Sat 22.May.2010
Paris, France
One night, shivering in the rain in Munich.
The next morning, a glorious bustling spring day in Paris.
Sadly, I wasted most of it sleeping after the long night's train ride, but it was wonderful to be here nonetheless.
Settled in right on Place Denfert Rochereau in the bustling neighborhood of the pedestrianized Rue Daguerre market street.
Seems that people use the stairs of the old Opera as a hang out and sit place, like they use the Spanish Stairs in Rome.
I got to explore the North side of the river as I scouted the Gare St.
Lazare, from which my train will leave Monday for Normandy.
In central Paris, North, (overly) broadly speaking, is
government and commerce, South is arts and academia. Similarly, East is
scruffy, West is elegant. There are major exceptions to all of the
above.
The Luxembourg Gardens
Arguably Paris' nicest park. A favorite of mine anyway.
Designed after the Boboli gardens in Florence for Catherine di Medici,
who was homesick after she had married the king of France.
A long row of statues of fifteenth and
sixteenth century women. One of these two was Regent of France for over
fifty years. From their faces and body language, none of these women
look like somebody to cross.
Finale: sunset in the park.
Do I do travelogue clichés or what?
OK, it's quiz time.
Who noticed the Eiffel Tower,
or part of it, in one of this page's pictures? It is all I saw of
Paris' most big-name landmark for the first two days of this visit.
Today I saw it in full from the bus on my to the Musee Marmottan, to be
surrounded by Claude Monet's paintings.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf