Wednesday 17th October
Having somewhat arrogantly formed the view that we had seen all that Paris had to offer the Prop and his wife elected to stay “at home” with the McRent Reisemobil and attend to a bit of personal administration.
Walked over the Pont de Suresnes to the Office de Tourisme and spent an engaging 15 or 20 minutes with a lovely French lady who loaded the Prop up with all sorts of pamphlets and gave him all sorts of what he supposes must have been valuable information – all of it in French. The Prop even gave her his best “Je n’ai pas trop bus” (see “The Prologue”) but even this did not dampen her ardour!
The Prop left more than a little confused and wondering how it was that a tourism office came to be staffed by someone who was quite unable to communicate with tourists who don’t speak French!
However, one of the aforementioned pamphlets did catch the prop’s eye – an evening dinner cruise on the Seine starting at €135 (A$215) per person and going up to €600 per person including chauffeur-driven limousine transport to and from the Seine. The Prop thought that this latter deal might seem a bit pretentious – getting picked up by limousine from the front gate of Camping de Bois du Boulogne! Besides, the Prop’s wife had washed her only evening gown earlier that day!
In the end, the prop tracked down a very nice €45 dinner cruise on the “Belle Sur Seine”. The cruise itself was delightful. So too the dinner which included three courses and wine! It would however be remiss of the Prop not to record that the cuisine on offer was Chinese, not French. That is not to denigrate the quality of the food – which was very good. It's just that there seems to be something a bit perverse about going on a dinner cruise in Paris and eating Chinese food!
Tuesday 16th October
Having mastered the Metro with the aid of a pocket PC programme called (appropriately enough) “Metro” the Prop and his wife navigated their way with ease to the cathedral church of Notre Dame. It’s a big place with lots of gargoyles. A touch overdone for the Prop’s simple tastes but impressive nonetheless. One gets the impression that mediaeval Frenchmen can’t have had much spare time having spent most of it building enormous chateaux, abbeys, cathedrals and basilicas and then waging war with each other about who was to own them! The resources which must have been devoted to the construction of religious buildings in those times is truly astounding but one wonders whether they were built for the greater glory of God or the feudal Lords who commissioned them! There is a real sense that there was a bit of a “mine is bigger than yours” competition going on between these jokers.
Left Notre Dame and took a walk through the Marais district famous (apparently) for its bohemian residents and outdoor markets. No bohemians spotted, no outdoor markets on Tuesdays and only an overflowing out of order public toilet for our trouble! (According to a little tourist pamphlet that the Prop’s wife picked up, the Parisiennes boast that they have no fewer than 36 public toilets in Paris. Subtracting those which are out of order or unusable (for reasons which delicacy does not permit me to elaborate) the Prop reckons that there may be as many as three public toilets in Paris. The situation is so bad that at Starbucks they give you a code on your receipt which will allow access to their toilets – this presumably to avoid freeloaders from soiling their facilities. McDonalds on the other hand are much more laissez-faire. It would be misleading to say that they have an “open door” policy so far as toilets are concerned. However, the Prop is aware that a central part of McDonalds sales strategy in Europe is to appeal to American tourists by providing food which tastes exactly the same as they can get at home AND clean toilets. (Whether the toilets taste the same as the ones at home, the Prop is unable to say for want of having conducted the necessary research.))
From the Marais we effortlessly made our way by metro to Montmatre in the north of the city. Crowned by the Basilica Sacre Coeur the butte of Montmatre affords a commanding view of the Paris smog - and we were there on a clear day! No shortage of open air markets or (strangely) Irish Pubs here! Didn’t see any public toilets though. What was once the home of Paris’ artistic community has now become rather commercialised and a little gaudy.
Repaired to the McRent Reismobil by Metro and train to Suresnes Longchamps as dictated by “Metro” (the pocket PC application mentioned above).
Monday 15th October
Le ciel ete gris et les nuages tombè! (Cold cloudy day).
Took the Metro to L’Arc de Triomphe then walked down the Champs Elysèes to the Louvre for a look. Failed to check out all 16 kilometres of corridors and exhibition spaces in the time available but did manage a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Rameses III. The Prop is no Robert Hughes, but believes that he has seen better-looking copies of the Mona Lisa than the original. In fact, the most interesting aspect of the Mona Lisa is watching everyone straining to take photographs of her - presumably to prove that they were there! (Incidentally there are numerous very big signs making it clear that photography is strictly forbidden in the gallery in which the Mona Lisa (“La Giaconda” to the aficionados) is on display. However, with a “fine disregard” (so reminiscent of William Webb Ellis) neither the public nor the Louvre staff seem to take the slightest bit of notice of this prohibition.) I guess that since L. da Vinci painted her over 500 years ago she must be well and truly out of copyright by now.
