There is nothin’ like a Dame

Another day in Paris!

We had wanted to see Notre Dame. It’s long been a very popular location for tourists, even before the fire – so you either have to face a long wait in line, or try to book a timed ticket online.

There’s no cost, but booking is tricky. They open at midnight, two days before, and get booked out pretty quickly. A few more get released on the day, progressively from 5am.

I tried to book ahead, but failed utterly. The web site seemed swamped. Would we be cursed to stand in a queue for hours?

There’s a third option: get there early, at opening time. That’s what we did.

At night after dark, where we were staying in Paris was alive with people.

Walking the streets at 7:20am, you realise that Paris is a city that stays up late, and also gets up late. The streets were quiet, and the local bus had not started yet – in contrast, most Melbourne buses start around 6am on weekdays, even the less frequent ones.

The Metro also seemed a little quiet, but was still running every few minutes. Because that’s what actual metros do.

And the queue for Notre at 7:45am for an 7:50am opening? A couple of dozen people, and the queue moved very quickly (via a security check) once it opened.

Needless to say it’s spectacular inside.

Originally built in 1163, Notre Dame has a long history, but the most notable recent events were the fire in 2019 and the restoration. This seems largely complete inside, but we noted cranes on the outside, so it’s not totally finished yet.

I also noticed a few newish looking cabinets inside holding fire extinguishers. Probably a good idea.

And I found a memorial to British Empire (Commonwealth) WW1 fallen soldiers, including from Australia.

By the time we got out, it was about 9:45, the sun was up and the city was awake. We settled into a nearby cafe for a hot chocolate and some crepes. Yummo.

Passing again at 10:30, the queues for Notre Dame were considerably longer.

We met our other travelling companions; they were headed to the Conciergerie, a museum and former prison where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned. I decided to opt-out of that, and went exploring instead.

A large number of police and police vans were lined up on a nearby bridge. Was there a protest expected, or some other event? It did not appear to be imminent, but I kept moving…

I went into a nearby RER station. RER is Réseau Express Régional, forming a big part of the Paris suburban rail network – it sits alongside the Metro, but covers longer distances.

I caught a train a few stops. They’re big double-deck trains with a lot of capacity, though it wasn’t very busy at this time.

The roof of the train was decorated in classical art designs. A nice touch.

From the RER I changed to Metro line 6… which runs along an elevated section not far from the Eiffel Tower.

A better view from any skyrail in Melbourne, I’d say – although the beach views from Carrum and Parkdale aren’t bad.

The other thing I noticed was how clear all the wayfinding was, making changing lines very easy. Of course it helps that all their lines have numbers or letters.

After heading back to meet the others, we queued for our timed booking for Sainte-Chapelle, a younger church which is only about 800 years old.

It shares a perimeter with a law court complex, so the security was quite tight.

The lower level had a souvenir shop and not a lot else to look at, and I thought meh, was it worth all the queuing? Yes it was. The upper level… spectacular. An amazing high ceiling, stained glass windows, incredible intricate design.

From there we walked for a bit to get off the busier streets, and found lunch at a restaurant on a quiet street.

After that we hopped on the Metro again. Along the way, the train stopped between stations. For a minute or so the lights went out. Nobody seemed perturbed, and we were moving again shortly afterwards. Perhaps all isn’t perfect in Metroland.

While the others headed back to the apartment, I took a quick detour to have a second go at hunting down the RATP shop.

This time I found it, at Les Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann – lots of themed merch, all very tempting, but I ended up restraining myself and buying some Metro station sign fridge magnets.

Writing this a few weeks later, I’m kind of regretting I didn’t buy a Serge The Rabbit fluffy toy.

Later in the afternoon we headed back out for a classical music concert in yet another church – Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre – not far from Notre Dame.

It was the Ensemble Royal De Paris, a quintet plus a soloist, playing Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns, Mozart and Schubert. Marvellous. A small scale venue for a concert, it was great to see and hear everything up close.

Heading back – yes, on the Metro – we ended up using Line 4, which is driverless, allowing you to stand at the front of the train and look ahead.

The thing that struck me was the frequency at which we were passing trains going the other way. When the trains run every 3ish minutes, that happens about every 90 seconds.

All I can say is I was really appreciating being in a city with a network of actual Turn Up And Go public transport. It genuinely makes a huge difference, enabling more people to travel easily to most places without a car.

Tomorrow we’d be heading farther afield.