Paris in autumn and it's already cold!

PARIS — It’s already autumn in Paris and yes, it’s already cold here and even on midday, it’s 22 degrees, which is as cold as an air-conditioned room. So early morning Monday, right after breakfast, we huffed off to our waiting tourist bus and just drove around the famous tourism sites.

 First, we drove by what was once the site of the famous Bastille prison which triggered the French Revolution on July 14,1789. Of course the Bastille prison was dismantled and on its place is the July column in Place de la Bastille to remind the French people that between 1831 and 1840 those who were killed in the revolution are buried on its base.

 Another historic site is called Place de la Concorde, where today stands an Egyptian Obelisk taken from the temple in Luxor in 1831 by Egyptian King Mohammed Ali and presented as a gift to Louis-Philippe. This is the exact location where King Louis XVI was killed, while his equally infamous Queen Marie Antoinette was guillotined and thousands of others who defied the French Revolution.

 Driving by the famous River Seine, you just can’t miss the Notre Dame Cathedral with its Gothic architecture with its flying buttresses, words of course only architecture students and architects alike understand. While the Notre Dame is famous as the place where Napoleon I was crowned by Pope Pius VII in 1802. Hollywood even made it more famous when it immortalized Victor Hugo’s novel, “Hunchback of Norte Dame.” Of course this fictional character got many tourists getting inside the Notre Dame searching for Quasimodo, especially when its magnificent six bells are rung during Mass.

 Then we passed by the Grand Louvre, where the most famous painting of all time, the Mona Lisa, painted by the equally famous Leonardo Da Vinci, is on display together with thousands of art works. Of course one can say that the City of Paris is a museum in itself. It is not a huge city as it is only a hundred hectares. We will be seeing the Louvre the next day. Meanwhile the Louvre too did not escape Hollywood’s influence as today there is what they call a “Da Vinci Code Tour in the Louvre.

 Then we rode the famous avenue of luxury called the Champs de Elysees, which starts at the Place de la Concorde and ends at the famous Arch de Triomphe, which glorifies the victories of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Of course, there is no monument to his humiliating defeat in Waterloo.

 But then with a colorful history like Napoleon’s, it brings some 30 million tourists annually to Paris. Indeed, yesterday’s famous wars or defeat is today’s tourist spots. For a World War II buff like me, one of the most humiliating times for the French people was when the German Army marched around the Arch de Triomphe. Of course in 1945, the Americans too returned the favor with Sherman tanks and MacArthur type jeeps parading through the Champs de Elysees.

 Today, the Champs de Elysees is home or headquarters to the greatest brand names in the world, the most coveted luxurious names as Louis Vitton (LV), Coco Chanel, Prada, Bvlagari, YSL, Christian Dior, Long Champs and all those famous luxurious brand names you can find. If you think that the Mall of Asia is one of the largest shopping malls in the world, nothing beats the Champs de Elysees as this avenue is like a humungous shopping mall and with the weather this cold, you’d think that they air-conditioned the outdoors in Paris. What’s even more remarkable is that even if the prices of these items are “for-your-eyes-only” people are lining up to buy them.

 We had our lunch at the Chez Clemente at the Champs de Elysees. Of course, we had French fries as a siding for our lunch and yes, crepe suzette. Hey, we’re in France so we need to eat what the French eat, after all, the French invented high-end cuisine and called their restaurants Brasseries or Bistrots.

 I specifically asked to visit the Rue de Bac, which is the site of the famous Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (which is our Asilo de la Milagrosa) where on July 19, 1830, an apparition appeared before St. Catherine Laboure inside their very obscure chapel, which is like a hole in the wall church. But for serious Catholics like me, who just came from the more famous our Lady of Lourdes apparition site, this completes our pilgrimage to France.

 Few people know that the incorrupt body of St. Catherine Laboure lies on the side altar on the site of the apparition of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. It was to St. Catherine that we got the prayer, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” This apparition is very much like Lourdes. There are a lot more to see in Paris, like the Eiffel Tower, but we will write that for this Friday’s column.

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