Gare St. Lazar

This was the train station near our hotel. There was a metro station about a block from our hotel but it small, so it was closed on holidays. Sally and I walked down to St. Lazar to catch the metro, but decided to walk down to the Opera instead.

One of Monet's most famous pieces is a beautiful painting of Gare St Lazar.

L'Opéra

I think we decided to walk down to l'Opéra because Sally remembered that there were a bunch of cafes in this area and we had missed breakfast at the hotel. When we got down here many of the cafes were closed and the ones that were opened were expensive so we decided to walk down to the Place Vendôme. In the photo at the left you can see the Column at the Place Vendôme in the center of the photo. As you can see we didn't have to walk very far.

Ron and I visited the area in the fall of 2000 and Randy and I visited in the spring of 2002 and in the winter of 2003.

Place Vendôme

This is the ritzy section of town - literally. The hotel Ritz is on the west side of the Place Vendôme. The street is full of shop such as Cartier. Randy and I visited the Place Vendôme in the winter of 2003, but it was cold and overcast so I didn't get any good pictures. The day that Sally and I visited the place it was cold and raining. Sometime I'm going to have to come back here on a nice day because it really is a nice section of the city.

Surprisingly, Sally and I found a nice cafe near the Place Vendôme that wasn't expensive.

Jardin des Tuileries

This is a really nice park in the center of Paris and I've never been able to spend any time in it during nice weather. I visited in it on my first visit to Paris when it was cold. Randy and I walked through it in the spring of 2002 when it was nice, but it was our first vacation in Paris and there were so many other things that we wanted to see so we didn't stay long. The temperature really wasn't bad, the problem was that it would rain on an off. Not much rain, but enough to make it difficult to take photos.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Built in 1806 to celebrate the victories of Napoleon. Originally it was topped with the Horses of St. Mark's - the booty from his war in Italy which he was forced to return after his defeat at Waterloo.

Randy and I visited here in the winter of 2003.

Châtelet

Sally and I took the metro to Châtelet and then walked to the Fountaine of Innocence. We decided that we need to remember this as an area to get something inexpensive to eat. There were a bunch of Kabob type places along the street. They smelled good and were very reasonably priced.

Randy and I visited here in the winter of 2003.

Fountaine des Innocences

This was a place that was on my list of things to see. When we got there I was really surprised to see how close it was to Les Halles. We had been at most 100 meters from it when we went to Les Halles and could have easily visited it then. But, that's the problem with Paris. Everything is very close and it is quite easy to get side tracked and visiting things that are close and then never getting to see the things you intended to see. At this point I've seen enough of Paris that I just spend my next trip roaming around the city. This was one of the advantages of having everything closed on New Years day. There really wasn't anything we could do except walk around the city and we could have spent a week just doing that.

The fountain was erected in 1549 in a different location. It was moved in the 18th Century. The present site had been a grave yard, but in the 18th century the bodies were exhumed and placed in the catacombs.

Hôtel de Ville

Randy and I visited the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) in the winter of 2003. That year there was a big ice rink in front of the building. When Sally and I visited in the summer of 2003 there were huge sand filled volley ball courts in front of the building. This year the ice rink was back, but it was different this year, more oriented towards little kids.

St-Gervais St-Protais

Initially, I thought that this was two churches. The reason for the confusion is that the style of the front of the church is classical and the back of the church is gothic. I think that this was the least interesting church we visited, although it had some nice sculptures in it.

The church has the oldest organ in Paris and is famous for concerts.

Hôtel de Sens

This is one of the oldest private homes in Paris. It isn't typical of the time period and was designed to look like old house back when it was built. One of the things that I think is interesting is a canon ball that is stuck in the wall of the house. Instead of removing the canon ball and inscription with the date it happened was placed below the canon ball.

The mansion was build in 1475 for the Archbishop of Sens. It was once the residence of Margerite de Valois, wife of Henri IV.

Porte St-Martin

There were two large Portes built by Louis XIV, Porte St Denis is the more famous of the two. The two Gates once marked the entrance to the city. The Porte St-Martin is 56 ft. high and was built in 1674 to celebrate the victory over Spain, Germany and Holland.

I liked the Théâtre de laRenaissance which was near the Porte. Sarah Bernhardt directed plays here from 1893 to 1899

Porte St-Denis

Porte St-Denis was built by François Blondel in 1672 and decorated with sculptures by François Giradon. Giradon was a favorite o Louis XIV and the scuptures commemerate the Louis military victories. The port is 76 ft (23 m) high.

Giving contrast to the ancient Gates were a horde of fast food joints along the street.