Once in a while, a Facebook suggestion in my timeline is actually useful, and today was one of those days. A few days ago, it surfaced a post from the Les Frenchies group which suggested going to Hotel de la Mârine to enjoy seeing opulence without schlepping out to Versailles and fighting the crowds there.
We followed the advice and walked there this morning; it was grey and dreary, but even a grey day in Paris offers delights.
The building itself is enormous and glorious; the French Navy used it as their headquarters for more than two centuries and preserved things very well. We toured the apartments of the Intendants of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronned and we quite enjoyed it. They give you a headset which offers (sometimes amusing) commentary as you go through the apartments (much opulence, though not up to Versailles’ level); you also get to explore the State Rooms. The building also played a role in the Revolution.
The views of the Place de la Concorde are terrific (I can only imagine what they’d look like on a sunny day).
After lunch, we decided to follow Rick Steves’ Historic Paris Walk, beginning at Notre Dame. They expect to reopen the cathedral in December; right now, there are bleachers opposite the main entrance to let you see the façade and the progress that’s being made – it’s actually easier to see the entrance than it was before the fire.
The next stop on the tour was the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation, in a little park across from the rear of Notre Dame. It was sobering, especially considering the stakes of the Presidential election today.
We spent a long time at the Memorial before resuming the tour; our next visit was to Église Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, a Mekite Greek Catholic church on the Left Bank. It’s older than Notre Dame (and much smaller).
Our next stop was at Shakespeare and Company, another place I’d heard of but had never visited. We left empty-handed.
We passed by the Church of St. Séverin and the Fountain of Saint Michael.
And that was it for today; we’ll have to finish the walk tomorrow.