Bonjour Paris

Day 1 28th Dec 2013
We arrived at 645 to Charles De Gaulle airport after a 14 hr flight from Singapore.  I was able to stretch out over 3 seats due to the unfilled plane and Maureen did the same but with less success in sleeping.  We got through customs in 5 min but waited for 40 minutes for our cases and caught the Roissybus ('Wassy bus') to L'Opera in Paris.  Only 10 euro and a 25 min trip. This was great.  The morning light arrived on our journey and what struck me was the wonderful urban design.  The architecture is stunning and elevates the city mood contrasting with the grey winter weather

Bvld Haussmann

I diverge here: George Haussmann was given charge in 1853 by Napoleon III to make the city more healthy, less congested and more grand. Haussmann modernised the city by demolishing up to 60% of existing buildings and build grand boulevards. bridges, parks , sewerage and housing.  Napoleon also wanted  the streets wide enough to make it difficult for rebels to build barricades across and so that battalions and their artillery could be easily moved around the city.

Sacre Cour in distant background

In Haussmann's plan the height of the buildings was not to exceed nearly one and a half times the width of the street.   This meant there are never more than five floors in one building. There is a balcony on the second floor and another on the fifth.  The attic /roof is effectively another floor.  They stretch from one end to another of the building and form a line facing onto the street.  The fascias are made of stone and white concrete. The limestone comes from the quarries underneath Paris and this created other problems which I will get to later.. The rooves are mansard (a four-sided roof having a double slope on all sides, with the lower slope much steeper than the upper) made of zinc where the top windows follow the original line of the building.

A 10 minute walk along Boulevard Haussmann from the Opera Garnier took us to our apartment at 4 Rue Le Vivienne (6th Floor).  The tiny lift was unable to fit both of us plus luggage so we took turns.  Even without extras the lift is intimate for 2 people and we both thought that we would hate to get stuck in it.  Our apartment is just what we wanted, quiet and cosy with everything supplied.  Highlight is a view of the top of the Eiffel tower.


Going to the supermarket on Boulevard Des Italiens (Monprix) allowed us to stock up.  Fruit and veges were from all over  the EU but , in general were dearer and lower quality than Adelaide though it is the middle of winter.  The bread however was something else.

Maureen crashed and slept for 14 hrs and I went on an exploratory trip around the neighbourhood.  Across the road is an entrance to a passage way Galerie des Varietes which links to the famous Galerie des Panorama.  This closed passageway was the first in Paris dating from 1799.  Although middle-eastern bazaars and Arabic marketplaces etc had similar structures this was the first in he west and hence is a forerunner to current shopping malls.  It was the first to have glazed roofing to let the light in and later gas lamps for lighting, The area was rich in the 18th-18h century and was a centre for stock brokers,money changing and philatelic (stamp) shops and there are several still in the passageway plus lots of eateries.  

The Bourse

The location of the money changers is close to The Bourse - old Paris stock exchange now a conference centre.  It is also known as  the  Palais Brongniart which is just down the street.  This is a neoclassical design with Corinthian columns.  Apparently the French were averse to risk and disdained paper currency so were late in capitalising on the profits to be made from trading in the new world compared to the Dutch and English.  History buffs will know that the French financial system was complex and disorganised and that the parlous financial state of the country was a contributing factor to the French Revolution.







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