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We stayed in Lille on Bastille Day, purely by accident. We had heard Lille was nice, and with a Saturday appointment to pick up some Westvleteren 12, we’d be practically there. So sure, why not?
One thing I immediately loved about Lille—the cheap the hotels rooms. There are scores of very nice, very affordable hotels in Lille. However, very few allow kids to stay free. We did manage to find one right downtown for only 53€ a night. Of couse, unbeknownst to us, we booked on Bastille Day, and it was loud. Probably fun times for the childless people, not so much for us.
You wouldn’t know it today, but according to the internets, Lille wasn’t always a nice place to visit. Around 20 years ago, government revitalization projects cleaned it up, and the city welcomed tourists.
Lille is a nice little town. To me, it felt as much a Belgian as a French city. I didn’t find what I was hoping for—crepe stands on every corner and the patisseries of Paris. But there are lots of great shops, outdoor cafes, interesting architecture, history and a sculpture that looks like something out of Super Mario Brothers. And the crepes at the rainy Sunday market were just a satisfying as the ones we ate in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
We didn’t stay long into Sunday because we were without umbrellas and tired of getting wet. The city deserves more attention than the few hours we gave it. If we didn’t already have plans for Cantillon Quintessence, I’d be going back for the lille 3000 Fantastic 2012 opening parade on October 6. Look at those costumes! More pics in the pdf programme (in French).
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From Lille, France. Shot July 14, 2012 in Lille, France
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Our last day in Paris we dropped our bags at the train station an waked to the Basilica of Sacré Cœur and Montmartre. It’s a lot of stairs. When you get to the top, there’s bunch of tired tourists sitting around. The view is great and Montmartre is cute. This is where the Moulin Rouge and Amélie were filmed. If you google Amélie, you can get directions to all the places used in the film; we didn’t do that.
Much to Matt’s chagrin, I believe in traveling like we’ll never go back (unless going somewhere that’s under a 2-hour drive away). So it was a busy week. I’d go back to Paris in a heartbeat, maybe do some of less-touristy stuff. It’s a shame that the day trips offered from here are such a poor value in terms of cost and time spent on the bus v. time spent in the city.
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From Sacré Cœur. Shot May 28, 2010. Paris, France
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Oh, to be Marie Antoinette (minus the beheading part). Or to be Kirsten Dunst who starred in Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette which was filmed at Versailles. (Rent it. May not be the most historically accurate, but worth it for the eye candy.)
The opulence of it all. Imagine living here. And to think every thing in the palace—every tapestry, every curtain, every piece of furniture—made by hand. You really have to appreciate the level of skill and craftsmanship.
It was a “fountain day” when we there, meaning the fountains in the gardens were on. To conserve water, they are only turned on a few days a month. It costs extra to enter the gardens on these days. Is it worth it? To hear music piped in via loudspeaker and see the fountains on? No. When they do it at night, I’d say yes.
(All of Versailles is included with the Paris museum pass, which is by far the best value. We might have been supposed to pay a supplement to enter the gardens on fountain day, but we didn’t.)
We took the long walk across the gardens to the The Grand Trianon and The Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s less appointed estate where it was much less crowded. And then walked back. They do have trolleys—you can buy a ticket on to get over and back. I recommend this, at least for the walk back. It’s far.
Official web site here. They have photo galleries of the buildings, unlike my pics, no people’s heads in the way.
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From Palace of Versailles. Shot May 25, 2010. Paris, France
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From Versailles Grand & Petit Trianon. Shot May 25, 2010. Paris, France
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Here are few pics from the courtyard at Palais-Royal. If the name didn’t clue you in, it was a royal palace. It was built between 1633 and 1639. Today it houses things such as the ministry of culture and a library. There are these black and white stiped columns, an art installation by Daniel Buren called Les Colonnes de Buren. In person, I thought they looked weird and dumb, but they photograph well.
We stopped in here after a long day at the Louvre, at which point my feet were killing me (we walked A LOT in Paris) so most of these are taken from where I was sitting—on one of the columns.
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From Palais-Royal. Shot May 24, 2010. Paris, France
Here are some things from the Louvre that I liked, thought interesting (a painting of baby Jesus with a black saint from 1628-1633) or scary, like statues with parts broken off and the pissed off cherub above (seriously, what’s with that guy?). Now certain I am missing some pics. Very distinctly remembering taking one of the crowd around the Mona Lisa and that one Napoleon painting.
We went all day, then back again and still didn’t see every thing. Without a doubt the best museum in Paris. You can’t use flash inside; I haven’t color corrected anything yet. I’ll do that after I find the rest of the pics.
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From Louvre. Shot May 24 & 26, 2011. Paris, France
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Here are pics from inside and atop Notre Dame de Paris. Walking thru the cathedral is free. Ticket are required to climb the steep narrow stairs to the top. (It’s free with the Paris Museum Pass.)
Construction began on Notre Dame in 1163 and was completed in 1345. It’s one of the best examples of French Gothic architecture with these fantastic stained glass windows. It was one of the first buildings to use flying buttresses. I’ll admit I had no idea what those actually were until recently. (They’re the arches on the outside of buidings, notice them a lot around windows.
Allegedly Notre Dame houses Jesus’ crown of thorns, placed there in 1239. And a man-eating pack of wolves that killed 40 people in the winter of 1450 was lured to Notre Dame and killed by Parisians. More interesting facts on Wikipedia.
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From Notre Dame -- Inside. Shot May 26, 2010. Paris, France
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From Notre Dame--Atop. Shot May 26, 2010. Paris, France
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Traffic around the Arc is crazy. It’s in the middle of a roundabout where 12 streets converge. There are no lines painted on the street because the French believe it would detract from the beauty of the Arc. Okay.
They were doing restoration on it when we were there so one side was covered by scaffolding. They at least tried to make it blend in.
Construction on Arc de Triomphe began in 1808 and was completed between 1833 and 1836. It’s a lot bigger than it seems like it is. Here’s a video of Charles Godefroy flying his Nieuport biplane through it after the end of WWI.
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From Arc de Triomphe. Shot May 27, 2010. Paris, France
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