Springboards

The Attractions of Paris

9th December – Paris. Paris is a beautiful city. Today I went on the hop-on hop-off bus around the sights of the city with the plan to specifically visit places of interest at a later time. I travelled up the Champs Elysées – that famous street in Paris of haute couture where the Arc d’Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon, stands proudly at the end of the long straight street. He never saw the monument but his ashes were brought back to Paris from his exile and buried at the monument. Arc d’Triomphe is also the site where the unknown soldier is buried. We saw the Eiffel Tower – that iron structure built for the world exposition of 1889, it was very controversial at first with many Parisians disliking it intensely. Sacre Coeur, the basilica built on the highest point in Paris, and The Notre Dame Cathedral with its magnificent Gothic architecture. We passed the Louvre, the home of all those famous paintings and sculptures, and the Musée d’Orsay with its collections of modern and classical paintings. The bus went through the Latin Quarter where the Sorbonne is found – one of the oldest universities in Europe founded in 1257 for just 16 poor theology students.

What was also interesting was what was ignored, that is, anything modern. I also was fascinated by the commentary, the ignoring of any mention of anything related to the rulers of France, royalty or the Emperors before Napoleon, as if none of this had ever existed, the obvious pride in Napoleon and his achievements and especially I noted that 14th July was not described as Bastille day, it was described and “an annual bank holiday.”  Pics will follow.