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Tour de Paris

Imagine two people, two days, one car, and more than 1200 kilometres and you have the Tour de Paris.  Running from April 19 till April 20.

This weekend we made the moderately-lengthy drive to and from Paris, France.  It was a whirlwind tour:  getting up early Saturday and arriving back at our apartment late Sunday (early Monday, really).  While we didn’t have the time to look at all of the city’s highlights, we saw quite a bit with the time we had.

We arrived in the early afternoon.  Parking on the second level of a five-level underground parking lot, we opted to take the stairs to the ground floor since the elevators did not seem to be functioning at that moment (although they did work later).  If odour could somehow be encapsulated in words you would certainly stop reading at this point.  Regrettably the walk up the stairwell lasted longer than the oxygen supply in our lungs.  Still, we survived the walk and headed down the street to check-in to our hotel.

After settling into our hotel room we ventured to our first stop:  the Paris Metro.  This was the first subway experience for both of us.  I will say that even though it took a little bit of time to comprehend the subway map, the transit system is incredibly efficient and affordable (particularly for tourists–who pay one rate for all of Paris for an entire day).  One could traverse the entire city in a manner of minutes; making the subway the best mode of transportation.  This initially became evident as we were driving into the city.  Their traffic is crazy.  Not only from sheer volume, but also the drivers, traffic signs and lanes.

Apparently individuals on bikes (bicycles, motorcycles, mopeds, you name it) are liberated from the rules of the road.  While most vehicles travel between lane markers–where they exist, more on that shortly–bikes seem free to weave in and out of traffic as the driver sees fit.  Often opting to simply drive between stalled traffic on the lane-marker itself.  The intersections are a hybrid of crosswalks, medians, and lane-ways; frequently 3 – 6 separate directions of traffic will converge into a single point of chaos.  Pedestrians are routinely instructed–through signage–to cross streets in multiple trips, with islands in the middle of the roads for them to patiently wait.  At times the roads would be three lanes wide.  Then the lane markers would disappear for some 500m – 1000m and the road would become a free for all; allowing less patient drivers to simply drive in an almost diagonal line across the road to achieve a superior position.

Praise God for the subway.

While our subway experience was mixed, it was certainly the ideal manner in which to travel.  Some stations were clean and inviting.  Others carried the stereotypical odour and lighting–grim and eerie.  Nevertheless, all stations were always in use by a fair number of people so there was never any insurmountable fear.   Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was quite the sight.  We decided to not go up the tower despite the reasonable cost.  The line was simply too long (as shown in one of the photos below) and really, we came to see the tower, not its view.  The most astonishing surprise while at the tower was the military presence (also shown in the photos below).  Paris was full of first experiences and this was another.  Neither of us have personally seen on-duty military carrying fully-automatic machine guns patrolling an area.  I suppose this is a sign of the times we live in.  The most uncomfortable part of visiting this attraction was the French bombers–they were everywhere doing their thing.  The tower may not be the world’s tallest free-standing structure on land, still, we had to walk a few blocks away to actually capture the entire tower in one picture frame.

After the Eiffel Tower we walked along the Champs-Élysée.  There were a lot of very expensive stores which we could not afford to decided not to shop at.  One store definitely caught our attention, from quite a ways away.  We decide to “shop” there.

Next on the agenda was the Arc de Triomph.  I’ll be honest, I don’t really “get it.”  It was a nice landmark and I took a lot of pictures.  It’s situated in the middle of what I will call the world’s most-crazy roundabout.  I took a couple of photos of the roundabout, but to truly understand just how nuts it is, I recommend reading the first six paragraphs (only a couple sentences each) of Rick Steves’ write-up of the Champs-Élysées.

After a few hours of sleep we tackled the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (more easily understood as Basilica of the Sacred Heart).  A Roman Catholic church.  Regrettably our final day didn’t afford us much opportunity for photos and this was the first of several places where cameras were not permitted.  I took some exterior shots.  The interior was stunning.  Not particularly my style of church (what is?), but that’s certainly no reason to not appreciate the craftsmanship that went in to constructing this.  The acoustics inside the place were amazing and its architecture and stain-glass were fantastic.  On some of the exterior shots you’ll notice a black residue.  Apparently that is the effect of pollution forming on the building material.  As it rains the black soot-like substance washes off.

The last stop on our adventure was the Musée du Louvre.  It was here that we saw the Mona Lisa as well as took a tour of the featured Babylon exhibit.  Most of the exhibits we saw did not allow us to take pictures.  We captured a few below.  Some are of Roman sculptures, others some nice paintings, others the actual museum.  The building is a small village in and of itself.  We simply didn’t have the time–nor energy–to walk around its entirety.

The Babylon exhibit was the most intriguing.  Inside were artifacts from Nebuchanezzar’s days as well as some ancient texts recounting other Biblical figures. It’s amazing that we’ve read the stories of these people in the Bible, and there right before us were actual items from that era.

The trip was exhausting but worth it.  Have a look in the gallery for this week’s top photos and share your comments.