Équipe Brest 2017: Paris Day 2

Trouble continued to plague Lindsey’s well planned Paris schedule. We arrived for our reserved guided tour of the Musée d’Orsay, the museum of Impressionism, only to discover that a scheduling snafu had our reservation for Wednesday, not Tuesday. It was time to juggle the schedule again.

We decided to catch up from the day before. Lindsey and Évie took a group to see the catacombs while Michael and Loïc took a group for a walking tour of the Latin Quarter.

The catacombs are a series of underground tunnels where the bones of thousands of Parisians from the 13^th-17^th centuries are placed. These tunnels provided the stone for the buildings of Paris and were empty in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The bones were moved because of health issues from contaminated ground water from the decomposition. Bones are arranged by cemetery and by bone type; pelvises together, femurs together, skulls together, etc.

Today, the catacombs are open for public visits and nearly half of our students wanted to visit. They expected to wait in line, but few envisioned the over five hour wait. They were troopers and stuck it out. (I’ll post photos when students share them with me.)

Later, that same group visited glorious Notre Dame Cathedral. There was a group of street dancers in the courtyard in front of the cathedral that put on a rather amazing exhibition. (I am waiting for shared photos.)

Then they headed to the Montparnasse district for supper. Some had kebobs. Some chose a restaurant with the fixed price menus and a free Orangina!

The other group started in the morning with a walk around l'Île de la Cité, the City Island that is in the middle of the Seine River and is the heart of Paris. They also visited Île Saint Louis, the island just next to Cité and the calmest, most tranquil part of Paris. It is therefore also the most expensive, real estate going for about $200,000 a square meter.

From there the group wandered the boulevards of the Latin Quarter, seeing up close some of the buildings of the Sorbonne, the oldest university in Europe. There are books stores on almost every corner and many ethnic restaurants.

After picking up lunch in area boulangéries or restaurants, the students had a picnic under the bandstand in the Luxembourg Gardens. It was a very relaxing time, and the respite was welcome.

After that, it was off to the area around the Opéra. They saw the ornate Second Empire building that is the Opéra. Then it was off to one of the Grand Magasins, the original department stores, in this case the Galléries Lafayettes.

The Grands Magasins date from the 1870s and 1880s. Galléries Lafayettes has a glass and iron dome over the central part that is contemporaneous with the Eiffel Tower, and you can tell. This is a place that makes shopping an experience, indeed it invented shopping.

The group took a break for some drinks and ice creams in one of the GL restaurants, enjoyed the air conditioning for a bit before heading back out into the Paris summer for a short stroll down Boulevard Haussman, one of the great boulevards of the Second Empire.

Then it was off to the Montparnasse district for dinner. A group had dinner at a restaurant called “Comptoir des vaches,” which specialized in beef dishes. (But the name suggested a bar for cows. Those crazy French!) This was just across the street from the Japanese restaurant where Loïc and Michael dined.

The evening ended with a visit to the top of the Montparnasse Tower. This is the only skyscraper in central Paris. Built in 1969, Parisians generally condemn it as the ugliest building in Paris. No skyscrapers have been permitted in central Paris since. But the view from the top is extraordinary, rivaling that of the Eiffel Tower (its neighbor) with virtually no waiting line.

Michael stayed with Grace, who suffers from vertigo, and Nichole, who REALLY doesn’t like elevators. They had Oranginas while the others posed for photos on the top of the tower. The arrangement suited everyone. (Thanks to Kelsey for the photos on the tower.)

I don’t think I have mentioned how hot it has been in Paris. Monday and Tuesday were near 90 degrees and full sun. Air conditioning is not a thing in all buildings in Paris (including our hostel) because the hot season really only lasts a couple of months. It’s hard to justify the cost of retro-fitting 200-300 year old buildings with AC for two months a year. Besides, Parisians leave Paris in July and August for vacations in the mountains or at the beach, or visits to the US.