The real Paris

Second of two parts.(This story was published at the Feb. 20-21 issue of BusinessWorld.)

Sacre Coeur, situated right at the heart of Montmartre. Photo taken last August 2011.

There’s more to Paris than just the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

I found this out during a walk around the city center while the witty remarks of my free walking tour guide transformed them from mere structures to places of historical significance.
But as I was told, I barely scratched the surface.
Germany-based Sandemans New Europe Tours GmBH, a group that offers "free" tours in key cities in Europe, defined the quitessential Parisian culture as terraced cafes, romping bars and clubs, can-can dancers, street artists and performers, bourgeois-bohemian apartments and tiny cobblestone streets.
And these can all be experienced not at the posh 6^th Arrondissement or Ave. Champs-Elysees but at the artsy Montmartre.
Montmartre is located in the northern portion of Paris at the 18th Arrondissement. It is said that this is where the authentic Parisian life can be found given Napoleon III’s goal of making Paris the most beautiful city in Europe. This resulted in the relocation of the original settlers to the suburbs, among them Montmartre.
So even if my legs were still aching from the three-and-a-half-hour walk from the Latin Quarter up to the Eiffel Tower earlier that day, I decided not to forego the walking tour of Montmartre scheduled that night even if it cost me 10 euros.
The tour was led by James, an American who decided to linger in Paris for a while after several months of studies.
He started by talking about Moulin Rouge, which was just across the Blanche Metro station.
Moulin Rouge was not as grandiose as depicted in the movie of the same title, and its expensive fees and stage shows make it appealing only to a limited crowd.
Our next stop was Cafes des Deux Moulins, which was popularized by the movie Amelie. But popularity comes with price — we didn’t enter since we were wary that we would be charged for merely staying there.
We then walked to a building where Vincent Van Gogh once lived. Just a few blocks from it is another landmark made famous by another artist. At the cabaret du Lapin Agile, Pablo Picasso used to exchange his paintings for food.
Right across Lapin Agile is the Montmartre Vineyard, the last authentic vineyard in Paris.
Another attraction in Montmartre is the Moulin de la Galette, a mill that used to produce flour and that has since been immortalized in the works of Picasso, Van Gogh and Renoir.
Our guide James pointed out that it was saved by the people from destruction in the early 1900s.
The monument of St. Denis may be easy to miss in the night, but one should know that Montmartre — or "mount of martyr" — got its name from him. The sainted bishop was beheaded while preaching, and legend has it that he continued talking while holding his head.
A few more steps uphill brought us to the bronze memorial of Dalida, a beautiful Italian singer who made a name in France sometime in the 1950s but lived a miserable life.
As we turned right, I didn’t realize that we were approaching the back of the Sacre Coeur, perhaps the crown jewel of Montmartre with its white dome overlooking Paris .

The church is a work of art that also teems with history. It was built as an important monument for the French after the Prussians left France in the late 1800s.
As this is situated at the highest point of the city, the patio of the basilica provides a breathtaking view of the city. Paris is indeed the city of lights, James said.
As we made our way downhill, we passed by the Artists Square , which even at night was still full of tourists wanting to have sketches drawn of themselves. The Square has rows of restaurants and cafes but none of us in the group — budget travelers all — bothered to check them out since the cheapest set menu was 14 euros.
At Rue des Trois Freres is Maison Collignon, formerly known as Au Marche de la Butte, also made famous byAmelie.
Just so I could say that I bought something from the place where Amelie (played by actress Audrey Tautou) shopped, I got a slice of brie that I brought home as a pasalubong (gift) for a friend.
To cap our tour, we were accompanied by James to a bar near Place St. Michel for a glass of wine.
Still reeling from the classy, artistic lifestyle of the Parisians, I dined at a quaint restaurant at the Latin Quarter where I ordered a 10-euro meal that consisted of pate de la foie (a huge slice of goose liver), vegetable soup, lots of fries, chicken grilled the French way, and two scoops of ice cream.
So how does one describe the average Parisian life? Bohemian yet fabulous, which explains why Paris is a premier destination in Europe .

Au Marche de la Butte, the grocery store made famous by "Amelie."

A view of the Sacre Coeur from Dalida's monument.

The facade of Sacre Coeur.

Sacre Coeur up close: the ceiling of the porch leading to the main entrance of the basilica.

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Paris on Foot

"How will you go around Paris?" asked Simon, a Venezuelan backpacker who was also lodging at the same hostel I stayed in two weeks ago. I told him I might join a guided tour to save me from the hassles of having to guess the must-see places.

"Well, you can check the places all by yourself," he said.

It’s obvious why Simon, like the rest of the new generation of travelers, was averse to joining a guided tour. After all, these travelers, many of whom go to places on a tight budget, would avoid unnecessary expenses including fees for tourist guides.

And, with the most jaded of tourists complaining about tour guides giving them just enough time to check out a certain place, guided tours are definitely out of the itinerary.

But for someone like me who had only 48 hours to spare for one of the most visited cities in the world, a guided tour was exactly what I needed

I have to admit, though, that what caught my fancy was the brochure screaming "free walking tour" offered by a Berlin-based firm, Sandeman’s New Europe GmBH. It never occurred to me that it might be a scam since it was endorsed by the hostel.

Nothing’s free nowadays, and here’s the catch: the tour is tip-based, meaning participants can give any amount they want based on their appreciation of the tour.

And so after that brief conversation with Simon, I took the Metro Line 4 going to Place St. Michel at the historic Latin Quarter where the three-and-a-half-hour walking tour was supposed to commence.

As it turned out, quite a number were interested to join the tour as the guides had to split us into two groups of 15 persons each.

My group was led by Amelia, a Mexican national who, like other Sandeman tour guides, decided to stay in Paris for a while after several months of studies.

The tour proved to be very interesting as her in-depth knowledge of French history gave life to what would have otherwise been a pile of centuries-old edifices in the middle of the gloomy, chilly weather.

Amelia started talking about the Latin Quarter, called such since students at the Sorbonne University spoke Latin during medieval times.

A few steps from Place St. Michel is the famous Notre Dame of Paris which according to Amelia was saved by Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame from being torn down in the 1800s for being in a state of disrepair.

Also nearby is the Palais de Justice. If we were not told that this was where Marie Antoinette was detained before she was led to the guillotine, would be just one of the many elaborately decorated buildings in Paris.

The banks of river Seine by Ile de la Cite would have been a tiring walk if we were not told that it was where the medieval city of Paris was founded.

I could have easily dismissed the buildings along Boulevard Saint-Germaine at the 6^th Arrondissement across the Seine as a row of cute classical residential condominiums without knowing that it is the most expensive neighborhood in Paris.

As we walked on, we were told that the expressive faces etched on the Pont Neuf or "new bridge," the oldest stone bridge in Paris, were not mere ornaments. They are actually faces of King Henry V’s wasted friends after he commissioned his artist to do their sketches after a drinking spree.

"This is probably the first Facebook," Amelia quipped.

Pont Neuf, the oldest stone bridge in Paris.

Institut de France, also a beautiful building not far from Pont Neuf, is still the home of academies, the most famous of which is the Acedemie Francaise that serves as the vanguard of the French language until now.

Fans of the hit TV series Sex and the City will be delighted to be at the Pont des Arts, just across the Institut, where the famous Will-you-marry-me scene of Carrie and Mr. Big was shot.

We also passed by the Louvre, which is not just the home of the Venus de Milo and the Monalisa as it is also an artwork in itself and the former residence of several French rulers.

Amelia said it would be impossible for one to see the entire Louvre in a day as looking at each artwork for 30 seconds would take three months.

Next on our itinerary was the historical Palais Royal, where we saw the same café where the birth of the French Revolution took place.

Next was the Jardin du Tuileries, named since it was previously the site of a tile factory. Sadly, the garden with replicas of statues that can be found at the Louvre looked like a sandy, deserted beach in the winter.

We also passed by several important buildings like the Musee de L’Orangerie, which is a repository of Impressionist artworks by Cezanne, Monet and Picasso; the Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, which was given by the Egyptian government; and the Hotel de Crillon, the most expensive hotel in Paris, where winners of the Tour de France are billetted.

We viewed the Arc de Triomphe from afar before heading to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais where the walking tour ended.

I joined some of the other participants who opted to continue walking to the Eiffel Tower after we were told it was just three blocks away.

And the verdict? For the very entertaining tour teeming with historical insights, I would have given Amelia 20 euros. However, I gave her only half but promised to join the walking tour of Montmartre that night.

To be continued


Here are some pics that were not included in my story. The weather was kinda gloomy at that time so these are natural sephias.

The Petite Palais, just off Avenue Champs-Elysees.


A church right at the back of the Louvre (sorry, the name escaped me).

A view of the River Seine.

A view of the Latin Quarter as I emerged from the St. Michel station of the Metro.

(This article was published at the Feb. 13-14 edition of BusinessWorld. Or you may click here.)

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Bookworming: Something old, something new, something borrowed

It was some sort of a great accomplishment when I finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude just last month. I tried to finish the book for the third time and alas, I succeeded.

So after that, I had the pleasure of basking in the presence of my latest acquisitions as well as the old and borrowed ones that I needed to read.

1. German in Your Pocket
My friend and colleague Maricel lent this to me, concerned that I might not survive in Germany without the basics of the language. But hell, Germans were so nice, that even if I didn't bother to greet them "morgen," they still bothered to help me even if they had a hard time talking in English whenever I was in trouble looking for certain places or food to eat. But nonetheless, this book at least gave me idea on how to pronounce names of streets, establishments and certain places.

2. Passport to French
I actually got this book sometime in 1994, when I was in grade 5. Fast forward to 2009, who would have thought I'd be going to Paris? I got too excited, that even if this book consumed precious baggage space, I wasn't able to browse and memorize some words while I was in France. As a consequence, I had a hard time communicating with Parisians who normally refuse to speak English to travellers like me who are too lazy to say "bonjour."

3. Lonely Planet Germany
There was a downpour of gift certificates during the Christmas season and one of the things that I acquired with those was this travel guide. As a budget traveller, the Lonely Planet series proved useful for me, my first experience of which was when I toured Southeast Asia in 2008. Europeans may be efficient in terms of providing tourists with the right information to the extent that I didn't have to carry this heavy book while I was roaming around Germany, but this gave me ideas and the right perspectives on which cities would be interesting to check out.

4. Cover to Cover: Through the Bible as it Happened by Selwyn Hughes and Trevor J. Partridge
I got this book last Christmas in a party organized by my churchmates at Victory Christian Fellowship. This was a prize in a game where I won. This is supposed to be a daily devotional guide of sorts, but sadly I totally forgot its existence just until I decided to take pictures of my books. I'll have to start reading on this soon!














5. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Japanese author Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite writers, having enjoyed reading his Sputnik Sweetheart, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, and Wild Sheep Chase. I actually bought one of this and gave this to a friend, and then decided to buy one for myself when I was shopping for Christmas presents for some of my closest friends. I brought this with me to Germany in anticipation of the terrible boredom during the 12-hour flight. But goodness, like the language books, this ate up precious baggage space as I was able to catch a lot of sleep during the long-haul flights and never had the chance to open this book.

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Europe, Europe!

Been travelling around Germany, Luxembourg and France for two weeks so give me time to edit my photos and gather my thoughts for my stories. :-)

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