Eurotrip Part 1
Outer Paris
Paris: Outer Paris |
Central Paris |
Eiffel Tower |
Paris Transportation
Amsterdam: Urbanism |
Transportation
Bonus: TBD
Back in March I visited Europe for the first time. My wife and I spent about a week in Paris, plus a couple of extra days in Amsterdam. In this thread you'll see some of Paris' outer & middle neighborhoods, plus a couple of suburbs. The more central part will be the next thread, followed by one focusing on transportation infrastructure. Unless I change my mind.
Ready? Let's go.
We arrived in the afternoon and went straight for our airbnb, a nice walkup apartment in the 18th Arrondissment, near Sacré-Coeur on the extreme north end of Paris. Here's our view, looking up Rue du Mont Cenis:
This is the area around Boulevard Ornano, Rue Ordener, and Place Jules Joffrin.
Here's a map. I think the neighborhood is called Jules Joffrin, although I'm not super sure. It's near the Montmartre neighborhood, but I don't think it's really part of that.
Place Jules Joffrin itself is a little square in front of Paris' equivalent of a borough hall for the 18th Arrondissment, and seems like the center of the neighborhood.
Other streets both big and small radiate out from the square and form a web, in no discernible pattern.
I found these very interesting and unique, though not as attractive as Paris' more vernacular buildings.
Although larger boulevards appear more important on the map (and I'm sure are more important for some things), the main commercial main street for the neighborhood is the narrow Rue du Poteau:
The neighborhood quiets down at night, except along the big boulevards.
The reason we stayed in this particular part of town was Les Puces, a roughly 1/2 square-mile area right outside the city limits in the suburb of Saint-Ouen that's probably the biggest flea market in the western world. I like cities, my wife likes markets; see them both and we're both happy. Les Puces are not a single market, but rather are several markets that have clustered in the same neighborhood. Some of them are inside, some of them are outside.
Look at the number of stalls in this *one* market. There are maybe a dozen separate big markets, plus other shops & stalls between, and street vendors.
Saint-Ouen is technically a suburb, but you wouldn't call it that by American standards. It's still totally urban, walkable, and dense. But compared to central Paris it's visibly sparser and less wealthy.
Now let's pick up and move from the north end of Paris to its east side, starting in the 12th Arrondissment around the Bastille neighborhood. Bastille is where the infamous Bastille prison was, but it was demolished centuries ago. Now the only sign of it is a large monument.
I ran into la coulée verte, a sort of Parisian version of the high line. It's an old elevated railroad now turned into a park.
Moving southwest along Rue de Lyon, one approaches Gare de Lyon, one of Paris' largest train stations. I'll cover the station itself in a later thread, but here's the neighborhood.
This little side street
almost looks like it could be American. The pastel rowhouses would look at home in some US cities, but even among those cities few have such narrow streets.
A little bit further out, in the 20th Arrondissment, is the Père Lachaise Cemetery. We visited this because my wife wanted to see some authors buried there, but it's gorgeous.
This is Oscar Wilde's tomb. Note all the lipstick marks.
That is some good nest-building material, crow.
The neighborhood around the cemetery. Not sure of its name.
Moving on to another suburb for a quick stop in tiny Saint-Mandé, just barely outside the Paris city limits to the east. I didn't realize it was a suburb until I looked it up later. We went for a street market specializing in ephemera, my wife's favorite topic.
The next suburb to the east is Vincennes:
Vincennes is home to one of France's more famous castles,
Château de Vincennes. It dates partially to the 14th and partially to the 17th centuries.
At 170 feet tall, it's the tallest medieval fortress in Europe.
click for full-size
Finally, I took the train out to
Versailles, the grand palace of the French monarchy. It's about 10 miles southwest of the center of Paris.
First, a quick look at the adorable town.
The main event is of course the palace.
click for full-size
Entering the palace, you think it's beautiful.
But every room you enter is better than the last.
Yes, this is gold wall paper. One can understand why the peasantry revolted.
Marie Antoinette's bedroom.
But as impressive as the palace is, for me the garden was the greater highlight.
This place is simultaneously grandiose beyond belief and intensely intimate. There are these huge, sweeping vistas that go on for literally miles, filled with world class sculptures and fountains, but off to the side amid the trees there are a series of little outdoor rooms and walkways, each one lovely and comfortable and personal.
click for full-size
Near the palace it's very formal. Fountains and statues are everywhere.
Unfortunately for me, the fountains weren't on yet.
The palace back door:
A couple of the many outdoor rooms:
For all Paris' urban beauty, which I love, this plain walkway was where I had my most emotional reaction of the trip. It was late in the day, overcast, and chilly. The only sound was wind blowing. I'd just left the extravagance of the palace, and walked a half mile or so, deep into the gardens. Most of the crowds were long gone. My wife and I had separated that day to see different things, so I was alone.
And walking down this path, I felt like the only person in the world. As if all this was there just for me. It was sublime, and melancholy to know I won't be back for years, if at all. It was
perfect.
In the next thread, I'll show you more of Paris' central city.
..Merci beaucoup.......WOW you did great!!
And that's precisely what's both funny and romantic. She watches you rowing and sweating for her in those strictly, carefully planned gardens.
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