The Louvre & other Seine stealers

It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been to Paris. The minute I stand along the Champs Elysees, or stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries, or walk into Louvre under its Glass Pyramid, or view the Tour Eiffel from the Trocadero, or cruise down the Seine at night with all of Paris’ magnificence lit up before me, I am stunned all over again.

Paris is beautiful – achingly, intoxicatingly so. It leaves you breathless, it makes you want to sing and dance in the streets, it makes you want to fling caution to the wind, it makes you want to fall headlong in love, it makes you want to celebrate life in wild abandon. And it always leaves you wanting for more – such is the power of its beauty.

There are many things about Paris that I love but the most obvious reasons would be its physical beauty, its architectural wonders and its cultural and artistic treasures.

What To See

Paris slowly took shape over a thousand years – starting from the Middle Ages. Medieval Paris was centered around the Ile de la Cite and the Left Bank and it is here that you will see its monuments – the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Sainte Chapelle.

The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and one needs more than a day to take in all it has to offer. Though sometimes very crowded, the Louvre will reward your patience with a feast of art and history. If you have the time, go down to the basement where the original medieval battlements were excavated and are on view. This way you can appreciate the scale of the improvements and alterations to the Louvre that have taken place over the centuries and continue to this day.

When I was a student in Paris, an entire wing of the Louvre housed the Ministry of Finance. The entrance was through an undistinguished side door, and the exhibits were essentially a jumble. The ministry was removed to gain more exhibition space and a new main entrance was constructed under the Glass Pyramid designed by I. M. Pei.

The Glass Pyramid is an elegant solution to the problem of how to provide better access to the museum with minimal disturbance. The pyramid does not disturb the visitor’s view of all the buildings around the Louvre but it lets in light into the underground visitors’ reception area. Another glass pyramid, an inverted one this time and echoing the design of the main pyramid, lets in light into another section of the Louvre’s subterranean complex. Meantime, in the upper reaches of the Louvre, they added a wonderful little café perched on a balcony called the Café Marly. Besides giving you a chance to rest and get a bite, the café has an unmatched view of the Glass Pyramid. The result of all these changes is a more user-friendly Louvre with vast new exhibition spaces.

(Just think: An Asian did this. Though it was very controversial when it was unveiled – just like the Eiffel Tower – just imagine the ruckus a project like this would have created had it been built here. The Filipino nationalists would be screaming bloody murder; the left would blame the United States for interfering in national affairs and for everything else wrong with the country; TROs and injunctions would be issued; congressmen would file bills banning the project unless relocated to their districts; and the Senate would conduct a televised investigation in aid of legislation. And I.M. Pei would be declared an undesirable alien and banned from entering the Philippines – forever.

Meanwhile, you have Notre Dame – the building that is most associated with the history of Paris. It is a Gothic masterpiece with flying buttresses, gargoyles, superb stained-glass windows and masterfully carved portals. Kings and emperors were crowned here and it is used as a church to this day, except for a brief period during the revolution when it was changed into a temple of the "Cult of Reason" and then became a wine store, of all things!

The Sainte Chapelle is a masterpiece in miniature. Its interior is bathed in light refracted by 15 magnificent stained glass windows separated by reed-like columns soaring 50 feet to the ceiling. The ceiling is a vaulted roof studded with gold stars against a royal blue background. Louis IX built this ethereal building as a private chapel to house what were believed to be Christ’s crown of thorns and other relics. During the revolution, the building became a warehouse for storing flour. From the crown of thorns to flour, from the ethereal to the prosaic – those French revolutionaries certainly had a quite a knack for doing this sort of thing!

During the 16th century, the first attempts at town planning and the creation of elegant uniform buildings and open urban spaces, which so distinguishes Paris today, were made. The Place des Vosges, located in the Parisian quarter called the Marais, is a prime example of this trend.

The Place des Vosges is a magnificent square surrounded by uniform houses in brick and stone with deep slate roofs and dormer windows, all in perfect symmetry and still intact after 400 years. At the center of the square was a field in which bloody duels and jousts were once held. Nowadays, however, the only blood-curdling cries you will hear at the Place des Vosges would be those of children playing in the park, which has replaced the jousting field. Otherwise, the Place is ideal for strolling and whiling away the time in the cafés and boutiques in the area. This is essentially a residential neighborhood and, if you stay around long enough, you will get a real feel of how it is to live la vie Parisienne.

Le Grand Siecle, as the 17th century was called by the French, was crowned by the magnificence of the Sun King Louis XIV and his court in Versailles. Louis XIV was the personification of the absolute monarch and Versailles was the absolute monarch’s supreme expression. No visit to Paris would be complete without spending at least a day at Versailles.

The palace at Versailles is colossal and it set the standard by which all European royal palaces were measured. Its gardens are vast and the palace itself is the largest in Europe. It can house 20,000 people at a time. It is so vast that one unfortunate countess who had been forgotten by the court was accidentally found starving in one of its upper rooms.

One of the more curious effects of going around Versailles and visiting all its immense formal rooms is the realization that one cannot live on such a grand scale at every hour of the day. During the days of the Bourbons, and especially during the Sun King’s reign, protocol was so rigid that select members of the court attended even the king’s daily visit to the toilet. Any royal birth had to be witnessed by the entire social hierarchy of France to attest to the legitimacy of the birth. Talk about a royal fishbowl. And so the "royals and royalettes" of France built themselves private apartments and hideaways to keep their sanity and keep in touch with themselves and their loved ones, legitimate or otherwise.

Following the lead of the Sun King, the aristocracy built imposing buildings, squares, theaters and aristocratic hotels (mansions), most of which are centered in the Marais.

The Marais was abandoned to the people during the revolution. It is for this reason perhaps that it is the only area of Paris that was untouched by Napoleon III and where you can get an idea of what Paris was like before the great transformation. Many of the mansions of the nobility have survived the centuries and some have been converted into museums and offices. The most interesting are the Musee Carnavalet and the Musee Picasso.

The Carnavalet is devoted to the history of Paris. It occupies two adjoining mansions and its exhibits include entire decorated rooms with paneling, furniture and objets d’art; paintings and sculptures of prominent personalities; and engravings of Paris being built. To my mind, the most interesting exhibits are those showing the personal effects of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon. One of Marie Antoinette’s shoes is on exhibit (shades of Imelda!). You will be surprised to learn that she was a tiny woman.

The Musee Picasso, on the other hand, houses the many works that the French state inherited from Pablo Picasso in lieu of death taxes. Here you will find the full range of Picasso’s artistic development from his early years to the year right before his death. The exhibits include his Blue, Pink and Cubist periods. There are over 200 paintings, 158 sculptures, 88 ceramic works and some 3,000 sketches and engravings. The man was certainly prolific and displayed great range and variety. However, a close look at his artwork can give you the insidious notion that Picasso’s libido ruled his art. Women complain about men who think with their dicks; well, it seems that Picasso may have painted with his.

The Paris of today owes a great deal to the vision of Napoleon and his nephew, Napoleon III. Napoleon set out to make Paris the most beautiful city in the world, indeed, an imperial capital fit for the first French emperor. This greatly influenced his nephew, Napoleon III. With the help of his able city planner, Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III demolished the crowded, unsanitary streets of what at that time was still a medieval city and transformed the capital into a well-ordered, well-ventilated city set within a geometrical grid of avenues and boulevards, interspersed with beautiful parks.

At the end of the 19th century, modern construction methods were adopted, most notably in the construction of the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. Both are exhibition halls that combined classical decorative elements with modern glass roofs and Art Nouveau ironwork. However, the first truly modern structure in Paris is the Eiffel Tower.

Gustave Eiffel designed the tower stripped of any ornamentation and deliberately kept its iron framework exposed, the better to show off his engineering genius. It was originally meant to be temporary but the tower has withstood the test of time and now stands as a symbol of Paris. The traditionalists then labeled it an abomination. The modernists saw beauty in its shape (a truly Gallic phallus if there ever was one!) and the engineering that went into it. The Tower was once the world’s tallest building until New York’s Empire State Building was built. It is still a great place to view the cityscape especially if you can get to the third level, which is 900 feet above ground.

The cohesion and stability of France in the 17th century started a national passion for monument building which goes on to this very day. What began as monarchical self-aggrandizement has evolved into a quest to maintain and enhance the city’s qualities and attractions and, not coincidentally, ensure that France remains the world’s top tourist destination. This is why successive French presidents have continued the tradition of monument building. It is burnished by the thought that every monument contributes to the glory that is France. The most recent examples are the Centre Pompidou and the Musee d’Orsay.

The Centre Pompidou is part of the redevelopment of the district of Les Halles. For those who are unfamiliar with Les Halles, this was where all of the produce destined to feed the entire population of Paris was delivered. In other words, Les Halles was the bagsakan of Paris. Naturally such a festering eyesore would not escape the notice of the authorities. So it was decreed that Les Halles be demolished. In its place was built the Forum des Halles which is an underground shopping center. Not too far from the Forum des Halles, the Centre Pompidou was built.

The result of an architectural competition which was eventually won by two Italians and an Englishman, the Pompidou has been likened to an oil refinery with its air and water ducts, massive steel struts, escalators and elevators all exposed. This allowed the architects to create a flexible exhibition space within. The interior now houses the National Museum of Modern Art with works by Picasso, Matisse, Miro, Jackson Pollock and other modern masters. However, to me, the most arresting piece of work in the Pompidou is a continuous video of Yoko Ono’s jiggling butt. Imagine having your butt forever enshrined in a museum, jiggling to eternity. People used to laugh and heap insults at Yoko’s attempts at music. This video may be her revenge for all that.

There is a restaurant on top of the Pompidou called "Georges" (after Georges Pompidou naturally). It is decorated with minimal chic; all the waiters are buff, all the waitresses are waif-like, all are quite attractive and all are dressed in black; the music is either Hotel Costes or Buddha Bar-like; the servings are miniscule, good and expensive; and the view of the Paris skyline is great. Just the place for the terminally chic! Why terminal? Because you will either die of hunger or die of poverty or both after eating at Georges.

The Musee d’Orsay is an excellent example of how an edifice meant for one use was superbly re-adapted for another and added to the cultural life of the city. When I was a student in Paris, this was an unutilized railway station called the Gare d’Orsay. It was scheduled for demolition but was saved due to the outcry against the demolition of the markets of Les Halles.

The old station was converted into a museum to house the city’s large collection of impressionist art which had hitherto been stuffed in the cramped spaces of the Jeu de Paume at the Tuileries. It was also decided to dust off a large collection of unexhibited art and install them in the new museum. The result is a juxtaposition of academic art – which regurgitates the same ideas over and over again – and impressionism, which broke all the conventions of its day. This juxtaposition can give even the untrained eye an object lesson in how creative activity and intellectual ferment, which great cities like Paris can stimulate, brings about advances in all manner of human endeavor.

I could write pages and pages describing the other sights to see in Paris; there are so many. The number of museums in Paris alone is unrivaled. Plus there are hundreds of private galleries and tourist destinations. I leave it to the reader to explore the many other sights that Paris has to offer. Just a word of advice: pace yourself.

Where To Stay

For the adventurous traveler, the only way to travel would be to go on your own. This affords the traveler the freedom to explore places on his own but it requires preparation and research.

Paris has more guest rooms than any other city in Europe with quality ranging from palaces like the Ritz to your regular bed-and-breakfast. First rule: avoid the red-light, sex-show district of Pigalle. You should also practice some healthy skepticism about hotels advertised as located in Montmartre when they are actually in Pigalle. So looking at a map of Paris while researching on hotels will be a definite aid! Also avoid the hotels close to the train stations of the Gare du Nord and the Gare de Lyon. Too basic and too sleazy.

My favorite area of Paris as a place to stay is St-Germain-des-Pres on the Left Bank. It has an excellent range of hotels of great character and charm and is close to the most popular tourist attractions. There are also plenty of boutiques, galleries, antique stores, restaurant and cafés in the area.

Many of the hotels in Paris can be accessed on the Internet but a good guidebook such as Eyewitness Travel Guide or a Fodor guide should help as reference in choosing a hotel. Asking friends who are familiar with Paris also helps and, if as once happened to me, you are not happy with the hotel you have chosen, check all the hotels nearby until you find a suitable one. There is no better way to finding a good hotel than actually seeing it yourself especially since a rating system is not a reliable guide to friendliness, cleanliness or tastefulness.

Always check if your room is air-conditioned when traveling during summer (June to end August) and ask for a discount because you just may get it!

There are five hotel classifications in Paris: one star to four stars, plus a four-star deluxe category. Obviously the lower the number of stars the less expensive the hotel is. Few hotels below four stars would have a restaurant; however, most would have small breakfast rooms and some have bars where one can relax and meet up with friends. Three-star hotels normally have rooms with private baths, IDD telephones, remote control cable TVs, and safes. Be prepared though for small rooms with itsy-bitsy closets, no room service and no porters.

Another area to consider is the 16th arrondissement, which functions as the bedroom community of Paris. There are no monuments here, no tourist attractions, only apartments and small shops and restaurants which cater to the needs of the neighborhood. But it is right in Paris and is only several Metro stops from all the tourist landmarks; in fact you can walk to the Trocadero and the Tour Eiffel from here. You can find some really good value hotels here, especially along the Rue de Passy. I once stayed in a charming little hotel here, tucked away in a small tree-lined courtyard off the Rue de Passy, for US$80 a night (breakfast included) and I have been told that there are even cheaper ones to be found in the area.

Getting Around Paris

The most efficient and cheapest way to get around Paris is by using those two appendages called your feet. Paris is a compact city and distances between most tourist landmarks are not great.

For the less hardy, however, there is the Metro, which criss-crosses Paris and its suburbs and has dozens of stations all over. The Metro even offers a great deal for tourists with their 3-5-or 7-day Carte Paris Visite, which allows unlimited travel within the city for a good price.

Food

The French have a national passion for enjoying life’s pleasures and food is definitely at the top of the list. This makes eating out in Paris a truly enjoyable experience. Besides French food, one can also find a range of Vietnamese, Japanese and North African restaurants. As for Chinese food, beware that it is probably Vietnamese food disguised as Chinese. Another thing to remember: avoid restaurants close to the most visited tourist spots, as they tend to gouge the tourist.

Getting a restaurant guide should help one choose a place to eat in. This being France, however, one can be sure that the bread, the butter, the cheese, the salads and the fruits will be very good no matter which restaurant one eats in. Furthermore, if you are on a limited budget, I would definitely recommend going into a grocery and buying some food off the shelf.

France has also succumbed to that ghastly American invention called the fast food restaurant. What a truly impoverished world this would be if everything is the same no matter which country you are in! Avoid the chain restaurants, the chain stores, the chain hotels, the chain anything which can be found in Manila. Traveling is all about experiencing new things and not sticking to the safety of the familiar. If you must, try the French varieties of fast food. At least you can have other things besides hamburgers!

France has a very highly developed tourist industry. It is the envy of the world as it has the highest number of tourists going through the country every year, more than in London, more than in Rome, more than in New York. One would think that the romance of Paris would have been trampled underfoot by the millions of tourists that trudge through the city every year. But the romance is still there.

The romance is there when you take a cruise along the Seine and see lovers kissing by the banks of the river; or when you chance upon a dance in the many gardens and parks of the city; or when you enter the Metro on a cold, gray winter’s day and unexpectedly hear an accordion playing Sous les Toits de Paris; or when the city lights up at dusk and reveals its glories for all to see; or when Paris dresses up for Christmas or some other special occasion.

Romance is very much alive in the City of Lights. The French will see to that. For there is no one more enamored of Paris than the French themselves.

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Bobby Cuenca, a multi-lingual traveler, has been involved in the tourist and travel business for 10 years. He has lived in Switzerland, France, Germany, the US and Hong Kong.