Today was incredible! After breakfast I took the M7 from Riquette to Pont Marie, which let me out right in front of the Notre Dam. After wandering for a bit I finally found the tour group and Nancy, our UK-native tour guide, telling the group why every building in Paris looks the same (I didn't want to mention it on the chance it would hurt someone's feelings). She explained that a man named Houseman (pretend I spelled that in French) decided in the 1600s that Paris needed to be rebuilt, on account of it's lack of infrastructure and plumbing. He was not an architect but commissioned several architects to rebuild the city of Paris (then only on the island) on one condition: all the buildings must look the way he likes, therefore they must all look the same. It's alright though, because a hundred beautiful buildings is nothing to complain about.
This is where we started our tour:
And this is Nancy!
I learned quite a lot about French history while on this 2.5 hour free walking tour. Here are some fun facts!
This cathedral/palace thing called Saint Chapelle was built by King Louis IX because, after he went crusading, he brought back 10 religious relics and needed a fancy place to put them. These relics included, but were not limited to, a piece of the cross Jesus was nailed to, his thorn crown, and the breast milk of the Virgin Mary (insert cringe). No one knows if these are real or not, but nonetheless that is how the story goes. Now it is a court house.
Right next to the St. Chappelle is what was turned into a jail during the French Revolution, and is where Marie Antoinette was kept after she was kidnapped, before she was beheaded. Apparently, there were 16000 guillotine deaths in the span of 8 months, all ordered by the "Committee for Public Cleansing" ran by the revolutionaries.
This clock is from the 1300s and is the oldest public clock in the country (continent maybe?):
In the last episode of Sex and the City, Carrie and what's-his-name met up in Paris and placed a lock on one of the 30 something bridges in the city to commemorate their love, or something like that, then threw the key into the river. This resulted in massive amounts of people, Parisians and travelers, going to that bridge and placing their own love locks on it. The bridge broke and was fixed once every few weeks because of the weight of the locks for about 2 months before the city threw up their hands and replaced the chain link walls with glass. Here's the bridge:
But, viola, love locks remain on the pseudo-chain link walls that were placed around the statue of King Henry. This is a small portion of the insane amounts of locks there are:
Funny you should mention King Henry--did you know that he was originally a Protestant, but ended up having to convert to Catholicism in order to be the King of France, then made a law that said no one in France could persecute Protestants? Well, in case that's not enough juicy gossip, a very Catholic man had a dream where God told him to tell King Henry to allow the persecution of Protestants and be a more devout Catholic, so naturally he tried to speak to the King and deliver God's very convenient message. Alas, King Henry did not want to talk to a nutcase, so after trying for months, this man created a blockade in the streets in front of King Henry's palace and waited for his carriage to arrive and get stuck, causing Henry's guards to get out and see what all the ruckus was, leaving the King vulnerable. This man then entered King Henry's carriage and, instead of just delivering God's word, stabbed him not once, not twice, but three times in the chest and stomach! King Henry called out "I am injured!" in French, naturally, and died 30 minutes later. Here he is on a horse in all his Protestant glory:
When we walked up to this building, I had no idea what it was, and didn't believe Nancy when she told us it was the back of the Louvre:
We walked through it and entered this massive courtyard, and the palpable history in the air along with the gorgeous architecture made my jaw drop and my eyes tear up, instantly. Apparently, the Louvre was not built as a museum--it was a palace for kings for many years and every new king got a new quarter built for him. It stopped when King Louis XIV decided that that palace was not big enough for him and went out of Paris to build Versailles. The pyramids in front of the Louvre were built in 1980 to create an easier entrance to the museum-converted-palace, which now goes underground and doubles as a walkway between the many sides of the museum. I can't wait to go in--some days in the afternoon it's free for students under the age of 26!
Close to the Louvre is the Arc de Triumph de Carousel, which is the baby version of the real Arc de Triumph. King Louis XIV wanted an arc to walk through as he was coming home from a battle he thought he would win, so the Arc was commissioned. However, architects realized that they would not have the massive thing done in time for the King's return, so they made a baby one in the mean time to fill the gap. Louis didn't mind, but he never saw the real Arc finished because it took 30 years to do so, and by that time he was dead on an island.
At the end of the tour, our guide told us about other tours she recommended, two of which I decided to purchase: a river cruise, and a trip to Versailles (if the Louvre was not enough for King Louis XIV I really want to see what was). My friends Jason, Matt and Sam also bought the River Cruise tickets and we met up at the Eiffel Tower at 9 pm, each with a bottle of red wine and a baguette and chocolate. I won't talk about the cruise, or the Eiffel Tower too much, because there really are no words for how spectacular it was.
I never thought I would be in Paris in my entire life. All the rumors about Parisians really kept me from wanting to come here, but I was so wrong and I am so glad I am here. The Eiffel Tower is one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen, and I'm not really sure how anything else can top it.
This is where we started our tour:
And this is Nancy!
I learned quite a lot about French history while on this 2.5 hour free walking tour. Here are some fun facts!
This cathedral/palace thing called Saint Chapelle was built by King Louis IX because, after he went crusading, he brought back 10 religious relics and needed a fancy place to put them. These relics included, but were not limited to, a piece of the cross Jesus was nailed to, his thorn crown, and the breast milk of the Virgin Mary (insert cringe). No one knows if these are real or not, but nonetheless that is how the story goes. Now it is a court house.
Right next to the St. Chappelle is what was turned into a jail during the French Revolution, and is where Marie Antoinette was kept after she was kidnapped, before she was beheaded. Apparently, there were 16000 guillotine deaths in the span of 8 months, all ordered by the "Committee for Public Cleansing" ran by the revolutionaries.
This clock is from the 1300s and is the oldest public clock in the country (continent maybe?):
In the last episode of Sex and the City, Carrie and what's-his-name met up in Paris and placed a lock on one of the 30 something bridges in the city to commemorate their love, or something like that, then threw the key into the river. This resulted in massive amounts of people, Parisians and travelers, going to that bridge and placing their own love locks on it. The bridge broke and was fixed once every few weeks because of the weight of the locks for about 2 months before the city threw up their hands and replaced the chain link walls with glass. Here's the bridge:
But, viola, love locks remain on the pseudo-chain link walls that were placed around the statue of King Henry. This is a small portion of the insane amounts of locks there are:
Funny you should mention King Henry--did you know that he was originally a Protestant, but ended up having to convert to Catholicism in order to be the King of France, then made a law that said no one in France could persecute Protestants? Well, in case that's not enough juicy gossip, a very Catholic man had a dream where God told him to tell King Henry to allow the persecution of Protestants and be a more devout Catholic, so naturally he tried to speak to the King and deliver God's very convenient message. Alas, King Henry did not want to talk to a nutcase, so after trying for months, this man created a blockade in the streets in front of King Henry's palace and waited for his carriage to arrive and get stuck, causing Henry's guards to get out and see what all the ruckus was, leaving the King vulnerable. This man then entered King Henry's carriage and, instead of just delivering God's word, stabbed him not once, not twice, but three times in the chest and stomach! King Henry called out "I am injured!" in French, naturally, and died 30 minutes later. Here he is on a horse in all his Protestant glory:
When we walked up to this building, I had no idea what it was, and didn't believe Nancy when she told us it was the back of the Louvre:
We walked through it and entered this massive courtyard, and the palpable history in the air along with the gorgeous architecture made my jaw drop and my eyes tear up, instantly. Apparently, the Louvre was not built as a museum--it was a palace for kings for many years and every new king got a new quarter built for him. It stopped when King Louis XIV decided that that palace was not big enough for him and went out of Paris to build Versailles. The pyramids in front of the Louvre were built in 1980 to create an easier entrance to the museum-converted-palace, which now goes underground and doubles as a walkway between the many sides of the museum. I can't wait to go in--some days in the afternoon it's free for students under the age of 26!
Close to the Louvre is the Arc de Triumph de Carousel, which is the baby version of the real Arc de Triumph. King Louis XIV wanted an arc to walk through as he was coming home from a battle he thought he would win, so the Arc was commissioned. However, architects realized that they would not have the massive thing done in time for the King's return, so they made a baby one in the mean time to fill the gap. Louis didn't mind, but he never saw the real Arc finished because it took 30 years to do so, and by that time he was dead on an island.
At the end of the tour, our guide told us about other tours she recommended, two of which I decided to purchase: a river cruise, and a trip to Versailles (if the Louvre was not enough for King Louis XIV I really want to see what was). My friends Jason, Matt and Sam also bought the River Cruise tickets and we met up at the Eiffel Tower at 9 pm, each with a bottle of red wine and a baguette and chocolate. I won't talk about the cruise, or the Eiffel Tower too much, because there really are no words for how spectacular it was.
I never thought I would be in Paris in my entire life. All the rumors about Parisians really kept me from wanting to come here, but I was so wrong and I am so glad I am here. The Eiffel Tower is one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen, and I'm not really sure how anything else can top it.
I hope you have time to see Musee Rodin. It's a favorite of my husband and me!
ReplyDelete