Hero: Busily Adventuring in Paris

Wow wow wow, there is a lot to catch up on! Apologies for the recent silence, the internet in our hotel was not very reliable, so this will have to be a rather lengthy edition in order to get through everything we’ve done!

I left you at Versailles: after such a big day of walking around and for practical reasons, we decided to have a sleep-in and concentrate our sightseeing efforts on the Ile de la Cite, which was in walking distance of our hotel.

We started at Crypte Archeologique du Parvis de Notre Dame, which is basically the archaeological remains of medieval and even Gallo-Roman buildings beneath the square in front of Notre Dame. It was great: there were doorways, stairs, foundations of buildings and the remnants of old cellars, as well as parts of Roman columns and cornices, part of what could have been a Roman bath and a furnace for a Roman under-floor heating system. As well as this it was very cool temperature-wise (it was a pretty hot day), and there were hardly any people in there – a very rare occurrence for a tourist destination in Paris. I really love archaeological sites: it’s amazing to see doorways people walked through, floors they stood on, and stairs they descended so long ago – they provide such a direct link with the past. Also I like the smell of dirt.

Ruins in the Crypte Archeologique under Notre Dame

Old stairs!

I heart archaeology.

Remnants of a Roman column

We had planned on hitting Sainte-Chapelle next, but it was closed for lunch so we moved on to stop number three, the Conciergerie. Originally the palace from which the Kings of France ruled, it is more famous for its role as a prison and the home of the terrifying Revolutionary Tribunal, which operated during the French Revolution. You enter through a huge, beautiful hall that originally served the staff of the palace in the 14^th Century, with gorgeous vaulted ceilings and four massive fireplaces (it now seems to be used as a storage area for tables and chairs from the Palais du Justice which it is connected to, as well as a tourist attraction). However despite its beauty it has a rather creepy atmosphere, due in part to its horrible history. It was here that during the French Revolution nearly 3000 enemies of the revolution were ‘tried,’ and kept to await their meeting with La Guillotine over 1793 and 1794. The most famous prisoner was Marie Antoinette, who was imprisoned here before her execution. There are recreated cells illustrating how the prisoners lived, including one in which those to be taken to the scaffold had their personal belongings taken, their hair shorn off and their collars ripped. There are also two chapels: one built on the place where Marie Antoinette’s cell stood, the other larger one was where 21 Girondins (a legalist, liberal group opposed to the powerful Commune group and the creation of the Criminal Court, which was soon transformed into the Revolutionary Court) feasted together the night before their execution. Talk about intense! There is also a room in which the names of all those who faced the Revolutionary Tribunal are listed; a Guillotine blade; and the Cour des Femmes, where female prisoners wandered about and washed themselves in a fountain (still there), and also where groups of 12 at a time waited for the tumbrels to take them to the scaffold. As I say, the whole thing was extremely intense and I left feeling rather weighed down.

The main hall of the Conciergerie

Heading towards the recreated cells

The Cour des Femmes, where women washed and exercised, and where prisoners waited for the tumbrels to take them to La Guillotine.

The Conciergerie from the outside.

After heading to Maccas for a drink and a McFlurry, it was off to Sainte-Chapelle. It was so incredibly beautiful: basically the walls of the upper floor are almost all stained glass depicting over 1000 scenes of the story of man from creation to the resurrection of Christ. The ground floor is very beautiful as well, brightly painted with arches, a sculpture of Saint Louis who built it to house the relics of the Passion of Christ, and a gift shop (the poor fellow working at the gift shop was involved in a dispute with an old lady who had crossed a chain barricade and planted herself on a bench that runs around the walls to enjoy a cup of tea. He was trying to get her to move on, she sure as hell wasn’t going!). But when you ascend the tight spiral stairs into the Upper Chapel, bathed in coloured light, it really is a ‘wow’ moment.

The outside of Sainte-Chapelle

The Lower Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle

The incredible Upper Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle

The Palais du Justice

Bookstalls along the Seine. They had some cool books and very cool posters for sale

We headed back to the hotel after this, as we were all sweaty and had to get ready to go to the Opera Bastille to see Le Barbier de Seville (aka The Barber of Seville). Opera Bastille, despite being a modern building, is really beautiful inside – huge, airy and light. And the Opera itself was fantastic! It was a very different experience, they were singing in Italian and the subtitles were in French, so I thought it was fun figuring out what was going on – we knew the basic plot so it wasn’t too hard to get it. But I had one of the best opera moments ever: one of the final songs, the guy’s got the girl, they’ve got hitched, it’s all dandy – the conductor throws a soccer ball on the stage, which the lead singer starts juggling before taking off his Seville-style top to reveal a football jersey and the members of the chorus start waving little flags. It was brilliant, everyone in the audience started laughing and cheering and taking pictures, it was just so completely unexpected. Mads had to explain to me that the Euros (? Some soccer thing, I dunno) are about to start and that is why it happened. Still it was pretty awesome!!

Inside the Opera Bastille

Memorial to the Parisians who died in the revolution of 1830, Place de la Bastille

Opera Bastille from the outside

Friday was an absolutely fantastic day because we went to Disneyland Paris!! It was completely bizarre at the same time: my head was telling me I was in Paris, but it sure as hell felt like I was in California! Especially Main Street – so, so, so weird. But still so much fun! There is not as much in terms of rides at Paris Disney compared to the California version, and there weren’t really many lines at all so we got to go on all but about 3 rides. Mads and I LOVE rollercoasters, so we started with Big Thunder Mountain which is very good fun. Indiana Jones had a loop, so that was awesome too. But it was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to Space Mountain. It is probably the BEST rollercoaster I have ever been on. It was fast, actually shooting you up the big hill, it had a loop and a corkscrew, and it was almost all in total darkness. Brilliant! You don’t know if you’re upside down or right side up or where the heck you are or what’s going to happen next! By the end of the day there was no line at all so we just kept running round and round and going on it again and again. Damn I loved that rollercoaster. Other highlights from the day included Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, the Phantom Manor and Star Wars Star Tours (both of which were in French so we had no idea what was going on), and Pirates of the Caribbean. Mads made me go on It’s a Small World. That ride freaks me out. Happy little freaky people. I always feel like they are too happy, they must be hiding some dark little secret. Creepy.

The entrance to Disneyland Paris

Main Street USA... In Paris...

Here I am outside Indiana Jones' tent. His hat and whip are in the background. Dreamy.

Any ride with a sign like this out the front is gunna be great!

Teacups!

Have you ever seen a happier person?? Mads riding the teacups

Riding Autopia. Mads got to drive...

She was terrible!! But she had fun, so you know... who cares how much you crash as long as you enjoy it, right Toad?

Possibly the greatest ride ever conceived... Space Mountain: Mission 2. Brilliant!!

There they go shooting upward!

Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee. May have been checking me out - stopped right in front of me, looked at my face, looked down seemingly toward my boobs, did it again and walked off. Hey, it happens all the time...

Mads on the look out at Adventure Isle

Bouncing over the bridge. Bouncing me all over the bridge.

Carousel!

Going all Jeanne d'Arc and leading the charge

A nice catch up with the Caterpillar, in Alice's Curious Labyrinth. After our last maze attempt I'm surprised we braved this one, but we found our way OK

Surely I could fit into this one??

Brace yourselves. The ACTUAL spinning wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on that left her comatose. On display in Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

This dragon was soo cool, moving around and blowing smoke and being generally dragon-ish.

Mind you one of my favourite parts of the day was watching the little girls in their princess outfits, it was hilarious! There was this tension and rivalry between them all: one little girl in a princess dress looking another little girl up and down in her princess dress; another little girl I saw must been three at most, wearing a very long, full-skirted Snow White dress saw another little girl wearing a smaller fairy dress – Snow White looked the fairy up and down, held out her fuller skirt and gave the fairy a look which very clearly said ‘I have the superior dress, I am so much better than you.’ Ah, it never changes! Meanwhile I was feeling rather envious myself of all these little girls in their princess dresses. Why don’t they make them in my size, huh Disney??

We watched the firework show, which didn’t start until about 11pm because it gets dark so late in Europe at summer, and would have been fantastic if I hadn’t had a very loud, extremely stinky man sitting on me. I mean he actually sat on my foot, and he really smelled. Yucky. But despite this hardship I rather enjoyed it: a projection on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle timed with music, fountains, fireworks and flame throwers. It was very beautiful and moving: dreams really do come true and all that. We didn’t get on the train until after midnight. Being a Friday night it was rather busy on the train, and I had one of my favourite Paris moments: three young, well dressed, well-to-do French fellows sat opposite us, discussing something in French (naturally) in a very animated, passionate and serious manner - I was reminded of Enjolras and the students in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables discussing politics and the plight of the lower classes. Probably they were discussing the latest instalment of their favourite soap opera or something equally menial, but it was cool all the same.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Waiting for the show to start. Dreams really do come true...

The way out :(

After all the running around and screaming we did at Disneyland, on Saturday, our last full day in Paris, we were completely buggered. We slept very late, and were still pretty tired when we actually did get up. First things first, we did our laundry at a launderette conveniently located next door. Hungry, I went to the supermarche around the corner and got a Baguette which was so delicious! So we sat and read, and once we had nice clean clothes again we headed for the Hotel National des Invalides, which was originally a home for wounded war veterans but is now a military museum. It was great! The building is beautiful and positively palatial. We started in a gallery of Ancient Armour and Arms, which was very cool: it included the most amazing suits of armour, guns and swords, as well as things like a 500 year old velvet padded saddle and these beautifully decorated fabric quivers and bow covers. They had a few bows, crossbows, arrows and arm guards, which I liked; helmets decorated with griffins and dragons; pikes; and a stack of cannons, one of which had Cardinal Richelieu’s name and coat of arms on it which Mads was excited to find. It was a very impressive collection.

Paris laundromat

The Hotel National des Invalides

The courtyard at Invalides

One of many, many cannons

Very cool bow cover and matching quiver. I could totally see myself as an archer...

A helmet in the shape of a griffin's head. Pretty amazing

Daisy fields at Invalides

Bows and arm guards in the Musee de l'Armee

We went to the Dome Chapel of Invalides next, which houses Napoleon’s tomb. Wow. The chapel is incredible, so huge and light, with the most beautiful paintings high up on the ceiling. Napoleon’s tomb takes pride of place, and it is big (although I think rather unattractive, which is a shame in such a beautiful space). It is surrounded by statues of angels, which apparently represent Napoleon’s victories, and seem to be looking over his tomb. There are a few other famous French military figures buried in the Dome Chapel, but while I know the names I don’t really know who they are, except one is Napoleon’s son and two are Napoleon’s brothers.

The Dome Chapel at Invalides

Napoleon's Tomb

In the Dome Chapel

We had lunch in the cafeteria, which was okay, and went into another gallery presenting military relics from the 1600s to late 1800s. There are a lot of military uniforms from this time period there, including a jacket, coat and a few hats worn by Napoleon himself. I always knew he was small, but the jacket was absolutely tiny! Another interesting, but rather gruesome, item in this gallery was a bit of armour from the Battle of Waterloo, covering the chest and back of some poor sod: a cannon ball has gone in through the right chest and exited out the back. I’d hate to see the fellow who was wearing it, horrible! But it was a very good museum, apart from Napoleon’s tomb there weren’t many people there at all and I recommend if you are going to Paris you should stop by!

Napoleon's jacket and hat.

Napoleon's coat, two hats, tent and other personal effects

At Invalides

We went back to the Eiffel Tower to take a boat cruise down the Seine. It was the perfect day for it, however it was very busy and neither of us were really in the right mood for it. But it was nice to see the houseboats along the river (oh how I want to live on a boat! They have lovely flowers in pots and decks with tables and chairs, it just seems to me like it would be a peaceful, relaxed existence living on a boat), and the Parisians with their picnics along the banks – wine, bread and cheese, legs dangling, enjoying the sunshine. We’d had big plans of climbing the Arc de Triomphe afterwards, but instead we went back to the hotel via the supermarket for ham and croissants again, packed our bags and went to sleep.