This is (I think) the fourth time Ive been to Paris, so Ive already seen and photographed many of the leading attractions. But Paris is probably the most historically dense city in the world, in the sense that it has the greatest concentration of historically interesting and important buildings, memorials and other places. Its also I think the most visually magnificent, although St Petersburg gives it a run for its money. (I acknowledge that this is a matter of taste, so dissent from this view is permitted.) So now when Im here I just wander more or less at random, confident that Ill find something splendid that I havent seen or even heard of before. Today I walked south from my hotel near the Gare du Nord. On the Boulevard Saint-Martin I found two of Louis XIVs most bombastic memorials, the Porte Saint-Martin and the Porte Saint-Denis, built to commemorate his various victories. Then I headed down the fashionable Boulevard des Italiens to La Madeleine (the Church of St Mary Magdelene), commissioned by Napoleon as a temple to the glory of his army, in the form of a gigantic Greek temple, but now a Catholic church. Here three scam artists tried the gold ring trick on me in the space of an hour. I must look gullible. I crossed the river at the Pont de la Concorde and walked down the Boulevard Saint-Germain (with various detours), to the ancient church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This is the oldest church in Paris, founded by King Childebert in 542, and named for Germanus, the first bishop of Paris. Most of the current structure dates from the 11th and 12th centuries. This was a very popular area with Paris intellectuals until recently, when the tourist hordes drove them away. Near the church are the Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots, once hangouts of Sartre, de Beauvois and Camus. After a detour back to the river to see the massive edifice of the Institut de France, and following a tip from Tonya Stevens, I walked down the Rue Bonaparte to Saint-Sulpice, This the second largest church in Paris after Notre Dame, and was built in stages in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is very striking both inside and out, but unfortunately the view of the splendid classical facade is spoiled by a very ugly tent city that has taken over the Place Saint-Sulpice. From there its only a short walk to the Jardin de Luxembourg, a magnificent park created by Queen Marie de Médicis, and also home of the French Senate. By now, although the Panthéon was only another short walk away, both the light and my feet were fading, so I caught the Métro (an experience in itself) back to the Gare du Nord.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 22:25:04 +0000
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