Hotel Roma Sacré Cœur
Randy and I had a difficult time getting a hotel. Most of the hotels that we wanted were booked and we eventually settled on the Hotel Roma Sacré Cœur in the Montmartre district. The hotel was a pleasant surprise. The hotel staff was very nice and the room was clean and quiet. The one thing that could have been better was the bath. The bath tub didn't have a real shower. It had a shower hose that you had to hold in order to shower, but other than that everything was fine. I was able to checkin using my French. I am getting better at numbers. I could ask for my room key by giving the desk clerk my room number in French and they always understood. I still have problems ordering water. At breakfast I could order just about everything in French except water. Every time I asked for water they would ask me to repeat what I wanted. The hotel was very very close to the metro station which was quite convenient and there were a number of good restaurants on our street
La Madeleine
The
Madeleine is a church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. The Madeleine was started
in 1764 and the building's purpose changed a number of times. It went
from being a church to a parliament, to a bank, to a monument to Napoleon's
army and back to a church when it was finally consecrated in 1845. Rick
Steve's guide to Paris lists it as one of the major disappointments of
Paris, which I thought was a bit harsh. It certainly doesn't compare to
Notre Dame, St-Chappelle or even Sacré Cœur, but it doesn't
take much time to visit and is located near the Opéra Garnier and
the Galeries Lafayette.
Place de Vendôme
The
Place de Vendôme was originally designed as a royal courtyard in
1698. The square was meant to hold embassies and other civil buildings
but the area was soon taken over by the rich merchant class. The area
is still home to the wealthy, with a number of banks and jewelry stores.
The famous Hotel Ritz is at the Place de Vendôme. At the center
of the place is a bronze column cast from cannons captured at the battle
of Austerlitz. The figure on the top of the column was originally Napoleon,
but has been changed many times. The original column was toppled by the
Commune. Randy and I didn't spend that much time here because it was very
cold the day we visited and coming from southern California neither Randy
nor I are used to the cold.
Place des Voges
I
visited the Place Des Voges on my second
trip to Paris. In 2002 I tried to get Randy to go to see the square,
but had difficulty finding it because it was right on the edge of the
map that I had. This time, I still had problems finding it. For some reason
I always get turned around in this section of town. The Place Des Voges
is Paris' oldest square, dating from the early 1600's. Many famous people
have lived here including Cardinal Richelieu, Victor Hugo and Descartes.
Henri II was killed in the square while jousting.
Musée Carnavalet
The Musée Carnavalet is a museum devoted to the history of Paris and the French Revolution. The building is a 16 century mansion. In the late 1800's Baron Haussmann was charged with remodeling Paris. He tore down the slums and created the wide boulevards. In 1866 he convinced the city to acquire mansion and use it as a museum to store pieces of the buildings that he was destroying. I liked the French Revolution section of the museum, but even that wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be
Tour St-Jacques
On
every trip at least one thing that I've wanted to see has been closed
for renovations. This time it was the Tour St-Jacques. The Tour St-Jacques
is a Gothic bell tower and is all that is left of the church of St.-Jacques
la boucherie. People haven't been permitted to enter the building for
sometime so the only thing one can normally do is to look at the exterior
of the tower. When we arrived the tower was completely covered by scaffolding
and some sort of tenting material to keep the dust from the restoration
processes from getting all over the place.
Hôtel de Ville
During
my first trip to Paris I learned that almost all of the buildings with
the word "hôtel" in their names were not hotels. The Hôtel
de Ville is where the mayor of Paris runs the city. Although the building
is relatively new, the site of the Hôtel de Ville has a gruesome
history with many executions having taken place on the grounds. For security
reasons, the building is not open to the public. The building itself is
interesting to look at and while Randy and I were there, a large skating
rink and been set up just outside the building.