Paris - Sacré Coeur - 18e

Plate XCIV – Basilica Sacre Couer de Montmartre II …

As with the other two major Parisian landmarks mentioned yesterday (the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe of course) the views of Paris from the top of the central dome of the Basilica are magnificent. Access (tickets needed) is only via the long interior staircase, so if you find yourself easily exhausted perhaps you should save some energy by arriving at the footsteps of the church at the crest of the butte, by using the funicular carriages that ascend alongside the terraced stairs provided for the more energetic or younger traveller.

Formally dedicated to the lives lost during the Franco-Prussian War, the connection to the communards whose insurrectional movement started in Montmartre has not been forgotten by many. Sacré Coeur is a Roman Catholic church devoted to the Sacred Heart of Christ. Displayed in a monstrance above the high altar is an artefact known as the Blessed Sacrament, ensuring that Sacre Coeur has remained an important centre of Catholicism since 1885. The Christ in Majesty mosaic inside the apse must also not be missed.

The south facing portico is flanked by bronze equestrian statues of St Louis (King Louis IX) (pictured) and Joan of Arc. Chief architect Abadie had died in 1884 and ongoing design work was continued by five later successors. Funded entirely by private donations the basilica is estimated to have cost some several million French francs. I found it hard to leave this site and, while living in the same century the basilica’s construction, could not help wondering if we’ll ever see such magnificence created by man in devotion to his God again. It just does not seem likely.

Paris - Basilique du Sacré Coeur - 18e

 Plate XCIII – Basilica Sacre Couer de Montmartre …

If asked to name the top three icons of Parisian landmarks, Sacré Coeur must surely take its rightful place alongside Eiffel’s tower and the Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe. Dominating the Butte Montmartre and completely overshadowing the neighbouring stone church of St Pierre, often claimed to be the oldest church in Paris, is arguably the newest significant church of the city. To some, it may seem unusual to describe Sacré Coeur as new, for such is it’s dominance of every familiar view of Paris’ northern skyline that the visitor can be forgiven for thinking it has always been there. The truth is it was constructed between the laying of the foundation stone in 1875 and its final consecration in 1919. The stone used in construction of the Basilica is a lime travertine from the Seine-et-Marne region of France, and its perpetual gleaming whiteness is thanks to the stone’s property of continually exuding a form of calcite. Almost Oriental in appearance the architectural style of Sacré Coeur is best described as Romanesque Byzantine, and is mainly ascribed to architect Paul Abadie, whose design was (once again) the winner of an open public architectural competition. The impressive tall tower at the rear of the church contains a 19 ton cast bell named Savoyard, one of the largest in the world. The beautiful gardens surrounding the church are today a popular retreat for both residents and visitors, and access into the church is via an imposing grand staircase leading to the front portico featuring three entrance arches. 

Paris - Statue of Liberty - 11e

 Plate LXXXVI – Statue of Liberty…

Give and it will be given to you.

I’m certain that almost everyone knows that the famous Statue of Liberty (officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World) in New York’s harbour was a gift to America from the people of France. As much a political statement as a massive work of art, this is the image of Libertas the mythological Roman goddess now firmly established as the one we all reference. The statue’s history is already shrouded in fact, fiction and conjecture, despite being only some one hundred and ten years old- a period you’d expect to have been accurately recorded. Dedicated in October 1886 the monument commemorates the centennial of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence.

I had heard that the appreciative Americans (of Paris) had in return given to the donor nation, a smaller (approx 11 metres) version of their famous landmark, and determined to see it during my visit found my Parisian work colleagues, strangely, almost unaware of its existence. It’s unfathomable how much we take for granted the things we have in our own backyards. I guess the thought that they will always be there leads to such complacency.

Found on the man made island in the Seine known as the Allée des Cygnes (although I never saw a swan), this smaller Parisian version of the statue is next to the Pont de Grenelle,  a walk of some one and a half kilometres from the Eiffel Tower. It in its turn commemorates the centennial of the French Revolution and was inaugurated in November 1889. Originally sited facing the (Eiffel) Tower, the creator of the original, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, successfully insisted it be turned to face its American counterpart. This makes it somewhat difficult for the on-foot visitor to the location to photograph from the front (especially with a camera as deficient as the one I used), but with an additional walk to next Seine bridge I managed to capture Libertas.

I’m glad I got there.

P.S. There is a smaller Statue of Liberty, said to be a cast of Bartholdi's design studies, in the Gardens of Luxembourg.

Paris - The Arc de Triomphe - 7me

Plate LXVIII - The Arc de Ttriomphe…

I believe that two images most strongly define Paris in the eyes of the world - the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

Perhaps through having seen in my schooldays those fractured, aging 1945 newreels of the victorious Charles de Gaulle entering a newly liberated city; or perhaps because of a lifelong fascination with Napoleon and his military prowess - this was the one particular sight I had waited for so many years to see.

For whatever reason, to me this is Paris, and Paris is the Arc de Triomphe. Prepared for disappointment by previous visits to many other celebrated world sights and landmarks, which always seem smaller than their reputation would have you expect, could the Arc de Triomphe be all that I needed it to be?

Having arranged these images by arrondissements they are not in the sequence I visited them. After time at La Défense I had taken the RER from Nanterre to Etoile. Rising through this underground mystery, that was still so new to me, to the midway Metro station and then not sure which exit to take, I fortuitously selected the escalators that rise to the very foot of this magnificent landmark. The hairs on my arms began to rise as I caught my first glimpse of the stonework carvings that decorate the Arc. Little by little, more and more was revealed – seemingly as if in slow motion. And then … there it was!

A giant Tricolore suspended in the centre of the arch greeted my arrival in Paris.

I was here at last, and I was most definitely NOT disappointed.

Paris - Gustave Eiffel - 7me

Plate LXVI - Gustave Eiffel…

Beneath the tower bearing his name is a gilded bust of the engineer Gustave Eiffel. As you stand in line to buy a ticket to ascend his masterpiece you can almost feel his gaze upon you. Not a modest man by all accounts, his slight smile seems to have an air of vindication – for the tower’s construction was not without its opponents. Forgotten too is the blame laid on Eiffel for the disaster of the Panama Canal that was to later somewhat tarnish his image.

A master of construction in metal, Eiffel was first noted for his design of bridges, initially the trussed girder railway bridges in Vichy, and his later span bridges. There are notably those in Bordeaux; the Pia Maria Bridge in Oporto in Portugal; and the 160 metre arched bridge - the Garabit Viaduct over the Truyère River near Saint-Flour in southern France, for many years the highest in the world. It was notably with his bridge design at Rouzat that Eiffel heightened his understanding of wind forces, and the design of curved towers to achieve lateral stiffness - so essential an element in the design of his tower.

It was Eiffel’s expertise that was called on to design the internal supporting structure and framework of the Statue of Liberty.

No wonder Eiffel has been dubbed ‘the magician of iron’.

Paris - The Eiffel Tower - 7me

Plate LXV - The Eiffel Tower…

It was originally planned for the Barcelona Exposition of 1888. They did not like it! As Manuel in the British television series Fawlty Towers was ready to admit - in Barcelona they know nothing.

Easy to describe, it is an iron lattice observation and radio-broadcasting tower. 
A several thousand ton one. 
And at 324 metres to the tip of its topmost antenna, it is still the tallest structure in Paris. For a while it was also the tallest in the world, and whilst others may have overtaken it (starting with New York’s Chrysler Building in 1930), it remains the most instantly recognizable monument on the planet.

It is a marvel of engineering, designed to withstand specific height variable wind resistances. The 18,000 ‘puddled iron’ pieces of the structure weigh 7,500 tonnes, and are assembled with some two and a half million rivets. It is repainted (in three different colours) as an anti corrosive measure every seven years, with some 60 tonnes of paint. Specially designed and complex lifts were commissioned to cope with the curvature and slant of the construction, and it has welcomed well over 200 million paying visitors.

It is the Eiffel Tower.

It is France.

It is Paris.

And it is still there.

That is perhaps its greatest triumph, for Gustave Eiffel’s amazing tower, completed for the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle, and to commemorate the centenary year of the French Revolution, was only intended to stand for twenty years. Surprisingly, the 1909 decision to save the Eiffel tower was not a landslide victory for the conservationists. Those opposed to its construction (and retention) included writers Alexander Dumas, and Guy de Maupassant, architect Charles Garnier, and composer Charles Gounod. Perhaps they should have gone with Manuel to Barcelona. 

Seen here in the background beneath the arch is the Palace of Chaillot, housing the Museum of Man (former home of the controversial displayed remains of Sarah Baartman - the Hottentot Venus, now returned to her home and a dignified resting place in South Africa), the Museum of the Navy and the Museum of French Monumments. The Palace was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1937 on the site of the Trocadéro.
And incidentally, due to copyright registration of the lighting design it is officially illegal to publish night time images of the tower without obtaining permission. So, here it is in all its magnificence - by day.

Paris - The Seine - 7me

Plate LIV - A Restaurant Boat…

Walking through the city is hungry work. I took the opportunity of having lunch on one of the moored restaurant boats on the city. Although I am not generally great at spending time on stationery floating objects, I found the experience delightful.

Many of the pleasures of life on the Seine are available to the tourist. The most popular of these are the well known Bateaux Mouches. It is worth taking both day and night voyages along the Seine in these glass roofed vessels. The day trips help with a different city orientation than is gained from the heights of the outlooks afforded by the arches and towers of Paris. The night trips offer dining from gourmet meals to lighter fare, and one probable reason Paris has become known as the city of lights is more than apparent. I would once again take one of these night journeys purely to see once more the spectacle of the Eiffel Tower by night. I cannot imagine how the decision to dim the lights in the interests of ecology has changed this display.

Paris - Grand Palais - 7me

Plate XLVIII - The Grand Palace…

I must confess to not giving the Grand Palace the attention it deserved during my first trip to Paris. It was, like Notre Dame, the Comédie Française, and so many European attractions I have visited, also undergoing extensive repairs and renovations.

Built for the Paris exhibition of 1900, despite it’s magnificence it remains overshadowed as a Paris landmark by its predecessor from the exhibition of eleven years earlier – the Eiffel Tower. A façade of classical stone construction, and Art Nouveau glass clad ironwork, the exhibition hall suffered damage from deteriorating eroding ironwork in June 1993. The nave was closed in November of that year. Listed as an historic monument in 2000, extensive structural repairs continued until 2005, and façade restoration continues. The Palace has been saved.

I mentioned the Eiffel Tower, perhaps an unfair comparison but perhaps not considering that the Grand Palace consumed some 500 tons more steel in its construction than the tower, and began with a universal briefing that it should outdo its 1889 rival. The decorative sculptures commissioned for embellishment of the palace are decidedly baroque in style, the most notable being George Récipons quadrigas placed on the corners of the main façade.

A major three year programme to expand the facilities, doubling the floor space, was announced in 2008, meaning that Paris’s premier exhibition venue will regain its crown and set an international benchmark for facilities of this nature.

I must go back and see.

Paris - Panthéon View - 5me

Plate XLV - From The Pantheon, Les Toits de Paris…

Displayed inside the walls of the Panthéon I saw an iron sphere. Weighing some 28 kilograms it had been used by physicist Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault in an 1851 experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the earth.

Suspended on wire from the 67 metre high roof of the central dome of the Panthéon, the experiment started with the sphere, now known as the Foucalt Pendulum, being set in motion swinging in a vertical plane.

Viewed from above it was observed that the plane of the pendulum rotated clockwise at slightly more than 11° each hour due to the earth’s rotation on it’s axis. This was the first recorded ‘laboratory’ proof of this phenomenon.

In quieter moments while his experiment was in progress I imagine this is the view that Foucault and his observers would have contemplated, while looking over the roofs of Paris. Many well known landmarks can today be seen – but it’s strange to think there was no Eiffel Tower there in Foucault’s time.

The view does inspire thinking.

Paris - Tuileries Gates - 1er

Plate VI - Tuileries Gates ...

As a portal into the city’s 1st arrondissement the gilded gates to the Tuileries Gardens separate the gardens from the Place de La Concorde. Beyond the gates lay extensive work as the Grande Louvre was taking shape. An area of Paris as old as the city itself, I doubt that work and change of some nature will ever cease here. But it is always done with the care for a visitor that is a trademark of the French – making you feel that it is being undertaken for you alone and therefore, in a strange way, you welcome it. Informative signage explains exactly what is being done, and plans for the eventual end result are generally on view to further inform the traveler.

Beyond the Place de la Concorde the seemingly ever-present Eiffel Tower towers (what else would it do?) to give all visitors their bearings in the city. Despite a generally poor sense of direction elsewhere in the world, I never lost my way in Paris. Surrounded and populated by many landmarks, anyone taking a few minutes, at one of the many vantage points (I have suggested the Grande Arche at La Défense), to familiarise themselves with Paris’s layout will find navigation through the often labyrinthine streets and byways quite simple. Besides, if you do get momentarily lost you are likely to find some place of interest in almost any area that it will make it more a pleasure than an annoyance. A good book on Paris walks is therefore almost a must, as many a gem will be missed if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Paris - Grande Arche Detail - La Défense

Plate III - Grande Arche de la Fraternite

The three main elements of the Grande Arche are: the arche itself (comprising of two glazed side tower blocks of some 87,000 square metres and a linking belvedere platform creating the span); the Teflon canvas, steel and glass cloud; and the exposed external elevator shaft. Clad in three hectares of white Italian Carrara marble the shape of the arche can be seen from many vantage points throughout Paris. It is arguably the greatest architectural contribution to the city skyline of the twentieth century, and like many of the city’s architectural features it was a controversial addition. Designed by Danish architect Johann Otto Von Spreckelsen in 1983, on an initiative launched by incumbent French president Francois Mitterand in 1981, the arche was inaugurated on 14th July 1989 to coincide with the bicentenary of the French Revolution (and a full century after the Eiffel Tower). The date also coincided with the 15th G7 Summit. 

The arche, at a height of 110 metres (about 300 feet) and forming an almost perfect cube at 108 metres wide, could enclose Notre Dame cathedral. The mass of the arche is calculated at about 300,000 tons – approximately six times the mass of the Eiffel Tower - (the 'roof' contributing some 30,000 of these), and it rests almost centred (it is inexplicably turned at 6.33 degrees) on the furthest point of the historical axis of Paris, on twelve pillars. I choose to believe this slight rotation gives an impression of its depth from any point along the axis (others will tell you it was a more pragmatic decision, taken to accommodate the deep foundations of twelve massive concrete piles intruding into the subterranean train and metro stations below).

The interior space of the Grande Arche is made interesting by the inclusion of “the cloud”. This may be adjusted by height and shape to suit events taking place within the space of the arche. Dramatic lighting effects at night make the cloud visible from distances kilometres away, down the spine of the historical axis, making the name of the shape entirely appropriate, for it’s changing form truly is reminiscent of a cloud.

The arche was constructed in an amazingly short three years. I was in complete awe. It is magnificent – a word I found myself overusing then as I probably shall again and again now. Forgive me.

Paris - Grande Arche - La Défense

Plate II - Quatre Temps, the Grande Arche, and CNIT…

La Défense is primarily a business area. Named for a statue (La Défense de Paris) commemorating the defense of Paris in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war, many of the city’s highest office buildings and large commercial premises are situated here, including the Quatre Temps shopping mall (left). Typical of modern malls a wide range of shops is to be found, the tenant mix catering for both residents of the nearby Nanterre, as well as the office workers of La Défense itself.

Although not the tallest building in the area (that dubious honour belonging to the GAN Tower) La Défense is dominated by the Grande Arche de la Fraternité (centre), constructed in 1989, the centennial year of the Eiffel Tower, and in it’s own way just as significant a landmark of Paris. Also dubbed the Tête Défense this arche celebrates humanity rather than the military victories of Napoleon’s two other Parisian arches.

An exhibition of sculptural works was in place in the spaces surrounding the Arche, one of which can be seen in the image.

It would be hard to miss the nearby CNIT (Centre des Nouvelles Industries et Technologies (right)), with its amazing shell like roof construction. Constructed in the late 1950’s France once again used designs, methods and technologies others thought unrealistic at the time. A popular venue for conventions, exhibitions and conferences the expansive 22,500 square metre reinforced concrete roof (it remains the largest of its kind in the world) is supported only at three points, each some 200 metres apart. Interestingly many of the grand landmarks of Paris are the legacy of various French presidents. Not to be outdone by his predecessors President Sarkozy has perhaps the grandest (and most controversial) vision of all with his plans today for a Grand Paris - a vision that could change the way future generations will see Paris forever.