Paris 1 - Arrival-Notre Dame-Pantheon

Seems like so long ago that we were there. But it was only a couple of weeks ago. A lot has happened in between.

To back up a bit, for several years, we have been wanting to take our children to France. They’ve been in a francophone environment from birth. They’ve been in a French school for over six years. They’re likely among the few in their school who haven’t been to the country (Kiran went to eastern France, near Geneva, as a baby but obviously has no recollection of the visit). From a cash flow standpoint, the timing to go over this school holiday was not ideal, but there were several factors that pushed us in the direction of going this year. So we made it happen.

Admittedly, I wanted to go for selfish reasons. I lived in francophone Europe for ten years and I grew to know Paris quite well. From Lausanne (Switzerland), my home for many of those years, it was a 3 ½ train ride on the high-speed train (TGV). They had packages that included hotel and train that were affordable on my teacher’s salary. So I would take advantage of it and try to go every few months.

The first time you go to Paris, you are obliged to hit the main tourist destinations. That’s what I did and that was the plan with the girls. There are many. But once you have ticked those boxes and you get a general feel for the city, in my opinion, you can begin to enjoy it.

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Paris in the Spring is a popular song from the 1930s. Paris in Springtime was a 1922 movie. There’s a reason it’s a thing to experience the City of Lights this time of year. It’s truly Paris at its best. It might even be Parisians at their best. Everyone is generally less cranky once the clouds part and the weather begins to warm.Crankiness comes back within a few weeks.

By the way, the reason for the City of Lights nickname (La Ville Lumière) stems from the mid-17th century and Louis XIV. After a prolonged period of war and domestic civil strife, the king was committed to restoring the public’s faith in law and order and make the city safer. In addition to quadrupling the number of policemen in the city, lanterns were placed on almost every main street and residents were asked to light their windows with candles and oil lamps. The idea was to deter lawbreakers from committing street crime and/or dodging the police in the dark streets and thus reducing the crime rate.

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We took the Friday night flight direct from Nairobi to Paris. It’s a relatively easy trip, particularly if you are among the fortunate who can sleep on airplanes. Alas, I am not. For those who can, you can basically fall asleep, wake up, and you’re there.

On arrival, we spent a while getting equipped with phone/internet connectivity before catching the train into the city. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, US cities desperately need to learn from Europe’s public transport infrastructure.

The metro hadn’t changed a great deal since I last used it 29 years ago. We changed trains a couple of times and soon we were emerging from a metro station in the Marais district not far from our B&B. I must admit, it was exciting to be back.

I had slept the least, but we were all a bit bleary-eyed. It was morning and we weren’t sure how soon we would be able to access our B&B. While sorting it out, we homed in on a very Parisian-looking bistro for a coffee/hot chocolate/croissant. We were not disappointed.

beautiful cafe opened in 1902

pain au chocolat and cappuccinos - off to a good start

Soon we made the short walk to our B&B to drop off our bags and begin touring the city. Our loft apartment turned out to be fantastic and worked out perfectly for what we needed. In fact it was more spacious than I would have expected given the miserly flats for which Europe is known.

our home for the week

The Marais is a good place to be based. Back in the day, I generally stayed in the Latin Quarter which is a bit more central but considerably more expensive nowadays. At the time I would get a room in a dingy two-star hotel on a noisy, narrow street. On multiple occasions I stayed in a place that was run by a heavy, older lady who sat in a chair near the entrance, usually stroking a large, long-haired cat purring on her lap. She was a strange lady but very patient with my pathetic command of the language at the time. In addition to giving me tips on where to go, what to avoid, etc., she would gently correct my French and, if I allowed her the time, would launch into stories about Paris in the “old days”. Given my love of history, I probably obliged her more than most.

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Soon we were heading out the door on our Parisian adventure. So fun to be back. Amazing to be doing this with my family. If you have the ability to do a fair amount of walking, that’s the best way to see a city, particularly this one. Over the next six days, that’s primarily how we got around.

We headed up the street to the Place de la Bastille, the big square where the Bastille monument is and where was a fortress in Paris (aka Bastille Saint-Antoine). It played an important role in multiple internal conflicts of France and, for most of its history, was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789, in the French Revolution, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement (thus the date became France’s national day). So it was an important place to begin our visit. The fortress was later demolished and replaced by the square that exists today.

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with just the right angle, you don't see all the construction and it looks like it did in the old days

From there it’s not a long trek to the Île de la Cité and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Dating back to the twelfth century, the cathedral was hit by a major fire in 2019. Reconstruction is underway and the goal for completion is next year. It’s a massive undertaking and the construction site is impressive. Even under construction, the Notre Dame draws huge crowds. Bleachers were constructed across from the façade (which thankfully remained intact in spite of the fire) to allow visitors to sit and observe.

a glimpse of the construction

A short distance across the river is the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. Since I was last there almost 30 years ago, it has become a tourist attraction to the point that there’s a long queue to get in. I suppose it’s normal for such things to happen but back in the day, I wandered in off the street. No crowds. Just a quiet bookstore steeped in history.

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Weaving through the Latin Quarter, we stopped off for the girls' first fondue. The air was chilly so it made the choice a bit easier. To be honest, it wasn't the best. Though it's a Swiss thing, it's also very much a French thing so we had to partake. It was good, just not as good as I used to have in Switzerland. 

We continued to meander our way farther south to the Panthéon. I’d only been to this part of Paris once before and I forgot how big the building is. Built in the late 1700’s, it was originally intended to be a church. But as the French Revolution unfolded during this time, they changed their minds and decided to make it a mausoleum for prominent French citizens. It was later restored to being a church a couple of times and finally, in the late 1800’s, it became the mausoleum that would evolve into the tourist attraction that it is today. We made a choice that for this trip, we would not spend much time going into museums and do that some other time when it’s less busy. As a result, we only saw the building from the outside, which is impressive enough.

From the Panthéon, we headed southeast towards the Jardin des Plantes (Garden of Plants). It is indeed a large park loaded with plants. Given that it was spring, flowers were out in abundance. Quite stunning actually. And a perfect day to see it.

We then made our way across the Pont d’Austerlitz, back past the Bastille Square and to our B&B. It was a full day, a ton of walking, and we were happy to sit, have tea, and relax. Looking back at the day, it was hard to believe that we had arrived that morning (after the night flight). We (certainly I) hadn’t slept much and I was quite happy with what we were able to do only in day 1.