Cafe de la Paix across the road, another Paris landmark.  Tomorrow we'll eat just bread and cheese, to balance the budget again.  Today was designed to be an easier day, because we have walked large distances over recent days and worn ourselves out!  We wandered about the glittering aisles of the Galleries Lafayette again for a while before returning home for a lie down and a cup of tea.

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Sacre-Coeur

Sacre-Coeur always looked small and cute to me, but when you get there you find that like many such attractions around Paris it is huge.  Inside a service was in progress, but for a small fee you could join the quiet crowd of tourists shuffling around the perimeter, around the behind the altar and back down the other side to exit where they came in.  We bought tickets also for the climb up to the base of the main dome, and down into the crypt below the church.

From the dome of Sacre-Coeur

It was rather cold in the wind on the shaded side of the dome - much more pleasant on the warmer south side.

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Montmartre

Sacre-Coeur in the distance

Montmartre is on a hill ("mont") of course, with a great view out over Paris on a clear day.  Perched on top is the huge white basilica of Sacre-Coeur, which thousands of tourists climb the hill to visit.  It was within range so we walked there today, up the narrow streets.

Part way up we stopped for refreshments at a sidewalk cafe, and watched the locals going about their business.  There was a cluster of local shops around, and all the surrounding buildings were apartments like thousands of others across Paris.

Near to Sacre-Coeur itself the streets were crowded with stalls selling cheap souvenirs, and the number of people converging on the area became more apparent.  The final leg is a steep climb up steps to the top the of the hill, where the view opens out and you can see out across the city.  This area was crowded with school groups and tourists, resting after the climb and taking in the sights.

Almost at the top

(Next post - Sacre-Coeur)

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An Unexpected Journey

Today we walked a really long way.  First we set out for Gare du Nord, as a dry run for the upcoming day when we have to leave our hotel and get there to catch the train to London.  We wanted to see if seemed a good idea to walk there towing our suitcases.  (Conclusion: we could walk there, but we'd get hot and sweaty with our luggage - so a taxi would be better)

We pressed on eastward into the morning sun, until we arrived at the Canal Saint Martin, which is part of a system over one hundred kilometers long build to provide a reliable transport corridor (when the river was low) and water supply for Paris.  There are locks there, and tourist trips available up and down the canal system.  I liked this "automatic bridge", which still operates 120 years after it was built:

Automatic lifting bridge (1865)

Far out of the city we arrived at the "Parc de la Villette", which is huge science and industry centre and park.  Unfortunately it is closed on Mondays!  It pays to do some research before walking for miles...  Despite being largely deserted it was still quite impressive for it's size, and the huge shiny dome (which houses an IMax theatre).

Huge "Geode" dome

Having worn our little legs out, we had lunch nearby and then used the Metro for the first time, to ride back into the middle of Paris near our hotel.

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On the Seine

After applying suncream we set off east (a new direction for us) to see the Place de la Republique.  On the way we passed two smaller (but still huge) variations on the Arc de Triomphe.  The Place de la Republique was largely a busy construction site, so we turned south-west and moved on to the Museum of Arts et Metiers ("Arts and Trades").  This is really a museum of technology, with dozens of working exhibits demonstrating all sorts of machines and gadgets from over the centuries.  I was keen to see the Focault Pendulum, which swings on a long wire from the ceiling of the church.  The swing of a Focault Pendulum appears to slowly rotate during the day, an effect caused by the rotation of the earth beneath it.

We next decided to go with a relaxing ride on the river, on the "bus boat" which allows you to get on and off whenever you like.  We just stayed on it, for over an hour, until it had gone right down to the Eiffel Tower and back up again to where we started.  The main challenge was the heat of the sun beating down, which we countered with a supply of drinking water.  There is quite a lot of traffic on the river, and many narrow boats moored along its banks.  The current seemed quite strong which made the master's job quite tricky at times.  I think the river may have been running higher than usual - there was flooding not far away in Germany about the same time.

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