Paris in the Springtime

Going on a river cruise down the Seine; seeing the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo in the flesh (or the stone, canvas, whatever); eating a no-frills (but extremely delicious) meal at a local cafe which was jam-packed with French workmen; strolling down the Champs-Elysees at night. And too many more experiences to actually list- Paris is, and will always remain, one of the most memorable cities I've ever visited.

Quick Tips:

For those who don't know French: learn two words: `Excusez moi'before you go. It's a very handy little phrase if you're looking for help, asking for directions, and so on. `Excusez moi'- and then, when whoever you're talking to looks glad that you're trying to use their language- ask your question in English. Everybody we tried it on was very helpful.

When you're setting off on a round of sightseeing for the day, carry a supply of mineral water, juice, and maybe some sandwiches with you- helps save on expenses (food can be pretty expensive in Paris).

Best Way To Get Around:

The Metro is really the best way to get around- not too clean, but it's efficient and easy to understand. A lot of the best sights are in close proximity to each other, so you might consider walking between them- a great idea in springtime, we found, when the weather was fantastic. Other than that- do go on a cruise down the Seine. It's a wee bit on the expensive side, but a great way to see Paris- and learn some more about the city and its history. The average cruise takes you below 24 or so of Paris' 36 bridges, and you'll get to see and hear some really interesting titbits about the city- for instance, the stone statue called the `Zouave', which acts as a water-level indicator for the Seine- the highest the water has ever reached has been till his chin!

The Londres et D'Anvers is one of the many small, unpretentious hotels which line the streets around the Gare du Nord. A friendly and fairly comfortable 2-star hotel, it's a good budget option- and the best thing about it is its location- within 2 minutes' walk from one of Paris' biggest train stations- particularly good as we'd travelled here through the Chunnel from London- all we had to do was walk down from the train station to the hotel- very convenient!

We'd booked a double room- fortunately enough we were given one on the 4th floor (fortunate, because the lift doesn't go beyond the 5th floor). A small room overlooking the street, it had a rather cramped bed, but with the deepest, softest mattress imaginable! Not much else in the way of furniture, though- a chair, a luggage rack, and a TV which ran French-only channels.

Most of our entertainment was restricted to people-watching from the windows.

The Londres et D'Anvers doesn't pride itself on being a F&B-oriented hotel: the only place you can get anything to eat is the tiny cafe in the lobby where you get breakfast, tea and coffee or juice. The cafe serves the most heavenly croissants, plum jam and coffee for breakfast. Don't mind the snooty black cat which glares at you while you're tucking into brekker, though!

The tariff (bed and breakfast) for a double room works out to about 36 euros. Unpretentious and good value for money.

Bertholli's makes the most luscious ice cream this side of paradise. If you're walking down the Champs-Elysees (another activity I'd recommend), you mustn't miss out on this treat. The Bertholli ice cream parlour is on the left, looking down the Champs-Elysees towards l'Arc du Triomphe, and though the stuff's somewhat expensive, it's absolutely divine. There isn't any place to sit, so you'll have to take your ice cream cone and walk out, but that's fine- the Champs-Elysees is great, anyway! Recommended flavour: Creole ice cream- a lovely coconut, pineapple and rum flavour. So completely luscious that it can be addictive.

Our Paris budget was too meagre to be even called shoestring- but one temptation we succumbed to was that of the cafés. I mean, we couldn’t go to Paris and not eat at a café, could we? They stand along every street, usually spilling onto the street itself, with neat little tables covered with checked tablecloths; a tantalising aroma of coffee and freshly baked bread; a warm and very inviting friendliness, and the most stunning of food.

We’d been told by everybody we’d asked that the cafés to look out for were the ones which had Parisians in them, not tourists- and the result of that was some of the best dining experiences ever. Not Michelin, but good, wholesome food which was utterly delectable- and didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

One of the best cafés we went to was a tiny one called Le Progres, in Montmartre. It was lunchtime, and the dozen-odd tables in the café were all in use, packed with French workmen. A small one-room cafe, Le Progres was the no-frills restaurant: wooden tables and chairs, very little space between tables; no piped music but a cheerful bustle about it.

The entire place was handled by a staff of just three: a waitress (very efficient), a barmaid (very busty) and a shaggy dog (very black and with the most mournful eyes ever- especially when he was sitting and staring beseechingly at us gobbling our food!).

The lunch was a table d’hôte which allowed us to choose from a range of three or four appetizers, main courses and desserts. What I opted for turned out to be spectacular: a gorgeous mozzarella and tomato salad, fragrant with olive oil; juicy escalopes of turkey with sauce normande and flat noodles; crusty French bread, a glass of red wine, and a packed-with-apple tarte auz pommes. All of it was luscious, and just for 63 francs. (The price, incidentally, is mentioned on a blackboard outside each cafe- along with the day's menu- so we actually walked down the street glancing at a number of blackboards before deciding where we wanted to eat.)

All in all, it was great value for money- not high-falutin' dining, but good food, friendly people and a comfortable meal- and it endeared us to Parisian cafés for life.

Outside it, the Musée D’Orsay has five female figures carved from stone, representing the continents- Asia, Africa, Oceania, the Americas and Europe. Quite good. Inside, it looks almost exactly like what it is- a railway station, although it’s been spruced up and decorated a bit (there’s carving along the ceiling, and there’s a huge gilded clock at the main entrance).

The collection inside is large, almost overbearingly so, and good. It's also very varied- there's exquisite sculpture (there’s a lot of stuff by Rodin, and even a piece by Sarah Bernhardt- I thought she was just an actress); furniture (some beautiful carved wooden cabinets, chairs, etc), tapestry, utensils, glassware, ceramics, paintings- all manner of lovely things.

Among the paintings, there’s a lot of Impressionist work. Some of my favourite painters and paintings are there; there’s Manet (with `Dejeuner sur l’herbe’), Monet (`Bridge’), Van Gogh (`Self Portrait’, `Reapers’, `Church at Anvers’, `Artist’s Room at Arles’), Whistler (Mummy dearest- what’s the painting actually called?), Cezanne (`Card Players’), Degas (`After the Bath’, various ballet scenes), Renoir (`Café de la Galette’), Toulouse-Lautrec (`Jane Avril dancing’), Corot, Gustave Courbet (`The Artist’s Studio’), Sisley, Georges Seurat (`Circus’), etc. I adore art, and Impressionism is easily my #1 favourite, so I went pretty berserk at the Musee d'Orsay. Loved it!

The Musee du Vin is in the old 14th century wine cellar of the Abbey of Passy (like all monastic establishments, these guys too decided wine-making was a good way of serving the Lord).

Somewhat dimly-lit collection which lies spread out across a convoluted maze-like corridor, which is pretty narrow and a bit of a problem if you run into a big group. Although all the signages and explanations are only in French, it’s all pretty interesting. The exhibits run the gamut of everything (and I mean everything!) connected to wine and wine-making. the equipment itself is a huge collection- there are wine presses, corkscrews, grape baskets (to store picked grapes), barrels, decanters, glasses, bottles of various shapes and sizes- some so tall they’re higher than my knee, and plenty of other stuff. Besides that- and this is what I found really interesting- there are a whole lot of old photographs, articles, portraits, and drinking songs (there’s even a hymn to St. Vincent, one of the main patron saints of wine). There's a separate section, towards the end of the display, with waxworks showing how wine is made. It includes a waxwork of good ol' Louis Pasteur, the man who brought French viticulture back from the brink. At the end of the display is the best part of it- a neat little wine bar, rather bare-boens, but nice, where you can sit and have your complimentary glass of wine.

Standing beside the Seine, the imposing Cathedrale de Nôtre Dame de Paris (to give it its full name) is quite literally the centre of Paris - the city’s `zero kilometre’ stone is right outside the cathedral. Even otherwise, this beautiful old church is worth a visit - not just for its lovely architecture, but also for its history and the fact that it has a certain calm grandeur about it which manages to survive the hordes of tourists who descend upon it every day.

Seen from the front, Nôtre Dame presents a façade of square twin steeples with a huge 12-mt diameter rose window between them. In front of the cathedral is a large bronze statue, green with age, of the emperor Charlemagne. Stand next to him, and you’ll get one of the best views of Nôtre Dame there is - before you go in.

Made entirely of the beige stone which comprises most Parisian buildings, the cathedral was begun in 1163 and took all of 200 years to complete - and it shows. The lavish ornamentation all around the church - both inside and outside - is the type which can’t get done in just a year! Exquisitely carved stone decorates much of the façade, and inside it’s even more spectacular - a huge vaulted ceiling, surrounded by rows of the most gorgeous stained glass windows, dominates the interior. In all the niches, chapels and recesses lining the sides of the cathedral, there are rows of stone statues of an array of saints, including Joan of Arc (the decision to canonize her was taken at Nôtre Dame in the early 1900s - around 1920, if I’m not mistaken).

All along the inside are large, life-sized paintings depicting Biblical scenes. Known as the `Mays’ of Nôtre Dame, these paintings originated from the fact that every May (the month dedicated to Mary), the goldsmiths of Paris, in thanksgiving, would offer a green tree to her. This gift, with the passage of time, took on the form of a painting - the Mays. They’re worth a look as you wander around the church.

Touring all of Nôtre Dame takes at least half an hour, after which you can (as we did) wander around to the tiny garden at the back of the church. It’s a small patch of grass with beds of cream tulips surrounding a statue - a nice quiet place for a brief rest. Or you can follow the crowds to the souvenir shops along the lane beside the church - just a bit too commercial, I thought, especially after the beauty of Nôtre Dame.

Entry to Nôtre Dame is free, but you have to pay to visit some sections of it - 35 francs to climb the tower, for instance.

780 km long, the Seine measures a mere 13 km in Paris - but that 13 km is truly amazing. The best of Paris - from nightlife to the arts, religion to commerce - line the banks of the river, and the 36 bridges which span it are a vital part of Paris. We hadn’t thought of booking ourselves a cruise down the Seine, but a trip to the Eiffel Tower, at the foot of which most cruises start, tempted us. Many river-cruise companies have set up shop here; and we bought tickets (50 francs each) from one called `Vedette de Paris’, for an hour’s cruise, passing below 21 of the 36 bridges.

The cruise we took began at the ultimate in Paris’ sights, La Tour Eiffel itself. A quick glance up at the tower (which we’d already had a look at), and we were ushered onto the boat, a large one with wooden benches (peeling paint and all, but with a quaintness about it which was quite beguiling). It was a wonderfully sunny day, and the hour-long cruise remains one of my best memories of Paris.

The cruise took us along very interesting territory - we saw, on either side of the river, the Eiffel Tower , the Palais Royale and the Louvre ; the golden statue of the flame (a replica of the flame held by the Statue of Liberty - to commemorate French-US friendship); L’ Hôtel des Invalides , L’ Obelisque Egyptienne, Saints-Chapelle, Nôtre Dame, the Musée d’Orsay , and more. Name a Parisian attraction, and chances are you’ll be able to see it from the boat you’re on.

The view’s gorgeous, with even the bridges being works of art. One of the most ornate bridges is Pont Alexandre III , inaugurated by the Tsar Nicholas II. It’s heavily carved, with huge human figures in the center, and a fair amount of gilt. The oldest is Pont Neuf (strangely enough; `neuf’ means `new’!), and the most romantic, or so they say, is Pont Marie . It’s said that if, when passing under it for the first time, you close your eyes and make a wish, it’ll come true. I wished that the camera I’d lost the day before would reappear by magic - but it didn’t, so there!

Near Pont Sully , the boat rounded the curve of an island and headed back. At the turn is a house which used to be once inhabited by Chopin, Mozart and Goethe (presumably at different times?). Further on, at Pont de L’Alma (built to commemorate a French victory over the Russians during the Crimean War), a soldier, called the Zouave, has been carved on one side of the river. The Zouave is generally used as a watermark - the highest the water has been is up to his chin.

On the whole, it's a neat way of seeing Paris - historic, interesting, and worth every franc you spend on it.

Someone- I don’t know who- described Le Basilique du Sacré Coeur as `divinity amidst profanity’- and really hit the nail on the head. Bang on! Looming incongruously over one of Paris’ loudest, most risqué localities, this is one church which manages to remain pretty aloof from it all. We visited Sacré Coeur and Montmartre on a sunny spring morning, beginning with a long- and very interesting- walk through Place Pigalle, the really raunchy district which sprawls below the church.

Morning was, now that I come to think of it, probably the wrong time to visit Place Pigalle - I mean, this is the place for nightlife, so morning saw it pretty deserted. But a stroll down a cobbled pavement gave us a fairly good idea of what it’s all about. And it is pretty risqué- every shop, every outlet, every little kiosk- advertises `peep shows’, lingerie, aphrodisiacs, and stuff like that. Most have very explicit photos up too. One place we passed even had a poster which proclaimed "Non-stop show nude guaranteed" ("Hey! She had her G-string on for a minute! I want my money back!"). We walked on, the length of the road, till the Moulin Rouge, with its famous red windmill and its reproductions of Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings. Other well-known venues- like the Crazy Horse and the Lido- are nearby too. This entire area throbs with life and light once the sun goes down, but was quietness itself while we wandered around.

After a brief look-see through Place Pigalle, we took the Metro to le Basilique du Sacré Coeur . Built as a votive offering by the people of Paris after Prussia’s defeat of France in 1870, the Basilica’s a huge, white-domed structure with pale yellow tulips and orange poppies growing along the steps leading up to it. Although revered by many (and in fact believed by some to contain a relic of Christ himself- the `sacred heart’), the church isn’t really that spectacular- well, somebody actually said it was a `lunatic’s confectionery dream’! The interior does have some rather nice decoration, which is worth a look- there’s some good stained glass and plenty of very ornate mosaic (incorporating a fair amount of gold paint). The crypt is also open to the public, and is worth visiting for the statues it houses, as well as the relic.

To come to Paris and not see the Musée du Louvre would probably have been the ultimate faux pas for art-and-history enthusiasts as devoted as us. So the Louvre it was- on the very first day we reached Paris. It was also the place our camera got stolen ( Big Tip : watch your belongings here!), which meant that our four-day trip in Paris ended up having no photographs at all.

Anyway, despite the loss: the Louvre is worth a visit- and the experience starts right from the time you step off the train at the Palais Royale- the Metro station which is almost a wing of the Louvre in its own right, with amazing artifacts and sculpture, in carefully-labelled glass display cases down the length of platform.

The Palais Royale (the building, not the station)- is Europe’s largest palace and took 600 years to build; remnants of the original fortress still stand beneath the ornate beige edifice which today houses the world’s largest museum- the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre is divided into three wings: Denon, Richielieu and Sully, and it’s a stunner all the way, from the towering 71-ft high glass pyramid at the entrance to the last canvas. There are spectacular displays here of everything from Etruscan and Egyptian antiquities (mummies, grain, cloth, sarcophagi and jewellery) to Greek and Roman artefacts (including exquisite red-and-black painted amphorae and marble statues). Ancient treasures include the famous Code of Hammurabi and part of a frieze from the Parthenon.

The Louvre’s most famous exhibits are of course La Gioconda - the Mona Lisa- and Venus de Milo . Both were surrounded by eager crowds of tourists and we had to wait our turn, but it was worth it. Some of the other favourites on our list included Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks ; Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa , Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty leading the People - and a sizeable number of Turners, Constables, Goyas, Holbeins and more.

A `good’ tour of the museum should take a minimum of two days (there are, after all, 16 kilometres of galleries here), but if you’re really pressed for time you can opt for one of the guided tours- they show you some of the main exhibits in an easy-to-handle dose. Admission tickets cost 46 francs (which we didn’t have to pay, as we were touring Paris on a Paris-Visite card, which included free entry to most museums in the city).

Built in 1670 by Louis XIV, L’Hôtel des Invalides was actually built as a home for war veterans- especially those who had been wounded in battle (hence `invalides’); today this ornate golden-domed building houses two of Paris’ major sights: the Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Musée de L’Armée.

Entering des Invalides, we first went to Napoleon’s tomb- a fairly imposing structure housed in a (to me, at least) rather dingy hall. Set in red porphyry, laid on a slab of green granite and consisting of seven coffins set one inside the other, the tomb’s at the centre of the room, atop a high pedestal which stands in a well. All around the room- on its walls- are friezes depicting Napoleon’s many deeds, with the emperor himself represented in each as the Emperor of Rome (?! A bit of a puzzle). Also around the room are the tombs of Napoleon’s marshals, including Foch.

Napoleon’s tomb doesn’t take much time to see, but the Musée de L’Armée does- if you want to do any sort of justice to it. Probably the largest and most impressive military museum in the world, it spreads out over two floors of des Invalides. On the ground floor is a gigantic collection of weaponry- dating from prehistoric arrowheads to swords, muskets, shields, armour, ensigns, uniforms, helmets, etc from across time and space- Mughal India, Turkey, Japan, Europe and elsewhere. There’s a massive medieval arsenal too, and in the central courtyards, cannons stand, with shells and cannonballs too.

On the first floor are pieces from World War I- paintings, photographs, uniforms, guns (including the famous Vickers gun), gas masks, and replicas of the vehicles used. Other displays include epaulettes, decorations and maps (including the original map used by Foch and Weynard in the French campaign- it’s been stitched and repaired across the middle). There’s also part of the fuselage of a Zeppelin; a bit of shrapnel; tiny tokens- crucifixes, daggers, etc made by soldiers at the front, most of them crafted from shell and other handy material. A lot of it really gave me gooseflesh.

Some items are of particular significance- the bugle used to blow the Armistice; the pens used to sign it; a muddy trench coat from Verdun; the original uniform worn by General Gallieni (who used taxis to take his troops to the front at the Battle of the Marne; these taxis, one of which stands at the entrance of the museum, later came to be known as Marne taxis).