Paris, France: After all our walking yesterday - we had a walking tour of the Marais district in the 4th arrondissament of Paris booked for today. Our guide was Oliver Gee of the Earful Tower podcast that I have been following for years. Oliver was an Australian journalist, stationed in Europe, married a Swedish woman and they have settled in Paris - now with two young children. Oliver is passionate about the history and finds the most interesting people and issues to address on his show.
Magically, a bus stopped directly in front of our door and dropped us at our meeting point with Oliver! Also magically, I bought 4 bus tickets on my phone but you can only use one ticket per ride per phone. So I paid for myself and the driver just let Leo, Lucy and DT on the bus with a shrug.
Oliver gives a Marais tour on Monday, so were given special treatment to have a private tour on a Tuesday and he also made a point of taking us to a few Jewish areas of the Marais district. Remember the Philip Augustus wall Dave was leaning on last night at the restaurant? Oliver is a serious student of this wall and he showed us several sections still standing, a few towers and even an homage to where the wall once stood. Here are a few photos of our 2.5 hour walk this morning with Mr. Gee:
We went to the largest intact section of the wall where a basketball court is situated. Can you imagine bouncing a basketball off an 800 year old wall? There are two turrets/towers here as well. The towers are 70 meters apart. In ancient places, old walls are often torn down so the bricks/stones could be repurposed when the wall’s protection is no longer needed. But Oliver explained Paris was built up quickly - and around the wall - basically absorbing the wall. Because of this, portions of the walls pop-up in the most unexpected places - like next to your dining table in the 6th Arrondissement. It isn’t so obvious (to the untrained eye) most of the time, but when you see it - you will know.
Victor Hugo’s daughter (and the lovers in his book, Les Miserables) were married in St Paul and St Louis.
Oliver kept quizzing the children to interest them in the architecture of the 400 year-old buildings in the Marais. He gave (and took-away) points if they found the clue or figured-out the answer to his question. He even gave Leo points for asking a clever question!
This is the courtyard of an old mansion - now a government building. The archway on the very lower right corner of the photograph was to one of the many stables.
This family was very well connected - as they had this massive area behind their house. We snuck out the back gate, and found ourselves at the Place des Voges - one of the loveliest squares in Paris.
Then we were in the old Jewish quarter, that still seems to have a bit of an active community. We saw several Jewish restaurants and delis and a very old synagogue.
The Agoudas Hakehilos Synogogue (1914) was designed by the man who created the ornate Art Nouvous Metro station entrances, Hector Guimard.
from the Marais and killed by the Nazis between 1942-1944.
Then Oliver brought us into another courtyard where there was evidence of the Augustus wall. He asked us to spot it and that it was in plain sight. I searched, we all had suggestions, but we all came up blank. No idea. So he showed us. Somehow, sometime, someone made the decision to mark the location of the Philip Augustus wall into the courtyard cobblestones:
the footprint of the wall through this area.
And then we were going to walk back to the starting point of our tour, but kinda ditched Oliver as we were already close to the Seine. He gave a fantastic tour, we learned so much about Paris and the Marais, and Oliver was quite engaging with the children. Plus, it was nice to finally meet the man I spend an hour with nearly every Monday on my walk! He went home and we walked to Notre Dame.
Our grandchildren really wanted to see Notre Dame, so we walked across the river to the front of the cathedral. The line looked long, but I had read it moves very fast. One local wrote she has never waited more than 13 minutes in line - and no matter how long you wait in line, once you are inside, you can stay as long as you like. It took us less than ten minutes to reach the door and admission is free. Mindful this is Holy Week, there were so many people attending the noon mass. Hearing a mass in Notre Dame must be a very special occasion for Catholics.
Fitting? Their mother sketched Notre Dame in pencil while in middle school. It was framed and hangs in our (Paris-themed) powder room to this day.
We walked over another bridge to the Left Bank (Notre Dame is on an island in the middle of the Seine River), past a myriad of tourist souvenir shops. Lucile finally succumbed and bought a Paris magnet for her school locker. Nearly 2p, the kids wanted food and they wanted it now. (Day-old croissants from our baking class were all they had this morning.) They wanted to go back to the place where they had the BEST hot chocolate on their last trip to Paris with their parents - Le Deux Magots - (le doo mago) named after the two Chinese magot statues on the ceiling in the restaurant. The name is best explained here.
I know this place is supposed to be a tourist trap and I know this place is now just an Instagram hipster photo shoot haven, but I have been coming here since 1991 and have yet to have a bad meal or bad service.
Would you even believe it if I wrote it was raining when we left the restaurant to walk back to our apartment (three short blocks)? Everyone was so tired, it was late afternoon. DT fell asleep on the sofa immediately and Lucy and Leo dozed on/off while on/off their iPads in their room. So stuffed from lunch, and obviously everyone was beat, so I made the executive decision we would stay in for dinner tonight and by dinner, I mean snacks. Behind our apartment is a very fancy grocer and market area, the Saint Germain Market. They have a butcher, fish monger, cheese monger, vegetables, fruit, wine, cured meats, a regular “grocery” store, several restaurants, an Apple Store and a UNIQLO - even a shoe repair.
I bought a bit of Brie with black pepper, crackers, cherry tomatoes, a Persian cucumber and a crisp apple. We had almonds and strawberries. Feast fit for royalty. Plus, actual fruits and vegetables were consumed!And since the King and Queen had their grandchildren with them, a few ice cream bars.
Tomorrow is the BIG DAY! Stay tuned… but the day is SO BIG, there is a possibility the post will be delayed several hours.
PEDOMETER: 15,600 steps. Six miles.
Until my next update, I remain, your ???? correspondent.
LINKS:
Le Peloton Cafe
The Earful Tower podcast with Oliver Gee