Paris - 8th June

 




On our way out we found this amazingly skinny little building on the street next to our hotel. It is the wedge between two narrow streets. It was the home of a French poet, André Marie Chénier, he wrote poetry and was guillotined three days before the French revolution on 25 July 1794, so he was unlucky there. He was one of the first poets of the Romantic movement.






 

 We decided to have a look at the biggest weekend market in Paris, we caught the tube to Porte de Clignancourt and had a wander round. 
It is a big market, lots of people selling authentic Rolex watches for $10 each or 2 for $18. All the brands were there in shirts and shoes. We tried some French street food. It was ok.

 As we passed a small bar we heard some music that sounded quite good, we ventured in to find a two piece jazz band playing. It turns out that there is a Jazz movement known as 'Manouche' or Gypsy Jazz, it was started in 1930 and is played throughout the world, except in Australia. It was fabulous music and we settled in for a couple of beers and ordered a meat and cheese platter for lunch. During the three hours we were there a chap walked in and started singing with them, then a girl with a violin came in and played with them. An American couple came in and shared our table for a while, they follow this music style around the world (must be rich) and they told us that this pub was the recognised home of the music in France. They often come to Paris for two or three weeks so that they can come to the pub every day to see what's going on, they must be very rich. 


We googled the 'Manouche' and checked out Wikipedia, one of the leading artists in the movement was playing for us at the pub. Angelo Debarre











 After the pub we looked at more of the market, Steven found an ACDC pinball machine that had never been used. He was informed that it could be shipped to Tasmania for $3000. They let Steven have a play on it and he won a free game, which he didn't use. The postage seemed a bit high, but then the machine was $22,000 to buy.




 

 

Then we headed off on the tube back into Paris, first stop The Arc de Triumph. The arc was built to celebrate the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars. It has had a few victory marches pass under it, two of them by Germany. The arc is the meeting point of 12 radiating avenues making it a very, very busy roundabout. There are no lines marked on the road but it appears that there are about six lanes all going anticlockwise. The rule on French roundabouts is that anyone on the roundabout has to give way to anyone who is entering the roundabout. It's manic. We were told an accident happens every seven minutes on the roundabout, and it did.


 

From there we caught the tube to the Eiffel Tower. Walked to the Pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge on the way. There were three or four Japanese wedding photos happening on the bridge, Steven photo bombed a couple.
The bridge was built in 1903 and has two levels, the top one for trains and the lower one for cars and pedestrians. It's a great bridge with a great view of the tower, hence the photographers.
At the tower the number of people selling souvenirs and alcohol around the area are unbelievable. It is not illegal to sell alcohol without a license in France, but it is illegal to buy it. However the sellers are moved on from time to time.
There were more than 3 people in the queue to go up the tower so Steven decided not to bother. Besides, his Dad told him the entire structure was unsafe and about to fall down and it was probably best not to get too close to it, let alone try our weight on it.
We hid behind some trees to take photos of it and managed to get out before it toppled on us, may have been a close call.





On the way home we found another Eiffel Tower.












We also passed the Grand Palace which was closed but an amazing building, we were distracted and forgot to take photos of it.
There is a column of about 15 police vans that circle the city with their lights and sirens going. There appears to be no reason for this and a lot of onlookers find it amusing.
They turn up, jump out of their vehicles and run around looking busy, then they climb back in and take off to somewhere else. Here they are at the Grand Palace.

We walked around a little bit more then we caught the tube back to our room, stopping off at a Scottish restaurant again.





 


Here are some photos of the Paris tube.
Some of the stations have a glass wall with automatic doors that don't open until the train has stopped, very safe.



 




Some of the tube is tubeless, this is on top of the Pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge, probably shouldn't have been there.