Bordeaux
After the Health and Happiness retreat ended on Saturday morning August 20, I took a local train from Ste. Foy La Grande to Bordeaux. I was not able to get any trains to Paris that day because of the high season so I stayed the night in Bordeaux.
The weather was very hot, about 37-38 C. After the peace and tranquility of Plum Village even a small city like Bordeaux seemed a bit much. I did walk around for a few hours and visited such places as the Place de La Comedie and the Esplanade des Quinconces with the Mounuments des Girondins.
Walking along the quais next to the Garonne I had nice views of the Place de la Bourse. Walking back to my hotel neat the Gare St. Jean I would often be treated to many Classical façades.
Bordeaux of course was/is the center of this region's wine industry and is very close to many famous vineyards and Chateaux including St. Emilion. I was running out of time being in France and the next day I left for Paris by high speed train about 3 hours north.
Paris
I arrived in Paris in the early afternoon at the Gare Montparnasse. I had booked a hotel near there and after settling into my room I set out walking to explore the area. I meandered my way down to the Palais and Jardins du Luxembourg. It was still very hot and the Jardins were packed with Parisiens hanging out on a toasty Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately I had left my camera at the hotel so the only picture I have is from the top of the Tour de Montparnasse.
I did not like the hotel in Montparnasse so I found another one near Montmartre and the Gare de L'est, the train station I would leave from on Wednesday for Germany. Before I left Montparnasse the next morning I walked over to the Tour Montparnasse and took the elevator to the top to enjoy the 360 view from the just opened and newly renovated observation deck on the roof. This is by far the tallest structure in Paris with great views of Paris. Most Parisiens, I am told, do not like it because it is a modern highrise that lacks the olden charm of monuments like the Tour Eiffel or the Basilica de Sacré Coeur.
I had just enough time to visit the Cimitierre de Montparnasse where many notable Parisiens are buried including Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
It is about a 20 minute Metro ride from Montparnasse to Gare de L'Est near Montmartre. My hotel, which was much nicer, was across the street from the Gare. From my hotel window at the top of the hotel I could see the domes of the Basilica Sacré Coeur. I decided to go visit this Neo-Romanesque church and from the center of the central dome, once inside, I enjoyed a very nice 1 1/2 hour meditation.
The church is on the top of the Butte or steep hill of Montmartre. There are some other nice buildings there too.
Montmartre has been associated with artists for over 200 years but today it seems most of the artists are catering to the tourists. Nevertheless it was pleasant to wander around the district and enjoy a happy hour pint at a brasserie once I descended to the bottom of the hill.
I also enjoyed a lovely Thai dinner at a small restaurant along with a pleasant conversation in French with the Thai woman who cooked my dinner. She and her daughter had only been in Paris for 4 months and they were there because her daughter is going to university. Their home is actually in N. Cambodia near the Thai border in the 1000 lakes district.
The next day I had planned to spend at the Louvre. I got going early in order to be there when it opened. The entry way to the entrance at the pyramid as well as the building itself with it's size and magnificence is awe inspiring.
After I was there for a few minutes I discovered that the museum is closed on Tuesdays. Time for plan B. I thought since it was going to be a partly cloudy cooler day it would be a good day for a long mindful walk around Paris. Beginning at the Louvre I first walked a short distance to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel built to celebrate Napoleon's victories in 1805.
I then crossed over the Seine on the Pont du Carrousel and walked over to the Museé D'Orsay.
While the Museé D'Orsay was open there was at least a 2 hour wait in a long line to get in. Being in a walking mood I forsook the wait in favor of a mindful amble through the left bank to the Tour Eiffel. Finally peeping over buildings and then looming overhead stood this most famous of French edifices.
Once again eschewing long lines and great expense to take the elevator I chose the much cheaper no wait way. I purchased a ticket to walk the stairs to the second level that is about 40% or 43 stories up.
It was quite the climb and I soon learned I could do some stair climbing meditation as a variation to walking meditation. It went something like this: Breathing in climb steps 1,2,3, breathing out climb steps 4,5,6, breathing in climb steps 7,8,9, breathing out climb steps 11,12,13, breathing in at the landing, breathing out still at the landing (2x if necessary) and then climb again and again and again and again ...
The views from the second level were nice but not quite as dramatic as from the Tour Montparnasse which I espied in the distance.
There were long lines to take the elevator to the top and hating to wait I descended after a bit with the beginnings of a gimpy right knee. Fortunately I remembered to bring my knee brace along and I carefully descended to the bottom.
The next stop on my jaunt was the Arc de Triomphe de L'Etoile. Like so many places in the world, photos and film just cannot match the feeling of seeing it up close. All of Paris was like that for me.
I decided to take a leisurely stroll down the Champs Elysees. There are some iconic businesses and buildings such as Cartier or the building now owned by HSBC.
I eventually arrived at the Place de la Concorde with the famous obelisk and a lovely fountain.
Continuing on I entered Le Jardin des Tuileries. There are nice flower beds as well as sculptures throughout.
The Jardin des Tuileries becomes the Jardin du Carrousel which took me back to the Place du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel from whence this stroll started.
Because I was a bit famished I found a nice artisan boulangerie and had a smoked atlantic salmon sandwich for lunch.
I decided I had just enough leg left to go visit the Cathedrale de Notre Dame. I strolled by the Louvre and over the Pont Neuf to Ile de la Cité.
After a short walk, there it was in all of its historical splendor and touristic frenzy.
There were long lines to go up to the bell towers but I did enjoy no waiting to go inside and sit in the middle where I once again had the opportunity to enjoy an hour long sitting meditation with some prayers thrown in. It seemed like a good place to be reverent in spite of all the tourists.
I did pay a little gelt to go visit the 'treasury' and there were some nice religious paraphenalia, relics and art therein.
Those papists certainly didn't hold back when it came to opulence in religious gew-gawgery.
Exiting the church I walked around it from the outside and couldn't help admiring the flying buttresses supporting the nave and of course the gargoyles.
At this point I was walked out so I squeezed myself into a very crowded Metro train (it was now evening rush hour) and made my way back to my hotel. Of course 2+ days only whet my appetite for Paris and some day I want to go back for at least a week with a good friend or several.
This concludes my summer blogs of my time in Europe. Tomorrow afternoon I will fly to Hanoi and by next weekend I will be in DaNang where I will once again be living and working as an English Language Teacher.
I will make an effort to make at least one posting a month for the next year I will be in Vietnam. I am hopeful the more I do this the better I will get at it. I welcome any comments but you can keep the criticism to yourself. It is what it is.
Ciao, Au Revoir, Hasta la Vista.
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