Paris — Joe's Slideshow Archive

Page 7 of 7
Paris, France

And I like big things, the size of them impresses me- just give me plenty, forget about the quality

My last day in Paris was my ascenseur day, if I could go up it I was there. The early morning madness started at Notre Dame and its damn towers, not nearly as much fun now that strict crowd limits are being enforced. That was followed (in relatively quick succession) by the big arch, the big famous pointy tower, the unpopular Montparnasse Tower and the endless stairs up to the feet of Sacre Coeur.

I chose to ascend the tower much as I had in 1997, choosing the (relatively) unpopular stairs over the big lines at the elevator. The tower has three viewing platforms, and the two lower ones at 200 and 400 feet are the only ones accessible by stair. This is the view from the lower platform, as visitors scatter in and about all those wondrous, expected shadows.

The stairs themselves are not particularly dangerous or threatening, just kind of relentless. Fifteen or twenty stairs, then a landing, then a switchback, then repeat. As you find yourself deeper and deeper in this increasingly sweaty ascent you also find yourself faced with occasional close up views of an overpacked elevator whirring nearby, a constant reminder of life on the other side, of people who took the easy way up and of all they were missing.

Straight on up at the tower's well protected underside. The first platform, 200 feet away, is at the center opening; the second platform, 400 feet away, is the solid square. The stairs between the two platforms endlessly wind about the top leg, not necessarily visible from this view but there nonetheless.

Familiar images haunt the first half (or so) of this slide show. This is the fourth time I have stood in Paris since 1997, and the fourth time in the last six years that I have sent those now familiar images in slide show after slide show.

This is the Passage Richelieu, across the street from one of those hard-to-believe-it-really-exists Hector Guimard Metro stops, the true start of what I believe to be the greatest urban walk this world has to offer (although traditionally I start farther back at the nearby and less glamorous Chatelet Metro station). From this passage, a hard right leads down the axis down the center of Paris, through the Tuileries, through Concorde, down the Champs-Elysees and all the way uphill to that oversized arch. All the way you find yourself immersed in an almost imaginably perfect urbanism- an experience which must be had to believed.

If any of these images or descriptions do not feel all too familiar from personal experience, it is probably time to ask yourself why. It is extraordinarily easy to find good airfares to Paris with only minor persistence and patience, it is easy to get around once there, easy to find a workable hotel, easy to find some of the best food you will ever have in your life. All you need is a passport, some ambition, and not nearly as much money or time as you fear. I will be expecting slides of familiar images upon your return...

An extraordinarily familiar image for anyone who has so much time that they have been archiving old slide shows back to their inglorious inception, this is the traditional gargoyle view of Paris with the left bank on the left and the right bank out of view on the far right. Notre Dame sits on Ille de Cite, an island on the Seine and the reason Paris ended up being located where it is. Visible though faded are the other two stars of these three Paris slides. Sainte Chappelle is the church under the tower on the right just left of the gargoyle, while a famous, over exposed tower and the unmitigated star of my ascenseur day hides on the left.