The nice walks of my eternal Paris , always sublime. I have written of course a lot on Paris, my working city , and visited zillions of times since 1972 ! As the name of my blog implies ! However, now is Summer and walks are superbe and I will tell you my favorites that I have done with the family , This a walk in my former working neighborhood of Paris did it for two glorious years! My next to last work spot in the city of lights. Hope you enjoy them as I.
I will start at the wonderful Opéra Garnier done by the great Charles Garnier for emperor Napoléon III and opened by President of France 3rd Republic Mac Mahon in July 5, 1875, to think I worked across from it for two years ! An imposing building 172 meters long 101 meters wide on 11K square meters of land,You have on the Red salon welcoming 2300 persons and cannot miss the libray museum in the pavillon de l’Empereur.
I walked in front of the great department stores and cannot miss at no 40 blvd Haussmann, the Galeries Lafayette grew from a modest boutique in 1895 to the grand of today by the corners of Rue Lafayette and rue Chausée d’Antin done in 1906 and today 120k square meters of land ! Further at No 64 blvd Haussmann you see Printemps founded in 1865, the current building done from 1889 and later enlarge in 1907.
Continue to the Square d’Estienne d’Orves and the magnificent Church de la Sante Trinité built between 1861 and 1867 (was a side trip for eating spots and visit) .It has a belltower bells high of 65 meters with 90 meters long and 34 meters wide, Not to mss the Théatre Mogador at no 25 Rue de Mogador built in 1919, Continue to the Church Saint Louis d’Antin and the Lycée Concorcet (of many passing in front of it). Here from 1781 to 1783 Brongniart built the convent , and chapel that by 1862 the chapel becomes the Parish Church Saint Louis d’Antin and the convent is tranformed into the high school or lycée Condorcet where Goncourt, Marcel Proust, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé and Eugéne Sue amongst other ,studied !
This is the historic anecdote that at 14 blvd des Capucines in the Indian salon of the Grand Café the Lumiéres brothers show their first cinema slides, This is the area where the grand boulevards were created from 1670 decision to change the enclosure of Charles V into a public promenade of 4,5 km from the Madeleine to the Bastille ! And the bd Capucines, Italiens, Montmartre, Poissonniere and Bonne Noiuvelle knew their day in the light.
We continue to my first working train station in Paris, the Gare Saint Lazare many many times by here from Rive Droite in my Versailles ! This is the first train station of Paris from 1837 ! Even thus the first real station was done in 1851, The current station was built from 1885 to 1887 and renovated several times with two statues of the Hour for all and the Consingment for life in the cours de Rome street, Not far from here you find the ultimate honor of seeing the Chapelle Expiatoire by the will of king Louis XVIII done between 1815 and 1826, On the same spot where the remains of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were dump by the revolutionaries,on what was the old cementery Madeleine,that open in 1720 where 3000 victims of the French revolution were interred, such as the Swiss Guards , Louis-Philippe d’Orléans (father of later king Louis Philippe I and known after the revolution as Philippe Egalité), Danton, Lavoisier, Camille and Lucile Desmoulins etc The Chapel is on the Square Louis XVI, one of only five name after the defunct king. When time allowed I came by here for a bit of reflection before going for my trains.
You continue on the Théâtre Athénée built in 1906 , a bit further you reach the Théâtre Edouard VII that has taken since 1984 the name of Sasha Guitry, You have by here the Olympia music hall, and finally cross over to the Madeleine that on my walks to work had to go around it zillion times ! The first stone was posed in 1764 but in 1806 Napoléon decided to raise a temple to honor his soldiers ,he never saw it build as later by 1842 it was given to the clergy of Paris and opened as the Church de la Madeleine with its 52 corinthians columns high of 20 meters, The church has 108 meters long, 43 meters wide and 30 meters high, It dominates the place de la Madeleine the starting point of the grand boulevards as above.
A bit further you reach the Church Notre Dame de l’Assomption, 263 Rue St Honoré built between 1670 and 1676, It has a cupola of 26 meters and was the parish church until 1840, It later was given to the Polish community of Paris since 1850, Here the funerals of Lafayette in 1834 and Stendhal of 1842 were held, I walked by it every day to work !
And you reach the wonderful sublime Place Vendôme, my criss cross walking it for work are memorable ! It is 213 meters long, 124 meters wide on 20k square meters of land, Created by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and done between 1686 and 1720, The obelisk done on request of Napoléon I to pay homage to the Grand Army after their triumph at Austerlitz, Austria and was done in 1806,from melted iron of canons weapons taken from the enemy in this battle finished in 1810, In 1871 during the uprising of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war the obelisk was destroyed but in 1872 the national assembly decided to rebuild it, You have in this square the wonderful Ritz Hotel done in 1898.
You can come into the Rue de la Paix, the most expensive in Paris, and awesome to have walked it for two years daily ! It was clear in 1806 to link Vendôme to the Opéra ! Before called rue Napoléon !
There you go folks, a wonderful walk in sublime eternal Paris, My memorable walks in Paris, with the best of France indeed, I do walk in Paris sometimes 3 km around, once find my parking spot , sublime. Hope you enjoy the walk and do it, it is recommended by yours truly.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
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