Paris Day 1 (11/14)

Day 1, Tuesday. Our first full day in Paris. We got our usual late morning start. Pascal went out and found some light, perfectly baked croissants (very light on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside). It was a nice way to start the morning. Our first stop was a department store called BHV. It was 5 or 6 floors of just about everything. Nancy was looking for some kitchen supplies for aiding the soap making. We looked around for a while and then went out another door, which was across the street from the Hotel de Ville, aka Paris’ City Hall. Inside there was a free exhibit of cartoons by Cabu, a very well know French social and political cartoonist. We walked around the building a little and then realized that it was lunchtime. So we got sandwiches to go from Paul’s, a nearby cafe and sat in front of the Hotel de Ville to people watch while we ate. There were a group of school kids sitting next to us feeding the pigeons parts of their lunch. We watched the office workers going here and there. I was struck by the mix of and mixing of ethnic groups. Black Africans, Algerians, German tourist, Scandinavian tourist, French natives, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos. They were all pretty well integrated.

After we finished eating we walked towards the Seine and over to Notre Dame. We all went inside to look around. It is a huge, spectacular cathedral. There is the main part and then along the sides are many little chapel areas. Each devoted to one or another saint. You can walk all the way around to the back of the sanctuary. I was taking a long time to make the circuit and had managed to get only 3/4 around before the others had finished. They came and got me. We went outside where Nancy and Pascal insisted that we should take the tour of the clock tower at the top of Notre Dame. I was reluctant to spend the money but after some persuasion I agreed. Good thing. It was well worth the cost. We climbed several sets of narrow circular winding stairs up to the north tower. Then we walked across an outside passage that connected with the South tower. The view from this passage was quite impressive. Once inside the South tower one could see the largest of the bells in it’s wooden frame. It was called “Emmanuel, Ludovic, Marie-Thérèse”. It was cast in the 17th century and weighed more than 13 metric tons. It was mounted in this wooden interior tower because the vibrations would possibly cause the stone exterior walls to crack. In the beginning, it took 16 men to ring the bell. Later with some engineering improvements, 8 men could handle it. Eventually it was fitted with electric motors. The cathedral itself was started in 1163. The towers were completed in 1245. During the French revolution, the cathedral was severely damaged. It was completely reconstruction beginning in 1845. We then climbed to the top of the South tower, almost 70 meters up. There was the view. And I do mean view. From that height, you could see all of Paris for a full 360°. Very impressive and well worth the cost and the tedious climb. We could see Nancy and Pascal waiting for us on a bench below and they actually looked up and happened to see us waving at them. We headed back down. But not before Tai took a kajillion pictures of the views and gargoyles.

Then we walked down the Seine a short way to check out boat cruises. Because of the time, we decided to do it another day. We popped down into the metro and popped up again at the Trocadéro. This is another huge Paris monument, which contains several museums and a film museum. But for us, it was standing on the outside looking across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. Since the year 2000, the tower is lit up every night on every hour for ten minutes. This is in addition to the regular lighting. It consists of hundreds of white flashing lights. Quite a spectacle. Then we walked across the Seine and hung out under the tower for a while. To think that at one point, they were going to tear this down because Parisians thought it was too ugly. Maybe it’s not beautiful but it sure is a sight. By now it was getting to be 9pm and we needed to head home.
For dinner we ate falafels from the Marais street shops next to our apartment. That cured our craving for falafels. The falafels were very heavy and oily which left us all with mild upset stomachs.