Today we’re going to go on a boat ride on the river Seine that runs through Paris. We’re ready to go, so without any further ado, out the door, down the stairs, through the courtyard, and out the front door we went.
There’s a shop next door to our apartment building that sells only one thing: éclairs. Can you believe it? — A store that sells nothing but éclairs. I’ve seen ‘em in the window every day since we’ve been here, but it seems like we’ve always just eaten, so I haven’t done a taste test yet.
L’Atelier de L’Eclair
The éclairs on display in the window are smaller than what I’d expect. They look like very fancy miniature hot dogs with crème inside instead of a weenie. Or miniature cream-filled maple bars. Mmmmm. I’ve never seen anything like ‘em. They’ve definitely taken éclairs to a level that I did not know existed anywhere in éclairdom.
The name of the shop is L’Atelier de L’Eclair, which could translate to “Eclair-Artist Studio. One of their works of éclair art is a pistachio shown here. C’est belle, non?
We made it past the éclair place without making a purchase, and headed toward the Louvre Museum by way of an area called “Place des Victoires.” (We’ll board the boat at a dock near the Louvre). We’re detouring slightly from the most direct route to check out one of the restaurants on our list, and to see Place des Victoires. It took us about ten minutes to walk there.
Place des Victoires
There’s a big statue in the middle of Place des Victoires, but like many of the statues here, it isn’t the original. The original was a statue of Louis XIV, made in 1695. Sometime later, the king at the time thought the surrounding neighborhood wasn’t quite up to the standard set by the statue, so he had the whole neighborhood torn down, then had a new one designed to replace it. You can do that when you’re the king, I guess.
The new buildings form a circle around the statue, showing it off nicely. I’m sure the folks who lost their homes to make room for the new buildings took great solace in that. Sure they did!
When the French Revolution came along in the 1780’s, statues of Louis XIV were among the first things to go. They melted down the bronze from the statues to make cannons. Sixty or seventy years later, when kings were somewhat back in style in France, the statue of Louis XIV that we’re seeing here today was commissioned. I have to admit, it looks pretty good with those nice-looking buildings in a big circle around it.
On to the Louvre
We found the restaurant we were looking for right around the corner. They were open, so we made a reservation to have dinner there tonight, then continued on toward the Louvre. We were there in another ten minutes or so. We went through a big side entrance that led into the courtyard where the pyramid is. Wow – we had forgotten how BIG the Louvre is. It is HUGE.
The glass pyramid was added in 1989 as part of an upgrade of the museum. It was controversial because it’s so wild compared to the classic lines of the Louvre, but now it seems to have caught on. To enter the museum, people go in through an entrance at the base of the pyramid and descend down to a lower level on an escalator. (There’s a Metro station down there, too).
We continued on through the courtyard, exited though a big archway, and found ourselves at the river Seine. If I had read the map correctly, the dock we’re looking for should be just a short ride upstream. Sure enough, there it was, and the boat was already there, as if it had been waiting for us. We bought tickets, boarded, and we were on the Seine. Neat!
To be continued…
Photo Credits
The Pistachio Elclair photo is from the L’Atelier de L’Eclair website.
The Louvre photo is a small portion of a beautiful panoramic photo of the Louvre taken by Benh Lieu Song, appearing on Wikipedia sites. You can see it here.
