<![CDATA[

Paris, France

We have certainly hit a warm spell with temperatures of 30 degrees expected most of the week. It is not too bad though – it seems bearable around there so long as it does not climb above 32 we are reasonable comfortable.

Our short stint on the metro yesterday boosted our confidence and helped us make sense of the colourful map with all its intersecting lines. We thought we would venture to some more distant points today starting with the modern business district that has a ‘grand arch’. It took a couple of changes which means weaving your way through umpteen subway levels and corridors, then double checking on the big maps at tunnel entrances and intersections that not only do you have the right colour and number, but that you are heading in the right direction.

So far so good and we popped up in ‘La Defense’ square just in front of the “Grande Arche’. Wow, you see the pictures but until you stand under or near it you do not realise how big it is. At 110m tall you feel like an ant. It is built out of pressed concrete and covered in marble from Carrera (near Vernazza, Italy) and glass. I read that Danish architechts won the design competition and based it on a 20th century Arc de Triomphe. When you look at the clever and pleasing design it bears a resemblance to the stunning Sydney Opera house also designed by a Dane many years ago.

The La Defense area was designed to meet the needs of a modern city business district without ‘ruining’ the historical city center. There are many tall and interesting office buildings there and an esplanade which visually is in line with the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elyisee. Along the Esplande are interesting works of art and a couple of water features which people can use or view.

We had a picnic lunch of baguette and tapa’s style dips, foie gras, and terrine on the cool side of the Arche and then wandered down the Esplanade to the next metro. Along the way we saw couples and children enjoying the water features and decided it would be a great idea to cool our feet in the last one at the end of the Esplanade. Whilst we were sitting there relaxing we got a bonus surprise of military aircraft flying relatively low overhead doing a practice for Bastille day celebrations on Sunday. It started with some aircraft with coloured smoke jets leaving a trail towards the ADT, then various others in different formations and of different eras.

Feeling even more brave we got the subway to the opposite side of town to view the old Pere Lachaise Cemetery with notable residents. There are 70,000 graves there (but around 2 million buried over the years) and we hoped to see Jim Morrison’s, Marcel Marceu, Chopin, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde but the one thing we forgot to check was what time it closed. By the time we arrived we only had about 20 minutes to race around the huge cemetry and could only manage the last two visits. You can buy a map with key names from a florist nearby which is handy as it covers 110 acres so it would be hard to find particular ones without it. It is quite an amazing place; like a movie set with street names and numbers of blocks, and rows and rows (or streets) of old head stones, elaborate crypts and tombs. You can still be buried there apparently if you have lots of money ….

The metro on the way home was jam packed on the first couple of lines but we just followed cue from the locals and crammed in. Some of the bodies were not so fresh and the carriages are not air conditioned so its not the most pleasant of experiences for Kiwis who like fresh air and space …. The metro is also a bit different here in that it is fast and jerky, meaning if you are standing you have to hang on to something with two hands preferabbly or you would fall over. In fact even sitting you have to hold on at times as it launches off from a station, screams around corners or pulls abrubtly to a stop. Its like a bit of a work out just riding them, together with the stairs in the subway. I likened it to a rough day at sea on a small boat, right to the conclusion when you are on solid ground once again you need to gain your land legs!

For dinner we went to a place near the hotel recommended by our reception. It was very so-so, I had a trio of fish – salmon tartare, smoked salmon slice (singular) on some lettuce, and a dry fish fillet with a drizzle of sauce and potato galette. Vern had a burger as he was too tired to face anything else. That plus wine and a beer was 46 euro which is pretty expensive for what I would call poor bistro food. Hope it improves along the way – come on Paris!

]]>