Cities of Light: Day 3
Day 3: Friday, October 20, 2023 - Paris, France
The day's statistics:
- Weather: low 60s, partly cloudy
- Steps: 27,420 Linda; 29,659 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 12
"Yes." was simply the response I gave Linda. When she sat up and looked at me. At 2:00 AM local time.
Why weren't we sound asleep?!!? This must be some wierd jet lag sort of thing as this is NOT the first time
this has happened on our VRC trips.
The afternoon - since this part of the trip we're in a hotel (100% of the "cruise" is not on the ship - sometimes, like
here in Paris [and last year in Budapest] we
spend time in hotels), we had some free time to do something extra in the city. IMO, this is easier and more comfortable
to do from the hotel than the ship - partially because if one is delayed in getting back to the hotel, no one cares,
whereas if one is deplayed getting back to the ship - especially if it is not at the final port - it may not be there.
Our daily alarm was set for 7:00 AM. We hardly ever hit snooze. And on the occasion we needed to get up even earlier -
say, for an early excursion or to get our luggage out - we had an additional alarm rather than changing the daily.
We arose, showered, and started getting ready for the day.
While I waited for Linda, I took a couple daytime shots out the window.
An item of note is that the larger buildings - like the one in the center foreground - surround a courtyard.
And then a couple more in other directions and perspectives.
We finished getting dressed, and headed to breakfast.
When we arrived downstairs to find a long line. People had already been seated too, and the line was still long.
Someone on line in front of us told us that there was a 300 person convention checking out this morning and that
[probably] contributed to the line.
It only took about 15 minutes to be seated.
Breakfast was a full buffet.
Our first Viking excursion was scheduled for 9:00 this morning and was called "Panaramic Paris".
We started with a bus ride, then did some walking.
First, some shots while on the bus - keeping in mind that the bus was probably moving when some / most of these were taken, and there
may be some reflections. They need not be anything special or "known", but frequently just interesting (though that is subjective).
As an aside, this comment was further detailed on the Paris 2000 page.
While documenting these images, somehow one of us recognized that there were a couple that were similar to images we had taken previously.
Looking at the image above, third row first column - it was taken from nearly the exact same spot twenty-three years later, albeit with
a better camera.
The bus finally stopped near city hall, we got off the bus, and started our walking tour.
Walking a little further.
We walked to Notre Dame. It is still under repair and isn't expected to be open until late next year -
currently planned for after the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Before leaving Notre Dame, we grabbed a selfie.
Beyond Notre Dame was a small park. We gathered and heard some history. Then we took a half hour or so break.
There was a café across the street from the park where we intended on getting a coffee and light snack.
After using the rest room - there was a rather long line - and then waiting ten minutes with no service - it was
pretty busy - we decided to just leave as we only had a few minutes left before we were supposed to gather.
Going out of the back of the park, away from Notre Dame, there was the oldest tree in Paris, planted in 1601.
We walked through the city a little, up a slight hill to a spot the bus can better navigate.
Along the way, some more sights of interest.
Back on the bus.
We got off the bus at the Eiffel Tour, and got a nice shot on a fairly clear day in the daylight.
It was now a little after 12:00. While the bus was heading back to the hotel, we had 2:00 tickets to visit
the Louvre. So we bid Solina adieu, and headed off to the museum on foot. We didn't think, at the time, to
ask exactly what route the bus was taking so maybe we could have been dropped off closer to the Louvre.
On the way to the Louvre, our goal was to pass through the Tuileries Garden on the way to the museum. Due to construction -
a lot of it - we didn't get to go through as much of the gardens as we would have liked. But we still saw parts of it.
UPDATE July 2024: We now think, nine months later, that perhaps the construction in the gardens was related to the
impending Olympics.... seems obvious NOW.
We passed a collection of exotic cars that were here for some reason, including a Rolls Royce SUV and a Porsche Carerra Cabriolet.
On the other side of the square is the last block to the museum. But... it's a... really... loooooong.... block.
About midway through we decided that we HAD to have lunch before going to the museum because our tickets were for 2:00 and
with the [likely] hours that we'd be there, we should eat something before going in. By happenstance, there was a little café
on the other side of the street. We crossed and had a bite to eat - namely a club sandwich with some chips and coffee Americano
(sans picture for some reason).
Our meal lasted about a half hour and we were back to our trek to the Louvre - we crossed the street and found a gap
in the long wall on the right side of the street (from the perspective in the photo above) to enter the gardens.
There was a carrousel in the park too.
Essentially in the middle of the gardens is a fountain, and some sculptures and flowers.
The entrance to the Louvre was in sight. Finally.
Nearby outside was this Double Heart sculpture by Lucy Chadwick.
We ascended a small flight of stairs at the end of the gardens. That is the Eiffel Tower off in the
distance on the left - the place where we started this hike nearly two hours earlier.
We had visited the Louvre when we were in France in 2000 - but
that was a really quick visit, and we saw the four main highlights - Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Mercury.
Now, with a better camera, and more time, we saw more, and documented more.
We finally made it insde and started in the "foyer".
We then passed the ticket takers, passed through security, retreived a map, and made our way to the galleries. Here are some interesting
pieces presented as general observations - including some architecture, than the named pieces, not in the order they were observed.
The Christ Child Playing With a Nail believe to be by Gian Lorenzo Bernini's son, with contribution from Bernini himself.
Daphnis and Cloe by François Gérard
The Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus; in the gable trefoil, Calvary by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
The Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus by anonymous painter, in a touching cheeks post called "Virgin of Tenderness"
Saint Nicholas of Bari by Stefano di Giovanni, dit Sassetta
The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anthony by Neroccio di Bartolomeo de'Landi
The Virgin and Child with Two Angels by an anonymous painter
Altar of Twelve Gods by Gabies
Saint Stephen Preaching in Jerusalem by Vittore Carpaccio
The Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels by Marco Palmezzano
The Transfiguration of Christ
by Giovanni Belluini
Joan of Arc at the Coronation of King Charles VII in Reims Cathedral [in 1429] by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
We happened to visit the Reims Cathedral on day 4 of our trip.
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Antonio Canova
Mercury by Giovanni Bologna
Winged Victory by an unknown Greek sculpture - one of the few surviving original examples of Hellenistic sculpture, not a Roman copy
Venus de Milo [disputed to be] attributed to Alexandros from Antioch on the Maeander
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (I took out as much of the reflections as I could) - and it is only 30 inches by 21 inches.
Before leaving the marble art room, we capture a selfie near Vase: krater decorated with masks.
And before leaving the museum, we captured another selfie near the pyramid
Our time at the Louvre was over, and we headed to our next stop: Sacré Cœur. We were
supposedly there in 2000, but we don't remember too much of it, and we have no pictures from inside.
We started to make our way to the metro as there was NO way we were going to walk all the way there.
As seen in the garden picture above, a lot of people were enjoying the nice weather.
The map showed a metro stop on the south side of the museum, but we couldn't readily find it. We remembered that we passed
a station on that long block on our walk to the museum on the northeast side, so we headed over there instead.
We acquired our metro tickets, got on the green line, and a couple stops late we were near Sacré Cœur.
Well, as near as we could reasonably be as the basilica is atop the highest point in the city.
We followed the signs a couple of blocks in the direction of the basilica, and the fenicular. We turned left and saw an
incline with a large staircase at the top - so a LOT of uphill walking. This staircase also looked like the staircase from
John Wick 4 - why I didn't get a picture of it I do not know.
But this is where we thought the fenicular was supposed to be. We went back toward the station to see if we missed something
and it didn't look like it, so we tried again. This time, rather than turn left, we went straight. Sure enough, on the
next block was the fenicular. Fortunately the fenicular takes subway tickets so we didn't need to acquire any. We
took the short ride to the top of the hill, and walked the last little bit to the basilica.
The Love Lock epidemic is a real problem. These are a couple sections of fence near the basilica -
just as bad as it was on that bridge though we wonder where they throw the keys.
There was a band performing on one of the staircase landings - though these staircases and landings are probably bigger
than people have in their homes. It was either a widely anticipated concert, or a whole lot of people were annoyed at
the band for ruining their relaxation time.
I also made a panarama shot from the top of the stairs.
And now we turned our focus onto the basilica itself.
We passed through a brief security check, and went inside.
There wasn't that much stained glass [for such a large basilica], and the underside of the dome was a little on the plainer
side (compared to others we've seen). But there were a lot of altars and apses, including this one. This one is highlighted
primarily because of its theme - "Holy Games". Supposedly Pope John Paul II was an athlete in his younger years.
And lastly, the main altar.
We were done with our visit inside Sacré Cœur. I say it that way because "someone" thought it might be a
good idea to go up to the dome. All 292 steps up. While I made this trek, Linda sat and watched the nuns rehearsing some
singing. The altar area was considered sacred and taking pictures was frowned upon and Linda said a security guard was
shooing people away that were trying to take pictures. If you are far enough back, you can get away with it.
Anyway, I recorded my hike. The panting eventaully starts to drown out the footsteps... And in the confined space, the autofocus
had a bit of a problem sometimes too. And no, the video doesn't freeze in a couple spots, I just stopped to try to catch my breath.
If you get motion sickness, do NOT watch this.
While I was up there, I walked completely around the dome. Up there, and on the way back, I took some more shots, including
using the wide angle leans on a couple.
What goes up, must come down. Admittedly the descent was quite a bit easier than the ascent. Toward the bottom,
though, I had to pause because I was getting dizzy from the spiral stairs. After a few moments, it passed.
Overall I feel it was certainly worth the €7.
I joined Linda in the pew for a few minutes to catch my breath before we departed.
To get an idea of where I ascended to, it was up here.
With no arrow.
Before departing the basilica, we asked in the gift shop about the location of a water closet and were directed
to a building around the corner. Down the stairs.
So we headed there. And it was locked. No urgency.
At this point we were getting hungry too. So we ventured to a pizzaria (yes, we were in Paris and eating at a pizzaria) across
the street called Babalou's. There was some outdoor seating for about two dozen and indoor seating for the same. The
restaurant - inside - was nearly at capacity. We had no reservation, but the proprietor seated us anyway.
While we waited, a mom and [assumedly] her daughter were eating at a nearby table and we could not believe that they each
got a pizza, considering how big they looked.
But somehow, the young girl nearly finished it.
Also while we waited, we heard the song If I Were A Rich Man - From Fiddler on the Roof. In French. The melody was obviously
the same, and I was able to sing along in English - but it was interesting to hear such a familiar tune in another language.
We ordered a Speck pizza to share.
The pizza was really tasty, but one adjustment I would make would be to cut the proscutto into smaller pieces.
After our meal, we headed to the metro station a few blocks away, mostly downhill. It was bearly spritzing when we left.
An ad in next to the stairs getting to the metro.
The subway was fairly busy, but at least almost everyone had a phone to keep them occupied...
We noticed people getting onto the subway at further stops with wet umbrellas or clothing - so it really
started to rain. But by the time we got to our stop, the rain stopped too.
After getting to the room, I decided to head to the top floor bar to try to get some night shots of the city from above.
I did the best I could considering the reflections, lack of monopod, and the view through a [likely] tinted window.
We had to have our luggage out by 6:30 AM to prepare for the transfer to Trier (there were 180+ of us, afterall),
leaving at 8:00. So we got our packing done (from our last roadtrip, we figured out to pack just the carry-on with
the clothes for a couple days, then we don't need to open the big suitcase), washed up, and went to sleep.