November 1 - Paris

Nov 2 update

Time to fatten up yesterday's blog.

I mentioned 'drama' before we left London. The tour company (Golden) has takes your money, gives you a voucher for the tour and tells you they will send the Eurostar tickets later.  They sent follow-up emails but  2 of the 5 of us received a useless coupon.  The Golden rep figured this out and was phoning his office (remember what time it is) to get our assigned seats so a boarding pass could be issued.  Abbie got hers, but they couldn't correlate my ticket to a vacant seat.  The Eurostar rep would check a possibly vacant seat, and find that somebody with that seat had just signed in.  About 2 minutes before the gates closed it got sorted out.

 (I wrote all that, both for you and to chastise Golden if they have the temerity to ask for a review of the tour.  Ami will get a great review - the office staff and the Golden ticket system that doesn't correlate to Eurostar's not so much). 

Eurostar in general.  Screening just like an airport.  I feel naked without my jackknife that I left behind.  Once on the train and you are moving it is nice and smooth.  You are in some dark tunnel for a while and Poof! you pop out in France.  Also, their terminals are much more conveniently located than the airport.   

Our first stop was Notre Dame.  A bit of trepidation initially, because November 1 is a public holiday in France.  See - they know how to treat us, eh, Sue!

Ami our guide was worried the crowds might be larger or the cathedral might be closed to  the pubic.  Neither happened - crowds were smaller (weather?) and everything was open.

In we go.  The entrance

And some of the detail above the centre door - not damaged in the fire.

Here's the Nave again, a bit closer to the far end

A short video from about the same location  Notre Dame Nave

Walking down the hallway to the left side of the nave (I'm assuming the very pale ceiling was part of what was destroyed in the fire)

All the small chapels are open

Many have beautiful paintings

The Rose on the North side

Baptismal Font in the Chapel de Noe

Looking across the Nave

More artwork

A video of the artwork on the wall of the Choir (the signs here say 'Choir' instead of 'Quire' in London) Choir Wall

More in that area

At the very end, where the Holy Crown of thorns is displayed (but not today, apparently)

On the way back thru the Cathedral, the wall on the other side of the Choir

The organ, from a long ways away (and it was definitely loud)

A picture of the whole wall

All of a sudden, the pages were pushing people out, I think a service was to begin in a few minutes (it was nearing 11:00), but I still got some (amazing to me) shots

Not much time outside but here's a shot of the spire

And another video, from the outside. I'm still experimenting with what the phone can do (eg. zoom during videos) Notre Dame Outside

I'm a fan of flying buttresses, so I tried for a good shot of them.

For the engineer, a couple of shots of the hoarding, with some info about the reconstruction

So, it's time to leave Notre Dame.  Here's a link I found about Notre Dame.  It talks about some (many) of the objects I missed Friends of Notre Dame

One of the 37 bridges across the Seine

My phone is down in power, so I'm using both the camera and the phone for photos.

On the way to the Eiffel Tower, Ami pointed out this building (the city or district hall?).  Paris has 20 districts, each with a local council and district mayor. 

The Paris Obelisk, in La Place de la Concorde.  A better photo and history Paris Obelisk

The Eiffel Tower.  Not a great photo, but it shows the two decks.  Here are the heights:

The total height is 330 metres, or 1083 feet, slightly higher than originally, due to the addition of antennas.  Ami told us the antennas saved the Eiffel tower.  I pulled this from Mr. AI:

We went immediately up to the Second Deck.  I did a bunch of videos of the city from there, but I seemed to pan too quickly.  I've included 2 of them.  No Oscars here.

Eiffel Tower 1                Eiffel Tower 2  

Here are some still photos.  I name (correctly or otherwise) some of the landmarks

Looking downstream and southwest on the Seine.  

Turning right, upstream

Right some more.  The glass domed building is Le Grand Palais; exhibition hall & museum.

I'm  not sure what the building on the hill in the distance is.  I'll leave it as a test question.

A long close-up of that building.  I'm pretty sure from this photo, but it is still on the test.

Garden of the Eiffel Tower, the Champ-de-Mars and the Military School at the end

That's it for the view from the second floor.

On the first floor looking at one of the legs.  My first impression when I arrived here was that the steel in the tower wasn't as thick as I expected.  But what do I know, I'm electrical.  

View of one of the elevator shafts.  The elevators have 2 floor cabins.  You can just see the entrance to the lower cabin.

The plaza.  Apparently, it is unusually empty (lucky us!)

And my last shot - an attempt to show the whole tower from too close.  Makes the legs look fat, eh?

We'll leave the Eiffel Tower with a more flattering picture.  The of the people (the two with backpacks and the one in the white coat were on the tour.  Ami's head is to the left of the blue backpack.

At this point I'm going to stop for a while, have a walk and do some shopping.

It's 6 a.m. in Nanoose, so you may still be in bed.

I'm back - did my shopping and rewarded myself with a Latte.  It's now 7:30 your time.  I'll try to get the Louvre done.

First thing - another video.  This is the Louvre courtyard.  It has two - this is the big one, 3 sided, open side looks at L'Arc de Triomphe, and has the pyramid Louvre Courtyard   

A photo of one wall of the courtyard, and the pyramid.

Ami advised to get to the Mona Lisa as soon as we got in, so we and a gazillion others did so.  You saw my best picture from the blog preview last night.

Honestly, I'm a little disappointed because there are so many people there that the barriers are way back.  I'm there, so I'm part of the problem.  So, if you want a good picture of the Mona Lisa, Google it.

Oops!  Another courtyard - the inner, smaller one.  The courtyards of most buildings aren't mas big as this small one.   Louvre Inner Courtyard

Actually, try this, cuz it's neat:
1. Open Google Maps
2. Search for 'Louvre, Paris'
3. If the symbol over the Louvre looks like this
                     
4. Hover your cursor over it.  Don't click.
5. Hopefully, Google will start an aerial fly around over the building.  Neat!
6. Anything with a special symbol over it seems to have this feature.  There are others near the Louvre and lots of other places

I was going to mention this earlier, but I plumb forgot.

Onward!  Other paintings nearby.  I'm being picky and only including ones with a description, which I include below.

In the stairway just before these galleries

Even the walls and ceilings are worth photographing

Onto another gallery.  Just wandering about, so I ended up in ancient Egypt

This cabinet had a large number of sarcophaguses (pl?) on both sides.  I was running out of time, so I didn't photograph the details 

Sorry about cutting off the head of the first sarcophagus.

Two more pictures of another cabinet

There is only one exit to the Louvre, and I'm following signs as the time clicks down.  
Now I'm in a Greek Gallery, still heading to the exit.

I can see the exit hall through a bunch of galleries, so I can relax for a few seconds and take a breath.  

To explain my anxiety:  This museum is huge (biggest in the world, in fact), and the map is confusing.  I really didn't want to miss the ride to the Eurostar.

Finally, the meeting point at the exit - the pyramid below the pyramid

I  made it with 10 minutes to spare.

So, there is my brief introduction to the Louvre.  

It's Sunday and I'm heading to another close by pub to see what they serve.  

The notes I wrote last night are below my signature.

I looked your comments from last night - who wins the bet on this selfie?   😏

Hi

I just got back from Paris and I'm having my birthday beer before I hit the hay.

I think most people know I went to Paris on the Eurostar today. I was with a tour (bit of drama at the start), but had a great tour guide (Ami).

I'll put in one picture for each chunk of the day.

On the Eurostar:  Couldn't take good photos.  We are going so fast that the camera scan isn't keeping up to the train speed.  I think I saw 290 km/hr or so.  Their record speed is 
344.7 km/hr.

Notre Dame:  The Nave

The Eiffel Tower:  Here's a selfie of me on the first level glass floor.

OK - I'll put in a better picture

I'll add videos of the city from the second floor later

The Louvre:  Of course, it has to be ...

I checked - the door to the French Crown jewels room is still closed

Just a tidbit of what I saw today.

I'll fill in more tomorrow

Greg