Walk 18: Grands Boulevards

The Grands Boulevards are home to Paris' largest department stores, Printemps, and Galeries Lafayette. I'm not much of a department store person, so I didn't stop in while doing the walk, but Richard recently dragged me to a fashion show on the seventh floor of Lafayette (remind me to tell you the American tourist escalator story) and I'll admit that I should have looked around ealier. It's a department store, yeah, but it's gorgeous. Vaulted ceiling gorgeous. And the roof is open to the public, and has an incredible view.

The Palais Garnier Opera house is incredible. Add this to the list of things I love about Paris: they cherish their art, and build structures, temples, worthy to house it.

It was closed to tours the day I went. And the next time I went. I think I'm going to try again today. They say it's worth it.

Napoleon's monument to his victory at Austerlitz, called the Place Vendome Column:


That's Napoleon on top, decked out in Roman costume, complete with laurel wreaths.


Statue of Joan of Arc on Rue Saint-Honoré.


It was on this same street that Joan of Arc was wounded in 1429, at age 16, while leading an attack against the English. She died just two years later, burned at the stake by the English, but remains one of the most deservedly famous heroines in France, having rallied the French to fight the English, ending the Hundred Years' War. Ooo ooo!

Walk 19: Parisian Necropolis: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

I've visited cemeteries before, but nothing has even come close to the scale (188 acres!), importance, or general creepiness of Père-Lachaise. Cemeteries are fairly self-explanatory, so this entry will be picture-heavy.


Heloise and Abelard, famous French scholars and lovers of the 12th century. They were torn apart by Heloise's uncle and finished out their lives in solitude, but their remains were moved here, together, in 1817.

Jim Morrison. One of the only graves I could say was crowded, and some French teenagers were definitely smoking joints up here.


And a real musician, Frederic Chopin.


Shaina, Emily, Richard, and I kissing Oscar Wilde's tomb, although sans lipstick, as is usually custom. Knowing a little bit about Oscar Wilde, I really think he would have liked the idea of people kissing his grave--it's exactly the kind of eccentric thing he relished.

And these are just some that I liked. Nobody famous.

The plaque translates as "Alone at last!"


I bet this guy had a great sense of humor.

Walk 9: Follow the Money: Palais Royal, Bourse, Covered Passages

Imagine a nightmare that consists entirely of you, walking past rows and rows of windows, each filled with beautiful, precious, antique, and extraordinary items, all of which you want, and none of which you could ever hope to be able to buy. Welcome to window shopping in Paris.

Le Louvre des antiquaires is one of the most expensive collections of antiques in Paris, and I had to go there for this walk and be tormented by all of the exquisite pieces. Sigh.

On to the Palais Royal, just outside the Louvre, where members of the royal court were housed under Louis XIII. The columns were added in 1986. They remind me of the Audrey Hepburn version of "My Fair Lady."


It was shortly after this shot was taken that Richard, Chelsea, and I happened upon the filming of an Angelina Jolie movie that will be called "The Tourists." We stayed and gawked for several minutes, trying to see through the gobs of cameramen and extras. I'm pretty sure I saw her arm... Then, crossing the street, we were stopped by a news crew and interviewed about being tourists in Paris. C'est cool, non?

The Bourse (Paris' version of Wall Street) I had to save for another day because, after our Jolie/newscrew shenanigans, we were running out of time to get to class.

Let me just say this: Paris is full of surprises. Here, you can turn a corner, innocently, only to find that you're less than a block away from the Eiffel Tower, or get lost and end up coming across something better than you were originally trying to find. It is a beautiful, mysterious city and, in it, you can't help but feel like a beautifully mysterious person.

Walk 15: Saint Ouen's Labyrinth: Navigating the World's Largest Flea Market

Sorry, folks, no pictures. I actually did have my camera that day, but this is the last place you want to stand out as a tourist.

I love junk. Anything that can call itself vintage, second-hand, or just plain old, has a place in my heart and, often, in my closet. But the whole first part of this walk takes you through, not a flea market, but a vendor-lined avenue with aggressive salespeople who love to hear English coming their way. My roommate ran into some problems and we kept our visit pretty short. But I'd love to go back, maybe next time with a thicker French accent, because these are just a few of the things that I saw: a shag-carpet-covered easy chair, garden statues that looked like they'd been stolen straight from the Louvre, a twice-life-sized painted wood cutout of Marilyn Monroe's famous white dress shot, a store filled entirely with old cartoon paraphernalia (think Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie). I love France's fascination with the old, and their unwillingness to part from the past. It's comforting, in a way, to think that the things that are valuable to me, that I treasure, may be loved again, generations from now, by some young girl with the same penchant for bargain-hunting.

Walk 8: Marais Walk 2

This was a short walk, but it was full of character. Can I just say that I love the Jewish quarter? It's the only place in Paris where I can eat while walking and fit in, I love fallafel, and, too, it's really cool to hear Yiddish in passing. Plus, where else are you going to see a menorah in a bakery window?


Besides just ambling around the Marais, we saw the gorgeous Hotel de Soubise, a mansion belonging to Francois de Rohan, the prince of Soubise.

And then, tucked away, is the Musee Cognacq-Jay, where I found this beaut:

Really, I wasn't interested in much in the museum, but this looks EXACTLY like my friend Julia:

Weird.

Walk 5: Place de la Concorde

This walk took me past a bunch of government buildings, including the Palais de l'Elysée, which is the French equivalent to the White House, and the U.S. Embassy, neither of which I could actually go into.

Place de la Concorde is a large square in front of the Tuileries, and has been the site of a number of important historical events throughout the centuries. Here, Benjamin Franklin signed into an alliance with France in 1778, guaranteeing the colonies' protection of France's assets in North America. At the time of the Revolution, the square served as the space for public executions à la guillotine, including that of Marie Antoinette.

In the very center of la Place is an Egyptian obelisk. I know, random. It was a gift to Charles X from Egyptian governor Mohammed Ali in 1829, and its granite comes from the ruins along the Nile. It's more than 3,000 years old.


Aaaaand with that, I went to the Tuileries and almost fell asleep in the sun. The perfect end to any walk.

Walk 17: Small Buildings Need Not Apply: La Défense

This is another one where I didn't have my camera with me. A few of us were grabbing food at the mall at La Défense, and decided to make a walk out of it. I can't say that I'm all that glad that we did.

Paris is old. Old and beautiful and brimming with history, and it hurts a little bit to see skyscrapers towering above the city. I understand the need for new development, especially in this town, where strict policies make it nearly impossible to renovate anything, for history's sake, and if I lived here permanently, maybe I'd appreciate a new building here and there. But I don't live here permanently, and, as a long-term tourist, I wish Paris could be all Notre Dames and Sacré Coeurs, and 18th century hotels.

That being said I'm sure that these are the same things people said when they constructed the Eiffel Tower and the glass pyramid at the Louvre, both of which I love. Plus, the thumb was kind of cool, in a creepy way.