More food, and this lemony-shortbread base thing was SO good, my favorite! I do love lemon.

Just a few pictures of some food. The pastries everywhere were divine and I ate far too many of them.

After I had finished with the the Passages and Galleries, I decided to head over towards Pompidou Centre, but on my way I saw this beautiful big building that turned out to be the National Library...well, anyone who knows me, knows that I can't pass by a library, so I stepped in for a quick peek. What a place, it was like the library of my dreams, or to be more accurate, the library that a person sees in movies...wide carpeted steps leading up to an area filled with displays of statues and ancient coins and artifacts, and then a huge wooden door leading into the circular and HIGH shelves of books. Sadly, all the books were in French, so I couldn't borrow any.

Paris under cover Part 2. Read the other one first

After I exited the wonderful second passage, I fully looked forward to and enjoyed the others. Some were very small and contained a few very high-end stores (beyond my price range, one was just silk scarves that were all in the $300 and more range) Some were quite long and filled with more trendy and modern stores, but the last one, Passage Jouffrey, was the best. It contained 2 small hotels, a wax museum, some wonderful boutiques and 3 amazing bookstores, (one that was frequented by Colette and Toulous Lautrec) as well as a variety of tiny cafes, where I had a lovely french lunch of quiche.

Paris under cover.

This morning I had to say goodby to Nicole, Chad and Abby as they headed off to Amsterdam. We had a final breakfast together and made plans to meet up again in a few weeks, back home in Cranbrook. I decided that today would be a good day for me to do some serious walking. I had read about "Les Passages" and now I shall give you a little history lesson.
In the early 19th Century Paris was in a time of peace and prosperity, and these new and "modern" covered shopping arcades (forerunners to todays malls) were a huge success-and in a city with no sewers and no pavement, these covered arcades allowed shoppers to stroll from store to store without dealing with the filth, noise and bad weather outside. At one point there were approx. 150 of these galleries, however today less than 18 remain, some in great disrepair. However, there are a few left that are still "operational" and I decided to go for a walk and check them out.
I followed the map - up and down the little streets north of the Louvre, and even though I was on the correct street according to the map, the area seemed a little seedy and, well, not quite nice. I looked for the entrance to #19 Jean-Jaques Rousseau St. and finally saw a weather beaten gate that looked to be the entrance to an alley. I was a little hesitant to enter a strange and grotty ally in an unknown area of the city, with no one knowing where I was, but I figured: "Oh what the hell, it's an adventure." So in I went, and when I turned the corner, sure enough, there was a "passageway" with glass vaulted ceilings, tiled floors and a multitude of stores. Some were empty and some were still in business with the old gas light fixtures still intact (albeit now electric) It was interesting, but not amazing. As one exits this passageway, the street is even grubbier and I wondered if this was worth the walk. I walked down the street and saw an even more grungy looking alley, however when I emerged from this one, imagine my surprise to find myself in a HUGE sort of a garden, with fountains, statues, green grass and benches to relax upon. The entire perimeter was filled with all manner of shops, from high end clothing places, to tiny little nooks that specialized in various things like music boxes or old military medals, one was nothing but tin soldiers. It was a delightful, whimsical place! Most of the stores date from 1786, and you can still eat at the Cafe de Foy from where the French Revolution broke out in 1789. My spirits were quickly raised!

A few more Louvre pictures. The elaborate ceiling and some Egyptian antiquities

Bossy Gypsy

"Ok Chino...get out of my bed!"

















"Ahhh...much better...all mine....!"

The Louvre

The next morning we headed off the The Louvre, and once again,being the off season is SO worth it. We were there at opening, or very shortly after, and for the first little while the people were at a bare minimum. We saw the three "must sees" without any crowds at all, the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace (my personal favorite) and the Venus de Milo.

The Louvre is vast and daunting, they say that see, well, just to glance at, every piece of art here would take 9 months. You do have to make a bit of a plan and decide what is important to you. The above mentioned three may be somewhat touristy, but things that are touristy are thusly so for a reason. I mean, really, you can't go to the Louvre and miss seeing the Mona Lisa. As a matter of fact, later during the day we passed by her again and the crowds were probably 15 deep, there would be no way to get close and take a decent picture. (You can take photos as long as you don't use a flash)

Graveyards and the Can-Can

After that bit of exhaustion, we started back to the hotel. Just at the edge of Montmartre is the cemetary, which is actually a bit below street level.In this picture, to the left, you can see a fence that is a bit higher than the tombs, that's the road. You walk down a ramp to get to the cemetary itself. It's set up like a small town, with streets and street signs and all the tombs are like tiny houses. We only spent a few minutes here but it was quite amazing. We then took a peek at the Moulin Rouge and then caught our bus back to the hotel. All in all, Montmartre was quite a Parisian experience.

Sacre Coeur from the bottom, then from half way up (when I thought I was at the top) and then at the very top, not bad pix considering how breathless and panicked I was!

Alone in a Tower...

After we had looked at the artists and their work, and realized that we simply couldn't afford to purchase anything, we decided to go and look at Sacre Coeur. The church is simply astounding, the outside is like a brilliant white wedding cake, and the inside is an explosion of mosaics in vivid colour, the blues and golds are phenomenal. Sadly, no pictures are allowed, even without a flash, of the inside, so you'll have to go there yourself to fully understand the incredible detail of the work. As we wandered through, people were snapping photos with discretion and I really wanted to, but I decided to respect the rules, although it was tough. After we looked around, we were sitting on the steps out front, which, by the way, have what is considered the best view in all of Paris...they say on a clear day you can see for 30 km, all of Paris spread out below you. I decided to take a quick peek into the crypt, the entrance which was just behind us. I told Nicole that I'd be back in 2 or 3 minutes. I quickly walked down the stairs (well, sort of quickly, my calves were still aching from all of our climbing the previous days) and I found myself at a self-serve entrance. I put my 5 Euro in the slot and out popped a ticket. I then put the ticket in another slot and heard a "click" as the turnstile unlocked. I pushed my way through it (not another soul was around) and came face to face with a plexi-glass door. I pushed on it, it opened and there I was...at the end of a tiny hallway. I turned a corner and saw some circular stairs going up, so up I went. They spiralled around and were quite narrow and after I went up about 25 or so, I thought to myself: "ok, the crypt should be down stairs, not up, maybe I missed a set of down stairs." I turned around and walked back down, looking carefully around me...nothing, until I came back to the plexiglass door. I was a little annoyed, there were no signs and I certainly didn't want to go up any more stairs, so I decided to take the loss of 5 Euro and go back to Nicole and Chad. I pushed the door. It didn't move. I pushed again. Nothing. And again. Nothing. It is a one-way door and there is still not a soul around. I stood there, in a moment of panic, wondering how to get out. If someone came and put some money in, they could hold the door open for me, but no one came. I came to the conclusion that the only way out was up. So I heaved a sigh and turned around and started up. I ran rather quickly and it was quite hot and stairs just kept winding around and around, for what seemed like forever. In the other places were climbed, there were small windows here and there to look out, but this one had nothing and it was very narrow, and very warm. I was starting to panic and my legs were SO sore. My main concern was that I didn't really know where I was. I climbed up and up and eventually came to a door that I pushed upon and IT DIDN'T OPEN! I felt my heart leap, and I thought I might hyperventilate until I realized there were still more stairs. I ran up them (oh my poor legs) and then I came to a door that did open, I raced out and saw all of Paris below me, I'm sure it was gorgeous, but I just snapped a photo, tried to catch my breath and looked wildly for the exit, and also for other people. Where the hell is everyone anyhow? I ran around the parapet, every corner just seemed to lead to another corner, and eventually I found the door, only to open and it and find more stairs GOING UP. Why do I always get lost? And is this some sort of hell? Running eternally up stairs? I continued up, and came to another door and almost with fear, I opened it slowly (not true...I think I slammed it open while gasping for breath) but this time I saw stairs going down. I raced down, faster and faster, getting dizzier and dizzier, they really were very twisty and narrow and steep. I can only surmise that a higher being was watching me and keeping me from taking a horrendous tumble. At the bottom, finally, I opened yet another door to find myself....outside? No...now I am in the crypt. It is HUGE and circular. I raced around it and snapped a picture of someone's final resting place, while looking for exit door. I actually ran around twice before I saw it, only because someone else was coming in it. What the hell? How did they find a way in? I grabbed the door before it shut, and stopped to compose myself, and wandered out to find (Thank God) Nicole and Chad waiting for me. I'm sure I was a dishevelled mess, sweaty, red-faced and panic in my eyes, but I tried to calmly say: "Hey...I took a wrong turn back there." as my jelly-like legs collapsed and I sat down to catch my breath.
So if you ever go to Sacre Coeur to see the mosaics, please do not bother with the crypt. It's not worth the climb.

Another interruption

Just a quick photo of Steven and his fishing adventure the other day. It's "catch & release" right now, so the only thing he was allowed to bring home were pictures.

Up towards Montmartre

Montmartre

After we left the Eiffel Tower, we caught bus #80 which took us on a scenic drive through the city, up towards the area known as Montmartre. It has narrow, steep cobblestone streets with tilting houses and unusual statues. We followed the winding road ever upward, still aware of our aching legs. We came across an attractive and cozy looking restaurant and decided to have lunch there, as we knew it would be more expensive and more crowded as we got closer to the main square. We perused the menu, trying to translate into English and Chad asked me what I thought "Raviolli Volaille" was. We knew that "garlic" is "aille" (or something similar) so when our waiter came by, we asked him and he sort of shrugged and said: "Chicken?" We both knew that chicken is "poulet" so we thought that maybe it was a cut or type of chicken, maybe thighs or Cornish game hen or something in a garlic sauce. So we ordered it and it was wonderful. Cut to next day at the Louvre and we were looking at menus from ancient Egypt that had a translation beside them in both French and English. The Egyptians ate a lot of "volaille"...in English? Pigeon! We had pigeon ravioli for lunch! I know that a lot of people eat pigeon, I just didn't think that I would be one of them. They do call them "flying rats" you know. Anyhow...we continued up the road to Place du Tertre, which is where all the artists still hang out and display their wares. You can buy some extremely lovely original art here, but the prices were also extremely high. I'm no good at bartering, so I decided to not purchase any street art here. I might have missed a future Picasso, who did some of his best work here, as well as Dali and Toulouse-Lautrec, c'est la vie.

Eiffel Tower Day

This morning we had our croissant and coffee and decided that it was Eiffel Tower Day. The weather was gorgeous and the sky was clear. We walked the 5 minute walk to the base of the tower and paid our 11 euro to get our tickets to the top. 11 euro is about $16.50, which seems a little pricey, but what can you do? Again, being there in February was good timing as the line-up was maybe 10 minutes long. It would have even been less than that, but we went to the wrong line-up at first. You can take the elevator to the second level, or you can walk it. Our legs were still sore from all the other monuments we had climbed, so stairs were OUT! We wandered around the second level, took some photos and then Nicole and I went up to the top. There was only one other couple in the elevator with us...sometimes in the summer there is a 2 hour wait, so we were very pleased, to say the least! It was a little nerve-wracking to watch the ground fall away as the elevator creaks and moans and shudders it's way to the top. It's a lot further up that a person realizes. Or, further than I realized at any rate! The top level can hold approx. 800 people, I think there were maybe 50 of us there. I had a moment of uncertainty when 3 or 4 Middle Eastern fellows held up cell-phones and started doing a sort of chant in Arabic. Yeah, yeah, I know, don't generalize...but still, things do happen. However, in this case, nothing happened and I felt a little guilty. The views were astounding and it was a very well spent $16.50!