Sorry, Mr. Bonaparte, But There is Only So Much Time In a Day

I had decided on a somewhat ambitious plan. Paris has a couple of visitor friendly options for going around and seeing the sites. I believe one is a pass to about 80 museums and other spots, and it might include public transport as well. It is a multi-day pass. But I am not sure about the details of that one. I didn't go with that option.

I chose the Museum Pass. That pass allows entrance into around 60 different museums and other sites. There is no public transport included, so that's extra. But, on the other hand, over half the places are inside the old city of Paris and that puts it all within fairly easy walking distance. The Museum Pass comes with a 2-day, a 4-day, and a 6-day option, with slightly higher prices for the longer passes.

As I looked at the list of places contained in the information brochure at the tourist information booth, I saw that it included almost all of the places I wanted to visit. It had the Palace of Versailles; the Notre Dame Cathedral (which was free), including the opportunity to climb the towers (which was not free); the Arc de Triomphe; and the Louvre Museum. In addition, it included a couple of other things that sounded intriguing. One was the crypt below Notre Dame Cathedral. Another was the Museum of Branly Quay. (That was the museum that my seatmate from the train in from Frankfurt had told me about.) As well, there was the Museum of the Army, that also housed the Tomb of Napoleon. (In a book I had read, some of the action took place in the Museum of the Army, and the Tomb of Napoleon.) Alone that was a daunting enough thought, but there were a couple of other places that sounded interesting. There was the Museum of Orsay, the Museum of the Orangerie, and the Museum of Cinema. Orsay Museum is famous and it seemed that it might be a good idea to go if possible. The others just sounded interesting. About the only things that I would have wanted to do that weren't on the list of places covered by the ticket were the Eiffel Tower and the catacombs.

It was a good deal. The only thing that gave me pause was whether I would be able to wring enough value out of the pass to make it worth it, and if I did wring enough value out of it, would I be satisfied with the experience of the places I would have visited or would I feel too rushed. On the other hand, I was finding Europe in general and Paris in particular quite expensive. I wasn't particularly excited about staying in Paris for more than a couple of days, so a 2-day Museum Pass was going to be the best way to get myself moving and working at seeing the things that were of interest to me. So that is the option I went with.

I purchased the 2-day pass and then spent a while working out what I would get out to see. My first set of choices was to make sure that I was going to be able to see what I wanted while I was there. I had arrived on Saturday. My 2-day pass was therefore going to be in effect on Sunday and Monday, the somewhat traditional day for museums and such to be closed.

Because of Monday closures, I ended up having a fairly punishing schedule for my Sunday. So I also bought a day pass on the Paris public transportation system. It came to a hefty 20.50 Euros, or about 30 dollars. Ouch!!! But I needed to get to the Palace at Versailles and it was the only spot that wasn't within walking distance. It needed to be done. But still... I thought the Calgary bus/LRT system was expensive.

My first stop was the Palace at Versailles. It was well out of the city center, as palaces would tend to be. Kings, although they are heads of government and such, don't want to live in crowded and busy city centers. They need big houses and large gardens to prance around in while their subjects toil away in the dirt and squalor of the city streets. It was a place that I wanted to see, not so much because I thought I would be incredibly impressed, but more because it was one of those places that I sort of had to go and see. But it was just going to be a big old house with a lot of old furniture (maybe), that only showed how out of touch with the populace the old royalty really was.

And from the outside it didn't seem to be all that impressive.

Louis XIV himself was outside, waiting to greet visitors.

I had my pass and it allowed me to bypass the line and head into the palace immediately. This would have been more of a boon if there had actually been lines. But my choice of timing for visiting Paris, namely the middle of winter, seemed to be somewhat helpful for how many people I was going to have to wade through. There was no line for tickets. And there was no line to get into the palace. I just strolled on in.

The palace visit also included an audio guide that was part of the price. There were many people on some kind of guided tour, but with the free audio guide, I was quite happy. I was also a tad worried. As soon as I walked in, I realized that it was going to be far more impressive than I had expected. The first room that greeted me was the chapel where the kings who lived there would worship. The audio guide began with a three or four minute commentary about this very first area in the palace. And the audio guide stand boasted of there being over 100 commentaries. That was going to be, hmmm, let me see here, bsss-sss-sss, carry the one, mmm-bss-sss, 400-500 minutes or 7 hours of listening to do about the palace. Uh-oh. Maybe I wasn't going to be seeing as much as I had hoped this day. It shook out that it wasn't true. There were about 40 commentaries and not all were as long.

But the palace was really nice. And opulent. We began through the king's wing and headed through all the different rooms. Their names and functions were all on little information placards in each room, but the names and functions really don't mean much. They were just really impressive rooms and filled with amazing art. There wasn't so much furniture because of what came as the end of the kings in France. Perceived as decadent and out of touch with the people (and they probably were, from what the histories say), the people rose up and overthrew the monarchy in 1789. The king and queen were taken out and arrested and then eventually beheaded. This was the episode where Marie Antoinette was supposed to have said, “Let them eat cake!” I think that was a myth, but it's possible, I guess.

Part of what made the visit more interesting for me was that I had study the French Revolution in school as part of my studies in French. I had read about what had taken place in this palace and France. And now I was standing in the place where it had taken place. So it was cool just for that.

In the king's wing, there were salons, and dance rooms, and other rooms for meetings and such. They were beautiful rooms. And through it all we were allowed to take photos. Flash was restricted, naturally, as the light can cause the colours in paintings to fade. (Just as naturally, there were plenty of people who either didn't realize they were using their flash (because they don't pay attention), didn't know how to operate their cameras, or just didn't care and wanted to take flash photos because, hey, they were important people and what they wanted was more important than the rules and the preservation of the artwork for the future. I hate those people. The people who are oblivious are less obnoxious to me because they are simpletons, but the ones that knowingly take photos with flash are stupid and selfish. It's because of those sorts that there are places like the Valley of the Kings in Egypt where you are not even allowed to take your camera in because people can't be trusted to follow those sorts of rules.)

After the king's wing, we went along the back of the palace. This was where the famous Hall of Mirrors was located. And it really is as amazing as it's made out to be. Even with all the people milling about, it big, long, bright, and very, very impressive.

The king's chambers were located off the Hall of Mirrors. There was the Bull's Eye Room, so named for its windows that were shaped like a bull's eye.

There was the king's bedchamber.

And there was the meeting room, where the king held important meetings.

Then it was on into the queen's wing. This was just as impressive. Again there were names for each room and their functions were described, but really it will mean nothing to someone who isn't there. (At this point, that includes me.)

The one room that I will name is the queen's bedchamber.
















The others you can just look at.

Then it was on into the Coronation Room. I'm not sure if the kings were crowned here, but Napoleon used it to glorify his own self-imposed emperorhood. A grand painting depicts the scene where he was crowned emperor.

Behind the Coronation Room was another long gallery, bigger even than the Hall of Mirrors. Here there were a large number of paintings depicting the important battles of France through the past couple thousand years. There were 38 or some such. Some battles had their own commentary. Many were just impressive paintings.

The visit through the palace took roughly an hour and a half. Then I popped out to the gardens for a short while. I can imagine they are quite impressive when in full bloom and all green. It being winter, however, they were just nice. There was a good view of the palace from below, but they were only good for a short jaunt before heading back to the train and going to the next spot.

Another place that has filled my imagination for many years is Notre Dame cathedral. In French Language Arts class in high school, we read The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We were introduced to Quasimodo and his great love, Esmeralda. Since then, I have thought of the cathedral from time to time and wondered what it would like. In Paris, I had my chance to go and see. Well, from outside, it's just a Gothic-looking church.

 

 

 

 

 

Inside, it's a fairly elaborate church. It's very big, but it is just a church. And that part was all free, being a church and all.

But part of the Museum Pass was the chance to visit the towers of Notre Dame. Cool!!! This was where I would see the bells, and the high reaches of the cathedral where Quasimodo hid and was able to find some peace. And where he was able to look down on his beloved Esmeralda.

It was quite a hike up to the top. 70 or 80 meters straight up a spiral staircase is quite a dizzying thing.

But the view from the top was spectacular.

Quasimodo? Nah, couldn't be.

And I got to see the bells that ol' Quadimodo was ringing.
















Back down at the bottom, I headed to the foot of the garden to the crypts below Notre Dame cathedral. I suppose I probably did know, but never really paid attention to it when I learned. Paris was a Roman city. It's first name was Letitia. It was at the frontiers of the empire and the location was chosen for its easy fortification. It was originally located on the island in the middle of the Seine. Some of the foundations of the city are still to be found under the present day city. Much has of course been destroyed over the years as diggings were conducted to make room for newer and newer buildings. But because of a road that crossed the Ile de la Cite in the Seine, a large grouping of ancient foundations and walls have been preserved. The alignment of the road has been preserved over the centuries and so what was underneath went undisturbed. A big portion of that was left under the present location of Notre Dame cathedral. Archaeological diggings have uncovered those foundations and visitors can now go under the cathedral grounds to have a look. It's amazing!

There are old Roman house foundations, and walls, and Roman baths, and the ancient road. I will take the word of the archaeologists on all of that because, although I could see they were definitely manmade, I couldn't really tell what they were beyond being walls and such. It was fascinating to walk under Paris and see all this stuff. Can't do that in Canada! (Not in the west at least.)

Next, I hopped on the metro and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. The museum I had been told about by my seatmate on the train from Frankfurt told me where to find it. It sounded interesting so I wanted to go and see it. It was near the Eiffel Tower. So I got a good look at the tower from underneath on my way by.

The Musee de la Quai Branly is a new concept of museum. So I had been told anyway. It was a collection of the arts and crafts of the world's civilizations, but the current ones. There were also a couple of exhibitions going on. They were all part of my pass ticket. This time I was glad I had my pass. The line into the museum was huge, and I got to by-pass it and walk right in. I thought I wouldn't get to see the special exhibitions because I would have to stand in line like everyone else, but it turned out that the Maori exhibition had only about a 15 minute wait, so I did go in and see it.

Of course, I have seen all this sort of stuff in New Zealand. And in its more natural habitat and state. It was an interesting exhibition, but...

From the Maori exhibit, I headed into the rest of the museum. It was a different museum, for sure. It was arranged in regional groupings. So the art and craft of cultures different areas of the world, which would often be related anyway due to geography, would be side by side in the same display cases. It really high-lighted how different cultures would often have the same themes and types of crafting techniques. It was quite interesting. It was also quite dark in the museum showcases, so the conditions for photos were not ideal.

I spent a fair amount of time in the museum, more than I had thought I would. It was quite a big museum. And I went to check another of the exhibitions, The Creation of the Other. It showcased how difference in people came to be exploited for entertainment and eventually led to the current trends of racism and separation. It was quite interesting, but by the time I was getting there, I was getting tired, both from the long day and from being museumed out. But I did meet the woman from the train one more time. That was nice.

Alas, after the visit to Branly Quai Museum, it was late. Too late to go and see Napoleon's tomb. There is only so much time in a day, and I had had a full day with much to see. Sorry Napoleon. I also didn't get to see the Musee D'Orsay. Oh well.

I still had the chance to see the Arc de Triomphe. It was open until 10 or 11 at night, and it would have a nice view of the city at night. I was quite tired, but I decided that I would go anyway. It would be a nice walk and I wasn't sure when, or if, I would come to Paris again.

So I walked across the river (passing a well-lit Eiffel Tower on the way) and up the hill to the monument.

This was a monument that was started by Napoleon in honour of his war victories. He didn't finish it, however, as work was interrupted (maybe by another war he started) and didn't begin again for 20 years and was completed in 1836. It memorializes Napoleon's glories, but it also marks the other conflicts and wars in which France has been involved. And there is a tomb of the unknown soldier, with a flame at the base.

It also has a great view of the night-scape of Paris from the top.

And that marked the end of that very long day of sight-seeing. I headed back to my hostel for a well-deserved rest and sleep. It had been somewhat exhausting, but I enjoyed everything I had seen. It is an amazing city. I was looking forward to the next day, the second of my Museum Pass tour.