Goodbye beautiful Brussels and bon jour Paris. We’re here !

Today we moved away from train travel to bus travel. Why? The holiday treasurer discovered that the bus was about a quarter of the cost of the train. Apparently, it made economic sense.

Besides the financial aspect. Some of the stress of travelling with heavy luggage simply went away. On the bus, my personal porter (and the treasurer) put the luggage under the bus when we boarded. At the end of the trip it was collected. During a few of our train rides, poor Steve lifted my luggage above his head. As the luggage storage was full and so they went into the overhead bins. It had been stressful for us both.

So what could I say, it was a no-brainer – bus it is!

I spilled my long awaited coffee within about 30 seconds of getting on the bus. Apart from that, the trip was okay. There was a stop to stretch your legs and give the driver a mandatory 15 minute break.

We are staying in serviced apartments near Paris Gare de Lyon. Wll done Pip on getting us something not to far from the bus and train. As well as come lovely restaurants we are looking forward to trying. The apartments are lovely and spacious. We are here for four nights. Dave and Pip are here for three nights.

Fiona and Paris. Here’s the thing for me about Paris. I have loved it since the first time I visited in the 80’s. I know not everyone feels this way about this city. Something about it took hold of me and has never let go. I feel rejuvenated and happy and have some really beautiful memories of my times here.

It has been a while since our last visit to Paris, in fact it’s almost ten years. And so I am really keen to see how the recovery work on the Notre Dame de Paris is coming. I remember watching the news reports from 2019, and the devastation felt by Parisians and really feeling for them all.

I had forgotten how big and imposing Notre Dame de Paris is, like so many great churches of its era.

It takes a while to walk around the construction site. As I do lots of memories flash through my head. The first time we brought the boys here and spent time looking for gargoyles. It was such fun looking for monsters hiding in the walls and on the roof.

Another time just sitting quietly reflecting, somehow all the noise of Paris just faded away.

And my most recent memory from 2015, it was just before Christmas, 16 December and our last day here. We had been travelling for a couple of weeks with a football trip. After a long day doing touristy things, we were walking past Notre Dame de Paris. A concert was about to start. How lucky were we. And so Vic and I spent an hour or so inside this beautiful Cathedral listening to Gregorian Chants. I described it as surreal at the time – it was and such an incredible privilege. A night I will never forget.

The next time we are here it will have been reopened. It will be interesting to see if it will be the end of this year. It’s hard to imagine but there are many resources working on this – so anything is possible.

Au revior Notre Dame de Paris! We have lots to see and not enough days. We are ready for lunch and then we’ll head to Place Saint-Sulpice.

We cross the Seine on one of the many fabulous bridges. Before the Olympics, I never expected to see swimmers when we looked over the sides of a Parisian bridge. Will we see any today? Nope!

Place Saint-Sulpice is a lovely part of Paris and not too far to walk from Notre Dame de Paris.

A quick baguette and then we arrive at Place Saint-Sulpice. A big square built in 1754. The gorgeous Fountaine Saint-Sulpice was constructed in the middle between 1844 and 1848. The fountain depicts the statues of four bishops and is lovely to sit beside. There are loads of people her today, including some big Scout convention.

Across from the square is the Saint Sulpice. This Church is the second in size to Notre Dame Cathedrale. Constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries on the site of a Church built in the 13th century.

Saint Sulpice was known as the lopsided Church, you may be able to see why in my photo below. In the original design there were two identical towers. The first tower is 73 metres tall and the second is 68 metres tall. Yup the south tower simply wasn’t completed and so is shorter and less intricate in design.

I say it was known as the lopsided Church. This is because, in 2003, a book was released that mentioned this Church in a critical part of the plot.

The book was the Da Vinci Code.

Now I have been on a self guided Da Vinci Code tour myself. Across Italy and France and so I completely get the interest.

As you can see the Church is beautiful. In the centre photo you will see a * symbol in the photo of the Saint Sulpice Gnomon Obelisk. If you’ve read the book and/ or seen the movie you may recall this Obelisk played an important role.

In reality the Gnomon consists of a brass line that is embedded in the marble floor of the Church. This line extends from the base of the Obelisk.

It is positioned with a small opening that allows sunlight to cast a shadow on the line. It is very unusual to have gnomon in a Church but not unheard of. This one was installed in 1727 by clock-maker-astronomer Henry Sully at the request of the Parish Priest.

He wanted it for a very practical reason – to accurately calculate the Winter and Summer solstices and equinoxes.

I can completely understand. The beautiful Baroque styling of this Church makes it the perfect backdrop for a novel. I do wonder how the local residents initially reacted to this new found interest. I did read somewhere that the makers of the film weren’t allowed to film in the Church. This is completely understandable. The set for these Church scenes was built somewhere on a Hollywood lot.

We need to keep moving. There is so much to see here. We want to take advantage of the sunshine. Rain is forecast for the next couple of days. And so we metro it to the Champs Elysee.

Here’s the beauty of Paris. In the space of thirty minutes we had the opportunity to see creations dating from 1300BC to 2019. It so deserves the title of one of the world’s centres of culture.

We have dinner tonight at a very cool Argentinian restaurant, Baez, thanks for the recommendation Caitlin and Will.

Tomorrow morning we have pre purchased tickets for Musee D’Orsay. Yikes I love it so much I may not sleep.