Much Ado About Paris – All Deserved

24 March, 2025

Paris beckons. Some cities remain timeless, majestic, and full of charm. They offer a tapestry of culture, history, food and drink. Paris holds that promise and more. I have visited Paris numerous times and look forward to sharing this marvelous city with my niece, Gabrielle. 

Talking about Paris is not like living it. The next few days, we will live Paris.

Far, Far Too Much To Do Around Paris

The Palace of Justice, Conciergerie and Sainte Chapelle represent sort of a Ménage à trois of history and beauty. Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities rings in my ears. We begin using our Museum Pass as we entered Sainte Chapelle at 9 am. Huge, milling legions of visitors clog security and entryways. 

First gripe today: the unexpected numbers of visitors at the gates. It remains low season in Paris, the weather is cool, no holidays are slated, yet crowds are horrendous. Security checks range from bag scans to hands-up body scans. Process is slow and jammed. Sneezing, wheezing and coughing are heard. Timed-tickets assist but do not avoid crowds and waiting: for every timed ticket, probably 10 other visitors also enter. 

Sainte-Chapelle  

Entering the lower chapel, the beautiful ribbed, star-studded royal blue ceilings dazzle. However, climbing the staircase brings us to the real pièce de résistance of this royal chapel. Commissioned by King Louis IX to house his collection of Passion relics, including Christ’s Crown of Thorns, the Gothic-style chapel was consecrated in 1248. 

Standing beneath the starry ceiling, 15 soaring, stained-glass windows surround us. The framework supporting this sea of glass is nearly imperceptible. A grand rose window dominates the western wall, depicting stories from both the Old and New Testaments, adorned with idealized tributes to the king and queen in gratitude for their royal patronage. Louie prayed in style! 

Sainte-Chapelle, like most royal buildings, wasn’t treated kindly during the French Revolution. Thankfully, it was restored and has been a national historic monument since 1862.

Notre-Dame Has Risen From Its Ashes

Standing upon the Île de la Cité, Sainte-Chapelle at my back, I face the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Beneath my feet are the archeological ruins of the medieval origins of Paris in approximately 52 BCE. All road distances in France are calculated from here, Point Zéro des Routes de France. 

Lutetia, a Gallo-Roman town, developed on the Seine’s left bank during the reign of Augustus (27 BC to 14 AD). Later, Cité was occupied by the Gaulish tribe referred to as the Parisii. The Middle Ages witnessed growth focused around the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, whose construction began in 1163. 

Begun in 1160, the church suffered desecration during the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. Soon after the publication of Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, interest in the building revived. Centuries of soot and grime collected, removed and collected again. Then, in 2019, disaster happened again.

To say I have looked forward to seeing Our Lady would be a big understatement. In 2018, I visited her for the last time before watching TV as she burned. Returning in 2019, I walked around her perimeter looking at the amazing work already accomplished in efforts to restore her. I feel honored to have been a monetary supporter of those restorations since day one. 

There was one major challenge: required reservations only became available online 48 hours in advance, making it difficult to secure entry. The long lines meant valuable time wasted. Faced with this dilemma, we noted when the next day’s tickets would be released and sat down with iPad, ready to book the moment they became available.

Today, I rejoice I did get tickets as the lines are very, very long. We enter the cathedral as early as allowed. However, the unticketed visitors also stream inside. Notre-Dame may only issue 10,000-15,000 tickets a day but this is misleading. At least 100 visitors are allowed in for every booked entry.  Inside, the dense crowds flow like sheep around the cathedral. Little stopping or sitting allowed. 

I envision the scene out of Big Bang Theory when Sheldon, Leonard and friends sat before their laptops furiously refreshing the page attempting to get tickets to Comic Con. It wasn’t that bad but I did enter the ticket site at 12:01 am to secure our timed entries. 

Enjoy the lovely cathedral during your circuit. Inside, the cathedral presents spectacular columns, rose windows, paintings, sculptures, and a lofty ribbed ceiling. All sparkling clean. Also now on display is the Crown of Thornes. 

Currently, an unfortunate part of visiting occurs when one seeks the towers or gardens.  Both remain closed. Views of this massive structure with its amazing flying buttresses remain blocked. I continued my tradition of leaving a small amount of my Bestie’s ashes but with gardens unavailable, best I could do was the Seine. 

Coulée Verte René-Dumont

We walk the Coulée Verte René-Dumont, better known as the Promenade Plantée. After the crowds, I relish walking along Paris’ 3-mile greenbelt. The plantée was the first green space constructed on an elevated train viaduct (New York’s High Line and Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail followed).

The Promenade follows the obsolete 1859 Vincennes railway line. We enter using the stairs at the west end just behind Opéra Bastille. The parkway rises 32 feet to form the Viaduc des Arts, elevated arches of the former railway viaduct.

The parkway intersects gardens, provides open views of Paris and her neighborhoods, and passes through modern buildings. My favorite architecture remains the Art-Deco Police Station with its dozen gigantic rooftop statues of Michelangelo’s “The Dying Slave.”  

We finished its entire length. Flowers are blooming, runners are numerous and street noises are minimal. We arrived at Château de Vincennes, King Charles’ summer home. 

Château de Vincennes

Originally a royal hunting lodge in the 12th century, the medieval  Château de Vincennes was transformed into a formidable castle in the 14th century under Charles V. It later served as a royal residence, a state prison, and a military stronghold. Not sure if the King resided there at the same time criminals were trying to survive in the cold, dark lowest floors. I would think the groans and executions would keep Charles up at night. 

We crossed the drawbridges to explore the massive keep, or donjon. A climb took us atop the medieval walls and towers for nice panoramas of the area and the dramatic, darkening skies. 

King Charles V commissioned the Sainte-Chapelle in the 14th century as part of his transformation of the Château into a royal residence. Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, it was intended to house religious relics and serve as a place of worship for the royal court. The chapel features stunning Gothic architecture, large stained-glass windows, and intricate stonework. 

The clock, installed around the same time, is one of the earliest public clocks in France. It played a key role in regulating life within the fortress. Both the bell and clock highlight the château’s significance as a royal residence and military stronghold during the Middle Ages.

Metro

Hint: for true freedom from stress, travel with a young aduld. Download transit apps, get data access, then turn them loose. My niece, Gabrielle, mastered the Metro in a few hours. So relaxing to let her direct our passage from one site to the next. At least for me. 

We depart Vincennes to arise from the depths of the Metro at George V and into the midst of Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The entire street, stretching 1.2 miles from Place de la Concorde to Place Charles de Gaulle, acts as a glorified shopping mall. Approximately 150 overpriced cafés and luxury stores line the street surrounded by the ever-present cacophony of traffic. Louis Vuitton to Bulgaria next to McDonald’s, it is all here. 

Arc de Triomphe

Standing at the center of Place Charles de Gaulle, where 12 avenues converge, watching the dense traffic and notorious Parisian drivers, I remember my foray across this wide boulevard in 1972. I am lucky to have survived! Today, we take the tunnel. Again, crowds and slow security, even with our Museum Pass. It adds convenience but little else. 

Arc de Triomphe honors those who fought and died for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. Up close, the sheer scale of the 164-foot-wide arch is striking, with intricate sculptures depicting heroic battles. At its base, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier burns with an eternal flame. There is also an interesting plaque dedicated to the school students who defied the Nazis in 1940 at the risk of their lives. 

Ah, French Dining

Tonight, we remain in our neighborhood and dine on the terrace of L’Escargot Montorgueil. Our choices are a plate of traditional escargot, delicious frog legs and chilled Chardonnay. 

We close our wonderful Monday in Paris as an 8.1-mile, 23,203-step, 36-floor day. 

À ta santé