ESL canuck guy: 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.

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!

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.

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.