Degas

Okay, here's another rough draft of an area exploration. Would appreciate your review and comment. Please add things. It really needs some recommendations on places to eat and shop.

START AT

PONT NEUF. Oldest bridge in Paris (1607). Very romantic. Great spot for photos.


WALK SOUTH AND CROSS BRIDGE TO

SQUARE DU VERT-GALANT. Equestrian statue of Henry VI.

NOTE: Steps lead down to the water and Vedette boats depart here on river tours. Twlight rides are the best for sunset and night lights along the river.

TURN LEFT OFF THE BRIDGE AND AWAY FROM THE STATUE TO ENTER

PLACE DAUPHINE: triangle-shaped area lined with attractive 17C houses. Great place to grab a bench and soak up some atmosphere or picnic.

WALK ALONG QUAI DES ORFEVRES TO PONT ST.MICHEL AND TURN LEFT ON BD DU PALAIS

SAINTE-CHAPELLE (Holy Chapel). 4 bd du Palais. Daily. 1000-1700. Museum Card. Gothic - one of the most dazzling creations of the Middle Ages. Candle-lit concerts held here. Bright, sunny days best for viewing stained glass windows.

PALAIS DE JUSTICE (Law Courts). bd du Palais. Neoclassical style (1860). You can wander around the complex. Each year on the first of May, a young oak tree was uprooted from the forest at Vincennes and brought in a procession by the palace staff to be planted in the May Courtyard. It symbolized the union of heaven and earth, God's justice and the justice of men, and therefore royal sovereign justice. Parliamentary decrees were proclaimed and carried out here.

CONCIERGERIE. 1 quai de l'Horloge. M: Cite. Daily. 0930 to 1700. Museum Card. 14C fortress like building with a history of imprisonment, Marie Antoinette was a prisoner and her cell is now a chapel to her memory.

WALK BACK TOWARDS THE PALIAS DE JUSTICE AND TURN LEFT INTO RUE DE LUTECE

FLOWER MARKET is on Rue de Lutece

TURN RIGHT ON RUE DE LA CITE AND CONTINUE TO

PL DU PARVIS. Regarded as kilometer zero, spot from which all distances to and from the city are measured.

NOTE: Find the bronze plaque on the ground.

NOTRE DAME. Place du Parvis. M: Cite. Daily. Free. 0800 - 1830. English tours normally Wed & thur at 1200 & Sat at 1430. A gothic masterpiece. Notre Dame, conceived by Maurice de Sully, was built between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries (1163-1345).

NOTE: Tower climb is 400 steps, but has good views.

WALK TO THE LEFT BUTTRESSES OF CATHEDRAL TO AN AREA NORTH OF THE CATHEDRAL TOWARDS THE SEINE CALLED

ANCIENT CLOITRE: Few people venture here. Has medieval mansions spared by Baron Haussmann.

HEAD NORTH TOWARDS THE SEINE AND RUE CHANOINESSE

TWO ATTRACTIVE HOUSES at #10 and 24

WALK JUST PAST THEM AND FIND RUE DE COLUMBE - MAKE A RIGHT TO TURN ON RUE DES URSINS

NOTE: Will take you to a lovely flower garden by steps leading up to the riverside quai aux Fleurs.

VIEWS ON CLOSE BY RUE DES CHANTRES OF NOTRE DAME IN THE DISTANCE

HEAD THROUGH THE GARDENS TO

SQUARE JEANXXIII. Great view of the east side of Notre Dame

WALK NORTH TO PONT ST-LOUIS AND LEAVE ILE DE LA CITE FOR

ILE ST. LOUIS. Smaller of the two Paris islands and linked to ile de la cite by pont St-louis. Discreet residential area with a small village feel. Noted for architectural unity .

WALK ALONG QUAI D'ORLEANS PAST SOME MIGNIFICANT 17C TOWNHOMES

TURN LEFT AT RUE DEAU PONTS

Turn right into the rue St-Louis-en-I'Ile

BERTHILLON 31 rue St-Louis-en-I'Ile

HOTEL LAMBERT. 2 rue st-louis-en-l?Ile. Provided inspiration for the building of vaux-le-vicomte

TURN LEFT ALONG THE QUAID-ANJOU UNTIL YOU COME TO

HOTEL DE LAUZEN. 17 quai d'Anjou.

WALK BACVK TO THE WESTERN TIP OF THE ISLAND AND THE ILE-DE-LA-CITE.

NOTE: Pont de l'Archeveche has some great views of Notre Dame

ira

Amazing, Degas. Just amazing.

You have brought back a lovely memory.

We were strolling along the Ile St Louis (looking for Berthillon, I think)when I spotted (or smelled) a small charcuterie (my LW does not look for such places)run by a grandmotherly woman of some girth.

I bought 3 small cheeses and 100g each of three different pate de compagne.

Out of this world with a bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

Sorry, I can't tell you where or what.

ChatNoir

PLACE DAUPHINE is a quiet leafy place and a favorite of lovers.

SQUARE DU VERT-GALANT. The square marks the very tip of Ile de Cite and there is a weeping willow tree in the small park below that is said to be the first tree to burst into leaves each year in Paris. In the middle Ages, they burned witches and Jews here.

HowardR

Degas, you must include a stop at the Deportation Musuem across the street from the rear of Notre Dame. It is a most powerful memorial to the Parisians deported to Nazi death camps. It is one of most moving experiences I've ever had. It'll only take a few minutes but the memory of the visit will linger.

elaine

Hi
the Deportation Memorial is actually at the far end of Place Jean XXIII

there is (was) an attended public bathroom in the Place that is (was) pretty clean--a coin is required, but last time I used it, fee was 2 francs, don't know current requirement

Quai aux Fleurs: you will find at numbers 9 and 11 the former home of the ill-fated 12th-century lovers Abelard and Heloise. There are carved heads on the door lintels.

palette

Quick walk through of the Roman ruins beneath Notre Dame, included in Museum pass if you have one. And, as above, definitely the Deportation site, all those crystals stand for all those lives lost.

jacksonjr

Degas sounds like a great tour. For a quiet respite the park at the Pont De Sully end of Ile St. Louis offers nice Views of the Seine.An added bonus my wife gave me romance points for finding it.

seafox

Degas - I've done all thes familir stops, but you make me want to do it again your way.....thanks again and keep it up, I leave on the 7th and will just do the "Degas tour of Paris"

ChatNoir

PONT NEUF - the bridge has always been a place to see and be seen. In the 17C,the police would place an undercover agent there and look for a wanted man. If not spotted in three days, they assumed he had fled Paris.

ILE ST-LOUIS: the quays have some of the prettiest plane and poplars in Paris.

19 rue St-louis is a small baroque society church.

Christina

I can't add much as the islands are pretty small. I do like that small Medieval warren of a few streets that you have on the schedule (rue des Chantres, etc), as I think that may be the oldest intact part of Paris. Abelard used to hang around there, I think, which is how I got interested.

For Ile St-Louis, there is a good cheap Lebanese restaurant on rue Regrattier, if you want ethnic. Taverne au Nil, here is the web site
http://lataverne.free.fr/fichiershtm...reanglais.html

It takes a while to load to get the photo, etc., but it is there. Aside from that, I think the big cafe right at the bridge on Ile St Louis is a good standby and very popular.

I haven't done much shopping there, and the other island is full of souvenir shops, but there is a well-known tea salon/children's shop called La Charlotte de l'Isle or something similar on rue St-Louis. They also have chocolates and gifts.
http://www.la-charlotte.fr

The church St-Louis en l'Ile is a very beautiful church in 17th Cen. Jesuit style. They have very good concerts in there at times for free or very cheap--check the flyers around the door if you are interested. Here is a URL with a good description of it and its history and some very nice photos

http://www.insecula.com/salle/MS01897.html

Degas

SAINTE-CHAPELLE

- Its glory is hidden from casual observation by its set back position in a courtyard of the Palais de Justice

- a narrow spiral staircase leads you to the upper roysl chapel where a stunning visual shock awaits - over 700 square yards of the oldest stained glass in Paris.

hansikday

NOTRE DAME. Napoleon was crowned here and the kings and queens exchanged marriage vows before its great alter.

How far is this walk?

jsmith

Elaine, I'm glad you mentioned where there was a WC. My bladder was about to burst but then I'm not as retentive as some. I was going to mention les toilettes to the left when you exit Notre Dame but I couldn't remember how many steps down it was from street level and realized the information would be useless without that detail. Degas would be completely stymied.

Degas, the one who didn't paint by numbers, was photographed emerging from a public urinal and wrote: "Had it not been for the person going in, I'd have been caught in the ridiculous act of buttoning my trousers, and everyone would be laughing!".

hansikday

jsmith, here's another one from Edgar Degas: "I assure you no art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters."

Perhaps that explains why our own Degas has come to have a flair for small, but often very important details.

ChatNoir

Here's a good place to eat:

Brasserie de I'llE St-Louis. 55 quai de Bourbon. Closed wed. Cozy outpost of Alsatian cuisine.

Travelnut

The public W.C. is underground, in the area by the statue of Charlemagne on his horse, small fee for the privilege.

There is a nice ceramics/porcelain type of shop where I buy my friend an egg cup for her collection now and then. The proprietess seems not to speak much English but always wraps my tiny purchase so carefully, with a pretty blue bow. If you walk by the souvenir shops ie. 'Esmerelda' etc, heading toward the little bridge between the isles, and veer left away from N.D. you will find it. BTW, the Esmerelda and one of the other shops on the block are really not bad for souvenirs. I buy a small 'toss pillow' tapestry cover and then stuff it when I get home - have a nice pile of them on my sofa now.

Someone else mentioned that Ste Chapelle has 2 floors - the famous stained glass windows are in the upper gallery, so don't miss going up.

Also, if you go west to the next bridge, Pont des Arts, it makes a nice pose for you with N.D. in the background.

Sometimes there is street entertainment on the little bridge between Cité and Louis. I once saw a fellow do maneuvers on the tiniest bicycle in the world- amazing and hilarious.

Degas

Thanks for all the comments and additions.

Many interesting tidbits there to spring on your uneducated and non-worldly travel companions. Makes you look "very much in the know" as the famous tour guide Rene Jasome would say on his classic Paris orientation tours.

I've walked portions of it several times, but never all at once as one big loop. I think its a little over two miles.

And, yes, you should never pass up a chance to use a clean bathroom; especially if your bladder is slowly shrinking to the size of a peanut.

JeanneB

There's a little shop on Ile St. Louis that we loved (for ladies). It was across from the Berthillon ice cream stand and down a little, closer to Pont St-Louis. The name has the word "sable" in it. Great accessories, good prices. They had a lot of the little fur-trimmed items that are so popular now.

Since you stopped on Pont Archeveche, continue over to the left bank. At the foot of the bridge, look across the quay and a little to the right...you'll see a little Italian restaurant called Ponte Vecchio. (I think it had a green awning, or green facade.) Reserve one of the window tables and you'll be looking out on the night-lit Notre Dame. Have the aubergine appetizer, the veal picatta, and the italian wines. Absolutely delectable! You'll go home very happy!

Degas

JeanneB, thanks for the inputs. I bet it does look great from there at night.

Margie

We just returned from Paris and spent some time exploring both the islands - had a fabulous time! The only thing that I was disappointed with was the tour of Nortre Dame - obviously the guide had to be quiet, but unfortunately between her soft tone and the acoustics echo in Notre Dame you could not hear her at all. Take a good guide book with you and explore this on your own, and don't miss the crypt - very interesting to see the "ruins" of Paris