April 13: April in Paris

We had a much-needed slow start this morning. Neither of us stirred before 9am. Room coffee and gentle pottering followed, both really grateful for our quiet night and good sleep. Even yesterday’s pains au chocolat held up for breakfast. It was all very civilized.

Once we got going, we got going. We walked to the Eiffel Tower (and back); striding through familiar streets; making sure the important things were still there: Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Tuilleries Gardens, the Museés D’Orsay and Branly, the National Assembly, Les Invalides, the Opera, and, of course, the Tower itself. All were found present, correct and looking very charming under a louring sky among fresh, flowering trees. We also verified the Starbucks on Rue St Dominique is still there, and still serves as an only-semi-ironic waypoint for our Paris experience.

There was a freedom to just “checking in” with the city today: no queuing, no timed entries, no real crowds (not more than normal for a large city, on a pleasant workday). Paris is sufficiently familiar for us to have our bearings, but still exotic. A gleeful sense of privilege accompanied our weaving through it: knowing where we were going, but not necessarily what we might find; the discovery of the small (and not-so-small) evolutions since we were here 2 years ago.

The most obvious is the reopening of Notre Dame. Last time it was an intricate (and rather stupendous) network of scaffolding. Now, it is (almost) free-standing and unveiled. A vast queue threaded like a shuttle through warp, back and forth across the whole square, covering it with tour groups and families keen to see the inside. We took a pass – we’ll be back.

The Pompidou Centre is closed now, which has moved the boho street vendors and picturesque cafés a few blocks closer to Les Halles for the duration. Much of the area’s street art has already been erased.

By contrast, they finally finished restoration of the Carrousel in the Tuilleries (not a carousel, but a triumphal arch). An Emperor’s folly, it was originally topped by the ACTUAL Horses of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, which Napoleon took as booty in 1798. On his defeat, they went to the Austrian Empire and were, thence, restored to Venice in 1816, where (we can confirm), they look splendid overlooking the square. For completeness, I note the Horses were plundered by the Venetians too: they originally stood in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. As such, they carry both the glamour of the Roman Empire AND that of Classical bronze work (irresistible to Enlightenment European powers, as their to-and-fro evidences). The current horses were commissioned by the restored Bourbon monarchy in the 1820s. Cleaned up, they look very well.

The threatening skies have closed in. The city workday is ending, filling the streets with people trying to make it home before the rain, all smart coats and hunched shoulders. Carey is taking a brief nap. We will venture out again later when it clears up.