St. Germain de Pres Tour

The night before I had a choice between having Florent as a guide, or having Matthieu. I was in Florent's group. Tonight Matthieu was my St. Germain de Pres tour guide. He remembered me and my notebook from the day before. I guess I don't blend in very well.

In some ways this was my favorite tour. We only had eight people on it. I'd stop to take a picture and the others took turns making sure I caught up with the group. I passed out my cards with my blog information on it, so hopefully they have been patient (the tour was nearly a month ago) and are reading this now. If so, add a HI to the bottom. This was also my first tour that took me into a parking garage as a highlight (more on that later), though Don reminded me on our tour in Berlin we went to a parking lot.

The horse statue in front of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral was once again our meeting place. It works. It is away from the line entering the cathedral, in the shade, and near what someone told me was the best public bathroom in the world (for two euros I did not check it out to compare with the awesome free ones I saw in Denmark). 

For the third time on a tour Hotel Dieu was pointed out to me. Matthieu added the twist that this is where he was born. Next time I go to Paris, I know where the free hospital is and I won't worry about strange abdominal pains two days before I leave for France. They have decent and affordable healthcare.

The St. Germain section is on the Left Bank of the Seine, near the Latin Quarter. It was the center or Paris from the Middle Ages through today, its heyday was post-World War II and into the 1950's. Matthieu promised to show us its hidden gems.

First we had to cross the Pont Double. When bridges (ponts) were built in the Middle Ages, you had to pay a toll to cross them. This bridge charged twice as much (double). The bouquinistes (green boxes selling second-hand books) lining the Seine are rumored to be how the United States Library of Congress began. An ambassador was sent on a book buying mission. The book sellers don't pay rent, but they do have to wait until someone dies before they can set up shop.

Matthieu pointed out some street art. Yes, I am detecting several themes with these free tours. Perhaps going on six in three days was a bit ambitious. All kidding aside, I learned a lot on each one and had a great time being with a group, but not really with a group. 


St. Germain de Pres, like Le Marais, is made up of twisty windy streets leftover from the Medieval era. Walking through these six foot wide streets sometimes it becomes hard to see the sky. There is a channel in the middle of the streets for sewage to run through. 

Onto a more pleasant thought -- the Caveau de la Huchette. Caveau means basement. In this case it is an old jazz club in the basement of a building dating back to the Middle Ages. Rather than returning to the Jim Crow laws and lifestyle of post-World War II life, many African Americans stayed in Paris, which was free from segregation laws. Louis Armstrong and the Beatles are some of the famous acts.


For the first time on a Discover Walks tour, we went into a church. Matthieu said he only does this with smaller groups otherwise it is too distracting to worshipers. Dating back about 700 years, St. Severin is one of the oldest churches in Paris. As we walked from the back of the church (which began construction in the 1300's) through the church and to the other side (which was finished in the 1400's, we saw architectural styles shift from the Gothic style to the Gothic Flamboyant style at the end of the Middle Ages. We also saw some of their stained glass windows are from the 20th century, such as this one. Saint Ursala's bones are stored at this church. What is now a garden, in the Middle Ages was an open grave. Dead people have to go someplace, why not next to a church? In the 1700's a wall collapsed into a neighborhood and the bones were moved to the catacombs, a place I did not visit on this tour. During Napoleon's time it became a tourist attraction. Today the line stretches for three hours in the summer. 

 

St. Severin

The "tree of life," one of the oldest trees in Paris is in front of the church.

Our guide told us to look for restaurants featuring regional specialties with short menus, versus ones advertising they are (generic) French. Oops. The lovely meal I had for lunch did not quite count -- short menu, no photos, but it was French instead of being from a specific province. It was still good and I finished in time to catch the tour.

Matthieu also recommended crepes because they are cheap. Too bad they have so many carbs.

We meandered to Place St. Michel. I still remember the St. Michel metro station as having an enormous set of stairs because they had to dig deep to get below the river. I think even in the 1990's they had an elevator. I have avoided that station for ov er 30 years. The street in front of St. Michel was created by Baron Hausmann during his 19th century transformation of Paris. You can tell by the wide boulevard. Place Michel is the boundary between St. Michel and St. Germain. Rumor has it Napoleon III wanted a statue of his famous uncle (Napoleon Bonaparte) in this square. Instead there is an archangel fighting the devil. 

The city walls marked the dividing point between Paris and not-Paris. In this case, St. Germain de Pres was on the not-Paris side of the wall, along with fields. There was also a huge monastery dating back to the 1600's that covered what is now the 6th and 7th arrondisments and went almost to where the Eiffel Tower stands now (nearly 2 1/2 miles). There are a lot of other buildings in that space now, including Les Invalides and the American Church in Paris. The goal in the 17th century was to be self-sufficient, hence the need for wheat fields. In the middle ages students learned by copying the books of the day, this is before the Sorbonne. 

St. Germain de Pres is an area where you can explore Paris on 18th century streets and leave the tourists behind. 

St. Andre des Arts, a movie theater, was pointed out to us because they show movies in their original version (i.e., American movies are shown in English) and artsy movies. The original owner made his money in the fast food industry, but loved movies. The reputation was you had to trust what he wanted to show, he didn't show blockbusters but films not on the radar of most people. (See the space invader earlier in this post.)


We passed Le Procope, a 17th century restaurant frequented by Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, and the philosophers of his day. Robespierre dined here while plotting the storming of the palace. Inside is a small museum of items left by some of the guests, including Napoleon's hat and Rousseau's desk (I don't know how you leave a desk behind). 

Now the moment you have been waiting for where we go into a modern day parking garage and wonder "Where is Matthieu taking us?" It was actually a great ice breaker because we giggled as we went downstairs. Here is a part of original wall surrounding Paris erected in the era of Richard the Lionhearted in the 13th century. As Matthieu put it "History is everywhere."

The French Academy recently voted on what words make the new French dictionary. "Selfie" has made the list. 

Back to the tour. We passed Delacroix's house, which is now a museum that was closed for the night. The next day I was busy with the race then taking the train to Belgium, so I missed my chance on this trip. Fortunately one of pieces of art is on display for free at St. Sulpice church, which I went to after the tour. The church recently underwent a 6 million euro renovation (see end of post for pictures).

During the French Revolution the church was closed because it was illegal to be a Christian for a period of six months. Hard to believe in a country that is so strongly tied with Catholicism. The church was used to store saltpeter for gunpowder. Fortunately it was not destroyed, but it was in very rough shape. This is about where our tour ended. To the left is St. Sulpice Church, and to middle is the Luxembourg Gardens (something else I missed on this trip) and to the right is the Seine River. It helps when the guide tells us where we are at the end.

I went to the left. 

Joan of Arc

Jacob Wrestling with the Angels

Inside St. Sulpice Church are three Delacroix (1798-1863) paintings: Jacob Wrestling with the Angels, Heliodorus Driven from the Temple, and St. Michael Vanquishing Satan. The latter is in the ceiling.

Heliodorus Driven from the Temple

St. Michael Vanquishing Satan

Delacroix made sketches of his art between October 1849 and June 1850. The actual work on the paintings was delayed because he was working on commissions for the Louvre from 1850-1851. The chapel work was begun in earnest ten years later. As he died in 1863, glad he didn't wait any longer. The ceiling piece was made on a stretched canvas. Each artwork took as many as 15 layers of paint to create. A fact my artist-daughter would appreciate.

I wasn't ready to leave Paris not knowing when I would ever return. I meandered through the streets before hopping on a metro then take the RER to the AirBNB.