Museum Fever in Paris! (My holiday 7)

The next day I got up bright and early and ate a quick breakfast at a nearby cafe. Then I took the metro to the middle of Paris to visit the Sainte Chapelle, a small church that is nearly 900 years old. The chapel is much smaller than Notre Dame, but it is full of light as it has huge stained glass windows. Just beautiful!

The beautiful stained glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle. If you visit Paris, don't miss it!

A gargoyle outside the Sainte Chapelle. Really ugly!

After that visit, I went next door to visit a museum about the French Revolution. Very interesting. I visited some of the jail cells where they kept prisoners before being killed. For a few years during the French Revolution the revolutionaries killed thousands of people they did not like. This became known as the "Reign of Terror."

I then took the metro over to the biggest, most famous museum of all, the Louvre. What a dissapointment! It was terribly crowded and very noisy. So many tourists! I talked with some attendants and they said it is ALWAYS like that, EXCEPT the evenings. So if you ever visit the Louvre, go in the evenings. I decided to leave after 45 minutes.

The Venus de Milo, one of the most famous statues in the world. But most of the people weren't really interested in learning about it. They just wanted a photo of themselves in front of it, like this man. He didn't even turn off his music!

The art galleries in the Louvre are so long - almost 200 metres. So so noisy!

A view from the underground entrance to the Louvre, looking up through the famous glass pyramid.

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I walked across the Seine River to the Orsay Museum, which has all the art from the 19th Century, including the Impressionists. The museum used to be a large train station, but it is now a large museum and very cool, much nicer than the Louvre, and not nearly as crowded. I spent about two hours there enjoying the beautiful art.

The Musee d'Orsay (Orsay Museum). It used to be a train station, but now it is the home for some of the best art in France.

A tour boat going down the Seine River towards Notre Dame Cathedral.

The inside of the Orsay Museum. Very elegant and fashionable. And much quieter and less crowded than the Louvre.

Inside the Orsay Museum I saw a painting by our old friend, Paul Cezanne, from Aix en Provence. Here is another painting of Mont Ste Victoire!

The museum has a terrace on the fifth floor with a cafe. This is a beautiful view right across Paris -- several kilometres -- to another huge church, Sacre Cour (Holy Heart). It stands on the highest hill in Paris.

This is a view through the huge old clock in the Museum, looking out across Paris.

By this time I was getting tired! I had been walking almost every day for 16 days! But I had so much to see! I walked around Paris some more and that evening went to the Pigalle neighbourhood, which is what we call the red light district. I must have looked lonely as several attractive young women asked me if I wanted to have a good time! They were so friendly! :-)

The famous Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill) nightclub in the Pigalle neighbourhood of Paris. Lots of men were standing in line outside the club. I wonder where their wives were? :-)

Pigalle is the red light district, with lots of sex shows and prostitutes. Here we see a Macdonalds next to a sex show! That would never happen in Abbotsford!

I finally returned to my hotel to get a good sleep. Tomorrow would be the last day in Paris and I became sad thinking of it. I didn't want to leave!

Many musicians busk in the metros in Paris -- they sing or play music and then ask for money. I passed these eight musicians -- almost a complete orchestra -- playing classical music. Beautiful!

The metro stations are full of large wall advertisements, which I enjoyed taking photos of. Here we see an ad for a large elegant department store, Galeries Lafayette.

Another wall advertisement in the metro.

And another!

Paris -- Old Love, New Love! (My holiday 6)

Returning to Paris after more than 30 years was like meeting an old girlfriend and discovering that you still loved her! "Long ago and far away," I lived in the "city of lights" for about two-and-a-half years and I enjoyed my time there. It was good to be back. In some ways the city had changed -- in other ways much was the same.

The Eiffel Tower -- the most famous landmark of Paris

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I had reserved a hotel room in a small two-star hotel in the elegant and fashionable 16th arrondisement (neighbourhood), not far from the Eiffel Tower and near a metro (underground train) stop. As it was the end of July, most of the Parisians had left the city for a vacation. Traditionally, the only people in Paris in August are tourists! With no business travellers, the hotels lower their prices, which is great.

My hotel in Paris. It was in a nice neighbourhood and quite comfortable -- and not expensive.

By the way, I reserved all my hotels on the Internet before I left Canada. This allowed me to get a good price. As well, I did not have to waste time looking for somewhere to stay in each town.

My first day in Paris I took it easy, as my holiday was making me tired! It's hard work having fun. I took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower and took some photos, and then continued over to the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Notre Dame Cathedral is another famous tourist attraction.

The outside of Notre Dame has many ugly gargoyles. These mythical creatures have two purposes. They scare off evil spirits, and they are waterspouts. When it rains, the water flows off the roof, into their mouths, and down into the street!

Another gargoyle.

Located on an island in the Seine River in the middle of Paris, Notre Dame is probably the most famous church in Paris. The outside entrance of the church has all sorts of engravings which I found interesting. It's an old church, built almost 700 years ago when Paris was still a village.

This engraving over the front entrance to Notre Dame shows the angels and demons fighting over a man at their feet.

Inside Notre Dame, the altar shows Mary (remember, she's the "Our Lady," or Notre Dame) the mother of Jesus, holding her son after he died.

A statue of Joan of Arc, a saint, or holy woman, and a heroine of France. Hundreds of years ago, France was at war with England. Joan was a simple village girl, but she said that God had told her to lead the French army and defeat England. No one believed her at first, but soon she had an army and defeated the English several times.

However, some powerful people did not like Joan and said she was a witch. They burned her to death. Many years later the church decided she was a saint. Today you can see statues of Joan of Arc in many towns in France.

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After visiting the inside of Notre Dame, I walked around another island in the Seine before heading over to the nearby Left Bank, or Latin Quarter. Traditionally many students, writers, and artists live in the Latin Quarter -- the famous Sorbonne University is nearby. Today it is quite touristy.

A statue of St Michel (Micheal), overlooking the Place St. Michel in the Latin Quarter. St Micheal is a famous Christian saint who killed a dragon (in the front of the photo)

When I lived in Paris, political demonstrations were quite common. On the weekends, police and demonstrators clashed in Place St. Michel, the main square of the Latin Quarter. Sometimes it got quite violent, as the demonstrators set fire to police cars.

I spent the rest of the day visiting the Opera district and the Champs Elysee before heading back to my hotel. I was tired and had to get a good night's sleep, as tomorrow I was going to the Palace of Versailles!

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Many people call the Palace of Versailles the 7th wonder of the world. Located about 20 km outside of Paris, the French kings lived there in the 1700s, along with all their lords and ladies and government officials. It was the centre of the French Empire. It is HUGE! I visited for about 6 hours, touring the palace and then walking -- and walking -- through the very large gardens. An amazing experience.

A "small" chapel in the Palace of Versailles.

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A view from a window of the palace, showing the huge gardens that stretch as far as the eye can see.

The bedroom of the French queen.

A view from the gardens, showing the palace.

Eventually the king decided that the main palace was getting too crowded, so he built another smaller palace in the gardens, so he could have some peace and quiet! This is the "little" palace, which is still quite big!

The queen was bored in her palace, so the king built her a whole farm village on the palace grounds so that she could pretend that she was a simple village girl!

In the late afternoon I returned to Paris and visited . . . a cemetary! Pere Lachaise cemetary is a very old, and very large cemetary in the north east of Paris. A high wall surrounds it and there are tens of thousands of graves, most in large mausoleums, or burial houses. It is a city of the dead.

Jim Morrison, a famous rock star who died of a drug overdose in Paris. He is buried at Pere Lachaise cemetary.

I visited Pere Lachaise cemetary because a famous rock and roll singer is buried there. Jim Morrison sang in a group called The Doors when I was a teenager. He was a good singer, but he was also a drug addict. While visiting Paris in 1970, he died of a heroin overdose. He is buried in Pere Lachaise cemetary and every day, hundreds of people, some young, some older, come to visit the grave. I told the son of my friend that I would visit it and take a photo. So I did.

Jim Morrison's grave. It's covered with dead flowers and cigarette butts.

Hundreds of Jim Morrison's fans visit his grave every day.

One of Jim Morrison's fans is an angel!

A family having a picnic in the cemetary! Behind them are mausoleums, or burial buildings. Pere Lachaise cemetary is truly a city of the dead.

From there I returned to my hotel. My next day was going to be busy, as I planned to visit two museums, 2 large art galleries, and one church!

Two Days in Provence (my holiday 5)

After leaving Cannes, I drove for about three hours west along the freeway (autoroute) to the beautiful old city of Avignon, in the region of Provence. Avignon is famous for three things: The Palace of the Popes, the bridge, and the theatre festivals that take place during the summer.

In the 1300s, several of the popes, the leaders of the Catholic church, decided to live in Avignon instead of Rome. They built several churches and a huge palace that also served as a fort, or castle. In those days the popes had lots of enemies! I took a tour of the palace and it was quite amazing -- really big.

The front of the Palace of the Popes. It's part a palace and part a castle.

After visiting the palace, I walked over to the famous pont (bridge) of Avignon. About 900 years ago, a shepherd boy came into town and told the mayor that God wanted to build a bridge across the Rhone river, right beside Avignon. No one believed him, but he performed a few miracles and then everyone helped him build the bridge. Only part of the bridge has survived.

The Pont d'Avignon (Bridge of Avignon). Part of it was destroyed, so it does not cross the river.

The bridge is famous because of a famous French song for children. The words are, "Sur le pont, d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse." (On the bridge of Avignon, we all dance, we all dance.) Nowadays, if you want to dance on the bridge it will cost you four Euros! I walked out onto it and decided that I didn't want to dance there because it was too hot and there were too many tourists on it! No one was dancing!

Me on the bridge. It was much too hot to dance, and there were too many tourists!

During the summer, many theatre companies put on plays in Avignon. The colourful posters cover the walls, and actors wander through the streets wearing old costumes.
Some actors walking through the town wearing their old colourful costumes.

The walls of the buildings are covered with these colourful posters that advertise the many plays.

I loved Avignon, and I was glad to be back in Provence, a part of France that I lived in for about a year, "long ago and far away."

In the afternoon I hopped into my car and drove about 80 km to the old beautiful town of Aix en Provence. Aix used to be an important centre in the Roman Empire and there are many Roman ruins nearby. The town is also known as the "City of fountains," as there are dozens of fountains in the old part of Aix.

One of the largest fountains in Aix en Provence, the "city of fountains."

Provence is much more relaxed than the French Riviera. Aix has a large shaded main street known as the Cours Mirabeau. It's wonderful to spend a few hours on a summer afternoon sitting in an outdoor cafe, sipping a coffee or a pastis (alcoholic drink), and watching the people go by.

One of the many fountains in Aix. Some are hundreds of years old.

And another fountain

And another!

I spent a day in Aix, wandering around the old town and trying to find a house where I used to live. It was a great day, and I bought some soap in the market for gifts for my friends (Aix is famous for its soap), but I had to keep looking at my watch. That evening I returned my rented car and took a TGV (train a grande vitesse) train for Paris. The train goes very quickly and took only 3 hours to travel over 500 km. By 10.00 p.m., I had arrived in Paris, my first visit in 32 years!
Mont Ste Victoire (Mountain of the Holy Victory) is just outside of Aix. One of the famous Impressionist painters, Paul Cezanne, lived in Aix and made many paintings of Mont Ste Victoire. (see below)

Mont Ste Victoire, a famous painting by Paul Cezanne. Many painters like Aix en Provence. Apparently the air is very clear and the light is good for painting.
Another painting of Mont Ste Victoire by Paul Cezanne. He painted more than 60 paintings of the mountain!

And another!