704 Steps

Day 6: 2nd Jan 2014

Pont Alexandre III with Eiffel tower in background

Notre Dame from upstream in left channel

Leaving from near the Pont Neuf (bridge) on the tip of Ile de la Cite we began the day with a river perspective of Paris.  The cruise travelled downstream to the Eiffel tower and then returned upstream along the left bank channel of the river around the Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint -Louis and back to its starting point.  The designation of left and right bank is based on what is left of you as you travel downstream. The river does really remind me of the Tiber in Rome with even more bridges.  One of these, Pont de la Concorde, opposite the Place de la Concorde has stones taken from the Bastille during its destruction during the French revolution.  We also got a good view of the narrowest house in Paris (1 M wide ) on the left bank.

After ascending the Cupola at St Peters, Rome and the Duomo in Florence in 2012 Maureen vowed she would take the lift to the second floor of the Eiffel tower.  However our line to buy tickets was only for the stairs and this was fortuitous as we struck up a conversation with another Australian couple during the 1 hr wait.  We both made it up the 704 steps (115 M ) to the second level and we had a clear day for a great view of Paris.  

Close to the Eiffel Tower, opposite the Bir-Hakeim Metro Station, we spent some minutes at a tiny park with a memorial plaque to the Jews of Paris rounded up in July 1942 and kept in inhumane conditions at the cycling velodrome then at the site (now a government building).  This is called the 'Vel d’Hiv roundup'.

Memorial to Vel d’Hiv roundup

Those prisoners who did not perish at the velodrome were sent to the camps in France and Germany and most never returned.  The movie 'Sarah's Key' remembers this atrocity.   While the order to gather all the city's Jews was given by the SS headquarters in Paris, the execution itself was led by 4000 French police officers and gendarmes, who operated according to lists of addresses given by the local municipal authorities under the direction of the  Vichy government that was collaborating with the Nazis.  The Police instructions specified non-French Jews as the targets of the operation, men ages 16 to 60 and women 16 to 55. “Children of less than 16 years will be led away at the same time as the parents.” On the 70th anniversary in 2012 French President said at the site of the velodrome : “The truth is that the crime was committed in France, by France.”  This was apparently very contentious and the first acknowledgement of French.    When you look into it there is lots of murky history with some Police who were convicted of collaboration (or given amnesty) after the war later resuming in police and government leadership roles. Those who 'forget history are condemned to repeat it' and I would like to see a more prominent memorial this episode.