The City of Blinding Lights

Trip Start Sep 07, 2008

Trip End Oct 10, 2008

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Where I stayed

Hotel Ibis Grand Boulevards Opera

(Paris hotels)

Flag of France Paris, France
Thursday, September 11, 2008

We decided this morning to brave the queues and go up the towers at Notre Dame as it was something I had wanted to do each time I was in Paris but was always put off by the huge line. Today armed with a quick brekky of coffee, pain chocolate and croissant, we got to Notre Dame to find noone in the queue and the sign saying we were an hour early. This meant we had lots of time to stroll through Notre Dame itself before all the tour buses arrived. The first time I visited Notre Dame I had what could almost be described (by a non-religious person) as a religious experience. The church was being used for choir practice and the haunting sound of the choir filled the church. Wandering through the dimly lit aisles on either side of the alter, with the sounds of the choir echoing off the vaulted ceiling was quite moving and an experience I would never forget. Today was an altogether different experience as the construction teams preparing for the Pope's visit were in full swing inside. I lost count of the number of flat screen TVs that were set up, with hundreds of chairs for people to hear (but not see) the Pope say Mass in a few days

Notre Dame Towers

. It took away from the solemnity of such a magnificent church, but it still holds its place for me as one of the most amazing churches in the world.

The climb to the top of the Towers of Notre Dame was a gruelling 300 stairs in a tight spiral staircase, but the view was certainly worth it. Like any city, the advice to get up high stands true as you do get an amazing outlook over the city. As for Paris, the Eiffel tower is a bit too high to see any of the monuments of Paris very well, and Sacre Coeur is too far away, but Notre Dame towers are right in the centre of it all and are magnificent. You come out into the chimera gallery, which is a walkway at the base of the tower where all the gargoyles are. They are fantastic up close, with so much attention to detail in the stone, and each one is different. You are able to climb up inside the Western bell tower to see the largest of the bells, called Emmanuel, which Matt tells me is in the key of F sharp. They only ring it on certain feast days. The whole inside of the tower is timber to absorb the vibrations of the bell, and was a bit too rickety for my liking. We then climbed some more stairs to the top of the Western bell tower. The views were fantastic and we got some great Panorama shots.

We lunched in fine Parisian style with a few road crew mates and our groomsman, Craig at a restaurant near Opera Garnier called Chez Clement. Our waiter was so much the typical French waiter and made jokes with us. The food, albeit not cheap, was fabulous. I was very proud of myself as two of the girls had ordered steak tartar, and I was curious enough to try some. It was actually surprisingly tasty, with mustard and other herbs mixed in with the raw mince. I'm not sure I could get through a whole plate of it, but I do sort of understand now why the French like it

Notre Dame

. See I am getting more adventurous, but I still can't do snails!!!

We spent the afternoon in L'Orangerie near the Tulleries Gardens. It is a small, somewhat lesser known gallery which attracts visitors mainly due to its display of Monet paintings. They have custom made two oval rooms which are lines by 4 curved canvases featuring The Nympheas, or waterlilies by Monet. They rooms are striking when you first walk in, but then quite peaceful almost like sitting in Monet's garden. There is a small collection of other work, including some Renoirs, but it definitely worth a look just for the Monets. We have found ourselves on this trip visiting a lot of the so called "B list" attractions of Paris, and have been rewarded with discovering some truly great things, and also avoiding to some extent the hordes of tourists that are still plaguing Paris even in Sept.

One of the slightly unusual things we had planned to do while in Paris was to take a stroll along the Promenade Plantee. It is an unused elevated railway line which has been converted into a walkway surrounded by trees. It is quite unusual for Paris as this city has a distinct lack of green spaces and parks. It is about 2 stories above the street and extends for about 4km from Place de la Bastille out into the suburbs

The Nyphaes, L'Orangerie

. The weather has really warmed up for us this last few days, and we had quite a leisurely stroll along the promenade soaking up the sunshine.

You may be wondering why this blog is entitled the city of blinding lights, despite the obvious reference to a great U2 song. Tonight we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triumph at sunset and saw the most magnificent sunset over Paris. The sky was an amazing red and pink and seemed to get more spectacular as the sun disappeared below the horizon. What we were really waiting for was the Eiffel Tower to light up. In all of my trips to Paris I have only seen the Eiffel Tower under lights once, as the other times I was on my own and didn't feel safe venturing out by myself at night, or we were busy with other things like drinking!! So it was quite amazing to see it light up, especially from our magic vantage point on top of the Arc de Triumph. At the moment it is lit up with blue light as the French have the EU presidency. However, what I didn't realise until Matt suggested we stay a bit longer was that on the hour at 8, 9, 10pm for about 10 minutes the tower sparkles with a psychotic display of silver lights. It is beautiful and an entirely appropriate way to spend an evening for two honeymooners.