Terrace in Paris

We were very lucky to find our apartment in Paris. It was five stories up and operated with a less than a half size elevator, but it had this great private terrace on the roof that offered views of the Eiffel Tower, steeple tops of Hotel de Ville, St. Jaques Tower, and Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) on Montmartre Hill.




#7, 4 Rue Des Juges Consuls, Paris 4th



Eiffel Tower twinkles about five minutes every hour.











The project to build the Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) was initiated by a group of influential people. Their reasons to build this monument was two-fold: they had pledged to build a church if Paris escaped unscathed from the war with the Prussians and they saw the defeat of the French at the hands of the Prussian army in 1870 as a moral condemnation of the sins of Paris.
The project was authorized by the National Assembly in 1873, and a competition was organized. The goal was to build an imposing basilica true to Christian traditions.(1)

The Sacré-Coeur Basilica has managed to keep its beaming white color even in the polluted air of a big city like Paris. This can be attributed to the Château-Landon stones which were used for the construction of the Sacré-Coeur. When it rains, the stones react to the water and secrete calcite, which acts like a bleacher.(1)









Saint-Jacques Tower, the Tour Saint-Jacques, is a monument located in the IVe arrondissement of Paris, France. This 52 metres (171 ft) Flamboyant Gothic tower is all that remains of the former 16th century Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery") which was leveled shortly after the French Revolution.[1]




The Taruns admire La Tour Saint Jaque from street level.




Hotel de Ville - 1533..... Mayor of Paris Office






In July 1357, Étienne Marcel, provost of the merchants (i.e. mayor) of Paris, bought the so-called maison aux piliers ("House of Pillars") in the name of the municipality on the gently sloping shingle beach which served as a river port for unloading wheat and wood and later merged into a square, the Place de Grève (French for "Square of the Strand"), a place where Parisians often gathered, particularly for public executions. Ever since 1357, the City of Paris's administration has been located on the same location where the Hôtel de Ville stands today. Before 1357, the city administration was located in the so-called parloir aux bourgeois ("Parlour of Burgesses") near the Châtelet.
In 1533, King Francis I decided to endow the city with a city hall which would be worthy of Paris, then the largest city of Europe and Christendom. He appointed two architects: Italian Dominique de Cortone, nicknamed Boccador because of his red beard, and Frenchman Pierre Chambiges. The House of Pillars was torn down and Boccador, steeped in the spirit of the Renaissance, drew up the plans of a building which was at the same time tall, spacious, full of light and refined. Building work was not finished until 1628 during the reign of Louis XIII.







During the Franco-Prussian War, Commune extremists set fire to the Hôtel de Ville destroying almost all extant public records from the French Revolutionary period. The blaze swallowed the building from the inside, leaving only an empty stone shell. Reconstruction of the hall lasted from 1873 through 1892 (19 years) and was directed by architects Théodore Ballu and Édouard Deperthes because they had won the contest of where the best designer in the tournament got to design the City Hall.(1)




(1)Thanks Wikipedia

Location:France

Paris Poussiere

The weather in Paris is beautiful this time of year which means sunny skies and no rain. A side effect is that dust is everywhere in the city. This is especially true in the public places around the Louvre and Palais Royal where Cerise is shown standing between a row of trees

CDG to Gare du Nord

Paris is known my different names and a common one is "The City of Light". However if you take the train from CDG airport to Gare du Nord, you may think of it as the "City of Graffiti". The side of every building along the tracks are covered with "street art". That is a long stretch covering at least 20 miles I cannot usually understand these messages in the USA, so no idea what they say here. This one was actually in the city.

Perspectives from France

We have been traveling in France for a little over a week now. Our schedule has been full and now we are on the train to Nice and looking forward to a little more laid back schedule enjoying the south of France.

On our first day in Paris, Cherry and I walked from Gare du Nord to the Louvre to get our bearings and some exercise while we waited for the Irish Taruns to arrive from Dublin. We stopped at the Palais Royal courtyard and viewed the black and white striped columns. This photo shows an unknown person seeking harmony within her environment. Perhaps she is thinking I should have worn my Beetlegeuse suit?

Travellers - May 19, 2011 - France

Cherry saw her first. I only noticed her at the gate. She was perhaps five feet tall. Slender and not hurried rolling her bag beside her on four wheels like a dog on a walk. The bag was leashed with blue straps. The bag colors were in blocks of green, aqua, plum, and banana. Reaching the gate she stopped and prepared the bag for boarding, binding it with its own straps so it could not escape as if my some magic powers it was sure to possess.

The bag was only an accessory to her outfit which was a statement on its own. Starting at the top with a charcoal wool cap sporting a short bill on front which evoked the turn of the 19th century. Next was her green coat which was somewhere between London Fog and duster that stopped four inches from the floor. A yellow collar peeked out from the the top of her coat. Then the final touch - sparkling pink sneakers on a white footbed.

So it begins. Our adventure in France is sure to fill our digital cameras with all of the advertised sights, but what else will we see and experience? Harris no doubt will charm the mademoiselles. Poppy will get lost and meet interesting people. Perhaps a nice burgundy or a truffle sniffing dog will surprise us in Beaune. No telling what we will see on the beaches of Nice. Stay tuned for more reports.

Au revoir,

Monsieur Jerome

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