please empty your brain below
Wonderful!

I don't suppos there's a Parisien version of the capital ring is there? Anyone know?

Dan | 14.03.13 - 8:14 a.m. | #

I first heard of Eileen Gray (Gray with an a) on a TV documentary (Omnibus?) sometime in the 70s. She was Irish, although she lived outside the country most of her later life. There is a good display of her work over here in the National Museum of Ireland
http://www.museum.ie/en/exhibition/eileen-gray-introduction.aspx
If you ever do a daytrip to Dublin, you could check it out.

Charles | Homepage | 14.03.13 - 9:27 a.m. | #

The rivermarket traders in Paris are called 'bouquinistes' in French. Thanks for the blog, as always entertaining.

Dave | 14.03.13 - 9:40 a.m. | #

I do not like the old buildings in Paris. I much prefer the high rises and modern parts of Paris. La Defence is always my favorite area of Paris. Those old buildings in central Paris some are/were awful inside. Narrow twisting stairs to attic rooms. many have been refurbished now. Try going round some of the run down Barbes area, or look around some of the side streets near Metro Chateau Rouge. (You could walk there from Gare Du Nord). Although the area is now being "modernised"
There is a popular cheap clothes shop "Tati" at Boulevard de Rochechouart, (opposite Barbes Metro)
In the 1980's I was working near that area. As I was working in a TV repair shop sometimes I would have to go out in the van and erect a TV aerial. Quite easy to point the aerial in the right direction as the transmitter was atop the Eiffel Tower!, and most of the old Parisian buildings had easy access to the roof.
I used to go into the Pompidou Centre as it was back then a new building. and they had some English newspapers!
The new Bibliothèque nationale de France at Quai François-Mauriac is also a nice new building and when I last was there had a good English pub nearby.
I have only been in the Louvre once and that was long before they built the glass pyramid thing. I think stayed inside about half and hour, nothing inside of interest to me.
By the way I lived, also back in the 1980's ,in Egypt for two years and never bothered to go into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, although I often got a bus from the square outside!
dg you might consider a day trip to Lille for another outing.

John | 14.03.13 - 10:07 a.m. | #

One person's uniformity is another person's monotony. Give me London's architectural diversity any day.

Jonathan Wadman | 14.03.13 - 10:21 a.m. | #

Agreed. The view from the top of the Eiffel tower across Paris i find to be uniform and dull. London's skyline? Much more exciting, thanks very much.

geofftech | 14.03.13 - 10:56 a.m. | #

"l'oiseau tôt attrape le ver" is nonsense (Google translate no doubt). You mean "l'avenir appartient à qui se lève matin".

Alex | 14.03.13 - 11:00 a.m. | #

The trick with the padlocks is that the lock with the lovers names on is locked to the bridge, then the keys are dropped into the river. Thus the lovers can never be parted.

dg writes: paragraph now updated, thanks John.

John Maltby | 14.03.13 - 11:43 a.m. | #

Reading your reports, I'm starting to feel bad for going from Strasbourg to London via Paris by train so many times without ever visiting Paris itself.
I've only walked from Gare de l'Est to Gare du Nord, which is probably not the nicest part of the city although it featured prominently in "Amélie".

Joachim | 14.03.13 - 11:45 a.m. | #

Oh Alex, it might not be something a French person would ever say, but it's obvious what it means, and that's the point.

Sarah | Homepage | 14.03.13 - 11:53 a.m. | #

"l'oiseau tôt attrape le ver". Well of course that's not the French proverb, and a monoglot French speaker might indeed perceive it as nonsense. But, guess what, monoglot French speakers are pretty rare among DG's audience!

Granted, French uttered by someone who thinks he speaks good French, but actually doesn't, provokes a sensation akin to squeaky chalk on a blackboard. But naive franglais, assez mignon, vraiment!

Malcolm | 14.03.13 - 11:59 a.m. | #

While I was composing, Sarah made my point, somewhat more concisely!

Malcolm | 14.03.13 - 12:02 p.m. | #

Great series of posts DG, I'll now look forward to Madrid and Berlin in the future. Padlocks have started appearing on the Millennium Bridge, too. And to close, I'll be Glad if you'll be Frank.

Waterhouse | 14.03.13 - 1:53 p.m. | #

Thanks for the posts, dg.
In a way, I guess another person we can be thankful to - for Paris being as it is, today - could be Dietrich von Choltitz, the German General who had the balls to defy direct orders from Hitler, to blow the city to pieces if the occupying forces ever had to make a withdrawal.
Sheesh, to think how much history could have been lost forever if that had happened.
Thanks @ John for reminding me of
Bvd de Rochechouart as the location of my hotel when I was there a couple of years ago.
As regards bridges with locks, they also have one in Rome (with legend suggesting that this is where the practice began. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Milvio)
dg, you probably did wisely not eating, over there: me and best mate generally found cafe and restaurant prices in Paris a fair bit higher than good ol' London.

RogerW | 14.03.13 - 5:27 p.m. | #

Great series of posts....very timley for me as I'm off to Paris in a couple of weeks, loads of great tips. Thanks

Joe | 14.03.13 - 5:50 p.m. | #

I'm surprised you managed to get a sugar and lemon crépe - in my experience that's almost unhear of in France and their equivalent is butter and lemon. Probably catering to British tourists!

Ed | 14.03.13 - 6:45 p.m. | #

There's fun to be had with Google Translate. The very French-sounding proverb quoted by Alex at 11:00am is translated by Google as "the future belongs to those who rises morning".
I mustn't mock GT though, because when my Dutch friend forwards some pics from one of his relatives, GT helps me to at least get the gist of what the accompanying message says.

Great Aunt Annie | 14.03.13 - 8:46 p.m. | #

A one day visit, and FOUR postings. Very readable too Incroyable. Fred Barker

| 14.03.13 - 9:22 p.m. | #

If you go to the Museum of Modern Art in the Pompidou Centre then you can ride the external escalators. Once upon a time it was free. Many museums are closed on either Monday or Tuesday. There are a lot of nice new areas of Paris the tourists don't see. On metro line 14 there are: the library area (bibliotheque) of the 13th Arrondissement which is a bit like our docklands or the old wine cellars at Cour Saint Emillion or the planted promenade near the Gare de Lyon.

kissenme | 14.03.13 - 10:35 p.m. | #

Christopher Fowler has blogged about the padlocks in London and Venice:

http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/2011/06/21/the-mystery-of-the-locks/

http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/2011/08/24/the-padlock-problem-spreads/

Marc | 15.03.13 - 7:52 a.m. | #

I've noticed a few padlocks on Tower Bridge - on the metal grilles... I hope they don't proliferate, it would be almost a shame after all the restoration work on the bridge over the last few years.

s | 15.03.13 - 10:25 a.m. | #

Ah, so your name is Frank (penultimate para). Subtle clue.

HowardGWR | 15.03.13 - 7:09 p.m. | #

Have you thought of a trip to Lille (or have you already had one). I had a day trip last year - didn't even leave the house (near Oxford) particularly early. It is a bit of a hidden gem, lots of Flemish architecture and a great modern art / art brut museum. It also has 2 tram lines and 2 metro lines. I went on all 4 but since the trams are slow and the metro underground it seemed a waste of a nice day to go too far on them.

Valenciennes is another city with a metro which is only a short train ride from Lille, but I am waiting until the 2nd Metro line opens to have a day trip there.

John Styles | 16.03.13 - 1:27 p.m. | #











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