During the same trip to Europe that Bill, Tina and I took back in mid-March 2011, we also spent two days in Paris, in addition to our time in London.
Our first morning in Paris brought warm weather and sunny skies. Bill headed off early to meet up with business colleagues at a conference where he was scheduled to make a speech. Tina and I decided it was a great day to take the Big Red Bus Tour. It’s a hop-on, hop-off affair, featuring nine first rate tourist destination stops in Paris: the Tour Eiffel, Champs du Mars, Musee du Louvre, Notre Dame, Musee D’Orsay, Place de l’Opera, Champs-Elysees – Etoile, the Grand Palais and the Trocadero. There is no way anyone could cover all these sites in one day, so we cherry picked our targeted destinations.
We settled in on the top row of the bus. I was prepared to snap shots of important Paris destinations that were material to my research about Mom’s war years. Tina shared with me a picture practice advocated by her husband, Brian: have a person you know in the photo, even if the person is tiny in relation to the shot. It’s a lot more interesting. I actually agree, but this was going to be difficult when Tina and I started “suggesting” what we should do for the photo. The conversation could get out of hand.
“Stand there, no there!”
“Wait, fix your hair!
“Tilt your head a little to the left. No, more.”
“Just my head, please.”
After attempting to adhere to the photo principle, we recognized the limitations of our “pictures with someone we know in them” prospects on a bus. So, we just sat back and enjoyed ourselves for a while.
After a bit of touring, and a lot of picture taking, we decided to get off the bus at the Place de l’Opera, which has one of the most beautiful squares in Paris. It is located centrally on the Right Bank just a few blocks north of the Louvre Museum and the Tuileries – in an administrative district referred to as the 9th arrondissement.
The opera house was designed by Frenchman Charles Garnier in the opulent Napoleon III style, opening in 1875. At the time it was built, and still to this day, it is considered an architectural masterpiece – and lovingly renamed the Palais Garnier. It has been widely copied around the world, including the Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. We walked around the entire building, recalling that we had been here on the aforementioned 1973 bus tour of 14 countries in 28 days!
Mom’s letters home often noted that she had lunch or a drink with friends at the Café de la Paix, which was across the street from her office on the corner of Boulevard de Capucines. In one letter, dated November 21, 1944, Mom writes to her parents: “After leaving my bag at the hotel, I went out for a walk near the l’Opera. The Café de la Paix is still there and looks the same as ever.” I know it was a favorite spot of her’s as we have a ‘9 f’ blue ashtray or butter plate (not sure) from a visit sometime over the years.
Café de la Paix stood across the street from the square fronting Place de l’Opera. Right nearby was the Galleries Lafayette (an upmarket department store), a huge sprawling space where we tried, in vain, to find a new beret for Brian. After much searching, Tina did not find what she was looking for. We headed back to the Big Red Bus.
Our next destination was the Eiffel Tower. On our way there, I realized we were quite close to Rue de Grenelle. With Tina’s enthusiastic bien sur, we hopped off the bus and decided to find the old apartment where Mom had lived in 1945, and also where our aunt stayed with a family during her junior year of college while at the Sorbonne (1938-39).
When we arrived at the building, it felt wonderful to put our hands on the doorknob to the lovely building, feeling delighted at the distant connection. We remembered we had been here with Mom back in 1973.
Our walk to the Eiffel Tower was extremely pleasant. The milk chocolate brown iron spire cascades skyward at a lovely angle, giving it an elegance that has held people’s imagination since its completion in 1888. The wait for the elevator to the top was over an hour, so Tina and I bought tickets to climb the escalier (stairs!). I knew beforehand that the highest I would go is the premier etage, the first level. Bill, Sarah, Kate and Emily and I completed the same journey in 2006, during a spring break trip to Paris and Provence. I loved the 189-foot climb, knowing that we would be rewarded with a terrific 360* panorama.
Tina loved the Tower too, and could have gone higher, but she decided to wait and come back another time with her husband Brian for that supreme effort. We were both quite contented to share a crepe with Nutella on the premier etage.
After the 400 step walk back down the stairs, we visited the Arc de Triomphe, another of Paris’s exquisite landmarks. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I at the Arc is a rueful reminder of the cost of that war, and the many wars that have been fought over the years. Lots of military leader’s names and places of victorious battles are engraved in the beautiful pink tinted stone. It is substantial, history rich, epochal in its outlook and at the nexus of twelve different avenues, giving it a view that looks like spokes on a wheel. It’s all very beautiful.
Tina and I then walked down the Champs-Elysees, where Mom often walked, including during the V-E Day celebrations on May 8, 1945. From the descriptions in her letters home, we knew we were on one of her most favorite avenues in Paris.
We rode the bus the rest of the time, enjoying every minute. You do get an excellent perspective from twenty feet above ground.
It was getting to be time for dinner, so we headed back to the hotel for a much-needed rest. Bill had a conference commitment that night, so Tina and I planned a fun outing to the Sorbonne area for dinner. More on that another day.